Meng Ruji felt that ever since coming to the Land of No Return, her wishes had always been difficult to fulfill.

For instance, she wanted money, but every time she obtained it, it flowed away like water.

She wanted to marry Mu Sui—she did, was happy for a few days, then felt it would have been better not to marry.

She wanted to come to Zhuliu City—she indeed came, but not exactly completely…

After awakening from darkness, seeing the surrounding environment, Meng Ruji reflected with such thoughts.

This room was in an extremely high place, like a tower, with windows all around but no door. Meng Ruji opened a window and looked outside, seeing only vast seas of clouds.

Meng Ruji counted the recent days—in the Land of No Return, for money and worldly matters, she had been crawling and struggling on the ground the whole time. When unlucky, she even crawled and struggled in the river once. Having not stood at such heights for so long, she felt somewhat unaccustomed.

Looking at the sea of clouds, she was somewhat dazed, momentarily feeling as if she had returned to the mortal realm, back to Hengxu Mountain. When mist rose on the mountain, the view from her room window was exactly like this scene…

With a “whoosh” of wind, Meng Ruji caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye of a formation’s light flashing in the center of the room, followed immediately by an unpleasant scent reaching her nose.

Meng Ruji turned her head. Amidst swirling malevolent qi, a person dressed in gray clothes stepped out from the formation.

Meng Ruji leaned against the window, watching him with cold eyes. On that face marked with scars, his gaze appeared even more gloomy and obsessive.

“Scars healed, pain forgotten?” Meng Ruji said coldly. “So eager to kidnap me—are you rushing to die again?”

Hearing Meng Ruji’s words, Zhan Ye didn’t get angry but smiled instead. With no outsiders present, in this private space, his demeanor was natural. He familiarly pulled over a chair and sat down, looking up at Meng Ruji by the window:

“I missed you very much, Meng Ruji.”

So naturally, as if they had been discussing new formations and deciphering strange spells together just yesterday…

Meng Ruji didn’t respond. She leaned against the window, looking down at the sea of clouds below, already contemplating in her mind the possibility of surviving a jump from here.

She had searched her entire body—not a single coin remained. The bracelet Mu Sui gave her had somehow stopped working. The stone that was Mo Li was still there, though. Zhan Ye probably didn’t know what this thing was for, so he hadn’t taken it from her.

Meng Ruji began to feel grateful that when she encountered that “fake Zhan Ye” last time, she hadn’t brought out Mo Li.

But jumping from here, if Mo Li still wouldn’t wake up…

“There’s a restriction on the window.” As if seeing through Meng Ruji’s thoughts, Zhan Ye poured himself tea while saying, “You can’t jump out.”

“…”

How wonderful indeed.

Meng Ruji secretly rolled her eyes and looked toward Zhan Ye again.

Regarding her current predicament, Meng Ruji understood clearly that in a confrontation, she definitely couldn’t match him.

No money, no Inner Core, not knowing what the situation was outside, or what weaknesses this person had.

So Meng Ruji suppressed her emotions and stared at Zhan Ye indifferently, asking: “When did you come here?”

Hearing Meng Ruji speak to him, Zhan Ye’s lips curved upward, stretching the scars on his face, making them seem somewhat less terrifying: “After you killed me, I came to the Land of No Return. The fierce, malevolent aura on my body was hard to dispel, so I was sealed under a tree.”

“The Yinyuan Tree?”

“That’s what they call it.”

This was roughly what Meng Ruji had guessed before. After she killed Zhan Ye, he came to the Land of No Return, then was sealed under the Yinyuan Tree by an expert, sleeping until recently when some chance occurrence awakened him.

“Who sealed you?” Meng Ruji asked directly.

Zhan Ye understood Meng Ruji’s intentions clearly, but he didn’t plan to hide anything. In his view, with Meng Ruji’s current situation, he didn’t need to hide anything.

“The Lord of No Return,” Zhan Ye answered.

These three words made Meng Ruji pause.

Except for when she first arrived at the Land of No Return and heard soldiers mention this person, at other times, Meng Ruji felt as if this master of the Land of No Return had turned invisible. He neither managed affairs nor appeared, regardless of how Zhuliu City and Linlan Mountain acted. Yet secretly, he had established systems of rewards and punishments. The operation of the Land of No Return seemed never to leave this person’s influence.

“Why did he…”

“Perhaps to maintain the balance of this place. But recently, for some unknown reason, his aura has weakened. The sealing power fluctuated, and coincidentally, malevolent qi was also generated outside, which awakened me.”

Malevolent qi generated outside…

Meng Ruji thought of Ye Chuan.

Ye Chuan had said before that after coming to the Land of No Return, he waited to die under the Yinyuan Tree until he saw Meng Ruji and Mu Sui’s names float by…

Then he transformed into malevolent qi, controlled Tuzi, and found her and Mu Sui…

The external malevolent qi Zhan Ye mentioned, couldn’t it be…

Ye Dahe…

Calculating the time, it seemed to… match up…

Meng Ruji remained silent for a long while.

Zhan Ye watched her slightly changing expression, seeming somewhat amused: “Did I awaken because of you?”

Meng Ruji didn’t want to admit it, so she didn’t speak.

Seeing Meng Ruji’s silence, Zhan Ye poured another cup of tea for her:

“After I awakened, I saw your name on that tree and knew you had also come here… Meng Ruji, I was both sad and happy. You know, I was sad that the mortal realm is still so rotten that it made you come here, too. I was happy… fate hasn’t been too cruel to me. Oh, there’s another thing that made me sad.”

Zhan Ye looked at Meng Ruji, his expression becoming more sinister: “You married someone.”

Well…

Why couldn’t she?

She had schemed in every way to force it.

Meng Ruji glanced at the branch on her wrist that had somehow stopped working.

She wondered what her cheap husband was doing now. Having watched her be taken away right in front of him, he must be very angry. Having lost face, he must also be jealous.

“It doesn’t matter.” Zhan Ye pushed the hot tea toward Meng Ruji. “I know he took your Inner Core and became your life-sustaining object. I’ve prepared the little green pills for you. After three days, when we’ve gathered two thousand gold, when I take you away, I’ll also help you retrieve your Inner Core. At that time, I’ll destroy that person and the entire Land of No Return for you.”

His voice and expression carried a coldness that even boiling water couldn’t warm.

Hearing this, Meng Ruji’s brows and eyes also darkened: “You haven’t changed—still so extreme and mad. What wrong has the Land of No Return done? Why do you want to destroy this place?”

Seeing that Meng Ruji wouldn’t take even a step closer to him, Zhan Ye had no choice but to take the hot tea and walk to Meng Ruji’s side.

“Meng Ruji, when it’s clear here, you can see the entire Zhuliu City below.”

Zhan Ye gazed toward the sea of clouds below. When the cloud layers occasionally churned, through certain gaps, one could indeed see neatly arranged houses and streets below.

“They’re so small, like ants. But each of them is filthier than people in the mortal realm. Because everyone who can come here has too much unwillingness and obsession in their hearts.”

“Right,” Meng Ruji responded straightforwardly. “Just like you and me.”

Zhan Ye glanced at Meng Ruji: “Here, you can see the darkness in their hearts more clearly.”

“I don’t need to be here to see the darkness in human hearts,” Meng Ruji said directly. “But so what?”

Zhan Ye was silent for a moment, then continued: “A few days ago, after taking control of Zhuliu City, I said I would close the city for ten days and let them take the stored grain in the city themselves. If the grain were distributed equally, in ten days, no one would need to go hungry. But human greed would make eighty percent of them starve to death.”

Meng Ruji looked at Zhan Ye coldly: “So? Wasn’t this you forcing them?”

“I didn’t force them. I told them that if the grain were distributed equally, it would be enough. Meng Ruji, look—no matter where, people are like this, never changing.”

Meng Ruji closed her eyes, suppressing all emotions: “So you want to use this theory to convince me to join you in that ridiculous dream of destroying the world!?”

“Ridiculous!?” These two words finally seemed to sting Zhan Ye. He stared at Meng Ruji. “Yes, if it were only me, this would be a ridiculous dream! But Meng Ruji, you’re different! That Inner Core with Creation Power—you can use it! You have Creation Power! You can become a new god, create new people! Perfect people! To achieve this goal, I’ll become a blade, your blade…”

Meng Ruji couldn’t bear it anymore and interrupted him: “You’re truly absurd.”

Zhan Ye looked at Meng Ruji uncomprehendingly: “You’re the absurd one. You’ve seen it, clearly suffered…”

Meng Ruji took a deep breath and finally mustered full patience:

“I’ll say this to you for the last time. Zhan Ye, years ago, when I brought you back to the mountain, I wronged you. My mistake was teaching you only techniques, not the Way. As a result, from a thousand years ago to now, you and I have completely diverged. I don’t understand you, and you shouldn’t try to convince me.”

Meng Ruji looked at him with firm resolve, not retreating at all.

“I’ve killed people, but most of the lives on my hands are myself. Cowardice, fear, retreat, obsession—in countless days of unstable dao heart and difficult progress, I killed one me and saved one me, up until now! I have my thoughts and insights, feelings, and ideas. You don’t need to try to change me. I won’t change, just like you. So, Zhan Ye.”

Meng Ruji spoke word by word.

“You and I are destined to fight to the death.”

There was a restriction on the window, but wind from outside still blew in, carrying the chill from above the sea of clouds.

“Right.” Zhan Ye lowered his head. “Your soul, forged through thousands of hammerings, should be like this. This is also what I consider your best quality…”

His expression was dark, silent for a long time, seemingly contemplating something.

Meng Ruji didn’t want to stand so close to him anymore. She wanted to leave, but a teacup was handed to her: “Having said so much, have some tea. Didn’t you use to praise my tea-making skills?”

“Forty-five lives—dying once only repays one life. I won’t drink your tea anymore.”

Meng Ruji answered coldly and sat back down by the bed.

“What you want to do, I won’t help with, and I’ll stop it. As long as I can find a way.”

“I know.” Zhan Ye glanced at Meng Ruji. Though his expression seemed calm, in those pitch-black pupils, a vortex seemed to be forming. “I slept for over a thousand years. Before seeing you, I was very afraid—afraid you had changed. But now it seems you haven’t changed at all. This is very good.”

Zhan Ye murmured, malevolent qi floating out from his body again. But in the next instant, the formation under his feet expanded, and his figure disappeared from the room. Only a voice of indiscernible joy or anger remained in the air.

“…Couldn’t be better.”

Meng Ruji sensed trouble. She frowned, looked down at the branch on her wrist, patted it, and seeing no response, could only sigh deeply: “This time I’ve truly reached a dead end…”

“Not necessarily.”

Suddenly, a familiar voice reached Meng Ruji’s ears.

Meng Ruji suddenly jumped up from where she stood, excitedly searching everywhere: “Mo Li!? You old… old sir! You finally appeared!?”

“Shh…”

Meng Ruji felt the stone inside her clothes jump twice: “It’s not convenient to talk here. Sleep for a while first. We’ll meet… in dreams…”

Hearing this tone, Meng Ruji seemed to already see that overly pale man’s sly smile.