The light when she saved Zhan Ye had awakened the sleeping Mu Sui…

Meng Ruji was stunned for a moment: “So… when Zhan Ye said he was waiting to die on the frozen lake but was fortunately blessed by the gods and gained malevolent energy, it was because…”

Mu Sui didn’t hide it: “Because of me. Having slept for thousands of years, the malevolent energy in my body overflowed and was absorbed by him.”

“So the fate he thought was his…”

“Was my fate.” Mu Sui admitted frankly. “In the war between immortals and gods, the heavenly gods were defeated. The immortals wanted to completely exterminate all gods. At the end of their road, the gods joined forces to strip away my divine status. They gave me all their hatred, resentment, and unwillingness—this is malevolent energy.”

Hearing this, Meng Ruji looked at Mu Sui, momentarily speechless. After a long silence, she lowered her head to look at the back of Mu Sui’s hand: “The heavenly gods want to destroy the human world, so your task is to kill all people, right?”

Mu Sui tacitly agreed.

Meng Ruji raised her head to gaze into his eyes: “But this time you saved me and everyone in the Land of No Refuge…”

So that’s why Zhan Ye was so unwilling and confused.

What he wanted to do was exactly what Mu Sui should have been doing, yet Mu Sui chose to stand on the other side.

Why?

Meng Ruji didn’t voice this question because she remembered that Mu Sui had already answered it before—before he came to his senses, his body had already made the choice.

The choice to save her.

The choice to save people.

Having the soul of a god but gaining a mortal body, treading the path of Yama, yet growing a compassionate heart.

“Lost wanderer…” Meng Ruji smiled bitterly. “That fate reading was quite accurate.”

Hearing Meng Ruji’s sigh, Mu Sui glanced at her but didn’t dare look long, afraid his gaze would sink into her eyes.

“Toiling fate—you’re not bad either.” Mu Sui lowered his head teasingly.

Meng Ruji pursed her lips, looking at Zhuliu City in the distant night. Under the moonlight, she could see more and more lights gathering in the city.

“More and more people are going there. I wonder how many will be certain that you’re the one using malevolent energy…”

“Everyone will be certain.” Mu Sui said. “Luo Yingfeng is also there. Having dealt with Zhan Ye, he won’t let me go. Whether I truly used malevolent energy or not, in his mouth, I deserve to die.”

Meng Ruji’s mind conjured the image of that Linlan Mountain lord. When he threw them into the river, he had somewhat the look of a petty person achieving success. Mu Sui’s speculation was reasonable—it was something that a person would do.

“Weighing pros and cons, whether enemy or friend, people who do business in the Land of No Refuge are all quite ruthless.”

“People are all the same.”

True enough.

Meng Ruji nodded and asked Mu Sui, “Those people don’t know how long they’ll stay in Zhuliu City. You probably can’t return in the short term. What are your plans next?”

“Buy my life back with a thousand gold, return to the human world.”

Hearing this, Meng Ruji raised an eyebrow: “You plan to continue your mission?”

“Mm.”

“You…” Meng Ruji asked hesitantly, “Can you kill everyone?”

Mu Sui glanced at her: “Isn’t it convenient—a person-god who wants to destroy the world has appeared in the human realm.” He used mockery to hide other emotions. “I told you before, when I last bought my life back to the human world to take your Inner Core, I happened to encounter a group of black monsters.”

Meng Ruji nodded: “You said they had already broken my seal, intending to take my Inner Core… Were you lying to me about that?”

“I wasn’t lying.” Mu Sui said. “After fighting with them, I snatched the Inner Core but was also injured, and my body changed.”

“Became smaller.” Meng Ruji picked up the thread.

Mu Sui glanced at her: “My age became smaller.”

Meng Ruji nodded: “Now it seems you’ve grown a bit again.”

“Mm, absorbing Zhan Ye’s malevolent energy, though uncomfortable, isn’t necessarily a bad thing for me.” Mu Sui clenched his hand, the “creaking” sound of bones quite prominent, as if announcing they were changing. “At the time, I didn’t know what those things were. Now I understand—they were netherworld creatures formed from the person-god’s condensed malevolent energy. The person-god wants to take your Inner Core. Perhaps the method she thought of is the same as mine.”

“So…” Meng Ruji leaned closer to him, raising an eyebrow, “What method did you both think of? Just killing people? Can you kill everyone?”

Mu Sui paused, his gaze shifting to land on Meng Ruji’s face: “Trying to get information out of me?”

“Not exactly.” Meng Ruji said shamelessly. “Having said so much already, what’s wrong with saying a bit more?”

“I can’t say more. You’ll obstruct me.”

Caught out, Meng Ruji sat back a little: “You’ve already saved the people of the Land of No Refuge, Mu Sui. Perhaps you’re not that determined. This task doesn’t have to be completed.”

“It must be completed.”

Meng Ruji stared fixedly at Mu Sui, trying to find wavering in his eyes, but he half-closed his eyes, hiding his emotions so that Meng Ruji couldn’t see clearly.

“Killing everyone—this task sounds absurd and difficult to achieve.” Meng Ruji continued trying to persuade him. “So much time has passed. Today’s people and immortals are not the same people and immortals from back then…”

“Meng Ruji.” Mu Sui raised his eyes, interrupting her words: “Will you stop me?”

“I’m also a person.” Meng Ruji said. “If you want to kill everyone, that includes me and people I care about. Of course, I’ll stop you.”

“The Land of No Refuge—all who come are half-dead. I can spare it.”

“What about Hengxu Mountain? The people on the mountain? The people below the mountain? Innocent people? People like Miaomiao?”

“So you will stop me.” Mu Sui repeated—not a question, but a statement.

“Of course.”

“This is something you will do.” Mu Sui stared at Meng Ruji, his words firm: “Like you, I also have things I must do, paths I must walk.”

Meng Ruji stood up and stepped back: “Then you will be my enemy.”

Mu Sui remained seated, neither retreating nor avoiding. He looked at her: “We were already enemies.”

Humans and gods had been enemies for tens of thousands of years.

The night wind suddenly rose, not daring to blow too loudly between them.

But precisely at this tense moment, a voice came from Meng Ruji’s belt: “What’s all the arguing about!” Mo Li appeared, standing between Meng Ruji and Mu Sui. He first looked serious, then sat to the side, watching the excitement without fear of making things worse: “Just fight directly! I’ll be the referee!”

Mu Sui took a deep breath and turned his head away—out of sight, out of mind.

Meng Ruji rolled her eyes dramatically, then scolded Mo Li: “Don’t you have ears? Can’t you understand the important point? He just said he wants to kill everyone! While he’s still in the Land of No Refuge, why don’t you hurry up and tie him up for me!”

Mo Li glanced at Mu Sui.

Mu Sui sat coldly in place, some malevolent energy drifting around him. It looked casual, but it seemed as if Mo Li dared approach him; this malevolent energy would pierce right through him.

Mo Li touched his nose: “Ah, if we fought, I used to have some chance of winning, but now… mainly I’m injured…”

Mentioning the past made Meng Ruji even angrier: “You used to have a chance of winning, could see his fate pattern, yet you didn’t stop him. You even let him gather a thousand gold to buy his life back and return to the human world to steal my Inner Core?! Rounded off, you were practically handing him a knife!”

Mo Li pursed his lips again: “Lost wanderer—what difference does it make whether you see this fate pattern or not? He’s also been stumbling forward blindly…” Mo Li’s gaze drifted between Mu Sui and Meng Ruji meaningfully, “There’s no fixed outcome.”

At this point, Meng Ruji suddenly understood something. She fell silent, her eyes also rolling toward Mu Sui.

Mu Sui pretended not to hear their conversation and continued meditating.

Meng Ruji thought for a moment, then patted Mo Li: “Come here, come with me over there.”

“What for?”

“To meditate!” Meng Ruji glared at him. Knowing that Mo Li saw what she wanted to do but was pretending to be dumb, Meng Ruji turned and left first.

Mo Li watched her retreating figure, patted his bottom, and stood up, then glanced at Mu Sui, who was pretending to be calm while continuing to meditate: “Oh my, little Meng is quite clingy. Qianshan Jun, meditate well. I’ll chat with little Meng and be right back.”

Mo Li slowly shuffled after Meng Ruji.

Mu Sui kept his eyes closed, seemingly unconcerned.

But the moment Mo Li’s figure disappeared into the woods, Mu Sui still opened his eyes. His pupils seemed uncontrollably drawn toward the direction they had left.

Meng Ruji walked to one end of the small grove, found a suitable place, and sat in meditation, entering the heart-flow dream realm.

Practice makes perfect—Meng Ruji was already very accustomed to standing in her own dream space. After waiting briefly, she saw Mo Li slowly approaching in the gray dreamscape.

“Little Meng, you’re a married woman now. Hinting for me to meet you in dreams—improper, improper.”

“Stop with the idle chatter.” Meng Ruji said. “You know very well we needed somewhere to talk, and this is the most suitable place.”

Mo Li smiled: “What does little Meng want to say?”

“About Mu Sui’s matter—you’ve had ideas all along, haven’t you?”

Mo Li raised an eyebrow: “What makes little Meng say that?”

“Stop pretending. You can see my fate pattern and his fate pattern too. Though you might not be able to enter his dreams or see his past, you should have always known his identity. You want to stop him, too.”

“In your eyes, am I that kind?”

“In my eyes, you’re far kinder than I.” Meng Ruji met Mo Li’s surprise with certainty: “I only want to save people I care about and who care about me. You’ve maintained the Land of No Refuge for so many years—you want to save more than just one or two people. You even want to save that person-god who seems to have already embarked on her destiny. Right?”

Mo Li blinked in surprise, then lowered his head and chuckled: “This is the first time anyone has called me kind.”

Meng Ruji didn’t dwell on this, only saying: “When I married Mu Sui, you helped push things along. When I came to the Land of No Refuge and he became my life-sustaining object, perhaps you had a hand in that, too.”

Mo Li smiled: “A little bit.”

“I couldn’t understand your intentions before, but just now I finally got it. My fate is a toiling one—no matter how I go, I can’t escape those two words. This is fixed destiny. But his fate is that of a lost wanderer. This fate is both fixed and not fixed—how he walks depends on his own choices.”

Mo Li said nothing, only looked at Meng Ruji approvingly, listening as she continued.

“Whether to choose to become someone who saves people or a god who kills people—Mu Sui is still lost, still undecided, so his fate can be changed.”

Meng Ruji raised her hand, looking at the vine bracelet Mu Sui had left on her wrist: “You want him to have more attachment to people. Right?”

“Using emotion to set up the game, wanting to use this to save people—are you going to say I’m naive?”

“I want to say…” Meng Ruji stared straight at Mo Li, “Your method is excellent.”

Mo Li was stunned.

Meng Ruji analyzed seriously:

“I don’t know what gods are like, but Mu Sui is human now, and don’t humans live for their bonds? The heavenly gods were destroyed, and he alone bears the mission. All people under heaven are his enemies. His only bond in this world is hatred. Breaking hatred is difficult, but giving him other bonds is easy. Having him feel more attached to the human world couldn’t be better. Moreover… he was already a lost wanderer before meeting you and me.”

“Though I don’t know what he experienced from awakening in the frozen lake to coming to the Land of No Refuge, the reason he wavers must be because he already had attachments to this world.”

“He must have met warm people, encountered warm things, which is why he feels confused in his mission of blood vengeance. He’s different from Zhan Ye—he’s not inherently a cold killer. Then we just need to use more bonds to hold him back!”

Meng Ruji’s eyes shone as she looked at Mo Li:

“If I can be fortunate enough to become this bond, then I will hold him steady. Guide his way through being lost!”

After this speech, Mo Li listened in silence. After a long time, he finally spoke with a light laugh: “Be more confident. Don’t say ‘fortunate enough to become’—you’ve already become this bond.” Mo Li said, “On the Marriage Tree, Mu Sui’s name was so bright because when he sees you, the blood in his heart burns too intensely.”

Meng Ruji was stunned, recalling those blazing two characters. She suddenly understood that Marriage Tree might be glowing with love…

In the dream realm, Meng Ruji also felt her cheeks grow somewhat hot.

But she quickly controlled her emotions, calmly raised her head, and looked at Mo Li: “This is good. After this, I need your help.”

Mo Li raised an eyebrow.

“Let’s coordinate and find ways to make his blood burn even hotter!”

“Little Meng, you’re willing to sacrifice your beauty for all the people of the world.”

“Don’t say it like that.” Meng Ruji seriously corrected him. “I’m using my true heart.”

Mo Li nodded repeatedly: “I misspoke. You two as husband and wife—this is called mutual devotion.”

Meng Ruji pressed her lips together and didn’t deny it. Only when she lowered her head did she feel her cheeks grow even hotter.

Destroy what world! Go love someone!

Tomorrow! Continuing updates! If I don’t update, I’m a big dog!