Inside the Yuanrong Tower, everyone was separated from Shi Wenyu by a temporal barrier, unable to do anything about him. At this moment, Shi Wenyu formed a hand seal, and the runes on the tower walls began to rotate.

Huang Rang’s mind was struck by intense pain—she was about to be drawn into another dream!

Huang Rang knew this was bad. Now that Di Yiqiu’s body had been completed, Shi Wenyu was clearly preparing to seize it.

To what time would he drag everyone?

She struggled with all her might, and Di Yiqiu and the others likewise sensed something was wrong.

Without further hesitation, Di Yiqiu turned and struck with his claw. Xie Hongchen behind him was completely unprepared, and blood immediately gushed from his arm!

“You!” Xie Hongchen had been pondering a strategy when he was suddenly struck. Just as he was about to retaliate, something occurred to him. He looked down and saw his fresh blood dripping onto the Yuanrong Tower.

Sure enough, sensing his blood, the tower’s runes spun wildly. Shi Wenyu let out a muffled groan. He had been forming seals and chanting incantations, but now he was losing some control.

Xie Hongchen’s blood continued to drip, but then a hand suddenly reached out from within the wall! Following that, countless hands of all sizes grabbed him and dragged him into the wall!

How could this be?

Seeing this, Di Yiqiu’s entire form suddenly transformed into a cloud of black mist. The black mist permeated throughout the entire tower—he was using the power of the Lingmo Ghost Scripture to explore the secrets of the Yuanrong Tower.

After Di Yiqiu became black mist, his ears were immediately filled with boundless wailing. The accumulated grievances of the people, some near and some far within the tower, cried out in voices of blood and tears.

He felt the warm walls around him drawing close. Looking carefully, he saw blood seeping inch by inch from the walls. In his black mist form, examining this golden tower again—how could this be some mysterious magical artifact?

Embedded within the walls, within the surging runic arrays, were countless people.

These people struggled and wept within the runes. His black mist was stained with fresh blood, leaving a red trail with every step.

Di Yiqiu remained silent for a long time. A hand reached through the array, trying to grab him. But transformed into black mist, he could not be grasped by pain. Di Yiqiu passed through this hand, and through the suffering of countless people.

This was a tower built of blood and tears.

Lei Yin Daji had killed countless people, imprisoning them within and using incantations and talismans to forge this magical artifact.

But because the artifact was excessively malevolent, the array master could easily suffer backlash. So he created the evil cultivation method of the Lingmo Ghost Scripture to control the Yuanrong Tower. This cultivation method fed on resentful energy and would not be harmed by the Yuanrong Tower.

Di Yiqiu moved through the nine-level tower. He had to understand the tower’s runes in the shortest possible time.

Xie Hongchen had been dragged into the tower, but because of his bloodline, the Yuanrong Tower dared not devour him immediately. Tens of thousands struggled and wailed within the tower. He thought of his father, imprisoned deep within the mountain belly of Yuhu Xuanzong, and ah, also his master.

This was the immortality they yearned for.

Even the Divine Step of Single Thought, who had insisted on slaying the dragon, could not escape its temptation.

Xie Hongchen cut his wrist with his finger, letting more blood flow.

Sensing him, the Yuanrong Tower shook even more violently. And Di Yiqiu, moving through it, had already used his fastest speed to understand this magical artifact—he was originally the most excellent artifact craftsman.

In this regard, his talent even far exceeded that of the Divine Step of Single Thought.

He quickly grasped one of the circulating incantations and swapped it with another golden rune!

In that instant, Di Yiqiu, Xie Hongchen, and Huang Rang all felt a sharp, piercing pain in their minds!

Various voices filled their ears—some begging for mercy, some cursing, some calling for help.

Suddenly, Huang Rang felt all sounds around her ears vanish into silence.

She opened her eyes to see only a stretch of dust and sand before her. She struggled to stand, and the yellow sand flew into her face.

Where was this?

Huang Rang was all too familiar with the feeling of entering dreams. She knew she must have entered the Fourth Dream.

But this place…

She raised her head and looked around in confusion, seeing only endless yellow sand. After walking a few steps, she suddenly stepped on something. Looking down, she discovered ragged clothing beneath the sand.

And inside the clothing was, horrifyingly, a skeleton wrapped within.

Huang Rang racked her brains but couldn’t recall such a place.

She looked at herself and saw she was still in her adult form.

She could only continue forward. Ahead, stone-paved roads were faintly visible, though long since eroded by time. The surrounding buildings were dilapidated, with only occasional glimpses of former prosperity.

After walking for a while longer, Huang Rang suddenly stopped!

Right before her, a plaque hung crookedly, about to fall but not quite fallen. On it, the three characters “Si Tianjian” were already mottled and worn.

Huang Rang looked up, studying this familiar yet strange gateway. She suddenly recognized where this was!

This was the main gate of the Xuanwu Si division of the Si Tianjian in the capital!

This… how could this be?

Where were the people inside?

Huang Rang rushed in, but it was completely empty. Yellow sand had invaded this place; the buildings were dilapidated, the vegetation withered.

All things were silent, gazing at her in profound stillness.

“Di Yiqiu?” Huang Rang called out loudly, but only the wind answered her.

Yellow sand fell upon the roof ridges, rustling softly.

In that instant, she couldn’t distinguish between dream and reality.

At this moment, Di Yiqiu likewise awoke from darkness. He opened his eyes, and intense pain immediately spread from every part of his body.

He tried to move, but just as he raised his hand, he froze!

His hand was purple-black and swollen, making even the slightest movement extremely difficult.

And he was all too familiar with this sensation.

This was exactly the torment he endured daily when the viper blood was first injected into him.

So, had he returned to that year when he was nineteen?

Di Yiqiu used all his strength to suppress the excruciating pain emanating from his bone marrow and tried to recall those years.

In the fifth year of Chengyuan, he proposed marriage to Huang Rang and was rejected by her.

Originally, for the Eighty-Sixth Prince, this wasn’t really a significant matter.

He admired Huang Rang’s talent in seed cultivation, and at that time the seed cultivation clans stood united, even forcing the imperial court to submit to the Xi family.

If he married Huang Rang, then the court might have its own seed cultivation master.

And moreover, this seed cultivation master would be free.

—The Eighty-Sixth Prince’s little scheme clicked along quite satisfactorily.

But after Huang Rang refused him, before he could even think of a countermeasure, Shi Wenyu sent him out to capture a viper.

Di Yiqiu succeeded in his mission and brought the viper back to the palace, only to face an even greater disaster.

—Shi Wenyu summoned all the princes and princesses to the Yuanrong Tower and injected viper blood into everyone’s bodies.

Because this required avoiding wind and light, they had to recuperate in dark chambers.

Di Yiqiu couldn’t even tell what time it was now.

He sat up with difficulty and made his way to the doorway. By the dim light at the entrance, he lifted his sleeve. Sure enough, half his body had grown blue snake scales.

The scales were fine and dense, growing on human flesh—who wouldn’t be terrified?

Di Yiqiu lowered his sleeve. After a long while, someone entered from outside.

It was Li Lu.

He walked to Di Yiqiu’s side, hesitating as if wanting to speak.

Di Yiqiu had to ask, “What is it?”

He heard his own voice, blurred and indistinct, not sounding like a human voice.

Li Lu said softly, “Jianzheng, Miss Huang Rang has… married into Yuhu Xuanzong. She wed Xie Hongchen several days ago.”

Di Yiqiu acknowledged with a sound. Compared to his current suffering, Huang Rang’s marriage actually wasn’t much.

He knew this was a dream. As long as he could break the dream, everything before him was merely illusion.

But Ah Rang… why in this dream did he possess all his memories? Was it because something went wrong fighting over the Yuanrong Tower?

And you—do you still remember me?

“I… I must go to… Yu-Yuhu Xuanzong!” Di Yiqiu struggled to roll his tongue, but his excessively swollen throat and tongue had long made his speech slurred.

Li Lu supported him, automatically interpreting his urgency as deep affection.

Vice-Director Li comforted him, “Jianzheng’s body is really not fit for movement right now. Offering congratulations can wait for another day.”

Di Yiqiu still wanted to struggle, but soon he collapsed back down.

His current body simply couldn’t withstand any physical exertion. He involuntarily closed his eyes, hearing his own heavy breathing in his ears.

His internal organs were in severe pain, but actually, he had long grown accustomed to such agony.

Li Lu sat beside him. After a long while, he said, “Jianzheng should think about other things. Qiu Shengbai says you still cannot be exposed to light and shouldn’t go out. He considered for a moment and continued, “Earlier this year, Si Tianjian received a batch of Cave World Eyes from Yuhu Xuanzong. You personally modified them into Nine-Curve Spirit Pupils. Now the Nine-Curve Spirit Pupils are being used one after another. This subordinate will bring some in—at least Jianzheng will have something to do, perhaps making things less tedious.”

Vice-Director Li had never been one to procrastinate. He quickly moved the Nine-Curve Spirit Pupils into Di Yiqiu’s cell.

And Di Yiqiu understood very well—in his current condition, he couldn’t leave this place, much less reach Yuhu Xuanzong.

He couldn’t waste himself further. He could only use all his strength to conserve his energy and integrate the viper blood.

The Nine-Curve Spirit Pupils on the wall displayed different scenes depending on which array cores Li Lu brought. Sometimes daily market life, sometimes immortal sects capturing demons. Sometimes butterflies playing, sometimes flowers blooming profusely.

But none of these array cores were what Di Yiqiu wanted to see.

Di Yiqiu kept waiting. He knew which one Li Lu would eventually bring.

Outside the dream, in the fifth year of Chengyuan, the nineteen-year-old Di Yiqiu simply couldn’t accept his appearance. He refused medicine and stopped eating, becoming despondent and barely clinging to life.

Qiu Shengbai had no choice but to move him out of the Yuanrong Tower and let him recuperate alone at Si Tianjian.

In the dark chamber at Si Tianjian, to keep him alive, Li Lu found many array cores for the Nine-Curve Spirit Pupils to entertain him.

Finally, after seeing no results, Li Lu brought him another one.

When the images from that Nine-Curve Spirit Pupil gradually unfolded on the wall, Di Yiqiu, who had shown no reaction to his surroundings, suddenly looked up. Then, in his barren and desolate years, this person quietly bloomed.

Though time was merciless and wind and snow beat her down, she remained as radiant as ever, never withering.

Sure enough, on this day, Vice-Director Li inserted another array core into the Nine-Curve Spirit Pupil.

He closed the door without a word and quietly left.

Di Yiqiu raised his head and saw that the Miss Huang Rang from Xiancha Town had already bound her hair in a married woman’s style.

Having been wed for only a few days, she was carrying pastries she had made herself to visit Xie Shaochong.

She took a deep breath facing where the Nine-Curve Spirit Pupil was directed, as if gathering courage countless times before finally turning to walk into the courtyard.

Xie Shaochong clearly didn’t recognize her. The two chatted in the courtyard.

Her powdered face held a smile, dignified and gentle.

“Junior Martial Brother Xie, Hongchen left in a hurry. I’m unfamiliar with both the place and the people, with nothing much to do. Today I made several pastries and wanted to ask Junior Martial Brother Xie to taste them for me—are they edible?” She was composed and gracious.

But Xie Shaochong appeared startled. He obviously didn’t recognize the woman before him.

But when Huang Rang mentioned Xie Hongchen, he quickly understood and immediately cupped his hands, saying, “So it’s the Sect Master’s wife. Shaochong was discourteous.”

Huang Rang naturally didn’t mind. She carried the food box into the courtyard and invited him to taste.

When Di Yiqiu first watched this, he only felt it strange.

After all, Huang Rang was the wife of Yuhu Xuanzong’s sect master—why did she need to be so cautious, going out of her way to befriend everyone in the sect herself?

From this, he developed a trace of curiosity about this woman.

Vice-Director Li naturally soon realized where his interest lay, and so the array cores he brought, one after another, all related to Huang Rang.

In his most painful, desperate moments, when he was disgusted with the world, Di Yiqiu watched her progress from being an unknown orphan girl, step by step, presenting herself before everyone in Yuhu Xuanzong.

Immortal cultivators didn’t judge age by appearance. Once, Huang Rang misidentified someone and got the generational relationship wrong.

She hid in the Qilu Platform and wouldn’t come out for several days.

If it were before, how would Di Yiqiu care about such trivial matters?

But now, in this time and situation, for the first time he urged Li Lu, wanting to know news of this person.

Li Lu thought it was his Jianzheng unable to let go of old feelings.

But in this world, where was there such a thing as love at first sight, devotion until death?

Looking back now, Di Yiqiu realized it was merely a beam of light breaking through the darkness of that chamber. He watched this delicate woman struggle to survive in Yuhu Xuanzong.

Like watching grass push through a crack in a wall, like watching an ant carrying food home, like watching a mouse on an adventure.

And in the end, she didn’t disappoint his expectations.

She adorned herself, distributed porridge and medicine, and quickly established herself in Yuhu Xuanzong, becoming the universally praised “Sect Master’s wife.”

Her fine reputation spread throughout the world. She and Sect Master Xie Hongchen were a harmonious couple, treating each other with respect.

Occasionally there were clear-minded people in the world who lamented that the immortal sect had gained one more wife, but the world had lost one renowned expert.

But for the Director of Si Tianjian, whether she was a wife or a renowned expert, sunlight was sunlight.

Once illuminated by it, one knew its warmth.