“Then…” Qin Wanwan organized the information and continued asking, “what happened next? Did Su Tanyin attain the Dao?”

“Actually, Sister didn’t truly attain the Dao…” Bai Wei shook her head. “The seal Heaven gave Sister was meant to be broken through by herself. But Lin Yanzhi gave her a ray of life—perhaps it could fool Heaven, but ultimately it wasn’t her own comprehension. At that time, the ghost realm hadn’t yet sent anyone to fetch her. Sister decided to privately add one more lifetime to the thousand lifetimes, hoping to break through her mental state by herself in this final lifetime. Before she left, she especially wanted to thank Lin Yanzhi once. She and I secretly followed him for a few days, only to discover that this person possessed phoenix bloodline, was born with a golden core, but the golden core came through improper means. Thus, he carried heavy sins and had also been placed under a spirit beast contract, controlled by evildoers. Those controlling him made him kill people. All those future sins and karmic debts would be counted against Lin Yanzhi. In the future, if Lin Yanzhi ascended, he would surely suffer heavenly punishment.”

“To repay his life-saving grace, Sister decided to change this fate for him. But the spirit beast contract on him had been nurtured and formed since he was in the womb, fused into his bloodline and golden core. Unless his entire bloodline and golden core were replaced, it couldn’t be removed. His bloodline was special—ordinary people couldn’t exchange with him. Seeing Sister distressed, I went to find his mother.”

“His mother?” Qin Wanwan was astonished, then realized what had happened. “You made her mother exchange blood?!”

Hearing Qin Wanwan’s question, Bai Wei’s expression was calm: “I only gave her a choice. And she, as a mere mortal with a lifespan of less than a hundred years, decisively chose her own son and then found my sister. Sister proposed a requirement to Lin Fengxi—that Lin Fengxi must find a way to make Lin Yanzhi accumulate good deeds and eliminate evil in the future, to wash away his past life’s sins. Only this way, when he ascended in the future, would he not be bound by Heaven’s way.”

“Lin Fengxi agreed.” Qin Wanwan spoke calmly, recalling the scene she had seen on the murals.

Bai Wei nodded: “Correct. With Sister’s help, Lin Fengxi and Lin Yanzhi exchanged blood, while Lin Yanzhi exchanged golden cores with my sister. After exchanging blood, Lin Fengxi would rather die than be controlled by the Ning family. Before she died, she left a dying wish for Lin Yanzhi to put down hatred in the future and treat evil with kindness. After doing all this, Sister left a strand of divine consciousness in Lin Yanzhi’s body, then went to another world, hoping that before the ghost realm took her to be reborn as an immortal fetus, she could truly comprehend Heaven’s way by herself.”

“Your sister,” Jian Xingzhi thought for a moment and praised her, “was really kind-hearted.”

“Both Sister and Lin Yanzhi were very good people.” Hearing this, Bai Wei showed some sadness. She turned to look at the horizon, her expression gentle. “Sister and I accompanied each other for seven hundred years. In this world, I had nothing to worry about, nothing to miss. After she ascended, I had nowhere to go, so I followed Lin Yanzhi. Lin Yanzhi carried my sister’s golden core and retained my sister’s final strand of divine consciousness. Every time I got close to him, I felt as if Sister was still by my side.”

“He was very much like my sister. No matter how others slandered him, Lin Yanzhi always believed it was just coincidence. He exhausted all his efforts to build Ghost City, sheltering all the people in the world who had nowhere to go. Until later, when demon seeds ran rampant, Ghost City became the biggest target. The entire city’s people fell into demonic possession overnight. At that time, the cultivators in the city suggested killing everyone, but Lin Yanzhi refused. He thought, save whoever can be saved. So he adopted the method of shattering demon seeds, absorbing evil thoughts, and sealing them. In the end, he saved half the city’s people. Then he was stabbed in the back by a subordinate he had raised with his own hands.”

“Who?”

Qin Wanwan was astonished. Cuilu didn’t know this part. Bai Wei spoke as calmly as if watching events from outside herself: “Hua Rong.”

“The child he saved and raised with his own hands had too poor aptitude, so he turned to the demonic path. When Lin Yanzhi was sealing half the city’s evil thoughts, Hua Rong stabbed him, then absorbed all his cultivation, stepping into tribulation transcendence overnight. Without cultivation to suppress the evil thoughts in his body, Hua Rong sealed him in a coffin and sent him to the Ning family.”

“After arriving at the Ning family, he relied on the purity and righteousness of his mind to purify the demonic energy. But the Ning family’s ancestor wanted to possess his body and killed Ning Huihe in front of him,” Qin Wanwan spoke woodenly about what happened next, “so the evil thoughts in his heart erupted and he was devoured by demonic energy?”

“Correct,” Bai Wei nodded. “Fortunately, at that time, two immortals from the upper realm arrived and temporarily suppressed the evil thoughts in his body, sending him to the Liu family in Flower City. The Liu family clan had once received kindness from Lin Yanzhi and excelled at sealing techniques. At that time, Lin Yanzhi hoped the Liu family could cooperate with the two immortals to seal the evil god in his body, so he could cultivate from the beginning again and transform the evil god.”

“But what went wrong later?”

Qin Wanwan knew things must not have gone smoothly. Thinking of those years, Bai Wei sneered: “But who could have imagined that back then, the Liu family’s eldest daughter, Liu Yiyi, who mastered sealing techniques, had always admired Lin Yanzhi. When Lin Yanzhi was devoured by the evil god, he wasn’t lucid. The immortals and the Liu family locked him in a secret chamber. Sometimes he would be controlled by the evil god, sometimes lucid. Liu Yiyi was responsible for guarding him. During the guarding process, the evil god sensed her thoughts and made all kinds of promises to her—as long as she was willing, Lin Yanzhi could belong to her forever.”

“Although Liu Yiyi’s heart was devoted to the righteous path, she couldn’t resist the evil god’s temptation. When the sealing technique was being activated, Liu Yiyi asked Lin Yanzhi one final question. She asked him, after sealing the evil god, could he stay, marry her, like her, and be with her forever. Lin Yanzhi didn’t lie to her—he only said he was sorry. Liu Yiyi couldn’t accept Lin Yanzhi’s future departure, so she tampered with the sealing technique. The seal failed, and the evil god completely devoured Lin Yanzhi. Originally, all this had nothing to do with me, until the moment the evil god truly devoured Lin Yanzhi,” Bai Wei stopped her voice, seemingly controlling her tone. After a long while, she spoke hoarsely: “I saw Sister.”

“Her divine consciousness wrapped around Lin Yanzhi’s soul at the final moment. Lin Yanzhi also used the Ning family’s secret technique at that moment to separate good and evil. The evil god devoured his evil and occupied his body, but there were still one soul and four spirit portions carrying his good that separated out and were taken away by the immortals. The immortals fought a great battle with the evil god, took away Lin Yanzhi’s golden core, and shattered Lin Yanzhi’s body. But the evil god, relying on Lin Yanzhi’s two souls and two spirit portions, escaped and hid between heaven and earth.”

Hearing this, Qin Wanwan vaguely understood everything.

“Then,” Qin Wanwan hesitated, “what about the immortals?”

“I’m not clear,” Bai Wei shook her head. “I only know that both immortals were severely injured and left with that one soul, four spirit portions, and the golden core. And from then on, the only thing my sister left me… was also gone. So,” Bai Wei turned her head, staring at Qin Wanwan, “I hate Liu Yiyi.”

“I hate her for destroying my sister’s final strand of divine consciousness! I hate her for destroying my sister’s life’s work! I hate her for destroying my Dao heart!”

As Bai Wei spoke, her tone became agitated: “My sister said that in this world, there are always more good people. But when I look at Lin Yanzhi, what was his fate? He was harmed by relatives, hurt by friends. Those who received his kindness only asked him to give a little more. Those who admired him destroyed what they couldn’t have. How can these people make me believe in Heaven’s way again?!”

“I no longer believe in Heaven’s way,” Bai Wei’s expression was cold. “I want to become my own Heaven’s way. So I acted to kill her. I cursed Liu Yiyi. I hunted her down. I wanted to make her, life after life, unable to obtain her love, unable to die well. It’s just that the Liu family was, after all, a cultivation clan. After I killed her first reincarnation, I was severely injured. Fortunately, I received a heaven-sent opportunity—I happened to encounter the Exquisite Jade manifesting in the world. Obtaining the Exquisite Jade, my strength greatly increased, so I decided to kill this lifetime’s reincarnation. I just didn’t expect…”

Bai Wei sighed: “You came.”

“We didn’t know the reasons behind all this,” Qin Wanwan felt somewhat regretful. “If we had known, perhaps this battle could have been avoided.”

“I killed many people,” Bai Wei’s expression was calm. “This battle, even if my sister Su Tanyin came, perhaps couldn’t have been avoided either.”

Qin Wanwan knew this was Bai Wei comforting her. She felt somewhat uncomfortable inside. Jian Xingzhi thought for a moment and only asked: “Then that Mei Suihan just now, do you know who he was?”

“I do,” Bai Wei nodded. “He was the two souls and two spirit portions after Lin Yanzhi was devoured by the evil god.”

“He seemed to fear you?” Qin Wanwan recalled. “Earlier he never made a move, waiting for you to be exhausted.”

“He didn’t fear me,” Bai Wei shook her head. “With his abilities, killing me was more than sufficient. He destroyed my sister’s divine consciousness, so naturally I wouldn’t let him go. For these hundred years, I hunted him everywhere. I fought him once. I discovered he seemed to have some restrictions—once he fought with me and the commotion was too big, he would be pursued by an even more powerful person. So he always avoided battling with me, while I set up a prohibition in Flower City. As long as he appeared, I could immediately sense him. It’s just that my prohibition shared the same root and source as my sister’s techniques. I didn’t guard against Sister, so he probably borrowed your aura to hide himself.”

Saying this, Qin Wanwan understood.

The reason Mei Suihan had to get close to them was hoping to rely on their cover to mix into Flower City without Bai Wei noticing. And the reason he had to wait until Bai Wei was exhausted before acting was to avoid making too much commotion and alarming the person pursuing him.

And later, when he was forced by Qin Wanwan to reveal his true strength, before long, the technique pursuing him immediately arrived. And that technique was clearly her mother Shangsui’s.

“I knew it!” Hearing this, Jian Xingzhi immediately clapped his hands. “That person was obviously not a good thing. That sys—”

Before Jian Xingzhi’s words left his mouth, he felt 666’s electric current. He quickly corrected himself: “That little sprite is causing trouble!”

“Little sprite?”

Xie Gutang looked over in confusion. Jian Xingzhi waved his hand: “Not important. I’ll tell you later when I can.”

Xie Gutang didn’t ask further. This was his good point—he never asked what he shouldn’t ask.

“Do you have anything else you want to ask?”

Bai Wei watched them bicker and spoke with a smile. Jian Xingzhi gripped Yuanning. After hesitating for a moment, he turned back to look at Bai Wei: “Speaking of which, why does this sword have rose patterns?”

“This sword was Lin Yanzhi’s first life-bound sword,” Bai Wei gazed at Yuanning and smiled. “When forging the sword, he wanted to use what he considered the most beautiful thing he had ever seen as the sword pattern.”

And the first beautiful thing he saw after walking out of the Ning family’s gate was the rose.

Jian Xingzhi understood. He nodded and didn’t ask further.

The three fell silent for a moment. Bai Wei spoke first: “If there are no other questions, then let’s part here.”

Qin Wanwan and Jian Xingzhi exchanged glances. Bai Wei stood up first. Before her soul turned to leave, she suddenly looked at Qin Wanwan: “Can I hug you?”

Qin Wanwan was startled. After a moment, she smiled, proactively walked forward, and reached out to embrace Bai Wei.

She couldn’t actually touch the soul. However, when she held the other, the soul light carrying no malice still gave Qin Wanwan the inexplicable illusion that she was holding something extremely warm and soft.

A gentle breeze blew across the valley. Bai Wei felt as if she were a person drifting thousands of miles in ocean waves who had suddenly reached the shore.

“Sister,” she closed her eyes and spoke softly, “if it were possible, I really want to live.”

Want to start over, want to understand this world anew, want to see the mountains and rivers again.

Want to complete the path not yet finished, want to walk the roads not yet traveled.

She had spent this entire life loving others with all her heart. For a man, she abandoned the path for the demonic way. For her sister, she held obsessions her entire life. If there were an opportunity, she wanted in the next life to love herself well.

Qin Wanwan embraced her. In that moment, she had an impulse from the heart—if possible, she wanted to help her, wanted to let this person before her have a chance to live one more lifetime, to make up for those regrets she had made wrong.

A string of incantations appeared in her mind. As if guided by Heaven’s way, she raised her hand and drew her sword, suddenly stabbing into Bai Wei’s soul.

All her intentions transmitted through the incantation, passing through the sword into Bai Wei’s body. Bai Wei looked up in astonishment.

“Start over again,” Qin Wanwan watched as Bai Wei’s body transformed into white light before her. She smiled. “This time, love yourself well.”

Hearing this, Bai Wei smiled.

“Alright.”

As she spoke, Bai Wei’s soul slowly disappeared.

Qin Wanwan watched Bai Wei disappear from the spot, feeling somewhat lost. Then she saw Jian Xingzhi suddenly crouch down and begin digging out stones and throwing them away.

Qin Wanwan was stunned and couldn’t help asking: “What are you doing?”

“I feel like Bai Wei’s soul is here. You turned her back into a seed, right? Then we need to create a good survival environment for her. With these stones pressing down, what if she gets crushed to death?”

Qin Wanwan: “…”

After Jian Xingzhi dug out the stones, he raised his hand and conjured a small umbrella, inserting it beside where Bai Wei’s seed was buried. He patted his hands and stood up, satisfied.

“Alright, this way she won’t suffer from wind and rain, and you can relax too.”

Qin Wanwan looked at that small umbrella, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. She wanted to remind Jian Xingzhi that the umbrella would affect photosynthesis, but she was afraid of dampening Jian Xingzhi’s enthusiasm for doing good deeds.

So she thought about it and decided—

Bai Wei, even if you grow crooked, it’s still the same.

After setting up the umbrella for Bai Wei, Jian Xingzhi raised his hand and summoned. Nanfeng, still unconscious in the cave, floated out of the cave and fell into his arms.

He held Nanfeng and turned to look at Qin Wanwan, quite serious: “Now there’s only one most important question left.”

Xie Gutang and Qin Wanwan both looked at him. Jian Xingzhi furrowed his brow: “Where do we go? Straight back to the Liu residence?”

Everyone fell into contemplation. Jian Xingzhi held the baby-sized Nanfeng like holding a child and seriously analyzed: “I’m sure after listening for so long, you’ve also heard that the Liu residence is very dangerous now.”

“How did you hear that?”

Qin Wanwan was astonished. Jian Xingzhi looked at her questioningly: “Are you stupid? Liu Yuehua said she wanted to use the Water Spirit Pearl to summon the Exquisite Jade to kill Bai Wei, so for the Water Spirit Pearl, she made Liu Feishuang risk her life to marry. But now the Exquisite Jade is in Bai Wei’s hands—wasn’t she lying? You didn’t hear such an obvious contradiction? What were you doing just now?”

She was busy being sad…

Losing to Jian Xingzhi in intelligence was a major blow. Qin Wanwan immediately adjusted and nodded in analysis: “Correct. Now there are three situations: either Liu Yuehua is unaware and mistakenly believes the Exquisite Jade hasn’t manifested yet; or Liu Yuehua knows and is deliberately deceiving us; or Liu Yuehua was deceived by someone.”

“One and three seem to be the same situation.” Xie Gutang reminded her.

Qin Wanwan choked, then pretended to be calm and continued: “Correct. Both one and three are cases where Liu Yuehua was deceived. So whether she’s deliberately deceiving us or someone else is deceiving her, someone wants to cause trouble. Is the current Liu residence definitely still safe?”

Everyone fell silent. After thinking, Qin Wanwan decided: “Let’s contact the others first.”

They tried contacting Cuilu, Luo Xingzhou, and others. After contacting them all around, there was no response. Qin Wanwan was quite uneasy: “If they fell into killing arrays set by Bai Wei like you did, then Bai Wei is already dead—the killing arrays shouldn’t exist. Why can’t they receive our transmissions now?”

“Someone’s looking for you.”

Just as Qin Wanwan finished speaking, Jian Xingzhi leaned over and removed the hairpin from her head, handing it to her: “This one’s lit up.”

This hairpin belonged to Liu Feishuang. Seeing the light, Qin Wanwan knew Liu Feishuang was transmitting a message to her.

She took down the hairpin and waved her hand. An image projected into the air.

The image wasn’t of Liu Feishuang, but Liu Feixu.

But this time he wasn’t wearing men’s clothing. He wore women’s clothing, sitting alluringly on a wooden chair.

Beside him knelt a row of people. Qin Wanwan could make out they were respectively Cuilu, Luo Xingzhou, Liu Feishuang, Liu Yuehua… and others. They all had their mouths gagged and hands bound, looking very pitiful. Because of their number, it was also quite spectacular.

“Liu Feixu?”

Qin Wanwan frowned: “What do you mean?”

“As you can see,” Liu Feixu raised his hand, pointing to the side, “I’ll only say this once. Now they’re all in my hands. If you want them to live, have Jian Xingzhi bring the Exquisite Jade to exchange!”

Hearing this, the row of people with gagged mouths immediately raised their heads, making muffled sounds together. Liu Yuehua seemed to be shouting: “Don’t!”

Luo Xingzhou’s face was full of: “Save me!”

Cuilu carried some anger: “If you don’t come save me, I’ll kill you all!”

While Liu Feishuang’s face was resolute, expressing: “Whether we live or die isn’t important—you all must kill him for this young miss!”

Qin Wanwan couldn’t discern from their expressions what they were saying. She guessed for a bit, then gave up.

Liu Feixu observed her expression, feeling his intimidation had worked. He was quite satisfied.

“Jian Xingzhi, tomorrow at noon, outside Flower City,” Liu Feixu raised his head slightly, rather proud, “this seat awaits you.”

Finished speaking, Liu Feixu cut off the dialogue on his side with quite an imposing manner. Then with a “crack,” the hairpin shattered in Qin Wanwan’s hand.

After cutting off the dialogue, Liu Feixu turned to look at the kneeling group: “How was that? Did this seat perform well as a great villain?”

Everyone fell silent. Liu Feixu didn’t understand what they were silent about. He smiled with a hook of his lips: “Don’t think about escaping from this seat’s hands. I’ve destroyed everything you could use to contact the outside world. Nothing but the Exquisite Jade can save your lives!”

Hearing this, everyone started making muffled sounds. Liu Feixu only took it as them being afraid. He lazily stood up and turned to leave.

After he left, everyone looked at each other, communicating with their eyes.

“Did Liu Feixu tell them how to come back?”

Everyone recalled the conversation just now. Luo Xingzhou banged his head painfully on the ground.

It’s over, it’s over, they’re dead for sure.

After Liu Feixu unilaterally cut off communication, the three people in the valley looked at each other.

After a long while, Xie Gutang frowned and asked a fatal question: “Did he just say how to get back?”

Qin Wanwan shook her head: “No.”

There were basically two ways to go back. The first was to use a teleportation array like when they came, but teleportation arrays required both ends to have a connection medium. Either someone on the other side had to respond, or there had to be a corresponding teleportation array. Random teleportation was simplest—just open an all-purpose teleportation array and randomly match another teleportation array somewhere between heaven and earth to initiate teleportation, so no one knew where they would be teleported. But if they wanted point-to-point teleportation, they had to have a connection medium.

Liu Feixu hadn’t left them any connection medium. They also couldn’t contact anyone from the Liu family. And the previous teleportation array was set up by Bai Wei, so it had clearly become ineffective now.

So only the second method remained…

“Walk back?”

Qin Wanwan asked tentatively, but everyone looked at the valley and sensed around.

They didn’t know where they were at all. Even flying on swords, they didn’t know how long it would take.

Xie Gutang’s face was full of worry, quite concerned: “Without a teleportation array, if we fly back on swords, I’m afraid we can’t make it before noon tomorrow.”

“Ah, so annoying,” Jian Xingzhi heard this and scratched his hair. He looked up at the two and made a decision: “Forget it, there’s no one important anyway. Let him kill the hostages.”

—

**Author’s Notes:**

**[Mini Theater]**

Jian Xingzhi: “I’m setting up a little umbrella for my sister-in-law to shield her from wind and rain. Wanwan will definitely think I’m very good and very kind.”

Qin Wanwan: “I really want to remind him that plants need photosynthesis, wind, and rain. But forget it—he’s so kind-hearted, I can’t dampen his enthusiasm. Bai Wei, work hard and become a crooked-neck rose.”

Bai Wei: “…”

Because of Jian Xingzhi, Wei’s life gained additional trials.