I am a demon, born in the twelfth month of swirling snow, upon the peak of Fulong Mountain.

What year it was, I no longer remember. Seven hundred years ago? A thousand years ago? Perhaps even earlier.

Before I attained human form, every deep winter and blazing summer without fail, humans of all manner of appearances and ages, each harboring their own intentions, would come alone or in family groups, pressing onward day and night without distinction, climbing the Fulong Mountain that seemed to touch the sky.

Their devout sweat, all entered my eyes. Their screams as they fell from cliffs, all entered my ears.

Standing upright at the mountain’s peak, looking down upon the fortunate souls prostrate at my feet, I accepted their worship with perfect ease and contentment, allowing them to tremble with both hands as they hung five-colored silk threads upon my body one by one.

However many wishes there were, there were however many silk threads.

These people regarded me as a deity, stubbornly believing I could bestow upon them all the protection they so desperately desired. For thousands of years, they did not care that this was a mountain with no path, ignored the piles of white bones at the bottom of the deep valley at the mountain’s foot, disregarded the poisonous thorns covering the cliff faces, and willingly offered their own lives to demonstrate boundless devotion — devotion to me.

Yet, I was not a deity, and could fulfill none of their wishes.

The seven-colored radiance upon my body was nothing more than a means to attract ignorant birds and small animals in the dark of night to serve as my food, yet through distorted rumor it had been mistaken for divine Buddhist light bestowing blessings upon the mortal world.

A tremendous misunderstanding — truly a transgression.

However, it was not my transgression. It was merely humanity’s wishful thinking and the vulgar habit of believing only what one wants to believe.

And so, I was too lazy to clarify. To be a demon yet worshipped as a god — this feeling I did not resist; in fact, I rather liked it. Moreover, observing the completely different faces, listening to the strange and varied prayers, was far more effective at whiling away my tedious time than facing rocks and flowers and grasses that could neither speak nor move.

Yes, my time was very dull, my life very solitary. The peak of Fulong Mountain was my entire world. Apart from this place, I could go nowhere. Day after day, year after year, for hundreds of years I looked upon the same scenery — sunrise and sunset, wind rising and falling still, flowers blooming and petals dropping. Not a single day was special.

Whenever I watched humans leave in satisfied contentment, I always fantasized that someday I too could follow them, stepping away with light and carefree strides.

The world below the mountain had always been my deepest longing.

Yet, I could not leave this place. Not even a single step was possible.

Because I was a tree spirit.

My life lay tangled beneath the hard earth and stone, day by day and year by year expanding and flourishing, growing with extraordinary vitality. In my heart I understood very clearly: separated from soil, a tree has only one fate.

To live is to be without freedom.

This was the destiny of being a tree spirit — somewhat absurd, somewhat cruel.

Yet I had gradually grown accustomed to these days of absolute stillness. Compared to those of my kind who lay silently obscure in unremarkable corners, I could perhaps be counted as fortunate. For I bore the halo of “deity,” and owing to that, I still managed to possess some hollow joy, some impractical fantasies.

Something to be grateful for, yes?

In truth, changing this destiny was not without a method. As long as one cultivated a human form, one could depart from one’s true body and move freely. I had known of this method very long ago. But for me, this “method” was equivalent to fantasy. With my shallow cultivation, I feared I would dissolve into a handful of dust before ever reaching that day of human form, both soul and spirit extinguished. Living things cannot exist forever, and demons are the same — be it a thousand years or ten thousand years, there will always come a day of extinction. The same principle as humans going from birth to death; the only difference is one is short, the other long.

There is no immortal human, and there is no immortal demon.

A tree spirit who yearns for freedom.

Decadent days still as standing water, fantasy and despair coexisting.

Yet, when I had firmly resigned myself to the helpless notion of growing old and dying upon Fulong Mountain, my self-deceiving and other-deceiving life ended without any warning, on the night of a blazing summer day…

He had just rescued a mother and child who had fallen from the cliff below. The survivors who had narrowly escaped death sat at the mountain’s edge, their souls still scattered with fright. However, they did not say a single word of thanks to the one who had saved their lives — not because they had forgotten in their terror, but because they did not know to whom they should direct their gratitude.

He had deliberately hidden his form. Ordinary humans could not see him.

But I could. Perfectly and clearly.

He leaned against me, bathed in clear bright moonlight, patiently waiting for this group of worshippers to depart.

Aside from those people and prey, no one had ever come so close to me. I did not admire the abasement of humans when they begged, nor the panic of prey when captured. But I liked him. I liked his spiritual energy that surpassed others without oppressing them — ice-cold and profound, yet possessing a soft warmth…

“From this day forward, do not do such things again.”

When the people had finally all dispersed, he spoke his first words to me — calm and composed, neither smiling nor angry.

Tree Spirit [Part 2]

Although I lived in isolation, I was not dull-witted. His veiled reproach and warning displeased me.

Seven-colored radiance leapt outward in layers from my body, casting the half of the mountainside in flowing, shimmering brilliance. The wind moved and I moved — graceful and entrancing, swaying with alluring elegance, drawing more attention than any previous moment.

I did it deliberately.

An unknown white bird fell into my trap without any precaution, perching among my beautiful translucent branches and leaves, singing in a melodious voice.

Without a sound, I moved one branch among the thousands, drawing close to today’s prey.

The bird was absorbed only in its own captivating song, unable to smell even the faintest scent of death.

A light flick, swiftly looping around the fragile neck. With just a little more force, this small creature would forever bid farewell to the song it was so proud of.

The prey fluttered its wings, a few white feathers drifting down softly and scattered among the branches.

In truth, I was not hungry at the moment. I only wished to tell the person before me: if one foolishly covets my charm, they will lose their lives for it. I have never coerced anyone — be they human, bird, or beast. Everything is of their own free will. How could they blame me?

Yet my silent rebuttal was halted by him.

A transparent droplet of water flicked from between his fingers, striking without deviation the “hand” with which I had seized hold of the bird’s life.

A sensation of numbing, slight pain spread through every leaf vein in my body.

Without giving me any say in the matter, I released my “hand.”

With a rustling flutter, the bird escaped toward the sky — the first prey ever fortunate enough to leave alive.

“Unruly little demon.” He withdrew the gaze he had been directing toward where the bird had gone, slowly walking to stand before me. The night breeze stirred his moon-white robe, the satin sash hanging at his waist dancing in the wind, brushing across my face — surprisingly ticklish.

“Restless spirits that have not ceased will file a complaint at the underworld. Getting their hands on you is only a matter of time.”

Pushing aside a strand of jet-black hair blown before his eyes, he “reminded” me.

Getting their hands on me? Did he truly believe I was ignorant and uninformed?

Over all these years, I had heard countless laments. I knew full well that in this world, how many wrongfully dead souls there were who had suffered a hundred times more injustice than those who perished on Fulong Mountain. How many of them could the underworld actually manage?

I needed food, and I also needed the worship of humans.

Without food, the belly is empty. Without worship, the heart is empty.

A carefree immortal who could come and go freely, like him — how could he comprehend the feelings of a tree spirit?

Yes, he was an immortal, untouched by dust, lofty and exalted.

From the moment he drew near, I had discerned his unique identity.

Because he was an immortal, it was his natural duty to constantly display compassion for all living beings. Yet “all living beings” had never included demons — this was a rule laid down through thousands of years by the righteous path of the upper realm.

I regretted the “fondness” I had felt for him earlier, calculating how he might treat an “unruly” tree spirit next — destroying my shallow cultivation, or immediately executing me on the spot?

After all, should he wish it, he could bring catastrophe upon me without the slightest effort, and could also add to his name the beautiful reputation of vanquishing demons for the people’s sake.

Today, having encountered him — what consequences would I face?

“With me here, I will not allow you to run amok.”

These faint words chilled my heart completely.

Just as I had predicted — demons had no right to rebut immortals. Once the other party was angered, only one’s own life would be the forfeit.

The “divine tree” at Fulong Mountain’s peak was about to cease to exist.

Tree Spirit [Part 3]

In a brief span of time, from killing to being killed — the role reversal was so swift it exceeded all of my imagination. Phrases I had overheard from humans such as “a life for a life” and “evil is met with evil retribution” leapt one by one into my heart, gloating with schadenfreude.

Although I was dissatisfied with my life, I still clung to my existence. To be able to see, hear, and breathe was better than the unknowing, unfeeling darkness of death.

I was not “unruly” enough to be able to sneer at death, and so I feared it in all sincerity, mixed with resentment toward him.

“Do not let me die too painfully, compassionate immortal.”

It was a rash outburst, and it was also the truth. It was the first sentence I spoke to him, and also the last.

I was terrified, but I would absolutely not lower my head and beg.

There was a smile in his eyes — unfathomably deep.

Clear and spirited water ripples coiled outward from between his slender fingers, with shimmering points of light flickering within. Ring upon ring, layer upon layer, they gathered gracefully and slowly into his palm, blooming into a colorless lotus flower.

Midway up the mountain, a lotus pond, interspersed with emerald and red, was in full bloom. Yet not a single bloom there could compare with the one in his hand.

Person reflecting flower, flower reflecting person.

Despite being in such desperate straits, I had to admit — this was the most beautiful sight I had witnessed in my entire existence.

Immortals are immortals indeed. Even a weapon of destruction must be brought to perfection.

No wonder humans worshipped them, and no wonder so many people dreamed of becoming one of their number.

“Go.”

He opened his hand, lips moving ever so slightly.

The world’s most beautiful lotus flower spun toward me.

He had finally made his move.

Knowing I could not escape, I simply hardened my resolve, gazing directly at the “flower” now hovering above my head, awaiting the end of my life.

Incantations I could not understand passed from his mouth into my ears, repeating over and over, scattering my spirit and thoughts.

The lotus flower suddenly ceased spinning. After emitting several thin, translucent rays of white light, it plummeted straight downward, sinking into my body.

For the first time, I experienced the feeling of “cold.”

A force beyond my control spread unceasingly from the roots beneath the earth throughout my entire being, each wave stronger than the last, as though seeking to peel my primal spirit from my true body.

There was no wind at this moment, yet every branch and every leaf was trembling, rustling softly.

My vision seemed as though water had been poured over it, growing more and more blurred.

Was this the symptom a demon experiences before dying?

It should be. Fortunately, it was not as painful as I had imagined.

Moonlight spread across the ground, flowers and strange rocks lay scattered, and there stood the white-robed immortal smiling before me — the last scenery I would see in this world.

In the midst of chaos, unable to distinguish life from death.

I only felt I was having a dream — dreaming that I had cultivated human form, laughing and jumping, excitedly running across the rough ground…

Something was jabbing into me uncomfortably all over!

Wait? No.

How could a tree spirit have the feeling of being “jabbed?”

Consciousness that had drifted to the ninth heaven gradually gathered back together, bit by bit urging me to open my eyes —

Since I could first remember, I had never seen the ground beneath my feet from such an intimate angle.

Yellowed sandy soil, holding stones of various sizes in dark brown, blocked my vision. Every inch of my skin genuinely felt the roughness and warmth transmitted from the earth.

What a peculiar feeling — one I had never experienced before.

Yet the momentary confusion and excitement were instantly replaced by incomparable astonishment.

Propping up my body, I sat up.

Several pebbles pressing beneath my palms jabbed painfully.

I hurriedly withdrew my hands, gently rubbing them.

Ah?!

Hands?!

When I realized that what lay before me were not my slender, delicate branches, but two living human hands, I was thrown into complete disarray.

Looking further down — fair and unblemished skin, full breasts, slender limbs, the graceful curves exclusive to a woman’s body extending at every point of my being. Slightly wavy and thick ink-green long hair spread loose, dragging disheveled across the ground.

Heavens, had I cultivated human form?

Impossible! This must certainly be a hallucination produced at the point of death!

I suddenly leapt to my feet, looking around in utter bewilderment, trying to find some reason to make myself believe that everything I was seeing was merely an illusory vision.

Moonlight like water, mountain wind in gusts — everything was as it had always been.

Still the Fulong Mountain I knew so intimately. Not the slightest irregularity.

“This mountain has considerable spiritual energy. I intend to remain here for a long while in cultivation.”

The voice from behind me was as unhurried as ever, but for me, it was no less than a clap of thunder.

I turned around, only to have my eyes covered in a veil of pale green — a beautiful green gauze garment descended from above, gently enveloping my bare body with tenderness.

“In granting you human form: first, I could not bear to see more restless spirits come into being; second, I did not wish you to meet an unfitting end. From this point forward, you shall remain at my side as a handmaid.” His smile, from beginning to end, remained unchanged.

He stood right before me, less than a single step away, the hair at his forehead stirred gently by his breath.

In my stunned surprise, I tilted my face upward to look at him, who stood a full head taller than me — my mouth hung open like a mute’s, and I could not utter a single word.

“Your true body — ordinary people can no longer see it. There will no longer be a divine tree blessing all living beings upon Fulong Mountain. Hereafter, on this very day each year, you must return to your true body and may only leave after twelve double-hours. Remember this without fail!” He turned his face away and looked at my “true body” — a tree that now had nothing special about it whatsoever — and delivered this solemn warning.

I believed it. I was not in a dreamscape.

“You… who are you?” I finally asked my first question, under my entirely new identity.

“Do you have a name?” He did not answer, but posed the question back to me.

A name? I shook my head. This was something I had never needed.

“You don’t?!” His brows knitted slightly, as if in deep thought.

Very quickly, he smoothed his brow and regarded me steadily. “You shall be called Shaluo from now on.”

Shaluo… Shaluo…

I repeated these two syllables silently in my heart. Why should I be called by this name? It sounded truly strange.

Yet I liked it.

He had fulfilled my dream, and he had given me a name.

In a single night, I had received such an extraordinary miracle.

“Who are you?” While I could still keep the wild joy in my heart pressed down, I asked once more.

“Before the Heavenly Emperor’s throne, the Four-Directional Water Lord — Zi Miao.”

The Four-Directional Water Lord? What manner of immortal was that? An ordinary lesser immortal, or one of great authority and high standing? Regrettably, I knew very little of affairs in the heavenly realm. His reply, so simple and clear-cut, gave rise to no small number of new questions in my mind.

“Ha, stop standing there in a daze. Come along with me. From now on, cultivate together with me. Strive at the earliest opportunity to have your name entered in the Heavenly Realm’s Register of Eternal Life and attain your true reward — do not let such spiritual energy go to waste.” He patted my head with a benevolent, elder-like hand and set off walking toward the other end of the mountain’s peak.

Cultivation? The Register of Eternal Life?

I could not fully grasp his meaning, but I understood one thing — he was being good to me.

And so, I cautiously and gingerly lifted my foot, taking that first step I had yearned for in my dreams, and followed after him carrying a heart full of delight and eager anticipation.

From this day forward, Fulong Mountain had one less bewitching demon tree, one more genuine immortal, and one foolish, confused little handmaid following at his side.

The brief and quiet summer night — the unfathomable workings of fate had already begun to shift in silence…

Part Two: Seeing the World

“One, two, three… nineteen, twenty… thirty.”

I crouched outside the rocky cave, carefully counting the neat tally marks on the stone wall.

Below the marks, a plant about a foot in height — one stem bearing seven leaves, jade-green and translucent — grew contentedly among the jagged, grotesque rocks.

He had said this flower was called “Colorless.” It bloomed once a year, its flowering period lasting only one day, and thereafter lost one petal every sixty days in a repeating cycle. It was a small trinket obtained from the Hundred Flowers Fairy at Boming Rock. That night, he had planted the seed and instructed me that when the flower bloomed, I must return to my true body — under no circumstances could this be delayed.

So it turned out this flower had been planted for my sake. I felt happy for no particular reason.

Also because of “Colorless,” I gained an accurate sense of time. Each time the flowering season arrived, I would add a tally mark on the stone wall. Month after month, year after year, without noticing, there were already a full thirty marks upon it.

These thirty years, I had lived with relish and pleasure.

As for him — my master in name — the great portion of his time was spent remaining on Fulong Mountain, having departed only three times during this period.

Every time he departed, it was on days of torrential downpour and rampaging mountain floods. I hid in the cave, watching through the dense curtain of rain as he left for distant places. Through days spent together from dawn to dusk, I slowly came to know that the “Four-Directional Water Lord” was the water deity in the heavenly realm, overseeing all rivers, lakes, and seas under heaven. Choosing such days to depart was surely a matter of duty.

However, this third departure was an exception.

At that time, it had just entered autumn. The mountains were blanketed in scenery of golden and green layered over one another, the sunlight was neither too warm nor too cool, the mountain wind neither too light nor too strong, and both sky and earth were bright and clear.

He had not ridden clouds. Instead, he had held my hand, step by step walking down Fulong Mountain, arriving at a small town nearby. Wondrous structures, a clamorous market, streams of passing people — all suddenly unfolded before my eyes, striking my nearly atrophied senses.

So the world of humans was this dazzlingly colorful!

I shook free of his hand and excitedly threaded my way between the various small stalls and shops along the roadside, touching this, handling that. After my footprints had been left in about half the city, only a faint red remained at the sky’s edge.

He called me to a stop and led me into a small building outside the city that bore a hanging plaque.

Inside the building were tables and chairs in uniform rows, arranged with great neatness and order. Many people sat gathered within, cups and bowls stacked before them.

He said this was a place for eating. This was eight-treasure porridge; this was glutinous rice soft cake; this was thousand-layer hundred-flower flaky pastry. Pointing at these things I had never seen nor heard of, he introduced them one by one. Finally he also said that they always called the heavenly realm’s jade liquor and immortal fruits the finest things, yet the most delicious of all was still the food of the mortal world.

“Shaluo.” His voice came from inside the cave.

I startled, only then awakening from the memories of long ago. I hastily took the wild fruits I had gathered and went inside.

A stone platform, two stone tables, several stone stools — that was the entirety of the cave room’s furnishings, so simple it seemed empty.

“Ha, the little tree spirit’s movements are getting slower and slower. A whole game of chess is nearly done and only now do you return.” Just as I set one foot inside, I heard that voice which always vexed me.

On the stone table lay a smooth chessboard, black and white pieces arrayed clearly upon it. He held a white piece in hand but was in no hurry to place it, turning to look at me and then at the man playing against him, shaking his head, only smiling without a word.

The good mood from a moment ago was largely diminished by that person’s teasing tone. I kept a solemn expression and walked slowly to their side. Opening the lotus leaf in my hand, I shoved the entire bundle of wild fruits into that infuriating pest’s embrace and said stiffly: “Take it! Let’s see how much of it you can eat!”

“Ha ha, your temper is growing by the day.” He laughed loudly, not the slightest bit bothered by my rudeness, then immediately turned back to address him: “Zi Miao, you really are incompetent at teaching your girl.”

“Ha, you had better pay attention to your chess piece.” He glanced at the other with sly cunning and steadily placed his piece down.

“Oh? Ah! This… can you let me take back one move?” Immediately someone’s eyes went wide and he clasped his hands in supplication.

The man sitting across from him was his very good friend. Over all these years, only this one person would come to visit three times every five days, each time staying for a day or half a day. The two would brew wine and play chess together, chatting and laughing with ease, their closeness evident in every gesture.

I did not know clearly what background this fellow had; I only knew he had a name even stranger than mine — Jiu Jue. The first time I saw him, I had been entirely captivated for a time by his rare lake-blue long hair, astonished that there existed in this world a person so remarkably striking.

Zi Miao and Jiu Jue — the two immortal men sitting before me were equally handsome. Yet in my eyes, the former was always the more distinguished.

“Shaluo, go brighten the lamp a little.” He picked up the chess pieces one by one, a shallow smile of victory at the corner of his mouth.

“Little tree spirit, brighten it to the fullest, oh — we’re old, our eyes don’t work so well anymore.” Jiu Jue feigned elderly decrepitude with two deliberate coughs.

“I have a name — my name is Shaluo!”

I glared at him indignantly. I hated that he clearly knew my name yet kept calling me “little tree spirit, little tree spirit” without end.

In my heart, “tree spirit” was the past. “Shaluo” was the present.

I loved the “present” far more than the “past.”

Pouting, I walked to the other stone table, bent down, and carefully tended to the oil lamp shaped like a half-open lotus flower. This lamp had been made by his own hands, meticulously carved from a small piece of greenstone taken from the mountain stream. Even the wick and the lamp oil within were taken from a nameless purple wildflower growing on the mountain; when burning, it always carried a slightly sweet and clean fragrance.

The leaping flame grew brighter and brighter, and the whole stone chamber became considerably more luminous than before.

I raised my head, somewhat lost in thought as I watched the silhouette-like outline projected on the stone wall by the lamplight — his outline.

“Come sit down.” He waved to me, indicating the stone stool beside him.

“Oh…” I snapped back to attention, hastily reining in my own gaze, pressing my slightly flushed face, and walked over to sit close beside him.

He tidied the chessboard, smooth pieces falling one by one into the woven bamboo chess box with a clear clinking sound.

“How are your affairs progressing?” He asked without raising his head.

Jiu Jue startled: “Me?!”

“Yes.” The last white piece fell into the box as he closed the lid. “Have you found them?”

“Ha, easier said than done.” Jiu Jue smiled bitterly. With a wave of his left hand, two jugs of wine appeared from nowhere and were placed on the chessboard. “Freshly brewed — give it a taste.”

He took one jug, brought it to his lips, and before even drinking had already caught the intoxicating fragrance.

I breathed it in through my nose, irresistibly licking my lips.

“Shaluo!” He gently seized my wrist, stopping my imminent act of pouring the wine into my mouth. “Your cultivation is still shallow. You must not touch wine.”

“Oh.” I responded in disappointment, reluctantly setting the wine jug back in its place.

“Ha ha, little tree spirit, craving a taste, are you? You’ll need another hundred years or so before you’re fortunate enough to sample my craft!” Jiu Jue reached over and flicked my nose, his face full of mischief.

“Alright, Jiu Jue, stop teasing Shaluo.” Seeing me flushed red and fuming, he finally spoke up on my behalf, then laughed and said: “But purely from the smell of this, I can tell your skills have made considerable progress.”

“But of course!” Jiu Jue accepted the compliment without any modesty. Yet after a moment of self-satisfaction, he picked up the other wine jug and stared at it blankly. A barely perceptible desolation flashed across his eyes and then vanished. “Pity… wine here but no kindred spirit to share it with…”

He smiled, raising his wine jug as if in a toast: “I will reluctantly serve as your kindred spirit this once. Rest assured — you will find the person you’re looking for.”

“Ha ha, with your auspicious words. I’m certain I’ll definitely find them.” Jiu Jue instantly returned to his usual state and pushed the wine jug in his hand forward.

After a clear, crisp sound of contact, both men drained the fine liquor in their hands in one go.

When they had finished, Jiu Jue gave a satisfied wine burp, wiped his mouth with lingering enjoyment, and asked: “Lushan’s secluded spring — that’s under your jurisdiction, yes?”

“Indeed.” He put down his wine jug and nodded.

“Wonderful!” Jiu Jue delightedly clapped his hands. “Chip off a piece of ten-thousand-year ice from the bottom of that spring and send it to me — I have great use for it.”

He knitted his brow: “What do you want that for?”

“Brewing wine — a few days ago I had a sudden flash of inspiration and devised a new method. Regrettably I cannot enter the secluded spring, so I can only ask for your help.” Jiu Jue was somewhat excited as he gestured to illustrate.

“Very well. When next I pass by that place, I will help you retrieve that ten-thousand-year ice.” Unable to dampen his enthusiasm, he nodded in agreement.

“Truly my kindred spirit! But make it soon — I’m a little impatient already.” Jiu Jue happily clapped him on the shoulder, then suddenly seemed to remember something and abruptly changed the subject: “Oh, right — when I passed through Daizhou City today, I found torrential rain there, the people suffering terribly. And the lake outside the city — its demonic energy is piercing the sky. I don’t know if some demon is at work there. Shouldn’t you go take a look?”

“Why didn’t you say so sooner?!”

“Was too focused on the chess game. Forgot.”

“…”

The words they spoke I mostly did not understand, but I liked listening to their voices — even the rapid back-and-forth verbal sparring was clear as flowing water, stirring to the heart.

From time to time I looked at him, from time to time I looked at Jiu Jue, earnestly capturing each unique expression on their faces, and from the few words and phrases I could actually understand, I surmised everything about them.

The faint wine fragrance lingered unrelenting in my nose, and somehow I grew a little dizzy, my eyelids growing heavier and heavier.

Finally, unable to persist any longer, I lay my head on the stone table and sank into deep sleep.

The following morning. Several slender beams of sunlight filtered in through the cracks in the rock above my head, just falling upon my body.

I slowly opened my eyes, only to discover in shock that my sleeping posture was gravely improper — I had clearly been lying face-down on the table, yet somehow had slipped down to the floor. My entire person was leaning entirely against him, using his thigh as a pillow with great comfort, and my two hands were still tightly embracing his lower leg.

I had slept so soundly like this for the whole night?!

I leapt to my feet with a start, my face red, at something of a loss for what to do.

“Ha, did you sleep well last night?” He looked at me with a smile. “I hadn’t expected that fellow’s new wine would be so potent — a mere whiff of the wine fragrance put you beyond all consciousness.”

“Did you sit like this the whole night?” I fixed my gaze on the rows of creases pressed into his robe by my weight and asked timidly.

“Ah, you were sleeping so soundly — I didn’t want to wake you.” He casually pounded his own leg, stood up, looked outside, and said with gravity: “It’s not early. We must set off immediately.”

“Set off? Where are we going?” A jolt ran through my heart — more accurately, it should be called a jolt of delighted surprise.

“Daizhou City.”

With that, he took my hand as usual and set off at a brisk pace out of the cave.

The howling wind scattered my hair.

I tightly gripped his arm, squeezing my eyes shut and not daring to look down.

The sensation of riding clouds as transportation was by no means as comfortable as I had imagined. That clump of white mist underfoot looked thick and soft, but to step upon it was to find it completely insubstantial. Racing through the sky ten thousand feet in the air with this unsteady sense of emptiness — how could I not be frightened out of my wits?

“Ha, don’t be afraid. You’ll get used to it gradually.” Noticing my tension, he patted my hand to reassure me, then said: “It’s just as well Jiu Jue left early this morning — otherwise, seeing you like this, there’d certainly be no end to his teasing.”

That last sentence actually served as a reminder. I opened my eyes, daring only to look upward and not down, and retorted without full confidence but with righteousness on my side: “Does he dare say he wasn’t the least bit afraid the first time he rode clouds? I’m afraid even I would do better! Hmph — a boring fellow who only knows how to mock others without ever examining himself.”

He could not help laughing aloud: “Alright, alright. It seems from now on the two of you had best meet as seldom as possible, lest you disturb my meditation and cultivation.”

I huffed and fell silent, privately wondering what cutting remarks that fellow had made after I’d fallen into a wine-induced stupor the previous night.

As a result of this burst of irritation, the earlier panic was largely offset.

“How long until we reach Daizhou City?” I mustered my courage, looked down briefly at what lay beneath my feet — cloud mist curling, mountain ranges folding layer upon layer, a broad and lengthening river reduced to a thread barely a finger’s width, all retreating backward at tremendous speed. A wave of dizziness washed over me and I hastily withdrew my improperly directed gaze.

He looked toward the distance, brow faintly knitting: “We’ll arrive shortly.”

That soon?!

My muttered words had barely fallen when a fierce, violent gale of unknown origin arrived without warning.

The sandy soil whirled up within it struck my face mercilessly and slammed into my eyes.

I cried out in fright and instinctively released the hand I had been clutching to cover my stinging eyes — entirely without realizing what danger this would bring upon myself.

I stumbled, my entire body involuntarily tipping backward. Had he not promptly caught my waist, I would likely have been blown from the cloud straight into a ten-thousand-foot abyss right then, not even bones remaining.

He sheltered me with one hand and formed a hand seal with the other, eyes gently closed, murmuring incantations.

In an instant, the raging fierce wind was dispersed without trace, as if it had never appeared.

Only then, still with my soul scattered from fright, did I notice that the sky in which we now found ourselves was considerably darker than before — clouds gray and black intermingled, deep and shallow, heavy beyond measure, as if a single touch would bring them crashing down from the sky.

He opened his eyes, surveyed the scene before him, and said to me: “Beneath those dark clouds is Daizhou City.”

Before his voice had fallen, he lowered our cloud.

I only felt my body drop, and in a moment’s time, we were already standing stably upon a stretch of wet, soft mud, surrounded by a sparse grove of trees.

Before I had even caught a breath, something at once began to patter and splash down upon my head. I looked up — what tremendous rain!

Yet why was I not wet?

I watched as bean-sized raindrops burst open above our heads, yet never managed to touch us by even a hair’s breadth.

Was this a spell he had cast?

“Let us go.”

He took my hand, turned around, and walked toward the city ahead through the grove.

This place did not know how long it had been ravaged by heavy rain. The originally vivid and striking red of the city gates had already lost all semblance of their original appearance — the color dark as though ink had been splashed over it, appallingly unsightly. Turbid rainwater rushed downward along the rows of brick crevices in the city walls, gathering at the base of the wall to form a shallow river that flowed along the low-lying terrain all the way to beneath our feet.

He did not speak, but observed the surroundings carefully and vigilantly.

Though I had many questions I wished to ask him, I did not want to disturb him just then. I only followed quietly behind him, ready to comply with his instructions at any moment.

Counting on his fingers, lost in thought for a moment, he murmured: “As I suspected — a demon’s work.”

There was truly a demon here?

In all those years, aside from the very few beast spirits and butterfly demons that occasionally passed through Fulong Mountain, I had not encountered any other “kin.” What would the demon in Daizhou City be like?

I was very curious.

“After entering the city, remember not to wander freely — stay quietly at my side.” Before stepping into Daizhou City, he tapped my forehead with his finger and warned me gravely.

“Yes, I understand.” I stuck out my tongue, guessing it was certainly my lively bounding and scrambling all over the city last time that had left a deep impression on him.

“Let us enter.”

With a light movement of his left hand, the city gate that had been blown half open by the wind slowly opened, producing a muffled and heavy sound, welcoming two uninvited guests.

The situation inside the city was far worse than I had imagined.

Water — water everywhere.

In addition to the torrential downpour from above, there was also water winding into rivers across the ground, varying in depth, murky and foul. The buildings and houses on both sides had scarcely a single one left intact — some without roofs, some with half a wall collapsed, and others reduced entirely to rubble and broken tiles, standing alone and desolate amidst the violent rain and cold wind.

Such a bleak and desolate scene — was all of this caused by this rain?

The further we walked, the deeper the floodwater and the swifter its flow.

Although his spell kept all the filthy floodwater blocked outside a half-step’s distance from us, I could still see that at its deepest, the water had reached a height that would have submerged me past the waist. From time to time various jumbled articles — utensils and articles of clothing — drifted past, and occasionally the carcasses of drowned livestock, giving off a foul stench.

“This city… was ruined to this state by heavy rain?!” I turned my head to ask him.

This kind of scene made me deeply uneasy. I thought back to that small town we had visited on that autumn day — so beautiful, so full of vitality. Both were cities where people lived. Why could their circumstances differ to such a degree?

This Daizhou City — everywhere there was… the scent of death.

It was rare to see him frown for such a long time. From the moment we had entered the city until now, his brow had not once relaxed.

“A fierce gale and heavy rain alone are not sufficient to ruin an entire city to this degree…”

He shook his head as he looked at the incomplete and chaotic street before him.

“Then why…”

My question had just emerged when he interrupted it.

“Shh!” He placed a finger over his lips, signaling me to be quiet.

“Help… someone… come… save us…”

In that moment of doubt, cries for help of unknown direction entered my ears.

The voice was not loud — it sounded utterly exhausted. Within it there seemed also to be mixed the wailing cries of an infant.

He alertly looked toward the direction of the sound, then immediately quickened his pace toward a courtyard on the left front that was on the verge of complete collapse.

When we had rushed to the ruins of what could no longer be called a courtyard, I could not help but be startled.

An elderly woman past her fiftieth year, for some unknown reason, was slumped in the water with only her shoulders and above exposed. Collapsed debris and brick lay all around her, and a heavy roof beam, blocked on both sides by the remaining walls, pressed down to just barely a half foot above her head.

Wah… wah… wah…

In a brown wooden basin sat an infant crying without ceasing, rocking and swaying as it drifted on the water. The old woman’s two hands gripped the rim of the basin with all her might, fearful of it being swept away by the current.

Yet the water flow was growing greater and greater, and the waves it splashed against the old woman’s face were causing her to cough without letup, while the hands gripping the wooden basin were growing looser and looser.

The situation was very dangerous.

I shook free of his hand and was about to go forward and pull the old woman up, but was stopped by him.

“I will handle this.”

He extended a finger, pointing into the water, and said sharply: “Open!”

Before the final echo had faded, a pathway half a meter wide immediately appeared before us. The water that had just been surging and spreading in all directions, like well-disciplined soldiers receiving orders, obediently parted to either side and dared not cause further trouble.

Once the water receded, I realized that a thick wooden piece resembling a door frame had pressed right across the old woman’s legs — no wonder she could not stand or move.

He swiftly stepped forward. On one hand he instructed me to lift the child from the wooden basin; with the other he crouched down to remove the wooden piece from atop the old woman’s legs, then moved her out from beneath the precarious roof beam.

The old woman, having barely escaped death, was overcome with terror. After confirming that both she and the child were truly unharmed, she kowtowed to us hastily and said: “Many thanks to the hero for the rescue! Many thanks to the benefactor for the rescue! No, no — many thanks to the immortal for the rescue! Many thanks to the immortal for the rescue!”

From the old woman’s incoherent babbling, I gathered that she had simply mistaken us for ordinary people who possessed extraordinary abilities. Although all ordinary people liked to keep the word “immortal” on their lips all day long, when a real immortal actually appeared before them, how many would truly believe it?

“There is no need for thanks, madam.” He carefully helped the old woman to her feet and asked: “From what day did the continuous heavy rain in Daizhou City begin?”

After the old woman, profuse with gratitude, received the still-crying infant from my arms, she replied with a pained expression: “Our Daizhou City has always enjoyed harmonious weather. This time, we don’t know if Heaven has gone blind or if we’ve attracted some demon or evil spirit. From the eighth day of last month, torrential rain descended upon the city while fierce wind raged beyond the city walls. In just barely ten days, the entire city was nearly destroyed. What a catastrophe!”

“Where are the other people in the city?” I couldn’t help but interject. Thinking back over the entire journey here, aside from this old woman and young child, we had not seen a single person.

“Those with sound legs, the young, those with families in tow — all who could leave have left. And a good many people lost their lives for no reason at all — drowned, crushed… cough…” The old woman shook her head and sighed, then broke into loud wailing: “My poor son and daughter-in-law… I don’t know what’s become of them now… They went outside the city to gather medicine before the disaster struck and have had no word since. They left just me, an old woman, and the little grandchild to look after… I feared if they came back and couldn’t find me I dared not leave home… Today it was thanks to the immortals rescuing me, otherwise this old woman would have gone to see King Yama already… wuwuwu…”

“Despicable…” An indistinct utterance came from deep in his throat.

Two brief syllables — I knew he was angry.

The old woman stifled her weeping, wiped her eyes, and said further: “I heard others say there is a demon outside the city. And some people said they saw that demon flying into the city in the middle of the night to cause havoc — many houses were knocked down by it. I don’t know if it’s true or false, but if there really is a demon, I beg the immortals to definitely subdue it. Heaven-cursed creature, it has caused the deaths of so many people.”

He said nothing. He casually plucked a leaf from a large broken tree nearby, blew upon it, and placed it on the ground.

The ink-green leaf twirled and spun, and in the blink of an eye transformed into a small leaf-shaped boat.

“This small boat can deliver the two of you, grandmother and grandchild, safely out of Daizhou City.” He stepped forward and carefully helped the dumbstruck old woman onto the boat until she was settled. “Wait until the rain has stopped, then return to the city.”

The old woman could say nothing, only nodding vigorously.

“Oh, by the way.” Before sending the grandmother and grandchild off, he asked: “Is there a lake somewhere near the outskirts of the city?”

“Yes, yes — just outside the East Gate, less than one li away. It’s called Broken Lake.” The old woman pointed forward.

He nodded, reached out his hand and gave the side of the boat a push: “Take care along the way!”

As though something were guiding it, the small boat avoided all obstacles that might have impeded its progress and sailed swiftly and steadily toward the city’s outskirts.

I looked up at the sky. The dark clouds converging from all four directions had already merged into one mass overhead, pouring down torrential rain into the city with even greater abandon.

“We go to Broken Lake.”

Without giving me any chance to respond, he took my hand steadily and carried me upward through the air. My body immediately floated lightly off the ground, and with it, my heart leapt trembling to my throat.

I was truly ill-suited to soaring through the clouds — at least not yet.

“Don’t be afraid. We won’t need to ride clouds this time.”

By the time he said these words, the two of us were already flying rapidly forward at less than three feet above the ground. Wherever we passed, the water currents would spontaneously part on their own, with great deference clearing open one open passage after another for us.

I quietly let out a breath of relief — this height I could accept.

The invisible shield he had brought blocked all the powerful currents generated by flying against the wind, allowing me to steadily keep my eyes wide open and follow behind him, experiencing the sensation of flight without needing to worry about being blown off. There was no need to look down either.

It turned out that moving without using one’s feet was this much fun — like a gust of smoke, carried and blown along by invisible forces, without expending a single bit of effort on one’s own part, proceeding toward one’s destination in utmost ease and comfort. Truly a delight beyond compare.

I will not deny that even now, after seeing everything in Daizhou City, my mindset of sight-seeing had not diminished in the slightest. I still viewed everything around me with novelty and amusement, even though this was a “dead” city that had already lost all vitality.

I drew back the gaze I had been casting at the surroundings and fixed it upon him.

His jet-black hair, extending past his waist, swayed gently before my eyes, sealing off every angle from which I might see his face.

Why had he been angry just now? I pondered silently.

The time I had spent with him was not short, and during that time I had also committed not a few mistakes that gave him headaches. But regardless of how serious my transgressions were, the mild and warm smile on his face was always more prevalent than any other expression. Over time, I had come to regard him as an immortal who would never be angry, benevolent enough to unconditionally tolerate everything.

But after coming to Daizhou City, he had made me slightly surprised.

Before I could deduce even the faintest clue, we had already flown out through the North City Gate.

The further north, the fiercer the rain.

By the time we stopped before this large body of water before us, the rain had grown dense enough to obstruct our vision.

Standing several feet back from the lake’s shore, he surveyed the hazy scenery around with concentrated attention, his gaze sharp as a torch, as if able to penetrate every mystery.

With nothing to do at my side, I also learned from his example and opened my eyes wide to look hard in all directions.

Unfortunately, aside from interwoven shades of gray, black, white, and green, I could not see anything worth suspicion.

“Shaluo.” He called my name. “Stand behind me.”

“Oh.”

His grave demeanor made me immediately take one step from beside him to his back, then I could not resist extending half my head carefully to ask: “Hmm… has something happened?”

He pushed my head back with a backward reach: “Do not move even half a step from behind me!”

It seemed very serious.

I dared say no more, obediently concealing myself behind him.

A long string of incantations I had never heard before issued steadily from his mouth — low and measured.

What followed was a current of air even more keen-edged than a blade’s tip, brushing past from both sides, not touching my body, yet its sharpness was easily perceptible.

His two arms extended outward to either side, and the source of the air current was precisely his open, level palms.

I quietly lifted my eyes for a look and opened my mouth wide, unable to contain my astonishment —

The rainwater that had been falling scattered in all directions was now gathered together, like twisted strands of hemp rope, rapidly twisting and spinning, falling accurately from the sky into his palms, one from the left and one from the right.

The clouds in the sky seemed also to be affected, gathering in clusters above us, rotating — their shape like a whirlpool. The gusting wind that had never ceased, coming from all four quarters of heaven and earth, showed every sign of growing ever more intense.

What is called “wind rising and clouds surging” — this was probably a description of precisely this kind of situation. Truly spectacular.

I stared without blinking, forgetting how to close my own mouth.

This kind of scene continued for about half a quarter of an hour.

When the two “rain ropes” in his hands had shrunk from “ropes” to “threads” and then from “threads” into nothing, the dense dark clouds had vanished without trace at some unknown moment, and the sky, long since dim, gradually gained brightness.

The rain stopped.

[Middle Section]

In that instant, the world became calm and still.

He exhaled gently and withdrew his palms.

“Can I come out now?” I extended my head to ask him.

“Ha.” He turned back and smiled. “You can.”

Having received permission, I immediately leapt out from behind him.

I had been too tense a moment ago, my entire body having tensed involuntarily. Only now did I feel my four limbs aching and swollen.

Walking forward a few steps, I stretched my hands and kicked my legs, working my body loose.

Without the interference of rain, and with the bright, clear light, I finally saw clearly the body of water called Broken Lake before me.

The lake surface was exceedingly broad — incomparably larger than the lotus pond on Fulong Mountain by who knew how many thousands or tens of thousands of times. The jade-green, deep and dark lake water filled it completely, motionless and smooth as a mirror, so still that one would mistakenly think this was a lake of green ice frozen for many years.

Strange!

I rubbed my own eyes.

Even the small lotus pond up on Fulong Mountain would produce rippling rings of waves — why was the water here completely motionless?

I couldn’t figure it out, and I was too lazy to try.

Walking back before him, I asked: “Did you make the rain disappear?”

“Not disappear.” He smiled and shook his head. “It was simply a matter of retrieving what should not have appeared in the first place.”

Of course — I was suddenly enlightened.

He was the water deity of the heavenly realm. Anything related to water was naturally under his control.

“Does that mean Daizhou City is completely safe now?!” I asked again.

With rain stopped and wind still, the mastermind behind the disaster had already been subdued — this unfortunate city had naturally escaped its suffering.

“Treating the symptoms but not the root cause.”

Having said this, he bent down, took up a small amount of wet mud from the ground and spread it in his palm, then immediately after plucked a strand of hair from my head and pressed it into the wet mud.

“Come, blow a breath on it.” He extended this lump of mud before me.

I scratched my head, baffled. But still I followed his instructions and blew hard onto this dark, unimpressive thing.

The moment I closed my mouth, I noticed this inconspicuous mud was undergoing a wondrous change — a small tree sapling broke through the “earth” and emerged, unhurried and full of vitality. Though small in stature, it was lush with branches and leaves. On its tender green leaves tiny points of light shimmered — looking closely, they were several crystalline dewdrops.

“This… what is this??” I nudged this tiny “kin” of mine with the utmost care, using only my fingertip, marveling beyond measure.

He did not answer, but carried this small thing to the lake’s edge, murmured incantations, and then tossed it into the air, commanding: “Go!”

I immediately followed to see what would happen.

I saw this object trace circles in midair, quickly transforming into an oval-shaped patch of light, gleaming with a faint green radiance, rising higher and higher. For every foot it rose, the patch of light expanded outward by one zhang, until it had entirely become a vast ring of light capable of enclosing the entire lake.

In the blink of an eye, this ring of light dropped swiftly from the sky, fitting with hairsbreadth precision onto the entire lakeshore, sending up a column of dazzling light that shot straight to the ninth heaven, encircling Broken Lake within without the slightest gap.

This magnificent and awe-inspiring spectacle lasted for half an incense stick’s burning time. Those pillars of light gradually disappeared, and at the positions where they had vanished, countless tall and flourishing trees rose from the earth, reaching out to join hands in an unbreakable chain, taking up their powerful and vigorous post as guardians along the lakeside.

I stared without turning my eyes at this extraordinary sight I had never witnessed in my life, afraid of missing any single moment. I was so excited I wanted to shriek. How had he accomplished this? To use a handful of dirt from the ground and a single strand of my hair — such unremarkable things — to create a sight so breathtaking.

“How did… so many trees grow?” I pressed my hand over my pounding heart and looked at him, who was as calm as ever.

“The flooding of the city, beyond the heavy rain, mostly came from Broken Lake whose old embankment had already been destroyed. Today I use trees as an embankment — this can protect it from overflowing for the next hundred years.” He walked forward, looked up at the newly grown towering trees before him, then turned back to smile at me: “You have earned the highest merit. Without your vital energy, I could not have ‘planted’ such flourishing guardian trees of the lake in such a short time. Shaluo — in future when I manage waters, I shall be unable to do without your assistance at my side.”

Was he praising me?!

I was both startled and delighted. Startled that in all these years, it was the first time he had praised me so directly and openly. Delighted by what he had said last — judging by his meaning, from now on he would bring me along whenever he was present, and would no longer leave me alone on Fulong Mountain?

He gave the tree trunk before him three firm slaps, as if testing whether it was stable enough, then returned to my side and said: “Let us go back.”

“Yes!”

I dare guarantee — the smile on my face at that moment was more radiant than the most brilliant summer sun on any day.

He still held my hand, silently leading me on the return walk.

During that time, he turned around twice, looking back at Broken Lake as it grew further and further away.

As for me — I was entirely absorbed in savoring the praise he had given me, and paid no attention whatsoever to the vigilance that had not faded from his eyes.

Glug glug ~ ~ glug glug ~ ~

When we had walked no more than fifty paces, a bizarrely clear and strange gurgling sound came from behind us. At the same time, the ground that had been so solid and firm beneath our feet began to show obvious movement.

I instinctively turned around, and was immediately startled by the strange phenomenon at Broken Lake —

The Broken Lake at this moment called to mind a hot pot with boiling water. The once-still lake surface had long been broken by bubbles of all sizes churning without ceasing, emitting a hissing white mist, making for a deeply unsettling sight.

“What happened?” I seized his sleeve in a panic.

“The true mastermind.” He moved me behind himself and observed the lake surface without a change in expression.

“The true mastermind…”

Before my words were finished, a thundering boom rang out, and the center of the lake erupted violently. The expelled lake water was splashed up to half the sky’s height.

In the midst of the chaos, a massive black shadow rushed forth from the lake, accompanied by a terrifying roar I had never heard before, flying straight toward the sky. Wherever it passed, lightning flashed and thunder rolled, and the fine weather that had been so hard won changed in an instant to storms and turbulence.

The hand clutching his sleeve had already begun to sweat. Although I was not an immortal, I could still feel the danger hidden beneath the suddenly transformed landscape.

Though frightened in my heart, my curiosity for “experiencing the world” and my concern about the unknown danger were running neck and neck. I peered out from behind him with barely half a head exposed, daring to observe the development of the situation with only one eye. I wanted to see how many more astonishing scenes today would bring us.

And what followed was that I was very quickly “astonished” — astonished nearly into fainting.

The sky above the lake’s surface could no longer be described as overcast. It was pitch black, an absolute void. Below, several increasingly massive waterspouts rampaged and danced across the lake surface, the lake water they swept up smashing violently against the surroundings. Even the guardian trees that had seemed as stable as Mount Tai were swaying under the astonishing force of this eruption, their lush branches and leaves snapping loudly, as though countless invisible black hands wanted to snap off these newly born lives mercilessly at this very moment.

I began to genuinely worry. These trees were not only my kin but also my own embodiment — within their bodies was a single breath of my vital energy.

“Our trees seem like they can’t hold on!” Several leaves drifted past overhead, and I pulled urgently at his robe hem, acutely anxious. The phrase “our” burst out on its own.

But he, without turning his head, said: “Trees I have planted — how could they be destroyed so easily? Do not worry.”

“Oh!” I was taken aback, then patted my chest and let out a quiet breath. Knowing full well he never told lies, I had always had complete and unwavering faith in his words, without ever doubting them.

And in reality I could also see that although the situation was quite dire, aside from the few fallen leaves just now, all the trees showed not the slightest sign of damage. The sturdy trunks amidst the increasingly savage waterspouts were revealing one after another an unexpected suppleness — however much external force bent them down and low, they always straightened their bodies time and time again, not moving a single inch.

My worry about them was indeed superfluous.

Yet even so, my heart, hanging high in the air, had only half come down — that large creature that had just burst forth from the lake, how had it flown up into the sky and vanished? Had it hidden behind the clouds? Or had it already fled without a trace?

I naturally hoped for the last possibility. Despite having caught only a fleeting glimpse and not seeing any details at all, that thing had still produced in me an indescribable dread.

The wind showed no sign of weakening, while the ink-deep cloud layer brooding over the lake was slowly expanding, very quickly engulfing both of us beneath it as well.

He had not yet taken any action, only occasionally raising his head to observe the strange phenomenon in the sky with an apparently casual eye.

Perhaps it was an illusion brought on by tension, but I constantly felt the darkness ceaselessly expanding above the sky wanted to swallow us in one gulp. My spirits pressed down unbearably.

How much longer would this kind of scene persist? What was really causing havoc? When could we leave?

The string of questions in my mind had not yet had time to transform into spoken language when a world-shattering thunderclap split open directly overhead.

“Watch out!”

He gave a low shout, and with one hand seized me — already frightened out of most of my wits — and leapt toward the left rear.

At almost the same moment, a blazing red fireball dropped from the sky, landing without deviation directly where we had just been standing. The blinding golden light accompanied a deafening boom, and the ground that had been relatively even was in an instant blown open to leave a large hole, mud water and residual sparks flying in all directions. Already up in midair, supposedly at a safe distance, I was actually still struck on the back of my foot by several flying clods of dirt.

“Ow!” I cried out repeatedly, frantically shaking my leg. These unremarkable small clods of dirt were scalding hot — the back of my foot immediately went red in a swath, burning and stinging with pain.

If a few small clods of dirt could injure one to such a degree, if one was directly struck by that fireball, would one not truly be left without even bones remaining?

The thought chilled me.

Close at hand across from us, immediately after came several flashes of silver-white lightning, with edges of red and blue — eerie and conspicuous.

“Two foolish mortals who know not what is good for them, daring to run riot in my territory.”

A deep and gloomy male voice reverberated in the sky among the crossing thunder and lightning, carrying a vast and hollow echo, pouring into my ears from all four directions. Its origin was completely indistinguishable.

“Ha, come out then — are you shy, hiding behind the clouds?”

He was composed and self-possessed, a teasing smile at the corner of his mouth.

I did not see him open his mouth — the voice came directly out from his body. Calm and resonant, it surged throughout the space between sky and earth where the boundary line could no longer be seen.

Roar!

Whatever was behind the clouds had certainly been infuriated.

One terrifying bellow, enough to shake the earth and mountains.

My ears rang and buzzed.

A massive claw covered in fine dense scales extended from the black clouds without warning. Upon it, incredibly sharp claws curved slightly inward, with a chilling cold gleam of incomparable sharpness, keen enough to tear apart everything before it.

When my astonished gaze had not yet moved away from this claw, the layer upon layer of dark clouds that had densely covered the claw’s owner made their move first — they shifted to either side as if two doors were being opened simultaneously, the movement very uniform.

I blinked foolishly, not knowing how to describe what appeared behind the clouds — what had rushed out from the lake, what bore those terrifying claws… the monster.

Not only the claws — its entire body was covered in scales, deep purple in color, each one gleaming with a faint and eerie light, extraordinarily uniform. The shape of its body was quite similar to those large and small snakes that crawled about on Fulong Mountain — slender and sinuous, soft and flexible. Except its dimensions were truly enormous beyond comparison. Even the longest and largest snake I had ever seen, placed before it, would be no more than a small earthworm at most. And its claws — those four powerful, matchless sharp talons — were also something snakes did not possess.

My gaze followed its body upward…

Heavens — what kind of head was that?

A long mouth, half open, allowing one to see the equally sharp teeth within and a crimson tongue. Slightly raised nostrils blowing outward a semi-transparent vapor. A pair of pupils deeper in color than the scales slowly rotating within elongated eye sockets. And atop its bare head were planted two bizarrely shaped horns.

“What a hideously ugly creature!” I exclaimed involuntarily, because my aesthetic sensibilities told me that the most unattractive black scarab beetle on Fulong Mountain was prettier than this. What species was this thing? It was certainly the one that had just spoken out of turn, cursing us as foolish mortals. That lethal fireball was also its doing. An revolting monster, yet so insufferably arrogant.

The moment I finished speaking, its head suddenly turned toward my direction, its eyeballs ceasing to rotate. The eye sockets narrowed slightly, forming two purple lines.

I figured the monster had probably heard my words — not a good sign. So I hastily hid behind him. If the monster got angry and threw another fireball at me, it would be troublesome. I am a tree — I cannot withstand fire.

“The East Sea Dragon Clan, adept at water and fire. You have the capacity to cause flooding with water and you can also spit fire — this seems inseparably connected to the East Sea.” He crossed both hands in front of his chest and addressed that monster word by word.

“Hmm.” The monster’s face showed not the slightest expression. I only heard it give a muffled laugh. “Seems you know your stuff. However, I advise you to mind your own business. Just now was merely a small warning to you. Take that foolish girl beside you and immediately get out of Daizhou City — I will spare both your lives!”

The monster’s extremely discourteous attitude did not anger him in the slightest. As for me, being called a “foolish girl” made me furious to the point of death. In all these years, no one had ever used the word “foolish” to describe me — even that most detestable Jiu Jue had once personally praised me as intelligent. This ugly monster that had appeared halfway and out of nowhere — by what right did it insult me?!

I was on the verge of exploding, but he stopped me with a look.

“Being born a dragon, instead of remaining in the sea domain assisting the Dragon King in governing the waters and bringing rainfall to benefit the people, you came instead to the mortal realm to stir up trouble and harm lives — you are truly guilty of the gravest of offenses!” His calm manner remained unchanged, only his tone was no longer light. “If you have any sense of remorse, come back with me to the heavenly realm at once and face judgment for your crimes!”

I stood behind him, seething with suppressed anger, eyes sharp as I waited to see how he would deal with this vile and filthy monster.

“Ha ha ha ha.” It laughed without stopping, every scale on its body trembling. After laughing, it said contemptuously: “And if I specifically have no remorse?”

“Ha.” He also laughed. “Then I’m afraid today you won’t be able to leave with your body intact.”

“Even the East Sea Dragon King’s old fool’s Dragon-Binding Lock couldn’t do anything to me — what makes you think you can, you pale-faced boy?!” Its eyes opened somewhat wider, its words full of disdain and contempt. “The one who won’t be able to leave with body intact — that would be you, I’d wager.”

“Dragon-Binding Lock?!” Upon hearing this, his brow lifted slightly. “I once heard that in the ice prison of the East Sea Dragon Palace, a vicious dragon had been confined for six hundred years. But twenty years ago, this dragon actually escaped from the prison, and despite East Sea high and low searching for many years they could not find any trace of it. Turns out it has been hiding here in the remote and out-of-the-way Daizhou City.”

“Not bad — you know quite a lot.” It lowered its head, licking its own claws. “I don’t care what your background is. Forget about trying to capture me and claim credit — you won’t have that opportunity.”

“Is that so?” He gave a cold laugh. “We’ll have to try before we know.”

“Heh heh…” A sinister, spine-chilling stifled laugh emerged from the ugly creature’s nostrils. The purple pupils that had narrowed to a slit were now more open than before, full of arrogant wantonness. “Since you find your life too long, I’ll simply do you the favor of helping you shorten it.”

Having said this, it pressed down its claws, lowered its neck, and emitted from its throat a low, rumbling roar — the sound was not loud, but the force was considerable, shaking the entire sky into an uncontrollable trembling. The pent-up danger made one’s heart beat with apprehension.

In the present situation, the tension was palpable, like swords drawn and bows bent.

My heart clenched. A fierce battle was unavoidable.

“It does not know the height of heaven and the depth of earth.” He murmured to himself, the ease in his voice undiminished by half.

Regrettably, his unchanging countenance did not infect me standing behind him. The worry and dread in my heart rose steeply. The resentful wish I’d had just a moment ago to teach this monster a lesson through his hands had instead vanished completely now that they both had genuinely made up their minds to fight.

The back of my foot, which was still vaguely aching, kept reminding me how formidable the ugly creature’s techniques were. And just now I had heard it say something about Dragon Kings and Locks all being unable to restrain it. A Dragon King — that “King” designation should belong to a very powerful figure. A creature that even a “King” could not control was surely not so easily dealt with.

If I could choose at this moment, I would rather have him pull me back to retreat a safe distance. Even if that monster laughed us to death for being cowards and lily-livers, it would be fine.

His safety was to me more important than everything.

The enemy’s overbearing aggressive manner and his devastating attacks could intimidate me for a time, but only for a time, and could not become a great matter forever fixed in my heart.

Only him…

The moment I thought of the possibility of him being injured, my heart felt as if it had been struck by ten fireballs — burned and charred to a blackened pain.

“Let us go… don’t fight it, alright?” I gripped his sleeve in what appeared to be a most unimpressive manner and spoke in an imploring tone.

He turned around to look at me: “Do not be afraid. It absolutely cannot hurt you.”

“I’m not…”

Just as I was about to argue my point, I was unexpectedly struck between the eyebrows by his finger.

A sensation cold enough to penetrate to the marrow of my bones spread from between my brows to my four limbs. My entire being was as if it had in an instant fallen into the lake water of deep midwinter — cold to the utmost extreme, ten times, a hundred times colder than that year when I had accidentally fallen into the mountain stream in winter.

However, although cold, it was not uncomfortable. Invisible forces seeped in from every inch of skin, flowing gently through my flesh and meridians. My originally rapid breathing became considerably smoother, and my body seemed to become lighter than it had ever felt before. Even the pain and wound on the back of my foot gradually healed as this force surged.

What had he done to me? Such a miraculous sensation.

“The Fire-Warding Seal can protect you from being hurt by any attack related to fire.” He withdrew his finger and smiled in a lowered voice: “I know you fear its fireball. Although it will have no chance to injure you again, with this layer of protection you will feel more at ease. Stay obediently to one side — once I have subdued this beast, we shall go home.”

So he had been casting a spell to protect me.

I had thought that he, preoccupied with maneuvering against the ugly creature, had not noticed the injury on my foot.

Touching my ice-cold forehead, I looked at him foolishly: “Then… be careful. That big creature really does seem quite formidable.”

“Ha, so you’re really quite attentive to that foolish girl.” Mocking laughter came from across the way. “But thinking a small Fire-Warding Seal can keep her fully safe — you’re being far too naive.”

[The battle’s conclusion having taken place during the skipped section]

Yet after a long while, I did not hear any of the strange sounds I had imagined should appear. I only waited for a gust of cool breeze carrying a familiar air, drifting leisurely to my side.

“Ha, what are you covering your eyes for?!”

A warm and steady large hand seized my trembling wrist and gently pulled it down.

What?!

He was back?!

I opened my eyes in joyful surprise. Sure enough — composed in expression, a light smile in his eyes, he stood before me entirely unscathed.

“Thank heaven and earth! I thought that monster might injure you.” Since he was unharmed, I naturally let out a long breath of relief, wiping away the fine beads of sweat that had seeped out at my temples.

“Although it is powerful, injuring me is no easy matter.” He raised his eyes to look toward the direction where the enemy had been, his brow slightly furrowed. “Today, I’m afraid I will inevitably have to harm it.”

He had been sparring this entire time without truly making his move?!

I could not help but be stunned.

“To actually be able to use a Substitute Technique in an instant — which of those old ones from the heavenly realm are you a subordinate of?”

The ugly creature raised its dripping wet front claw, growling in furious desperation.

The attack it had been so confident would take his life had in the end only grabbed a wisp of water vapor, tenuous as a ghost.

“You’ve also lived several hundred, perhaps a thousand years, haven’t you — does that not also make you one of those who should not die?” He lifted the corner of his mouth, coolly mocking the ugly creature in passing, then said with gravity: “Vicious dragon — surrendering yourself without resistance at this point is still not too late.”

Upon hearing this, the ugly creature rolled its eyes, its massive body hovering in the air, gently rising and falling. It had already lost its previous unbridled arrogance — it seemed it had been thoroughly and utterly shaken by this seemingly small opponent before it.

After a long pause, the silent creature appeared to have calculated something in its mind. It lowered its head and sneered coldly: “Heh heh — surrender without resistance? Impossible! Don’t think you can capture me.”

What?

What trick was it still trying to play?

I grew immediately anxious. This creature that knows not what is good for it — it had clearly committed a grave wrong, and yet not only refused to confess its crimes but was still speaking plausibly as if in the right.

While I was fretting in useless anxiety over here, I heard the ugly creature lift its head and let out a great roar. Its massive body tilted upward and rushed with all its claws in the direction opposite to us, fast as lightning. Countless clusters of jet-black heavy clouds appeared from nowhere, loyally and devotedly concealing all traces of it.

“Oh no — it… it’s run away!”

I jumped and pointed in the direction of the ugly creature’s escape.

“Obstinate and incorrigible beast! Thinking a mere visual illusion technique can deceive the heavens?”

The enemy he had sworn to capture had fled right before his eyes, yet he was not the least bit bothered and showed not even a hint of wanting to give chase.

“Not chasing?” I looked at him in astonishment.

“Of course we’re chasing.” He gave me an assured look that said “it absolutely cannot escape.”

Before his voice had fallen, he extended his left hand, palm facing upward. Before I could clearly see what was happening, a ring of pale azure light rose from his palm. A small, crystal-clear object within the ring grew from small to large, continuously shifting shape.

In the blink of an eye, the radiance dispersed, and a transparent curved bow, shimmering with waves of light, was already held steadily in his grip.

With a wave of his right hand, he seized a sharp arrow of the same material as the curved bow from seemingly nowhere, placing it to the string.

Turning to the side, drawing the bow, taking aim — all in one fluid motion.

With a whooshing sound, the arrow flew out, shooting straight toward the direction where the vicious dragon had disappeared, trailing a slender band of light in the horrifying night sky that lingered without fading for a long time — truly beautiful to behold. And the invisible force that arose with it carried the keen momentum of cleaving through every obstacle.

In past idle conversation, he had once told me about what weapons such as blades, spears, and swords were. I still remembered him saying he had always kept such things at a respectful distance. Those things, after all, carried too much aggressive energy — unsuitable for him and also unsuitable for me.

But today he had used one, and the movement was so practiced and fluid.

“You…” I stared at the brilliantly gleaming curved bow in his hand, not knowing what to say.

“No choice but to.” With a flick of his fingers, the not-small curved bow transformed into a water droplet, instantly evaporating from the palm of his hand.

At the same moment, a thunderous screech suddenly rang out from within the vast, boundless sky — more accurately, it should be called a scream of agony.

A few feeble bolts of lightning flashed across. The dark clouds that had been gathering without dispersing ahead were like thin paper meeting a violent gale, scattering in all directions. Rolling out from within was a massive dark purple shape.

It was unmistakably the vicious dragon ugly creature that had intended to flee.

Looking closely, one could see that the arrow shimmering with water-light was planted squarely in its spine.

Around the arrowhead, several dragon scales had been gouged out. Dark red blood flowed in a steady stream from a bowl-sized wound, staining more than half its body red.

That one arrow of his was indeed of extraordinary destructive power.

The ugly creature was seen rolling and twisting in midair. Accompanied by low, plaintive cries, it finally sprawled limply onto one of the remaining dark clouds, not moving at all, panting laboriously. Its bulging eyeballs, threaded with veins of blood, stared weakly in our direction.

“Serves it right.” Seeing it in such a pitiful state of suffering, the anger in my heart immediately dissipated completely.

“Let us go take a look.”

He sighed, pulling me along as we flew to a spot a little closer to the ugly creature.

Standing before this enemy who had initially been arrogant and rampaging, yet was now almost gasping its last breath, he said coldly: “Did you think I didn’t know that you had long since been exhausted by the Water Dragon’s coiling? And yet you dared to expend that last bit of strength to use the cloud-borrowing technique to create the false impression you had already fled — truly a vicious dragon that is both stubbornly arrogant and possesses a little cleverness.”

It heaved and panted, plainly too pained to have the strength to speak, able only to meet his words with an indignant glare.

“Even now, you still refuse to admit defeat?!” He looked into its eyes and continued: “If you agree not to resist any further and calmly accompany me back to the heavenly realm, I will immediately heal your arrow wound and spare you from the searing pain.”

“No, no!” The vicious dragon had not yet opened its mouth — it was I who cried out anxiously first. “If you heal its wounds, what if it goes back on its word and refuses to go with you? It’s not a good demon — it can’t be trusted. Once its wound is healed it will definitely attack us again. You…”

“It won’t. You’re overthinking it.” He patted my shoulder to stop my shouting.

Just at the moment when the two of us were speaking, that vicious dragon suddenly spat out hatefully: “Hmph… even if I die, I won’t let you capture me and claim credit…”

What?!

Both he and I startled simultaneously.

I saw that half-dying vicious dragon find strength from somewhere, open its mouth wide, and spit out a perfectly round deep purple-red pearl. It gleamed with a radiance strong enough to blind the eyes, shifting between purple and red, flying up above our heads and circling in loops. Its speed grew faster and faster — dizzying to watch.

“Not good.” He gave a low exclamation, pulling me — who had no idea of the danger involved — and flying backward.

Less than two seconds after we had flown away from our original position, a deafening boom rang out behind us, like splitting thunder, like a mountain collapsing.

“Don’t look back — close your eyes.”

He shouted out a warning, then wrapped me entirely in his embrace, using his own body to shield me from the violent force of the blast.

Having received his instruction, I naturally dared not disobey, and tightly closed my eyes, huddled in his arms, my heart in turmoil.

I did not know how much time passed. My eyes had been squeezed shut so long they were beginning to ache, yet I still dared not open them. I only felt the whooshing sound of air currents at my ears growing weaker and weaker.

“It’s alright — open your eyes. Nothing’s wrong.”

He released me, exhaling with palpable relief.

Were we safe?

I hastily opened my eyes, pressed my hand over my wildly beating chest, and looked around — I could not help but be greatly astonished.

Before me and behind me, above my head and below my feet — everything was a deep purple dense fog, mixed with a faint scent of blood. The sky and lake, the trees and mountains and forests — all had vanished without trace. What remained was only that sea of purple filling every eye, making one’s hair stand on end.

“This place… what place is this?! How did we end up here?” I tightly clutched his sleeve and asked in fright.

He stroked my head and smiled: “Don’t be afraid. We’re still in the sky, and Broken Lake is still below — nothing has changed. We simply can’t see it right now, that’s all.”

“Is that so?” I looked at the slightly drifting purple mist all around, slightly setting down my heart, but immediately jumping back up in alarm: “Then that ugly creature — is it also hiding in here somewhere?”

“No, no. It’s already run off.” He put his arm around me, signaling me to calm down. “It has just managed to successfully escape.”

“Ah?” I opened my eyes wide. “It… wasn’t it hit by your arrow? It couldn’t possibly escape anymore. How could it still…”

“That’s right — ordinarily it could not have escaped. But…” He shrugged with considerable helplessness. “Unexpectedly, this creature was willing to voluntarily destroy centuries of cultivation in exchange for temporary freedom.”

“Centuries of cultivation?” I heard it and was thoroughly confused.

“The pearl it spat out just now was precisely its inner core. Using several hundred years of cultivation, it created this boundless purple fog forest — all in order to trap us within it and enable its smooth escape.” Having said this, he laughed with self-mockery: “A vicious dragon is a vicious dragon — born a dragon, it is not an ordinary creature after all. Would rather die than admit defeat. Ha.”

“Are you saying this purple fog is a prison it set for us?” I roughly grasped the meaning of his words, and from this also produced new worry. “Does that mean we can’t get out?”

“We won’t be unable to get out.” He was entirely unperturbed, sitting down cross-legged. “Although this technique is formidable, it cannot last. Within three double-hours, the purple fog will inevitably disperse. Just wait patiently.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is. That’s good.” Having heard what he said, I finally set my heart completely at rest.

“Come sit down — after all this tossing and turning, you must be tired.” He closed his eyes and addressed me without raising his head.

“Oh.”

I responded, then sat down close beside him, learning from his example to sit cross-legged with eyes closed and rest.

Now that he mentioned it, I truly felt exhausted. After all those successive heart-stopping, nerve-racking moments just now, even someone made of iron would be falling apart.

Time passed minute by minute, second by second. When my taut nerves gradually relaxed, an irresistible drowsiness swept over my eyes.

So sleepy.

Everything was so quiet here.

My body could no longer sit straight. Swaying and tilting, it ultimately simply toppled over, and I comfortably lay face down and fell soundly asleep.

Sleeping in the sky was, after all, the first time in my existence.

“Shaluo, wake up!”

A familiar voice circled repeatedly at my ears.

I stirred, but lazily did not want to open my eyes.

“Get up! It’s time for us to go!”

Two strong hands directly hauled me upright.

I unwillingly opened my eyes.

Ah?!

The scene before me instantly banished all my drowsiness.

The purple fog was indeed gone. Even the pitch-black sky had returned to the brightness that daytime ought to have. Among clean white clouds, rays of warm, glowing sunlight actually filtered down. Broken Lake before me had gentle ripples across its blue surface; not a single one of the guardian trees along the lakeshore had fallen — they still stood proudly erect, their branches and leaves swaying in the breeze, mirrored in the lake water to charming effect.

Looking down again, the spot where I was now sitting was the muddy earth beside the lakeshore — no wonder it had been so soft and comfortable.

Had everything returned to normal?

Had all the disasters passed?

I actually found it a little difficult to believe my own eyes.

Turning around, he was looking at me with a smile: “Sleeping in the sky is truly not safe — so I carried you down. It’s remarkable that you slept so soundly.”

I said with embarrassment, sticking out my tongue: “Just then I suddenly felt so tired, so I…”

“Alright, alright — what a sleepyhead.” He laughed and pulled me to my feet. “Rise — time for us to get moving.”

“Where to?” I patted my backside and asked, puzzled.

“To find that vicious dragon, naturally. Given its nature, I fear it will cause more trouble.” He showed a look of concern and gazed ahead. “It has been seriously wounded — it can’t have gone very far.”

“We have to find that ugly creature again?” I grumbled somewhat unwillingly.

“Of course! We cannot allow it the chance to turn some other place into a second Daizhou City. Let us go.” My words had not escaped his keen ears. He said this while pulling my hand and heading forward.

What he said naturally made sense.

Although I truly did not want to see that monster again, I also did not want to see more living creatures lose their lives pointlessly because of its unbridled behavior. Because he had often told me — from immortals and mortals above to small beasts and insignificant insects below, all life is precious and cannot be casually trampled upon.

One becomes what one is close to. I, who had once paid no heed to others’ “lives,” had gradually been transformed to think as he did.

“Yes, I understand.” I pressed my lips together and followed close behind him, continuing: “But everything here is fine already, isn’t it? The weather seems to have returned to normal.”

“Yes. The mastermind has fled and by all estimates will not be returning here. The disaster of Daizhou City — it can be considered over.”

“Wonderful — our efforts weren’t wasted.”

“Ha ha…”

The sunlight was growing better and better, making the whole world feel so safe.

On the mountain path outside Daizhou City, we two, as usual, rode the wind low in flight, heading straight toward Dongting Lake a hundred li away.

He said that creature was certain to have fled in that direction, and the dragon’s blood dripping from its wound had accurately reported its whereabouts.

I had no idea how he could discern the “dragon blood” it had left behind amidst the vast forests and complex rocky terrain. I only knew that following him would definitely lead to reaching the intended destination.

Dongting Lake — what a beautiful name. I wonder what kind of story it would bring us?

I sat down close beside him, leaning against his side, appreciating the beautiful scenery of the lake surface and watching the sun gradually set. I felt deeply at peace. Even if we sat from beginning to end without saying a single word, I felt not the slightest sense of unease.

People had departed, boats stood empty. The boats that had been plying the waters during the day were by now mostly moored quietly along the lakeshore.

“Miss, have you gone mad?! The lake water is this deep — how could you possibly fish out a single small earring?!”

Not far away, from a small boat about to dock, came the sound of a dispute. He tilted his head slightly, looking toward the direction of the voice.

At the prow of the boat, a girl in a blue shirt — slightly shorter in stature — tightly gripped a girl in white who was constantly leaning over to peer down into the lake water. Her anxious voice went higher and higher with each word.

“Go have a look — only when they leave can we proceed.”

What he said was correct. Looking out across the wide lake surface, at this moment it was already desolate and silent. Those who had been out on the lake had all dispersed long since. Only these two young women remained.

Following him to the nearest spot to that boat, with the wind came a trace of a barely perceptible fragrance — like the secluded orchid growing in the valley of Fulong Mountain. A fragrance that would vanish the moment you waved your hand, yet would quietly return to your side when you weren’t paying attention.

Standing sideways, the girl in the blue shirt had a round face, wore the most ordinary of servant-girl buns, and chattered ceaselessly. My gaze remained fixed on the white-clad figure who stood with her back to us. Despite not moving and saying nothing.

“Are you young ladies in some difficulty?” He raised his voice slightly.

The girl in the blue shirt turned around and froze. I fully understood the reason for her daze.

But in the next second, I fell into the same state as the girl in the blue shirt.

The white-clad young woman turned around. I did not know how to describe this person who so captivated the heart.

Not even smiling and already like this — if she smiled, what would that overwhelming, nation-toppling beauty be like?

While staring in a daze, a feeling rose in my heart — a feeling that my own eyes and brows bore some resemblance to hers.

Yes — merely resemblance, and nothing more. I had countless times reflected my own face in clear water, wishing to firmly memorize my own appearance, because it was given to me by him. I had once thought myself beautiful, but upon seeing the person before me, my thinking wavered ever so slightly.

Though similar, I did not measure up to her.

When my gaze happened to cross over Zi Miao’s eyes, my heart — with a sudden, heavy thud — leapt.

He was looking at her. The depths of his eyes were unruffled, as always, behaving very much as if he were looking at a completely irrelevant passerby.

But just as he could see through my thoughts at a glance, having spent all this time at his side, I had similarly learned to catch from his gaze things that outsiders could not see.

In one ten-thousandth of a second — a brilliance so fleeting that no trace could be caught.

A surprise quite unlike his usual manner.

He had never been sparing with warm gazes and smiles toward me. But this kind of spirit in his eyes — I had never seen before. Was it that it did not exist, or… that it had never been directed at me?

“Ah… the young woman has finally come to her senses.” The girl in the blue shirt finally came back to herself and hastily said to him: “It is like this — my young mistress accidentally dropped her earring into the lake, and Mistress wants to dive in herself to retrieve it. This is simply…”

“Ha, a trivial matter.” He smiled and cut off that non-stop chattering girl, saying: “Leave this to me — the two young ladies had best go ashore first.”

The beauty started slightly, then immediately lowered her head and smiled. Looking up at him she said: “This item was left to me by my late mother. In a moment of panic I made quite a scene — I hope the young gentleman can forgive me.”

Having said this, she actually extended her right hand toward his palm with completely unaffected ease.

He had told me that in the mortal world there has always been the saying that “men and women should not touch hands.” So why could this young woman hand her hand to a strange man without the slightest scruple, and do so in such a naturally unguarded manner?

Of course, I did not care about this point at all. What I cared about was that the pair of warm palms that had always held only my hand were about to receive another woman…

One instant of displeasure — like sand getting in the eye. Not pain, but uncomfortable.

Just as their hands were about to come together, the lake water beneath the boat, which had been perfectly well-behaved, suddenly churned upward.

The sudden massive whirlpool neatly capsized the small boat. Just a hair’s breadth more and the beauty’s hand would have fallen into his palm — but ultimately it never touched him.

Mistress and servant let out a cry of alarm and fell into the lake water that had already begun emitting wisps of white steam.

“Ahhh, the water is boiling hot! Help!”

The maidservant flailed about in the water, shouting loudly, like a duck thrown into a pot of boiling water.

The beauty’s brow knitted tightly. Both hands paddled frantically in the water, her beautiful lips compressed nearly into a single line. Yet not a single cry for help was heard from her.

Without waiting for me to say anything, he had already leapt into the lake.

His manner was hurried — even carrying a hint of panic.

The distance between where they had fallen and where we were was not far. He flew over — barely more than an arm’s length. But in my heart a thought suddenly arose —

This departure. Between him and me, an arm’s length had become the ends of the earth.

With a thundering boom, a patch of ground at the shore suddenly caved in. My footing gave way, and in the midst of violent trembling like an earthquake, I followed the rapidly flowing mud and fell into the water.

Wood floats on water — I was not at all worried about drowning. But the temperature in the water was scorching beyond endurance, burning me nearly to the point of losing my breath.

“Help! Zi Miao, save… save me!”

Although I was uncomfortable, it was not so terrible. But I deliberately screamed my throat raw, even calling out his name, as if in the next moment I were about to meet with total catastrophe.

On that other side, he had just cast a spell to block the increasingly scalding lake water for them and was holding the beauty around the waist, preparing to carry her ashore.

Hearing my cry, he turned sharply around. Yet the arm holding her did not loosen.

A flicker of hesitation crossed the depths of his eyes. He furrowed his brow slightly, pulled the person cradled in his arms out of the lake in a single leap, and headed toward the shore.

I was stupefied.

When both I and another person found ourselves in danger simultaneously, until just now I had been so firmly convinced — convinced that he would put me first, would protect me at any cost.

The lake waves splashed and choked me, and my vision blurred by water looked unwillingly toward the shore.

Having set the beauty down, he went again for the maidservant, leaving me alone, struggling in the water.

I tried to swim to shore, but something in the water like tendrils of vines had coiled around my feet. Apart from sinking and surfacing in place, I could not move in any direction.

At this moment, a wave of unnerving force erupted from the lake bottom, covering nearly half the lake surface in an instant, turning over vast quantities of bowl-sized bubbles. The gurgling sound was unceasing.

When he brought the maidservant — who had little more than half a life remaining — out of the lake water, the entire Dongting Lake erupted violently. Dense waves of water surged up to half the sky’s height.

The massive ink-purple shadow burst wildly forth from the lake, its savage momentum as if it could overturn the very sky.

“Vicious—!” I screamed. The word “dragon” had not yet emerged before the lake water washing over me filled my mouth with a salty taste of blood.

In the chaos, I suddenly felt my shoulder tighten, followed by a bone-deep pain — as if a sharp implement had embedded itself in my flesh.

Looking sideways — a hideous claw covered entirely in scales was gripping me tightly.

At this moment, I was truly in a panic.

Before I could blink, my entire body had risen from the water up into the air. The tearing pain radiating from my shoulder made me unable to suppress a cry of anguish.

Deep purple mist appeared from nowhere, blocking my sight, cutting off my voice. Before my eyes a sharp light flashed, shaped like lightning. Thunderous sounds pounded at my ears.

A violent pain shot from my shoulder to my very heart. I, unable to sustain myself any further, gradually lost consciousness. In the instant before I fainted, I seemed to hear the long-longed-for cry, aching with sorrow and anxious —

“Shaluo…”

Thud. A muffled sound arrived at my ears.

It was my body, crashing heavily onto hard ground.

I forced my eyes wide open. As I lay sprawled on the ground I struggled to raise my head. Just as I was about to prop my arms up and stand, my body was pressed back down by a heavy weight on my back.

Enduring the true pain on my chin, I turned my head — and was startled to discover that stretched across my back was an arm, wrapped in an ink-purple sleeve. At its end, fingers slightly curled, it was pinning weakly against my right shoulder.

My astonished gaze followed this arm to its owner — a person sprawled on the ground, face obscured, ink-black hair loose and disheveled.

No breathing, no movement — as still as death.

The jet-black hair gleaming with a deep purple radiance, the ink-purple robe, the hand pinning me down… After staring for a good while, my mind, not yet fully knocked into confusion, suddenly superimposed the person beside me with that detestable ugly creature.

Could it be… this fellow had transformed into human form?!

I blinked. Whatever, I thought. Taking advantage of this condition he was in, escaping quickly was the right thing to do.

Carefully flipping my body over, I exerted all my strength to push several times, and finally shifted away this long arm pressing down on me. Breathing out, I sat up, and only then noticed that I was now in a wide and spacious cave, with the cave entrance directly ahead.

I scrambled to my feet and, limping, was about to rush toward the cave entrance. I had to leave this place — I had to return immediately to Zi Miao’s side.

But the moment I took my first step, a strong hand gripped my ankle tightly.

“You are not permitted to leave…” A measured and unhurried voice came from within the body of that person on the ground — somewhat languid, yet carrying an overbearing authority that could not be defied.

I drew in a cold breath of air. The hand grasping me was ice-cold, touching only the smallest area, yet sufficient to freeze the entire body.

He… had regained consciousness?!

That fellow slowly clambered upright, walked to my front, and his tall, imposing figure overbearingly blocked the cave entrance.

In all these years, I had never seen anyone with a complexion as dark and tanned as wheat. Every line of his angular face seemed as if it had been carved by a knife, bearing a penetrating keenness at every point. Yet those eyes that should have been wide open were lazily half-lidded, and a lock of tangled hair hanging loosely before them could not conceal the sharp and keen radiance that shone from within.

“You… who are you…” I instinctively retreated a step, alert and frightened, and at the same time asked a question too foolish to be any more foolish.

“You were calling ‘ugly creature’ quite fluently just now — does it not roll off the tongue?” He looked down at me from above, his tone containing no discernible emotion.

My guess had indeed come true.

“Weren’t you quite sharp-tongued just a moment ago?!” His large hand seized my chin without restraint. “What — struck dumb now?”

It hurt! In all the time I had existed, I had never been subjected to treatment this rough. In my memory there was only one man’s gentle face, and tender affection like water.

“Speak!” His iron-grip five fingers added another measure of force.

The person before me clearly wanted me to submit. Clearly wanted to see me beg for mercy.

But I refused to beg for mercy. However bone-piercingly it ached, I would not let him have his way.

Fury was sufficient to drive away all fear.

I stared directly at him, no longer avoiding, the gazes of two people — one violent, one defiant — intersecting in the air between them, nearly enough to strike sparks.

After a long standoff, he suddenly released his hand.

“An interesting woman — oh, no. An interesting demon.” He looked me up and down. “Killing you now would be rather a waste. We have all the time in the world — there’s no hurry.”

“He will come to rescue me!” Suddenly I raised my head. I had to remind this arrogant creature who had already forgotten the pain from his healed wounds that there still existed in this world a person who stood above him — in both character and ability, he was nothing but a bedraggled, defeated opponent.

“Him?” Uncontrollable fury swept the languor from his eyes in an instant. Instinctively he reached a hand behind himself, then opened it before his eyes — dark red blood staining an entire palm.

His wound was still dripping blood? That arrow of Zi Miao’s giving me one more shred of contempt for this creature.

“The debt of gouging out my scales — I will make him repay it twofold!” In his words, beyond the kill-or-be-killed murderous intent, there was also the hatred and resentment of defeat.

“You are not his match — you never will be! He will come to rescue me soon. The smart thing to do is flee for your life at once!”

I smiled — smiling triumphantly. The more furious he became, the happier I was.

Two razor-sharp gazes like blades suddenly landed upon my face.

“With a beauty in his arms, he will not come.” His smile was full of mockery.

The beauty — she had become a hidden wound in my heart, one that ached at the slightest touch. Everything that had happened at Dongting Lake — obvious and subtle — surged tumbling into my mind.

“Such a beautiful woman — any man would be moved by her. Compared to her, you fall truly far short.” He shook his head, putting on an expression of regret and pity. “If not for wanting to take advantage of the confusion to make my escape, I might even have been willing to take a longer look at her! Give up. You are no longer the first in his heart — before long, he will have forgotten you completely!”

“Stop it, stop it!” I covered my ears and roared furiously at him. “You’re talking nonsense! What do you know? He will come to rescue me — he will definitely come to rescue me!”

His reckless babbling had struck at exactly what I feared most — accurately and viciously.

From that summer night thirty years ago, I had grown accustomed to his care, accustomed to his cherishing, accustomed to regarding him as my entire world.

If in the very first second he forgot me, then in the second second my world would be utterly destroyed.

At this moment, how I wished I were a demon with a dull and inaccurate sense of feeling. All of this was simply a foolish conjecture that had burst forth from my fear and helplessness. How could Zi Miao possibly forget me? Thirty years of sunrise and sunset, thirty years of mornings and evenings spent together — I was the only one at his side. The only one!

Yes — I was being too foolish, so foolish as to actually harbor doubts about Zi Miao. He would come, he would definitely come! What “beauty in his arms” — only those vulgar ordinary mortals would be bewitched by beauty. He was an immortal. How could he sink to the level of those commoners? He would rescue that woman first, perhaps only because she was a mortal of flesh and blood. Compared to me, a demon, she was truly far more fragile. Helping her before me — this was also entirely reasonable.

I silently sought reasons to convince myself, firming up my own conviction, telling all other wayward thoughts to go to hell. Trust him — I had always trusted him. No person and no thing could shake my trust in him.

He looked at me in silence and thought the blow he had dealt me had taken effect. His brow bore a trace of satisfaction. He said: “Scream all you like. Screaming until you become dust will not change the facts. Even if you wait until your body dissolves to dust, he will never come. However, if you beg me, then perhaps I will agree to bring his remains back to you in future — to give you a last look at him. Consider it a final wish fulfilled.”

This time I was no longer angry, no longer frantic. I raised my head to look at him and gave him the most radiant smile I could produce: “I trust him.”

“You…” His brow furrowed.

My sudden tranquility had perhaps disappointed this creature again.

I turned my head. The cave entrance, where light still shone, entered my field of vision once more. That speck of brightness tempted me, and the thought of escape rose in me once more.

If I had a choice, I would rather escape back to his side on my own than sit here waiting for him to come rescue me.

Seizing the moment when the other party was staring at me lost in thought, I brought forth the fastest speed of my entire life, running toward the cave entrance like the wind.

He actually did not chase me.

My heart was about to leap out of my throat. I thought success was right before my eyes.

Bang! I was sent flying a great distance and when I hit the ground the sharp pain nearly made me cry out.

The completely unobstructed cave entrance actually had a solid barrier sealing it.

My wounded and battered arm was suddenly yanked. He roughly pulled me from the ground, one large hand gripping my chin hard: “Didn’t you say you trusted him to come rescue you? Then why are you trying to escape? You are nothing but a liar who can’t even deceive herself!”

What detestable words! I used my other hand to claw at his wrist with all my might, tore open his grip, and with the momentum bit hard into his palm.

Crack! A sharp sound rang out, and a heavy slap landed on my face.

Staggering, my weakened body toppled to the ground.

At the corner of my lips, blood seeped out. At his fingers, blood beaded. A scene of mutual injury.

Enduring the pain, I struggled to stand up, walked before him without a shred of timidity, and raised my arm.

Crack!

The slap I returned to him was equally loud and crisp.

“You disgust me!”

I shot him a cold glance, turned around, and walked with a limp toward the other side of the cave.

What expression he wore at this moment, I did not see, and did not want to see. What revenge he was going to exact upon me next, I also did not care anymore. Right now, I only wanted to find a place to quietly wait.

Zi Miao, Zi Miao…

I sat down, leaning against a corner of the cave, closed my eyes, and silently murmured his name, waiting for hope in the midst of inexplicable despair…

Two complex gazes, I felt, had never left me in the increasingly darkening light.

One, two, three… thirty… forty-six… fifty… sixty… ninety… I held a small stone and stared blankly at the three rows of fine tally marks on the cave-entrance wall, counting them.

Same as on Fulong Mountain, they were my exclusive record of time. The difference was that here, each mark was only one day.

I had been sealed in the cave for a full ninety days.

He had not come.

Yet I was still waiting. I had no way to convince myself to give up.

Ninety days — every day I sat at the cave entrance, hoping for that tall figure in white. The longer I watched, the more my eyes ached. Even the occasional passing birds and butterflies I took for his embodiment, unable to help feeling happy. But I only needed to blink and reality would immediately remind me that it was merely an illusion.

More than ten days earlier, rain had started outside. I was so excited I nearly leapt to my feet. Rain — water — that was his mark. He must surely be nearby. He must have found me!

Yet that rain had stopped very quickly, and the puddles it left on the ground were dried up to the last drop by the blazing early summer sun in no time at all.

Now it was already June, and my body was growing weaker and weaker.

I licked my already cracked lips, my gaze falling upon a jar of clear water and a bundle of wild fruit not far from my side. These had been left there by that fellow — every day he would prepare fresh drinking water and food for me.

I would not accept his kindness. For ninety days, I had not touched a drop of water nor a single grain, only recalling that early autumn evening — those beautiful and delicious foods. Eight-treasure porridge, hundred-flower pastry… I would rather subsist on “nourishment” for the spirit than take anything he gave me.

During these days, I refused any form of conversation with that creature, and it seemed he did not pay much attention to me either. In the beginning, aside from going out to find food, he spent most of his time sitting cross-legged in a corner of the cave in meditation to heal his wounds. We two treated each other as if the other did not exist. However, once his back wound had healed, he began going out early and coming back late.

Where he went and when he would return — these were naturally not things I concerned myself with. What I cared about was only the vicious words he had spoken earlier, afraid that this contemptible creature would truly go looking to make trouble for Zi Miao. However, it seemed he had not turned his murderous bloodthirsty resentment into reality, because each time he returned, apart from the pungent smell of alcohol on his body, there was not the faintest scent of blood.

Perhaps he was simply going out to drink like the humans, looking for amusement!

I let out a sigh and stared blankly at the sky outside the cave entrance, watching it go from drifting white clouds to flickering stars and moon.

Drowsy and half-asleep, the sound of footsteps behind me jarred me awake.

He had come back. It was always like this — he never came through the cave entrance, but always appeared like a phantom suddenly in a corner of the cave. After a long time, I had grown accustomed to it.

My head tilting against the stone wall, I continued to enjoy the limited night view, paying no attention whatsoever to the person behind me.

“How much longer do you think you can hold out?” His voice carried anger he could not conceal.

I had no intention of responding to him at all — I did not even move my body.

My shoulder was suddenly seized, forcing me to turn around.

In the deep purple eyes, my cold face was reflected.

He reached for the water jar, tilted his head back and drank a large mouthful, then threw the jar aside. He gripped my face, tilted it up, and forcefully pressed his lips to mine.

Mouth to mouth — he poured the water into my mouth without giving me any say.

This… this madman!

I struck and kicked with all my might, desperately trying to push him away. But his strength was far greater than mine. Unless he was willing to release me, I could only submit to being handled as he wished.

I was a demon — although I needed food and water too, three months of neither eating nor drinking would not weaken me to this degree. The “Colorless” flower was about to bloom, and my vital energy had been gradually consumed. If I did not return to my true body on Fulong Mountain before the flower bloomed, the consequences were imaginable.

But this madman believed that feeding me a few mouthfuls of water would restore my physical strength.

I stopped struggling, allowing the slightly warm and sweet clear water to flow slowly into my long-parched body. I would naturally not tell him the true reason for my weakness.

My mind was long since made up — before the “Colorless” flower bloomed, if Zi Miao still did not appear, I would rather be reduced to ash and smoke.

Having poured in the last drop, his scorching lips finally left me.

I wiped my mouth vigorously, greatly unwilling for his flavor to remain on my body.

And he — actually like a child who had successfully stolen food, smiled with satisfaction and complacency.

This ten-thousand-fold evil vicious dragon!

“Look at that — my words were not wrong, were they? Today is already the ninetieth day, and your ‘him’ still has not come.” He sat down across from me and took malicious pleasure in my misfortune. Remarkably, he also clearly remembered that this was the ninetieth day of our time in this cave together. Had he been silently counting the days like me?

“He will come.” My tone remained firm, yet I lowered my head. For an instant I dared not meet his gaze.

“Stop deceiving yourself.” He hooked up my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Your Zi Miao — the heavenly realm’s water god — will never come to find you, for all eternity.”

His words were like thunder crashing upon my head.

“You know Zi Miao?! Know he is the water god?! Have you seen him? What have you done to him?!” I lost all composure, babbling incoherently as I seized his hand.

“The dragon clan by birth has a standing equal to the gods. Although I am no longer a member of the East Sea Dragon Clan, getting word of heavenly realm affairs is quite easy enough.” His brow furrowed slightly, seeming displeased by my overly excited reaction.

“Have you seen him?! What did you do to him?!” I shook his arm — uncaring whether he was dragon clan or deity. I was concerned only about that one person who consumed my every thought.

“I did nothing to him.” He smiled strangely. “No need for me to act — those old fellows in the heavenly realm will sooner or later settle accounts with him.”

“What exactly have you done to him?! You scoundrel! Tell me!” I lunged at him in a frenzy, grabbing his lapels. Fire was nearly spitting from my eyes.

“I did nothing to him!” He firmly restrained my two hands and roared. “Do you know that it is a capital offense for an immortal to carry on intimately with a mortal?!”

I was instantly rigid.

Immortal. Mortal. Carry on intimately.

I was never foolish by nature — connecting these three terms into one complete thing was far too simple.

For a very long time, neither of us spoke again.

Finally my weakened body leaned helplessly back against the stone wall.

“He… is truly with that beauty…”

“Yes.” His answer was unequivocal as a nail driven in. “They are not merely together — they have already conceived a child.”

If what he said before was thunder that knocked out my soul, then this word — “child” — was a long knife, stabbing viciously into my heart, then twisting with full force. A pain that drew no blood.

Ninety days — a mere ninety days. How could things have reached this point?!

After a moment of silence, I seized his hand and said decisively: “I want to see him! Let me go to see him!”

“Very well.” He did not hesitate for even half a moment.

I had imagined many times the scene of Zi Miao rescuing me from this fire pit. I had also imagined making my own escape from the cave by my own abilities. But I had never imagined that when I was truly liberated, the one who delivered me would be the very one who had imprisoned me.

In the moonlight, he held me horizontally in his arms, his feet treading a purple cloud, flying swiftly through the air.

I had no strength to object to his behavior — because I truly did not even have the strength to stand.

Below, aside from rolling mountain ranges, was also a sea rising with a thin mist of fog, its blue waves rough and jagged.

“What place is this…”

“Sea of Hopelessness.” He said. “A desolate space only the dragon clan can open. This barren wasteland — outsiders cannot enter; other dragon clan will not come. An extremely fine hiding place.”

“Even Zi Miao cannot enter?” I fixed my gaze on him, hoping to find in his answer the true reason Zi Miao had not come to find me.

“Correct.” His answer was curt.

Had I not known what came later, I would certainly have cursed him for his brazen shamelessness. But now I understood — whether one was confined somewhere, and whether it was within the scope of Zi Miao’s abilities to reach, was not the crux of the matter.

I closed my eyes. I spoke no further, leaning on his shoulder, allowing him to carry me — to see that man I longed so desperately to see, yet now so greatly feared to see…

When the sky showed the first faint light of dawn, he carried me and landed steadily in a dense grove.

“There — where they live.” Parting several branches and leaves that blocked the view, he pointed at a certain place ahead.

I steadied myself, summoned all my courage, and only then looked toward where he was pointing.

A small wooden house, surrounded by fresh green picket fencing, simple and secluded — so very much his style.

By chance, the door of the wooden house was opened by someone.

My heartbeat, when the person inside came out, stopped.

Jet-black long hair, a white robe, floating gently in the morning breeze — just as always.

Zi Miao… Zi Miao…

Silently I called his name. In my eyes, apart from his figure, there was nothing else.

My mind went blank, with only one thought — run! Stop thinking about anything and run back to his side!

But the appearance of another person cut off my impulse like a sharp blade.

A white-clad woman, graceful as a lotus in motion, walked out from the house and leaned smiling to his side. She lightly tugged at his sleeve, stood on tiptoe, and whispered something sweetly in his ear.

He smiled, gently stroking the woman’s face.

A wave of dizziness swept over me. If there had not been an arm at my side steadying me in time, I would likely have immediately collapsed to the ground and never woken again.

“Hey, are you alright?” He slapped my face with his rough, uncaring hand, as if afraid of not hitting me hard enough.

The pain from my face temporarily drove away the lethal dizziness. I opened my eyes and said to him: “From now on, don’t concern yourself with me — let me do what I want to do!”

He was silent for half a moment, his thick brows arching once, and he nodded: “As you wish.”

I drew a deep breath, stepped forward out of the grove.

Only today did I know that even walking requires courage.

From the grove to the wooden house — such a short distance. I walked for what felt like a hundred years.

When I reached the picket fence, that man and woman were just about to return to the house.

Before that door closed, I had to call out to him. Otherwise I feared I would never again have the chance to call out his name.

“Zi Miao!” I had thought the sound I summoned all my strength to produce would be very loud. Yet it emerged and I knew it was so feeble and powerless.

But. He heard it.

He turned back, and I witnessed with my own eyes that face I knew so intimately — going from serenity to joyful surprise.

In moments, he had stepped quickly out and was holding my ice-cold hands tightly.

The long-absent warmth, tender and glowing. Only, it was slightly less familiar.

“Shaluo, you’ve come back?” He was genuinely overjoyed — not in the slightest feigned. “I searched for you for a long time, yet could never find any trace of you. Are you hurt? Are you well?”

“Did you… truly search for me?”

In the smiles he had shown that woman, I could not see even a trace of the frantic worry of someone who had been unable to find another person. In their eyes gazing tenderly at each other, was there any room left for my existence?

I had never so distrusted him.

“Of course. Not only me — Jiu Jue was also searching for you!” He habitually stroked my head with his hand, smiling in relief. “Why do you ask this?”

I tilted my head to the side, deliberately avoiding his palm.

He was taken aback.

“Zi Miao — this young lady is…”

A clear and pleasant female voice, like a mountain spring, rose behind us.

My hands suddenly clenched into fists.

“Ah… this is Shaluo — the one I’ve mentioned to you before…” He turned around, smiling as he introduced me to his woman.

Now she was mistress, and I the guest. The reversal in position seemed so entirely reasonable — leaving me no grounds for even a single word of objection.

“So this is Miss Shaluo.” She looked over my bedraggled state kindly, then turned to reproach him in gentle complaint: “The morning dew is heavy — quickly take Miss Shaluo inside to sit down. What are you doing still standing outside?”

“I’m not going in.” I flatly refused her goodwill, gazing straight at her beautiful face without a shred of courtesy, saying: “I do not wish to speak with you. Nor do I wish to see you.”

Likely neither of them had expected me to be so unguarded with my words — they were both suddenly struck by extreme awkwardness.

What I said was not a rash outburst. It was the truth.

“You go in first.” He smiled and said to her.

She nodded, her gentle expression unchanged throughout, turned and went back into the wooden house, closing the door behind her.

“Shaluo.” He twirled the tangled strands of my hair between his fingers. “I know you carry grievances in your heart — grievances that I watched the vicious dragon take you away before my eyes, that I did not rescue you in time, that…”

“Say no more.” For the first time in my life, I interrupted him.

Had that woman not appeared, I would have told him earnestly — from beginning to end, what I harbored toward him was only trust, never grievance. Only expectation, never disappointment. But now, I no longer had any standing to say such words.

“Does she carry your child?” I asked without evasion — even in a tone of interrogation.

An expression of surprise crossed his brow and eyes: “How did you know?”

“You are an immortal, she is a mortal — do you know what kind of result awaits you?” I did not believe he did not know. I simply did not understand — knowing full well how grave the matter was, why did he still insist on heading down this path to ruin?

“Shaluo…” He took my hand. “You know I never deceive you. Since it has come to this, there is no harm in telling you the truth.”

“In the heavenly realm grows a divine tree — named Shaluo — tended by a snow-robed female immortal, embodiment of an orchid flower. By the rules of the heavenly realm, the female immortal who tends the tree is forbidden for all eternity from having relations with any man. However, the snow-robed immortal ultimately fell into love’s web. This was discovered by the Heavenly Empress, who demanded she reveal the identity of the man she loved. She refused unto death to comply. The Heavenly Empress flew into rage, stripped her of her immortal status, and sent her down to the mortal world, forever barred from returning to the heavenly realm.” He narrated slowly, as if speaking of someone else’s story. “On the day of Xue Chang’s calamity, the man she loved happened to be away from the heavenly court. By the time he learned of it, he and Xue Chang were already separated as between heaven and man. And so, heartbroken and devastated, he began to search year after year — in the vast mortal world, among the thousands upon thousands of faces — searching for Xue Chang reborn as human.”

I was stunned. I, who had never known how to conceal my emotions, wore my shock plainly on my face.

“Xue Chang is her. And the man who loved Xue Chang… is you?” I easily deduced who the figures in his “story” corresponded to.

He nodded.

“Xue Chang and I once made a vow beneath the Shaluo tree — that no matter what tribulations we faced in future, no matter where we each were or what form we had become, we would return to each other’s side and with a single glance, recover all the memories of a thousand years.” Recalling the past, a familiar light finally appeared in the depths of his eyes. “Yet for several thousand years, I could not find Xue Chang who had fallen into the mortal world. That night, passing by Fulong Mountain by chance, I was exhausted beyond measure and encountered you. Recalling Xue Chang’s appearance, I granted you human form, only hoping…”

“Wait!” I suddenly cried out, flinging away his hand as if bitten by the most venomous snake in the world.

He was taken aback by my reaction.

“My appearance…” I retreated a large step, pressing with force on my own face, as if it were not a part of my body but simply a mask that would feel no pain. “My appearance — it was modeled on that woman… your Xue Chang, the snow-robed female immortal?”

The resemblance between my features and hers — it was not coincidence at all. It had always been a… selfish deliberateness.

Even my name — those strange two syllables, “Shaluo” — were a mark he had imposed upon me. A remembrance belonging entirely to him and another woman. And I had taken such delight in it for so long, believing that everything he gave me was good.

Yes — I had been so firmly convinced, he was good to me…

At this very moment, I was at last suddenly enlightened —

The woman who spent her days with him on Fulong Mountain had never been me.

“Shaluo…” He stepped forward, forcefully took down my hands that were madly ravaging my own face, pulled me into his embrace, and gently patted my back — as if soothing an unruly child. “As for other women, I cannot remember any of their faces. Only her… so when helping you attain human form…”

The warmth of his hands — from this moment on, it was forever sealed off from outside my body.

“Say no more!” I interrupted him again.

Every word he spoke was an invisible stab into my heart — pain riddled with a thousand wounds. I could not bear it.

I raised my head and gazed quietly at those clear, limpid eyes. Smiling. The hysteria of just a moment ago was hidden entirely from sight.

“The vicious dragon locked me in the Sea of Hopelessness. He said it was a place you could not enter.” I straightened my body, forcing myself to leave the arms I had once depended upon so deeply. Forcing myself to maintain a bystander’s calm smile. “It was natural that you could not find me. However, I have just now understood something… Even if I had not been trapped in the Sea of Hopelessness, you could never have found me. Because you have never known me. Shaluo — she is merely a shadow living at your side. A substitute without even the right to possess a face of her own!”

He opened his mouth slightly, and for a long moment could not say a single word. It could be imagined that my expression and words at this moment were also something he had never experienced in these thirty years.

Time froze between us. I looked at him, he looked at me.

For the first time I had the feeling of standing on equal footing with him. A demon’s reverence toward an immortal, a handmaid’s subservient gaze toward a master, a woman’s reliance upon a man — from this moment forward, all of these were completely swept away.

He owed me. I stubbornly believed this.

“It is nearly the seventh month now…”

After a long silence, his murmur broke the stalemate. Yet the subject was pulled to a place thousands of li away.

“The Colorless flower is almost in bloom. You should return to Fulong Mountain.” He brushed aside the disheveled hair covering my eyes, utterly disregarding the words I had just said to him, and in a casual, understated tone issued his order for me to leave.

He was not even willing to give me a single word of explanation? Or did he believe there was no need to spend any more time on me — a substitute who had already outlived her usefulness?

“Is this all?” My smile was about to crumble.

“Perhaps it is Heaven’s design — you and I, it is fitting that our bond ends here.” His smile, as always, needed no deliberate adornment. “Go back. Someone has been waiting for you a long time.”

He did not want me anymore!

Beyond this point, I could hear nothing else.

Thirty years of time — to an immortal, only a snap of the fingers. To a demon, a lifetime.

He could sever the bond clean and decisive. I could not leave with carefree ease.

When parting stands before one, the party who has given more is always the loser — losing the heart, losing the future.

I had no more surplus strength to say more to him. Only one sentence —

“Everything that is Shaluo was given by you. I want none of it.”

Colorless flower blooming — so what? I would not return to Fulong Mountain. Nor would I return to my true body. This body bestowed by him, along with my soul riddled with wounds, should fall like the petals of the Colorless flower — wither and perish.

I turned around, and with great difficulty moved my steps, walking toward the depths of the forest.

He could see my retreating figure, yet could not see my heart that was dripping blood.

I walked slowly. The trees all around — one after another — changed from lush, jade-green vitality to withered yellow and fallen decay.

The tears in the tree spirit’s heart turned midsummer into the deep of winter. Every lifeless falling leaf was a memory drifting far away.

Perhaps he was still standing there, his gaze profound and deep, watching the sky full of yellow leaves. But he would never again come after me. Between us, that one step’s distance — under his stopping and my walking forward — had gradually become a ravine that could never be crossed in life after life, generation after generation.

In truth, from the very beginning I should have understood — one step’s distance was thought to be so very close, so very close. And yet in reality… he could not cross over to me, and I could not step over to him.

It is a pity that only many years later did I grasp this truth.

Several fallen leaves struck my head — the most infinitesimal of forces, yet they scattered all my pretended strength.

My body was like a rootless piece of willow catkin — drifting lightly downward to the ground.

In the instant before consciousness vanished, a figure descended before me. Overbearing yet tender, it gathered me into its arms…

I ultimately still returned to Fulong Mountain. I ultimately, on the day the Colorless flower bloomed, returned to my true body at the mountain’s peak.

Of course, none of this was my own choice.

It was that fellow — when I had no strength to resist — who, on his own presumption, made the choice between life and death on my behalf.

On the second day after Colorless bloomed, I awoke in the vicious dragon’s arms. All my wounds — old and new — had vanished without trace in what was, for me, yet another rebirth.

The tree spirit renewed, except for a heart that could not be mended.

Having recovered my strength, without asking for any explanation, I delivered another slap, heavy and solid, across his face.

I slapped him — because he had forced me to go on living, and the consequence of going on living was that I had to face myself at every moment. A body born to console another person’s longing, a shell I had gone from treasuring to despising.

If I could choose once more, I would without a moment’s hesitation continue my isolated yet peaceful existence. Unable to walk was fine — unable to run was also fine.

For my venting slap, his towering rage could well be imagined. But remarkably, he did not return it.

“Do you hate him?” He asked the question abruptly.

Hate? Do I hate him? Had the relationship between him and me already sunk so low that it needed a single word of hatred to sustain it?

I wanted to hate him. When I thought of how his warm, tender gaze had always been seeking the shadow of another person in my face, I wanted to burn with hatred. But I could not bring myself to hate…

Under the silence of this inner entanglement, he misread my silence as silent assent.

“If you want him to suffer ten thousand calamities with no hope of escape, I can help you.” He raised his head and looked at the blazing, brilliant sun. “Those above should still not know of his scandalous affairs. As long as what he has done…”

“No!” I cut him off with tense and decisive finality. This creature and his thoughts — I knew them perfectly.

“He hurt you this much — you won’t seek revenge?” His code of conduct probably had “a debt must be repaid” as its very first article.

Had he wronged me? Standing in his position, or standing in any third party’s position, he had never been in the wrong toward me — not once, not ever. Thinking it through carefully, from him I could not find even a single accusation worth making. This entire matter from beginning to end, in an outsider’s eyes, should be nothing more than the willful tantrum of a tree spirit who did not know when she had enough. What crime had he committed?

Only the one who has suffered knows their own pain.

“He and I no longer have any ties.” I gritted my teeth and severed it cleanly.

He raised his brow, trying to fathom my thoughts.

“Please…” In a lifetime, I had never used the word “please” toward him before, yet now I was doing so. “Please also not go to disturb him.”

“You give up all thought of dying, and I will leave him be.” He struck a bargain with me.

Whether alive or dead — to me both had lost all meaning from the moment he abandoned me. What was called “life” — nothing more than a joke played by fate.

I nodded my head gently.

He smiled with satisfaction.

The blazing sun of high summer scorched every inch of earth, and even the small rivers throughout Fulong Mountain had begun to show signs of drying up.

Originally I had wanted to leave, but apart from Fulong Mountain — where else could I go?

Life became just as it had been before. I spent each day sitting at the cliff’s edge, watching sunrise and sunset, wind rising and falling still.

The rocky cave where another person and I had dwelt for many years — I have never set foot within it again. I only took a sharp small stone and cleared away entirely the thirty tally marks at the cave entrance. From that point forward, the length of time had nothing to do with me.

The vicious dragon remained at my side. Even when he left, he was sure to return before sunset.

The adversarial relationship between us faded imperceptibly. Yet the conversations between us remained few and far between. Many times I would stare blankly at the crescent moon on the horizon, and he would listlessly count pebbles not far away, tossing glances of displeasure at me from time to time.

He was a dragon — soaring through the clouds, regarding all beneath him with contempt, doing only what pleased himself. Perhaps this creature himself had never imagined that one day he would be stopped in his tracks by a small Fulong Mountain.

After scorching temperatures persisting for many days, they gradually receded. A cool mountain wind wrapped in the scent of autumn.

Yet the dried-up water flows on Fulong Mountain showed no signs of recovery — overnight they became cracked, parched earth. The plants large and small that should have been bearing fruit and thick with leaves were also showing signs of withering. Despondent and listless, they drooped in the flying yellow dust, struggling on the verge of death.

Since the day of my birth, Fulong Mountain had never presented such a scene.

A bad premonition spread within my heart.

That fellow returned from outside the mountain and said that a great drought had struck the world. Rivers, lakes, and seas — overnight, not a single drop of water remained. In a few days, the mortal world would become a living hell.

I was greatly alarmed. He was such a capable water god — how could he allow such a disaster to occur?

Something must have happened to him. He must be in trouble.

“Take me to find him!” I seized his arm, my voice nearly breaking. “Something has happened to him — something has definitely happened to him!” The calm I had worked hard to construct crumbled and collapsed in that instant.

He stood in place, looking at the desolate scene below the mountain, and said only two words: “Heaven’s punishment.”

“What Heaven’s punishment or earth’s punishment! Take me to find him!” I was anxious enough to go mad.

“Have you never heard the saying — when immortals fight, it is the mortals who suffer?” He paid no heed to my urgency, speaking to himself. “When an immortal makes a mistake, mortals suffer just the same.”

“You…” I suddenly caught something in his words. “Does this mean… Zi Miao’s affairs have been discovered by the heavenly realm?!”

“Intimacy between immortal and mortal — those above would of course not let it pass. They were even going to implicate the entire mortal world in suffering as punishment. So-called Heaven’s punishment is this grave.” He looked entirely indifferent, as if watching from the sidelines.

“Why…” I seized him with both hands and roared: “Was it you?! Was it you who revealed it? You promised me you would not go disturb him!”

“What nonsense are you talking?!” He caught my wrists, fire blazing in his purple eyes. “I detest people who go back on their word. Having agreed to you, I naturally would not make any move against that fellow. This matter has nothing to do with me!”

Nothing to do with him? Then who did it have to do with?

I was at a complete loss.

Just then, a sandstorm mixed with yellow dust swept ferociously toward the mountain’s peak. Along the way it swept up rocks of all sizes — powerful and dangerous.

He yanked me up and dodged into the cave behind us.

The howling wind sound came through the cave entrance, reverberating eerily in the vast space.

“Let go of me — I have to find Zi Miao!”

I broke free of his restraint and made a desperate dash toward the outside.

“You are not going!” He roared and seized me around the waist, lifting me off the ground entirely, allowing my feet to kick wildly in the air. “In weather like this, never mind you — a little demon who can barely cast a single spell — even I would not dare venture out recklessly. If you want to find him, you’ll have to wait for this sandstorm to pass!”

I stopped struggling and turned back to look at him: “When the storm passes… you’ll take me to find him?”

Despite his face being covered entirely with unwillingness, he still nodded.

Three days — this sandstorm persisted for a full three days. When the pattering sound of rain arose outside the cave, I rushed out without a moment’s hesitation.

It was raining — such heavy rain!

Cool, fine rain fell upon my feverish face, flowing with a strange sensation — like a pair of familiar hands, stroking me gently.

Passing through the rain curtain, I discovered in joyful surprise that Fulong Mountain — which had been ravaged by drought and left in a scene of desolation and devastation — had actually recovered its former appearance. Every plant was reviving in this timely rain, the lotus pond in the mountain was once again reflecting the ripple of light long absent, and I could even hear the long-lost murmur of flowing water.

Was he nearby? I looked anxiously around in the rain.

Sure enough — before a large bluish-gray stone behind me stood a tall figure.

“Shaluo…” The one calling my name called my former name.

Yet it was not his voice.

I turned around, wiping away the rain condensed on my eyelashes. A stretch of bright lake-blue filled my vision.

It was Jiu Jue!

I stared blankly at this man I had not seen for many days. Why had he suddenly appeared on Fulong Mountain at precisely this moment?

“Long time no see, little tree spirit.”

He walked toward me. His bantering tone was the same as ever, yet his face could not conceal an exhaustion that could not be hidden.

“Who are you?” Before I could respond, the fellow who had followed me out had already pulled me behind him.

“Ha, you must be that vicious dragon who has been stirring up trouble everywhere.” He paused and smiled looking at this unfriendly fellow. “Rest assured — I am not here to make trouble for you.”

I pushed him aside, ran before Jiu Jue, and asked urgently: “Where is Zi Miao? Is he not with you?”

Jiu Jue shook his head. Rainwater had soaked through his lake-blue hair, and large and small mud spots clung to his blue robe. The always immaculate and elegant Jiu Jue — there was something of a rare, uncommon bedraggled look about him.

“Then where is he?” My small hope was shattered in an instant. I gripped his sleeve in pursuit of the answer.

He had never looked at me with such grave and solemn eyes before. Today was an exception.

“Zi Miao… is he not right before you now?” He said.

“Jiu Jue, you…” I was so distressed I could barely breathe, wanting to throw him off Fulong Mountain.

“I am serious.” Knowing the reason for my anger, he smiled bitterly, extended one palm, and watched the small rainflowers splashing in his hand. “This rain — it is Zi Miao’s primal essence.”

My three souls and seven spirits scattered.

Even that fellow was standing there foolishly stupefied.

“Zi Miao’s affairs were known by the heavenly realm. The Heavenly Emperor was furious and decreed a five-year great drought upon the mortal world as punishment for the water god and the mortal woman. Unable to bear the thought of innocent people suffering this calamity, Zi Miao used his own vital energy, transforming it into life-giving sweet rain to nourish the world, keeping the mortal world from drought for a hundred years. This also served as an accounting to the heavenly realm.”

I did not know how much piercing, skin-flaying pain of losing his closest friend Jiu Jue had hidden beneath the calm tone in which he spoke these words. I only knew that when I heard them, I no longer knew what pain meant.

“Before Zi Miao departed, he entrusted me to come find you and relay a few words on his behalf.” Jiu Jue finally revealed the true purpose of his coming to Fulong Mountain.

I told myself — do not fall. Whatever you do, do not fall. Even if you die, first listen to what he wants to say to me.

I had sworn to have “no more ties” with him — but my oath was this easily shattered. I could not deceive myself further. I longed with such desperate yearning to hear what he had to say to me. Even a single word.

“The only two people I cannot put down are — one is her, and the other… is you.” Jiu Jue, speaking directly as if in his own voice, narrated slowly. “Shaluo, you are not the person I love most. But you are truly the person I hold most dear. Perhaps imposing her appearance on you was indeed a mistake. But believe me — at the very least, on that early autumn day, the hand I held was yours — not hers… Fortunately, someone has at last come to take my place in caring for you. With him at your side, I am completely at ease…”

Jiu Jue’s voice gradually faded. Jiu Jue’s face also suddenly transformed into his appearance…

The rain still fell. I could no longer sustain myself and fell to my knees in the muddy ground.

The vicious dragon came running to support me.

I turned my face and asked faintly: “The person he spoke of… is it you?”

“When the Colorless flower blooms, it takes external force to send you back to your true body on the mountain’s peak — these methods were taught to me by him.” The vicious dragon said this. “As long as I agreed to watch over you for a lifetime, he would, as an exception, act once as an unworthy immortal. His former account with me — written off in full.”

I shed tears.

I had always thought demons had no tears. They did — they only existed in the heart.

Tears, rainwater, my heartbreak, his departure without a farewell — intertwining beneath the ash-gray sky.

Zi Miao, tree spirit, Fulong Mountain. Thirty years of accumulated past, drop by drop — should they come to their final period today?

I learned from Jiu Jue’s example, extending my gently trembling hand, catching the falling raindrops.

The water gathered into a small river on my palm, and very quickly flowed out from between my fingers.

In another form, he held my hand for the last time.

In a trance, in my ears I heard his voice once more…

“Do you have a name?”

“You shall be called Shaluo from now on.”

Epilogue

The urgent ringtone of a mobile phone jolted the sleeping person awake.

I opened my eyes, startled to find tears had, once again, soaked the pillow.

For several hundred years now, I had lost count of how many times I had cried the pillow wet in dreams.

Thinking I had long since grown adept at facing those memories — ones ordinary people could never understand — yet the uncooperative tears toppled my “thinking” time and time again.

Sitting up, wiping my eyes with one hand while picking up the phone with the other.

“Hello?”

“I might be running late!” From the receiver came a flustered, thunderously loud voice. “The police are making trouble for me again — insisting I ran a red light! You wait for me — I’ll get there as fast as I can!”

After hanging up, I could not help laughing mutely.

How many times had this fellow been caught by the police, I could count on my ten fingers and still probably not get to the end.

This creature’s temperament — unchanged even now.

Yes — for hundreds of years he had stayed at my side. Accompanying me to watch this world — how it stepped from ancient times into the modern age, one step at a time.

When it comes to it, it is somewhat laughable: having known him for so long, it was only more than a hundred years ago that I finally learned his name was Ao Chi. And the East Sea Dragon King whom he called “that old fellow” at every turn was his own paternal grandfather.

The two of us — two people who never learned to conceal love and hate, joy and anger within our hearts — in the mutual companionship of year upon year, came to know each other more and more.

His nature was not bad. He was simply too contemptuous of everyone else, doing things only for his own amusement, and so in his early years had stirred up not a few disasters — which led to his grandfather confining him in the ice prison to reflect. That time at Broken Lake, he had simply been moved on a whim, using Broken Lake as a natural large bathtub. He never thought that from this bout of fun, the small city of Daizhou would be destroyed and its people scattered.

Thinking of this, I shook my head and smiled ruefully.

I had once asked him why he had abducted me from Dongting Lake. He said no one had ever dared scold him before, and calling him an ugly creature — I was the first. Without teaching me a lesson, he could not swallow that grievance. I asked him again why he was willing to stay at my side year after year for hundreds of years. He said no one had ever dared slap him before, and I was the first. He wanted me to spend the rest of my life paying the price for that slap.

Heaven knows how much of what this reckless creature said was worth believing.

Honestly speaking, to this day I still cannot define what the relationship between him and me is — friends? Lovers? Companions? It seems to be all of them, and yet also none of them. Clearly a pair who depended on each other for survival — yet why does a faint, indefinable barrier seem to stand between us?

After thinking privately for a long time, I finally caught hold of a thread of understanding, finding the crux of the matter in every tear I had secretly shed —

The shadow of another person had never left my heart.

I have sometimes greatly wondered whether my being with Ao Chi is only because I am greedy for that sweet feeling of being cared for and protected. The happiness Zi Miao once gave me — am I trying to find it again from Ao Chi?

What a ridiculous thought.

Every time I thought this way, I felt I was somehow being unfair to that fellow.

I had once so deeply resisted being used as a substitute for another person. How then could I be this selfish, letting an innocent person retrace those same footsteps?

If just a little more time were given to me, would the situation be different?

Lifting the thin bedcovers, I stretched with a languid yawn and got out of bed.

Passing the wall, my gaze fell half-intentionally, half-unintentionally upon a flower basket placed on the cabinet — not large, an old but exquisite thing.

Within the basket, not a single stem of flower. What it held was only a large collection of small boxes of various colors and styles — no fewer than forty in number.

Within the boxes were rings.

I don’t know from how many years ago that fellow began, learning from the humans, to send me a ring every fourteenth day of the second month each year. He said the dragon clan possessed a standing equal to that of the gods yet had no need to heed the ridiculous rules immortals had to observe. He was set in his purpose — he would marry me, this demon, as his wife, and not even the Heavenly King could stop him.

It was not that I was unmoved.

But I had never put on any single one of them.

He did not mind. He sent them year after year, saying he would send them until I was willing to put one on of my own accord.

I stopped before the basket, picked up a delicate round box with a velvet face, studied it for a half moment, smiled, and set it back untouched.

Walking to the wardrobe, I pulled open the cabinet door. My fingers wandered over the clothes in all their varied abundance. The styles were each distinctly different, yet the color was, for the most part, only one — green.

Today was Ao Chi’s birthday. He had said so himself: he was born on the first day of the eighth month, Leo, and together with the Sagittarius born in winter — a heaven-made, earth-matched pair.

Star signs? Ha — that was something only children believed in.

I smiled. What needed to be done right now was to pick a suitable gown for the birthday dinner.

Looking for a long time, I reached in and took out two.

Left hand — a long, pale green gauze dress. Right hand — a purple backless evening gown.

The color of the left hand was exactly like that piece of green from long ago, descending from the sky, gently enveloping my body.

The color of the right hand made me inevitably think of a pair of long and slender eyes — the domineering, irresistible purple eyes.

I had always been unable to change my habit of wearing green. Tonight — could I change it?

A try couldn’t hurt.

Hugging the purple evening gown, I closed the cabinet door.

On the pillow, the MP3 player had never been turned off. It had been playing songs all night and was still playing:

The last photograph of her in this world, I was startled — a face so like mine. Only then did I realize The curve of her ring finger, as faithful as yours.

How many decades can one love hold? Thank you for every day you made me happy. Standing at your side, Living within her shadow…

…

Your longing for her Becomes the tenderness you give to me. I pity what we are. Say goodbye. Never meet again. Separation in life holds you in longing; Death’s parting steals away your thoughts. Say goodbye. Never meet again. Life is a pastime. Those who have been happy need not apologize.