Meng Ruji stood frozen in place until the cold wind and snow numbed her entire body. Only then did she come to her senses—she couldn’t stay here any longer. She had to drag the young man away.

This was still Hengxu Mountain’s Xuejing Cliff. Though she didn’t know how long she had slept, Hengxu Mountain was still here, and surely some of her guardians and disciples remained. Her seal being broken might just be someone taking advantage of a loophole…

Meng Ruji had no spiritual power now and couldn’t harm this young man. Once she got down the mountain, she could surely find someone with spiritual power. Find help, then cut open this little thief—she could still extract her Inner Core that way!

While thinking this, Meng Ruji struggled to hoist the young man up and prepared to walk toward the only small path down the mountain.

Suddenly!

A blinding white light appeared in the sky. The radiance shot straight toward Xuejing Cliff like a meteor.

Seeing this light filled with abundant spiritual energy, Meng Ruji guessed this must be some great immortal who had achieved enlightenment, having sensed the worldly anomaly and rushing here.

Meng Ruji wasn’t particularly nervous. Before sealing herself, though she was about to become the “Demon Lord,” her relationship with various immortal cultivation sects wasn’t bad.

Back then, she was famous for judging people by merit regardless of birth, employing talent above all else. Hengxu Mountain housed not only demons but immortals as well.

When it came to eliminating evil and killing villains, Hengxu Mountain’s ideals aligned perfectly with various immortal and demon sects. So, Meng Ruji had quite good relationships with some sect leaders and elders.

Now, even though who knows how much time had passed, Meng Ruji still believed her character wouldn’t invite hostility from the immortal sects.

While pondering, that white light indeed stopped at Xuejing Cliff. As the visitor halted, a clear breeze swept through, instantly washing the black snowflakes white.

In the somewhat dazzling light, a white-robed immortal descended on the wind, landing on Xuejing Cliff, then…

He stumbled.

He nearly fell.

Meng Ruji watched with some bewilderment.

This tall, thin, white-robed immortal steadied himself on Xuejing Cliff’s platform. His features were refined and handsome, but his demeanor wasn’t like the usual indifferent coldness of immortals. Instead, it concealed some anxiety, with undisguisable concern between his brows.

“Meng Ruji!”

Seeing the environment atop Xuejing Cliff in his haste, the white-robed immortal couldn’t help but shout, but immediately after this cry, he saw Meng Ruji carrying the black-clothed young man.

Meng Ruji felt somewhat dazed by this call. She blinked, appearing somewhat stunned as she stood there, looking at the white-robed immortal woodenly.

The white-robed immortal also stared straight at her, excited…

Seeming to see her with open eyes, both startled and shocked: “You…”

His lips trembled for a long while, saying only this one word before stopping again. He fell silent, tears in his eyes, his gaze fixed intently on Meng Ruji’s face.

Mm…

But…

“That…”

Compared to the immortal’s excitement, Meng Ruji felt what she was about to say was somewhat impolite:

“You are…?”

This “You are” seemed to stab the white-robed immortal’s heart. He staggered back a step as if struck by lightning.

“You don’t remember me? You don’t remember me!?”

He asked twice in succession, the pure white spiritual energy around him instantly becoming somewhat chaotic.

Immersed in his own emotions, he continued loudly:

“For eight hundred years, I’ve thought of you day and night, obsessed and mad! Seeing your seal broken, I immediately rushed here! Not knowing whether you broke the seal yourself or were coveted by others, I worried all the way! But! You actually don’t remember me! You’ve forgotten everything!”

“Mm…”

Seeing the visitor speak so earnestly, Meng Ruji wondered if she had injured her brain and forgotten some very important people and events.

But with just a shallow recollection, all past events, times, and people presented themselves clearly and logically in her mind.

When she had done what, whom she had met, what hardships she had experienced, what goals she had ultimately achieved—all things that had influenced her life, she remembered more or less in her mind.

And this person before her, judging by his words…

It seemed that Meng Ruji and he had once had a romance?

It should have been quite deep…

At least quite deep for this immortal…

But no matter how thoroughly Meng Ruji searched her memories, she truly couldn’t remember when she had ever met this person.

Who was he…

“Who is he!” Before Meng Ruji could ask, this white-robed immortal lost his temper first, pointing at the black-clothed young man Meng Ruji was carrying and questioning sternly.

Meng Ruji was startled and instinctively looked at the young man she was carrying: “I… don’t know.”

“Why are your clothes in tatters?”

Meng Ruji looked down at herself and the young man again: “They’re not too bad?”

“You and he…”

Meng Ruji felt speechless: “Wait a moment, don’t misunderstand. I just woke up—I don’t know much more than you do.”

The immortal fell silent, jealousy showing in his expression.

Meng Ruji found this absurd. Why should she explain her relationship with one stranger to another stranger she’d never seen before?

Meng Ruji maintained politeness on the surface—after all, she definitely couldn’t fight this immortal right now. His origins were unclear and he was acting strangely. It wouldn’t be convenient to reveal that she had no Inner Core.

“Why don’t you introduce yourself first? I might have just woken up, my brain isn’t working too well…”

“Ye Chuan.” He said it with conviction.

Meng Ruji pursed her lips and asked carefully: “Which… Chuan?”

Ye Chuan’s expression immediately darkened further, the aura around him becoming even more chaotic and dark.

Seeing this, Meng Ruji’s heart went cold.

She finally saw what was wrong with the visitor—this aura was that of someone who had gone astray in cultivation!

Meng Ruji suppressed her emotions and didn’t speak directly. She simply carried the young man and stepped back two paces, looking around. The platform atop Xuejing Cliff had no escape routes on all sides, only one small path down the mountain, which was blocked by the person in front of her.

She had no Inner Core now, no spiritual power. She couldn’t probe this person’s depth, nor could she send a distress signal to others on Hengxu Mountain.

She steadied her mind and decided to first stabilize the person before her.

“You mentioned eight hundred years just now… Have I been sleeping for eight hundred years? Perhaps my brain is indeed a bit muddled, and I haven’t remembered for the moment. Let me go down the mountain, return to my dwelling, and think it over properly?”

“No…” After a long silence, Ye Chuan spoke. “You just forgot.”

His expression showed complete dazedness from receiving a huge shock.

“You just forgot.”

Chaotic energy condensed around him, and dark clouds began gathering from all directions in the sky.

Meng Ruji saw the situation growing worse.

“No, no, no, I didn’t forget!” She began making things up. “Ye Chuan, right? I remember, I remember! Eight hundred years have passed, you’ve changed… become more handsome…”

Thunder rumbled in the upper clouds. Ye Chuan stared at Meng Ruji, the aura on his face alternating between black and white.

“Then tell me, what is my courtesy name?”

Meng Ruji looked up at the sky full of dark clouds, her heart pounding as she responded: “Ye Chuan, what else could it be?” Meng Ruji boldly guessed. “Chuan must be… the chuan of mountains and rivers… right?”

“I’m asking about my courtesy name.”

“Oh, courtesy name…”

Meng Ruji didn’t dare be bold anymore.

A courtesy name was a character expressing virtue, a meaning one gave to their name after coming of age. Meng Ruji originally had no name. When she was human, she was just a small farmer’s daughter. Politely, people called her Miss Meng; intimately, they only called her by her childhood name, Shengsheng.

Later, through chance encounters, she made some reputation in the martial world and gave herself a courtesy name: Ruji, meaning life is like a sojourn, act in the present.

And this Ye Chuan…

Who knew what kind of interpretation he would give to his “Chuan” character?

Great River?

Ye Great River?

That couldn’t be right!

Meng Ruji sweated anxiously, like being in an exam hall for three days unable to write a single word.

Seeing that she couldn’t answer, Ye Chuan’s aura turned completely black. Thunder roared overhead, and a bolt of lightning struck down directly!

Meng Ruji’s pupils contracted. At the last moment, she almost instinctively threw the young man to the ground, then dove headfirst toward his abdomen.

The dantian!

The Inner Core was in the dantian!

As long as she could bite out the Inner Core, this lightning wouldn’t kill her!

To survive, Meng Ruji opened her mouth and bit down hard on the young man’s stomach. But the previously invulnerable body remained undamaged by her teeth even now.

So in the thunderous roar, in the spinning world, Meng Ruji died in this undignified position of biting someone’s abdomen…

At least at that time, she thought she had died.

So unfair!

Just awakened from eight hundred years of slumber, Inner Core stolen, encountering a mad dog! First beaten, then struck by lightning!

If she had known that after sealing herself, she would encounter these strange creatures upon awakening, she might as well have severed her own meridians and died eight hundred years ago!

That would have been quicker.

Meng Ruji listened to the thunder’s roar, feeling the pain of heavenly lightning striking her body, accepting her fate while complaining in her heart.

But in the final moment, perhaps it was an illusion—she vaguely felt the body of the young man she had pinned beneath her curl up slightly. He protected her head with his hand, then turned to his side, protecting her in his arms like protecting a child.

In that embrace, there was the smell of blood and an unusually hot body temperature…

Very warm, as if even the thunder had grown quieter.

Meng Ruji had once heard that before death, the brain that had worked for this body all its life would create illusions at the end to help blur the pain of death, making one think they had gained warmth and peace.

Meng Ruji thought this moment of warmth must be something she had imagined to comfort her final moments…

As a human, as a half-demon, she had lived through ups and downs for a lifetime, weathering great storms, only to die at the hands of such a madman.

Completely absurd, yet somehow reasonable.

Meng Ruji gave up and calmly accepted life’s impermanence…

After a familiar deathly silence,

Meng Ruji opened her eyes.

Opened her eyes once again.

Like every awakening in her life, her brain had a moment of confusion, then slowly recovered and regained rationality.

Had she died?

Meng Ruji stared blankly at the misty night sky. Her recovered senses first smelled the damp earth, then her ears heard the sound of flowing water.

Meng Ruji turned her head while lying down, her head grinding against the wet gravel on the ground, her cheek touching the moist sand and stone mixed surface. She saw not far away a small river flowing gently, with layers of tiny waves lapping at the shore. In the water waves, an eerie blue light shimmered.

Meng Ruji blinked, then sat up and looked down, following the direction of the river’s flow. Then, Meng Ruji froze.

The river flowed to the far distance but suddenly reversed upward into the sky, like a ribbon mixed with ghostly light, flowing toward the endless night sky above, tinting the night sky with hazy colors.

The river truly drew a “Milky Way” in the sky, but ultimately all the blue sank into the black night sky, returning to tranquility.

This river, no matter how you looked at it, didn’t seem like a worldly river.

So, had she really died?

Was this the legendary underworld?

It was actually quite beautiful.

Thinking this, Meng Ruji used her hands to support herself to stand up. With this support, she touched a different texture again…

A chest.

A man’s solid chest.

Meng Ruji suddenly looked down…

Why was this Core-stealing little thief still beside her?

Had he been struck by lightning and died with her?

How unlucky!