Meng Ruji knew she had fallen into the Nai River, and she knew Mu Sui had come to pull her out, but then what?

Then…

She seemed to sink into an endless darkness.

She only felt herself continuously falling, wind sounds shuttling past her ears like incantations, light weaving before her eyes like formation lines, until with a “bang,” Meng Ruji felt herself crash heavily onto the ground.

The blinding radiance stilled and became gentle, and sounds also became concrete in her ears. Meng Ruji saw pristine white mist all around, and from within the mist, two figures in white robes approached—a man and a woman, bearing the radiance that only heavenly gods possessed.

Meng Ruji stared at them in stunned confusion, seeing their faces cold yet seeming to smile with their eyes, their expressions carrying compassion. The hand they extended to hold hers was so gentle it could touch her soul.

Meng Ruji was led by them in a daze, allowing them to guide her step by step out of the white mist.

Beyond the layers of mist was a high platform, below which stretched cloud stairs tier upon tier, extending for thousands of miles. On each tier of cloud stairs stood several heavenly gods, all dressed in white robes with radiance emanating from their bodies.

“The Divine Platform births a new god.”

The goddess on Meng Ruji’s left spoke, her voice gentle yet carrying throughout the divine realm. She caught a strand of golden thread falling from the sky, the thread appearing in her palm. “The new god is…”

Her voice paused, then she looked at Meng Ruji: “God of Catastrophic Destruction. Bestowed name, Xinghuo.”

As the voice echoed into the distance, the radiance of the heavenly gods on the cloud stairs flickered individually, but soon quieted down again.

Meng Ruji saw the goddess beside her crouch down, sending forth the golden thread. The silk wrapped around Meng Ruji’s wrist, then quickly burrowed into the bone marrow beneath her skin.

In an instant, a strange sensation rose from within her body. Through her eyes, she seemed to see farther beyond the mist, detailed enough to observe the spread wings of cranes. Her ears heard the rhythm of heaven and earth—wind and waves, each regular movement producing sounds unique to them.

The colors and breath of all things flowed through her heart.

She seemed to… establish a wondrous connection with this world…

“Xinghuo.” The divine lord on the other side also bent down. He looked at her with a gentle expression. “I am Changning, God of Order. Welcome to this world.”

Meng Ruji looked into his dark pupils, saw the radiance around him, then looked down at her palm. Seeing her hands like those of a three-year-old child, she finally realized.

This wasn’t her body—this was another person’s body, another person’s memories…

Or rather…

Some deity’s memories.

And Meng Ruji recalled once more that she had fallen into the Nai River, and Mu Sui had rushed toward her and embraced her.

Whose divine memories these were was self-evident.

Xinghuo, God of Catastrophic Destruction.

So he wasn’t called Mu Sui originally.

His heaven-granted name meant spark, and his heaven-granted mission carried an aura of destruction.

It’s just… when she fell into the Nai River before and saw her past, when touching Mo Li, she saw fragments of Mo Li’s memories.

Those memories were just fragments, flashing by.

Why was seeing Mu Sui’s past presented in this way?

As if she had completely fallen into Mu Sui’s past, so vividly experiencing all his sensations, as if living his life over again…

Where was Mu Sui then?

Was he also in this memory now?

Before Meng Ruji could figure it out, she felt the light around her change. She watched her hands rapidly grow larger, and the surrounding scenery changed swiftly as well.

After the bizarre lights settled, Meng Ruji saw that her hands had become those of a boy around ten years old.

At this moment, a divine radiance swept quickly past her side. The light passed through her palm as she looked up at the figure rushing by—it was Lord Changning, who had stood beside Mu Sui when he was born.

His cold expression now carried anger, and the radiance around him was tinged with red, seemingly influenced by his emotions. He was speaking to another heavenly god on the first tier of cloud stairs.

“Those mortals below merely stole spiritual energy to become immortals, yet now they dare to rely on their numbers to speak such nonsense, disturbing the order of heaven and earth. We heavenly gods should naturally bring down divine punishment to warn the human race! Why must Lord Tianling keep tolerating the human race?”

Meng Ruji followed Lord Changning’s gaze upward.

The divine lord called Tianling stood above, eyes slightly lowered, saying nothing.

Beside him, another goddess also showed slight displeasure, speaking: “This time, the human race dares to demand we execute Xinghuo. In the future, there will inevitably be even more absurd demands.”

Hearing this, Meng Ruji was stunned. She examined her palms, then clenched them and placed them at her sides.

Only then did she realize she was now in a spacious great hall, surrounded by cloud stairs with various heavenly gods standing on them, while she stood in the center of the hall, seemingly… like she was receiving some kind of judgment. She was the central topic of discussion.

“Right.” A deity from the side also spoke. “Though Xinghuo is the God of Catastrophic Destruction, governing matters of catastrophic destruction, when human cultivators encounter tribulations while breaking through their techniques, this is their own doing. Xinghuo was just born and is still young, not yet fully mastering divine power—how could he bring punishment? For cultivators to use this as an excuse, attempting to force us to commit deicide! Truly absurd!”

These words seemed to stir greater displeasure among the heavenly gods.

In the great hall, their voices rose one after another:

“The world was created by deities. The human race is merely a puppet left behind by Nuwa’s amusement. Now they dare to compete with us heavenly gods for glory?”

“The human race is greedy. After learning cultivation methods, they fight and compete, monopolizing heaven and earth’s spiritual energy, causing all things to wither. In mountains, lakes, and seas, all living beings are harmed.”

“Xinghuo is innocent. The human race is greedy and should be punished.”

The gods echoed each other, seemingly harboring long-standing grievances against human cultivation.

Meng Ruji stood in the middle, looking down at the ground.

“Lord Xinghuo.” Above, Lord Tianling, who had remained silent, suddenly spoke. His voice was like ancient bells, causing clear energy to ripple through the hall, and the chaotic voices subsided.

“Lord Tianling.” Meng Ruji heard herself respond politely, her voice young and tender, yet already melodious like tinkling spring water.

“Human cultivators say you are the God of Catastrophic Destruction, blaming you for tribulations encountered during cultivation. The cultivators ask us to kill this inauspicious god of catastrophic destruction to restore clarity to heaven and earth.”

As Lord Tianling spoke these words, Meng Ruji’s gaze lowered slightly beyond her control.

She knew this was the emotional reaction of Mu Sui at that time, when he was still young.

He felt somewhat sad, somewhat guilty, as if blaming himself for being born with the mission of the God of Catastrophic Destruction, for being born inauspicious and bringing conflict.

Meng Ruji also clearly felt her own emotions—tightness in her chest, yet trapped within this body and memory, unable to find relief, much less comfort, the young Mu Sui of that time.

This was his past, events that had already occurred. She couldn’t change them.

“We have already refused the human cultivators.” Lord Tianling spoke.

This matter seemed not to have been mentioned before. The gods were also somewhat surprised, and Mu Sui looked up at Lord Tianling in disbelief.

“I summoned you here merely to speak of this matter before all the heavenly gods as witnesses—birth is the Way, death is also the Way. Heaven and earth cycle through reincarnation; there should be fate and life, tribulation and destruction. Xinghuo, you are merely one link in the cycle of all things. You have no fault, no inauspiciousness. You must not blame yourself.”

Through Mu Sui’s eyes, Meng Ruji looked at the heavenly god on the cloud stairs. She saw his expression showing neither sorrow nor joy as he gazed at Mu Sui, yet this gaze seemed to span thousands of years, looking equally at Meng Ruji’s soul.

When Meng Ruji was born, the heavenly gods had already disappeared for many years. The mortal world belonged to cultivators, and even legends of heavenly gods were rare. Even though she later obtained an inner core by chance and began cultivating, she rarely heard of the heavenly gods’ deeds in books and stories. When she did, they were about heavenly gods bringing down divine punishment without reason, being enemies of cultivators.

But Meng Ruji had always known there was no hatred without cause. There must have been conflicts of interest and conflicts of ideology to bring about such a prolonged, life-or-death war.

She just didn’t care what the past was really like.

She only focused on her own life, raising the children of Hengxu Mountain, and guarding one corner of peace already took all her strength.

So she had never thought to explore past stories or seek truth between the lines.

She didn’t know there had once been such heavenly gods in the world.

Lord Tianling…

Meng Ruji only vaguely remembered that in legends, there seemed to be a name. This name represented the most difficult heavenly god to deal with among all deities.

He was the most wicked god, using the cruelest methods to kill the most cultivators. After he was besieged to death by tens of thousands of cultivators, the defeat of the heavenly gods was largely sealed.

Yet now, this “extremely vicious” deity looked at her with mirror-like pupils, speaking in gentle tones:

“Xinghuo, you and I were both born from the Divine Platform. Like me, you are part of this world. Those who would remove you from this world due to their ignorance and fear—such people are the ones who should be punished.”

Around them, the gods echoed in agreement.

Lord Changning, ahead, was even more delighted. He turned to look at Mu Sui, then quickly walked back to his side.

He patted Mu Sui’s head, his expression very gentle:

“Xinghuo, I’ll go punish those ignorant cultivators for you. Don’t blame yourself, and don’t worry. I and all the gods will protect you.”

The God of Order brings down divine punishment.

Meng Ruji knew this was, in all legends about heavenly gods, the… first words of the beginning of the war between immortals and gods.