Su Xuan held Qin Chang Ge’s fingers as they ran along the rugged mountain path.

The elegant gentleman, the Su Xuan of legend who was romantic but not debauched, extended his hand to merely grasp Qin Chang Ge’s slender fingers lightly. Where their fingertips touched, warm currents flowed, and Qin Chang Ge felt light as a swallow, as if about to take flight.

What a strange sensation—after twenty-three years of separation, when she had possessed peerless qinggong in her previous life, she had vaguely possessed such abilities. Who could Su Xuan’s master have been? To compare with outstanding disciples of the Thousand Absolutes Sect?

Moonlight flowed like water, connecting and reflecting with the starlight filling the sky. Golden waves and silver rivers floated boundlessly across heaven, frost-white moonlight pouring down like milk, illuminating the dense forest and winding mountain paths. The man and woman in white robes, holding hands as they flew, resembled An Qisheng floating on Eastern Sea rafts, accompanied by the green-robed Elv Luhua of Southern Mountain, riding clouds between peaks, treading lightly on mist and clouds.

Before long, Su Xuan stopped without any flushed face or labored breathing, tilting his head slightly upward. “We’ve arrived.”

The highest mountain outside Ying Capital—Goblet Mountain.

Famous for its main peak shaped like a wine goblet.

Goblet Mountain faced the Xia River, which was Ying Capital’s great waterway flowing through dozens of prefectures and counties. At this moment all was silent, with a solitary moon hanging high above the lonely peak, its cold radiance extending a thousand li, all contained before the peak above the water. The moonlight seemed so close, as if one could step into the moon itself, while the night wind howled, stirring up thousands of water layers that beat against the blue-black mountain stones—even from the mountaintop, one could faintly hear them.

Under the pale light, pointing into the distance, the lightly-clothed man and woman stood silently on the summit. Su Xuan bowed his head slightly, his expression calm yet sorrowful, gazing at the vast river flowing eastward. Ten thousand acres of green waves and one mountain’s sheer cliff were all casually beneath his feet. In this moment of clear, cold moonlight and frost-white lunar radiance, reflecting his snow-like tall figure and black hair flying in the wind, illuminating his slightly melancholy refined features, his posture as he gazed down at the Xia River displayed infinite elegance.

He gazed toward a protruding area at the very top of the peak, his expression filled with infinite reminiscence and wistful longing, yet he did not advance another step.

The long wind swept fiercely, scattering their robes. Su Xuan drew a wine flask from his bosom, and as soon as he removed the lid, an indescribably fragrant wine aroma immediately spread. With her sharp eyes, Qin Chang Ge immediately recognized this as a famous brew of the world—the renowned wine “Eternal Spring” crafted by Nanmin using extraordinary treasures and secret techniques.

This wine was worth a thousand gold pieces and difficult to obtain; countless people only heard its name but never saw it in their lifetime.

Yet Su Xuan acted as if he were completely unaware of the wine’s preciousness, merely smiling faintly as he slowly poured the liquid down the cliff.

He said softly, “Throughout the world, you are first; divine wisdom and spiritual movement that our generation cannot match. Only by using all phenomena as a table, the six directions as a desk, the world as a mat, and green mountains as a goblet could one match your brilliant glance, your slow drinking and careful savoring. Now only fine wine is lacking. Today I pour Eternal Spring into Ying Capital’s Xia River—a river’s worth of wine fragrance enters your myriad mountain goblet. I only wish for you to turn back with a smile above the clouds and between azure heavens, drinking once with unfurrowed brow… Please, please.”

Qin Chang Ge stood with hands behind her back to one side, smiling as she listened, but thought to herself: Such grand words—using an entire Xia River as wine and thousand-peaked Goblet Mountain as a goblet, all for that benefactor’s single sip… Who is this person to be more imposing than my previous life?

Her gaze turned toward the summit peak that Su Xuan kept watching but wouldn’t approach—a protruding lonely cliff hanging precariously over the river flow, shaped like a jade hairpin. At the “hairpin’s” top, she could vaguely see some object glimmering faintly.

After Su Xuan finished pouring the wine and turned around, seeing her questioning gaze toward that direction, he said, “Her remains are buried there. Thousand-year black jade, ocean-mixing iron—in this lifetime, no one can ever destroy her burial place.”

As the moonlight shifted westward, illuminating that glimmering spot, Qin Chang Ge finally saw clearly that it was a lotus-seat-like carving with strange patterns in the lotus heart, seemingly not of Xiliang style. As she wanted to look more closely, Su Xuan gently blocked her, saying, “The mountain stone where I buried her remains is different from elsewhere—extraordinarily slippery, and the stone is narrow. Years ago I myself nearly fell… You absolutely must not go there.”

Qin Chang Ge smiled and gave up, but saw Su Xuan sit cross-legged on the ground and draw from his bosom a purple bamboo flute. Closing his eyes and placing it to his lips, a thread of flute music wandered between the cold moon and lonely peak. At first clear and cold with gentle turns, it gradually became high-pitched and passionate, shaking the clouds with its sound, swirling and dancing, piercing clouds and skimming lightning—it was the song “Phoenix in Heaven.”

“In our former Xiliang, there was a phoenix in heaven, drinking from seas and hanging rainbows, auspicious qi not mere smoke. Twin wings soaring above clouds, eyes surveying all directions, riding wind on soaring currents, protecting us for ten thousand years.”

Qin Chang Ge smiled with great pleasure.

No more questions remained—a faint joy like settling dust.

Hmm… In Qi Fan’s secret letter that day, “the bone-snatcher was a masked figure in white”—that would be you, Leader Su, wouldn’t it?

Ah, Leader Su, did you steal away my delicate head or my jade feet?

Though she didn’t know what significance this day held—neither birthday nor death anniversary—it must be very important to you, important enough to replace the death anniversary.

If not for this song “Phoenix in Heaven” that belonged exclusively to Ruiyi in her previous life, she truly would have thought it wasn’t her.

Smiling, Qin Chang Ge sat down beside Su Xuan and asked with tilted head, “What kind of person was she?”

As if hearing the most difficult question in the world, Su Xuan was momentarily stunned, thinking for a long while before saying, “I only saw her once. All her deeds are legends to me, yet from that single encounter, I knew those miraculous legends were all true, because only she was worthy of accomplishing them.”

He leaned against the mountain wall, saying softly, “Given her status, she should have been a peony of utmost nobility and preciousness, yet I feel that flower lacks refinement in its vulgarity. To call her pure and beautiful as a lotus seems too lowly—lotus flowers touch filth and cleanse mire, how could they be suitable for describing her? As for plum or chrysanthemum flowers, they lack warmth in their solitary coldness. I myself think only the ‘king’s fragrance’ could match her—’With light autumn winds, fragrance fills ten steps; touched by bright dew, flowers fly across nine meadows.’ Yet ordinary orchids would still be blasphemous; only the ‘Snow-White Golden Orchid’ worshipped in Nanmin’s royal palace could barely compare. I went and stole some. Snow-White Golden Orchids always bloom at midnight on month’s end—you’ll be able to see them soon.”