Ling Luo turned to look at him. His wet clothes clung to his skin, revealing his slender, toned waistline. His collar wasn’t yet properly arranged, exposing his well-built chest, and water droplets from his jawline slid down his neck.

Yue Liangze calmly closed his clothes, tidying himself meticulously.

Ling Luo blinked and asked him, “Didn’t you buy me clothes?”

With last night’s series of events, there had been no opportunity to give her the clothes. Now that Ling Luo mentioned it, Yue Liangze took the clothing box from his spirit pouch and gave it to her.

Yue Liangze enjoyed giving things to Ling Luo.

Whenever he saw something beautiful or suitable, he wanted to give it to Ling Luo to see if she liked it. It didn’t matter if she didn’t—he just wanted to give.

In those fourteen letters, each one contained a gift from him.

But this seemed to be the first time he had successfully delivered something into Ling Luo’s hands and watched her open and examine it herself. Yue Liangze’s gaze appeared somewhat cautious.

Ling Luo turned the garment over in her hands. “It feels both soft and cool, very nice to touch.”

She asked casually, “Why did you choose this color?”

Yue Liangze: “Actually, there were two colors. When I asked Xu Shen, he said you usually wear blue.”

After a pause, he added softly, “Don’t you like it?”

“I like anything you give me, and it’s very beautiful, like seawater, gentle and soft,” Ling Luo said with smiling eyes, draping the clothes over her wrist as she walked toward the deeper water where Yue Liangze stood.

While Yue Liangze was still pondering the meaning of her words, he saw Ling Luo undoing her outer garment with one hand. Her clothes slid down, revealing half of her fair shoulders and back.

He lowered his gaze and turned away, but feeling that wasn’t secure enough, he raised his hand to create a barrier around the area, blocking the view.

By now, dusk had fallen. Last night’s dark sky was now brilliantly colorful, with soft clouds dyed large patches of orange-red, casting lazy and gentle light and shadows onto the water’s surface below.

Standing with his back to Ling Luo, Yue Liangze could hear the rustling of fabric. He maintained the barrier with focused attention, his expression somewhat serious, as if not allowing any living creature to step into this place.

“I won’t keep the old ones,” he heard Ling Luo mutter, followed by the subtle sound of a fire spell burning her original clothes.

Ling Luo’s hand emerged from her sleeve, and as she raised her arm, the sleeve slid back, revealing her slender arm.

Catching a glimpse, Yue Liangze instinctively raised his chin slightly, his throat moving as he swallowed.

“Do you think I look good in blue?” Ling Luo asked him.

Yue Liangze: “You look good.”

Ling Luo asked again, “What about other colors?”

Yue Liangze said, “All look good.”

“No, you must tell me your favorite color,” Ling Luo turned to look at him. “Saying all look good is just being perfunctory.”

Yue Liangze pressed his lips together in a smile, remembering the first time he saw Ling Luo, and said softly, “Blue.”

Ling Luo reached across his shoulder and gently poked his face, her expression inscrutable: “Choose another.”

Yue Liangze: “You don’t like blue?”

Ling Luo replied with a straight face, “That’s not my favorite.”

So Yue Liangze chose another: “Dark green.”

Ling Luo was slightly startled. Hearing this color, her first thought was of the outer disciples’ robes from Eastern Island’s Tianji.

“Surely Immortal Danshui doesn’t like me wearing Tianji’s outer disciple robes?” she said, her words tinged with teasing.

Ling Luo’s hand was still poking his face. Yue Liangze caught that mischievous hand with slight helplessness and said, “You look beautiful in them. Even if you dress exactly like other disciples, I still think you’re the most beautiful.”

“You’ve become better at speaking than before,” Ling Luo laughed at him.

Yue Liangze asked, “Are you dressed now?”

“No, but you can turn around and look if you want,” Ling Luo withdrew her hand and said, “I won’t stop you.”

Yue Liangze was speechless.

Ling Luo always managed to express such tempting invitations with complete natural casualness, making it harder for him to face them, uncertain whether she was joking or something else.

“After you’re dressed…”

Before Yue Liangze could finish speaking, he heard the sound of someone entering the water.

Ling Luo sank beneath the surface, looking up at the brilliant clouds reflected on the water’s surface. Cold surrounded her, and the world was quiet.

Further down, the water was light blue, without the salty wetness of seawater, and without the Rolling Spirit Locks binding her limbs. In the gradually darkening deep water, no luminous pearls were emitting a gentle glow.

When the Rolling Spirit Locks had pulled her above water, she would see her master, who had been waiting for her with a gaze both tender and fervent.

Her master would reach out and gently wipe the water from her face, bending to whisper words of love in her ear.

She would ask with a trembling voice, “Master, why must it be this way?”

Her master would tell her tenderly and devoutly, “Because I love you. I am the person who loves you most in this world. Now you have become the appearance I love most… Wait a little longer, just a little longer, and we can be together forever, never to part again.”

She had tried to save or correct her master who had gone mad, but amid the daily infusions of love and days trapped underwater, she had been driven mad first.

Yun Shouxi was the best master in the world.

But the man who had trapped her underwater was not.

When Ling Luo surfaced, the daylight had dimmed considerably.

Yue Liangze stood on the water’s surface with his powerful cultivation, looking down at her.

Black hair and blue clothes floated in the water. The special fabric flashed with phosphorescence of the same color in the water. The light from the twilight clouds above reflected on the water’s surface, and Yue Liangze watched as Ling Luo, immersed in it all, tilted her head up to look at him.

She was beautiful.

Even more beautiful than he had imagined.

And in those equally beautiful eyes, only he was reflected.

Ling Luo reached out to him, and Yue Liangze bent down to lift her. Ling Luo rested her chin on his shoulder, arms around his neck, and said, “With thousands of demons emerging, having been trapped for over a thousand years, they’ll seek revenge on the cultivation world. It’s going to be busy then.”

Yue Liangze carried her toward the shore: “We’ll resolve it.”

“Like that demon who wanted to dual cultivate with me last night,” Ling Luo said. “He’s also coveting your sword.”

Yue Liangze calmly replied, “If he dares to come, I’ll make him die.”

Ling Luo: “He has the Death Mist Gate. If he can’t win, he can still run away.”

After saying this, she tilted her head to look at Yue Liangze: “The Bone Demon took the Flying Thunder Pearl.”

Yue Liangze said softly, “He wants to resurrect Zuo Bai.”

“The dead aren’t so easily resurrected. If they truly could be, I would have seized the Flying Thunder Pearl long ago,” Ling Luo said casually, using a fire spell to disperse the dampness from their bodies.

Yue Liangze held her more tightly.

The person Ling Luo wanted to resurrect was her sister, Yu Zhi.

“Is there anyone you want to resurrect?” Ling Luo looked at him with curiosity.

She knew very little about Yue Liangze’s past. He had never mentioned it, and there wasn’t even a hint of information circulating in the world.

She didn’t even know that Yue Liangze had once been a disciple of Eastern Island’s Tianji.

Ling Luo’s thoughts became somewhat absent.

Sometimes she felt that Yue Liangze was very distant from her.

Yue Liangze seemed to contemplate silently for a while before finally answering, “No.”

No?

An unexpected answer.

Ling Luo asked, “What about parents or friends? You can at least consider it hypothetically.”

She spoke very patiently, with a hint of enchantment.

Yue Liangze shook his head and said, “One Flying Thunder Pearl isn’t enough.”

Ling Luo held up two fingers toward him: “I’ll give you two.”

Yue Liangze remained composed.

Ling Luo continued, “Three!”

Yue Liangze blinked.

Ling Luo raised another finger and said in a mysterious tone, “Four. Immortal Danshui, one must learn to be content.”

Yue Liangze couldn’t help but laugh. After a moment, he said softly, “Truly, there’s no one.”

If they couldn’t be resurrected, if they knew he had become what he was now, those two would be heartbroken and distressed.

Ling Luo was slightly startled upon hearing this. She turned her head from Yue Liangze’s shoulder and asked directly, “Don’t you want to resurrect your parents?”

Yue Liangze carried her ashore, where lush flowering trees stood in rows, their branches spreading to shield the light and cast shadows.

He walked leisurely toward the Moon Palace, as daylight quickly faded.

Yue Liangze said quietly, “There’s no need to bring them back to this mortal realm to suffer.”

Ling Luo instinctively felt that even if she asked, Yue Liangze wouldn’t tell her.

They both had secrets they would never reveal.

Ling Luo also didn’t want to return to this mortal realm to suffer, but she happened to meet Yue Liangze.

And discovered him early on.

Everything should have ended that day.

Ling Luo wasn’t afraid of death.

But she couldn’t accept Yue Liangze’s death.

It was only after a long time that Ling Luo belatedly realized that Yue Liangze’s death made her sad.

Very sad.

Ling Luo curled up, burying her face in Yue Liangze’s embrace. Yue Liangze held her tightly and asked softly, “Tired?”

“Hungry,” Ling Luo said in a muffled voice. “I want something sweet.”

By the time they returned to the Moon Palace, darkness had completely fallen. The Moon Palace had many dining halls, and Yue Liangze chose a secluded one to find ingredients to prepare food for Ling Luo.

This dining hall was on a cliff top, with a platform extending forward that offered views of passing clouds below—majestic.

Ling Luo took a stroll along the cliff edge and returned with a bunch of vibrantly blooming wildflowers.

Above the Moon Palace, message-carrying spirit birds flew back and forth everywhere, some not only transmitting information but also delivering medicines and other items.

Ling Luo stood in the courtyard watching for a while, then turned to ask Yue Liangze, “Did you see Mu Sujing today?”

“I did,” Yue Liangze said. “He probably needs some time alone.”

“Mu Jingyi is dead, so he’s no longer under threat. From now on, he can go wherever he wants,” Ling Luo said, sitting at the table and fiddling with the flowers she had just picked, using various jars and bottles from the kitchen.

Yue Liangze said, “He’ll probably return to the mountains.”

“Living in the mountains is quite nice. One can survive by occasionally going to the markets to buy things,” Ling Luo said, using the Ying Xi fan bone to trim the flower stems. Sui Wu laughed exaggeratedly beside her.

Ling Luo blocked out Sui Wu.

While she was doing these things, her mind was filled with thoughts of Yue Liangze.

Yue Liangze arranged flower stems by the window.

Yue Liangze moved flower pots in the garden to shelter them from rain.

Yue Liangze pruning fragile, difficult-to-care-for flowering vines.

Ling Luo could recall his every movement at the time, and unconsciously made the same gestures herself, learning from him the same habits of arranging and classifying flower stems.

She fell silent as she looked at the neatly arranged flower stems in the jar.

After staring at these few pots of wildflowers for a long time, Ling Luo slowly said, “If, I’m saying if—”

Halfway through her sentence, she suddenly remembered many things that had to be done, and the rest of her words died away.

Yue Liangze in the room looked up toward Ling Luo outside the window: “If what?”

Ling Luo had her back to him, her outstretched fingertips lightly touching the cool, soft flower leaves.

*If there weren’t all these troubling matters, I would also like to take you back to Mount Tiazhao, occasionally entering the world to save lovable people, kill rampaging demons, and return to the mountains when flowers bloom and fruits ripen, making sweet pastries and melon cakes to give to a few good friends, letting days pass slowly and leisurely.*

“If… If I were to become a demon in the future, what would you do?” Ling Luo turned sideways to look at Yue Liangze, asking with a faint smile, though her eyes held no trace of laughter.