The air was icy cold…

Each breath I exhaled churned into white mist in the extreme cold before disappearing.

On Xie Zhuo’s chest, the evil spirit aura poured into my body through the wound on my wrist. The piercing pain made my body hunch involuntarily, and my survival instinct urged me ten thousand times to withdraw my wrist from his chest.

But I endured.

First, I fought against my instincts, then I fought against the evil spirit aura within my body.

I didn’t know how much time had passed—perhaps just a moment, perhaps an entire night…

When the meridians throughout my body showed black through my skin, the wounds on Xie Zhuo’s chest finally stopped bleeding. I knew that most of the evil spirit aura in his body had been drawn into my bloodstream. The remaining traces in Xie Zhuo’s body were no longer significant. They could no longer tear at his wounds, and with his constitution, these external injuries would soon heal on their own.

I intended to withdraw my wrist, but…

Something suddenly felt wrong.

When I tried to pull back, I realized that this evil spirit aura hadn’t simply been attracted by my blood—it had… ensnared me.

It pulled at me, preventing me from leaving Xie Zhuo’s chest, as the remaining black vapors continued to pour relentlessly into my body.

This wasn’t right…

This evil spirit aura seemed to have consciousness. It… wanted to enter my bloodstream!

“Xie Zhuo…” I gritted my teeth. At this moment, after saving Xie Zhuo, as my body grew ice-cold and completely unable to resist the evil spirit aura, countless fragments of information flashed through my mind.

The four words “not good for me” that Xie Zhuo had repeated throughout our 500 years.

Four hundred years ago, the eight-eyed spider demon who had captured me away from Kunlun said that Xie Zhuo had found himself a weakness.

And not long ago, Xie Xuanqing’s wariness when accompanying me to Cuihu Pavilion.

Plus, Xie Zhuo’s wounds were filled with evil spirit aura, the blood oath of Xie Zhuo that I carried, and the sinister Jing Nanshou…

All this information pointed without exception toward the evil spirit aura. Or rather, toward the evil spirit aura and me.

While my mind raced with thoughts, the last wisp of evil spirit aura entered my wrist from his chest.

My heart instantly felt an explosive pain, as if burned by raging fire, scorched by a branding iron.

My body curled up involuntarily. Gritting my teeth and holding my last breath, I clutched Xie Zhuo’s clothes tightly: “You’d better… not have hidden anything important from me. You’d better… not make my confidence in my immortal body be in vain…”

The pain in my body grew increasingly intense until I could no longer grip Xie Zhuo’s clothes.

I thought that this time, my life might be lost due to Xie Zhuo’s concealment from me.

Damn it, you dog, if you had information, why didn’t you tell me earlier!!

Had I known it would be so painful, had I known it would cost me my life, had I known…

I could no longer keep my eyes open and allowed darkness to consume my world.

Before falling into complete unconsciousness, I vaguely thought that perhaps, even if I had known everything Xie Zhuo concealed, known that saving him would be painful and deadly—I would still have bitten my wrist open…

How absurd…

We were supposed to be a separated, resentful couple…

The world turned completely black.

I don’t know how long it was before I became aware of “myself” again. It was as if I had entered a realm of chaos.

Mist surrounded me. Silence filled my ears. I walked bewildered through the chaos. As I moved forward, black lines appeared around me, like spider webs woven from an evil spirit’s aura. The further I went, the denser the webs became.

Fear rose within me. I wanted to stop, but my feet were completely beyond my control.

Looking down, I was shocked to discover that black spider webs had also wrapped around my ankles and knees. They pulled at me like the strings of a marionette, forcing me forward step by step.

Behind the spider webs around me, a black silhouette suddenly flashed by.

I turned to look, but the silhouette seemed to pass behind me, leaving a sentence in my ear without stirring even the slightest breeze: “You’ve come…”

He was laughing…

The voice sounded strangely familiar.

The black shadow appeared behind the spider web to my left front. I saw that it was Wu Cheng’s face!

He looked at me with a smile, yet his expression was extremely eerie.

The spider webs beneath my feet pulled me down, forcing my knees to bend harshly in the chaos. But my knees didn’t touch any ground; instead, it felt as if I was falling into an endless abyss.

The spider webs around me rose upward while I continued to fall, until my knees experienced a shattering pain. I knelt directly at the bottom of the chaos. Unable to stand, I could only breathe in the chaotic air, my teeth clenched in pain.

“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”

The voice came from above. Wu Cheng stood like a deity, high above the chaos. He looked down at me, but his facial features slowly began to change. In moments, he had transformed into Jing Nanshou.

I opened my mouth but found I couldn’t speak.

“You’re curious about who I am.” He seemed to read my mind, voicing my inner thoughts. Then that face changed again, becoming Xi Wang Mu…

“I am everyone.”

His voice was soft. In the next instant, his face appeared before me. He changed his face—Xi Wang Mu’s face—in front of my eyes, and shortly after, he became me.

Using my face, he displayed a smile I had never worn, making me shudder as I watched.

He said, “Now, I can be you, too.”

He raised his hand, his fingertip touching my face. But when he made contact, that fingertip transformed into a black spider thread. He stuck to my cheek, pulling at the corners of my mouth, forcing me to smile just like him.

The wider his smile grew, the harder the spider threads pulled at the corners of my mouth, until my lips felt the pain of tearing. Still, he continued, as if he wanted to tear my face apart right there.

“You’re learning well,” he seemed to encourage me. “A little more effort, and you can help me kill Xie Zhuo.”

The three words “kill Xie Zhuo” made my spirit tremble. As if responding to my inner turmoil, the black spider webs around me seemed to be stirred by a strong wind, beginning to shake.

The person before me shifted his gaze from my face, looked around, and when he turned back, his face had changed again—now he was Lao Qin.

He asked me: “Do you still want to resist me?”

Before his words faded, a faint voice entered my ears: “Cut the spider threads…”

It was Xie Zhuo’s voice.

I turned my head, trying to find him. I didn’t see Xie Zhuo, but I broke the spider threads that were pulling at my face.

“Do you want to be like Xie Zhuo?” The person before me narrowed his eyes.

“Fu Jiuxia!” The voice in my ear grew stronger. “Cut the spider threads!”

I lowered my head, looking at my hands.

With this movement, more and more spider threads on my face were broken.

These threads… they weren’t unbreakable. I could break free!

I raised my hand, and the spider threads pulling at my elbow snapped. Between my five fingers, the black spider threads also broke and fell as I spread my fingers.

The person before me looked at me with a sinister gaze, but behind the malevolence, his expression revealed a hint of amusement: “Not enough yet.”

He watched as I broke more and more spider threads, neither stopping me nor showing urgency, just watching quietly. “I will give you more.”

I tore off the spider threads binding my body, then looked up at him.

The person before me suddenly stood up. Pulled by the surrounding spider threads, he retreated. I reached out to grab him, but caught only a handful of black spider threads.

In my hand, the threads transformed back into a black evil spirit aura. I shouted into the chaos: “Who are you?”

No one answered, but Xie Zhuo’s voice rang in my ears like temple bells: “Come out!”

With what seemed like a thunderous boom, the chaos instantly vanished.

I opened my eyes abruptly.

In the sky, thick, dark clouds made it impossible to tell whether it was day or night.

My mouth was open, my breath forming layers of white mist.

After a while, I felt my limbs growing numb. I tried to raise my hand, but found it difficult to move. Looking down, I saw that half of my body was buried in the white snow…

“I… I’m not dead yet…”

Who buried me?

Before I could finish speaking, I was startled by the extreme hoarseness of my voice.

I closed my mouth and tried to struggle up from the snow.

But a cold fingertip pressed against my forehead, stopping my movement.

I froze, directly pushed back down into the snow by this fingertip.

Looking up, I saw the owner of this finger—Xie Zhuo.

He was kneeling on one knee above my head. Lying on the ground, my view of him was upside down.

His face was solemn, frost gathered on his eyelashes, his lips pale but tightly pressed together.

Meeting my gaze and realizing I was awake, his fingertip didn’t move from my forehead. Instead, it seemed to press harder.

He pressed my forehead, pushing my head back into the snow.

I didn’t speak, and neither did he.

Xie Zhuo’s silence was normal, but at this moment, I felt that his silence was very strange.

He looked at me, seemingly trying to control his breathing. His fingertip trembled against my brow.

Xie Zhuo had always been skilled at hiding his emotions, but in this moment, even I, just awakening, could see the tumultuous feelings he couldn’t suppress…

“Xie Zhuo…” I asked him, “What are you afraid of?”