When Xue Yu awoke, the tearing pain in her limbs still lingered with long-lasting echoes deep in her bones. She propped herself up on her elbow and alertly surveyed her surroundings, leaning back against a hard pillow while observing imperceptibly. The events that had occurred earlier quickly flooded back into her mind.
When that whirlwind appeared, Song Heng was already injured, his spiritual power temporarily sealed by the spirit array attached to the ice blade. He was struggling just to protect himself, let alone deploy great divine abilities to reverse the situation. Lu Chengze, representing Chi Shui, wouldn’t easily interfere in their entanglement. Even if he acted, it would only be to snatch Song Heng back from her hands.
So where was she now? And what was that strange whirlwind that appeared out of nowhere?
Before she could figure it out, subtle footsteps suddenly came from outside the room, moving along the window, stopping at the door, and finally, with a creak, gently pushing the door open.
Almost from bodily instinct, Xue Yu’s fingertips moved slightly. She had expected a spirit array to appear silently to trap people, but only a few snow-colored silk threads flashed past her fingertips, like a cluster of flames that suddenly ignited and quickly extinguished.
Xue Yu’s face finally revealed several notes of astonishment, immediately followed by an expression that became somewhat unpleasant.
She had dropped several ranks from Heavenly Grade Spirit Array Master, falling to the Great Spirit Master realm, and with injuries on her body, her spiritual energy was blocked.
Great Spirit Master—that was a realm she had reached a thousand years ago.
The gentle footsteps finally stopped in front of the still crystal curtain, and then a gentle, soft voice came through: “Your Highness, the appointed time is approaching. Shall we depart as scheduled?”
Depart? To where?
The person outside the crystal curtain bowed inward, speaking with a respectful posture: “Xihe Sacred Land just sent someone with a message, saying there have been strange celestial phenomena recently. Combined with the Judgment Platform’s special location, after much deliberation, new rules have been established. This time, only those holding identity tokens can accompany the group into the Sacred Land.”
“The master has already sent new people, but the journey is long, and they won’t be able to meet us until two days later.” The woman’s voice paused at just the right moment, then asked: “Your Highness, shall we proceed first, or wait until everyone is gathered before departing?”
After hearing the three words “Judgment Platform,” Xue Yu rose from bed and stood barefoot on the stepping board covered with a thick velvet carpet. Her long sleeves naturally hung down like two scattered clouds, but her expression remained unchanged. When her eyes swept down, they revealed a kind of ice-snow transparent indifference.
As a Sacred Land heir, Xue Yu had always had a good memory and strong observational skills. Logically speaking, in this current situation, hearing these fragmentary and inconsequential words, even an immortal couldn’t guarantee being able to recall anything.
Yet Xue Yu truly found some impressions in her mind.
Because those three words, “Judgment Platform,” were special enough.
The Judgment Platform was located in the ancestral land of Xihe, the first among the Six Sacred Lands. It opened once every fifty to one hundred years. Those pressed onto it were either naturally evil breeds or young prodigies who had gone astray, all having caused shocking blood cases. Any name released would have a resounding deterrent effect. Besides this, without exception, they all possessed enviable talent and intelligence. Heaven pressed them onto the Judgment Platform to abolish their cultivation before millions of watching eyes, using this to deter the world and make them abandon evil for good.
Yet even desperate situations weren’t completely hopeless. If any of them could catch the eye of the Six Sacred Lands’ power holders, they could save their lives and thereafter wear shackles, moving through the Sacred Lands as slaves and servants. In many people’s eyes, this was called redeeming sins through good deeds.
None of this had much to do with her.
The reason Xue Yu had such a deep impression was because a thousand years ago, she had brought someone down from the Judgment Platform.
Her eye for people was very good. In just a thousand years, that person stubbornly relied on the determination in his chest, climbing step by step, finally reaching the summit, and even turning around to bite her viciously.
Later, everyone called him—Celestial Lord Song Heng.
The world always said he was pure and good, everyone praised him endlessly. Over time, this led her to forget that among those who could be pressed onto the Judgment Platform, were there any truly good and virtuous people?
Xue Yu lowered her eyes, thinking that if this were a thousand years ago, then her regressed cultivation and this person’s conversation could all correspond one by one.
But why? Was there something wrong with the Qiankun Pearl, or had someone tampered with that great hall in advance?
Had Song Heng and Lu Chengze, who were similarly enveloped by that whirlwind, also returned to the same point in time?
After waiting a long time without receiving an answer, the woman bowed behind the crystal curtain and didn’t dare urge, even lightening her breathing, until the sound of pattering rain came from outside. Only then did Xue Yu speak: “Liang Yan?”
“This servant is here.” The woman responded almost without any hesitation.
It was her.
Xue Yu’s fingertips moved unconsciously, accidentally pulling out several long snow threads tangled together.
Half an hour later, Xue Yu had clarified the exact year and month of the present and the specific events that had occurred.
She had indeed returned to a thousand years ago. The injury on her body was from when she led people to capture a wolf demon that had been harming human sects some time ago. That demon had lived long and was extremely fierce. It had somehow heard rumors and even knew how to use local mountain people as hostages. Xue Yu was forced to exercise restraint and had to patiently maneuver. Although she finally succeeded in killing it, she also suffered the wolf demon’s dying counterattack and sustained minor injuries.
After finishing the matter, she should have returned to Yedu, but Xihe Ancestral Land sent news at this time that the Judgment Platform was opening, inviting ancient immortals from the other five Sacred Lands to attend.
For matters like this—not too big, yet hard to refuse—the adults never got involved, throwing everything to the junior generation who inherited their mantles, considering it a form of cultivation and tempering.
As the eldest daughter of Yedu, after hearing the transmission, Xue Yu led people to change course toward Xihe.
Currently, they were on the way to the nearest teleportation array, in a small inn. Originally, Xue Yu had planned to depart at midnight, but unexpectedly, Xihe suddenly changed the rules. This way, almost all the small demons and spirits Xue Yu had brought couldn’t enter the Sacred Land, and they could only wait for Yedu to send new people.
Thus came the opening conversations.
Xue Yu casually gathered her open outer garment and pushed open the window to look outside. She saw only heavy twilight and misty rain, with just a few orange lamps hanging in front of the inn, swaying in the wind, the little flames inside seeming ready to extinguish at any moment.
“Proceed according to plan.” Xue Yu didn’t think for very long, quickly giving the same answer as a thousand years ago. “We don’t have much time. Have the people dispatched from the main city go directly to Xihe and await my orders for a rendezvous in the city.”
Liang Yan bowed her head in acknowledgment. After responding, almost from the instinctive nature of the demon race, she inconspicuously lifted her head to look at Xue Yu.
The young woman’s silhouette was slender, her long black hair not wound into a bun but loosely scattered, like a handful of flowing spring water. This scene should have been tranquil and beautiful, but somehow, every time Liang Yan looked at this young highness, the word that subconsciously surfaced in her mind was only coldness. It wasn’t the kind of coldness of a superior who had seen all manner of human affairs and looked down upon life and death, but a surface-level, frost-and-snow-like sense of distance.
The time Liang Yan had spent by Xue Yu’s side could be called neither long nor short—she had seen quite a bit of the world and knew that Sacred Land ancient immortals of such birth generally disdained to even glance at demons, ghosts, and spirits like them, carrying an innate sense of superiority in their bones. Xue Yu was different. She treated everyone the same way. Demons and ghosts who initially came into contact with her often felt she was unapproachable, living in constant trepidation and confusion. Only after spending time together did they realize this person harbored no ill intentions—she simply didn’t like to talk and was naturally emotionally detached.
At this moment, with the window wide open and wind and rain slanting into the room, Liang Yan keenly sensed Xue Yu’s momentarily unstable emotional fluctuations.
She dared not look more or think further, quickly bowing and withdrawing from the inner room.
Xue Yu’s traveling party was extremely efficient in their work. Less than a quarter-hour after she spoke, spirit horses and carriages were already waiting quietly outside the inn.
The couple running the inn were honest and simple folk. Because they had received generous reward silver from Liang Yan, they sat restlessly. The innkeeper’s wife made several “ai” sounds in succession, finally embracing a jar of home-brewed wine and stuffing it into the arms of the little demon standing behind Liang Yan. Her words carried some local accent but were surprisingly straightforward: “This wine was brewed by my husband and me, using local spring water and sorghum. Many travelers from other places like it and come specially to taste this.”
“This wine smells strong, but the taste is quite good, very sweet and rustic.”
“We know honored guests lack nothing. This is just a small token of our husband and wife’s intentions. Please be sure to accept it.”
The innkeeper’s wife was the one in charge. When she spoke, the portly innkeeper just cheerfully squinted and nodded. The demon girl, who appeared to be a young maiden, rarely saw such kind attitudes from the human race. She hesitated for a rare moment. When she came to her senses and wanted to return the wine jar in her arms, she saw the couple who had been extremely enthusiastic just moments before both fall silent together. Liang Yan, in the rain, and the brocade-clothed messenger who had been standing by the carriage wearing a mask, covering himself completely, seemed to have had some switch pressed simultaneously, bowing toward the person who had just emerged from the inn: “My lady.”
The little demon shuddered and, not caring about anything else, hugged the wine jar and bowed along with them, her mind completely blank.
The area in front of the inn fell into an eerie silence.
Xue Yu lightly swept over the demon girl whose body was tense beyond measure, her gaze falling on the wine jar in her arms, then quickly turning away to look at the couple constantly rubbing their hands together, nodding her head very lightly.
Afterward, under everyone’s gaze, she lightly swept into the carriage with graceful movements, her dress hem and floating ribbons like startled swan snow shadows. From appearance to departure, she made not half a sound.
They hadn’t brought many people for this wolf demon extermination, but to make good time, they had prepared four or five carriages. Xue Yu never liked sharing space with others and rode alone in the foremost carriage. Liang Yan sat in the back with the demon girl, who was clutching the wine jar at a loss.
It was early spring, but the cold air of late winter had not completely receded. The four-legged horses with small spirit arrays painted on them stepped on wind and rain, running very fast, their clip-clop sounds echoing all along the empty mountain wilderness path.
Liang Yan reached out to lift the curtain inside the carriage to look outside, then inconspicuously let it fall. She looked at the young woman sitting quietly beside her, still extremely constrained, and said softly: “Qing Luo, put the jar down.”
Qing Luo’s lips moved, and she obediently placed the wine jar the innkeeper’s wife had stuffed into her arms beside her. Her eyes were confused, filled with uneasiness and timidity.
“Sister Liang Yan, is my lady angry?” Outside, they were all ordered to change their address and call Xue Yu “my lady.”
Being of the same demon race, Liang Yan observed her current expression and felt somewhat empathetic. She comforted: “Don’t worry, my lady, she—” She stopped, momentarily not knowing how to describe her, thought for a moment, then continued: “My lady is usually busy with affairs and has such status. Facing complex people and matters, she must always be serious, but inside she’s not what you think.”
“My lady just now didn’t say a single word.” Qing Luo thought of those clear, cold almond eyes and was so frightened her shoulders drooped, trembling almost unconsciously, her voice seeming to be forced from between her teeth.
Looking at this pale little face before her, Liang Yan couldn’t help but recall the situation when she first saw Qing Luo over ten days ago.
After that wolf demon occupied the mountain as king, he built a stone hall on the peak and captured carefree little spirits from the mountain who had developed intelligence to serve as attendants. From time to time, he would lead them down the mountain in grand processions, setting fires and blasting holes in nearby villages. Over time, he truly had the bearing of a local despot.
Qing Luo was one of the little demons he had captured to guard the hall. Born and raised in the mountains, this mountain cat couldn’t distinguish right from wrong. She didn’t know the wolf demon had bound over a hundred villagers from below the mountain to negotiate conditions with Xue Yu, nor did she understand what they were maneuvering and confronting about. She simply couldn’t bear to see those people die innocently. Finally, at the moment before the wolf demon, defeated in battle, fled back to the stone hall, preparing to perish together with everyone, she gritted her teeth and released them all.
When Xue Yu, Liang Yan, and others arrived, Qing Luo was being strangled by the wolf demon, barely breathing, her two large eyes with pupils contracted to lines, almost unable to maintain human form.
In the latter half of the night, that wolf demon who had seemed omnipotent in Qing Luo’s eyes was killed before her, less than ten meters away. He died with his eyes still open, not even given a chance to beg for mercy. All the mountain demons and spirits who had once followed the wolf demon as accomplices were captured by Xue Yu’s people.
At that moment, this cat demon who had only seen fragmentary descriptions in books truly realized what Sacred Land ancient immortals were—those whom all demon races hated to the bone, yet instinctively feared.
Unexpectedly, among those people Qing Luo had released, several burly young hunters stamped their feet and approached Xue Yu, saying—Immortal, this cat demon, why don’t you take her along too.
They made their living by hunting and dealt with mountain demons year-round. They knew these creatures were naturally cunning. Even if currently conscience-stricken, they thought of cutting grass and removing roots to avoid future troubles.
When Xue Yu’s glass-like, clear eyes looked over, Qing Luo, who had just escaped death, felt ice-cold inside.
While trembling, she couldn’t help but close her eyes, thinking, This is the human race.
But she didn’t die. Xue Yu brought her along.
Even so, the terrifying aspect of the Sacred Land’s ancient immortals was still deeply carved into the inexperienced little demon’s mind.
Looking at Qing Luo’s pupils contracted to pinpoint size, Liang Yan sighed almost inaudibly, thinking of herself when she first served by Xue Yu’s side. As if afraid of frightening the person before her, she asked in a low voice: “What about your parents?”
“I’ve never seen them.” Qing Luo glanced at her quickly and replied: “Since I can remember, I’ve always been alone.”
“Have you ever gone down the mountain to look?” Liang Yan asked again.
Qing Luo shook her head, her round little face drooping to her collar, her voice listless: “Someone from the mountain went to the big cities before. When she returned, she was severely injured. She told us that whether human royal nobles or sect elders and masters who had achieved success in cultivation, they didn’t much like the demon race. Demons like us who can’t do anything—if we entered the city, we wouldn’t even know how we died.”
Liang Yan laughed despite herself, tapping her finger on the wine jar beside her: “Quickly forget all the words you heard before about Sacred Lands and the human race.” She leaned forward slightly: “My lady is a Sacred Land ancient immortal. Around her, demons and ghosts of all kinds flow like clouds. Those who commit crimes naturally receive punishment, but I’ve never heard of any being sentenced to death or put to death for others’ pleasure. If it were really as you said, you should have died on that mountain that day. How could you still be alive now?”
After speaking, she continued: “Following by my lady’s side, you need to be bolder. Today, you were so constrained facing humans—if someday you face other Sacred Land ancient immortals, what will you do? Won’t you faint?”
The night was tranquil, the sound of wheels crushing pebbles being the only noise reaching their ears. Xue Yu extended her divine consciousness to listen to the two girls’ conversation behind her for a while, then quickly withdrew it. Since birth, she had received constant attention. Discussions from those around her or the outside world had never ceased. Having heard so much talk, she no longer cared.
What troubled her was something else entirely.
Song Heng’s formation suppressing tens of thousands of demons and ghosts in Yedu’s central city, her father, and that Tea Immortal—all matters, large and small, were waiting for her to handle. At the crucial moment, she had returned to a thousand years ago for unknown reasons.
Now she had two theories in mind. One was that she had fallen into some technique jointly arranged by Song Heng and Lu Chengze, aimed at trapping her. By the time everything outside settled and she emerged, it would be too late to change anything. The other was that by chance, the three of them had accidentally returned to a thousand years ago together.
The former only required finding a method to break free; the latter situation would be much more complex.
Given current circumstances, the latter possibility was undoubtedly more likely.
If things were truly as Xue Yu speculated, then heaven had given her a chance to start over.
She was well-born and had enjoyed smooth sailing in everything since childhood. If she truly had to name something that made her regret deeply and persistently, it was only the matter of saving Song Heng.
Over all these years, Song Heng had climbed step by step to the peak. People throughout the world couldn’t help but sigh with emotion, saying that without Xue Yu’s rescue at the Judgment Platform that day, without the various assistance Yedu provided afterward, how could there have been the later Celestial Lord Song Heng? In the past, these words in Xue Yu’s ears were like a passing breeze—they came and went. But thinking of them again after crossing swords, these words were correct, not a single character wrong.
Without Xue Yu, where would the later Song Heng, who commanded respect and issued orders, have come from?
He should have died long ago on that morning of wind and snow, died under the fifty lightning punishments of the Judgment Platform.
Xue Yu’s long eyelashes unconsciously pressed down, a thick and dense row. She thought to herself, if this truly was a second chance.
At this time.
Song Heng should already have lost all cultivation, had his hand and foot tendons severed, and been imprisoned in Xihe’s most heavily guarded dungeon to keep company with evil spirits.