The side room was silent, with the charcoal brazier for warmth burning vigorously, its flames flickering bright and dim like breathing.

Xue Yu slowly rose from the table filled with dishes, looking down at Lu Chengze from her superior position. Her eyes were beautiful, but when her gaze quietly settled on a person, it gave one a sense of oppressive pressure that made the spine slightly stiffen.

Their four eyes met, and he seemed to hear her saying: Pretend, keep pretending.

Lu Chengze deeply exhaled and finally smiled bitterly while raising his hands in surrender: “I knew long ago I couldn’t hide it from you.”

Indeed, he couldn’t hide it. Even if Xue Yu hadn’t sought him out today, when the Judgment Platform opened in four days, as long as he spoke up to save Song Heng, she would unavoidably detect it.

This was fundamentally an unsolvable dead knot.

Xue Yu had long guessed it would be this situation. Upon receiving confirmation, she still felt from the bottom of her heart a sense of absurd “so it really is this way.”

“Don’t ask me—I don’t know what the situation is either.” Before she could speak, Lu Chengze spread his palms, his mouth somewhat bitter as he spoke: “I merely mediated a fight without even taking action. Then I opened and closed my eyes, and upon waking, learned I was on the road to Xihe.”

“Don’t disbelieve me.” He glanced at Xue Yu and continued: “Chi Shui has plenty of affairs. Being trapped here is of no benefit to me whatsoever.”

Lu Chengze and Song Heng were life-and-death friends. No matter how sincere his words sounded, Xue Yu wouldn’t fully believe them. “Before I entered Yunxiao Hall that day, what did Song Heng do?” She looked at Lu Chengze, asking question after question: “Were you with him the entire time?”

This meant she suspected Song Heng of secretly pulling tricks.

These questions she asked, Lu Chengze had already gone over in his mind no less than a hundred times when he first woke up confused about the situation.

Admittedly, no one was a fool. Everyone knew things happened for a reason. They couldn’t have returned to a thousand years ago for no reason at all.

“I was with him the entire time.” Lu Chengze’s long fingers tapped on the table edge one by one as he squinted his peach blossom eyes in recollection. “When Yedu’s incident occurred, he knew he couldn’t hide it from you. That day, he canceled everything, went nowhere, and specifically waited for you in Yunxiao Hall.”

“What kind of person he is, what kind of character he has—I needn’t say much, you’re clear about it too.” He instinctively spoke for Song Heng: “Forget underhanded tactics for harming people—before fighting you that day, he even discarded his life-bound sword before engaging.”

From learning of Yedu’s incident, to confronting Song Heng, fighting, and accidentally returning to a thousand years ago, Xue Yu had maintained a cool and cold appearance throughout, without major emotional fluctuations, seeming to accept and digest this news overnight. But after Lu Chengze’s words fell, she suddenly lifted her chin, as if suddenly unable to contain some surging emotion, coldly retorting: “What kind of person is he?”

“A prisoner with a criminal record, all meridians severed, bones and muscles ruined, relying on Yedu to sustain life and survival, climbing step by step to a high position. Not to mention repaying favors, but to repay kindness with enmity to such an extent—” She suddenly moved her lashes, speaking word by word: “Even if I spent a thousand years raising a dog, it wouldn’t be like this.”

Lu Chengze had never seen Xue Yu like this.

He got along well with Song Heng, but his relationship with Xue Yu wasn’t bad either. With their status, they inevitably had times when they took Heavenly Mechanism Book missions together. After becoming friends with Song Heng, they traveled together several times. They could be called comrades who could entrust their backs to each other in times of danger. Over time, they understood each other somewhat.

She was typically cold on the surface but warm at heart. She didn’t talk much, but she wasn’t an aggressive, malicious, or mean-spirited character. Think about it—someone who could always indulge Song Heng’s good-hearted, saintly nature, how bad could her heart be?

Her ingrained upbringing also prevented her from saying anything too harsh.

This was truly the first time.

“Xue Yu.” Lu Chengze was silent for a long while, then said honestly, “After this incident happened, I thought about your reaction.”

“I admit, whoever this fell upon would be angry.”

He paused to consider his words, looking up at Xue Yu with apparent confusion: “But I didn’t expect your reaction to be this strong. You’ve always been calm. Logically, even with the Qiankun Pearl on your person, you wouldn’t be presumptuous enough to mutually destroy yourself with Song Heng.”

“Those demons, ghosts, and evil spirits detained in Yedu are by nature callous and unrestrained, committing all manner of evil. Which one doesn’t have several lives on their hands? Forget merely being sealed—even if they all perished, for you, for Yedu, it would just be clearing out a debt-ridden shell with minimal impact.”

His tone relaxed somewhat: “Song Heng certainly erred, but with a thousand years of feelings, daily companionship between you and him, how could it come to this point over those things?”

Xue Yu looked at him coldly. Under the closed window, shadows of lights from the building outside were reflected. One or two strands of orange-red light leaped onto her eyelids, making her blink from the glare.

Look—when the injury isn’t on oneself, one never feels the pain.

Song Heng was pitiful, Song Heng had understandable reasons. He was a great good person, a great saint. Even when violating righteousness and repaying kindness with enmity, it was for the sake of all living beings.

Everyone should forgive him, understand him, including Xue Yu.

“Lu Chengze.” Xue Yu had no intention of wasting words explaining so much to him. She curved her lips with a cool tone: “After the Judgment Platform opens, when his life becomes worse than death, remember to help me ask him how he could offend me to such an extent over a mere Tea Immortal.”

After speaking, she lowered her eyes to gather her sleeves, turned to dispel the barrier, and left the side room.

Inside the side room, the doubt in Lu Chengze’s eyes was completely dispelled by that phrase “Tea Immortal.”

If Song Heng’s sealing of Yedu’s demons and ghosts was for other reasons, then Xue Yu’s reaction would indeed be somewhat unreasonable. But it happened to be because of a woman.

Under the premise that the whole world knew he and Xue Yu were a couple.

Where did this leave Xue Yu’s face?

In anyone’s place, who wouldn’t be angry, who wouldn’t feel heartbroken?

Thinking of the situation ahead, Lu Chengze couldn’t help but cover his forehead and slowly sigh.

After the deep night, West Tower became even livelier. Xue Yu and her group were assigned to stay on the third floor. Those coming and going to serve were people carefully selected by Liu Niang—quiet in movement, light-footed, all appearing clever and capable.

Qing Luo and Liang Yan were waiting under the flower lanterns hanging at the small courtyard entrance. Seeing her return, they approached one after the other. The latter whispered in Xue Yu’s ear: “My lady, we investigated earlier. Chi Shui brought quite a few people this time—over thirty openly, with unclear numbers in secret, led by Holy Son Lu Chengze and Holy Daughter Yin Ling.”

Xue Yu stopped and nodded to indicate she understood, then her gaze slid across Liang Yan’s face before settling on Qing Luo, who couldn’t hide her nervousness and anxiety.

Unable to withstand the pressure, the inexperienced little demon hadn’t even spoken when a pair of ears suddenly popped out from Qing Luo’s hair with a “peng” sound, ear tips pressed back in a startled appearance.

Xue Yu was silent for a moment, then spoke before the little demon could kneel and beg forgiveness: “Send word to Chao Hua, have her investigate whether a Tea Immortal is imprisoned in Yedu’s great prison.”

All things have spirits. Compared to naturally ferocious wolves, tigers, and leopards, humans inevitably felt one or two points of affection toward flowers, grass, trees, frost, clouds, rain, and dew that embodied heaven and earth’s essence. Thus, if such spirits had the fortune to enter some righteous sect to study immortal techniques, they would be called “little immortals.” If they lacked such fortune and cultivated demon arts by instinct, they were “little demons.”

The “Tea Immortal” Song Heng spoke of was, to put it plainly, just a little tea demon who had cultivated techniques but committed crimes and was imprisoned in Yedu.

It was said that when Song Heng went to Yedu, initially it was only to find such a person. It was after hearing that tea demon’s words that he suddenly decided to raise troops against Yedu.

To be able to induce Song Heng to go on a killing spree, Xue Yu truly wanted to witness this tea demon’s abilities.

Qing Luo was stunned, then came to her senses and tremblingly replied Yes.

After Xue Yu left, Liang Yan supported Qing Luo’s back from behind, looking at her dazed expression with some amusement: “Why just stand there? My lady has given instructions—why aren’t you hurrying to carry them out?”

Qing Luo fumblingly pulled out the communication talisman from her waist. Just as she was about to ignite it, her fingertips stopped again. She opened her round eyes wide and asked Liang Yan with some hesitation: “But—why does my lady…”

Liang Yan smiled and patted her shoulder, “You have no parents and no relatives or friends to rely on. If you were sent away, where could you go?”

In a large city like Shanhai City, where cultivators and humans each made up half the population, a little demon who couldn’t even control her ears would have only a dead end.

So even though she was currently a burden who knew nothing, my lady was willing to give her a chance and keep her around to work.

As if knowing what she was thinking, Liang Yan’s expression softened: “When you’ve followed my lady for a long time, you’ll know that my lady’s heart is softer than anyone’s.”

Qing Luo clutched the ignited talisman in her hand and nodded heavily.

After giving instructions, Xue Yu didn’t stay long in her room and soon left West Tower like a gust of wind.

Heaven and earth formed a line, the silver moon like a hook. The entire Shanhai City was like a giant beast lurking in the mist and night, quietly crouching. Late February winds blew one after another across the dried ginkgo branches on both sides of the streets, making the branches collide with crackling sounds.

Xue Yu lightly touched her toes and leaped onto West Tower’s roof beam. Looking back, her view was empty—not a single lamp or cluster of firelight, as if something had forcibly separated this place from the bustling West Tower.

That was Xihe Sacred Land.

Xihe had always been mysterious with many rules, conducting affairs methodically. Because the divine tree Fusang and the sacred object Heavenly Mechanism Book were rooted here, even though the direct bloodline was sparse, it remained uniquely special in the world’s eyes. Its position as first among Sacred Lands had never changed.

Now that the Sacred Land hadn’t yet opened, Xue Yu couldn’t enter and couldn’t see Song Heng imprisoned in the great prison.

She wondered what Song Heng’s mood would be—he who had grown accustomed to being a lofty Heavenly Emperor and begun treating all living beings’ lives as grass and weeds—when he once again found himself at a time when his fate was controlled and manipulated by others.

This time, even if Lu Chengze could save him, in Chi Shui, that despised evil like enemies, what kind of cultivation could Song Heng receive, how much attention could he gain?

No matter how much Lu Chengze wanted to help him, how could he help?

Give up his Holy Son position for Song Heng to take?