That Song Heng would come seeking her was something Xue Yu hadn’t expected.

Since time flowed backward and everything could begin anew, in just over twenty years, things that had happened and hadn’t happened in her previous life came crowding together one after another. Xue Yu was busy exposing the Human Emperor and making various decisions, her impression of him growing fainter and fainter.

Their thousand-year companionship in the previous life gradually seemed like an illusory dream.

At this moment, hearing Chao Nian’s report, her movement of turning book pages stilled in mid-air. After a moment, she slowly closed the book and said, “Let him in.”

The female attendants on both sides carried lamps and departed to carry out the order. Chao Nian had absolutely no good impression of Song Heng. After thinking it over, he couldn’t put his mind at ease, so he also followed the female attendants out of the study.

The night wind considerately ceased, and the rustling sounds of tree leaves also quieted down. Xue Yu looked at the spirit talisman before her – palm-sized with a circle of weak light flickering around it – leaned her shoulders back against the chair, and said: “Song Heng may have come for The Tea Immortal. This person isn’t simple. I have questions for him.”

Her voice was neither high nor low, but her words were explanatory.

Xue Yu had grown up in Yedu and was cultivated as the future ruler from the time she became sensible. She had her own way of conducting affairs. To develop her, Xue Lu had long delegated authority in many matters. Over time, she had developed no habit of explaining to others before doing anything.

“It’s fine.” From the other side of the spirit talisman, after a long time, came these two words. No joy or anger could be heard in the voice. Just as Xue Yu hummed and was about to extinguish the spirit talisman, the other side seemed to sense it in advance, the voice sliding: “Ah Yu.”

No movement for a long while.

Xue Yu hummed with a questioning tone.

Su You had just finished washing and hadn’t had time to use magic. At this moment, his silk-like black hair scattered carelessly over his shoulders, hanging obediently down the chair back, dripping wet. By the desk was a completely open window – looking up, he could see a full moon outside.

In such moonlight, his voice, clear and sharp, traveled far through the wind and through a thin talisman paper. When it reached her ears, it was like trembling breath sounds, rising and falling.

Both endless lingering murmurs and some kind of hesitant request.

Xue Yu stopped her movements. After a while, she moved the thin-as-cicada-wing talisman paper to one side of the desk, pressed down one corner with a book, then said: “Nineteenth, speak properly.”

Don’t hum, don’t seduce.

As if his conspiracy had succeeded, Su You laughed very softly.

Following the guiding female attendant into Yedu, Song Heng looked around with wide eyes. Everything before him was both familiar and strange. Stepping onto this land where he had lived for hundreds of years, he felt as if in another lifetime.

“Young Master Song Heng, it’s been a while.”

After coming out of Feiyun Peak once, Chao Nian hadn’t gained much wisdom and still had his unrestrained, boisterous nature, but his strength had genuinely increased by a large margin. Now working under Chao Hua in brand-new official robes, when he spoke, he had quite the imposing manner to suppress people: “Coming is coming, entering is entering. Yedu is different from other places after all – stop looking around so much.”

Toward this well-dressed person who presented himself with elegant bearing, both publicly and privately, Chao Nian couldn’t bring himself to like him.

But Song Heng couldn’t help but look.

He hadn’t stepped into Yedu for too long, and hadn’t seen Xue Yu for too long.

From entering through the sun and moon wheel to Xue Yu’s inner palace study, he didn’t know how many times he had walked this path – he wouldn’t be wrong even with his eyes closed. But what should have been merely half an hour’s journey, he walked slower and slower. In the end, Chao Nian couldn’t help but purse his lips: “You really are—”

The one wanting to meet someone was him, and now the one dawdling behind was also him.

Song Heng also felt he wasn’t normal – he hadn’t been normal since Xue Yu saved that demon ghost from the Judgment Platform.

He took a deep breath, looked up at the towering palace piled with gold and jade, then, as if making up his mind, no longer hesitated to follow Chao Nian into that lamp-lit study that had spread the fragrance of books and ink for a thousand years unchanged.

In the study, the woman sat upright at the desk, her spine soft but unbending, shoulders slender, a length of hair hanging down along her cheek, revealing only a bit of her profile, both clean and quiet.

Hearing the commotion, Xue Yu looked up and met his gaze.

One glance – just one glance – and Song Heng felt something in his chest burning urgently.

If once upon a time he still held some special place in her eyes, at this moment, there truly wasn’t a trace left.

“Fifteen minutes.” Xue Yu stopped her actions, glanced at him once before her gaze fell back to the desk before her, her tone indescribably cold: “I don’t have extra time for you. Whatever you want to say, say it now.”

Song Heng couldn’t help but clench his fist.

After leaving Feiyun Peak, Lu Chengze had come to find him, and the two had erupted in an unprecedentedly fierce argument.

He had gained predecessor’s inheritance at Feiyun Peak. Because he had a thousand years of comprehension from his previous life, this ten-year opportunity brought him enormous gains. His cultivation rose like a tide, climbing up – this should have been a good thing.

But before he could feel happy, he encountered Lu Chengze.

The latter had just been forcibly ejected from the Secret Realm Abyss, his entire person shocked and uncertain. Seeing him, he only hurriedly looked him over once, nodded perfunctorily, then walked toward Yin Ling and others, as if urgently seeking to verify something.

Their relationship, after the incident when entering the secret realm – no, or perhaps even before that – had already developed cracks and was no longer what it once was.

The real break came two days ago.

The two met in a deep mountain outside Chi Shui. Lu Chengze looked dejected, with two exaggerated dark circles under his eyes, as if he’d been punched twice and was powerless to fight back. He looked at Song Heng carefully, as if wanting to see through him from inside to out. Without a single word of reminiscence, he opened with: “Xue Yu knows about your origins from the Human Emperor’s lineage.”

“What?” Song Heng was stunned.

“Who said—” The words barely left his mouth before he suddenly stopped, looking at Lu Chengze. Unless someone had deliberately investigated him from head to toe, breaking through layers of deception, only Lu Chengze knew.

He had only told Lu Chengze.

“It was me.” Lu Chengze met his furious, incredulous gaze directly and admitted frankly: “I went to tell Xue Yu.”

Song Heng could hardly believe it. He clenched his fists tightly, his voice barely squeezing out through gritted teeth: “Lu Chengze, why?”

Lu Chengze seemed to see through those angry eyes to the words within: Is this what you call brotherhood?

He lifted his lips with a sense of absurdity, handing him the wrongful cases that Xue Yu had pointed out at Feiyun Peak, his voice tired and hoarse: “Here, look at this.”

Neither thick nor thin, just dozens of pages, but held in hand and turned page by page, they weighed heavily with thousands of lives.

These were matters Song Heng had handled in the past. Now, under those sentences, line by line, corrections were neatly recopied in cinnabar red ink – corrections for wrongful judgments. At a glance, they were densely packed, shocking to behold.

“I never asked you to do anything.” Lu Chengze rubbed his brow: “These matters – if you didn’t want to do them, you could have simply not done them.”

“Song Heng, this isn’t even called being perfunctory anymore.” He raised his voice: “Do you know what this is called? This is called treating human life as worthless!”

“Is this how your Heavenly Emperor ruled back then?”

If Song Heng still harbored some guilt while holding this case file, then Lu Chengze’s final question ignited a fire in his heart.

He had heard this question from Xue Yu’s mouth at least three times.

Each time, both had their grievances and parted unhappily.

“What should I have done?” Song Heng casually pointed to one of the cases and thrust it before Lu Chengze, saying sternly: “This wealthy man knew there was a demon and went to eliminate it. He was certainly wrong in the later dispute, but he’s the pillar of his family, with aging parents above and a daughter under three suffering from illness below. If he perished at Chi Shui, the entire family would have no way to live.”

“So you turned black into white, let the human go, and left the demon to pay with its life.” Lu Chengze looked at him incredulously, wanting to laugh: “According to your logic, humans are always right in whatever they do. Knowing there’s a demon and eliminating it isn’t wrong, just like the court knowing there are ancient immortals like us in this world and wanting to eliminate us isn’t wrong either. In this vast world, among all living beings, only the human race deserves to survive, right?”

Song Heng suddenly raised his eyes: “No one confuses Sacred Lands with the demon race. Lu Chengze, how many good things are there among demons?”

“Song Heng, you’ve truly gone mad.” Lu Chengze laughed coldly, pointing to his own eyes: “Not only did Xue Yu misjudge people, but it turns out I stubbornly repeated the same mistake, and my eyesight isn’t much better.”

“All these years, everyone has favored the human race. They’re intelligent, kind, beautiful, gentle, weak, lively, and tender. They have water-like temperaments and fire-like passionate beliefs. We protect them, respect them, treat them well, thus nurturing capable humans like you to become insatiably greedy, thinking daily about racial supremacy, believing this world should only have humans living in it.”

“Humans have elderly and young to care for, demons don’t – they deserve to die unjustly at your hands.”

Song Heng had never really understood what these Sacred Land people were thinking. Honestly, Xue Yu was more like Chi Shui’s successor – clear between public and private matters, calling things as they were. It wasn’t strange for her to say such things, but Lu Chengze…

“How I acted – didn’t you know and understand for over a hundred years in our previous life? How many demons died at your hands? Now it’s just a few hundred demons – what exactly are you obsessing over?” Almost as soon as the words fell, Song Heng regretted them.

Having just emerged from Feiyun Peak, due to his cultivation method, his realm was still unstable, and his emotions were greatly affected as well.

“In our previous life, beast tides surged and the innocent were slaughtered indiscriminately, so I acted to eliminate demons. But now there’s no beast tide, no desperate circumstances. These wrongful cases – Sacred Lands cannot tolerate even one.”

Lu Chengze scattered the case files before him like falling snow, his words carrying the exhaustion of being unable to argue: “We’ve known each other, and you once saved me. But honestly speaking, I haven’t treated you poorly. Previous life’s kindness – let’s consider it repaid today.”

“Your strength is considerable now. Chi Shui cannot accommodate you. Leave and don’t come back.”

After speaking, he swept his sleeves and flew to the foot of the mountain. Instead, his attendant, who had been silently following, hesitated and stopped, unable to help himself. Frowning as he looked at Song Heng, his words were full of disgust: “Young Master Song Heng, our master has treated you well. From saving you from the Judgment Platform to later providing you Chi Shui’s best cultivation position, he never refused anything he could do. But what about you? Even repaying kindness with enmity doesn’t go this far.”

He continued: “You probably don’t know yet. Just yesterday, Chi Shui held an elders’ meeting. Your case file of wrongful judgments and the series of things you’ve done were brought out publicly, becoming ironclad evidence for the Yin Ling faction to impeach our master.”

“Within five days, Chi Shui will announce externally that Holy Maiden Yin Ling will become Chi Shui’s next ruler, while our master will move to the position of Young Master and serve as Grand Elder in the future.”

“Young Master Song Heng, in being human, one should still have some conscience.”

After speaking, the attendant pursued Lu Chengze’s steps toward Chi Shui’s gates, leaving only his final indignant words in Song Heng’s ears: “…No wonder that Highness from Yedu would rather be with the demon Su You than spare you another glance.”

Song Heng’s head immediately buzzed with confusion, not understanding anything.

What did it mean she’d rather be with the demon Su You?

Xue Yu – who was she with?

Just as he stood bewildered and incredulous, Lu Chengze stepped into Chi Shui. Before he could move, he saw Yin Ling leaning against a tree with arms crossed, standing as if specifically waiting to catch him.

“So haggard?” The two were used to putting each other down. Yin Ling looked at his appearance and raised an eyebrow high. Rarely, she didn’t kick him while he was down with mockery, but walked up to him with hands behind her back and pressed her nose bridge: “Though I always said I’d definitely surpass you, this time wasn’t my intention. I went back and scolded them.”

“I know.” Lu Chengze carelessly wiped his face with his hand: “My thinking was flawed. I should have learned from that vision at the Fusang Tree – no life in this world is born deserving death.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not as narrow-minded as you think. This setback isn’t enough to make me seek death or struggle with myself.”

“I was wrong too.” Yin Ling didn’t mock him but said: “Treating all equally – we couldn’t do it before, but we’ll strive to correct it in the future.”

“After coming out of Feiyun Peak, among the six Sacred Land families, aside from Tai Hua, whose situation is unclear, Xue Yu’s side already had reorganization and purges early on. The other four families, even Kunlun with the most disciples and hardest to restrain, have issued strict orders: from now on, one is one, two is two. Anyone who kills innocents indiscriminately without distinguishing right from wrong will be severely punished.”

Yin Ling handed him a handkerchief: “Alright, I’ll give you one day to adjust your mood. Tomorrow at this time, come to Lizheng Hall promptly. There are too many places within Chi Shui that need adjustment – I can’t manage alone, so you need to come help oversee things.”

“Remember to come early. Xue Yu has been busy recently. Whatever we want to ask has to queue behind the other families, and we often can’t compete with them.”

Regardless of what happened, everyone in this world had their missions and kept turning busily. Only Song Heng stood in the mountain hollow surrounded by deep mountains on all sides. When the long wind blew, his hands and feet grew cold, his heart empty.

The study’s lamplight was warm orange, falling gently on the back of his hand. Song Heng suddenly withdrew from his memories. He looked at Xue Yu, his gaze even carrying a greedy, yearning quality he could detect in himself: “Ah Yu.”

Hearing this address, Xue Yu said without raising her head: “Now is not then. Song Heng, if you truly want to discuss matters with me, show the proper attitude.”

“You’re willing to see me because you have something to ask me.” Having spent a thousand years together, Song Heng understood her reasonably well. At this moment, he said softly: “Ask away. If it’s something I know, I’ll certainly speak without reservation.”

“I do indeed have something to ask you.”

Xue Yu glanced at Chao Nian, who immediately understood. He picked up his brush and drew over ten strokes in one breath on the desk, then held it suspended in mid-air. After waiting for the ink to dry thoroughly, he held it up before Song Heng.

Song Heng stiffened when he saw the person in the painting.

“The Tea Immortal who instigated you to set up that great formation in Yedu in our previous life – is this her?”

Xue Yu asked as if inquiring about official business completely unrelated to herself. Her eyelashes curved upward, her expression serious and indifferent. With each question, Song Heng’s face grew paler: “How did you two meet? When and where? How did she later enter Yedu?”

If he didn’t understand her character, Song Heng might even think she already knew everything and was now deliberately finding ways to interrogate and humiliate him.

But Xue Yu wasn’t that kind of person.

Under their gazes, Song Heng felt like sitting on pins and needles. His palms hung at his sides, clenched and unclenched repeatedly. Finally, he closed his eyes and spoke with a hoarse voice: “A hundred years after the Heavenly Court was established. At that time, beast tides were surging. I led troops to the mortal realm to resist the most troublesome wave.”

He looked at Xue Yu, as if afraid she wouldn’t believe him. Every syllable carried fragmented pleading, spoken with extreme difficulty: “I fell into a great demon’s trap. To eliminate me, they didn’t hesitate to use themselves as bait to lure me in. I was poisoned with several toxins that were difficult to resist when they flared up. Finding a hidden cave, I fell into unconscious sleep.”

“That was The Tea Immortal’s dwelling place. When the aphrodisiac poison on me acted up, she cared for me half the night and finally said she was willing to help me.”

A night of absurdity, a moment of spring passion.

Song Heng looked down on demons in his bones, wishing he could eliminate them all, but this kind of naturally born plant-transformed demon who also cultivated immortal arts was another matter.

No matter how unwilling, he had to admit that night, it was indeed The Tea Immortal who showed compassion, allowing him to endure that dark and cold deep night.

As Song Heng spoke, Xue Yu continued sitting and watching him. When he paused slightly, she frowned and raised her chin, as if silently urging him to continue.

Song Heng took a deep breath and slowly spoke of what happened afterward.

He could never give up Xue Yu for a tea immortal with whom he’d had a fleeting romance. After detoxification, he was furious and recklessly quelled that beast tide.

Later, when news of his injury reached Xue Yu’s ears, she was busy with her affairs and didn’t even have time to return to the Heavenly Palace for a look. She only asked about the spiritual attendants serving him through spirit talismans – just a few words with no follow-up.

Song Heng fell into unprecedented anxiety.

He was the Heavenly Emperor then, with such great prestige that to outsiders, he seemed to differ from Sacred Lands with their ten-thousand-year heritage by only a bit of reputation. After gaining great power, his mentality indeed changed.

He didn’t want Xue Yu’s eyes to be full only of humans, demons, Sacred Lands, and all living beings. He didn’t want to see her either, busy going to the mortal realm or writing furiously in her study all day. Though they were together as the world’s acknowledged dao companions, they got along worse than strangers.

In this daily growing dissatisfaction, the Tea Immortal seized the opportunity.

She was a beautiful and gentle, like tender buds blooming on early spring branches. She was understanding and tactful, not smart enough, not independent enough, unable to work through wind and rain for peace and stability in the world. But she knew how to depend on people, how to smile and please people, and how to cry breathlessly over small matters.

Compared to Xue Yu, she was too ordinary and common.

And this was exactly what Song Heng needed.

When he was exhausted beyond measure and his arguments with Xue Yu grew more intense daily, he even habitually ran to that small courtyard housing The Tea Immortal, lying in the yard to sun himself or drinking tea and watching plays, finally able to relax somewhat in his heart.

But he was also a very clear-headed person. After such days continued for decades, he coldly called a halt.

He steeled himself to look at The Tea Immortal’s tear-stained face, speaking politely but ruthlessly: “You once saved me. Take this token and the money. If you encounter difficulties, you can use this to find my guards at the Heavenly Palace.”

“Han Dan, you’re a clever woman. Indecision brings disaster – I’ve taught you these words.”

Over ten years later, the Tea Immortal named Han Dan was imprisoned in Yedu. His guards brought the token to find Song Heng. At that time, due to his relationship with Xue Yu, Song Heng’s words carried some weight in Yedu. Plus, with continuous warfare in the mortal realm, one tea immortal’s matter was insignificant, and she was quickly bailed out.

After a long separation and meeting again after years, time had left no traces on either of them. The Tea Immortal told him word by word what the demons living in Yedu’s Hundred Masses Mountain had said. In corners he couldn’t see, her gentle water-like eyes held a faint fluorescent green.

She said that since the last time demons from the mortal realm had suddenly attacked Yedu unsuccessfully, Xue Yu had become lax in guarding against the great demons of Hundred Masses Mountain. Little did she know they had long harbored different intentions. When they broke free and joined the mortal battlefield, the hundred thousand heavenly troops currently deployed across Nan Jiang would suffer a catastrophic disaster.

Simultaneously, the war situation in the mortal realm would be reversed.

Seeing Song Heng showing signs of being swayed, the Tea Immortal tearfully threw out her final words: “Your Majesty, please consider – the demons of Hundred Masses Mountain don’t only come from the mortal realm. Qin Qingchuan and their identities – doesn’t Your Majesty know anything at all? If they join the war, even if the demon capital hasn’t taken a stance now, what about the future? After all, they share the same origin and belong to the same clan.”

These words struck Song Heng’s heart.

Toward the end, Song Heng said, “Xue Yu, it was my fault. I was cowardly, failing you first and deceiving you later.”

Xue Yu looked at him, her red lips moving slightly: “One tea immortal, staying by your side for over ten years, could thoroughly understand the situations of Hundred Masses Mountain, the mortal realm, and the demon capital?”

All around fell silent. Song Heng couldn’t answer this question.

He was like standing naked in a deep winter’s cold night, shivering from head to toe despite clenching his teeth. But even so, no redemption would come.

Xue Yu would never forgive him again.

As Chao Nian coldly prepared to send him away, Song Heng looked at Xue Yu’s clean, unpowdered, snow-white cheeks. His chest rose and fell twice. The next moment, he heard his difficult voice mechanically opening: “…I heard Lu Chengze say you’re with Su You now. You two—”

He couldn’t continue.

Xue Yu didn’t even lift her eyes as she sat down. Her long layer of eyelashes lay quietly dormant under the lamplight like thin butterfly wings. In the moment of his suffocating silence, she softly responded: “Lu Chengze was right.”

“I am with him.”

The precarious corner of Song Heng’s heart collapsed thunderously the instant her words fell.

He suddenly clenched his teeth, remained silent for a moment, then said: “He’s just a demon ghost, pretending weakness, obeying your every word, using sweet words to make you happy. You have no idea what he’s thinking inside.”

Speaking to the end, meeting her unmoved, coldly watching eyes, he closed his eyes dejectedly, his voice carrying a kind of helpless, almost pleading tremor: “Whatever he can do for you, I can do too, I can do it too.”

“Xue Yu, can we start over?”

“Crash” – from the other side of the spirit talisman came the deliberate, extremely measured sound of a cup breaking.