Yusang cast a spell, transferring some spiritual power to Yan Qige. Hearing him cough and wake up, she finally felt somewhat relieved. She carefully brushed the sand from his wound with her hand and smiled, “It’s good that you’re awake. You do have a tough life.”

Yan Qige opened his eyes to look at Yusang, his face pale as he frowned slightly. He seemed to want to say something, but the words stopped at his lips. After a pause, he asked, “What happened?”

“You don’t remember?” Yusang asked in return.

Yan Qige shook his head. Yusang clicked her tongue in exasperation and helplessly raised her hand to her forehead. She had originally wanted to ask him what had happened at Helian Castle and who had killed Helian Yu, but now it seemed Yan Qige remembered nothing at all.

“Forget it. You’re just an ordinary mortal now—I shouldn’t expect too much from you. Let’s go. If we don’t quickly find a doctor for you, you’ll still die,” Yusang stood up, speaking with a bitter smile as she reached out to pull Yan Qige to his feet.

Yan Qige used Yusang’s hand to stand up. Seeing that he truly had no strength, Yusang simply let him drape his arm over her shoulder. With Yusang’s support, Yan Qige stood steady, looked around, then pointed in a direction indicating for Yusang to walk forward.

Yusang was initially somewhat skeptical, but Yan Qige insisted there was a trade route in that direction. Since Yusang couldn’t determine direction herself at the moment, she could only follow his indicated path. Sure enough, after walking for a short while, the sound of carriages came from ahead—a merchant caravan was passing by on the Gobi trade road.

Half an hour later, Yusang and Yan Qige sat at the back of a cargo wagon in the merchant caravan. Yusang leaned against the stacked goods, shifting to find a more comfortable position. Seeing the purple compass at her waist, she took it down and fiddled with it, becoming lost in thought as she remembered how Yan Qige used to hold this thing while hunting demons.

“What are you thinking about?” Yan Qige asked, interrupting Yusang’s reverie.

Yusang looked up with a smile and said, “Nothing.”

…

…

“Are you thinking about that person who looks like me?”

Yusang made a noncommittal sound of agreement, glanced at Yan Qige once, and said nothing more.

“You look very sad. Is he… is he that important to you?” Yan Qige asked tentatively.

“What?” Yusang didn’t react immediately, frowning as she glanced at Yan Qige. Understanding that he was treating his former self as a completely unrelated person and trying to probe for information, she couldn’t help but laugh. She put away the purple compass and said, “Him? He’s particularly annoying—always bullying me, thinking he’s so great, arrogant with a bad temper, and he likes to be unreasonable…”

“But you like him. You miss him very much now, and you’re worried about him.”

Yan Qige interrupted Yusang’s words. Hearing his serious tone, the smile on Yusang’s face stiffened somewhat. She coughed awkwardly twice and stopped talking. Yan Qige also fell silent.

Several hours later, the caravan stopped at a border town. Yusang found a doctor in town to treat his wound. Fortunately, the injury wasn’t severe—after applying medicine, there was no problem. They stayed at an inn in town. Yusang thought that Yan Qige was particular about food, and the fare at this remote inn was truly poor in both color and taste. Considering that he was injured, she decided to go the extra mile and made several small dishes and soup to bring to him.

Yan Qige watched Yusang arrange the dishes on the table but remained silent. When Yusang called to him twice and he didn’t respond, she became somewhat angry, putting the small dishes back in the food box and saying, “Consider my kindness wasted.”

As Yusang turned to leave, Yan Qige finally became anxious. He quickly stood up and reached out to grab her arm, but he still didn’t speak. Yusang shook him off and said, “If you have nothing to say, I’m leaving.”

“You’re kind to me only because I look like that person, isn’t that right?” Yan Qige spoke, his tone carrying some resentment.

Yusang stopped and was stunned for a moment, then suddenly understood—this Yan Qige had been silent because he was competing with his former self! Thinking of this, Yusang couldn’t help but laugh, but she didn’t turn around, just waiting to see what he would do next.

“I promise you that I will never bully you in the future. I will do everything I’ve promised you. I will take care of you and never let you wander alone again.”

Yan Qige spoke earnestly. Yusang initially listened as if it were a joke, but the more he spoke, the less she could laugh. She unconsciously gripped the jade bracelet on her wrist and said after a long while, “That person also said these things, but he later forgot them. Tonight’s words—you’ll forget them tomorrow morning too.”

“What did he forget?” Yan Qige pressed.

Yusang remembered the events of that day in Dajing City, when Yan Qige had also made solemn promises, but after leaving that place, he had forgotten everything completely.

“He said he wouldn’t bully me anymore, that he would protect me, take care of me, and always stay with me. But later he forgot everything. He allowed others to humiliate and bully me, even severely wounded me, for the sake of another woman. His kindness to me was only because he took me for the shadow of some other woman…”

Yusang poured out the secrets she had long suppressed in her heart in a rambling manner, feeling a sense of relief while also feeling somewhat desolate and forlorn. How unpredictable life was—in the past, she had always taken great care to hide everything about Dajing City, to conceal her identity and purpose, but now, even if she spoke of it directly in front of him, he had no idea it was about himself.

“Is there more he doesn’t know?”

Yusang sniffled and looked up at the ceiling, her eyes somewhat sore as she smiled and curved her lips, saying, “Yes, so much more. I hid my identity from him—actually, I followed him only because I wanted something of his. I led him into danger just to use him to get what I wanted. Also, when I saw him being good to other women, I was very angry, especially angry. What made me even angrier was that when I left, he didn’t come looking for me. He always thinks he’s so clever, but actually, he’s not clever at all. He’s so stupid—the biggest, biggest, biggest fool in the world.”

“You like him.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. He’ll never know any of this.” Yusang turned to look at Yan Qige, smiled bitterly, placed the food box back on the table, and left.

At nightfall, Yusang climbed the highest dune beside the small town according to the position of the Big Dipper, closed her eyes to feel the night wind, and took out the Qiang flute to play a melancholy tune.

As the melody flowed, a spiritual power barrier formed around Yusang, but before she could be happy, a scorching, strange power emanated from the Qiang flute. The barrier constructed by the music around her shattered and collapsed, and the Qiang flute broke into two pieces with a sound.

Yusang returned to the inn and stood outside Yan Qige’s door for a while. She took the purple compass from her waist, placed it at his door, then went downstairs. Yusang found the caravan’s manager and gave him a prepared bag of silver, asking them to take Yan Qige to the Jiangnan region and settle him there. Then she got another horse and quietly left under the moonlight.

Riding away from the earthen city on horseback, Yusang suddenly felt somewhat sad for some reason. This time, she was truly leaving. In the future, with mountains high and waters far, Yan Qige was just an ordinary mortal, while she still had to collect soul artifacts and find the Soul Collector. No matter what had happened in the past, from now on, he would live the life of an ordinary mortal—birth, aging, sickness, death, then reincarnation. Perhaps they would never cross paths again.