Yusang was stunned. She hadn’t expected Helian Yu to ask this question. Looking up at Yan Qige, still standing on the dune, her mind became very confused. After hesitating for a long while, she said, “Uh, probably… probably not very good. He’s always self-righteous and always sharp-tongued with me.”

“However, he can’t bear to see you hurt,” Helian Yu raised an eyebrow, then said with some sentiment, “Do you know why we called him Young Master Sang? Because after he woke up that day, he remembered nothing but kept muttering that character. He does prefer women like you. But it’s fine—thinking about it now, he’s just more handsome than most. I’m not particularly fond of him either.”

Yusang felt somewhat embarrassed and didn’t know how to respond. Helian Yu seemed to remember something and took out a long brocade box from behind her, tossing it to Yusang. “Oh right, if you see Young Master Zi Feng again, please give him my regards and tell him that Yu’er is still grateful for his great kindness.”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know?” Helian Yu looked at Yusang with half-belief and half-doubt.

“Know what?” Yusang felt completely confused.

“Forget it, pretend I didn’t say anything,” Helian Yu smiled with a somewhat strange expression, then kicked her horse’s belly and rode past Yusang, galloping swiftly toward the desert ahead.

Yusang opened the brocade box and found a folding fan inside. Upon opening it, she immediately recognized it as Zi Feng’s.

The setting sun gradually sank, and the evening glow burned the sky above the desert like red fire, brilliant and magnificent. Yusang walked a few steps, watching Helian Yu in her emerald dress riding a white horse gradually disappear into the gray-yellow desert like a green leaf vanishing in autumn wind, until she could no longer be seen.

“Let’s go. It’s getting dark,” Yan Qige came down from the sand dune and spoke while standing beside Yusang.

…

…

Yusang turned to glance at him, seeing he still held the veil Helian Yu had given him. She snorted displeasedly and said, “You were someone’s son-in-law for a while, and you just watch her leave like that? You are heartless and cold.”

“Should I go chase after her now?”

“Sure,” Yusang looked at him sideways, her face clearly showing the threat.

“Look at you being contrary,” Yan Qige smiled and poked Yusang’s forehead with his finger, then mounted his horse.

Yusang also mounted her horse and said defiantly, “This is just how I am. What about it? Don’t forget, I’m your life-saving benefactor.”

Yan Qige looked at Yusang and smiled, reaching out to hand her the red gauze in his hand. “You’re right, you’re right. This is for you.”

“It’s from another girl to you, and now you’re giving it to me. I don’t want it.”

“Don’t want it? Don’t regret it later,” Yan Qige waved the gauze veil in front of Yusang. She immediately felt dense spiritual power and quickly reached out to snatch it, discovering that one corner of the veil was indeed damaged.

Yusang took out the red gauze fragment from before and placed it together with this veil. The damaged area automatically connected with the fragment, the broken threads rejoined, and the red gauze was restored to new condition, glowing with brilliant red light and emanating spiritual power identical to the soul artifacts she had previously collected.

“I thought it had already been taken by that so-called master,” Yusang joyfully put away the red gauze, then said with some sentiment, “I don’t know who this master they spoke of actually is—immortal or demon?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll find out. You now have what he wants. If I were him, I’d come looking for you,” Yan Qige gazed at the distant setting sun while speaking, and urged his horse forward.

Hearing this, Yusang was greatly alarmed. While catching up to Yan Qige, she asked, “Ah? Then won’t I be in danger?”

“If you’re afraid, throw it away.”

“I won’t. If someone comes to harm me, you have to protect me. I’m your life-saving benefactor—you promised.”

“What a chattery little demon.”

…

Two white horses carrying two figures gradually disappeared into the desert illuminated by the setting sun. The sun slowly sank in the blood-red afterglow, finally disappearing below the horizon as night began to fall. When their silhouettes had grown distant, on the dune where they had just stood, a cloaked man slowly emerged from a golden nanmu wood carriage. The cloak’s hood was pulled down, revealing Bai Zhi’s jade-like, moistly beautiful face.

“Immortal Master, what should we do now? Shouldn’t we take some action?” a young attendant in blue clothing spoke.

Bai Zhi gazed into the distance and shook his head slightly. “It’s too late. We’ve already done everything we could. The four soul artifacts have been gathered, the memories I sealed have reopened, and he has ultimately chosen to fulfill her wish.”

Six months ago, in the northern territories, at the Helian residence.

Yan Qige stood holding the Soul Collector before a gaunt old man with a sickly complexion. The old man sat on his bed, looking at Yan Qige with tearful eyes, trembling as he took out a sandalwood box and handed it to Yan Qige.

“My clan has guarded the sacred object for a full two thousand years, enduring countless hardships. Now we can finally fulfill our responsibility.”

“I promise to preserve one bloodline of the Helian Clan, but only one line. You have one son and one daughter—only one can survive this calamity.”

“It’s enough, enough. Two hundred years ago, our clan wrongfully opened the sacred object and should have been exterminated. To now have one bloodline remain is already the Helian Clan’s fortune.”

“Good. Then I ask you—are you willing to enter the lantern as a sacrifice, as its core?”

“I am willing.” The old man responded, and his soul rose from his forehead, absorbed by the lantern, leaving only a corpse on the bed.

Yan Qige put away the lantern, stepped forward to close the old man’s eyes, and opened the sandalwood box the old man had given him. Inside was a piece of gauze and a small painting made from rare white animal hide. Yan Qige took out the scroll, and when he opened it to see the person in the portrait, he couldn’t help but widen his eyes slightly. But before he could react further, a white light flashed behind him, and before he could turn around, his head was struck heavily by a spiritual force.

Yan Qige swayed and fell. The portrait in his hand dropped, but was caught by a slender, pale hand before it hit the ground. Then, another hand drew the sword from Yan Qige’s back—it was a rust-covered sword that emanated chilling cold upon being unsheathed, instantly freezing the tea on the table and covering all the furniture with frost flowers.

“Young Master, shall we take him away?”

“What good would taking him do? He won’t listen to me—he wouldn’t two thousand years ago, and he certainly won’t two thousand years later,” a man’s voice spoke leisurely and slowly, his tone unhurried and indifferent, carrying elegance.

“Then what should we do?”

“If Zi Feng wants to help them, let him help. I want to see what they can accomplish.”

“What about Princess Yuwen…”

“You talk too much.”

The rusted sword was suddenly thrust out by that hand, accompanied by the sword’s cry as it returned to its sheath, settling back on Yan Qige’s back. In the blink of an eye, the people in the room vanished without a trace, leaving no sound, until the Helian siblings pushed open the door to find the unconscious man on the ground and the old man who had already passed away on the bed…