Yusang sat down at the table and began eating the clear porridge. Huayi’s eyes showed joy, as if she had finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sister Huayi, I’ve never asked you this before—you were living peacefully on Taiyi Island back then, so why did you suddenly leave? You gave up being a flower spirit fairy on the island to become a demon in the mortal world?” Yusang asked seemingly casually while drinking her porridge.

Huayi appeared unprepared for Yusang’s sudden question. She paused for a moment before laughing, “What could it be? I just got tired of it. You know my nature—I love fun and excitement.”

“If I remember correctly, you left Taiyi Island exactly twenty-five years ago. Before that, you were always Zi Feng’s most outstanding disciple and confidante. Don’t you find it regrettable?” Yusang put down her spoon and looked up at Huayi.

“Look at what you’re saying. I wasn’t the only flower spirit on Taiyi Island. Just consider it my fault—I was the one who grew tired of staying there.” Huayi spoke with a face full of smiles, playfully flicking her sleeve as she turned to tidy Yusang’s bed.

Yusang lowered her head to continue eating porridge, sighing slightly as she spoke, “Back then, Zi Feng and I encountered you in the flower forest of Taiyi Island when you had just cultivated human form. After that, we all grew up together. I know you liked Zi Feng. I even went to beg Father to break off my engagement with Zi Feng to bring you two together. If the Fengjian Clan hadn’t been destroyed, you should be living well now—perhaps you’d be Zi Feng’s wife…”

“Clang!” A sharp cracking sound came from beside the bed, interrupting Yusang’s words. Yusang slightly turned her head with her silver spoon and saw that a thin porcelain fish bowl placed by the bed had fallen to the ground. Clear water spilled everywhere, and two little red fish were painfully writhing on the floor.

“Zi Feng and you had an engagement from the very beginning. He’s descended from the Phoenix God Clan, of noble birth. I could never be worthy of him. Stop teasing me about this.” Huayi crouched down to clean up the mess on the floor while laughing it off.

Yusang watched as Huayi placed the two little red fish into another porcelain bowl. After a moment, she put down her bowl and silver spoon, stood up, took a few steps around the room, then stretched and said, “The weather on Jiwu Mountain seems quite nice today. I’ll go outside to have a look.”

Huayi stood up and reached out to take Yusang’s arm, saying, “That’s wonderful! I heard the snow-face flowers on the mountaintop have bloomed. I’ll accompany you to see them.”

…

…

“No need. I want to walk around the mountain by myself.” Yusang smiled as she removed Huayi’s hand, then pointed to the water stains that had splashed on her clothes earlier, saying, “Your clothes are dirty. Go change quickly.”

The smile on Huayi’s face stiffened slightly. She turned to pick up the cleaned-up fragments and went outside. At the doorway, she turned back and said, “A few days ago, Uncle Xue, who guards the mountain, sent up a pot of flowers. You might like it—I’ve placed it outside for you.”

After speaking, Huayi hurried away. Yusang put on a pair of cloud-soled embroidered shoes and went outside, seeing a pot of chrysanthemums indeed placed in an inconspicuous corner under the corridor.

Yusang approached and crouched down to look at the flowers. The colors were brilliant, the petals full and dense, yet they carried a different kind of spiritual energy. Yusang reached out to part the leaves and discovered a small purple compass hidden inside.

Outside the Yusang Pavilion was a large flower forest, lush with blooms and fallen petals scattered everywhere. Sunlight filtered through the clouds, making the misty flower forest appear dreamlike and fantastical.

Yusang walked into the flower forest, touching the tree trunks as she moved forward. At the end of the forest was a cliff, where she saw Bai Zhi in white robes sitting cross-legged on a stone slab at the cliff’s edge, deep in meditation. This was Bai Zhi’s habit—his daily morning cultivation practice.

Yusang stood quietly under a flowering tree, watching Bai Zhi’s back. The mountain breeze carried the fragrance of flowers until Bai Zhi sensed someone behind him, opened his eyes, and turned to look at her.

“How did you come here without making a sound?” Bai Zhi smiled as he looked at Yusang.

Yusang slowly smiled, stepping on the fallen petals as she walked over, saying, “Nothing has changed on Jiwu Mountain, and you haven’t changed either—you still like to do your morning practice here.”

“This is Jiwu Mountain, unlike the mortal world. A few hundred years pass in an instant, so naturally nothing changes.”

Yusang nodded with a smile, walked to sit beside Bai Zhi, and looked down the cliff at a sea of clouds. Below the cloud sea lay perpetual white snow that never melted, separating the mortal world from Jiwu Mountain.

Yusang reached out to embrace Bai Zhi’s arm resting on his knee, leaning her head against it as she said, “Bai Zhi, why did you save me back then?”

“Why are you suddenly asking this?”

“I was thinking, what would have happened if I had died together with the entire Fengjian Clan back then?”

“Nothing would have happened.”

“Have you ever regretted saving me?”

“Of course not.”

“Bai Zhi, do you know? In this lifetime, how much I wish I could always, always hold your arm like this. I respect you like a father or brother. You are the person I most respect and trust in the two thousand years since my clan’s destruction. I’ve blamed myself countless times for not listening to you. I hope you will never, ever dislike me, and will always treat me well as you did before…”

“If you’re willing, it will always be this way in the future.”

“No, it won’t. It won’t.” Yusang murmured with her face pressed against Bai Zhi’s arm, tears silently rolling down from the corners of her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Bai Zhi turned his head to look at Yusang.

“Nothing. The wind is strong here. I’ll go back first.” Yusang wiped her face with her sleeve, released Bai Zhi, and stood up to leave.

Yusang didn’t return to Yusang Pavilion. After passing through the flower forest, she walked toward the mist-shrouded lower mountain. It grew colder as she walked, until she was surrounded by vast white snow. Glancing back at the mountain once, she leaped down toward the cloud layer.

Yusang went to Uncle Xue’s small shop, where heavy snow still sealed the mountain, as if the thick snow there would never melt. Yusang stood before the shop’s entrance, staring blankly at the wooden door for a while. Just as she was about to reach out to push the door, it suddenly opened.

A face carved as if by knife and axe, with bright brows and starry eyes, thin lips always carrying an air of indifference—it was Yan Qige.

“You still dare to come see me. Do you know how much I want to kill you right now?” Yusang looked at Yan Qige and spoke coldly.

“I know.”

“Then why did you still come?”

“I want the Soul Collector.”

Yusang laughed—laughed boldly and brazenly at Yan Qige, finally turning it into a cold laugh as she said, “Is that so? Do you think I’ll give it to you? Or, if I don’t give it to you, will you kill me?”

Yan Qige said nothing, slightly lowering his eyelids as he opened the door wider. The room was empty. Uncle Xue’s small wine gourd, which he never let leave his hands, lay overturned on the table with wine flowing out of it.

“You think you can threaten me with an old mountain guard?” Yusang sneered and turned her head away.

Yan Qige’s eyes crinkled slightly at the corners as he said, “Yusang, do you know? You’re very bad at lying.”

The smile on Yusang’s face became stiff. She turned to meet Yan Qige’s gaze, and after a long while, she was still defeated, turning around fiercely to leave.

“Light the Soul Collector, and I’ll return Zi Feng’s soul to you. You only summoned those spirits to make the lantern’s flame weak without directly extinguishing it—isn’t this exactly the deal you wanted to make?”