Yu Lingxi’s only impression of the Immortal City of Desire was the great fire in the fourteenth year of Tianzhao when it was burned into a human inferno.

At that time, Yu Lingxi was secluded in a side courtyard of the Zhao Mansion. Even at half a city’s distance, she could see the flames reddening half the night sky as people ran in panic, their cries chilling to hear.

No one knew how the fire started, only that from then on, the Immortal City of Desire existed no more in this world.

Yu Lingxi felt wavering in her heart.

The day of her father and brother’s imperial expedition was approaching, and the black market in the Immortal City of Desire was her only hope now.

Not trusting anyone else with this task, Yu Lingxi looked toward Tang Buli, who was nibbling on a pear, and blinked her eyes: “Ali, would you help me with something?”

Half an hour later, Yu Lingxi slipped away from her family, bringing two sharp-eyed and tight-lipped guards, and successfully boarded the carriage sent by the Tang family.

The carriage rocked and swayed as it drove toward the Immortal City of Desire.

“Right, we should put these on too.”

Tang Buli pulled out two veils from somewhere, one red and one plain.

She gave the plain one to Yu Lingxi, explaining: “It’s the rule in the Immortal City of Desire. Those who go there for entertainment are often people of status who fear having their weaknesses exposed. To prevent complications, everyone wears a veil or mask to conceal their identity.”

Yu Lingxi nodded in understanding and tied on her veil as instructed, leaving only a pair of charming, lively almond eyes exposed, blinking rapidly.

Tang Buli observed Yu Lingxi’s reaction and suddenly said: “Lingxi, since your illness, I feel you’ve changed quite a bit.”

Yu Lingxi leaned against the carriage window, hand supporting her chin, and asked: “How have I changed?”

Tang Buli shook her head, lifting her veil to eat her pear: “I can’t quite put my finger on it, just that you’ve become much braver. In the past, you wouldn’t just actively come to such a place—even hearing the name ‘Immortal City of Desire’ would make you jump in fright.”

In her previous life, having spent two years by Ning Yin’s side, she had seen far more terrifying scenes—what was a small, soon-to-be-destroyed Immortal City of Desire to her now?

Fortunately, Tang Buli wasn’t one to dig deeper. She lifted the carriage curtain and looked out: “We’re here.”

Just inside the main gate of the Immortal City of Desire, it seemed no different from an ordinary market street, with vermilion doors, green curtains, and glass lanterns everywhere.

However, following Tang Buli further in, entering a dim underground hall, they came upon a towering relief-carved gate that seemed to reach an unfathomable height.

The gate, carved with fierce beast patterns, slowly opened, as if revealing another frenzied world, with thunderous excitement rushing forth.

This underground city never saw daylight, its lanterns burning day and night. Visitors concealed themselves behind various masks as they gambled, killed, reveled in debauchery, drinking blood and devouring flesh.

In wooden cages of the brothels, beautiful, numb girls were confined, listlessly beckoning to passersby to attract customers.

Yu Lingxi even saw people from a gambling house beating a debtor, his screams continuous while the crowd around wildly cheered “Beat him to death!”

Yu Lingxi frowned and sighed: “Such a place deserves to be burned down.”

Tang Buli looked bewildered: “Burn down what?”

Yu Lingxi coughed lightly: “Nothing.”

Passing through the restless crowd and descending another level, the lanterns grew dimmer.

The so-called black market was merely a quiet row of shops, permeated with the scent of age and decay.

Tang Buli led Yu Lingxi into an apothecary, with the two guards following closely behind.

The shopkeeper was a delicate, frail-looking young man, but when he raised his head from behind the counter, the oil lamp illuminated the scar on the other half of his face, as terrifying as a ghost.

“What do you want?” His hands continued working the abacus, his voice lifeless.

Yu Lingxi acted as if she hadn’t noticed his grotesque face, asking calmly: “Do you have Nine Abyss Incense?”

The withered hand on the abacus paused.

The shopkeeper lifted his eyelids to scan Yu Lingxi, then said: “This is a banned substance. Three hundred taels, non-negotiable.”

“How much?!”

Tang Buli exclaimed: “What kind of worthless medicine costs so much?”

Yu Lingxi, however, sighed in relief and quickly said: “Deal!”

As long as it could help her father and brother escape the northern expedition disaster, no amount of money was too much.

Yu Lingxi had brought all the savings from her youth, removed her hairpin and bracelet, and even borrowed twenty taels from Tang Buli, barely scraping together enough for the Nine Abyss Incense.

She took out the prescription carefully folded in her sleeve, compared it, and confirmed it was complete.

Then she packed the hard-won Nine Abyss Incense together with the prescription and said with a smile: “Ali, I’ll send someone to your house tomorrow to return the money I borrowed.”

Tang Buli waved her hand generously: “Hey, with our friendship, no need for such formalities!”

This feeling of having someone to rely on was truly wonderful.

Yu Lingxi felt warmth in her heart: “Let’s go back.”

She was so preoccupied with the Nine Abyss Incense in her bosom that when she turned to leave, she failed to notice a black shadow staggering in face-to-face.

“Mmph!”

Her shoulder was painfully bumped, causing Yu Lingxi to cry out, dropping the prescription and Nine Abyss Incense.

Tang Buli quickly steadied Yu Lingxi, glaring at the youth who had entered: “Can’t you watch where you’re going?”

Yu Lingxi’s first reaction was to crouch down to pick up the medicine, raising her head to say: “It’s alright…”

Her voice seemed to be forcibly choked off as Yu Lingxi’s eyes suddenly widened.

For an instant, her heartfelt tightly gripped, unable to breathe.

Standing before her was a youth in black martial attire, the fabric indiscernible. The upper half of his face was covered by a blue-black mask, revealing only the bridge of his straight nose and pale thin lips.

He clutched at his chest where they had collided, and when he glanced over, his eyes beneath the mask holes were slightly raised, conveying indifference and coldness…

Even with just half a face showing, Yu Lingxi recognized him instantly.

So… so similar!

Such thin lips and jawline contour—she would recognize them even if she were reduced to ashes!

The youth emanated coldness, his ice-black eyes swept over Yu Lingxi, his gaze fixing on the prescription lying face-up on the ground.

A dark color flashed in the depths of his eyes.

Yu Lingxi hurriedly picked up the prescription and Nine Abyss Incense, hiding them behind her back.

The resentment and grievances she had tried so hard to forget in her previous life came flooding back like a broken dam. Yu Lingxi’s knees instinctively weakened, the words “Your Highness” almost escaping her lips.

Her body trembled instinctively, yet her eyes couldn’t suppress anger.

Stay calm, Yu Lingxi.

Even if this person was Ning Yin, he wouldn’t recognize her. There was nothing to fear!

Yes, nothing to fear.

With this thought, Yu Lingxi gained more confidence, and despite the chill pervading her body, she held her ground in a visual standoff with the black-clad youth.

“You’ve come?”

The shopkeeper seemed to know the black-clad youth and broke the silence with a laugh: “Able to walk about so soon? You are tough.”

Only then did the black-clad youth withdraw his cold, probing gaze and walk to the counter to collect medicine. He paid not with silver but by tossing a bloodstained iron pendant onto the counter before turning to leave.

His steps were quick; as he brushed past, Yu Lingxi could feel a cold gaze sweeping over her, chilling her to the bone.

Yu Lingxi clearly remembered that in her previous life, he had an ailment in his left leg, always with a walking stick, moving very slowly.

Was he… Ning Yin?

Yu Lingxi hesitated, but that bone-deep oppressive feeling told her she couldn’t be wrong.

Just as she was thinking, the guard beside her changed expression: “Young miss, you’re bleeding.”

Yu Lingxi followed his gaze downward and indeed saw blood staining her sleeve.

Tang Buli was startled too and quickly pulled her over: “Are you alright, Lingxi? Where are you hurt?”

Yu Lingxi checked her arm and, finding no injury, calmly said: “It’s nothing, not my blood.”

Then it could only have come from Ning Yin during their collision.

He was the same in her previous life too, always covered in the blood of various unfortunate souls, and in the end, she had to suppress her disgust to wipe his hands clean one by one, while Ning Yin looked down at her from above, smiling and enjoying her frowning yet helpless expression.

Though she had obtained the medicine, Yu Lingxi’s heart remained in turmoil, filled with unease.

She couldn’t help but wonder: could it be that during those years Ning Yin disappeared, he was spending his time in debauchery at the Immortal City of Desire?

No wonder no one could trace his whereabouts during his exile in her previous life.

A thousand questions surged in her heart.

Yu Lingxi decisively bit her lip, thrust the medicine into Tang Buli’s arms, and said: “Ali, please keep this for me for now.”

With that, she quickly turned and hurried in the direction Ning Yin had gone.

The guard, concerned, hastily bowed to Tang Buli and followed.

Tang Buli was left standing bewildered with the medicine in her arms, muttering: “Gone to settle scores with that person?”

In just that brief moment, the familiar thin figure had not gone far.

The lantern light cast orange and voluptuous shadows, courtesans danced in the street, and people wearing colorful masks shone brilliantly, but only his black robe was darker than the night.

Yu Lingxi moved against the restless crowd, following with great difficulty.

Turning a corner, she pursued him to a magnificent seven-story building where Ning Yin had disappeared.

Yu Lingxi looked up and saw a dazzling golden plaque hanging on the beast-carved door of the grand building, inscribed with the words “Beast Arena.”

She was about to enter but was stopped by her guard.

Qing Xiao, an honest and loyal man, bowed with a troubled expression: “Young miss, such a place is not suitable for you.”

Yu Lingxi asked: “Why not?”

Guard Qing Xiao glanced at the nobles entering and exiting, lowering his voice: “In the Beast Arena, they don’t pit beasts against each other, but people. Various noble families keep fighting slaves, making them kill each other on stage while betting for entertainment…”

Qing Xiao said no more.

Yu Lingxi recalled Ning Yin’s deranged, malevolent demeanor in her previous life, thinking he must have enjoyed such bloody entertainment—this might be his hiding place.

Yu Lingxi surveyed the extravagance and absurdity of this gilded cesspit, understanding in her heart: indeed, he had been pleasure-seeking from a young age, not a good person!

Recalling the desolation after she died in her previous life, a thousand thoughts surged in her mind…

Despite several impulses, rationality slightly prevailed.

Ning Yin was no easy person to deal with. Even with anger in her heart, she had to make long-term plans.

Yu Lingxi stood a while longer, and seeing Ning Yin didn’t come out again, she turned to leave.

At that moment, the doors of the Beast Arena opened, and a familiar black shadow was roughly pushed out, chains and shackles clanking.

“That’ll teach you to run off!”

The abuser, a man with a brutish face, shouted hoarsely, “The distinguished guest has been waiting for you for two cups of tea’s time, go kowtow and apologize now!”

Seeing that figure, Yu Lingxi momentarily forgot to leave, standing stunned in the crowd, witnessing the absurd bizarreness of this world.

The black-robed youth had been shackled and was kicked behind the knee, immediately falling to the ground, the medicine he had just bought scattering everywhere.

He looked somewhat disheveled, yet his back remained straight, pale lips pressed into a line. He supported himself on his knees, trembling as he tried to stand up, but failed.

Two men dressed as guards, fierce and evil, stepped forward and pressed down hard on his shoulders, and the youth fell to his knees again with a thud.

“Let him off this time, we still need him for the duel later.”

A corpulent man in brocade robes emerged from a carriage, wearing a ridiculous opera mask, holding ornamental walnuts in his hand as he stood before the carriage: “If he’s beaten too badly, what’s the point of the duel?”

Hearing this, the two guards finally released the youth.

“You’re lucky the distinguished guest is willing to pay a high price for you to enter the arena.”

One of them kicked the youth and said viciously: “Little beast, aren’t you going to welcome the distinguished guest’s arrival?”

The youth hung his head, a deep, dark gloom beneath his mask, and in this humiliating posture, he crawled to the carriage, then gradually lowered his thin back.

“Look at him, truly a good dog!”

The brightly dressed men and women around laughed mockingly, as if the youth pressed to the ground was some filthy, contemptible thing, their eyes filled with disdain and disgust.

The man in the carriage seemed satisfied with his performance. Patting his fat belly, he placed his immaculate boot on the youth’s back, actually using him as a footstool to descend!

The man was corpulent, his weight extraordinary.

The youth groaned, his entire upper body sinking under the weight, his hands bulging with veins, trembling.

The blue-black half-mask was knocked off, rolling to one side, revealing the youth’s injured, pale, handsome face.

Sweat trickled down his jaw, and loose hair fell across his forehead, hiding those gloomy eyes.

At that moment, the last glimmer of hope in Yu Lingxi’s heart vanished completely.

It was as if a heavy hammer fell beside her ear, thundering.

Through the shifting figures, she instinctively stepped back, feeling some understanding crumbling, a world turned upside down.

That was indeed Ning Yin, Ning Yin in his youth.

That imperious Regent, that eternally noble in purple robes, smiling as he slaughtered, the madman who three years later would make the entire world tremble at his name…

Was now being viciously trampled underfoot, kneeling and kowtowing to a nobleman of unknown name.