Zhou Zixi no longer persisted in seeking acceptance from the ghost-people.

Nothing mattered anymore.

His shadow told him the truth about the world, told him that the Ancient Continent had nine star meridian power lines in total.

But what did that have to do with him?

Zhou Zixi lay on the ground, idly watching the sky. Bold birds landed nearby, walking back and forth, curiously examining him, yet the youth wouldn’t spare them a glance.

So they grew even bolder, hopping around on the tips of his hair.

Zhou Zixi thought that if he did nothing and just waited for time to pass, eventually he would be able to die.

But suddenly he remembered Qiu Lang, Wu Liangli, and the others, so he got up from the ground and sought the direction back.

Zhou Zixi didn’t know how much time had passed, nor which way to go. He looked at the world before him—so vast, yet he had lost his direction.

*

The Book Saint didn’t stay in the Ice Wastes for long.

In the gloomy sky of the Ice Wastes, a shining star suddenly appeared, a dazzling red, brilliant and eye-catching, hanging in the distant horizon overlooking all living beings.

After a Mars-like star appeared in the north, the Book Saint left the Ice Wastes.

A month after the Book Saint’s departure, Zhou Zixi found that snow mountain and returned to where the ghost-people were imprisoned. He killed the cavalry guards and overseers, rescuing Zhou Xiang and the others.

Only Qiu Lang couldn’t be found.

Wu Liangli said Qiu Lang had gone to save the girl he liked and had disappeared, his fate unknown.

Zhou Zixi kept searching for Qiu Lang in the Ice Wastes.

Zhou Xiang had made new friends in the Ice Wastes. Zhou Zixi didn’t know how she managed it, but she had kept that little kitten they had rescued alive until now.

“Cheng Jingbai and the others helped raise it,” Zhou Xiang explained to Zhou Zixi. “Li Bushuo had such a low presence that even the overseers could hardly remember him. We kept the kitten with him during the day, and when he went to work at night, he’d hand it to me. Lin Xiao would find ways to save food for it, and Qiu Lang helped too.”

Zhou Zixi listened quietly.

With the cavalry and overseers dead, the Imperial Capital would surely send more people when they learned of this. So they couldn’t stay here; they needed to escape as far as possible before the Book Saint returned.

The young boys and girls traveled together, searching for Qiu Lang in the Ice Wastes.

The snow mountain, standing in its original place, silently watched them walk farther and farther away.

*

The Ice Wastes were vast, home to many more ghost-people and many more cities.

The Book Saint wouldn’t kill them all at once. After all, his main purpose was to use ghost people as slaves, so naturally, he wouldn’t exterminate them completely.

Zhou Zixi passed through other cities, watching Zhou Xiang and Cheng Jingbai settle down to live peaceful lives and enter the ghost-people’s martial academy to study.

Zhou Xiang’s condition wasn’t suitable for long journeys; she needed a stable place to slowly recover from the effects on her heart meridian. So Zhou Zixi didn’t let her continue searching for Qiu Lang with him.

Cheng Jingbai and the others were also left behind to look after Zhou Xiang, leaving only Zhou Zixi and Wu Liangli to go out and search for Qiu Lang.

As they searched, they discovered how truly vast the Ice Wastes were. After leaving the bustling cities, there were endless snow mountains, rivers, and forests, with humans rarely seen.

Even in summer, the Ice Wastes weren’t very warm. Streams could be seen everywhere. At night, the two of them lit bonfires by the riverside for light and warmth.

Zhou Zixi was washing clothes by the river, while Wu Liangli played in the water upstream. After enjoying herself, she sat on the bank with her slender calves dangling in the water and asked the youth not far away: “What if we never find Qiu Lang?”

“If we can’t find him, we’ll keep looking,” Zhou Zixi said.

Wu Liangli supported herself with her hands at her sides, leaning back slightly to look at the starry sky above, sighing softly: “I hope he’s alright. If it weren’t for Qiu Lang digging me out of the ground back then, I’d still be dying over and over in that pitch-black coffin.”

Zhou Zixi raised his hand to wipe the light sweat from his forehead: “In the future, try not to die if you can help it. Resurrection triggers the life meridian, and the more times it’s triggered, the greater the chance of being discovered by the Divine Oracle.”

Wu Liangli: “Oh—”

Zhou Zixi: “Even though I tell you this, you probably won’t remember, but—”

“I remember,” Wu Liangli tilted her head to look at him. “You said it last time, too.”

Zhou Zixi: “…”

The youth, holding the dripping wet clothes, turned to look at her expressionlessly: “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“You didn’t ask,” Wu Liangli replied innocently, gesturing with her hand. “Last time when we went back to Ink City to see Zhou Xiang, Cheng Jingbai, and the others brought snow wine to drink. You drank too much and started telling us about the Divine Oracle and life meridians. We all listened very carefully.”

Zhou Zixi: “…”

Wu Liangli continued: “You also said you hated ghost-people, and that having your life meridian destroyed was so painful, more painful than any death, painful enough to make you cry—”

“I never said that, just forget it,” Zhou Zixi said through gritted teeth.

But Wu Liangli laughed: “You were crying while saying it. Cheng Jingbai and the others were afraid you’d silence them, so they pretended nothing happened the next day.”

Zhou Zixi raised his hand and shot a circulatory incantation at her. Wu Liangli easily dodged, standing in the stream and making a face at him.

“Alright, alright, I’ve forgotten, really forgotten,” Wu Liangli raised her hands in surrender, looking innocent. “Look, you’re much better now than when you were all cold and indifferent. Now you’re more like the Zixi I used to know.”

Zhou Zixi’s expression paused momentarily. He withdrew his hand and went to pick up the clothes carried away by the stream.

Wu Liangli walked to the bank and sat down, falling backward to look at the starry sky, hands pillowing her head, sighing softly: “Although we’ve all been unfortunate, always encountering terrible things, I still hope that someday we can live happily, not controlled by those awful memories, seeking out things that make us happy.”

“Being hated and misunderstood because we’re ghost-people—but that’s not our fault.”

Wu Liangli lay there, eyes fixed on the Milky Way above. Those distant stars didn’t care about someone as small as her; it was she who was always attracted to the mystery and beauty of the stars, so she one-sidedly believed they were always gazing at each other at night.

“Zixi, it’s not our fault, so there’s no need to be harsh on ourselves. Smile when you’re happy, cry when you’re sad; chase what you like, stay away from what you dislike.”

Zhou Zixi looked back to see the girl lying on the bank, reaching her hand toward the Milky Way, her expression utterly serious as she said: “I refuse to listen to what others say or how they define whether humans or ghost-people should live or act. Only I decide for myself.”

Wu Liangli lived for herself.

She hoped her friends could also live happily and not be trapped in the shadows of the past.

*

Zhou Zixi and Wu Liangli searched for Qiu Lang for two years, combing the entire Ice Wastes without finding a trace of him.

One day, they learned from travelers to the Ice Wastes that Qiu Lang had left with a girl and was now somewhere in the world beyond the Ice Wastes.

But he wasn’t doing well.

The traveler said, “He and the girl brought an epidemic to the village. To eliminate the plague, the girl, who was first infected and considered the source, was burned to death.”

When Zhou Zixi and Wu Liangli found the place, they saw the aftermath of a storm.

Everything had been burned to scorched earth by a great fire. Many partially burned corpses still lay on the roads. The long-unseen youth sat before a charred skeleton, his expression as calm as after a storm.

Qiu Lang looked at his former companions, as if he had been waiting for them, and said softly: “It’s you.”

He probably hadn’t spoken for a long time; his voice was hoarse.

Zhou Zixi stood while Wu Liangli crouched down, reaching out to point at the skeleton before them.

“She was originally white, not like us who turn black in flesh and bone when we die,” Qiu Lang said. “But it turns out humans become like us, too, when burned to death.”

“But I was the ghost-person they feared; I was the one who brought disaster and misfortune. Why did they have to burn her to death when she wasn’t a ghost-person?”

Qiu Lang raised his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I’ve thought about it for a long time, but I can’t understand. If ghost-people are said to have no humanity, which is why they kill each other, then what about the humans who kill?”

Wu Liangli asked in a tiny voice: “Are you alright?”

Qiu Lang laughed, stood up, and stretched lazily, flexing his arms and neck, making cracking sounds.

“How have you been?” he asked, as if nothing was wrong.

“Fine, always looking for you,” Wu Liangli’s gaze followed Qiu Lang’s movements upward.

Qiu Lang nodded slightly at Zhou Zixi. “And you?”

Zhou Zixi said, “Always looking for you.”

Qiu Lang shook his head and smiled: “When I went back, there was no one at the snow mountain anymore. I thought you had all left, so I took her, who was gravely ill, to seek medicine outside.”

The three reunited after a long separation, yet they could not be happy; instead, they fell into mutual silence.

Wu Liangli asked Qiu Lang: “Will you come back to the Ice Wastes with us?”

Qiu Lang looked down at her, still crouching: “What for?”

Wu Liangli thought for a moment and said, “To live a peaceful life.”

Qiu Lang remained silent without answering.

By now, Zhou Zixi already knew his answer.

Qiu Lang shook his head. “I don’t want to live a peaceful life. I want to kill everyone in this world except ghost-people.”

Wu Liangli was stunned.

Zhou Zixi said calmly: “You should still return to the Ice Wastes.”

Qiu Lang didn’t answer and turned to leave.

*

The two followed Qiu Lang for several days, but he still refused to return to the Ice Wastes. He told Wu Liangli and Zhou Zixi, “From now on, I live only for this one thing. Either you two come with me, or we go our separate ways.”

Wu Liangli said with difficulty, “Why must it be this way?”

Qiu Lang said, “I don’t want to live a peaceful life given by humans. They always say how terrifying and cruel ghost-people are, so they fear ghost-people. But look—who should fear whom?”

Zhou Zixi asked: “What do you plan to do?”

Qiu Lang said, “I’m going to the Northern Ghost Plains.”

“What good will that do?” Zhou Zixi frowned. “You can’t even remember about the Divine Oracle or how to guard against it. What if someday it strips away your humanity and you lose your rationality?”

Qiu Lang also frowned, not understanding what he was talking about.

Wu Liangli tried to persuade him: “You want to kill everyone, but the Pilgrims will be the first to stop you. Now there are seven Pilgrims instead of six, and who knows how many more there might be in the future. What can you do?”

Qiu Lang laughed coldly: “I’ll figure it out myself.”

He turned to leave. Wu Liangli shouted after him: “I’m afraid you’ll die!”

Qiu Lang didn’t look back: “You two go live your peaceful lives in the Ice Wastes!”

The young friends reunited after a long separation, only to part on bad terms.

They happened to be standing at a three-way fork in the road on the plain.

Wu Liangli watched Qiu Lang walk farther and farther away. The summer wind blew, making the green grass bend in the same direction.

“I don’t want to go back to the Ice Wastes either,” Wu Liangli said softly. “It’s too cold. I don’t like places that are too cold; they make me feel like I’m still trapped in that coffin.”

Zhou Zixi glanced at her. Wu Liangli grabbed her hair and sighed: “Since we’ve found Qiu Lang and confirmed he’s not missing any limbs and is still alive and well, and he’s even found a goal to fight for in his remaining life, I have nothing to worry about anymore.”

“I’m leaving too. I want to find a place I like to live,” Wu Liangli put on her hood and slowly backed away, looking up at Zhou Zixi. “You should also go find a place you like. I can tell you don’t like the Ice Wastes either.”

Zhou Zixi nodded.

Wu Liangli smiled at him, eyes curving.

Zhou Zixi watched Wu Liangli walk away until she disappeared. The setting sun’s glow fell on his back, elongating his shadow. Only he remained, standing alone at the three-way fork.

Go find a place you like.

But where should he go?