A wooden table was set with wine cups and a wine pot, placed not within the Hall of All Heavens but at the edge of this sea of clouds. With a wave of his hand, Xie Buchen invited her to sit. Jian Chou said nothing more, sitting across from him at the wooden table. She crossed her legs, placed her hands on her knees, and simply watched as Xie Buchen rolled up his sleeves to pour wine.

Even pouring wine was graceful.

His slender fingers, stained with the aura of books and ink, moved neither hurriedly nor slowly, pressing the pot lid to let the wine liquid flow out, filling the white jade cup to seven-tenths full.

Jian Chou watched him calmly like this for a moment, then watched him pour wine for herself before saying: “I heard there are leads?”

“There are leads, but I don’t understand the mystery within.”

Xie Buchen sat cross-legged like Jian Chou, set down the wine pot, lifted his wine cup to drink a sip, then turned to glance at the disciples who were sneakily poking their heads around in the Hall of All Heavens. He didn’t rebuke them, only raised his hand and pressed a blue-white jade slip onto the wooden table.

“Friend Jian Chou wants to investigate this—do you think Hengxu was innocent?”

“Innocent?”

Jian Chou knew that what she wanted to know was contained within this jade slip. Taking it between her fingers, she examined it for a long while, then smiled.

“Even if all the cultivators in the world believed his explanations in the hall that day, I would not believe it, and you, Xie Buchen, would even less likely believe it. How could he, Hengxu, have anything to do with the word ‘innocent’?”

“Yet over these years, there have been cultivators who felt he was innocent. After all, during the Yin-Yang Realm war, Kunwu’s ambush along the way was real. Without that ambush, there would have been no incident of Shen Jiuhan going to Cliff Mountain to report.”

Xie Buchen’s tone revealed not the slightest emotion.

He neither seemed to be defending Master Hengxu, nor could one detect any trace of mockery.

But Jian Chou understood him too well. While extending her consciousness to touch this jade slip, she had already coldly laughed: “You already said that without the ambush, there would have been no incident of Shen Jiuhan going to Cliff Mountain to report. Master Hengxu wanted precisely the position of Kunwu’s First Seat. He was originally a thoroughly thoughtful person who never acted impulsively. How could such scheming not be planned? Moreover, if someone else had truly leaked accurate information to the Extreme Realm, how could the Extreme Realm not mobilize troops and deploy generals to put Kunwu to death? Why would they merely ambush Kunwu yet let them escape unscathed? Clearly, the Extreme Realm also didn’t know the truth or falsehood of the information they received and merely set an ambush tentatively. By this calculation, in the end it would merely be Shen Jiuhan making mistakes while he righteously took control of Kunwu, with Cliff Mountain only slightly weakened. But through all his calculations, this perfect scheme of killing two birds with one stone failed to account for the Buddhist internal strife and the Esoteric Sect’s rebellion. Thus, because of his selfish desires, he harmed a thousand cultivators of Cliff Mountain. Others of your Kunwu might be innocent, but he deserved his fate.”

“Friend Jian Chou speaks as if you witnessed it personally.” Xie Buchen’s gaze fell on the jade slip in her hands, only recalling a certain ‘trivial matter’ that had been forgotten by the Nineteen Continents’ cultivators. “But I forgot—during the Left Three Thousand minor assembly at Fish Bone Temple that year, Friend Jian Chou obtained a ‘Universe Eye.'”

Though her cultivation might have been insufficient in the past, by today, even if she couldn’t peer into the future, each and every event that had occurred in the past should be crystal clear.

Past worldly events were probably known to her whenever she wished to know them.

But this was also strange.

If she knew everything, why would she entrust him to investigate this current matter?

Xie Buchen raised his eyes to observe her.

At this moment, a strand of Jian Chou’s consciousness had already sunk into the jade slip. Upon reading the records transcribed within, her brows immediately furrowed.

He had investigated the matter, so naturally he knew what was inside.

It was the operational status of Kunwu’s Zhou Tian Star Array during the sixty-six years from the first Yin-Yang Realm war to the Tomorrow Tribulation.

Master Hengxu had used this array to divine heavenly secrets and learned of the hundred-year great tribulation.

But shortly after he divined the heavenly secrets, around the time when the great demon Fu Chaosheng of the Western Sea’s Great Dream Reef emerged into the world, the Zhou Tian Star Array stopped operating. Everyone in Kunwu, including Master Hengxu, believed this was his limit—he could no longer divine heavenly secrets.

Only after Master Hengxu’s suicide did this array resume operation.

Now it stood atop the Hall of All Heavens.

But Xie Buchen was not Master Hengxu after all, and had never believed in heavenly secrets, so he merely let this array remain above while never using it.

Several years ago, when he was still lecturing to his sect’s disciples, Jian Chou’s lightning message suddenly arrived, asking him to investigate Kunwu’s records of this array. Only then did he sense something subtly strange.

Master Hengxu’s divination of Kunwu’s great tribulation had seemed very bizarre from the start.

Without divining this tribulation, he wouldn’t have taken him as a disciple, and indirectly, the current Jian Chou wouldn’t exist, naturally meaning even his own mortal danger wouldn’t have occurred.

Yet all this had indeed happened.

Even more bizarre was that when he examined Kunwu’s records of the Zhou Tian Star Array’s operation over these years, he discovered that on the day Master Hengxu divined Kunwu’s great tribulation, the array had not activated at all—it operated normally without even the slightest anomaly!

Master Hengxu had merely stood silently before the array for half an incense stick’s time.

“Originally I thought Hengxu had merely met his doom by divining heavenly secrets—man ultimately cannot outwit heaven. But after Friend Jian Chou asked me to examine these records of the Zhou Tian Star Array, I discovered that things didn’t seem so simple. And what Friend Jian Chou knows seems to far exceed that of ordinary people.”

Xie Buchen sipped the wine in his cup lightly, his voice also bland.

When he had first seen that page of records, he could hardly conceal his inner shock. At this moment, he raised his eyes to observe Jian Chou’s expression, but found that though she frowned, her face remained completely calm.

Only those fingers holding the jade slip betrayed a trace of true emotion.

When pressing the jade slip back onto the wooden table, they trembled slightly.

Jian Chou’s emotions rose and fell like tides, leaving her momentarily speechless. After a long while, she finally said: “As you said, I have the Universe Eye, so I can know the past. But perhaps because it involves heavenly secrets, I was unable to perceive the past operational status of your Kunwu’s Zhou Tian Star Array, so I asked the Sacred Lord to investigate. I never expected the investigation to yield such results.”

If the Zhou Tian Star Array had never truly activated, how could Master Hengxu have divined heavenly secrets from the array?

If he had never divined heavenly secrets, then where did this so-called hundred-year great tribulation of Kunwu and the Xie Buchen who could save Kunwu from fire and water come from?

Was it all just self-entrapment?

Or did Master Hengxu have some secret method to erase past records?

But he himself told outsiders it was divined heavenly secrets—what meaning would erasing records have for him?

Any normal person receiving this jade slip and seeing all the related records would generate various doubts and associations.

Originally, Xie Buchen felt that Jian Chou should think the same way.

Even her expression and manner of speaking at this moment didn’t seem particularly unusual.

But perhaps it was some kind of strong intuition—he felt that Jian Chou’s response and words at this moment were so strange, really unlike the truth.

His eyes flashed slightly. Though Xie Buchen appeared calm and breezy, his heart held no relaxation. He seemed to ask casually: “So Friend Jian Chou also believes that Hengxu might have been self-entrapping? When the Yin-Yang Realm war restarted, I witnessed his various abnormalities and felt he might not have been without heart demons. After all, his deep friendship with Shanren Fudao was not false, and he had not anticipated that his selfish desires would cause such serious consequences as the deaths of a thousand Cliff Mountain cultivators. Though he appeared calm on the surface, in the deep of night he probably couldn’t help but feel some guilt. Thus, troubled on one hand yet unable to avoid suspecting that Kunwu would one day follow in Cliff Mountain’s footsteps, thinking day and night, he developed demons and imagined this so-called great tribulation. If so, it would be truly lamentable…”

This was clearly a test.

Jian Chou turned her gaze toward the Hall of All Heavens towering at the edge of the sea of clouds, faintly still able to see the silver flowing light of the rotating Zhou Tian Star Array above.

But the feeling was completely different from when she had seen it before.

When she first arrived at Kunwu’s Hall of All Heavens, she had only felt this array was mysteriously profound; seeing it again now, it was ghostly and eerie, indescribably sinister.

The elders in the hall, especially the disciples, all felt their hearts skip a beat when she glanced back at them like this, nearly scared out of their wits.

But just as they were about to dodge, she had already withdrawn her gaze.

The wine cups on the table remained as before. Jian Chou finally reached out to take one, but looking at the wine liquid, she temporarily didn’t drink. Instead, she raised her eyes to gaze at Xie Buchen, her eyes holding undisguised mockery: “When Master Hengxu committed suicide, the happiest person in all of Kunwu was none other than you. To now speak hypocritically of lament—if the Master’s spirit exists in heaven, he would die with eyes wide open. Only being surpassed by his student and dying in your calculations, he can’t be considered wronged.”

Faced with such sharp and even caustic words, Xie Buchen’s facial expression remained virtually unmoved, even smiling: “It was merely following the current and guiding the situation—nothing particularly brilliant.”

“As early as when we explored the Snowy Region’s Esoteric Sect together, you had already obtained the Nine Doubts Cauldron, yet you concealed it from Master Hengxu. Later, when you underwent the Heart Dao Tribulation, Hengxu had no choice but to expend all his efforts to help you resist it, simply because you were the dao-child who could turn the tide and save Kunwu from collapse. During the Yin-Yang Realm war, when Master Hengxu and Shanren Fudao drew swords to go first to the Eight Directions City, Qu Zhengfeng should have been at the rear. Others might not have known when he left, but you couldn’t possibly have been unaware at the time. Yet first, you didn’t remind Master Hengxu, and second, you deliberately used the Nine Doubts Cauldron to block for him when Hengxu was about to suffer the Primordial Punishment—this was intentionally preserving his life while ensuring he didn’t retain sufficient strength. Thus, rather than perishing in the Extreme Realm, letting him live to return to Kunwu enabled that confrontation with Qu Zhengfeng…”

Thinking carefully about each detail was truly chilling.

Others all thought Xie Buchen’s assistance to his teacher at the crucial moment made him a good disciple, but looking back afterward, Jian Chou only felt it was truly vicious!

“That day in the hall, the phrase ‘I would hear the details’ was also merely pretense. He, Hengxu, calculated three steps ahead with each move, but you, Xie Buchen, would only exceed this, never fall short. Though Hengxu instigated the attempt to kill me for dao-proof, you couldn’t possibly have any regret in your heart. Before his suicide, Hengxu took all the faults and blame upon himself because in his mind, Kunwu was most important. For Kunwu, he wanted to preserve you and also preserve your reputation. And you understood this perfectly.”

It was unthinkable—what state of mind must Hengxu have been in when he drew his sword to commit suicide?

He had probably already realized something when he saw him sacrifice that Nine Doubts Cauldron in the battle at the Eight Directions City of the Extreme Realm, then completely understood upon hearing that phrase “I would hear the details” in the Hall of All Heavens.

But what choice did Hengxu have then?

He had already been utterly disgraced. Though he could have exposed Xie Buchen’s various schemes with words, even revealing the matter of killing his wife for dao-proof, making Xie Buchen despised by all cultivators under heaven, how could he choose to do so?

Born for Kunwu, he had no regrets even in death.

So he simply took all the blame upon himself, using Qu Zhengfeng’s safety as leverage to exchange for a vow from Jian Chou for his disciple—though a wolf-hearted ambitious one, he would surely revitalize Kunwu—paving a smooth path for Xie Buchen and for Kunwu.

Nearly four hundred years had passed, yet the past details, enumerated by her bit by bit, still seemed vivid.

As if they had happened just yesterday.

Wind stirred the sea of clouds, and the layered clouds at the edges scattered like spray.

Xie Buchen seemed to reminisce. He poured wine for himself again, only saying: “Friend Jian Chou’s words are shocking to the world. If outsiders were present at this moment and heard these words, they would probably be dumbstruck and utterly disbelieving. So even if it’s all true, what use is there in speaking of it?”

He truly dared to act and dared to acknowledge it.

This profound scheming really made one feel chills in their bones just thinking about it.

Jian Chou drank a mouthful of wine, as if wanting to use this cup’s strength to suppress some emotion in her heart. Only after setting down the wine cup did she smile: “I’m afraid back then you even clearly guessed Qu Zhengfeng’s plans. People all say our Cliff Mountain benefited from this tribulation of Kunwu, but you, Xie Buchen, were the true great winner behind it all. Through exquisite calculations, with wisdom approaching that of demons, yet the world only knows you were somewhat innocent, not knowing the depth of your scheming. I imagine Young Master Xie’s wonderful plans have no one to appreciate them—there must be some loneliness of solitary fragrance blooming?”

“Hahaha…”

Xie Buchen finally laughed aloud rarely, the cold caution that countless people had grown familiar with fading from his brows and eyes, replaced by an undisguisable sharpness!

He poured wine for Jian Chou again.

At this moment, he sighed from the heart: “Jian Chou is truly Xie’s soulmate!”

After sighing, he fell silent for a moment, then said: “But Qu Zhengfeng was a remarkable person. What a pity.”

Jian Chou’s expression grew somber, and she said nothing.

But Xie Buchen poured himself a cup, holding it at his fingertips to play with, his calm gaze swaying with the ripples in the wine cup as he continued: “He also saw early on that Hengxu and I were merely conspiring with a tiger, only asking whether I could launch a swift attack on the Eight Directions City. You should know that a slow attack wearing down the Extreme Realm’s strength would be more advantageous for our Nineteen Continents. His suggestion was simply to make the Nineteen Continents and Extreme Realm evenly matched, while Kunwu as the main force would necessarily suffer greater losses, facilitating his slaughter of Kunwu. Only his stance was too righteous, truly difficult to tolerate personally.”

Some things others couldn’t see clearly, but they understood too well.

Qu Zhengfeng was merely seeking to vent his indignation. Though he knew most people in Kunwu were innocent, he still insisted on his course.

Otherwise, were the thousand cultivators of Cliff Mountain truly deserving of their misfortune?

Though Master Hengxu harbored only one part malicious intent, he caused ten parts malicious consequences. Others could speak lightly from the sidelines, saying Cliff Mountain could only seek this one part of vengeance from Hengxu and Kunwu, but how could the remaining nine parts be reconciled?

Jian Chou only vaguely remembered that she and Qu Zhengfeng had once had an unfinished battle appointment. Who would have thought that one delay would mean no chance to test their skills against each other again?

She remained silent for a long time before drinking her wine in one gulp.

Between her cold brows and eyes, that red mark appeared at her brow center, revealing several traces of hidden malevolence.

When she arrived, Xie Buchen hadn’t yet noticed, and over these years they had rarely met, but at this moment, when his gaze swept over her brow center, he discovered something subtly unusual.

The edges of her pupils faintly showed dark gold coloring.

But it was neither like some technique nor like some kind of mutation. Instead, it gave him a strong sense of restriction—others’ divine thoughts couldn’t penetrate these pupils, and certain things within couldn’t emerge from them either.

It was as if…

She had constructed a prison within her own pupils!

His eyes immediately flashed with contemplative color, but he didn’t ask a single question, only pressed down the wine pot and watched her.

But Jian Chou didn’t glance at him once.

Setting down the wine cup, she said: “You and your master are birds of a feather. You scheme against him, and he schemes against you. Though he publicly forced me to make a vow, those two words ‘this realm’ were spoken from his own mouth. Though he was willing to take the blame for you and preserve your life, he only preserved this moment, not after your ascension. In his eyes, you were merely a chess piece to save Kunwu from fire and water. His past repeated attempts to have you accompany me were also born of wariness toward you, wanting you to develop heart demons. Only unfortunately, he miscalculated badly—I see that Friend Xie really doesn’t seem to have any heart demons.”

The fingers pressing the wine pot moved slightly.

Xie Buchen wasn’t certain whether this statement was merely a sigh or if she was trying to probe something.

He only replied impassively: “It seems I’ve disappointed Friend Jian Chou.”

“Sometimes I truly envy the Sacred Lord’s heartless nature—one kill and there are no attachments, sparing worldly romantic worries.”

The evening glow had reached its most brilliant moment.

Every cloud in the sky was dyed crimson, reflecting the sinking golden light, floating above the mountains and rivers and surging around them.

Jian Chou gazed at these changing winds and clouds, only thinking of Fu Chaosheng.

After Kun’s death and transformation into the sea, he had left this realm and never returned. He had probably gone to the Upper Void.

Her words just now had been extremely calm, but Xie Buchen understood her too well, so much so that at this moment he clearly perceived a certain uncomfortable strangeness.

His pupils contracted slightly, and he slowly released his hand from the wine pot.

Then he heard Jian Chou say to him: “Once a friend developed feelings for me without knowing it, yet I deceived him. When he understood worldly love, I broke his heart. The Sacred Lord once said I was indifferent to love, and I too had never seen my own heart clearly—I was the one in the situation. I wonder, in the Sacred Lord’s view as an outsider, how is my heart?”

“…”

She had actually come to ask him this.

Xie Buchen felt that if he could still perceive these negative emotions at this moment, he should be able to clearly taste what was called “piercing heart pain.”

Fang Xiaoxie’s face actually surfaced in his mind, but in an instant it transformed into Fu Chaosheng’s.

He slowly lowered his eyes, and after a long time, replied coldly: “If you were heartless toward him, you wouldn’t have such troubles today.”

If heartless, then there would be no troubles.

After hearing this, Jian Chou laughed and actually asked Xie Buchen: “Then does the Sacred Lord have any troubles today?”

Xie Buchen lowered his eyes without answering.

Jian Chou carefully savored his response and changes, finding it very interesting, but also stopping there.

She raised her hand and actually placed a scroll a foot long on the table.

Of ancient and simple design, old and weathered, it looked ordinary, but when it left her fingers, a vast aura spread to the surroundings.

The Nine Curves River Map!

Though Xie Buchen had never truly seen this object, he had been to the Hidden Realm of Azure Peak Nunnery and understood it quite well—how could he not recognize it?

Now suddenly seeing Jian Chou place this object down, a chill truly ran up his spine.

He really couldn’t calculate what she was thinking.

His body, which had been relatively relaxed just moments ago, had tensed up at this moment, in a state of complete alertness.

“After Qu Zhengfeng’s death, the world was curious about the whereabouts of this ‘Nine Curves River Map.’ For hundreds of years, countless people have entered and exited Xiexing Mountain Manor, wanting to find its traces. Who would have imagined it had long been in Friend Jian Chou’s hands?”

Then what she had been comprehending during these nearly four hundred years of rarely appearing in the Nineteen Continents was also imaginable.

Xie Buchen’s heart filled with deep wariness.

But Jian Chou showed no intention of taking action, only gazing at the setting sun in the west, thinking of every day and night she had spent in these Nineteen Continents, her expression quite nostalgic: “The great thousand worlds are vast and boundless. This Primordial Realm, compared to the greater world, might be merely a well. Only you and I are like frogs sitting in the well, yet we might not be unable to observe the sky.”

Frogs sitting in a well might not be unable to observe the sky!

Seemingly calm, yet truly breathtaking.

With just this bland sentence, Jian Chou had already stirred several waves in Xie Buchen’s heart, making him gaze at her in silent speechlessness.

Jian Chou only said: “I have finished comprehending this River Map. Since Friend Xie once said this was an object of Kunwu, today I return it intact.”

Return it intact?

In the past at the Hidden Realm of Azure Peak Nunnery, Xie Buchen had indeed said this object had once been in the hands of Kunwu’s Eight Extremes Dao Venerable, but he hadn’t meant this object belonged to Kunwu. Now Jian Chou had casually found such a reason and actually wanted to place this “Nine Curves River Map” in his hands!

A clear sense of scheming.

But what made him feel deeply troubled was that he clearly knew she was scheming, yet didn’t know what exactly she was scheming.

His gaze shifted from the scroll placed between them back to Jian Chou’s face, and Xie Buchen’s voice grew slightly cold and heavy: “Why?”

Jian Chou smiled: “I’m heading to the Upper Void. This River Map is now useless to me. If I pass it to Cliff Mountain, it would be harboring a treasure that brings disaster. Looking across the current Nineteen Continents, only the Sacred Lord has the power to protect this object. Calculating it all, if you wanted it, this object would eventually fall into your hands anyway. Rather than waiting for you to seize it and create disaster, why not give it to you personally and avoid future trouble?”

Xie Buchen seemed not to have heard this explanation at all, only still asking that same question: “Why?”

Jian Chou’s brows raised slightly, her smile fading: “After I reach the Upper Void, I’ll most likely encounter a troublesome matter. Now I offer the River Map as a favor, hoping that when the Sacred Lord ascends to the Upper Void in the future, you’ll remember today and grant me one request, returning this favor.”

Nonsense!

In the past at the Hidden Realm of Azure Peak Nunnery and the Snowy Region’s Esoteric Sect, they had fought each other to the death. The peace of these hundreds of years was only because she had made a vow and couldn’t seek revenge.

Or rather, as a disciple of Cliff Mountain, she disdained breaking her vow.

But to say she had no killing intent toward him would be fantasy.

Xie Buchen sat across from her. The sky was about to darken, the setting sun like blood, falling into his eyes as he calmly exposed Jian Chou’s words: “I thought that when I ascended to the Upper Void, you would immediately kill me.”

Jian Chou lowered her eyes, falling silent for this moment.

She took the wine pot Xie Buchen had released and actually personally filled his empty cup in front of him—half full—then slowly raised her head to look at him.

At this moment, Xie Buchen truly couldn’t read this gaze.

He only heard her say softly: “But the one who will kill you is not me.”

After saying this, her gaze lowered again.

Xie Buchen truly didn’t know how to describe the feeling in his heart, finding it somewhat absurd: He didn’t believe in fate. The future was unmeasurable, changing in an instant—how dare she prophesy his end?

Only her gaze was truly strange and complex, even harboring a trace of sorrow.

Looking down at the cup before him, he didn’t lift it, only raised his eyes again to gaze at her, still asking: “Why?”

Jian Chou knew that at this moment, he was asking not about the “Nine Curves River Map” but about this cup of wine before him.

How to describe it?

Even she herself couldn’t capture this moment’s emotions, only feeling that great clouds flew across the long sky without leaving any traces—too light, too floating, easily flowing away through her fingers.

She lifted her wine cup, and after a very long time, said lowly: “You are worthy.”

Three words, sincerely spoken.

Having said this, she tilted her head back and drank the wine in the cup in one gulp!

Setting the wine cup back on the wooden table, Jian Chou rose, only stepping toward the blood-dyed edge of the sea of clouds. Her landscape robes fluttered in the evening wind, the wine’s fragrance not yet dispersed, yet the person had already departed into the void.

The dark gold sun sank west, evening glow shimmering.

Stars were about to appear in the firmament, and as she merged into the galaxy, she actually became one of them.

Between heaven and earth, a sigh resounded vastly across the wilderness: “To the Upper Void Immortal Realm, Jian Chou goes first, only awaiting the Sacred Lord’s arrival!”

In the Hall of All Heavens, everyone gazed with yearning.

Only Xie Buchen remained sitting beside the sea of clouds, cold and lonely wind arriving, with only a wooden table before him, a River Map scroll, an empty cup, and half a cup of remaining wine.