Shaking my head, I found myself kneeling beside Father King’s legs. Outside the window, snow was still falling. Coral red, golden beast incense, the furnace fire blazed brightly.

Turning my head, I discovered Mother Queen and Second Sister were still embroidering. Seeing me wake up, Mother Queen had someone fetch a fur cloak and personally draped it over my shoulders: “Wei’er, if you’re tired, then go back and rest. You still have to go to Xuan Study Hall tomorrow, or you’ll have no energy then.”

Father King said, “This child only knows how to cause trouble at Wanzhou Hall every day, making trouble for the teacher, and she likes to bully poor Hanmo. Now Chenzhi isn’t here, or at least there’d be someone who could manage her. She’s truly becoming more and more lawless.”

I was still unsettled, hugging Father King’s legs tightly: “It… it was just a dream… Father King, Mother Queen, I had such a terrifying dream…” By the end, tears flowed down, and I quickly wiped them away with the back of my hand.

“Using your hands to wipe your eyes again, dirty.” Mother Queen crouched down and used silk to wipe my tears. “What dream did you have? Tell Mother Queen about it.”

“I dreamed that many immortals came to Suozhao. They said we were demons, then they… they killed you all…”

Mother Queen smiled lovingly: “Silly child. I’m your mother—how could I bear to abandon you? No matter when, Mother Queen will always be by your side.”

“Zitong, you’re going to spoil her again.” Father King patted my shoulder, maintaining his usual stern righteousness. “Daughter, parents cannot accompany you for a lifetime. Most paths must be walked alone. Even if your parents truly leave you, you cannot be fragile. How can you cry so easily?”

I shook my head like a rattling drum: “No! I want to be with Father King and Mother Queen forever! You won’t leave me!”

Father King sighed, his warm, large palm covering my head: “Wei’er, in another ten-plus years, you’ll also come of age and can’t be so willful. A person’s life isn’t lived solely for oneself. Remember, you are the Little Princess of Moon City Suozhao, daughter of King Yan Hua. If one day your parents aren’t by your side, you must shoulder the important task of assisting Second Sister and ruling Suozhao, understand?”

Why did Father King’s words sound so much like a farewell… I didn’t have many demands, only wanting them to pamper me a little longer, just a little longer, until I became more mature. I didn’t want to hear Father King’s lectures anymore, hiding in Mother Queen’s embrace and crying out like a spoiled child.

Mother Queen cared for me more. She didn’t scold me, only slowly stroked my back, singing the lullabies I’d loved since childhood. The lyrics contained all of Moon City’s clear winds and bright moon, floating mists and warm greenery. Her fingers were so gentle, lingering only briefly on my forehead, yet all troubles and fears would vanish like smoke…

Until Second Sister’s angry scolding woke me up.

“Don’t wake her, let her rest! Get out, you useless people! Now that Suozhao faces great disaster, you still have the heart to worry about the throne! All of you get out!”

I sat up abruptly, seeing Second Sister’s silhouette appear at the council hall entrance. I was in a small room inside, where the air was thick with moisture and the desk was covered with scattered documents.

Hearing me turn over, Second Sister glanced back at me, came in and closed the door, then quickly walked to the bedside, saying softly: “Weiwei, don’t worry, we’re safe now. If you’re tired, you can sleep a bit more.”

“Safe? Where are Father King and Mother Queen? Why do you say we’re safe? What about those two immortals?”

“Father King used the Flowing Water Shadow Exchange technique to move Suozhao to a safe place. We’re now completely cut off from the outside world. The water mist barrier will prevent anyone from finding us.”

“What about Father King and Mother Queen?” I gripped Second Sister’s hand. “Mother Queen was severely injured, wasn’t she? I saw her struck by the sword, her fingers severed… Is Mother Queen alright?”

Second Sister didn’t answer me, but gripped my fingers tightly, as if enduring excruciating pain, so hard that my hand hurt. Yet she still avoided my question: “We’ll talk about things later. Rest a bit more.”

“Second Sister, what exactly happened to Mother Queen! Answer me!” Suddenly, I stopped shouting, not even daring to breathe hard, only saying softly: “Mother Queen… is she… is she…”

“Weiwei, I can tell you the answer, but you must be strong and not cry or make a fuss. Because Mother Queen, and Father King…” At this point, Second Sister’s tears fell. “They protected us… they…”

In the end, Second Sister still couldn’t finish her words.

But I had already guessed. The Flowing Water Shadow Exchange technique was a forbidden art of the Suozhao clan, rumored to be inherited from Cangying God. Because this spell consumed too much energy, no Suozhao clan body could withstand it. Forced use would only result in complete annihilation.

Since Suozhao had moved, the heavy snow had naturally stopped. It was still close to the moon, so even at this deep night, it still had the most beautiful moonlight in the world. At this moment, with jade-like brilliance covering thousands of acres, ice and snow not yet melted, it had accumulated into a jade-made mortal world.

If one didn’t mention what had happened before, no one would know that the king here was no longer present. I ran wildly alone to Luoshui’s edge, searching along the shore for Father King’s heroic spirit, but could only see wind stirring snow, cold wavering light, withered reeds, and wild grass flying chaotically.

I never expected Father King would lie to me.

When I was small and he brought me here for walks, he had told me that all dead Suozhao kings would become heroic spirits here, forever protecting our descendants. But apart from a pool of dark green Luoshui and swaying reeds covering the banks, only endless eternal night remained.

The extreme cold made it hard to breathe. I knelt on the ground, pain soaking through my entire body, but my mind was wave after wave of swelling numbness. So heavy. As if a thousand-pound boulder pressed on my back, I could no longer stand up.

Mother Queen had also lied to me.

She said she would always accompany me, would always be by my side.

“Father King… Mother Queen…” I buried both palms in the snow, suffocating to the point of nearly fainting.

Just then, golden glowing firelight seemed to appear ahead. I took a breath and looked up. Unexpectedly, a man’s silhouette appeared in the center of Luoshui.

He held a white ink-painted umbrella, black hair reaching his knees, wearing a dark blue robe that hung to the water’s surface, with ice-bright flowing light blooming beneath his feet.

Now, anyone with black hair would terrify me greatly. I said: “Who… who are you…”

As the paper umbrella turned, that person also turned around.

I had seen this person before. It was the youth who had saved my life during the Panlong incident when I was small.

As if he had expected to see me when he turned around, he smiled faintly at me from under the umbrella. It wasn’t a particularly brilliant smile, even more distant than moonlight, colder than accumulated snow. Yet it was the gentlest smile in all the world.

In that instant, wind and rain dreams, when spring returns, all seemed to be in this person’s backward glance.

And that glowing light had originally brightened from his hand.

He stepped lightly on the water waves, seeming to become the only remaining light in this night.

I gradually saw clearly that what he held was a lotus about to bloom. The lotus seemed to contain glowing lotus seeds—even with petals closed, golden light leaked out from within.

I said, “Why are you here?”

He didn’t answer me, only crouched down before me and opened his palm. With this movement, the lotus also slowly bloomed, hundreds of lotus seeds rising from within, tiny and brilliant, golden light glittering like July fireflies, gradually illuminating the night.

This scene was too beautiful to behold. I couldn’t help reaching out to touch the lotus seeds, but was burned back. The youth shook his head, placed this lotus on the water’s surface, took my hand, walked to the center of Luoshui, then held up the umbrella to shield my head.

Just as I was curious how I could stand on the water’s surface, he released my hand and raised his palm.

Then something miraculous happened: tens of thousands of golden lotus buds appeared on all of Luoshui, then, like the first lotus, they bloomed successively with vibrant life in the darkness, releasing more firefly-like lotus seeds…

Evening wind rustled, lotus fragrance sweet. Like drifting through a gentle breeze and fine rain, it was a brilliant golden lotus rain flowing against the current toward purple darkness.

“So… so beautiful…” I rubbed my aching eyes, completely mesmerized.

But after waiting a long while, I received no response from him. I couldn’t help looking up at him. He also glanced back at me. Seeing him this time felt completely different from childhood. Then I had been amazed by his celestial beauty, but I only felt he was emotionless and too arrogant.

This time, he still had little expression, yet was gentle like another person entirely.

However, though his eyes held smiles, he seemed sadder than weeping. Such mutual gazing made me inexplicably sad, and I instinctively reached out to touch him.

But he instantly transformed into countless golden points, scattering with the wind like those lotus heart fireflies.

Only those golden lotuses still floated in the air, proving that everything just now wasn’t a dream. I carefully stepped on the water’s surface back to shore, still able to feel the lotus seeds’ warmth. Though still very sad, I wasn’t as desperately suffocated as before.

What exactly was this youth’s background? Both appearances seemed unintentional, yet he always helped me greatly. The first time he saved my life, this time he used glowing things to distract my attention… Seeing how he came and went without a trace, he should be an immortal.

No matter how beautiful the scenery, I still had to return and face my parents’ passing. Just thinking that for the rest of my life, I would have no parental companionship, my mood became unbearably sorrowful. Even the eternally unchanging moonlight was tinged with bitter frost wind, unbearable to behold.

However, I never would have imagined that returning to Zichao Palace, I would simultaneously see Fu Chenzhi and Lord Kaixuan. In Zhaohua Hall were only a scattered few people, with Second Sister standing before the throne, coldly watching Fu Chenzhi.

Fu Chenzhi was being held by two guard attendants, shamefully with hands behind his back, yet wearing a face of unconquerable defiance. Lord Kaixuan stood beside Fu Chenzhi, looking now at Fu Chenzhi, now at Second Sister, seeming very worried.

“Second Sister!” I ran forward, standing on Fu Chenzhi’s other side. “What’s happening?”

Second Sister said coldly: “Ask him yourself.”

I looked at Fu Chenzhi. He didn’t look at me, his expression unmoved, seeming to have no intention of explaining. After he and Second Sister silently confronted each other for a while, it was Lord Kaixuan who said urgently, “Sigh, Luowei, quickly persuade your second sister not to be so impulsive.”

I looked at Second Sister again: “Second Sister?”

Second Sister said, “Fu Chenzhi, tell her what you’ve done.”

Fu Chenzhi said, “I’ve done nothing.”

“With both witness and evidence present, how long do you want to keep making excuses?” Second Sister took out a document, gritting her teeth: “You ungrateful thing! Father King and Mother Queen treated you so well, yet you… you…”

Fu Chenzhi maintained the same attitude: “I said this letter wasn’t written by me.”

Second Sister trembled with anger, strode down the throne’s jade steps, picked up that paper, and placed it before him: “If this isn’t your handwriting, whose is it?”

Fu Chenzhi said, “Handwriting can be imitated. My loyal and filial heart toward my parents can be witnessed by the sun and the moon. I’ve never done such things.”

“All lies!”

Second Sister fiercely threw that paper out. Fu Chenzhi turned his head aside, dodging it. I quickly caught that letter and read it at a glance, immediately feeling shocked and appalled. This was a letter written to an immortal lord:

“I was previously sent by my master, Huangdao Immortal Lord, to serve as the adopted son of the North Sea water demon king. His dynasty is treacherous and evil, leading people astray, colluding with evil ghosts to cause harm, and endangering the North Sea. He has three daughters: the eldest fled as an earth immortal, the youngest privately raises the fierce beast Qiongqi, the second daughter acts as an accomplice to tigers…”

“Except for me raising Xuanyue, this is complete nonsense!” I said angrily, then stared at the character “tiger” for a long time: “Wait, brother, I remember when you wrote the character ‘tiger,’ you always draw that hook at the bottom especially high. Second Sister, this might really be forged by someone else…”

Second Sister said, “Weiwei, don’t interrupt. I know you don’t believe he would do this—I was also deceived by him before. Do you know where he’s been all these years away from Suozhao?”

“Wasn’t he apprenticing to learn skills?”

“Do you know who his master is?”

“I don’t know…”

“Huangdao Immortal Lord.” At this point, Second Sister cast another hateful look at him.

Fu Chenzhi said, “My master isn’t him.”

“Then, who is your master?”

Faced with Second Sister’s aggressive questioning, Fu Chenzhi only frowned slightly but still refrained from speaking. It was still cold outside, and candlelight flickered in the hall, illuminating Second Sister’s extremely beautiful face. She smiled lightly: “Can’t answer? Chenzhi, then let me ask a different question: since you’re mortal, why have you lived nearly fifty years yet still look like this?”

Fu Chenzhi remained silent. I said: “Second Sister, you’re making things too difficult for brother. His slow growth rate was precisely why Father King brought him back.”

“That’s because he’s not mortal at all!” Second Sister raised her voice, grabbing Fu Chenzhi’s collar: “Fu Chenzhi, answer this question in front of everyone, in front of your sister—are you human or immortal?!”

What…

I looked at Fu Chenzhi in disbelief, suddenly remembering how he had quickly healed after being bitten by the spider. Fu Chenzhi finally glanced at me quickly, his slender fox-like eyes closing lightly once, his lips pale: “I am an immortal.”

My heart skipped a beat. I felt my mouth dry and swallowed saliva with difficulty: “When did you discover this?”

Second Sister sneered: “He wrote it so clearly in that letter—he came undercover to Suozhao under orders. What do you mean by ‘when did you discover’? If you don’t believe it, look at this.”

She took another paper from a nearby guard and handed it to me. I scanned the content and found it was a poem Fu Chenzhi had written as a child:

“North lies the vast sea, which cannot be swum.

The fair lady below the Dipper cannot be seen.

Looking high at the nine heavens, my neck aches.

Cloud-dragon wind-tiger, return to Yanran.”

When I was small, I hadn’t understood the last two lines of this poem, but combining it with everything happening now, I suddenly understood: Daily raising my head thinking of my nine-heaven homeland, my neck also grows weary. Clouds follow dragons, wind follows tigers—when my great task is complete, I can return to Yanran.

From childhood to adulthood, Fu Chenzhi had always appeared patient and gentle at Xuan Study Hall, treating others’ bullying and disparagement with equanimity. It turned out it wasn’t because he didn’t care, but because he didn’t need to care.

“Weiwei, Father King and Mother Queen’s deaths were all because of our good brother. He has long colluded with Huangdao Immortal Lord, wanting to privately occupy Suozhao. And we Suozhao clan, would forever become slaves of the immortal realm. I won’t give him the chance. Therefore, tomorrow I will ascend the throne and become Suozhao’s new emperor.” Second Sister looked at Fu Chenzhi with an icy expression, saying word by word: “Immortal soldiers captured in the city, those who betrayed Suozhao—kill without mercy.”

I became anxious, shaking Fu Chenzhi’s sleeve: “Brother, quickly explain.”

However, until finally being taken away, Fu Chenzhi didn’t say another word. Only after Second Sister’s explanation did I learn that the informant was Fu Chenzhi’s attendant. The attendant had always served him loyally, never expecting he would commit such disloyal and unrighteous acts. Just as Father King and Mother Queen had died, he hurried back to Suozhao, wanting to pretend nothing had happened while comforting us, then dispose of us sisters and claim the throne himself.

But no matter what they said, I refused to believe Royal Brother was such a person.

At midnight, I lay alone in my room, unable to sleep, when I suddenly heard someone knocking. Jumping down from the bed to open the door, a cold wind struck. Lord Kaixuan stood under the cold moon, looking very downcast: “I’ve come to apologize.”

I opened the door wider: “Come in and sit.”

“No, speaking here is fine. I still hope to be your brother-in-law—wouldn’t want Liuying to misunderstand.” He smiled, white breath puffing from his mouth, but quickly became serious again. “The person who brought Young Master Fu back to Suozhao was me.”

“…It was you?”

“Precisely. After leaving Suozhao, one day I was passing through snowy mountains and icy valleys when I met Young Master Fu. Learning he was King Yan Hua’s adopted son, we traveled together back to the immortal realm. I have an old friend who’s close to Ruyue Weng. Two days ago, I heard he and Huangdao Immortal Lord had gone to the North Sea to eliminate demons, referring to the Suozhao clan. Previously, I had cast some spells at Luoshui to facilitate a quick return to Suozhao later. I told Young Master Fu about this and promised to bring him back together… Never expecting we’d arrive too late, and Young Master Fu would be framed…”

“You also think my brother was framed?”

Lord Kaixuan said seriously, “Naturally. Young Master Fu has the bearing of high mountains and long rivers—how could he harm his adoptive parents?”

“But Second Sister doesn’t believe him at all…”

“Your second sister appears gentle but has an impulsive nature. The dead cannot return to life—I fear that after wrongly killing a good person, she’ll regret it endlessly for the rest of her life.”

I said bitterly, “Then what should we do?”

Lord Kaixuan glanced around, pulled a key from his bosom, and pressed it into my hand: “This is the key to Young Master Fu’s prison cell. I stole it.”

I exclaimed, “A dignified great immortal, actually doing sneaky thievery!”

“This is also for your sister.” Lord Kaixuan shook his head helplessly. “Alright, quickly go see your brother. I’ll go back and persuade your sister. Oh, I also dug a hole in the dungeon. If there’s no news from my side after midnight, that means persuading your sister failed, and you can let Young Master Fu escape first. We’ll discuss matters when we return.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle: “A dignified great immortal, actually doing the work of gnawing rats and boring insects! Fine, you’ve passed this sister-in-law’s test. I’ll allow you to marry my sister in the future.”

Lord Kaixuan smiled: “Don’t waste words, go quickly.”