The aftermath lay naked before everyone’s eyes.

All the merfolk and black mist had disappeared, leaving only the cold, lonely night and the sound of surging tides from the distant West Sea.

Princess Lizhu’s body softly collapsed. A maidservant cried out in alarm and ran over to help her up. The palace guards emerged from the white jade hall, protecting the ruler of Li’er Kingdom behind them.

The ruler hesitantly said: “Immortal Master…”

Gu Baiying glanced at him: “It’s over.”

Everything was over.

The night of the secret realm’s opening was supposed to be exciting and anticipated, but who could have expected such a bleak conclusion? Perhaps because Ying Ying had spoken of the royal family’s shameful secrets from forty years ago in front of all the cultivators, the ruler was too ashamed to face others. He hurriedly gave orders for the injured cultivators to be helped back, then was escorted back to the palace by his guards.

Princess Lizhu was also sent away from the imperial mausoleum.

Those injured cultivators who couldn’t walk were helped away by fellow disciples or palace servants, while the remaining cultivators who could still walk left in small groups. Tonight, the Constellation Platform had been destroyed, and with so many incidents occurring, the secret realm could only be opened on another day.

Tian Fangfang put away his axe. He, too, had sustained quite a few injuries and limped over to Zanxing and Gu Baiying, asking: “Junior Sister, where do we go now?”

Zanxing looked at Gu Baiying, who said, “Back.”

“Back where? The palace?”

Gu Baiying glared at him: “Fairy Seeking Sea!”

Tian Fangfang said, “Oh,” and from the other side, Meng Ying and Mu Cengxiao also walked over, followed by Mendong dragging Mimi. During the fight with the merfolk, this person and the cat had been hiding behind the Constellation Platform’s pillars and hadn’t been injured at all.

Meng Ying looked at Zanxing: “Junior Sister Yang, when you let the merfolk’s primordial spirit attach to your body, did you feel any discomfort?”

Zanxing shook her head: “Nothing, everything’s fine.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she suddenly felt severe pain in her palm. This pain instantly swept through her brain. Zanxing’s vision went dark, and she lost consciousness.

…

Wind slipped through the window cracks, stealing kisses from the face of the person on the bed.

When Zanxing woke up, it was already the afternoon of the next day.

She sat up, her head still somewhat heavy. Mimi “meowed” and jumped onto the table, startling the person who had been dozing there.

“You’re awake?” Mendong stood up and walked to the bedside. The child, sporting two lotus bun hairstyles, seriously felt her pulse and said: “You’re fine now. Take two more doses of medicine this evening and you’ll recover completely.”

Zanxing asked: “What happened to me?”

“You have the nerve to ask,” Mendong scolded her. “With your meager cultivation level, you dared to let a demon’s primordial spirit possess you. Lucky I was here, otherwise you’d be in real trouble this time. Remember, I’m your lifesaver from now on.”

Zanxing pinched his face: “Alright, lifesaver, thank you.”

Mendong’s face was pinched into a blob, and he angrily slapped away Zanxing’s hand, puffing up: “Don’t touch my face!”

Zanxing got out of bed and put on her shoes, looked around, and asked: “Where is everyone else?”

“Master Uncle and Senior Brother Tian went to the royal palace. The ruler asked the cultivators to discuss when to reopen the secret realm. Senior Sister Meng and Senior Brother Mu are cultivating next door. They were all injured last night and need to quickly recover their Yuanli.”

Mu Cengxiao and Meng Ying had always been Taiyan Sect’s top students, quite diligent. Zanxing wasn’t surprised.

She spread her hand and looked down at her palm.

The woman’s hand was fair and slender, with thin calluses on her fingertips from frequently gripping a staff. And in her palm, the red flower-shaped mark was deeper than before.

Zanxing’s heart sank.

She had changed the plot again, causing the original storyline to issue her a warning. But since setting foot in Li’er Kingdom, she had never actively done anything. Could it be because of Yinli? Because Yinli’s primordial spirit possessed her, allowing her to briefly comprehend “Fire Trees and Silver Flowers” when fighting Ying Ying, thus defeating him and stealing the spotlight that should have belonged to Mu Cengxiao?

But at that time, Mu Cengxiao hadn’t shown any intention of exerting himself either.

Seeing Zanxing’s troubled expression, Mendong asked curiously: “What’s wrong? Why do you look so grim?”

Zanxing collected her thoughts and smiled: “It’s nothing.”

She walked to the window and opened the wooden shutters wide. The large window of “Fairy Seeking Sea” faced the West Sea. The vast sky was like jade, and the azure sea seemed endless. The sunlight was bright and dazzling, and the mangrove forests were gentle and beautiful.

Everything was no different from a hundred years ago.

But Zanxing knew that the merfolk who would sing on sunny days, the youth who would climb onto reefs to bask in moonlight, would never appear again.

He had vanished forever at the edge of the West Sea along with that merchant ship from forty years ago.

Tian Fangfang’s voice came from downstairs: “Junior Sister, you just got out of bed. You can’t be in the wind—be careful not to catch a cold!”

Zanxing turned her head and saw Tian Fangfang and Gu Baiying walking up from the other side of the courtyard. Gu Baiying still had that dead expression of looking down on everything, but Tian Fangfang was grinning as if he’d found money, smiling almost sweetly.

When the two came upstairs and entered the room, Zanxing asked: “Senior Brother, why are you so happy? Did something good happen?”

Tian Fangfang beckoned to Zanxing, signaling her to come closer. He pulled something from his chest and slapped it into Zanxing’s hand with a “thwack,” saying: “Share and share alike upon meeting—don’t say your senior brother isn’t generous!”

Zanxing looked down to see a golden arrowhead in her hand.

“What’s this?” She was stunned. “Why does it look familiar?”

“Look more carefully.”

Zanxing examined it closely and suddenly understood. Wasn’t this the arrowhead stuck in the fish tail of that “Ruler Slays Merfolk” golden statue by the West Sea? At the time, Zanxing had marveled at how wealthy Li’er Kingdom was, placing such a large chunk of gold outside without worrying about thieves stealing the entire statue at night.

This arrowhead had been broken off by someone. Zanxing looked at Tian Fangfang: “Senior Brother, you didn’t break this arrowhead off and steal it, did you?”

“Nonsense, how is it stealing? This is called picking up,” Tian Fangfang said righteously. “Besides, I wasn’t the one who broke it.”

Zanxing: “Then who broke it? Were they tired of living?”

Tian Fangfang jerked his chin toward Gu Baiying.

Zanxing was surprised. Gu Baiying didn’t seem like someone who would take advantage of small gains.

Gu Baiying raised an eyebrow: “I’ve long found that statue displeasing. Good opportunity to smash it.”

Zanxing: “?”

“We passed that statue by the West Sea on our way back from the royal palace,” Tian Fangfang smiled. “We happened to see two kids spitting on the merfolk’s head. I scolded them a few times, but the little brats wouldn’t listen and kept insisting the merfolk were evil. Later…”

Later, Gu Baiying became impatient and directly smashed the statue with his Embroidered Bone Spear.

Seeing that Gu Baiying had caused big trouble, the children were afraid of being implicated and quickly ran away. Tian Fangfang thought it was a shame to waste all that gold, so he collected it all into his Qiankun Bag.