What it felt like to watch one’s beloved disappear before one’s eyes—Qinghua Xianzi no longer wanted to recall. She only remembered the moment when the sword in her hand pierced through the heart of the person before her, blood instantly staining his evergreen-colored robes red.

Gu Caiyu was a genius rarely seen in the cultivation world in a hundred years. Though it was said his cultivation was on par with hers, in reality, he was even superior. When fighting her, he made a show of trying to dodge, but at the last moment withdrew his magical artifact, allowing the long sword to pierce through his heart.

“Why?” The woman who was always cold and aloof, whose joy and anger never showed on her face, revealed a bewildered expression for the first time. She murmured: “Why didn’t you dodge?”

“Tch,” Gu Caiyu smiled at her: “That dead Demon Lord thought he was so clever, believing that by merging his life soul with mine, the cultivation world would have no way to deal with him. Bah! I refuse to let him have his way! Now he’s dumbfounded, isn’t he?”

“How could you… treat me this way?” Qinghua Xianzi wept uncontrollably.

How could he be so cruel to her? Making her sword personally kill the love of her life, leaving her alone in this world to live on in solitude.

“Qinghua,” Gu Caiyu reached out to wipe away the tears from the corner of the woman’s eyes, looking at her gently: “You once said that all living beings suffer, and if one could cultivate to perfection and protect the peace of the three realms, that would be the destiny of cultivators. That was your wish.”

“And I cultivated only for happiness. When there’s wine and poetry, I’m happy. When you’re happy… I’m happy.”

He vanished into ash and smoke before Qinghua Xianzi, along with Demon Lord Gui Diao Tang’s life soul, disappearing from the three realms entirely.

“After that, the Ruins of the Golden Gate were sealed again. I returned to Gufeng Mountain and soon discovered I was with child.” Qinghua Xianzi gazed at Gu Baiying: “Perhaps it was heaven’s mercy upon me.”

The people of the Taiyan Sect didn’t know who the child’s father was. After all, when she married Gu Caiyu, she hadn’t invited anyone. Now that Gu Caiyu had died by her sword, Qinghua Xianzi was heartbroken and didn’t know how to mention it to anyone. However, Shaoyang Zhenren vaguely guessed some of the truth and strictly ordered everyone in the sect not to discuss the matter.

But not discussing it didn’t mean it just passed by like that.

Those days of traveling together to test swords, those days of supporting each other in the secret realm of Li’er Kingdom—she was deeply immersed in them, unwilling to wake up. Qinghua Xianzi planted a lovebird flower tree in Xiaoyao Hall, but this tree never bloomed. So she used illusion magic to create a tree full of vermilion blossoms, trying to find traces of the past within them.

Gu Caiyu had once said to her: “In a person’s life, there will be many moments so painful that one is unwilling to face reality. Someone who lives as clearly as Xianzi—who knows, perhaps one day you too will need such illusory magic to find comfort.”

She refused to believe it then, thinking he was talking nonsense. She hadn’t expected his words to truly come to pass. It turned out life really was very long, and she was no different from ordinary people after all.

Shaoyang Zhenren sighed: “Indulging endlessly in the past is not a good thing. You should treat it as flowers reflected in a mirror or the moon reflected in water—just forget the past.”

“Forget?” she murmured. “I will never forget.”

She carved all her memories with Gu Caiyu into the “Qing E Nian Hua Gun” technique, then placed this martial art in the martial arts hall. Perhaps one day in the future, this technique would be found by someone destined for it, or perhaps it would remain forever hidden in some corner of the academy, covered in dust, never to be known.

“When I fought the Demon Lord at the Ruins of the Golden Gate, though I pierced the Demon Lord’s heart, my spiritual root was also damaged. After returning to the sect, despite doing my best to treat it, I still grew worse day by day. Master Senior Brother concealed the truth from me, but after giving birth to Baiying, my health deteriorated further. Sometimes I would fall into prolonged unconsciousness.”

Cultivators generally had some understanding of their physical condition. Qinghua Xianzi knew her time was running short. But she wasn’t sad—she even felt peaceful, knowing she could soon go to accompany Gu Caiyu. The only thing she couldn’t let go of was the still-young infant.

“Master Senior Brother and I observed the celestial phenomena and divined that in twenty years, a great calamity would befall the human realm. Only someone with the right destiny could save the world and rescue all living beings from fire and water. The divination showed I still had one meeting with this person, destined to encounter them here. So I left Gufeng Mountain and returned to this place.”

This was where she and Gu Caiyu first met, full of memories from the past. If she were to perish here, it would be fitting for this shallow bond they shared.

No one had come to the secret realm, so it remained as it was originally. She saw the “white-cut chicken” and also saw that in the inner room, beneath a thick stack of poems and writings on the wooden table, was hidden the beauty painting.

The past was vivid before her eyes, as if she could turn around and see former times. She died lonely here, in the place where everything began. After her death, her physical body was destroyed and became a restriction, while a trace of her remaining divine consciousness attached itself to the beautiful painting, quietly waiting for someone destined to arrive.

This was everything.

Qinghua Xianzi looked toward Gu Baiying: “When I left, I thought countless times about what you would look like in the future. Not being able to see you grow up with my own eyes is my life’s regret. But I never expected that I could meet you in this place.” Crystalline tears seemed to glimmer in the woman’s eyes: “Baiying, have you been well these years? How has Master Senior Brother treated you? In Taiyan Sect, has anyone bullied you?” Only at this moment did she finally shed all her cold aloofness, like an ordinary mother facing a beloved relative she had suddenly reunited with, somewhat at a loss as she tried to please.

The young man stepped back. Qinghua Xianzi’s hand reaching toward his face grasped empty air.

Perhaps she had countless difficulties, perhaps even if she hadn’t left back then, she wouldn’t have lived much longer—but what was missed was missed. Between emotion and righteousness, it’s difficult to have both—it was so then, and it remains so now. They had been separated too long, and Gu Baiying was not someone good at expressing emotions, so they could only maintain this awkward silence.

When close to deep feelings, one feels timid—it has always been this way.

Qinghua Xianzi looked at him speechlessly, her lips moving as if she had something to say, appearing somewhat humble. The young man stood stubbornly, his long lashes concealing his expression, only his tightly clenched fists behind his back betraying his current emotions.

The atmosphere was tense and silent.

Zanxing finally couldn’t bear it and broke this suffocating awkwardness. She said softly, “Before we entered the secret realm, we heard from the merfolk Yinying that someone had lent him power and asked him to seek a painting in the secret realm. We didn’t think much of it at the time, but now it seems—could it have been this portrait of Xianzi?”

Qinghua Xianzi was startled: “You said someone was looking for the painting?”

Zanxing nodded: “Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to ask who was behind him before Yinying was silenced. If what they were looking for really was this portrait, perhaps what they truly wanted to find was the inheritance within this painting—Xianzi’s inheritance?”

“Who would know that an inheritance was hidden here?” Gu Baiying frowned: “Could it be the demon race?”