Yellow sand still danced joyfully throughout the Limitless Abandoned City.

Nu Yuan watched as Chang Yuan and Er Sheng entered the city’s barrier before lowering the small head she had been holding. The city gates closed heavily, and she stood alone beneath the massive doors, staring blankly at their weathered red paint, her red clothes seeming to merge with the gates.

The nearby guards called to her several times, but she ignored them. Everyone was familiar with their City Lord’s mercurial temperament, so they naturally didn’t mind, waving it off and returning to their duties.

The wind and sand swirled past, lifting her voluminous robes as Nu Yuan gently stroked the small head she held. She kept mumbling one phrase over and over, causing the guards who hadn’t yet left to detect a hint of sadness in her words.

“Together in life and death, is it possible…” It wasn’t clear who she was asking.

Nu Yuan kept standing there until the bells and drums rang from the city tower. Her eyes finally stirred as she came back to herself. Looking at the eternally nightless sky, Nu Yuan’s lips moved, releasing a soft sigh. Just as she turned on her toes to leave, she suddenly heard a “crack-crack” sound from outside the city gate.

Having lived in the Abandoned City for hundreds of years, she had never heard any sounds from outside the gate. Nu Yuan’s eyes sharpened as she immediately became alert, pricking up her ears to listen more carefully to the sounds outside. The wind whistled in her ears, but there was no more noise from beyond the gate as if that earlier sound had been her imagination.

She frowned and turned to leave.

In that instant, just as Nu Yuan turned her back, the city gate suddenly let out a tremendous boom, forced open by an enormous power. The darkness outside the gate appeared again, with wind and sand rushing into the endless blackness as if fleeing.

Nu Yuan was startled and turned back in surprise to see a man in blue robes covered in blood appearing from the darkness. He walked like a general returning from battle, each step resolute and firm.

As his figure drew closer, Nu Yuan’s eyes widened in disbelief, frozen as if entranced.

The city guards, hearing the gate’s sound, all hurried over. Seeing this scene, they too were stunned. Most of these guards had been in the Abandoned City for a long time, their former arrogant dispositions worn away. Now, faced with this sudden change, they couldn’t help but panic.

“How could someone break through the city barrier? Has the outside world been destroyed?”

“City Lord! Something terrible has happened!”

“Is the gate damaged? Where will we find wood to repair it if it is? This isn’t a stone tower!”

However, only one phrase reached Nu Yuan’s ears—”Fallen Immortal Chang An! It’s Fallen Immortal Chang An!” came the terrified cries of those he had brought into the Abandoned City.

Fallen Immortal Chang An…

“Chang An, Chang An, your name sounds so peaceful. I want such a peaceful and happy name too. A Wu, A Wu, this name sounds like nothing at all.”

“A Wu is fine, simple, and elegant. I like it very much.”

Nu Yuan still remembered how Chang An had patted her head then, smiling warmly in the gentle sunlight.

How long had it been since she’d recalled these memories? Nu Yuan thought that if she never saw him again, she probably wouldn’t remember these things until death. Because the greater the happiness then, the greater the loneliness and pain now.

Entering the city, the gates closed behind him for a second time. Chang An moved slowly toward the person he sought, meeting everyone’s uncertain gazes. With each step forward, blood dripped from his footsteps onto the sandy ground, leaving crimson footprints.

Nu Yuan stood frozen, watching him walk toward her, feeling her limbs gradually weaken. So this is what Chang An looked like, Nu Yuan thought. The Chang An in her memories had become a blur at some point, like a faceless flame burning in her heart with the warmth of sunlight.

“A Wu.” Chang An stretched out both hands—he looked as if he’d been pulled from a pool of blood, not a single spot dry. Yet this bedraggled face wore the happiest smile. “I’ve come to take you back.”

Nu Yuan’s gaze moved slowly from his pale hands to his blood-covered eyes, staring at him woodenly as if she couldn’t understand his words.

Chang An continued walking toward Nu Yuan, step by step, with a persistence bordering on obstinance. However, just as his fingertips were about to touch Nu Yuan’s cheek, his vision blurred and his body suddenly went limp. Just when everyone thought Chang An would fall to the ground, Nu Yuan suddenly stepped forward, barely catching his collapsing form, embracing a body full of bloody scents.

The people of the Abandoned City watched with their mouths agape, everything falling silent around them, unable to believe their City Lord would make such a gesture, and show such an expression…

“A Wu,” Chang An whispered weakly in Nu Yuan’s ear before losing consciousness, “Let’s go home.”

Nu Yuan remained silent for a long while before finally speaking her first words since their reunion: “We can’t go back.”

Chang An weakly raised his hands, only able to tightly grip her sleeve, repeatedly saying: “Let’s go home…” like a child afraid of being left behind.

“We can’t go back.”

These words were cruelly clear, carelessly pulling at old wounds, making her tremble with pain, while Chang An had already fainted in her arms.

After standing there quietly for a moment, Nu Yuan supported Chang An as she stood up. Looking around and seeing everyone’s ghostly expressions, she maintained a stern face, her voice as gloomy as ever: “What are you all staring at? This is your City Lord’s man, hurry up and pay your respects.”

Everyone’s jaws silently dropped…

Nu Yuan raised her head imperiously: “Prepare a sedan chair, carry my man back.”

Meanwhile, in another place, amid the fields of white flowers, Chang Yuan and Er Sheng were heading toward where the red light had appeared.

Climbing a small hill, Er Sheng’s eyes widened in surprise at the scene below: “What… is this?”

A huge circular lake lay quietly below, its surface resembling the yin-yang symbol from the Eight Trigrams—half black and half white, with a red sphere rotating continuously in each half. The light from the two red spheres merged and shot straight into the sky. This was the light that had drawn Er Sheng and Chang Yuan here.

Er Sheng curiously ran down to examine the lake water closely: “Is this water?” She scooped up a handful to observe, seeing that the lake water was crystal clear, no different from ordinary lake water. Her curiosity grew, and she stuck out her tongue to taste it. Chang Yuan walked up behind her and silently grabbed her hand: “We don’t know what this is yet, don’t put it in your mouth.”

Er Sheng obediently poured the water back into the lake. Just as she stood up, she suddenly noticed ripples appearing on the surface. Recent consecutive surprises had made Er Sheng somewhat paranoid, and she quickly backed up two steps, waving her hands: “Is a monster going to crawl out? I didn’t drink it, really didn’t drink it!”

Chang Yuan soothingly patted her head.

No monster emerged from the lake as Er Sheng had imagined. The surface rippled gently, and an illusion appeared on the white half. Chang Yuan narrowed his eyes to look carefully and discovered that the illusion projected in the lake water was a scene from the Limitless Abandoned City—the yellow sand filling the sky, the tall vermillion city gates.

Er Sheng’s eyes widened in shock: “How is this done? It looks so real. Is the Abandoned City inside this lake?”

Chang Yuan watched the scene quietly for a while, his gaze falling on the still-deathly-quiet black water as if thinking of something. A strange ripple appeared in his eyes. Just then, Er Sheng suddenly patted Chang Yuan’s arm, pointing at the illusion and exclaiming: “That’s Chang An and Nu Yuan, they’re… they’re embracing! They are husband and wife!”

While Er Sheng muttered guesses about these two people’s previous story, Chang Yuan thoughtfully watched the lake. Soon after, the water rippled again and the illusion disappeared. The red light gradually faded with it.

“Ah… why did it stop?” Er Sheng felt quite disappointed.

But Chang Yuan suddenly said: “I think I’ve found a way out.”

Er Sheng’s eyes brightened: “What way?”

“If I’m not mistaken, the way out should be within that red light.”

Er Sheng looked up at the sky, where nothing remained: “But the light is gone.”

“No hurry. Since this light appeared once, it will surely appear again.”

“How does Chang Yuan know the red light is the way out?”

Chang Yuan was quiet for a moment before explaining, “It’s not a path, but rather an array eye. Every maze array must have an array eye, which is the weakness of all formations. The Limitless Abandoned City and the Vault of Ten Thousand Heavens are both sealing arrays, formations created naturally by heaven and earth. For tens of thousands of years, no one knew the location of their array eyes. Everyone thought these two maze arrays had no array eyes, believing it showed the great mystery of heaven and earth’s laws… but now it seems that’s not entirely true.”

He looked toward the horizon where the red light had been and continued, “Since the white lake water can show scenes from the Abandoned City, it must be connected to it. This place also has sealing power almost identical to the Vault of Ten Thousand Heavens. I suspect these two colored waters represent the Limitless Abandoned City and the Vault of Ten Thousand Heavens—one black, one white, one symbolizing eternal night, one eternal day. That’s why the Vault has no daylight and the Abandoned City no night.”

Er Sheng blinked at Chang Yuan for a while: “So? What does this have to do with us getting out?”

Chang Yuan had been speaking with some excitement, proud of deducing these connections, but suddenly faced with Er Sheng’s direct question, he choked slightly, cleared his throat, and said: “This means this place is the array eye of both the Limitless Abandoned City and the Vault of Ten Thousand Heavens. When the lake water showed the city scene earlier, the red light appeared but disappeared when the scene vanished. This suggests that light is the medium connecting this lake to the outside world. If we can enter that light, we might be able to get out.”

Er Sheng continued blinking at Chang Yuan: “But the light disappeared.”

“…It will appear again.”