Love and Crown

That year, when that person left Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, the bitter winter storms had already faded from the foothills, replaced by slanting winds and drizzling rain, with spring's vitality wafting in the air.

Xu Lai broke off a tender green willow branch and handed it over, smiling as he said, "Yun Cong returns east to the Central Plains. From now on, meeting old friends will be difficult, so I must bid you farewell."

The person took the willow branch in hand, raised their eyes with a smile, the warmth at the corners of their lips surpassing the spring breeze of Jiangnan in March: "Brother Xu, take care."

Xu Lai also smiled, suppressing the words "Why not stay?" that nearly escaped his lips, merely raising his hand in a dashing salute.

Yet before his hand could fully lower, he couldn't resist reaching forward to embrace the slightly slender shoulders beneath that heavy cape.

The person froze momentarily, seemingly caught off guard by this sudden embrace, but soon those deep black eyes softened with gentle mirth and faint sorrow.

They too raised their arms to return the embrace around Xu Lai's shoulders, sighing softly as they repeated: "Take care."

In the end, that person still boarded the carriage. On the desolate ancient road of northern Yunnan, the carriage gradually grew distant, rounding the mountain ridge until even the sharpest martial artist's vision could no longer discern it.

Liu Huaixue, who had accompanied him to see the traveler off, only spoke then: "They're gone now. No use looking further."

Xu Lai continued gazing at the end of the ancient path, as if hoping that person might reappear there, or perhaps just wishing to linger with his gaze a moment longer.

After a long while, he finally withdrew his gaze to look at Liu Huaixue, his lips already resuming their usual roguish charm: "I just couldn't bear to part with Yun Cong. The thought that we'll never meet again in this life cuts me to the heart."

That peach-blossom-eyed, teasing expression hardly matched his claim of a "heart cut by knives."

Liu Huaixue gave a soft scoff, too lazy to look at him: "If you can't bear it, then follow them to the capital. No one's tying you down."

Xu Lai glanced once more at the end of the ancient road, unusually earnest as he said: "Though we once walked the same path, in the end... we cannot return together."

Only then did Liu Huaixue turn to look at him, lips pressed slightly together, ultimately offering no comment. His white robes solitary, sleeves fluttering, he turned to walk back up the mountain.

Only the two of them had accompanied that person all the way down the mountain. With Liu Huaixue gone, Xu Lai couldn't stand staying alone. He hurried after, tugging at his sleeve: "Ah... Huaixue, don't abandon me like this. I'm already so heartbroken—if even you forsake me, what am I to do?"

Liu Huaixue never took his fellow disciple's nonsense seriously. With a derisive laugh, he kept walking.

Xu Lai chased after him, swearing as if making a vow: "Huaixue, in this life I've only had two true friends—you and Yun Cong, no others. I couldn't bear parting with Yun Cong, but even more I can't bear losing you..."

Liu Huaixue halted, waiting for Xu Lai to catch up and walk beside him before coldly stating: "Shut up."

Xu Lai obediently closed his mouth, a triumphant spring breeze of a smile on his face as he walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him back to the headquarters up the mountain.

The Martial World is vast, the empire even more boundless, yet only this headquarters nestled within Jade Dragon Snow Mountain was where they had grown and taken shelter—their "home."

Just as he'd told Liu Huaixue, he and that person might have once walked the same path, but in the end they could not return together.

When he first met that person, he'd never imagined they would turn out to be the sect leader's son—someone who by rights should have been seated in the Golden Luan Hall.A young man dressed in faded blue robes stood before him, carrying a medicine kit on his back. His refined appearance stood out starkly among the rough crowd, giving an impression of scholarly fragility at first glance.

He resembled bamboo growing gracefully in a courtyard or an orchid blooming on a mountain cliff—something one could never bear to cut down or destroy.

Even in the midst of his bloodlust, he still roared at the man, "Get out of the way!"

What kind of gaze had the man directed at him then? He couldn’t remember anymore. He only recalled a soft sigh before the man dropped his medicine kit from his shoulder and stepped behind him, pressing his own shoulder against his.

The warmth and steadiness from that shared touch was something he had never experienced before, except with his fellow disciples.

From then on, he and that man began a friendship as pure and flowing as water.

The vast Martial World always seemed to bring them together, and it was only when sharing drinks with that man until they were thoroughly drunk that the Martial World felt most vibrant.

They didn’t meet often, but every encounter was unforgettable.

They had once sailed through the rivers of Shu, singing loudly, and had also shared a single bowl of wontons in the drizzling rain of Jiangnan when their pockets were empty.

Despite his strikingly handsome features, the man was far gentler and more composed than others of his age in the Martial World. His simple lifestyle even led Xu Lai to suspect he came from humble origins, so he always insisted on paying whenever they were together.

The man never refused his generosity. During their second meeting, Xu Lai, drunk, dragged him to a gambling house, where he unexpectedly witnessed the man’s astonishing sleight of hand at the tables.

When the wealthy merchant across from them lost so badly that his eyes turned red with fury, the man decisively smashed the gambling table and strode out with Xu Lai in tow.

Xu Lai was utterly stunned. Once outside, he leaned on the man’s shoulder, laughing until he bent over. "Yun Cong, I never expected…"

The man smiled gently as ever and tossed the heavy pouch of silver they had won into Xu Lai’s arms. "Take it to the abbot of Yongji Temple as a donation for their porridge charity."

Xu Lai hefted the weighty pouch and grinned. "With this much silver, they’ll be serving porridge well into next year. Aren’t you keeping any for yourself, Yun Cong?"

The man gave him a slightly puzzled look before shaking his head with a smile. "I don’t need it."

Xu Lai was taken aback, suddenly realizing—perhaps Yun Cong wasn’t poor, but simply indifferent to wealth?

Later, when he learned the man’s true identity, Xu Lai nearly cringed at the memory of ever assuming he came from poverty.

Under heaven, all lands belonged to the emperor—the entire realm was his. Money must have been the least meaningful thing to him.

Yet despite ruling the empire, he owned nothing of material value, traveling every corner of the Great Wu with only the meager earnings from his medical practice.

His skills were so exceptional that even as a traveling doctor, his reputation grew. Yet he almost always offered free clinics.

Impoverished patients who managed to find him would receive not only treatment but sometimes even financial aid for medicine.

The fees he collected from wealthy households were mostly used to subsidize the poor, leaving him frequently short on funds.

Like the time he chartered a boat to take the injured Xu Lai to the harbor, only to find himself without a single coin left—enough only for a single bowl of wontons at a street stall.

Xu Lai remembered how the man had fished out his last few coppers, realized it was only enough for one bowl, and smiled with a hint of embarrassment.When the wonton was served, the man cleared his throat lightly with a fist to his lips, pretending nonchalance as he pushed the bowl toward him and said, "Brother Xu, go ahead. I'm not hungry yet."

Xu Lai naturally noticed his rare moment of embarrassment and laughed heartily, throwing an arm around his shoulder. He then asked the old wonton stall owner for another spoon and pressed it into his hand. "I'm not hungry either. Let's share this bowl between the two of us."

And so began their back-and-forth sharing of the meal. In the light drizzle, under the dim yellow glow of the stall's lantern, steam rose from the hot wonton soup, misting over the man's slightly flushed cheeks.

As Xu Lai ate his first post-injury meal of wonton, he idly thought to himself that this was a friend worth keeping. From now on, in the Martial World of the Central Plains, there would be one more person he'd hold in his thoughts.

What happened next? The stall owner, unable to bear the sight of two young men pitifully sharing a single bowl of wonton, silently cooked another generous ladleful of plump, juicy dumplings and added them to their bowl.

The man thanked the stall owner softly, his ears tinged red, his eyes carrying a mix of amusement and something else—a faint, indescribable hint of pride.

At the time, Xu Lai didn’t understand the source of that quiet pride, but later, he came to realize… As an emperor, seeing the simple kindness between strangers under his rule, how could one not feel a sense of pride?

Was it because of these small, repeated moments of pride that the man resolved to do everything in his power, even at the cost of his life, to ensure peace in the realm?

But what kind of feeling was that? Xu Lai had never been in a position of power, so he couldn’t truly understand.

To him, that man couldn’t really be called fortunate.

What did it matter to be born the Son of Heaven?

The empire was long plagued by deep-rooted issues, like an ailing elder on the brink of death. Keeping it alive might have been harder than shattering it and rebuilding a golden age anew.

Did the man truly not understand this? In fact, his experiences were even broader than Xu Lai’s, a wandering Martial World hero who had traveled north and south.

From their casual conversations, Xu Lai learned that he had been to the northern frontiers, stepped into military camps, witnessed howling gales and rolling boulders, and also journeyed to the southern coasts, where coconut shadows danced on white sands beneath azure skies.

His identity as a physician seemed to make his travels all the more convenient—and all the more revealing of the people’s hardships.

Once, as they lay under the moonlight, slightly tipsy, Xu Lai listened to him recount his strange encounters on a solitary island in the East Sea. Unable to resist, Xu Lai chuckled and asked, "Yun Cong, you’re so young, yet you spend all your time wandering. Do you even return home once a year? Don’t your parents and teachers ever scold you for it?"

The moment the words left his mouth, Xu Lai felt a twinge of regret. Most of them in the Martial World had little to no family ties—otherwise, they wouldn’t be so free-spirited and unrestrained.

Before he could hastily take back his question, the man fell silent for a moment before speaking softly, "My travels were permitted by my teacher. I still have a mother alive… but she doesn’t wish to see me."

At the time, Xu Lai didn’t know that the man’s mother was their sect’s leader. He only felt a pang of sympathy for the coldness of his mother’s attitude. After a brief silence, he smiled and deftly steered the conversation elsewhere.

Looking back, the man’s ties to his parents could only be described as tenuous.

From the moment he was born, his birth mother had fled far to northern Yunnan. The tangled grievances between his parents meant he had never known the warmth of parental love.That man didn’t even have a healthy body. From birth, he was tormented by the Cold Poison, yet he still learned statecraft, martial arts, and even medicine just to survive.

Xu Lai was an orphan. Before the age of eight, he could only scrape by through begging. But when he thought about it, he still considered himself much luckier than that man.

Though his first eight years were bitter, after turning eight, the sect leader took him back to the main hall. From then on, he had enough to eat and wear, with martial siblings who grew up together in warmth and camaraderie.

He was even fortunate enough to learn formidable martial arts, allowing him to roam the Martial World at eighteen with few rivals, free to act as he pleased in settling grievances and debts.

But what about that man? During his years in the palace, he likely never lived a single day for himself—constantly bedridden, surrounded by wolves.

So when that man spoke of amusing tales from his travels, his usually gentle tone carried an involuntary ease.

At first, Xu Lai didn’t understand why. Only later, after learning of the man’s identity and suffering, did he realize that what seemed to him like an ascetic’s life might have been that man’s rare taste of freedom.

And after that? He had once defied the sect leader for that man’s sake, yet because of their opposing allegiances, they stood on opposite sides once more.

The blizzard at the foot of Tianshan was relentless. He watched as that man leaned against the carriage door, clad in snow-white robes, lips still curved in a faint, gentle smile. “Brother Xu,” the man greeted him, “we meet again.”

Only two years had passed, yet he never imagined the man would have withered to such pallor. It was as if decades had gone by, all vitality drained away, leaving only a still-youthful and handsome shell clinging to the last vestiges of grace.

Xu Lai clenched his hand at his side and laughed coldly. “Seems your first opponent will be me… Yun Cong. We’ve crossed blades once before. Who knows how this one will end?”

His words carried three parts mockery and seven parts frost, as if that could smother the ache in his chest.

The man paused slightly at that, the lingering warmth at his lips finally fading. With a lift of his hand, cold light flashed.

Xu Lai’s blade clashed once more with the edge of King Wind’s sword. Two years had passed, and the man’s sword now carried an indescribable chill—as if every strike was the first and last of his life.

Unwavering. Radiant.

Amidst this suffocating, relentless swordplay, Xu Lai couldn’t help but wonder—would the man kill him this time?

In their last duel, the man’s sword had still held a gentle warmth, deliberately veering away from his vitals. But now? Would that blade, now frozen to its core, pierce his chest?

Yet in that moment of distraction, his silver longsword was sent flying from his grip, the abandoned hilt betraying his hesitation and weakness.

The man’s sword once again halted before him. And once again, the man smiled—his lips faintly carrying that same old warmth. “Brother Xu, you’ve lost again.”

Xu Lai raised his arms and caught the man as he collapsed forward. His fingers flexed, then he lifted a sleeve to wipe away the stark blood at the man’s lips.

The man braced a hand on Xu Lai’s shoulder, struggling not to slide to the ground, his voice laced with quiet amusement. “The first one Mother sent… was actually you, Brother Xu.”Xu Lai let out an enigmatic laugh. "Yun Cong showed me mercy, yet you're not afraid I might take advantage of your weakness to kill you?"

The man leaning against his shoulder looked up at the snowflakes drifting from the sky, lips curving slightly. "If I were to die by Brother Xu's blade, it wouldn't be a bad ending."

After a moment of silence, Xu Lai wrapped an arm around the man's shoulders and lifted him, pulling aside the carriage curtain.

Inside, a figure was curled up asleep in the corner. Recognizing her as the Tianshan Sect's leader Yun Zixin, he fell silent again before finally speaking: "You let her rest inside while you drove the carriage yourself?"

The man chuckled softly against his shoulder. "Sect Leader Yun is a woman after all. How could I make her drive?"

So despite his own weakened state, he chose to brave the cold wind outside instead?

Xu Lai glanced down at his pale profile and sighed quietly. "Yun Cong, every time I see you, I feel like I know you. It must be fate."

Hearing this resigned remark, the man actually laughed softly for a long while before coughing lightly and saying, "Brother Xu, knowing you has been the fortune of three lifetimes."

At a loss for words, Xu Lai carefully settled him into a reclining position inside the carriage before sighing again. "It seems I'm about to betray the sect once more."

But the man shook his head with a smile. "You're not betraying anyone. You've captured me and are delivering me to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain to face your sect leader. Such a great merit—how could it be called betrayal?"

Xu Lai froze momentarily before saying gravely, "You're handing yourself over to me?"

Another soft chuckle. "Brother Xu... I want to see my mother again."

Xu Lai studied him—the faint, gentle curve of those colorless lips as he whispered, "In my current state, I can't rest easy... I want to see her."

Xu Lai stared fixedly. If life were like flame, then the person before him resembled a candle that had nearly burned out—its glow still warm, but soon to extinguish.

Years of accumulated injuries. Xu Lai could see the gradually spiraling True Energy within his body. He knew this might already be the last radiance of the man's life. How could he bear it?

Xu Lai sealed all his Major Acupoints, feeling the True Energy that had been about to rupture his meridians stabilize. Only then did he relax slightly. "Good. Now you're truly my captive."

The man gazed at him with another smile, coughing weakly with ashen complexion. Unable to bear it, Xu Lai placed a hand on his Dantian, channeling some of his own Inner Force to soothe the turbulent energy within.

Leaning against his shoulder, the man slowly closed his eyes. After a long pause came a soft murmur: "Thank you."

And then... what happened next?

Once tricked aboard this pirate ship, how could he disembark so easily?

He sent word to the sect leader, claiming to have captured the man and would deliver him for personal judgment.

Whether the sect leader disbelieved him or had other plans, he continued sending an endless stream of followers to intercept them.

At least the sect leader hadn't declared him a traitor or issued a kill order.

He remained the Left Hall Master of the Hall of Light, yet had to evade his own sect's pursuit—dragging along a "prisoner" as they dodged and hid their way toward Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.Just like during their escape in Jiangnan years ago, though the man spent half of each day unconscious, whenever he was awake, he could always accurately assess the situation and devise ingenious strategies. They bypassed countless waves of sect members, allowing Xu Lai to avoid direct confrontation with his former fellow disciples.

Taking care of the man along the way, Xu Lai realized how much effort it required. He understood that without the man's help and guidance, given his frail condition, they might never have made it to northern Yunnan.

The man's injuries flared up several times during the journey, with intermittent unconsciousness and bouts of coughing up dark blood. Xu Lai and Yun Zixin forced countless doses of internal injury medicine down his throat before he finally pulled through. At one point, Xu Lai even feared he'd be carrying the man's corpse up the mountain.

Fortunately, among the Azure Jade Sect members sent by the sect leader to intercept them, some had received the man's kindness in the past, while others deeply admired his actions.

The Azure Jade Sect had never been a gathering place for Martial World thugs. The sect leader taught them to distinguish gratitude from grievance and follow the righteousness in their hearts.

This time, the righteousness in their hearts... meant they couldn't harm that man.

What Xu Lai had thought impossible, the man eventually achieved—they reached Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

At the mountain's base stood Liu Huaixue. The sect leader had sent ten people to set up ten checkpoints, with Liu Huaixue guarding the final one.

Xu Lai could no longer assist him, so the man alone broke through each checkpoint, step by step ascending to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain's summit.

At the final checkpoint, Liu Huaixue didn't resort to force but instead set up a chessboard.

The game took place on a high platform amidst ice and snow, with biting winds and swirling frost.

Xu Lai knew Liu Huaixue intended to drive the man away with the extreme cold. Unexpectedly, the game lasted two days and two nights, until both players were covered in snow and frost. Finally, Liu Huaixue conceded: "I've lost."

The unfinished game on the platform was buried under snow, yet the remnants still revealed a battlefield of strategies—a chessboard mirroring the world's grand scheme.

The sect leader finally ascended and asked calmly, "Huaixue, did he win?"

Liu Huaixue sighed and nodded. "Teacher, he won."

Only then did Xu Lai realize this game was likely the sect leader's design. What was his intention? To test whether the man possessed the wisdom and resolve to turn the tide in desperate circumstances?

Xu Lai couldn't fathom it. Even later, he pondered why the sect leader, knowing his deep bond with the man, had sent him to Tianshan.

Did the sect leader truly want to kill the man, or... had he merely set up an extremely difficult trial across mountains and rivers? If the man failed, his bones would be lost to the wilderness; if he succeeded...

Everything happened too quickly that day. The sect leader didn't attack the man. Instead, a man named Gui Wuchang appeared. The sect leader's sword pierced Gui Wuchang's chest, yet he caught the falling body.

The sect leader expended half his Inner Force to dispel the harmful True energy within Gui Wuchang's body, then leaped off the cliff with him in his arms.

Over twenty years of entangled love and hatred—their complex emotions were likely beyond anyone else's understanding.

Xu Lai only knew that every New Year, the sect leader would personally cook a bowl of longevity noodles, topped with two soft-boiled eggs and vibrant green vegetables, looking utterly delicious.In the end, that bowl of noodles would be fiercely fought over by them, while the sect leader would watch their brawl with a smile. Yet no matter how they scrambled for it, he would never cook a second bowl.

When Xu Lai was still young, he had once playfully asked the sect leader why she didn’t cook a few more bowls so everyone could share.

The sect leader had only smiled and shaken her head. “The birthday boy didn’t even get to eat this before you all snatched it away. And you still have the nerve to ask me to cook more?”

Despite her words, from then on, she would cook the same bowl of noodles for each of them on their birthdays.

It wasn’t until later, when Xu Lai entered the Martial World and learned more of the world, that he realized the first day of the new year was actually that person’s birthday.

The emperor’s birthday was the Longevity Festival, which coincidentally fell on the New Year. The two most festive occasions of the year were celebrated together, each time with grand jubilation across the land.

Amid the lively banquets in the palace, had that person ever thought about the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in northern Yunnan, where a bowl of longevity noodles—cooked by his mother’s own hands—awaited him every year?

When that person was recuperating on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Xu Lai had asked him this very question. He had merely said it offhand, without any intention of reproach.

But at the time, the sect leader’s fate was unknown, and remembering the deep maternal love that had once existed, he couldn’t help but voice it aloud.

Yet the moment the words left his mouth, the gentle smile that always lingered on that person’s lips vanished completely. His face turned ashen—a deathly pallor worse than when he had been on the brink of death atop the snowy peak.

Xu Lai watched as that person clutched his chest and collapsed, vomiting bright red blood in great heaves.

He hadn’t expected such a simple remark to cause such chaos. Panicked, he held that person’s trembling body and frantically called for a physician.

But his sleeve was tugged. He saw that person , pale-faced, curve his lips slightly at him, blood still stark at the corners. “Brother Xu… I am the physician…”

In his eyes, countless waves of sorrow and desolation seemed to pass, yet they still held a soft light. “Even now… my life was given by my mother. I won’t let her efforts go to waste.”

In their distress, neither of them noticed the familiar figure who had quietly entered and now stood by the bedside.

The sect leader—no, now he should call her teacher —sat down beside the bed, gently wiping the blood from that person’s lips with a handkerchief before speaking calmly. “Your heart meridian is damaged. Avoid extreme emotions.”

Xu Lai, still holding that person’s shoulders, could feel his body trembling again. Seeing the fresh blood on the bed, his panic only grew, unsure of what to do. Hastily, he shoved that person toward the teacher and fled the room as if escaping for his life.

In his last glance before closing the door, he saw the teacher cradling that person’s shoulders tenderly, wiping the blood from his lips while softly urging him to steady his breath.

Outside, Xu Lai ran into Liu Huaixue, who informed him that the teacher had finally returned with Gui Wuchang from the cliff’s base just an hour prior.

Beneath that cliff lay an icy spring—even a dying body, frozen in its waters, could cling to life for a while longer. They had all guessed that the teacher had jumped down with Gui Wuchang to save him using the spring’s properties.

But the cliff was too high, and the teacher had already lost half her Inner Force. None had known whether she could return safely with him.

Now… now she was finally back. At least this ending wasn’t the worst.

Leaning against the closed door behind him, Xu Lai lifted a hand to shield his eyes and let out a low, muffled laugh under the warming northern Yunnan sun.He laughed for a long time, until Liu Huaixue could no longer bear it and spoke with some impatience: "If you want to cry, just cry. When the teacher returned, Wu Shui and Ban Le were already in tears."

Shaking his head with a smile, he wiped his face fiercely, revealing a pair of sharp, gleaming eyes: "I’m just laughing at how this damned heavens isn’t completely merciless."

Gui Wuchang’s injuries were severe. When the teacher brought him back, he was still unconscious.

As soon as that person recovered slightly, he got up to treat his father’s wounds. Xu Lai had assumed there would be some tacit understanding and warmth between father and son, but every time that person went to tend to Gui Wuchang, his face remained cold, as if he couldn’t even be bothered to feign a smile.

Even when Gui Wuchang finally woke up, that person still wore an indifferent expression as he finished the acupuncture session, packed up his needles, and left without a word.

Once, Gui Wuchang couldn’t hold back any longer and tried to speak during the treatment: "Huan’er, how is your health?"

The other replied coldly, "No talking during acupuncture."

So Gui Wuchang had no choice but to fall silent again, his face—bearing a striking resemblance to his son’s—equally pale and pitiable.

Xu Lai found the scene rather amusing but didn’t dare laugh. He could only suppress his amusement and wait for the other to finish the acupuncture so he could help him back to his room.

However, after the session, the other finally spoke in a detached tone: "I’m fine. No need for your concern. As for you—if you keep overthinking, I won’t need to come treat you anymore."

Gui Wuchang frowned, pretending not to understand: "Huan’er, why wouldn’t you come treat me? Did I upset you?"

Pressing his pale, thin lips together, the other glared fiercely at the man on the bed, seemingly regretting having spoken at all, and got up to leave without hesitation.

This time, the other might have been truly angered by his father. After returning to his room, he clutched his chest and coughed for a while, his face deathly pale.

Seeing how he always ended up hurting himself whenever he quarreled with his parents, Xu Lai rubbed his nose and said, "Yun Cong, the teacher’s wife has always been like this. Only the teacher can handle him. Don’t take it to heart."

Hearing this, the other paused and looked up at him: "Who did you just call ‘teacher’s wife’?"

Xu Lai, accustomed to the ways of the Azure Jade Sect, wasn’t too familiar with worldly titles and hierarchies, so he didn’t notice anything amiss: "I mean Yun Cong’s father. We all call him ‘teacher’s wife.’"

The other let out a sudden laugh, his face no longer ashen. "If he ever heard that, I wonder if he’d die of rage..."

But he quickly suppressed his smile and glanced at Xu Lai, speaking softly: "Since I was little, he always told me that one day, he’d bring my mother back... He said it for years, yet never once kept his word. In the end, he..."

A trace of resignation flickered across his face before he finally smiled again. "Never mind. Why should I hold it against him? He’s always been a liar."

Despite his words, even when he could barely get out of bed, he still insisted on treating Gui Wuchang daily. The acupuncture technique was said to be quite draining, and for someone who had lost his Inner Force, it couldn’t have been easy.

This family was always so contradictory. By now, Xu Lai was used to it. With both father and son bedridden, the teacher seemed rather pitiable.

When the other had recovered somewhat and Gui Wuchang’s injuries had also improved, he prepared to return to the capital.The teacher and Gui Wuchang saw the man off. The teacher looked at him and said, "The matter of your father and me still being alive involves too much. Don't tell anyone."

The man nodded in agreement. The teacher continued, "Huan'er, I still want to say—you could just stay here..."

The man chuckled softly and shook his head. "Mother, someone is waiting for me in the capital..."

In the end, the teacher said nothing more, only raising her arms to embrace him. Xu Lai, who had followed the teacher for so many years, only realized at this moment that when the teacher held the man, she no longer seemed transcendent or ethereal. Like any mother in the world holding her son about to embark on a long journey, her back bent slightly, filled with reluctance.

The teacher said, "Before... that day comes, if there's time, I'll bring your father back to see you."

The man smiled faintly and nodded. "I wish you and Father a long and happy life together. May that day never come."

The teacher burst into laughter again. "You haven't been on the mountain long, yet you've already picked up Xiaolai's glib tongue... 'May that day never come'—do you want us to outlive you?"

The man curved his lips slightly, unwilling to admit he had deliberately teased his mother to lighten the sorrow of parting.

The teacher and the others bid him farewell on the mountain, but only Xu Lai and Liu Huaixue accompanied him to the foot.

Would he and that person ever meet again in this lifetime?

Xu Lai didn't dwell on it. He was born a free spirit of the Martial World, his fate like duckweed—yet also like a white bird. The moment it spreads its wings and soars into the clouds, ask not of its origin, nor of its destination.

Later, Liu Huaixue asked Xu Lai, "How many true friends have you had in this life?"

The no-longer-young Hall Master, still handsome, smiled and wiggled his fingers. "There are two, of course."

One stood before him, the other had gone to the depths where the sea met the sky and snow.

Though they could never meet again, they remained forever in his heart.