The sky was gloomy.
Su Su walked out of the Demon Realm. The six realms were almost overlapping with her memories—demonic energy spreading everywhere, spiritual energy growing increasingly scarce.
It had still come to this.
Extracting Tantai Jin's Evil Bone had delayed all of this, but as long as the Nine Revolutions Profound Return Array within the Demon Realm was activated, the world's spiritual energy would transform into demonic energy.
An unexpected person approached her.
Recognizing his silhouette, Su Su said in surprise, "Fuyai?"
Yue Fuyai, carrying a sword on his back, called out softly, "Senior Sister."
"Why are you here?" Su Su asked, puzzled. Because of the Illusion Face Pearl, she couldn't help but doubt whether what she saw with her eyes was real.
Yue Fuyai pursed his lips. "After you entered the Demon Realm, I've been waiting here for you."
The once rigid and stern junior brother seemed like a different person today. Su Su couldn't tell if this feeling was happiness or sorrow.
"Fuyai, what's wrong with you?"
"That day when the immortals went to the Demon Realm to subdue Hanba, it coincided with the emergence of the Demon God. I heard you call that Carefree Sect disciple Tantai Jin, but wasn't his name Cang Jiufeng?"
Su Su fell silent for a moment. "He was once... called Tantai Jin."
Yue Fuyai looked at her with stubborn eyes, as if trying to force a smile, though it seemed difficult for him. "Senior Sister, can I ask you one last time... that question?"
Seeing his seriousness, Su Su nodded.
"Five hundred years ago, did you ever go to the mortal realm and save a boy from a Ruoshui ice coffin?"
Su Su looked at him in astonishment.
"I've asked you this question many times, and you always said no. If I ask again today, will your answer remain the same?"
A guess formed in her heart. Su Su looked at the valiant young man before her—it was hard to connect him with the boy Xiao Shan she had saved five hundred years ago.
But only she and Xiao Shan possessed this memory.
"Are you Xiao Shan?"
A faint smile suddenly appeared in Yue Fuyai's eyes as he whispered, "So you still remember me."
He had thought that weak, insignificant child had been forgotten by her, yet Su Su still remembered his name.
"Yue Fuyai, courtesy name Chu Shan." He looked at Su Su. After a full five hundred years, some words were finally spoken today. "I was once the young master of the Yiyue tribe, born with an illness. My mother, fearing I would die young, sealed me in a Ruoshui ice coffin."
"Later, by chance, the ice coffin was taken by demonic beasts, and you saved me. That couple were good people, but they died at the hands of bandits." Yue Fuyai paused, then said, "I'm sorry. I didn't protect the spirit bird you gave me well."
Su Su shook her head. "It wasn't like that. When I gave you the spirit bird, I hoped it would accompany you."
Such a sensible boy shouldn't be too lonely.
Yue Fuyai said, "It accompanied me for a long time."
That year, during heavy snowfall, he drifted from place to place, inquiring about Su Su's whereabouts, but no one told him.
In the third year of Jinghe, even the emperor she had been so determined to stop disappeared without a trace from the mortal realm.
Due to his special constitution nurtured by spirit medicine, Yue Fuyai happened to be taken in by an elderly rogue immortal as a disciple.
Later, when his body could no longer endure, the rogue immortal sealed him to nourish his soul. When he awoke again, the rogue immortal's cultivation had reached a bottleneck and could no longer advance, so he entrusted him to his old friend Qu Xuanzi.
Compared to many others, he was fortunate, but the luck he most desired had not come to him.
He wanted to see the young girl who had carried him down the mountain that year.It's a pity that when he stopped asking, she had already appeared by his side.
When Yue Fuya brought up the matter, Su Su smiled faintly.
The unspoken feelings of youth now tasted bitterly sour to the extreme. Yue Fuya understood that she viewed those past events with such detachment—the former him merely an ignorant child in her eyes.
"Senior Sister, is it too late that I only recognize you now?"
Su Su didn't understand either how her junior brother, who once behaved like a cultivation tool, could speak in such a gentle tone.
If she weren't certain he was Yue Fuya, Su Su would have suspected he was a Demonic Beast transformed by the Illusion Face Pearl.
"Of course not," Su Su said. "I also just recognized you."
Yue Fuya whispered, "Then I'll protect you well from now on."
He had trained diligently all these years precisely so that when standing by her side one day, he would no longer be the one being protected.
"Yue Fuya!" A disheveled girl in orange clothes descended from the sky via Sword Control. "I finally found you! How dare you mess with me!"
Su Su looked and saw it was actually Cen Mixuan.
Yue Fuya remained unperturbed. "You were the one who insisted on following me. I've already told you—I don't like you tagging along."
"Who wants to follow you!" Cen Mixuan's face flushed crimson. Glancing at Su Su, she pointed her whip at her and said, "You just want her to follow you, don't you!"
Yue Fuya's fingers trembled. "Don't talk nonsense! If you disrespect Senior Sister again, I won't be polite!"
Su Su hadn't expected to get caught in the crossfire.
She tilted her head and smiled. "Junior Brother Fuya, Senior Sister Cen, you two talk properly. I have some matters to attend to."
"Senior Sister!"
"Fuya, do you have a Communication Talisman? I need to tell Father something important."
Yue Fuya also understood this wasn't the time for romantic matters. He handed the Communication Talisman to Su Su, who stepped aside to inform Qu Xuanzi about the situation in the Demon Realm.
Cen Mixuan mocked, "What are you still looking at? Clearly your senior sister doesn't want to bother with you."
Fuya's expression darkened. "If you're not returning to Chixiao Sect, find another place to go. I apologize for what happened earlier, but don't follow me anymore."
With that, he ignored Cen Mixuan's ugly expression and followed Su Su.
After hearing Su Su's report, Qu Xuanzi said, "In three days, all Tribulation Transcension experts will infiltrate the Demon Realm to destroy the Nine Revolutions Profound Return Array."
Su Su wasn't surprised by this decision.
Those heading to the Demon Realm were all sect leaders and elders, each already prepared to face certain death.
For Qu Xuanzi and others, the future hope of the immortal realm lay with the younger generation. As long as the youth survived, the Three Realms would eventually flourish again.
"Su Su," Qu Xuanzi said, "I've failed you."
While other children took shelter under protective wings, waiting for the immortal realm's revival, Su Su had been fighting alongside them all along—all because she carried the bloodline of the world's last God.
Su Su replied, "Don't say that, Father."
She too had once struggled and retreated from this path when it grew too difficult. But now, looking at the scarred mortal world, protecting them remained her original aspiration after all.
"Will Senior Brother ever return?" Su Su asked.
After a long silence, she heard Qu Xuanzi say, "He will return."
Gongye Jiewu had always been Hengyang Sect's future hope as well.
Su Su fell silent. Yes, those who took wrong paths could ultimately turn back.
Except... for Tantai Jin.The entire world hated him, and even the Carefree Sect no longer accepted or believed in him.
Where could he turn back now?
When Su Su met Gongye Jiewu in the Demon Realm, she left behind two things: the Fire Quenching Needle for his self-defense, and the pollen of the tracking butterfly.
In fact, she knew the moment Gongye Jiewu left the Demon Realm. At that time, she couldn't go to him because she needed to retrieve the ring, but now she could.
She found Gongye Jiewu with Yue Fuya on a hillside in the mortal realm.
Beside Gongye Jiewu lay a dying youth.
Both were in a wretched state, covered in wounds left by Monster Exterminators.
Seeing Gongye Jiewu's condition, Yue Fuya's expression changed sharply. "Senior Brother!" he exclaimed.
After examining him, Yue Fuya said with a grave expression, "Senior Sister, Senior Brother's Spiritual Platform is sealed, and he's missing one Soul and one Po."
Humans possess three Hun and six Po souls—none can be missing. Just like Pian Ran, who retained only one Hun and one Po, eventually turning into an ordinary fox without spiritual awareness.
Gongye Jiewu's condition was critical.
Su Su crouched down, her gaze falling upon the other youth.
He wore coarse gray linen clothes. As winter approached in the mortal realm, his skin was purplish from the cold.
Two trails of bloody tears streamed from his eyes. He curled up, trapped in darkness, unaware and unfeeling.
An ordinary mortal, also missing one Hun and one Po.
After a pause, she pressed her finger to the youth's forehead. Scenes unfolded before her. With her Demigod ability to perceive past events, she saw a young child bullied in the village, accused of having ominous eyes that brought misfortune to anyone he looked upon.
Later, when drought struck and food grew scarce, he gathered medicinal herbs to sell, secretly supporting the entire village.
Yet the isolated village blamed him as the source of all misfortune, believing he conspired with Demonic Beasts. They hired a demon hunter to take him away and gouge out his eyes.
He and Gongye Jiewu escaped from the prison cart, but the demon hunter used a vile artifact to seize one of their Hun and one Po. Su Su looked at this face that bore a slight resemblance to Tantai Jin's from the past, then withdrew her finger.
"Senior Sister, Soul separation is serious! Senior Brother's Spiritual Platform is sealed. If we don't save him soon, it'll be too late!" Yue Fuya urged.
A sealed Spiritual Platform rendered one mortal. A mortal's Soul cannot remain separated for long. If she couldn't retrieve their Souls before dawn, they would lose all vitality.
Su Su passed her hand over Gongye Jiewu, a soft white light glowing at her fingertips.
"I can't locate Senior Brother's scattered Soul," Su Su said.
Even as a Demigod, she couldn't immediately retrieve a Soul drifting to unknown places.
"What should we do then?" Yue Fuya said gravely. "Can we reach our master in time?"
Su Su shook her head.
Remembering something, she took out a green pearl from her robe—the Life Gathering Pearl.
Ye Chu Feng had once used this pearl to nurture the little fox's remaining Hun and Po, allowing her to open her eyes again.
Could she use the Life Gathering Pearl to summon their missing Souls as well?
But dawn was approaching, and the Life Gathering Pearl could only summon one person's undispersed Soul at a time. The other might not make it.
It was then that the youth in gray twitched his fingers.
Though blind, he keenly turned his face toward Su Su's direction.
Perhaps sensing that this newcomer could save him, his gaunt face showed a trace of bewilderment as he weakly grasped the hem of Su Su's robe.
Mortal blood stained the white fabric of her clothes.
She crouched down and gently stroked his grimy hair.Perhaps this moment of tenderness made him feel at ease, revealing a childlike dependence on his face.
Those with fragmented souls often retain childlike dispositions.
Though clearly in agony, he endured without showing signs of pain, clutching tightly to Su Su's sleeve with a satisfied smile.
A weary and lonely soul, even at the brink of fading away, finds contentment in receiving someone's kindness.
The Soul Gathering Pearl emitted a green glow in Su Su's hand.
Yue Fuyai, being perceptive, immediately understood upon seeing the pearl: his senior sister had a way to save a life, but couldn't rescue both individuals simultaneously—she had to make a choice.
Would she save her senior brother, or this pitiful, wretched-looking youth?
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