She awoke at dusk.
The Changze Immortal Mountain was desolate and cold, with few visitors over the past century. Perpetual snowflakes settled on her eyelashes.
In the Heavenly Pool, mist curled upwards as golden phoenix leaves, woven with Spiritual Power, formed an elegant bed.
Belatedly, she twitched her fingers, her lashes fluttering. Her vision blurred into a world of white steam, and she felt a dull ache—instinctively pressing a hand to its source: her heart.
Tears fell into the Heavenly Pool, stirring faint ripples.
Overwhelming sorrow and grief finally manifested in their entirety at this moment.
Su Su never imagined she would wake again.
That day, she had leaped from the city tower with unwavering resolve to die, burning her Immortal Souls to infuse them into the Nine Heavens Jade. Heavenly Thunder surged into the curved jade, igniting blazing Karmic Fire that consumed her utterly.
As she heard the curved jade shatter and remelt, she believed she, too, had vanished from the world like the jade.
Amid the Karmic Fire, Su Su saw the figure below the tower rushing toward it.
He ran so desperately—was it to fetch Ye Bingshang after his love thread had sprouted? The mortal realm’s snowstorm was immense, blurring her vision as she reached for the curved jade, only to watch it crumble to ashes before her.
Su Su thought then: If given a choice, who would willingly endure such agony, dying in Karmic Fire?
Every inch of her skin screamed in pain, her Immortal Souls feeling as if they had been ruthlessly crushed. She collapsed into the flames.
And did not look back at him.
Reflecting on those seven hundred days and nights in the mortal realm, even when she resisted thinking of Tantai Jin, he constituted nearly all her memories.
A mortal’s life was far too bitter.
He had embroidered the most sincere emotions into her wedding veil, yet he murdered her brother, abandoned her grandmother, forced her to kill, and plunged her into endless darkness.
She could not save her brother, never saw her grandmother again, and Xiao Lin’s warm blood splashing into her hands became an inescapable torment. She had not failed the beings of the Three Realms, but she had failed herself and Ye Xi Wu.
Born as a Spiritual Embryo, Su Su had never dreamed.
Yet, in that moment, she fervently wished those seven hundred days and nights were merely a nightmare. That when it ended, she would be on Changze Mountain, surrounded by familiar faces.
Life would be as it once was—even if Chimei Wangliang roamed the Three Realms and she remained trapped on the Immortal Mountain, her eyes would still hold yearning as she gazed upon the mortal world alongside the curved jade.
But the curved jade was gone.
Her tears blurred its fading form—it vanished like any wisp of insignificant smoke, gently brushing her hair before disappearing into silence.
The curved jade once said it was merely the most useless stone from antiquity, while countless great Gods from its era had fallen.
Alone, it endured primordial chaos, witnessed mountains shift and seas change, traversed the solitude of mortal realms, and finally followed her mother, accompanying Su Su as she grew.
It always claimed incompetence, insisting it survived at all costs. But in the end, it was her fault—she had implicated it and lost it.
"Ji Ze, elder brother, grandmother, Xiao Lin, curved jade…"
Her Immortal Souls turned transparent strand by strand in the Karmic Fire. This nightmare was truly frigid.
…
She had only begged the Heavenly Dao then: life after life, even at the edge of darkness, never to encounter Tantai Jin again.
Or, could she… take one last look at Changze Mountain?
Now, Changze’s snow drifted down like a painted scroll.
Tears glimmered in Su Su’s dark pupils—had she… returned home?The white-robed Immortal Lord walked slowly through the phoenix tree forest. A translucent, lustrous piece of green jade hung at his waist, tied with a blue tassel. His dark hair was secured with a jade crown, his expression serene.
Following behind him was a stern-faced youth.
Gongye Jiewu instructed, "Fuyai, when you see her again, don't ask what relationship she has with the Li Susu you knew in the past. She'll get angry."
Seeing the youth remain silent, Gongye Jiewu chuckled, "Every time she says she's not, she gets upset that you always see her as someone else. Last time when you sparred, you even tore her favorite dress. She was sad by the Heavenly Pool for a long time, telling the spirit fish she would complain to our master. But until now, she hasn't said anything. Junior Sister has been in seclusion for a long time, and when she comes out, she probably won't hold a grudge. Don't make her sad."
The youth pursed his lips and said, "Alright."
Gongye Jiewu seemed to recall something, a trace of helplessness and warmth appearing in his eyes.
"Junior Sister is still young. Be more tolerant."
Their voices grew closer. By the Heavenly Pool, Su Su stared blankly toward them. Beyond the curling mist of the snow-white Immortal Mountain, towering phoenix trees created a fiery red world. Two familiar faces unexpectedly entered her vision.
As if awakening from a five-hundred-year nightmare across time and space, she gazed dazedly at Gongye Jiewu and Yue Fuyai approaching from afar.
With a soft rustle of wind, before Gongye Jiewu could react, a warm, soft body crashed into his embrace.
Gongye Jiewu froze for a moment, his ears slightly reddening. He coughed lightly, "Junior Sister?"
Yue Fuyai beside him also paused, looking at his senior sister who had just emerged from seclusion.
Men and women should maintain proper distance. Remembering that Li Susu was no longer the little girl with fairy-child buns from childhood, Gongye Jiewu gently pushed her away.
But the young maiden in light blue flowing fairy dress tightly wrapped her arms around his waist, tears soaking into his robes.
"You're still alive... that's wonderful..."
Though Gongye Jiewu didn't understand what was happening, seeing his usually lively and spirited junior sister crying so rarely in front of him, his raised hand gently lowered to pat her back. With inclusiveness and tenderness, he said, "Mm, don't cry, Junior Sister.""
Yue Fuyai watched his delicate senior sister with eyes red like a wronged rabbit. After a moment of silence, he hesitantly took out a purple flowing fairy dress from his Universe Bag.
"Senior Sister, I was wrong. Last time I tore your dress, I found an identical one to apologize. Would you like to see it?"
Su Su turned her head and saw Fuyai from her memories.
Bright, clean, with clear eyes filled with concern as he looked at her.
Exactly the same as the junior brother from her memories.
Gongye Jiewu's heartbeat sounded in her ears. The bitterness and despair from five hundred years ago faded away. Everything before her eyes was bright, warm, and brilliantly colorful.
Su Su found it difficult to describe her feelings in this moment. She had thought everything had turned to nothingness, that no trace of her remained in the world. But when she opened her eyes from the Karmic Fire, she discovered she had returned home.
Her senior brother was still alive. Were all the people she cared about still alive?
That journey to the mortal world five hundred years ago, when she extracted Tantai Jin's Evil Bone - did that mean she had succeeded?
Su Su raised her head. The sky showed no oppressive colors, clean as if freshly washed.
Those who had passed away stood alive before her eyes.
She had changed everything from five hundred years ago. All the tragedies had not occurred.
She had returned home.
Awakening in a spring so warm that a hundred flowers bloomed.
The news that the Hengyang Sect's most treasured little Fairy had emerged from seclusion nearly caused an uproar throughout the entire sect.
Ling Yao waited early at the mountain foot, conjuring a water mirror to adjust his attire.The fellow disciples beside him teased, "Uncle Ling, stop tidying up. You've already done it eighty-three times."
"Right, if Little Susu sees you, she'll run away again."
"Uncle Ling, what's that in your hand? Oh, it's the Master's Myriad Lotus! You picked it for Little Susu? Aren't you afraid the Master will hunt you down?"
The handsome man in the center of the group flashed a brilliant smile, completely unfazed by his peers' banter. Instead, he corrected them, "Why call her 'Little Susu'? By seniority, she's your aunt!"
If not for Sect Leader Qu Xuanzi forbidding him from going to Changze to disturb Susu's cultivation, he would have already flown up on his sword.
When Susu descended on her sword, this was the scene she witnessed.
A group of fellow disciples in their uniforms waved excitedly at her, "Susu!"
"Little Yuling!"
When Susu was born, she was given the Taoist name Yuling, meaning "gathering beauty and talent."
A female disciple chimed in enthusiastically, "You're out of seclusion! Come see what gifts your senior sister prepared for you."
Susu sheathed her Immortal Sword and was immediately surrounded by everyone.
She looked down to find her arms filled with treasures.
"Little Susu, these are pearls I brought back from Penglai last time, to celebrate your progress in cultivation."
"Here's the candied hawthorn I promised you. Little Susu has never been to the mortal world, right? Give it a try."
"Junior Sister, look! A dream-weaving beast's tail! Use it for self-defense."
Even a blooming Myriad Lotus was tucked into her arms.
The Myriad Lotus could withstand three strikes of Tribulation Thunder during a tribulation—a rare treasure that Uncle Qingwu had nurtured for two hundred years.
Susu lifted her gaze to look at her fellow disciples. Most of them... had originally died this year at the hands of demonic creatures when the Demon God emerged. Yet now, they were all still alive.
She had returned to the time five hundred years later, the moment she had left. But because of the changes she had brought, they were all still here.
Susu looked at the flamboyant Ling Yao and couldn't help but laugh.
For the first time, she didn't panic and flee from this overly enthusiastic person. Instead, she softly called out, "Senior Brother Ling."
She wasn't Ye Xiwu... she was Li Susu.
Though she didn't know why she had come back to life, she felt an unprecedented warmth and joy.
Everyone crowded around her, eagerly sharing the latest happenings in Hengyang.
Immortal Mountains towered, with countless pavilions and towers floating in the air.
This was Hengyang, free from the oppression of Demonic Beasts—so powerful and beautiful.
Susu turned her head and saw the place where she had first learned Sword Control, the grand hall where she had practiced Sorcery as a child, and the grounds where disciples attended morning sword practice.
Susu paused for a moment, then stepped onto the Ten Thousand Steps of Heart Cultivation.
Gongye Jiewu spoke gently, "Junior Sister, the Ten Thousand Steps of Heart Cultivation are for those returning from the mortal world. You don't need to..."
The young girl turned back, a faint smile curling at her lips.
A fiery red Cinnabar dot graced the space between her brows. The moment she stepped onto the Ten Thousand Steps, ripples appeared on the stairs, blossoming into transparent flowers beneath her feet.
Gongye Jiewu watched her and fell silent.
What had changed in Junior Sister's heart? In places they couldn't see, she seemed to have quietly matured.
Yue Fuyai, holding his sword, watched the girl's figure disappear beyond the Ten Thousand Steps. He opened his mouth to speak, then remembered Gongye Jiewu's advice and quietly closed it.
All these years, he had refused to give up.
Senior Sister Li and that person... they merely shared the same name.
How could a young, newly adult girl from the immortal realm have any connection to someone from five hundred years ago?
The Ten Thousand Steps washed away the turmoil and anxiety in her heart.Step by step, Su Su finally felt the events of the past five hundred years fading away. At the end of the path, the Green Robe Immortal Venerable turned around.
"Daddy!" She ran toward him.
Qu Xuanzi gently stroked her hair. Looking down at her tear-filled eyes, he let out a soft sigh.
"It's just a closed-door cultivation retreat. Why are you so upset? Who bullied Su Su?"
Su Su choked back a sob.
Even when her soul had scattered, she hadn't felt this fragile. Humans were strange creatures—when no one around cared for them, they could don the toughest armor, but when they encountered someone who cherished them, that armor would slowly peel away.
Like a wounded little beast returning home, all her sorrows finally had someone to confide in.
Qu Xuanzi said, "Let Daddy see how your cultivation is progressing."
He motioned for Su Su to place her hand on the Testing Spirit Stone.
Su Su hesitated for a moment. Though she had awakened in her own body, she wasn't certain about her current cultivation level.
Facing Qu Xuanzi, she actually felt a nervous apprehension, like the unease of returning home after a long absence.
After a long pause, Su Su placed her hand on the stone. It flashed, emitting a pale green light.
Qu Xuanzi frowned.
Cultivation realms were divided into seven layers: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, Tribulation Crossing, and Great Ascension. Beyond that lay godhood.
Each realm was further divided into early, middle, and late stages.
The pale green light indicated the middle stage of Foundation Establishment.
"I..." She opened her mouth but didn't know where to begin. Su Su remembered that before returning to five hundred years ago, she had already reached the middle stage of Golden Core. But now, she was only at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, even showing signs of regressing to the early stage.
How could this be?
Qu Xuanzi didn't show disappointment. Instead, he lightly tapped her forehead with his finger. After a moment, he opened his eyes, his gaze becoming complex.
"Su Su, you... underwent nirvana?"
Su Su looked up at Qu Xuanzi. He didn't seem surprised.
"Daddy?"
Qu Xuanzi said, "Don't be afraid. I knew this day would come since your birth. I don't know where you went or what you experienced."
He patted the meditation cushion beside him, gesturing for Su Su to sit.
Su Su sat down next to him.
Qu Xuanzi's gaze was gentle: "I rarely speak to you about your mother. She... didn't want me to mention her in front of you, and she hoped you would grow up as an ordinary, happy girl. But your bloodline has awakened nonetheless."
Su Su had already sensed it: "Is it the phoenix?"
Qu Xuanzi nodded.
Among the bloodlines of ancient gods, only this lineage could be reborn from Karmic Fire. Su Su lowered her eyes. So the curved jade had known all along—that was why it had always been so sparing with spiritual power, saving it all to send her home one day.
It had succeeded, and it had forever disappeared from this world.
A warm hand patted her shoulder.
"With your bloodline awakened, your path to the great Dao lies open before you," Qu Xuanzi said, though he felt some regret, wishing Su Su could remain forever young.
"Su Su, look at your spiritual platform."
Following his reminder, Su Su noticed a white, droplet-like object had appeared on her spiritual platform.
It was only the size of a fingernail, appearing fragile and tiny, gently resting on her spiritual platform.
"What is this?" Su Su asked.
Qu Xuanzi said, "The ancient Path of Ruthlessness."
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