Amidst a desolate wasteland overgrown with thorns and littered with white bones, a young man carried a girl on his back.
"Drip, drip—"
The sound of water echoed in Su Su's ears. Her mind was hazy, only able to perceive the dripping sound. Or perhaps... it was the sound of blood dripping onto bones?
She faintly remembered the scene before she lost consciousness: it was not what one would expect beneath a broken cliff, but rather resembled a battlefield that had been barren for many years, densely populated with terrifying, chilling monsters.
Those monsters stirred distant memories.
When Su Su was a child, Curved Jade would tell her stories: "In ancient times, there were no great demons. Demons were not as they are now. The world only had spirits, which were divided into four categories: Chimei Wangliang."
"Among them, the Mei were the most beautiful, while the Wang were the most horrifying. These spirits were numerous, not particularly powerful in magic, but carried a heavy aura of malevolence. They dwelled in dark places, shunned by the Three Realms."
"Gods were born with lifespans as long as the heavens, but these spirits were different. They fed on foul energy, crouching in desolate, abandoned places. Driven by hunger, they even devoured their own kind."
"Soon, they discovered that consuming other spirits and merging their powers could make them stronger. Gradually, the spirits grew fewer in number, merging into powerful Demon Kings."
This was the origin of the great demons of antiquity.
Unlike the demons who later cultivated and shapeshifted, these were born in the harshest of times. The Demon Kings formed in this way even possessed the ability to slay Gods."
When telling this part of the story, seeing the little girl wide-eyed and tense, Curved Jade paused and gently patted Su Su's hair.
It said, "Don't be afraid. After the ancient Gods vanished, the Demon Kings born from Chimei Wangliang also dissipated."
Now, the images Curved Jade had once conjured for Su Su overlapped with the scene before her.
How could this be? Su Su wondered. Curved Jade had long said that Chimei Wangliang no longer existed in the world. How did she and Tantai Jin fall into such a place? Those creatures with gaping, bloody maws... were they Wang?
The Wang of antiquity were extremely vicious, impossible to eradicate or kill completely. If they were as Curved Jade described, eventually devouring and merging into great demons, their current situation was perilous.
Vaguely pondering these questions, Su Su realized someone was carrying her forward. The young man's back was broad and warm, and she knew it was Tantai Jin.
The dripping sound persisted, and the young man's breath was close, clean like pine and cypress.
Su Su's eyelashes fluttered, unsure what she was thinking at that moment. Perhaps it was that someone as bloody and filthy as him shouldn't have such an aura.
She felt somewhat angry.
What did she possess that he wanted so badly? Why did he scheme relentlessly to kill her and Fu Ya, even willing to jump into Wang Land together rather than let her go?
Su Su wanted to push him away but couldn't. Her Divine Sense was as if lost in a fog, and Tantai Jin had become her only support. Su Su hated this situation.
She would never again entrust her safety to Tantai Jin. As Ye Xi Wu, she had already died once and learned her lesson.
On many nights after returning to the immortal realm, Su Su reflected that she should never have agreed to Ye Bingshang's absurd proposal. The outcome was already predetermined, so why had she consented to such a strange arrangement?
In the end, it only led to greater humiliation.
The Wang reached out their claws toward them. The surroundings grew dim, like the last light of sunset, with smoke of battle rising everywhere, leaving only desolation in sight.
Carrying Su Su on his back, Tantai Jin walked for an unknown length of time before finally stopping.He realized there was no path to be found in this place.
After walking for a long time, there was still no end in sight, with smoke of gunpowder and ugly demons everywhere.
When Tantai Jin's blood dripped from his fingertips onto the demonic creatures, they turned into flying ashes. The thorny vines sprouting from the ground withered, and the tendrils attempting to emerge from the earth fell silent.
He set Su Su down and sat with her amidst the scattered skeletons.
The demons wailed mournfully, greedily reaching out toward them. Tantai Jin paid them no mind, his dark pupils fixed intently on the young girl before him.
The vermilion cinnabar mark between her eyebrows burned as brightly as fire, and the blue satin ribbon in her hair stood out—the most vibrant colors in this desolate Wang Land were all concentrated on her.
After a long silence, he finally asked, "Who exactly are you?"
Su Su heard his low, hoarse tone as a cold hand caressed her cheek. His voice seemed to carry a laugh, raspy and obscure, as he said, "You are Ye Xi Wu."
So certain—he didn't actually need her answer. Had he any doubts, he wouldn't have followed her into this hellish place.
Su Su kept her eyes closed.
She suddenly felt somewhat grateful for her current state—unable to move, unable to speak, only needing to quietly keep her eyes shut without having to see what expression he wore.
For Tantai Jin, five hundred years had slowly passed. But for Su Su, everything felt as if it had happened just yesterday.
Slowly, she was drawn into an icy embrace.
This time, Su Su could smell it—besides the clean, crisp scent of pine and cypress, there was also the metallic tang of blood. It had taken all the blood in Tantai Jin's body to carry her this far through Wang Land.
Her eyelashes fluttered faintly.
Moving through Wang Land was incredibly difficult, but how much blood could one person possibly have? Tantai Jin was already at the end of his strength, his body temperature frighteningly low.
Tantai Jin tightened his embrace around Su Su and whispered hoarsely, "Ye Xi Wu, I utterly despise you."
Five hundred years had passed.
She would never know just how long that was. During the first century, he prayed to gods and immortals, swearing that if she would appear, he would treat her twice as well.
Later, as he continued struggling in the endlessly dark River of Wailing Ghosts, he began begging evil spirits—if only she would return, he would do anything.
But for someone destined to be a lone star of calamity, even demons and monsters showed no pity, let alone gods?
The love thread that had grown within him tormented him day and night.
In the end, he could only think—if he ever saw her again, they should just die together.
Bones entwined, flesh merged—he would never have to endure such times again. Even if they died together, their souls scattered to nothingness, it would still be another form of eternity.
She had better never appear in his life again, and she should pray he never resurrected her.
But Tantai Jin had never imagined he would see her again in such a manner.
The Mirror of Past reflected a person's history, not previous lives—proving that the girl in his arms was indeed Ye Xi Wu, not even reincarnated.
How could he not know that everything was wrong?
Back when he was still a hostage in Zhou Kingdom, that Ye Xi Wu had been foolish beyond measure, easily manipulated by him.
But after he failed to kill Ye Xi Wu and carried her back from the snow, she had changed. She became powerful, clever, and resilient.
He couldn't harm her, couldn't kill her. He had seen landscape paintings from her hands, walked through moonlit towns with her. He had even grown eyes that could shed tears.
Ye Xi Wu couldn't draw talismans—but she could.
Ye Xi Wu was vicious and cruel—but she wasn't.She was so cunning, like the wind slipping through one's fingers, yet her heart was colder than the snow that fell during those two winters in the mortal realm.
Countless times, he wondered: if he hadn't used the Puppet Technique to control her into killing Xiao Lin back then, would everything have been different?
Tantai Jin never asked, nor did he ever probe what kind of Soul resided within that body. In the past, without a love thread, he couldn't be bothered to care. Later, when he gained a love thread, he drifted in the River of Wailing Ghosts, year after year growing more resentful of her—so much so that he nearly went mad.
He wanted to see her... see her... see her...
Tantai Jin had thought he would drag her down to hell with him. But when she was right before him, and he saw the girl's serene and lovely face once more, his chest ached with nothing but sorrow.
Another withered, grotesque hand reached out from the ground, clawing toward Su Su. Without a word, Tantai Jin seized it. The wraith, upon touching his blood, let out a piercing shriek and vanished.
More wraiths lurked in the shadows, watching them, waiting to devour them whole.
Compared to Tantai Jin, they clearly coveted Su Su in his arms even more. Vines emerged from the ground, reaching out to snatch her.
Tantai Jin's eyes darkened, purple lightning swirling around his hands. With a twist of his wrist, the vines were shattered by the overwhelming purple thunder.
At some point, Su Su could no longer hear Tantai Jin's words, and the dripping sound had ceased as well. Instead, she heard the faint melody of music and a woman's laughter.
She suddenly felt an urgent desire to know—who was it?
Su Su strained to reach out toward her—
Tantai Jin looked up and saw a Konghou glowing with a pale blue light materialize in the sky. Though no one was plucking its strings, they moved on their own. Under the sound waves, Su Su in his arms gradually grew pale.
Tantai Jin suddenly realized that what was more formidable than the Past Mirror was actually this spiritually awakened zither. Su Su's blood had roused it.
"No! Ye Xi Wu, wake up! Li Susu, come to your senses!"
Su Su showed no response. Tantai Jin's gaze sharpened as he summoned a spirit sword from his Universe Bag. The sword, imbued with purple lightning, slashed toward the ice-blue Konghou.
The spirit sword struck the Konghou, halting it for only a moment before its music grew even more domineering. Tantai Jin's spirit sword shattered into pieces, falling to the ground, while the zither remained unscathed.
A layer of frost formed over Su Su's body.
Tantai Jin wanted to destroy the Konghou, but the wraiths and vines seized the opportunity, frantically swarming over him and enveloping him completely in an instant.
In that brief moment, a blue light emanated from the Konghou, shining upon Su Su. She vanished from the spot.
Fierce lightning tore through the vines as Tantai Jin soared into the air, barely managing to grab the nearly vanished zither. "Give her back to me!"
The Konghou emitted an angry chord.
Wave after wave of sound struck Tantai Jin's chest, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood. He raised his dark eyes, allowing the strings to cut his fingers. His expression was icy as he silently recited an immortal incantation.
No one could take her away. If it wouldn't let go, then they would perish together.
The Konghou, "realizing" that the madman before it intended to self-destruct and destroy it, trembled in terror.
Finally, it abruptly enlarged and swallowed Tantai Jin along with it.
Tantai Jin had intended to resist, but when he lowered his gaze, he met a pair of clear eyes.
A dot of Cinnabar graced the space between her brows as she smiled gracefully at him.
Tantai Jin's fingers paused just beside her cheek, staring at her in a daze.
The Konghou spun and vanished into the sky.The moment it vanished, Wang Land began to merge. The wang creatures started devouring one another, and the air filled with the stench of blood.
It was like a true Purgatory.
At the same time, Tantai Jin finally saw the owner of those bright eyes.
It was actually a little girl of about five or six years old.
She lay beside a misty pool, a piece of broken eggshell perched on her head, studying him with curiosity.
The youth's vicious fingers were curled like claws right beside her cheek, yet she seemed completely unaware of the danger. Instead, she grasped his hand with her small ones, rubbing her little face against it, and said in a milky voice, "Hug!"
Tantai Jin silently watched the little girl before him. Though her features were childish, he could faintly see the shadow of what Li Susu would look like grown up.
Surrounded by the misty Immortal Aura of the Heavenly Pool, the little girl's cinnabar mark between her eyebrows glowed brightly as she clung affectionately to his finger.
Tantai Jin's fierce fingers softened in her grasp, and a sense of bewilderment rose within him. Urged by her, he bent down and lifted her out of the Heavenly Pool.
"Who are you?" she asked, wrapping her arms around his neck and tilting her head.
Tantai Jin remained silent. He had never held such a small child before, and his entire body was stiff.
The girl pressed her soft cheek against his and asked in her childish voice, "Are you my daddy?"
"No," he replied stiffly.
Tantai Jin looked at the cyan, glass-like eggshell on her head and suddenly realized that, for some unknown reason, Su Su had reverted to her childhood inside the Konghou.
She wore a pink-and-white Magic Robe, her eyes bright and teeth pearly white. Even her chubby little feet seemed to glow with a soft radiance. Around them, hundreds of birds sang, and the sky was painted with brilliant sunset clouds.
For the first time, Tantai Jin understood what an Innate Spiritual Body truly was.
The scene before him was magnificent, breathtakingly beautiful, with all things pure and holy—and the little girl in his arms was the most exquisite of them all.
An Innate Spiritual Body, completely different from a lone star of calamity.
And he... he still carried the demonic aura of Wang Land and the filth of blood.
The girl asked, "Then who are you?"
Tantai Jin pressed his lips into a thin line and coldly replied, "Someone who hates you."
Her lively eyes studied him for a long moment before she seemed to smile triumphantly. "Lies! I can tell—you like me!"
Was it... that obvious?
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