Madam Shen had prepared a great deal of food. She hadn’t invited her daughters-in-law over. Only the three adults, plus Buyan and Buyu, were present.
After the meal, Buyan and Buyu dragged Shen Sheng away. Madam Shen felt a bit apprehensive but still spoke softly: “I know what you want to do.”
Anu was hardly easy to fool. She immediately countered Madam Shen: “What do I want to do?”
“You want to use the Phoenix Cauldron to send Shen Sheng back a thousand years.” Madam Shen smiled gently and serenely.
Anu gazed at her sharply. “Madam Shen wishes to stop me?”
“That’s not it.” Madam Shen’s mouth twitched. She wasn’t a club, incapable of playing the villain who splits apart lovers.
She continued: “I’m not stopping you. I’m telling you, feel free to proceed. What I want to say more is this: the power of the Lovesickness Gu is utmost sincerity. Once a crack appears, it will be just like what happened with your mother.”
That one sentence stirred up towering waves. Hit right in her most vulnerable spot by her words, Anu’s expression instantly turned cold. “Madam knows quite a lot, indeed.”
Madam Shen smiled and nodded. She knew quite a lot, but couldn’t speak recklessly. If it weren’t for her impatience, she wouldn’t have bothered saying anything.
“What I’m trying to tell you is this: you and Shen Sheng are bound together. If you deceive her, and she grows to dislike you, when that time comes, both of you will be utterly destroyed.” Madam Shen sighed. “I just want to warn you: don’t walk the same old path your mother did.”
Anu was silent for a long moment.
Madam Shen suppressed her inner terror and looked down at her own trembling hands. For some reason, she was simply afraid of Jiang Wan.
Jiang Wan, betrayed by all the Gods, no longer had trust in others. Only the Lovesickness Gu could awaken the softness within her heart.
But Shen Sheng, as she was now, understood nothing. Only by returning to a thousand years ago would she feel the desolation within Jiang Wan’s heart.
She said: “To you, Shen Sheng… how important she is, you should understand. It’s not that you like her. You deeply love her.”
A blockhead, never able to express affection.
After saying all this, Madam Shen waved her hand dismissively. “I’ve said what needs to be said. That’s enough from me. Think about it yourself.”
“Why does Madam know so much about these past events?” Anu asked warily, her expression cold.
Events of a thousand years past… even the Fox Demon who survived didn’t know them this clearly.
Shen Sheng was indeed very important to her.
But these were secrets. Those who knew were all dead.
Dead without a trace.
Madam Shen finally discerned some emotion within Anu’s cold eyes. She looked at the State Preceptor before her with playful interest. “I’m just a mortal. What are you afraid of, State Preceptor?”
Indeed, Madam Shen was a mortal, a weak woman who didn’t even know martial arts.
Anu lowered her gaze. A soft sigh drifted to her ears from Madam Shen. “Why overthink it? She doesn’t even know your true feelings.”
If it weren’t for her, a revealer of the plot, no one would ever know what Jiang Wan had been through.
Anu asked: “Madam Shen isn’t worried that her own daughter will be destroyed by me?”
“Of course I worry. That’s precisely why we’re having this conversation. I am a mother. I wish even more for her to be happy her whole life. But she is no ordinary person. Her identity destined her to stand side-by-side with you. If I were to forcibly drag her back, she wouldn’t agree either. I’m simply telling you my stance. It’s that simple,” Madam Shen said in a low voice.
In truth, it was just because she herself was out of patience and wanted to wrap things up quickly.
But she couldn’t say that aloud.
Madam Shen stood up to see her guest out.
Anu left the Main Room directly.
The sunshine on this fourth day of the New Year was beautiful. Shining on one’s face, it felt warmly radiant.
Anu lifted her head to look at the sky. The azure sky was clear as a wash. A rare day of brilliant sunshine.
She returned to the Cinnabar Peak Palace and looked at the Phoenix Cauldron. A hollow emptiness filled her heart. Madam Shen’s words had struck a chord.
Shen Sheng was very important to her!
She sat down, looking at the bright flames. Her heart was desolate and conflicted.
She opened her mouth, not knowing what to say. After hesitating a long while, she only uttered: “If you all were here, give me some guidance. Just what should I do…”
The Cauldron was transformed from the final wisp of Divine Soul of all the Gods. She had always been thinking of rescuing them.
But without the South River, they were so weak. They would only be like mortals, dying after a few decades.
She clutched her heart. It was beating fiercely. Her cold expression was given a hint of warmth by the reflection of the firelight.
“Ah Sheng…”
After the New Year, the court reopened. The Emperor canceled the court sessions and issued an imperial decree summoning all Demon Hunters across the land to capture the escaped Fox Demon at all costs.
For a time, all sorts of Demon Hunters poured into the Imperial Capital. The Emperor had even forgotten Shen Sheng’s existence.
Fortunately, the borders were peaceful. Shen Sheng gradually relaxed. Anu was nowhere to be seen; perhaps she had gone to capture the Fox Demon.
A family school was opened in Shen Manor. Madam Shen specifically hired tutors for Buyan and Buyu to begin their studies.
With the children off to school, Shen Sheng finally had some peace and quiet. She lay on her bed, enjoying a leisurely afternoon.
The peace didn’t last two days. A ghost haunted the courtyard. The Fox Demon had come to find her.
Shen Sheng immediately produced a Heavenly Thunder Talisman that Anu had given her. The Fox Demon twisted her slender waist as she approached, scrutinizing the Young General before her, who was brimming with righteous integrity. It was hard to imagine the current Shen Sheng paired with the darkness-shrouded Jiang Wan. They would be a couple.
She walked up to the bed and stopped. “Don’t be afraid. The State Preceptor and I are on the same side now. Young General Shen, I’ve come to see an old acquaintance like you.”
Shen Sheng rolled her eyes. “I’m not familiar with you.”
“I’ve seen you before. A thousand years ago. That time. Though you were very fair-skinned then. Now you’re a bit darker. Probably because your skin is darker, I didn’t recognize you right away,” the Fox Demon spoke to herself, then suddenly remembered something. “Forgot to tell you, my name is Bu Jiuyue.”
Shen Sheng touched her ear, not really grasping the other’s meaning, and just asked: “What do you want with me?”
“You don’t recognize me?” The Fox Demon, Bu Jiuyue, looked doubtful. “I’ve even told you my name. How can you still not react?”
Shen Sheng sat cross-legged on the bed. Her heart felt somewhat heavy. The other party seemed to be trying to build a connection with her.
“I don’t recognize you. You’re a demon, I’m a human. Think about it, how could I possibly recognize you?”
“You…” Bu Jiuyue paused, her expression odd. “You don’t have your past life’s memories?”
Shen Sheng shook her head. “Past life’s memories?”
Bu Jiuyue was even more confused, finding it somewhat strange. No past life memories? Perhaps they just hadn’t been recovered yet.
But since Jiang Wan found her and liked her past life, she should have made her recover her past life’s memories.
How bizarre.
These two were so strange.
Bu Jiuyue was feeling a bit depressed. Shen Sheng gripped the Heavenly Thunder Talisman tightly, her expression hardened.
“That talisman of yours might work on ordinary people, but it’s useless against me. Let me tell you, Jiang Wan and your past life bowed to heaven and earth and were married. That’s why she found you. She wants to rekindle that past bond,” Bu Jiuyue reached out and snatched the Heavenly Thunder Talisman from Shen Sheng’s hand, casually turning it to ash.
Shen Sheng immediately backed away warily. Bu Jiuyue hastily said: “I’m working for the State Preceptor now. Don’t be so paranoid. I was just curious about the matter between you and the State Preceptor. But looking at you, you seem to understand nothing.”
Shen Sheng asked: “Should I understand something?”
“The two of you have the Lovesickness Gu on you. If Jiang Wan loved you, she would have been utterly destroyed. But she wasn’t destroyed, which means she doesn’t love you,” Bu Jiuyue clicked her tongue, a look of pity on her face. “She just sees you as a substitute… no, wait. She has the Lovesickness Gu on her, she can’t form another Contract…”
Bu Jiuyue muttered to herself, then lifted her head to look at her. An even greater doubt filled her large eyes. Suddenly, she jolted in realization: “You are the person who married Jiang Wan a thousand years ago!”
A God can only form a Contract once in a lifetime. It cannot be undone.
Once betrayed, utter destruction follows.
After Jiang Wan married, the Lovesickness Gu was on her body, a symbol of deep love.
If one party falls… the other can only live out their remaining years in solitude. No further Contract can be made.
Jiang Wan couldn’t possibly form another Contract with someone else.
This could only mean that Shen Sheng was the person Jiang Wan married a thousand years ago.
But how did she survive?
Zhou Yi had mentioned Shen Sheng grew up with him, childhood sweethearts.
There was a contradiction in the timeline. Yet, the Lovesickness Gu wouldn’t lie.
Thinking this far, Bu Jiuyue felt her single head couldn’t handle two huge problems. She looked at Shen Sheng suspiciously. “How old are you?”
“The New Year just passed. Barely nineteen,” Shen Sheng answered truthfully.
Bu Jiuyue rested her chin on her hand, feeling vexed. “When did you and Jiang Wan meet each other?”
“End of last year. What are you trying to say? Trying to sow discord?” Shen Sheng paid no heed to what the Fox Demon had just said. Something about substitutes—it was all nonsense.
She trusted the State Preceptor.
Bu Jiuyue said: “Let me explain it to you carefully. I saw a person a thousand years ago. She formed a Contract with Jiang Wan. Once the Contract is formed, it cannot be broken. Only one in a lifetime. Do you understand? Jiang Wan then formed a Contract with you. This means you are the person who married Jiang Wan a thousand years ago. But you are only nineteen.”
Shen Sheng was first bewildered, then followed the logic and understood. She joked: “Maybe that person is my past life.”
“She wouldn’t die. She’s alive, you wouldn’t die… unless your soul was completely destroyed.” Bu Jiuyue looked intently into her eyes. “You didn’t grasp my meaning. The Contract between a God and a human: the human, through love, clings to the God, binding the God from fickleness. Therefore, the human gains longevity. Once the heart changes, both body and soul are annihilated.”
