Letting Tang Mo, this formidable warrior, stay behind to guard Yedu was a decision Shang Si had carefully weighed.
Those left behind weren’t having an easy time of it, either. Shang Luo, whom Shang Si had also ordered to remain and defend Yedu, paced anxiously while awaiting word from the others. “Little Aunt and the rest have been gone all day. If they ran into trouble they couldn’t handle, they should have returned early to regroup. By now, they ought to be back in Yedu… or perhaps they’ve already captured Cheng Yan successfully, and news should be arriving any moment.”
For someone like Shang Si, even a direct confrontation with Cheng Yan wouldn’t take so long. This utter silence was what felt truly off.
Before departing, Shang Si had instructed Shang Luo, the Young Sovereign, to heed Tang Mo’s orders in all things. As a result, the young sovereign had spent the entire day glued to Tang Mo’s side in the annex hall where he handled official matters.
Whenever some pressing issue requiring a decision arrived from outside, she would invariably turn to him and ask, “What do you think, General Mo?”
She took the latest report that had just been delivered, lowering her head to scan it while glancing at the man beside her. “General Mo…”
But before she could finish, the man seated in the grand armchair shot to his feet. His demon-red, hawk-like eyes sharpened with sudden ferocity. “An outsider is approaching the Reincarnation Pool. I’ll be right back.”
The words had barely left his mouth when his figure vanished.
Shang Luo stood frozen for a beat, then snapped to attention and summoned her attendant Ghost Guards to hurry with her to the depths beneath Yedu—the former forbidden zone strictly off-limits to all in Yedu, now little more than a name.
Before the chaos engulfed the Three Realms, Lu Yue had always watched over the Reincarnation Pool. She and Tang Mo were Yedu’s Ghost Generals, though their names seldom reached the outside world.
With the dire situation in the Human Realm, Lu Yue had no choice but to leave the Reincarnation Pool behind temporarily and head to the Mortal Realm. The Million Resentful Spirits lurking underground in Yedu had been unleashed by the Jiao Dragon Clan as well, leaving the dim subterranean expanse feeling emptier than ever upon their return.
Once below, Tang Mo zeroed in on the direction and locked onto the unfamiliar aura, charging straight toward it.
It wasn’t long before he spotted that slender figure in verdant green standing by the edge of the Reincarnation Pool.
They hadn’t come face-to-face yet, but the moment Tang Mo laid eyes on her, he unleashed his overwhelming pressure… Only for it to mysteriously dissipate right before reaching her.
It was as if raging waves had crashed against unyielding stone, shattering into scattered droplets.
Sensing something amiss, Tang Mo demanded in a deep voice, “Who goes there?”
The figure turned at the sound from behind her.
“Lu Shiyuan?” Tang Mo’s initial shock gave way to confusion as he flew closer. “How are you here? Your aura feels completely different… A Si said you chased after them into the Immortal Realm. I figured you were trapped.”
After the last immortal fell, the Immortal Realm’s entrance had been sealed for good reason.
In Tang Mo’s eyes, Lu Shiyuan was merely a human cultivator. For her to traverse the Immortal Realm alone and emerge unscathed was astonishing.
Yet why had her aura changed so drastically—and grown so alien?
He had a flood of questions, but Lu Shiyuan showed no interest in answering them. “Brother Tang Mo, where is A Si right now?”
“These days have passed; as Ye Lord, she couldn’t possibly have stayed idle. That look on your face… She’s not in Yedu at the moment, is she?”
Gone was her usual faint smile, the one she wore no matter who she spoke to. Lu Shiyuan’s expression was blank as she questioned Tang Mo, laced now with a chill edge.
Tang Mo wasn’t one for dwelling on trifles. “She took Lin Xiao and the heavyweights from the other clans to Fog Moon Shoal to corner and kill Cheng Yan.”
The answer came as no surprise to Lu Shiyuan.
She nodded, about to turn away, when Shang Luo arrived at the head of a swarm of Ghost Guards.
Spotting the long-vanished Lu Shiyuan, Shang Luo’s face lit up with shock and joy. But with all those Ghost Guards watching, the Young Sovereign couldn’t very well rush over for a hug and cry out “sister.” She held back her delight and stepped forward. “Sister Lu, you made it out of the Immortal Realm safely?”
A touch of softness finally warmed Lu Shiyuan’s features. “It’s been a while, and your cultivation seems to have advanced considerably.”
“Sister Lu, yours feels… Wait, why can’t I sense your cultivation at all now?” Shang Luo frowned in confusion. Prompted by Lu Shiyuan’s words, she had tried probing the other’s level, only to hit what felt like solid iron—something she’d managed effortlessly before.
A subtle shift flickered in Shang Luo’s eyes.
She gazed at Lu Shiyuan, who gazed steadily back. Each had detected the strangeness in the other.
Moments later, Lu Shiyuan turned her head toward Tang Mo. “Tang Mo, you and the Young Sovereign—guard Yedu well.”
Lu Shiyuan’s desire to find Shang Si was plain as day at that moment. She had barely taken a single step forward when Tang Mo reached out and blocked her path. “Before A Si left, she told me that if you came back, you were to stay in Yedu and wait for her return with the rest of us.”
Those were indeed Shang Si’s exact words, but Tang Mo had considerations of his own.
Whatever the situation was at Fog Moon Shoal right now, someone of Lu Shiyuan’s cultivation level going there would only make things worse.
However…
A faint smile bloomed on Lu Shiyuan’s face as she pressed down the hand barring her way. “But I don’t like waiting for people.”
She never had before, and that hadn’t changed.
Tang Mo felt the pressure from that slender hand on his arm, and in an instant, he was overwhelmed by sheer shock.
Before he could even react, the figure who had been standing right before him vanished.
Even Shang Luo let out a murmur of awe. “Is this still the same low-cultivation Sister Lu I know…?”
Hearing that, Tang Mo suddenly remembered the reflection he had glimpsed in the Reincarnation Pool just moments earlier as he approached.
Lu Shiyuan cast no reflection.
In all the Three Realms, the one with the greatest ambition was not Cheng Yan, but Mei Meng.
That race—the Nine-Headed Bird—which had clung to the Jiao Dragon Clan for survival over thousands of years, was not nearly as weak or puppet-like as she had believed.
Shang Si had only realized this in the instant she saw the other devouring Cheng Yan’s soul.
Mei Meng had ventured here alone, risking everything, not to save anyone, but for the sheer thrill of that moment and the explosive surge of power from consuming the soul.
She had misjudged her again. She always misjudged people.
A wave of exhaustion suddenly washed over Shang Si. Perhaps… she simply wasn’t a match for her eldest sister.
Ever since ascending to the role of Lord of Ye Capital, every decision she made demanded exhaustive deliberation.
She had racked her brains and schemed tirelessly. Years ago, she had sensed that someone in the Demon Realm was plotting in the shadows, yet in the end, she still hadn’t averted this catastrophe.
All her efforts over the past few years might as well have been for nothing.
Sensing that flicker of weary madness taking root deep in her heart, Mei Meng seized the moment and drew Shang Si into a heart demon illusion.
The Nine-Headed Bird race was innately gifted at ensnaring hearts and souls. For the Mei Meng of today, crafting a custom heart demon illusion was simplicity itself.
What did it matter that she was of the Shang Family, or the Ye Lord? The scene before Shang Si’s eyes blurred and shifted, and in a blink, she found herself back atop Cold Mountain Summit that year.
On that day, emissaries from Yedu had come to summon her home, leaving her no choice but to go.
Sensing the arrival of outsiders, Pu Yin—who had been sitting quietly inside the room—pushed open the wooden door and stepped out. Her gaze immediately fell on the Yedu token hanging at the visitor’s waist.
Even knowing they were from Yedu, she turned to Shang Si. “What’s wrong, A Si?”
Shang Si’s expression was troubled, her strikingly beautiful face etched with clear conflict. “A letter from home demands I return to Yedu at once. It says Eldest Sister is in trouble.”
Over the past while, Shang Si had received any number of transmissions from Yedu, all urging her to come home posthaste.
But they had all been frustratingly vague, offering no specifics on what the trouble was.
She had assumed it was just her family trying to lure her back into secluded cultivation once more, and so she had ignored them all. She never imagined Yedu would dispatch Ghost Guards in person.
The letter clutched in her hand now was penned by her sister Shang Hongxiao herself. There could be no doubt now: something dire had befallen Yedu, and she needed to return without delay.
Pu Yin read the reluctance and hesitation in her eyes and played along tactfully. “If it’s urgent, you should head back right away.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than a gentle breeze stirred. A little bird in brilliant colors fluttered down from a nearby treetop, alighting deftly on Shang Si’s shoulder.
It bobbed its head playfully, chirping twice—glancing at Pu Yin one moment, then nuzzling affectionately against Shang Si’s cheek the next, the picture of reluctance to part.
Pu Yin could only sigh helplessly. “Something’s happened in Yedu. She has to go back.”
Hou Li, the Ghost Guard who had brought the message from Yedu, stood by watching in disbelief. Was he seeing things? Was this woman talking to a bird?
Shang Si’s response soon confirmed his suspicion.
She reached out and gently stroked the soft feathers along the little bird’s back, her voice tender and soothing. “Don’t worry, A Jin. I’ll come back.”
“I don’t know the details yet, but you all can rest easy. Once I’ve sorted it out, I’ll return… Pu Yin, when I get back, you have to teach me the rest of that secret technique.” To ease the heavy mood, Shang Si deliberately shifted the conversation to what would come after her return.
The secret technique she spoke of was a devastating trump card—one that wounded the enemy grievously but at tremendous cost to the user.
Pu Yin had already taught her half of the secret technique earlier, and with her natural talent, she picked it up quickly. She even made a few minor tweaks, using the opening flourishes of the moves to tease and play with A Jin on a regular basis, much to Pu Yin’s repeated head-shaking dismay.
But in truth, the full secret technique packed a devastating punch.
Shang Si’s unexpected request caught Pu Yin off guard. She let her gaze linger for a moment on the bird perched on the woman’s shoulder before slowly replying, “Very well.”
It was the same curt response as always, and by now Shang Si was well accustomed to Pu Yin’s aloof demeanor.
She bid farewell to her two closest companions and set out on the road back to Yedu alongside the Ghost Guards.
Little did she know that this parting would stretch on for years, and they would never meet again.
The promises exchanged that day of separation went unfulfilled. Pu Yin vanished into thin air with A Jin, perhaps no longer anywhere in the Three Realms.
The once flamboyant Shang Si, bright and blazing as fire, gradually withered away after shouldering the heavy burden of Lord of Ye Capital.
These years had brought profound changes—seas turning to mulberry fields, people coming and going—but the brief time spent in that small courtyard remained perfectly preserved in the deepest recesses of Shang Si’s heart.
From the bottom of her soul, she had never wanted to become the Ye Lord.
Yet she bore the Shang name.
The illusion replayed events up to this point from years past: Shang Hongxiao, guilty of a grave offense, was sentenced by the Heavenly Dao to reincarnation. Shang Si watched her sister leap into the Reincarnation Pool and dissolved into tears once more.
A searing heat surged in her chest, twisting into agony. A mouthful of scarlet blood erupted from her lips.
Her heart demon had taken form. Mei Meng’s illusion wasn’t particularly elaborate, yet it struck unerringly at Shang Si’s deepest wound.
Her most beloved sister, and those companions who had been like mentors and true friends—unforgettable bonds—all were irreplaceable in her life.
That gush of vital heart-blood left Shang Si, already hanging by a thread, with her consciousness beginning to blur. In her haze, she seemed to see that little bird with its vibrant plumage flapping its wings toward her once again.
“…A Jin?”
