Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

When the footage was pieced back together, the snowfield was gone.

A city came into view for Su Chang'an.

Calling it a city is an understatement; it's more like shacks sprawling from ruins. Planks and animal hides are haphazardly laid between the crumbling walls, and the mud in the streets has frozen into hard lumps that crunch underfoot. The air is thick with the stench of smoke and blood, indistinguishable between human and monstrous odors.

The border between the human race and the demon race.

Su Chang'an saw a crooked wooden sign in Gu Tianhu's eyes, with three words engraved on it: "Luoyan Town".

The handwriting was blurred by the wind and sand, but it was still barely legible.

Gu Tianhu walked down the street.

It doesn't walk on four legs.

It has two legs.

Su Chang'an looked down and saw a pair of cloth shoes. The uppers were gray and old, and the soles were worn thin. Above the shoes was a section of ankle wrapped in coarse cloth leggings. Above that was a drab gray robe, the cuffs rolled up to reveal a section of the wrist.

Her wrists were slender with distinct knuckles, and her nails were neatly trimmed.

The ancient celestial fox has taken human form.

And it's very well hidden.

It had no ears, no tail, and not a trace of demonic aura. It looked just like an ordinary human cultivator, and no one would give it a second glance if it walked down the street.

Su Chang'an wanted to see this face.

But these were Gu Tianhu's own eyes, and she couldn't see her own face. She could only vaguely make out an outline from the reflection of a copper kettle on a roadside water stall.

The basic features are still the same face.

But the eyebrows were drawn thicker, the corners of the eyes were pressed down with something, and the lip color was lighter. The most obvious change was the hair—the long hair that originally reached below the waist was tied into a neat bun, secured with a wooden hairpin, revealing the ears.

Ears are round. Human ears.

Su Chang'an stared at that outline for a long time.

She is deliberately making herself look ugly.

It's not that it's truly ugly; it's that all the features that would remind one of a "nine-tailed celestial fox" have been erased. The lazy corners of the eyes, the fluffy hair, even the way it walks have changed—no longer the nonchalant stroll of a celestial fox, but the hurried pace of a human cultivator on the move.

Gu Tianhu walked past a barbecue stall.

She paused for a moment. Her nose twitched.

Su Chang'an could smell the aroma of roasted meat, mixed with cumin and coarse salt.

Gu Tianhu reached into his sleeve and felt around. He pulled out a few copper coins, counted them, and then put them back.

I didn't buy it.

Su Chang'an felt a dull ache in his heart.

She recalled the time she was in the sealed cave. Chen Xuan was still young, and she had boiled her demon core and blood into soup for him to drink. She herself was so hungry that she would swallow her saliva as she looked at the moss growing on the cave wall.

Gu Tianhu continued walking forward.

At the end of the street was an open space. A crowd had gathered there. From the crowd came the sounds of clashing weapons and cheers.

There are people having a fight.

Gu Tianhu didn't squeeze in. She stood outside the crowd, tiptoed, and peered through the gaps.

Su Chang'an followed her gaze and looked inside.

Two people were standing in the middle of the open space.

One was a bald, burly man, shirtless, wielding a spiked club.

another--

Su Chang'an stopped breathing.

The boy had grown much taller. He was no longer the bamboo pole buried in his Taoist robe on the snowfield. His shoulders were more open, his back was straight, and the gray Taoist robe had been replaced by a dark blue long gown, which, though old, fit him well.

His hair was tied back with a cloth strip. A few stray strands of hair were blown across his forehead by the wind.

He was not carrying a weapon.

As the bald, burly man's spiked club came crashing down, the boy sidestepped, and with two fingers of his right hand together, lightly tapped the man's wrist.

The burly man's wrist went limp. The spiked club slipped from his grasp.

The boy kicked forward with his toe, sending the falling spiked club flying outside the crowd.

A cheer erupted from the crowd.

Someone shouted, "Mr. Li, what amazing skills!"

Mr. Li.

Su Chang'an's gaze fell on the boy's face.

Li Changgeng.

His face had changed. It was no longer the pale, purplish-red youthful look from the snow-covered plains. His jawline was more defined, his brow bones higher, and there was something new in his eyes.

It's as if something is buried deep in their eyes, hidden so that no one can see it.

Gu Tianhu stood outside the crowd, watching him.

Su Chang'an could feel the changes within this body. His heart was racing. It wasn't excitement; it was something very complex.

pride.

He's grown up now, he doesn't need her to teach him anymore.

Distressed.

The cuffs were frayed, there were old scars on the base of her thumb, and the soles of her shoes were as thin as hers.

Then she realized—

She couldn't even go up to him and ask how he was doing.

She taught him everything he needed to survive. Then she disappeared.

Now she has a different face, standing in the crowd, watching him win game after game using what she taught him.

The fight in the open space was over. Li Changgeng helped the burly man up, patted him on the shoulder, and said something. The burly man laughed and walked away.

The crowd dispersed.

Three or four young men surrounded Li Changgeng. They were all in their teens or twenties, dressed in various styles of clothing, some as cultivators and others as hunters. They chattered amongst themselves, and Li Changgeng occasionally nodded in agreement.

He smiled.

The corners of her mouth curved slightly, but she quickly closed them again.

Gu Tianhu paused for a moment inside his sleeve.

Su Chang'an didn't have a name for that kind of smile, but she recognized its shape.

The mouth is smiling, but the eyes are not.

Gu Tianhu also saw it.

She clenched her fingers inside her sleeve.

Li Changgeng saw off the people around him and walked alone to the other end of the street. He walked with a steady gait, each step almost perfectly even.

Gu Tianhu followed.

She followed at a distance that was neither too close nor too far, about twenty paces apart. Her footsteps were drowned out by the noise of the street.

Li Changgeng stopped under a dead tree. He took out a water pouch from his pocket, unscrewed the cap, and took a sip.

Then he stopped moving.

The water bag was held up to his mouth, not lowered.

His body stiffened slightly.

"We've been following you for three blocks," Li Changgeng said. He didn't turn around. His voice wasn't loud, but it was clear. "If you're going to make a move, do it now."

Gu Tianhu stopped behind him.

She did not speak.

Li Changgeng put the water bag away and turned around.

His gaze fell on Gu Tianhu's face.

His expression remained unchanged. His eyes swept over him from head to toe. Robe, cloth shoes, hair tied up, wooden hairpin.

"A rogue cultivator?" Li Changgeng asked.

Gu Tianhu nodded.

"What are you doing following me?"

Gu Tianhu spoke. His voice was slightly different from the one Su Chang'an remembered. It was lowered by half a syllable, and the ending of his voice was very clean, without the lazy, drawn-out tone that Tianhu usually had.

"You play very well, I'd like to become your apprentice."

Li Changgeng's brow twitched slightly.

"I don't accept apprentices."

"I can pay." Gu Tianhu patted his sleeve. "I didn't bring enough... I'll pay tomorrow."

Li Changgeng looked at her.

There was a few moments of silence.

Su Chang'an sensed something deep within those eyes. Gu Tianhu's heart raced. But her face remained expressionless. Even the curve of her lips was perfectly controlled—neither humble nor arrogant, neither too close nor too distant.

How a stranger should behave.

Li Changgeng withdrew his gaze.

He took two steps forward, and as he passed Gu Tianhu, his pace suddenly slowed.

His nostrils twitched slightly.

Then he stopped.

Su Chang'an could see the outline of his profile. The lines of his brow bone, the curve of his nose. His eyes narrowed slightly.

It loosened up again very quickly.

He stopped.

The water bag was still held up to his mouth.

He neither put it down nor drank any more.

Su Chang'an saw his Adam's apple move slightly. He wasn't swallowing.

It just stayed there.

She paused for three breaths, or four; she couldn't count.

"You have a certain aura about you."

His voice was very soft. So softly, as if he were afraid of waking something.

"Like someone I knew a long time ago."

Gu Tianhu's fingernails had dug into his palm.

The wind seeped through the cracks in the ruins.

The wind blew up the stray hairs on Gu Tianhu's forehead.

She didn't move.

Su Chang'an was trapped in those eyes, looking at Li Changgeng's profile.

She saw something that Gu Tianhu hadn't let anyone see—a fleeting light deep within his pupils.

That light contained three thousand years of wind and snow.

A young boy, holding a crooked and twisted bundle of spiritual energy, his lips turning purple from the cold, called her "Master."

The ancient fox suppressed that light completely.

The corners of her mouth curved into a smile.

"What a coincidence."

she says.

"Me too."