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

Tianpeng took another step forward.

Su Chang'an's back was pressed against the rough bark of the peach tree, his translucent body mostly covered by petals.

She could feel the part of her body below the knees becoming increasingly blurry. The shell of obsession was being continuously depleted, and with each additional breath she held on, the shell wall became thinner.

She dared not move.

Tianpeng suddenly stopped.

The way the footsteps came to a stop was clean and crisp, and it had nothing to do with being tired or unsteady from drinking too much. It was the kind of stillness that a predator would exhibit when it smelled an unusual scent in the grass.

Su Chang'an's heart pounded heavily in his chest.

Tianpeng tilted his head to the side.

Her gaze pierced through the falling peach petals, through the gaps between the tree trunks, and fixed intently on the peach tree where Su Chang'an was standing.

Their eyes met.

The air was sucked out in that instant.

Su Chang'an had only one thought left in his mind: It's over.

She was even already calculating whether any remnants of her soul would drift back to the Northern Region after it was shattered by a slap.

It's highly unlikely.

This shell itself is the remnant of obsession; once it dissipates, it's truly gone, leaving not even a trace.

She was ready.

But Tianpeng did not move.

She stood there ten feet away, tilting her head, her gaze shifting from unfocused to focused, and then from focused to something Su Chang'an couldn't understand.

Tianpeng's right hand loosened.

She was still holding the broken handle of the wine pot in her hand.

The pot had broken into two pieces at some point, but Su Chang'an was too nervous to notice.

The broken stem slipped from her fingers and landed on the pile of petals on the ground with a soft, crisp sound.

"Smack."

The sound was exceptionally clear in the quiet peach grove.

Tianpeng's lips moved.

Her expression changed frame by frame in Su Chang'an's eyes. Her pupils first dilated, then her eyes became bloodshot, and blood vessels spread from the corners of her eyes into the whites of her eyes at an abnormally fast speed.

Then came the corners of her mouth, which twitched, the upward pulling force and the downward pulling force vying for control, twisting into a shape that was hard to tell whether it was a smile or a cry.

The final expression on his face was something Su Chang'an would never forget for the rest of his life.

Tianpeng laughed.

A smile that's uglier than crying.

His mouth was stretched open, revealing his teeth, but his eyes were full of tears, his reddened eye sockets were worn purple, and two thin bloodstains seeped from the corners of his eyes.

Su Chang'an's stomach clenched.

She had seen Tianpeng's cold and ruthless side. When he crushed Bai Yin with a flick of his finger in the Drunken Flower Pavilion, Tianpeng's eyes were so cold they could freeze a person to death.

She had also seen Tianpeng pretend to be drunk. When he was crying loudly under the withered cassia tree in the Guanghan Palace, clutching a wine jug, Tianpeng's emotions broke down.

But she had never seen Tianpeng look like this before.

There was no killing intent, no oppressive aura, nothing that one would expect from a peak Great Saint Realm cultivator; only a deep, unyielding sense of shame seeping from the very marrow of his bones.

Tianpeng staggered forward a step.

She swayed, lost her balance, and bumped her shoulder against the trunk of a peach tree next to her. The petals were shaken and fell all over her head and shoulders.

She ignored it.

"here we go again……"

His voice was extremely hoarse, and every word sounded like it was being ground out of his throat.

Tianpeng raised the back of his hand and rubbed his eyes, rubbing them very hard, until the skin at the corner of his eye was rubbed into a ball.

"After drinking too much peach blossom wine, even my hallucinations have become so real."

She stared at Su Chang'an's face for a long time.

"Little fox."

When Su Chang'an heard those three words, his nerves, which had been stretched to the limit, relaxed a little.

Tianpeng did not recognize her as Su Chang'an.

Tianpeng mistook her for an illusion.

I became like Su Xiaojiu, who died on the altar.

Su Chang'an's brain completed the decision in a few breaths.

Unable to speak.

Do not move.

She is an illusion.

She is a bubble that rises from the depths of guilt-ridden memories after drinking too much peach blossom wine.

Su Chang'an suppressed his breathing to a minimum, even controlling the rise and fall of his chest.

Its translucent body was already barely noticeable; the petals covered its shoulders, and it swayed with the petals whenever the wind blew.

She stood there, motionless, not even a strand of her hair was out of place.

Tianpeng did not suspect anything.

She even took two more unsteady steps forward.

The aroma of alcohol wafted over, the thick, sweet scent of fermented peach blossom wine mixed with the perennial chill emanating from Tianpeng, creating a tangled mess in Su Chang'an's nostrils.

Tianpeng stopped in front of him.

She looked down at her hands.

That hand was shaking.

The trembling had nothing to do with being drunk. It started from the fingertips, spread along the knuckles to the back of the hand, and the knuckles cracked one after another, while the veins on the back of the hand throbbed violently.

Tianpeng slowly stretched his hand forward.

Su Chang'an watched as the hand drew closer and closer.

She could see the dried blood embedded in Tianpeng's fingernails, the thick calluses on the sides of her fingers from years of holding a nine-toothed rake, and a very thin old scar on her ring finger, the scar was whitish and so faint that it was almost invisible, but Su Chang'an's eyesight was good enough.

He stretched his finger in front of Su Chang'an's face.

Su Chang'an could feel the wind coming from his fingertips, a warm wind carrying the scent of alcohol.

Then Tianpeng withdrew his hand.

The movement was extremely fast and abrupt, with the five fingers curling back into the palm and the arm retracting to the chest. The whole action exuded a cautiousness that was ingrained in the bones.

When Tianpeng pulled his hand back, it bumped into his own chest.

She clenched her fist, her five fingers tightly drawn up, until her knuckles cracked.

"sorry."

The two words were squeezed out of his throat, muffled and unclear, softened by the bubbles in the alcohol.

"I can't save you."

Tianpeng lowered his head, his long, gray-white hair hanging down, obscuring his entire face.

"I can't save her either."

Su Chang'an knew who Tianpeng was referring to.

The Moon Palace.

A dead laurel tree.

Ruins draped with red ribbons.

The person who jumped into the Milky Way a thousand years ago.

Tianpeng's shoulders were shaking, so much so that his entire chest was spasming; he had to be pushed to his limit to do that.

Su Chang'an suddenly felt a tightness in his throat.

She suppressed the thought.

Now is not the time to be sentimental.

Tianpeng's body swayed slightly.

The effects of the alcohol kicked in.

The aftereffects of genuine peach blossom wine are potent, regardless of your cultivation level or the depth of your Taoist practice.

Tianpeng clearly didn't use any spiritual power to dispel the alcohol fumes in her body; she was just enduring it.

Or rather, she deliberately didn't resolve it.

She wanted to get drunk.

Then his legs went weak, and his knees hit the ground first, striking the exposed roots of the peach tree with a dull thud. He then fell forward, his shoulder hitting the tree root, and he rolled half a circle to the side, landing face down in a pile of petals.

He collapsed at Su Chang'an's feet.

Less than a foot apart.

Tianpeng's arm rested on the roots of the peach tree, his fingers unconsciously hooking a piece of bark.

Her breathing quickly became deeper and longer, and the rise and fall of her chest became slower and more steady.

Then the snoring started.

Very light, subtle and intermittent, occasionally punctuated by a longer breath or two.

Su Chang'an looked down at the unsuspecting peak Great Saint Realm expert at his feet.

She breathed a long sigh of relief.

I picked up a lucky break at the start of the game.

Su Chang'an did not act immediately.

She waited for several breaths to confirm that Tianpeng's breathing had completely entered the frequency of deep sleep, and that the Great Sage-level divine sense that covered a hundred feet had also shrunk to the automatic defense range within three feet of Tianpeng's body as his consciousness fell asleep.

Safe as far as three feet away.

Su Chang'an began to squat down little by little.

She moved very slowly, pausing for two breaths after each degree of knee bend to feel the stability of the illusory shell.

The shell wall continued to thin, and the part below the lower leg was almost transparent. The outline of the toes became blurred into a blur, blending into the petals on the ground.

She didn't know how much longer she could hold on.

Tianpeng had two things clipped to his waist.

A dark gray jade pendant, tied with a dark gold tassel, the end of which was worn and frayed. Judging from the material, it was a pass from the Demon Court.

The other item was a porcelain bottle about the size of a thumb, with the mouth sealed with wax; it was unknown what was inside.

Su Chang'an's goal was the jade tablet.

With the Demon Court Pass, she could at least move freely within this area without triggering any patrol restrictions.

This is the only way she can possibly save her life right now.

She reached out her hand.

The translucent fingertips reached past the hem of the canopy and touched the edge of the dark gold tassels.

When you touch the silk threads on the tassel with your fingertips, it feels cool.

She gently pulled the tassel out a little bit, and the jade pendant moved accordingly, sliding half of it out from the gap in the belt.

Just pull it a little tighter.

Su Chang'an's fingertips touched the cool surface of the jade tablet.

A hand gripped her wrist.

Su Chang'an's blood froze in an instant.

That hand was burning hot, its five fingers gripping her wrist so tightly that the bones were cracking.

Su Chang'an did not look up.

She doesn't need to look up.

Because Tianpeng's voice had already been heard.

Right at her feet.

Right beneath that face buried in a pile of petals.

Eyes not open.

The frequency of breathing remained unchanged.

But the sound made the hairs on Su Chang'an's back stand on end.

He emphasized every single word.

"Su Chang'an".

"You lied to me so badly."

The pressure on his wrist tightened even more.

Petals fell from the branches, landing on the two people's clasped hands, curling up from the warmth of their grip.

Su Chang'an had only one thought in his mind: "I'm doomed."