On the Dragon-Slaying Platform, I was executed and became Yang Jian's brother-in-law.

Yuquan Mountain, Jinxia Cave.

As a streak of golden light pierced the sky and disappeared into the horizon, Master Yu Ding, who had been lying on the rocking chair "on the verge of death" as if he was about to pass away at any moment, suddenly sprang up and sat up.

"call……"

Master Yu Ding let out a long breath, and there was no trace of illness on his gaunt old face. He quickly ran to the entrance of the cave, made hand seals, and cast eighteen "mountain-sealing restrictions" in a row. He also hung up a huge wooden sign that read "Closed for seclusion, do not disturb, violators will be expelled from the sect".

After doing all this, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with lingering fear, slumped down on the futon, picked up the teapot, and gulped down a large mouthful of cold tea to calm his nerves.

"That celestial being, Wuliang... he scared this humble Taoist to death!"

Master Yu Ding patted his chest, looked in the direction Yang Jian had disappeared, and couldn't help but launch into a frenzy of吐槽 (tu cao, a form of online commentary/criticism):

"Oh dear, my foolish disciple! Is this filial piety? You're practically betraying your master and ancestors!"

"Don't you even use your brain? Do you think you can just meddle in Su Bai's business? Who dares to interfere?!"

While fanning himself, Master Yuding continued his tirade, as if Yang Jian could still hear him:

"Look at the people standing behind that kid!"

"The Queen Mother of the West! She's the head of all female immortals, a powerful being at the peak of the Quasi-Saint realm. She even almost demolished the Jade Pool for her sake!"

"The Holy Mother Jinling! The leader of the Jie Sect, the ruthless Doumu Yuanjun!"

"And then there are the Three Immortal Maidens, and Lady Pingxin..."

Master Yu Ding counted on his fingers, and the more he counted, the more his scalp tingled, and his fingertips trembled:

"These incidents, one after another, involve causes and effects that are immeasurably vast! There's even the shadow of a sage lurking behind them!"

"Now look what's happened, your sister Yang Chan is involved too, and in that... that 'darkened yandere' state!"

I recalled the scene Yang Jian described—the eerie blue Lotus Lantern, the small world that wanted to imprison Su Bai, and the line, "I was here first."

Master Yu Ding felt a soreness in his back molars.

"This isn't just good luck in love; this is clearly a 'Ten Thousand Immortals Formation' level of calamity in love!"

"Anyone who gets involved with him dies! Don't even mention a retired, insignificant Golden Immortal like me; even if my master, the Primordial Celestial Venerable, came back in the day, he'd probably have to take a detour!"

Master Yu Ding sighed, his face displaying a clear-headed understanding of the world:

"Erlang, it's not that I don't want to help you. It's just that these waters are too murky, and my old arms and legs can't withstand this kind of torment."

"Su Bai is a powder keg. It's safer for us small guys to stay away and watch the show."

"As for your sister... cough cough, good luck to her. Anyway, that's her husband. Locking her up is just a couple's pastime (probably). As long as she doesn't blow up the Three Realms, let her be!"

After comforting himself, Master Yuding decided to lie down completely, ignore everything else, and focus solely on studying the classics.

……

at the same time.

Thirty-three heavens away, Nuwa Palace.

Compared to the silliness and escapism of Yuquan Mountain, this place presents a tense scene that could change the very heavens and earth.

The seven-colored stone that was supposed to suppress fortune and radiate brilliance was now floating in front of the statue of Nuwa.

"Click...click..."

The terrifying cracking sound was particularly jarring in the empty and silent sacred ground.

What was originally just a thin crack has now spread wildly outwards like a spider web. From each crack shines a pinkish light, filled with worldly desires and persistent emotions.

Nuwa sat cross-legged on her cloud bed, her eyes closed, a rare look of pain and struggle appearing on her holy face. Her hands continuously formed profound Dao seals, and strands of golden holy power of creation, like chains, tightly bound the seven-colored stone, attempting to suppress the "thing" inside that was about to break free.

That was her lover.

It is the part of her emotions and obsessions that she shed before she severed her three corpses and became a saint, the part that belonged to "humanity".

"Let me out...!!"

A coquettish, urgent, and even somewhat hysterical voice kept echoing in Nuwa's sea of ​​consciousness, inside that seven-colored stone.

"I want to see him! I want to see Brother Jiuyin!"

"You lost him for so many years, and now that you've finally found him, you can still sit still?!"

"I want to go down to the mortal realm! I want to go to the underworld to find him! I want to snatch him back from that little girl Pingxin!"

The voice chattered on and on, like a tireless lark, or a spoiled girl who had been locked up for too long and was throwing a tantrum, constantly nagging in Nuwa's ear.

"Shut up!"

Fine beads of sweat appeared on Nuwa's forehead. She gave a low shout and increased the flow of her magic power, "You are my obsession, an obstacle on my path of cultivation! Behave yourself!"

"I don't!"

Instead of restraining herself, she became even more arrogant, saying, "I am your heart! I am proof of your love for him! You say I'm a demon? Then why did you mend the sky for him? Why did you create humans for him?"

"You can't suppress me! Nuwa, you can't suppress me!"

"Buzz—!!!"

The seven-colored stone trembled violently, and the pink light began to erode the golden chains of holy power.

Nuwa was greatly alarmed.

Previously, this body, though occasionally causing trouble, was always within a controllable range. But this time, ever since the Peach Banquet at Yaochi, it's as if it's taken some kind of powerful tonic, its strength increasing several times over!

"Damn it..."

Nuwa gritted her teeth, "It was at the Jade Pool Banquet... when I used the Seven-Colored Stone to help him calm down..."

At that time, Su Bai's soul was in chaos. In order to save him, Nuwa had no choice but to make a deep connection between the Seven-Colored Stone (the vessel for his soul) and Su Bai's soul.

That one connection!

This allowed the body, which had been sealed for millions of years, to taste the flavor of Su Bai's soul, come into contact with the aura of the outside world, and even absorb the overflowing resonance power of Su Bai's body for past love affairs.

It's like suddenly feeding a man who's been starving for three days a Manchu Han Imperial Feast.

Having accumulated enough power, his body finally unleashed it completely!

"Nuwa! Let me out!"

The voice of the erotic being echoed within the seven-colored stone, laced with deep mockery, "What are you afraid of? Afraid of losing control upon seeing him? Afraid of losing face as a saint?"

"Supreme transcendence of emotions, severing the corpse to prove the Dao..."

Nuwa took a deep breath, trying to persuade her restless clone with the ultimate truths of the universe, and also trying to persuade herself:

"I am a sage, bearing the responsibility of educating all beings. Love is a minor path, fleeting and transient. Severing ties with love is for the pursuit of the supreme path, for..."

"For what?!"

The avatar immediately cursed, interrupting Nuwa's self-hypnosis, "The Great Dao, the Great Dao! How many eons have you cultivated the Dao, and have you even lost your heart?"

"You're saying it's all just a fleeting moment?"

"Fine, then take a look at this! Do you dare look me in the eye and say this is just a passing cloud?!"

hum!

Without further ado, the spirit directly mobilized the resonance power borrowed from Su Bai, forcibly manifesting a scene in Nuwa's sea of ​​consciousness.

That was a scene that Nuwa had buried deep in the depths of her memory, a scene that even she herself thought she had forgotten.

**[Memory Retrospection: Atop Mount Buzhou, Beneath the Milky Way]**

The scene depicts not the shattered wilderness of today, but the ancient era after the initial calamity of the Dragon-Han War, when all things were reviving.

Back then, Mount Buzhou held up the sky, towering into the clouds, and was the closest place to the starry sky.

Two figures sat side by side on a huge rock at the top of the mountain.

One is a girl who looks only sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing an animal skin skirt (Nuwa who has not yet become a saint), and the other is a young man who wears a black robe and has a somewhat lazy look in his eyes (Zhu Jiuyin/Su Bai).

Above us is a dazzling and vast starry sky, and below us is a boundless sea of ​​clouds.

A gentle evening breeze blew, and the girl's hair brushed against the young man's cheek.

"Brother Jiuyin, do you think the stars in the sky all have their own names?" The girl asked, resting her chin on her hand, her eyes full of innocence and curiosity.

"Of course."

The young man smiled and pointed to the sky, "Look at that one, it's called Ziwei Star; that one is called Taibai Star. And those two..."

The young man pointed to the two banks of the Milky Way, "Those are the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl... Oh no, they weren't even born yet."

The girl was amused by him, and her silvery laughter echoed across the mountaintop.

As she laughed, the girl felt a chill and instinctively shrank closer to the young man.

The young man didn't speak, but simply reached out and took the girl's slightly cool hand in his very natural way. Then he pulled her into his arms and used his body heat to shield her from the cold wind at high altitude.

The girl's body stiffened for a moment, but quickly went limp.

Her face flushed, but she didn't struggle. Instead, she gently tickled the young man's palm and then grabbed his fingers with her own.

Their fingers are intertwined.

At that moment, the Milky Way stood still, and all was silent.

Only two young hearts were beating wildly.

The girl looked up at the young man's profile, her eyes revealing the purest and most unreserved love in the entire primordial world.

……

"Click—"

In the Nuwa Palace, the real Nuwa looked at this scene in her sea of ​​consciousness, at the self that once had eyes full of light, and at the hands that were clasped together.

Her rock-solid, saintly heart completely collapsed.

Tears streamed down her face without warning from her tightly closed eyes, soaking the robe that symbolized the supreme power of creation.

She thought she had forgotten.

She thought that by severing the three corpses, she could sever everything.

But when that scene reappeared, the warmth of the palm and the throbbing of the heartbeat were still as clear as if they had happened just a second ago.

"Did you see that?"

The voice of the woman was no longer sharp, but became soft and melancholic, carrying a heartbreaking sadness:

"Back then, you weren't a saint; you were just his little tagalong."

"Back then, holding hands was without any calculation, merit, or moral principle."

"Only like it."

Through the crack in the seven-colored stone, the spirit gazed at Nuwa's tear-streaked face and uttered a soul-searching question:

"Since you can't forget..."

Why deceive yourself?