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

In the depths of chaos, a paradise untouched by time.

Here, there are no primordial conflicts, no ominous aura of calamities, only peach blossoms blooming all over the mountains and fields, and the spirit stream that seems to flow forever. The sky is a soft, warm jade color, forever maintained at the most comfortable twilight hour, neither dazzling nor dim, exuding an intoxicating languor.

However, for Su Bai, this laziness was simply torture.

"Cough cough..."

On the rocking chair in front of the bamboo house, Su Bai was wrapped in a thick white fox fur coat, his face pale, and his eyes were so dark that it looked like he had been punched twice. He held a steaming cup of spiritual tea in his hands, but his hands were trembling slightly, and a few drops of tea even spilled.

"Husband, why are you up again?"

A fragrant breeze wafted by, and Yang Chan walked over with light steps, carrying an exquisite jade bowl. Today she wore a light pink silk dress, her hair was loosely tied up, her face was like a peach blossom, and her eyes were so gentle that they seemed to drip with water.

If you ignore the almost obsessive fervor in her eyes, this is absolutely a picture of a divine couple.

Upon hearing the voice, Su Bai instinctively shrank his neck and wrapped his fox fur even tighter.

"Chan'er..." Su Bai's voice was weak, with a hint of flattery, "My injury hasn't fully healed yet, so I wanted to come out for some fresh air and bask in this... uh, artificial sun."

"How can that be?" Yang Chan glared at him reproachfully, then squatted down beside the rocking chair and held the jade bowl to Su Bai's lips. "It's windy outside, what if you catch a cold? Here, drink this bowl of 'Ten-Ingredient Tonic Soup' first. I've been brewing this for forty-nine days with ten-thousand-year-old ginseng, nine-turn golden pills, and the essence of peach blossoms from this illusion."

Su Bai looked at the bowl of thick, paste-like medicine that emitted a strange aroma, and his stomach churned.

"Um...can I not drink it? I feel fine right now, it's just that my back hurts a little..."

"You should drink this even more if your back hurts!" Yang Chan's eyes lit up, as if she had grasped something important. "This soup is the best for nourishing your kidneys! Husband, you're only human now (even though you're pretending), so you need to take good care of yourself. Quick, listen to me, open your mouth—ah—"

Looking at Yang Chan's unquestionable gaze, Su Bai could only open his mouth with tears in his eyes and swallow the bowl of soup like poison.

As soon as the medicine entered my stomach, a surge of heat rushed to my limbs and bones, especially my lower body, which felt like it was on fire.

"How are you feeling?" Yang Chan looked at him expectantly.

"It's hot...it's a bit hot," Su Bai said with a pained expression.

"It's hot, that's good!" Yang Chan smiled shyly, her cheeks flushed, and she gently drew circles on Su Bai's chest with her fingers. "Now that my husband is in good spirits, let's go to that place... I have a surprise for you."

"What surprise? No need..." Su Bai instinctively wanted to refuse.

But in this world, Yang Chan was the absolute ruler. With a gentle wave of her hand, she and the rocking chair and Su Bai vanished instantly in front of the bamboo house.

The next moment, Su Bai found himself in a dark and damp cave.

The cave was very simply furnished, with only a stone bed, some dry grass piled in the corner, and water dripping from the ceiling.

Su Bai was stunned. This scene... why does it look so familiar?

"My husband, do you still remember this place?"

Yang Chan's voice rang out softly. She had changed into a tattered coarse cloth dress at some point, and had deliberately smeared some ash on her face, making her look pitiful, just like the little Yang Chan who had fallen on hard times back then.

Su Bai's pupils dilated.

This is… isn’t this the cave where he and Yang Chan lived when they were hiding from the heavenly soldiers after he transmigrated into the form of a giant python and saved her?!

"Is this a one-to-one replica?" Su Bai asked in a trembling voice.

"Yes!" Yang Chan's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Every stone, every blade of grass, even the frequency of this dripping water—I've recreated it exactly as I remember it. My husband, it was here that you healed my wounds and sheltered me from the wind and rain..."

As she spoke, Yang Chan slowly approached, her fingers gently loosening her belt, her eyes dreamy: "Back then, I thought, how wonderful it would be if we could stay in this cave forever, just the two of us... Husband, now my wish has come true."

"Let's make up for the regrets of the past now, shall we?"

Su Bai looked at Yang Chan, who was closing in step by step, and then at the cold, hard stone bed. He felt completely numb.

"No... Chan'er, this environment is too harsh, it's not good for healing! And I've been feeling really weak these past few days!"

"It's okay, I can 'move'." Yang Chan ignored all explanations and pounced on him.

"Help me—!!!"

From inside the cave came the desperate screams of Su Bai, the once mighty emperor who shook the primordial world.

……

Two hours later.

Su Bai lay limp on the stone bed like a dead snake whose tendons had been pulled out, staring blankly at the dripping cave ceiling.

Yang Chan lay contentedly on his chest, twirling a strand of his long hair with her fingers, humming an unknown tune, radiant with joy, and seemingly having made further progress in her cultivation.

Su Bai wanted to cry but had no tears.

He turned his head and, in the dim light, looked at his reflection on the stone wall.

Where did Su Bai, who was once so spirited, scheming against sages, and toying with Buddha, go?

Where has that peerless master gone, who once discussed Taoism at the foot of Buzhou Mountain and made a grand display of his knowledge above Mount Ling?

Is the person in the mirror now, with sunken eyes, a sallow complexion, and a grotesque appearance of someone who has indulged in excessive sexual activity, really him?

"Who am I? Where am I? How did my immortal life turn out like this?"

Su Bai asked himself three soul-searching questions.

Su Bai, in his previous life, was the Ancestral Witch Zhu Jiuyin, who controlled time and was incredibly domineering; in this life, he has cultivated again and still manipulates the Three Realms at will, and even saints have to give him some face.

And now?

He was confined by his own wife in this godforsaken fantasy world, becoming her personal furnace and emotional outlet!

Is this even a human being's life?

"Waaaaah..." Su Bai felt more and more aggrieved the more he thought about it, and couldn't help but cry inside. "Buddha, you old bald monk, why didn't you just kill me with one palm back then? This living punishment is worse than death!"

"Husband, what are you thinking about?" Yang Chan noticed Su Bai's emotional fluctuation, looked up, and her eyes instantly became wary. "Are you thinking about those vixens outside?"

"No! Absolutely not!"

Su Bai jolted awake, his survival instincts kicking in instantly. "I was thinking... maybe we need to water the peach blossoms in this illusion?"

"Hmph, I bet you wouldn't dare." Yang Chan snorted and bit his chin. "You're dead now, and dead people should act like dead people. Apart from me, no one in this world knows you're still alive."

After speaking, Yang Chan stood up, straightened her clothes, and her face returned to its usual aloof expression.

"My husband, you rest first. I'll go check the situation outside."

Yang Chan walked to the entrance of the cave and took out a water mirror.

This water mirror is connected to the Lotus Lantern's sensor. Although it cannot fully observe the Sage, it can still monitor the general movements of the prehistoric world.

This is also her daily routine—spying on the reactions of her "love rivals".

The water mirror rippled, and the image appeared.

On the western Kunlun Mountains, heavy snow had sealed off the mountain.

Dressed in white mourning clothes, the Queen Mother of the West sat by the Jade Pool, staring blankly at the wine cup that Su Bai had once used. The once incomparably majestic leader of the female immortals now looked like a soulless ice sculpture.

The scene shifts to Jin'ao Island.

The Holy Mother Jinling was practicing her swordsmanship with frenzied abandon. Her hair was disheveled, and every swing of her sword carried a destructive killing intent, as if she wanted to shatter the void before her as if it were the Western Paradise. The Holy Mother Wudang tried to dissuade her but to no avail, and could only weep silently.

Let's take a look at the underworld.

Lady Pingxin stood at the head of the Bridge of Helplessness, gazing at the rolling waters of the River of Oblivion, her expression sorrowful. Behind her, a faint, illusory female figure (the remnant soul of Xuanming) silently prayed to the void.

Seeing all this, Yang Chan's feelings became extremely complicated.

On the one hand, she felt a perverse pleasure.

"Cry, all of you cry. Only when you all believe he's dead will he be safe, only then will he belong to me alone." Yang Chan's lips curled into a cold smile as she lightly traced the faces of her rivals in the water mirror. "Sisters, I'm sorry, but this time I've won."

But on the other hand, as time went on, a deep sense of anxiety began to spread in her heart.

She witnessed the changes in the primordial world.

Because of Su Bai's "fall," the Journey to the West tribulation that should have begun seems to have gone awry. The Western Sect closed its gates, the Intercepting Sect retaliated fiercely, the Heavenly Court interfered, and the entire Three Realms were thrown into chaos.

Moreover, she could sense that several extremely obscure yet powerful divine thoughts were constantly scanning every corner of the primordial world.

That is the divine thought of a sage!

"The Supreme Sage of Taiqing... the Primordial Heavenly Venerable... and even those two from the West."

Yang Chan's fingers trembled slightly.

Although Nuwa (her lover) secretly helped cover it up, and although the Lotus Lantern was an innate spiritual treasure with the function of concealing heavenly secrets, Yang Chan was well aware of her own limitations.

Her current cultivation level is at most at the early stage of Quasi-Saint, and that was forcibly raised by the Lotus Lantern, so her foundation is not stable.

To hide a Great Immortal who should have perished right under the noses of several sages, and to also hide this independent little world, is like dancing on the edge of a knife.

"Not enough... I'm not strong enough."

Yang Chan turned off the water mirror, a hint of panic flashing in her eyes.

While the feeling of "cheating" was exciting, the accompanying psychological burden made her restless day and night.

What if we get caught?

What if the Queen Mother of the West and her accomplices come knocking on our door?

What if a sage intervenes and forcibly breaks the illusion?

At that time, she will not only lose Su Bai, but will also become the target of public criticism and be despised by the entire prehistoric world.

"No, I can't just sit here and wait to die."

Yang Chan took a deep breath, turned around and glanced at Su Bai, who was still lying dead on the stone bed, a resolute look flashing in her eyes.

"For my husband, for our future, I must become stronger!"

In the days that followed, Yang Chan acted as if she had gone mad.

Aside from the necessary "care" for Su Bai (dual cultivation), she devoted all her time to cultivation.

She frantically devoured the spiritual energy within the illusion, even at the cost of overdrawing the very essence of the Lotus Lantern, in an attempt to forcibly break through her cultivation bottleneck in a short period of time.

However, haste makes waste.

The advancement to the Quasi-Saint realm cannot be achieved simply through seclusion. It requires a profound understanding of the Great Dao and an unparalleled opportunity.

Yang Chan was stuck at a bottleneck. No matter how hard she tried, her cultivation level remained stagnant, like a pool of still water.

"Why...why is it still not working?!"

On this day, Yang Chan failed in her cultivation again, and in anger, she smashed the stone table in front of her into powder.

She sat on the ground with her hair disheveled, her eyes filled with despair and anxiety.

"If this continues, we'll be exposed sooner or later. As long as I'm still active in the primordial world, as long as I'm still breathing, I'll leave traces. Sooner or later, the sages will follow the thread of cause and effect to find me, and then discover my husband..."

Suddenly, a brilliant idea flashed in Yang Chan's mind.

She suddenly raised her head, and a chilling light gradually shone in her bloodshot eyes.

"Cause and effect... traces..."

Yang Chan murmured to herself, the corners of her mouth slowly curving upwards, her smile growing wider and wider until it turned into an almost manic epiphany.

"That's it! How come I didn't think of that?"

"My husband is 'dead,' so no one is looking for him anymore, and all the causal connections related to him have been severed."

"But I'm still alive! I'm his wife, the one with whom he has the deepest karmic entanglement! As long as I'm alive, those people will use me, through my actions, to deduce my husband's whereabouts!"

"As long as I'm still here, I'm the biggest weakness!"

Yang Chan stood up, looked at her haggard yet crazed face in the water mirror, and smiled radiantly.

"To completely eliminate any future troubles, to keep this secret buried forever..."

"It's not enough for my husband to fake his death."

Yang Chan took out a sharp dagger from her sleeve and gently pressed it against her heart. There was no fear in her eyes, only longing for a perfect ending.

"I have to 'die' too."

"Only the dead are immune to suspicion. Only the dead can completely disappear from the sight of a saint."

"My husband, wait for me... wait until I 'die' too, then we will truly be free."