I was born a god, the son of the Demon Lord.

A tall, slender figure stepped out from before the bronze gate, bathed in light.

Wu Xi looked at the red phantom in mid-air, and her eyes instantly reddened.

That was the aura of the true Lord of the Nine Netherworlds.

The cyclical laws of reincarnation flowed throughout his body like a vast galaxy, and the layers upon layers of pressure silenced all living beings without any deliberate release, even though he was currently trapped in the body of a child.

But she knew that as long as Xu Nanyi accepted the power of the Lord of the Nine Netherworlds, one day, this small body would bear the fate of the entire Nine Netherworlds.

That was her emperor, the master of the place where all souls returned.

Wu Xi's figure blurred, and in the next instant, he appeared before Xu Nanyi, kneeling on one knee. "This sinful subject Wu Xi greets Your Majesty—Emperor You, Tian Shou!"

The red lotuses all around moved undisturbed by the wind, as if they too were paying homage.

Xu Nanyi lowered her eyes slightly, glanced at her, and said, "Get up."

Wu Xi stood up, with his hands at his sides, his eyes overflowing with reverence and piety.

Xu Nanyi turned her head, her gaze sweeping over the thousands of souls prostrate at her feet, the purified souls all raising their transparent, glass-like faces, awaiting her final decree.

The young voice carried a majestic power that seemed to pierce the deepest hell.

"Return home, my people."

"Return to the land where you find peace."

"May reincarnation favor you once more."

The countless ghosts bowed their heads in devout response, like an echo from the depths of the earth reverberating in the human world.

Xu Nanyi looked at Wu Xi, "Wu Xi, lead them back."

Wu Xi clenched his right fist and pressed it heavily against his heart. He bowed deeply, his eyes burning with a light more intense than the red lotus.

"To serve our Emperor is the highest honor of Wuxi!"

She took out a soul-guiding lamp from her sleeve.

The lamp is carved entirely from green jade, with walls as thin as cicada wings. Inside, a cluster of pale blue flames burns. As the flames flicker, countless tiny runes appear on the lamp's surface, each resembling a miniature portal.

A withered vine was wrapped around the handle of the lantern, and six dark gold bells were attached to the vine. When Wuxi walked with the lantern, the bells did not ring, but the flame in the lantern flickered with her steps, as if it were keeping time for the thousands of dead souls behind her.

She turned around, facing the bronze door, holding the lantern high.

The melody was desolate and distant, like a sigh overflowing from the depths of the earth, or the echo of the last gust of wind passing through withered bones on the wasteland.

The musical notes do not fall to earth, but sink into the crevices of the soul, each note causing the ghost's footsteps to follow involuntarily.

"The road to the underworld is long, do not wander aimlessly, soul."

"The waters of the three paths are cold; I light a lamp to guide me home."

Life is short, and death is long too.

"The Emperor of the Underworld has shown mercy, and my reincarnation will be blessed."

"Don't look back, don't look back, your homeland is ahead, old dreams are over."

"Don't look back, don't look back, a single lamp can dispel a thousand sorrows."

The music drifted into the wind, each note transforming into tiny particles of light that landed on the soul's shoulders, like an invisible hand gently guiding it.

Wu Xi, carrying a lantern, led the way through the bronze gate, followed by one person after another.

The procession stretched nearly a kilometer from the horizon, like a flowing galaxy descending from the clouds to the earth. The souls at the front had already disappeared into the deep white light inside the door, while the souls at the back were slowly merging into the procession from various corners of Shanghai.

It was as if the entire city of Shanghai was writing a farewell story with its soul.

Xu Nanyi stood in mid-air, with the huge female phantom behind her overlooking the grand homecoming.

The phantom slowly turned its head, its gaze falling on the ground not far away.

Xu Yuan maintained his golden phoenix form, his body covered in wounds, and he weakly raised his head to look up at the sky.

Shen Jiuyuan knelt to one side, his sickle stuck in the ground to support his body, his face pale.

Lin Qingyue used the gun barrel to support herself as she stood up, while Tianxing lay panting heavily beside her, the astrolabe lying askew beside her hand.

The phantom's eyes flickered slightly.

So these are the people Lin Qingyue and her little follower keep talking about every day, my... parents?

He doesn't look very old, and his cultivation level is really just average.

Little Follower Dragon and Lin Qingyue... were so weak at this moment.

The phantom sighed silently. Oh well, at least we've met once. This is not my time and space after all.

Our fate has come to this, nothing more.

The wind swept past her.

The illusory image gradually faded, like ink spreading and dissipating in water.

Xu Nanyi suddenly felt her body lighten and plummeted straight down from mid-air.

"Yiyi!"

Xu Yuan, seemingly drawn by some unknown strength, lunged forward from the ground, covered in blood, her arms outstretched. Just as Xu Nanyi was about to smash through the ground, she caught her in her arms.

The two rolled twice together, and Xu Yuan held the little girl tightly to his chest, using his back to absorb the last bit of impact.

Shen Jiuyuan and Lin Qingyue pounced on them from the left and right.

"Little Phoenix!"

"Ah-Yuan!"

Tianxing staggered over, not even bothering to pick up the astrolabe, and reached out to check Xu Nanyi's breath; it was warm and she was still breathing.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

A crack appeared in the sky.

The dark gray clouds that had enveloped the entire city, along with the resentment and ghostly mist, were all severed in half at the same moment by a golden light that cleaved down from the horizon!

Golden light poured out from the crack, like molten gold flowing, like the Milky Way pouring down, and the entire Demon Heaven was brightly lit!

The ten-meter-high bronze door slowly closed in the light, and the smiles of the countless ghost-face reliefs on the door gradually softened, their eyes tightly shut.

The door sank inch by inch into the ground, the cracks closed, and the soil covered it, until finally only the Nine Nether Ghost Seal lay alone on the ground.

When the golden dew fell on Xu Nanyi, it seeped into her skin along the contours of her body, repairing the flesh and blood that had been scorched by the Three Thousand Divine Flames.

Her wounds, large and small, healed, scabbed over, and fell off at a visible speed, revealing new, tender skin.

It wasn't just her.

The dew fell on the abrasions on Xu Yuan's shoulder, and the bloodstains disappeared. The skin and flesh on Lin Qingyue's split tiger's mouth healed. The scar on Shen Jiuyuan's forehead faded. The bruises on Tian Xing's purplish knees disappeared.

In the cracks of the ruins, between the stones, beneath the broken walls, and beside the shattered tiles, tender green shoots broke through the soil.

Green shoots grew at an incredible speed, sprouting leaves, buds, and blooming. On the ruins that were once soaked in blood and piled with corpses, patches of new flowers and grasses bloomed, swaying gently in the sunlight.

Spring has emerged from the ruins.

The entire city was enveloped in a golden rain, the clouds and mist in the sky dispersed, and the sunlight poured down like molten gold from the heavens, coating every inch of the ruins with a warm hue.

Xu Nanyi slowly opened her eyes, a trace of crimson-gold embers still remaining in her pupils, but it quickly faded away, returning to the clear, dark color that a child should have.

She blinked, staring blankly at the sunlight overhead, at the golden rain falling in the sky, and at Xu Yuan's tear-streaked face as it approached her.

She opened her mouth.

"……mother?"

Her mind was a complete mess. She remembered what she had just "done," but it wasn't something she "wanted" to do.

But that feeling somehow made her feel... that it was herself.

It was as if she was meant to be this way, and that she had only briefly returned to where she was supposed to be for that one moment.