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

Wu Qiyue also came to her side that day.

Each generation of the Holy Maiden of the Witch Clan will be the most capable and virtuous minister of the Lord of the Nine Netherworlds.

That year, Wu Qiyue had just turned one hundred years old. In the Wu clan, she was still considered a child, looking no more than eight or nine years old.

She was led by the high priests to the exit of the Tower of Reincarnation, where she saw a child covered in blood emerge from the light.

The child looked no more than two or three years old, dressed in tattered clothes, with a limp right leg, a closed left eye, and a sallow, emaciated face, like a hungry ghost crawling out of hell. When he looked up at her, there was only an empty, calm expression.

Wu Qiyue was only a hundred years old at that time and knew nothing.

All she knew was that the high priests told her, "From now on, she will be your queen. You must stay with her, protect her, and share her burdens."

She looked at the child, who was even smaller than herself, and gently hugged her.

It was a tiny, light thing, covered in wounds and smelling of blood.

Wu Qiyue cried even more bitterly than the child.

"...I'm not afraid anymore, I'm not afraid anymore."

She cried as she spoke, her little hands clumsily patting the child's back, "I'll stay with you, I'll stay with you from now on..."

The child remained frozen in her arms for a long while.

The still-blind eye blinked gently, and a dirty hand rose up and grabbed Wu Qiyue's sleeve.

And so, the emperor and his minister remained together.

Year after year, decade after decade, century after century, millennium after millennium.

From the second cycle of reincarnation onwards, Wu Qiyue would accompany Xu Nanyi through every single trial she underwent.

She didn't actually have to do that. The Holy Maiden of the Witch Clan only needed to assist the Lord of the Nine Netherworlds; she didn't need to enter the tower with him to suffer the torments of reincarnation.

But Wu Qiyue never hesitated.

"Your Majesty is suffering too much all by yourself."

She said to the high priests, her little face full of stubbornness, "If I stay with her, she won't suffer so much."

So she stayed with her.

The second trial was to become a starving corpse, begging in famine-stricken lands for ten years, experiencing all the coldness and warmth of human nature, and losing one of the seven emotions.

The third path is to transform into withered bones guarding a tomb, alone for a hundred years, losing one of the seven emotions.

The fourth, the fifth, the sixth...

Each trial was like a slow, agonizing death, and each time they emerged, they had an additional, unseen scar on their bodies.

Xu Nanyi became increasingly silent and cold, and Wu Qiyue, who was by her side, also became increasingly quiet, but her hand remained tightly gripping Xu Nanyi's sleeve.

From two or three years old to hundreds or thousands of years old, from toddlers to emperors.

In Xu Nanyi's thousands of years of life, there was nothing but becoming stronger and undergoing trials.

The only human touch in my life was Wu Qiyue's companionship.

From the first trial of reincarnation where she was devoured by barking dogs and lost one of her seven emotions, to now becoming the Great Emperor of Reincarnation, her seven emotions and six desires had long been worn away in the Tower of Reincarnation.

She would no longer laugh, no longer cry, and no longer feel intense emotions for anyone or anything.

She became an emperor who could only utter a few words in a cold voice.

Their sole purpose has always been to guard the entire Netherworld.

But Wu Qiyue remembered that day on the River of Oblivion.

That golden remnant soul struggling to rise from the blood, that puppy that crawled in the pit of ten thousand beasts for forty-nine days and refused the water of forgetfulness, that child who walked out of the light of the Tower of Reincarnation, covered in blood and wounds but without shedding a single tear.

Even the name was chosen by the high priest.

She stayed by Xu Nanyi's side for every single one of her injuries.

So when her emperor said, "I went to see the happy me that those people talk about," Wu Qiyue felt as if something had squeezed her heart so hard that she couldn't breathe.

She gripped Xu Nanyi's hand tightly, pressed her forehead even deeper into his, tears streaming down her face, but dared not make a loud noise.

"...Your Majesty," her voice trembled, almost inaudible, "I am also your family."

Xu Nanyi stood in the dim blue candlelight of the Reincarnation Hall, her silver hair and golden eyes gleaming, her red dress flowing gently.

She looked down at Wu Qiyue's crouching figure and remained silent for a very long time.

Then she raised her other hand, her fingertips landing on Wu Qiyue's shoulder, and gently patted it.

"I know."

"I've always known."

Outside the palace, the sound of the River of Oblivion could be heard from afar, ceaselessly, day and night.

The Reincarnation Tower stands silently in the night, its body shimmering with a dim golden light.

Inside the hall, one knelt and wept, while the other stood with his eyes downcast, creating a scene that seemed to be the only one in this dark place that still carried a trace of warmth.

……

"Yiyi! Come and eat some lotus flower pastries!"

Wu Qiyue took out an oil paper package from her sleeve, opened it, and inside were six neatly arranged pink and white pastries, with petals layered like lotus flowers, and topped with a little candied osmanthus. The sweet fragrance filled the Samsara Palace.

Xu Nanyi jumped down from the edge of the astrology table with a "whoosh," her eyes sparkling.

"Wow! Where did you get this from?!"

"Bought it at the Shuofeng City next door!"

"It's so far!"

Xu Nanyi's eyes widened. Shuofeng City was at least three cities away from Shanghai.

Wu Qiyue chuckled and stuffed a piece into her hand: "Hehe, it's alright! If you hadn't come to save me, I'd be turning into fertilizer by now!"

Shen Xizhou had somehow gotten close, his dragon tail swaying behind him. "I've come to save you too! I want to eat too!"

"Here you go, here you go!"

Shen Xizhou took a big bite and ate most of it, his cheeks puffing out like a little hamster.

"Eat slowly, were you a starving ghost reincarnated in your past life?"

Shi Ming, who was already eating lotus-shaped pastries next to him, nodded silently, "That's right, that's right."

Xu Nanyi tilted her head and observed Shen Xizhou's eating habits for a while, then poked his round little belly with her little finger.

"Xiaozhou, aren't you going to get a stomachache from eating so much?"

"I'm a dragon! I'm so small, how could I have a stomachache..."

Wu Qiyue interrupted him, counting on her fingers: "You can eat ten pigs, eight sheep, and three cows in one meal. How old are you to eat so much?"

Who knows, it might grow from a small worm into a small round worm!

Shen Xizhou's entire face turned bright red instantly, burning from his ears to his neck, and even the scales on his tail bristled.

"I...I...I'm just hungry! I won't get fat! Do you think my dad is fat? He's so big, he must eat ten times more than me, but do you see how fat he is? I'll definitely be more handsome than my dad in the future! I'll definitely be the most handsome dragon in the Taiyuan Realm!"

Wu Qiyue's lips twitched, and she turned her head to whisper to Xu Nanyi in front of Shen Xizhou.

"No way, no way, he's narcissistic. Your dad doesn't have that problem too, does he? I didn't realize Uncle Shen had this problem—"

Xu Nanyi paused for a moment when she heard the word "uncle".

Her father... his face was handsome and refined; in the Taiyuan Realm, he could be considered a young and good-looking man, right?

But when Wu Qiyue called him that, the image of "father" in her mind suddenly became weathered, transforming from a vigorous young man into an old man sitting under the eaves basking in the sun.