After the ghost-hunting master descended the mountain, his fame spread throughout the capital.

"Qinglian"

A deep male voice came from the mist on the side, breaking the tense silence on the mountain road.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw that Xie Dai had silently appeared on a protruding rock not far away.

Shi Qinglian paused slightly as she twirled the prayer beads between her fingers.

Xie Dai stood with his hands behind his back, the mountain wind ruffling the hem of his robe, and said calmly, "Stop. The imperial court is not for you."

Upon hearing this, Shi Qinglian chuckled softly, but the laughter inexplicably carried a hint of mockery.

He tilted his head slightly to look at Xie Dai. "You said the imperial court isn't suitable for me, and advised me to give it up?"

Shi Qinglian paused deliberately, then slowly uttered, "If I were to say... A-Chu is not suitable for you, would you be willing to let go?"

The moment the word "Achu" was uttered, Xie Dai's usually calm expression suddenly changed.

His hands, which were behind his back, suddenly clenched, his knuckles turning white.

Shi Qinglian seemed to greatly admire Xie Dai's momentary loss of composure; his smile deepened as he continued:

"If I'm not mistaken, she's in this mountain, isn't she? In this extremely yin place, to preserve her body from decay? Ha... what a touching and profound affection, willing to pay any price to keep her by his side, even if it's just a shell."

The last trace of expression on Xie Dai's face vanished, leaving only an unfathomable chill.

He slowly descended the cliff, his gaze landing on Shi Qinglian's face. "Today, are you determined to be my enemy and stand by that person's side?"

Despite Xie Dai's imposing aura, Shi Qinglian showed no fear and even took a small step forward.

"To be your enemy?" He chuckled softly, but there was little joy in his laughter; instead, it carried a sense of loneliness.

"Xie Dai, do you know what I have sought in this life?"

Shi Qinglian stopped looking at Xie Dai's gloomy face, turned her gaze to the void, and spoke in a somewhat ethereal tone:

"What I seek is never the empty title of National Preceptor, nor the supreme Dharma, nor even any honor or disgrace brought by this bloodline."

His gaze pierced through the mist, as if penetrating time, and he saw the child in the dark courtyard, watching over his mother's final moments on her sickbed.

Shi Qinglian's voice was very soft, as if afraid of disturbing something, yet it carried a chill that penetrated to the bone:

"That woman, who didn't even have a proper title, only took my hand and told me who my biological father was on the day she coughed up her last breath and her life was over."

He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly, as if swallowing a surge of bitterness:

She said, "My son, your mother is useless and can't give you anything."

"If you ever find yourself in dire straits and can't survive, perhaps... you can go to him. See if... he might give you a meal out of consideration for our blood ties."

At this point, Shi Qinglian's tone suddenly turned cold, carrying a strong sense of sarcasm:

"Later, I really went. It wasn't because I had no other choice, but because I wanted to see what kind of man he was, the man who made my mother still have a sliver of hope until her death, the man who gave me this life but made my mother and me live such a miserable life."

"I hid in the busiest crowd at the lantern festival in Changling City, like a rat in a gutter, and saw you from afar."

Shi Qinglian's gaze abruptly shifted back, fixing fixedly on Xie Dai's face, her eyes so sharp they could pierce blood.

"You were dressed in a magnificent brocade robe, with an expression that could be described as loving. You held a beautiful little boy in one arm and held the hand of a lovely and gentle woman in the other."

"You bought sugar figurines for that boy, pointed out the brightest lanterns to him, and carefully protected the mother and child from the crowded streets... Ha, how ridiculous."

"What a heartwarming and beautiful scene. It looks like a loving father and son, and a devoted couple."

"If you had never known of my existence from the beginning and had ignored me, I might have just thought it was fate playing tricks on me, and that would have been fine."

"But later, I rose to the position of Imperial Advisor, and you clearly knew my identity. I climbed step by step to this position that you could take seriously!"

Shi Qinglian's voice suddenly rose, carrying years of suppressed anger and resentment, echoing through the silent valley:

"But what did you do? You used me! You treated me like a pawn, a tool!"

His chest rose and fell slightly, as if magma buried deep for many years had finally found a crack and surged forth.

A glint of tears seemed to well up in Shi Qinglian's eyes, reflecting the faint mountain light, but he forcibly suppressed it, quickly freezing it, leaving only icy hatred:

"Look at me, have you ever felt even a sliver of guilt as a father? Have you ever even for a moment considered bringing me back into the Xie family? No! Not even once!"

He took a step closer, his pale robes fluttering in the cold wind, and his handsome face flushed slightly with excitement.

"You keep saying that your deep affection for her is short-lived, and that you dote on her son, but what about me?"

"Where is my mother? What are we, mother and son, to you? Are we just pawns you can use and discard at will?"

"All I've ever wanted in my life..." Shi Qinglian's voice suddenly lowered, filled with endless self-mockery, "Initially, perhaps all I wanted was for you to acknowledge me, to face me squarely. Later, I begged for an apology, for an end to this."

"Now..." He slowly raised the prayer beads in his hand, the light emanating from them illuminating his obsessive face:

"I only ask that you tear off your hypocritical mask, and let you taste what it means to have what you can't have, what it means to be betrayed by everyone, what it means to never have peace again!"

"You want to preserve A-Chu's remains? To fulfill your ridiculous obsession? I'll destroy her! You want to protect Xie Jinchen? I'll bring him back to Changling City and let His Majesty deal with him personally!"

The mountain wind howled, billowing Shi Qinglian's moon-white robes. He stood there, clearly handsome as an immortal, yet exuding a chilling aura from hell.

Xie Dai's face grew extremely ugly as Shi Qinglian continued to accuse him.

Perhaps I shouldn't have told him the truth; otherwise, he wouldn't have become so obsessed.

Unaware of Xie Dai's thoughts, Shi Qinglian shifted his gaze from Xie Dai to Xie Jinchen.

"Xie Jinchen." He murmured the name as if chewing on some bitter fruit, "You were born to possess everything that should have belonged to me."

He smirked. "So what? Of all the things you claim to possess, can you truly hold onto them? All you rely on is His Majesty's vague sense of guilt and compensation."

"Once you cross his bottom line, what are you then?"

"In the end, you're nothing but a pathetic wretch, just like me, a bastard who doesn't even dare to acknowledge his own father!"

He uttered the last two words lightly, yet they carried the resentment that had been building up for years.

He wanted to tear open Xie Jinchen's most painful wound and pull him down from that seemingly high and mighty position.