The nightmare in the cultivation world had become even more violent in the past few days as the Zhenlong Chess Formation spread through the world like a plague. The person behind the scenes was like a lunatic and didn’t care about the identity of the host at all. Whether it was an old man or a young child, he used all of them.

     No one could guess what he was trying to achieve by casting such a wide net like this.

     Some people pleaded with Tianyin Pavilion for help, but the Pavilion Master suddenly claimed to be ill and would not open the door, even when people fled and starved to death in front of the pavilion. Gradually, these people finally reluctantly realized that perhaps they had been wrong from the start.

     But it was too late. Mo-zongshi was dead, Chu Wanning was missing, Sisheng Peak had collapsed, and the major sects were unable to take care of themselves. More and more Zhenlong chess pieces that had lost their consciousness wandered the mortal world, killing people and setting fires. The war spread throughout the cultivation world at an extremely alarming rate.

     Jiangdu, Yangzhou, Sichuan, Leizhou… the carved beams and painted buildings, the snow on the ships in the night, all let out a dull lament under the scorching, blazing fire. Their walls crumbled, and many of the world’s great places were solemnly razed by the billowing flames.

     On the Stargazing Platform of Tianyin Pavilion, Shi Mei watched the chaos of the cultivation world. He stood alone for a while before he heard the faint sound of footsteps behind him.

     The woman’s silk shoes stepped on the fine snow, and a pair of hands covered him as Mu Yanli placed a winter coat on him.

     “Where is Taxian-Jun?”

     “He left this morning.”

     “...You’ve already sent him to do it?” Mu Yanli was slightly surprised. “How did you do it so quickly?”

     “There’s no reason to wait. All the necessary preparations have already been made in advance. Now, everything is ready, except for one crucial thing. It will all depend on him.”

     After saying this, it was a long time before Shi Mei spoke again, with a tremor in his usually calm voice.

     “Jiejie.” He murmured to Mu Yanli, “After all these years, after two lifetimes, I finally did it…”

     Mu Yanli turned her head and saw that his peach blossom eyes were glistening with moisture. He seemed to be very excited yet very aggrieved.

     Shi Mei closed his eyes and couldn’t help but tremble slightly. “Let’s go.”

     He said in a low voice, “The Gate of Time, Space, Life, and Death is about to open. Let’s take all the chess pieces we’ve prepared and send them there.”

     “All the chess pieces?”

     “All of them.”

     “But there are so many people…” Mu Yanli’s face was a little pale, but when she saw Shi Mei’s expression of both pain and emotion, she still said firmly, “...Okay. I understand.”

     She turned to leave and was just about to step off the edge of the Stargazing Platform when Shi Mei suddenly called out to her.

     “Wait!”

     She turned back and saw Shi Mei leaning forward under the dim yellow sky, a strong wind whipping his cloak in the air. He looked at Mu Yanli as if he wanted to say something, but his eyes were red, and he never did.

     Mu Yanli stared at him for a while before she said, “Don’t worry. Even if it’s cruel, I won’t betray you.”

     Shi Mei suddenly closed his eyes. People always seemed to be so sensitive and fragile in critical moments.

     His voice trembled slightly. “I have betrayed myself in this life…”

     “He didn’t betray you,” Mu Yanli said. “He betrayed the entire Butterfly-Boned Clan, all of us. His hands are no longer stained with the blood of cultivators, but he has condemned us to hell from that moment on.”

     “...”

     “I understand your helplessness,” Mu Yanli said to Shi Mingjing. “A-Nan, no matter what the people of this world say about you, you are a deserving hero of the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Clan.”

     She left.

     Shi Mei watched her back as she gradually disappeared into the distance, then turned around, placing his bony hand on the carved railing and jade bricks, the icy cold feeling spreading all the way to his heart.

     “Hero?” Shi Mei looked up at the dark clouds in the sky, and after a long sigh, he said, “It’s impossible for me to be a hero. No hero carried the debt of so many lives.”

     His eyes seemed to be despondent for a moment before they froze back into ice.

     “I, Hua Binan, have spent two lifetimes fighting against the heavens and earth. I do not believe that the laws of nature cannot be changed. Now that the Gate of Time, Space, Life, and Death and the Zhenlong Chess Formation techniques are both in my hands, I want to see who in this world can stop me.”

     His knuckles were tense until they turned the color of jade.

     “Forget about being a hero. I just want a way out.”

     His words scattered into the wind.

     “For us.”

     In the vast, snowy region of Mount Kunlun, a black silhouette swept past.

     The strong wind and heavy snow grazed against his cheeks like knives, but he only squinted his dark purple-tinted pupils, seemingly unable to feel the bone-chilling cold.

     He soared and circled like a vulture over a cliff and leapt onto the green tiles and eaves with light movements, quick and agile. There were so many masters patrolling Kunlun Taxue Palace, but no one noticed his arrival. The snowy surface he walked on wasn’t even left with the slightest trace of him.

     Very soon, the man reached the highest peak of Taxue Palace, where he could overlook Heavenly Lake in the haze of snow and wind. It looked tranquil from the peak, the water enveloped in mist.

     The lightning fast figure in black stopped.

     The man stood at the top of Mount Kunlun, straight as a blade, his dark eyes staring at the surface of Heavenly Lake. The wind blew sharply, very suddenly blowing off his cloak and revealing a handsome man, who was pale and devoid of blood.

     It was Emperor Taxian-Jun.

     Having undergone Shi Mei’s second refinement, he now possessed Mo-zongshi’s spiritual power and regained his former strength. He no longer disobeyed his “master’s” orders.

     He finally became the killing blade and source of spiritual power that Shi Mei was appeased with.

     However, ever since he awakened in Tianyin Pavilion, some scattered fragments would always appear in Taxian-Jun’s mind. Before, he always thought he hated Chu Wanning and loved Shi Mingjing. All of his fondness and rage, his love and hatred, were related to these two people.

     However, he vaguely felt that something was wrong.

     Recently, he often heard a faint voice and saw some obscure visions.

     He saw Chu Wanning carefully wrapping wontons in Mengpo Hall, then heard himself say to Chu Wanning, “Shizun, let’s start over from the beginning, okay…? Please, pay attention to me… won’t you…?”

     He saw a crescent moon hanging over a cliff by the sea, shining only on the two of them. He held Chu Wanning’s hand tightly, while Chu Wanning kept his head down, the corners of his usually fierce eyes moist and red. He heard Chu Wanning say to him, “I’m not good. I’ve never been liked by anyone…”

     He saw himself and Chu Wanning entangled on the bed in the inn. The wind and rain outside had nothing to do with them.

     He saw Chu Wanning in the Red Lotus Pavilion, raising his eyelashes to look at him—

     Suddenly, his heart beat wildly.

     Taxian-Jun’s eyes snapped open.

     What is all of this?

     He saw Chu Wanning looking at him with such tenderness—the same look he had tried to coax him into making back then with torture, aphrodisiac, imprisonment, abuse, and humiliation. But he could never get that expression back, even until his death.

     Taxian-Jun felt his head ache, and he raised his hand, the glow of daylight shining on the cold spikes of his wristguard. He rubbed his forehead and cursed in a low voice, “What is this nonsense?”

     He stood on the roof in a daze for a while. It was snowing heavily in Kunlun, and soon his shoulders were covered in frost. He was somewhat surprised that, deep down, he felt that this was also good, like a good dream, and he actually felt at peace because of the gentle gaze Chu Wanning gave him in the dream.

     “...This Venerable One really is going crazy.”

     He blinked, pushed these ridiculous thoughts to the back of his mind, and moved on.

     His master’s order was to go to Kunlun, where spiritual power was at its peak, and open the Gate of Life and Death to his previous life once and for all. Therefore, he was supposed to go north. But when he saw Heavenly Lake, he couldn’t help but circle around to it.

     That was where he lost Chu Wanning forever.

     Taxian-Jun stood in place for a while but finally couldn’t help but walk in that direction as if possessed. However, just as he passed by a nearby corridor of Taxue Palace, he suddenly heard a familiar voice.

     “Father… Mother…”

     The voice sounded very familiar. He suddenly stopped in his tracks and hid in the dark, only revealing a pair of pitch-black eyes looking down.

     Then he saw clearly and couldn’t help but sneer, “Wondered who it was. So it's you."

     In the courtyard, there was only Xue Meng alone. He was leaning on a table with a pot of wine in his arms, already drunk.

     “This time, your father and mother weren’t killed by This Venerable One.” Taxian-Jun enjoyed Xue Meng’s drunken state for a moment, then touched his chin. “But when you’re sad, This Venerable One is very happy. This Venerable One hasn't forgotten who opened a hole in my chest before.”

     “How is it? Does it feel good to be heartbroken?”

     The courtyard was quiet, and no one else was around.

     Taxian-Jun stared down at him for a while longer, then suddenly had an idea. With a flash of his black shadow, he was in front of Xue Meng.

     The drunk Son of the Phoenix didn’t notice his arrival and continued to stroke the wine pot, trying to pour the liquid into his mouth again.

     But suddenly, a cold hand reached out and held the red clay pot, stopping his movements.

     “You… who…?”

     “You guess.”

     Xue Meng barely forced open one of his eyes that was swollen from crying and wearily looked up along that hand until he was met with Emperor Taxian-Jun’s handsome but mocking face.

     Taxian-Jun had never seen Xue Meng so miserable. Although he was convinced that Xue Meng had secretly broken down many times in his previous life, this was the first time he'd ever seen it with his own eyes. He licked his lips, feeling very excited and invigorated.

     He leaned over and stared at Xue Meng as if he were looking at prey. “Interesting. It turns out that Chu Wanning’s proudest disciple can also get drunk and turn into a mess.”

     As he spoke, he sat down on the edge of the stone table, then reached out and lifted Xue Meng’s chin.

     “It’s been a long time since seeing you in your youth.” Taxian-Jun sighed. “Being in that world for so long, This Venerable One has almost forgotten what a domineering face you had when you were young.”

     He rubbed with his fingertips little by little.

     They brushed across his cheeks, the bridge of his nose, and his brows, then poked his forehead none too gently.

     “Xue Meng, you know what? There is one thing This Venerable One regrets.” He looked at Xue Meng’s stunned eyes and slowly revealed a chilling smile. “In the previous life, This Venerable One had a moment of kindness and let you live. But, in turn, you wanted to kill This Venerable One. Sometimes, This Venerable One wonders… if you should have been killed from the beginning.”

     “People may not live comfortably, but dying isn’t necessarily painful.” Taxian-Jun’s voice was low and somber. “Xue Meng, do you want to accompany your parents?”

     As he spoke, he leaned forward.

     His cold breath brushed against Xue Meng’s cheek, and two cold fingers touched the artery on the side of Xue Meng’s neck—all this while, he kept staring at Xue Meng’s eyes.

     He looked at his reflection in those tearful eyes, which looked like a ghost that had descended upon the mortal world.

     “In fact, everyone in this world will die in the end,” Taxian-Jun said grimly. “You and I have been brothers for half of our lives. Since we met here, why doesn’t This Venerable One send you off first and set you free?”

     He exerted force with his fingers and was about to kill.

     “Ge…”

     Suddenly, there was a murmur, like spring buds breaking through the soil, earth-shattering.

     Taxian-Jun was stunned.

     Xue Meng looked at him, and in his drunken state, he finally seemed to be able to recognize the appearance of the person in front of him. His clothes were soaked with tears, and he staggered to his feet, choking with sobs. He grabbed onto Taxian-Jun’s cold arm as if he were grabbing onto a piece of driftwood in the middle of the ocean.

     “Ge…”

     He called to him.

     How could he detect the subtle difference between Mo Ran’s two lifetimes? He only knew that the person in front of him was Mo Ran, his elder brother, and that his family and the most carefree years of his youth had finally returned.

     This time, Taxian-Jun heard it clearly and was sure that he didn’t hear wrong. He was somewhat astonished, and he unexpectedly didn’t know what expression to wear on his face.

     His mind was in turmoil again.

     In a blur, a vision flashed before Taxian-Jun’s eyes, and he saw himself and Xue Meng in the Red Lotus Pavilion, brewing tea and wine and clinking cups under the moon.

     …Was this something else Mo-zongshi did?

     “Ge.” Xue Meng’s eyes were hazy with intoxication. He buried himself in Taxian-Jun’s arms, and at first, he was still holding back his sobs, but in the end, he sobbed and cried until he finally wailed in pain. “Don’t go… Don’t leave me behind…”

     After a while, it was as if he remembered something else, and his whole body suddenly began to tremble as his lips paled. “Don’t kill my father, don’t force them… I was the one who killed those people, don’t hurt my parents, come for me…” Large teardrops rolled down his face, wetting Taxian-Jun’s chest. “Don’t… don’t dig out my brother’s heart…”

     Amidst his choking sobs, Taxian-Jun’s hand, which had originally intended to kill, slowly let go, and he stood still for a moment, trying to push Xue Meng away. But Xue Meng held him so tightly that his hands and feet were bloody.

     Gradually, the place closest to his heart was soaked with tears.

     In the end, Taxian-Jun finally fled up to the roof beams and crouched low on the eaves, looking at Xue Meng, who was hugging his knees and crying as he curled up in the snow.

     The Xue Meng he remembered had always been fierce, arrogant, overbearing, intense, and unfriendly. But now, the person left in the wind and snow was a child who could no longer find his brother.

     He watched Xue Meng cry there for a long, long time. Then Xue Meng got up; whether it was because he was sober or tired of crying was unknown. He just stood blankly in the courtyard for a while, then carried the wine pot towards the depths of the plum blossom courtyard, walking aimlessly, his expression dazed, until he slowly went away—went away—

     Taxian-Jun looked at the two crooked lines of twisted footprints in the snow, but he no longer turned back. He walked deeper into the snowstorm until Taxian-Jun could no longer see Xue Meng’s back.

     Suddenly, there was a solemn voice singing a short song from the middle Shu region that Xue Zhengyong had sung before. Now, it resounded from Xue Meng’s throat and echoed through Kunlun Taxue Palace.

     “I pay my respects to my old friends who have mostly died; only in this drunken state am I able to joyfully meet them again.” The song resonated, and the voice was still youthful, but the tune had already experienced many vicissitudes of life. “The fermented pot of wine is hidden under the branches of the osmanthus tree; while drinking, the face has withered, and there are patches of white at the temples.”

     The heavy snow mottled the young man’s black hair.

     That hoarse voice was entwined with the sound of the wind and snow, filled with desolation.

     “Light shines from the sky, and the dream is shattered, all the people going far away…” It was getting further and further away, almost becoming faint. Or perhaps it wasn’t that Xue Meng had gone far away but that the young man finally cried, choking with sobs. “abandoning my worn body full of tears.”

     Abandoning my worn body.

     He was only twenty-two years old, but only in his drunken dreams could he see his old friends laughing and reuniting again. He was in his prime, but only when drinking a pot of Du Kang could he see the love of his parents and two or three old friends.

     Xue Meng raised his head as if trying to hold back the tears in the corners of his eyes. However, he wasn’t sure if he succeeded; the wind and snow had already blinded him.

     He closed his eyes and let out a long wail, resounding within the clouds, as if he were kowtowing to the heavens and crying out to the earth.

     “I am willing to live a long life to meet the god of dreams; let you carry the wine and once again return!”

     The clouds gathered, and he dropped the wine pot in his hand.

     With his hands empty, Xue Meng collapsed straight into the snow, not wanting to go forward any further. What was in front of him? It was all ice and snow. There were no more familiar figures, no more home.

     Even though he had a dream of Mo Ran just now, it was all fake, just a fleeting mirage, fading away in the blink of an eye.

     Xue Meng lay in the snow, and after a moment, he raised his hand to cover his eyelids.

     His red lips opened and closed slightly as hot tears flowed down his cheeks.

     “Why did you all go away and leave me all alone?”

     Xue Meng suddenly choked and lost his tone.

     “Why… Why did you leave me all alone…?”

     In fact, after two lifetimes, he was the only one left in the end.

     Taxian-Jun listened to the lingering sound swallowed by the whistling wind and looked towards the direction Xue Meng had disappeared in. He stood there motionlessly on the roof as his cloak fluttered in the wind. He raised his hand and touched his chest, not knowing how to feel.

     I pay my respects to my old friends who have mostly died.

     This was the case for Xue Meng, but wasn’t it also no less true for Taxian-Jun?

     In his previous life, Wushan Palace was completely empty, and he was the only one left, with no one. He didn’t know where the incense burner used to be in his room, and he could no longer wear the old clothes from his youth. Sometimes, he would blurt out a joke from his school days, but he was only surrounded by respectful, tense faces.

     No one knew what he was talking about; no one understood him.

     Those who understood him were either in the underworld or far away.

     Taxian-Jun eventually came to the edge of Heavenly Lake. The weather was bad; there was a distant fog, and snowflakes fell rapidly over the lake. He stood there without a sound, like a heartless wooden sculpture that didn’t know cold or warmth.

     He let the frost and snow cover him.

     “Chu Wanning…” He sighed softly. “If it were back then…”

     If it were back then, what?

     He didn’t continue. His eyelashes fell, and his eyes closed.

     There was no “if it were back then.” He was Emperor Taxian-Jun, the unrivaled ruler of the cultivation world. He didn’t know what it was to regret, what it was to turn back.

     What happened happened.

     He would not say he regretted it; he would not admit defeat.

     Even if he was a mess of flesh and blood, betrayed by his closest friends, this was the path he had chosen for himself; even if it was filled with thorns, he would force himself to walk forward.

     But here, in the middle of this vast, snowy sky, in this place where no one would see and no one would know, Taxian-Jun stood with his hands behind his back for a long time, then finally did something unexpected—he knelt down.

     At the place where Chu Wanning died in battle, he bowed down and kowtowed.

     One kowtow.

     Two kowtows.

     He kowtowed three times.

     Taxian-Jun lifted his face, his eyelashes frosted over under his hood and his expression solemn. No one knew what he was thinking. Then he stood up as if he’d fulfilled a long-cherished wish, brushed off his cloak and black robe without a word, then swept away towards the place on Mount Kunlun with the most abundant spiritual energy.

     When the emperor appeared, no one in the world could stop him. Shi Mingjing had made the right choice. He possessed the strongest and most formidable spiritual power in the world. His domineering cultivation base was unmatched by anyone else.

     The Gate of Time, Space, Life, and Death was about to open.