Taxian-Jun stood thousands of feet high in the sky, his black robe billowing like splashed ink.

     He narrowed his eyes as his sleeves were blown into disarray. The spiritual power in his palm was like a dragon swallowing the sun, abruptly tearing apart the visible fog and the imperceptible time and space—

     Boom!

     Suddenly, a thunderous sound echoed as a flash of lightning struck like a sharp blade, shattering the sky in an instant!

     There were a few moments of dead silence before the water of Heavenly Lake violently surged and retreated, the snow of Mount Kunlun separated and tumbled viciously, the clouds rolled across the land, and a cold wind filled the sky…

     Once, Chu Wanning came to this world and only tore a small crack. Later, Shi Mei painstakingly repaired that crack and also came to this mortal world.

     But those two space-time rifts were only minor gaps and would soon be restored to their original state by the power of the heavens. Even when Xu Shuanglin later opened a large crack in the sky on Mount Jiao, with the help of five holy weapons, it could only temporarily break the barrier between the two mortal worlds.

     But this time, the rift torn by Mo Ran himself was entirely different from the previous ones. The sky suddenly filled with scarlet, and simultaneously, two suns and moons rose, glowing faintly with a corpse-white light as they hung high above.

     From the southern river to the northern desert and the edge of the sea to the horizon, almost everyone stopped what they were doing for a moment to look up at this bizarre and terrifying celestial phenomenon.

     In Wuchang Town, a toddler cried, and his mother hugged him tightly in her arms. The mother kissed his face and whispered, “Don’t cry, don’t cry. Good baby. Mother is here, Mother is here.”

     In Yangzhou City, an old woman with a head full of gray hair and chicken skin trembled against her cane. She hunched over and said in a hoarse voice, “This… How are there two moons and two suns in the sky… Heavens, oh heavens, what’s going on…?”

     On Feihua Island, Third Madam Sun stood on the shore and raised her thick eyebrows with her hands on her hips. She sternly ordered everyone to go inside, put out the lights, and hide. She then ordered her servants to bring all the old, weak, sick, and disabled homeless people on the island to her mansion.

     She stared at the strange occurrence in the sky, her eyes sparking with fire.

     Not to mention large sects like Guyueye, Huohuang Pavilion, and Wubei Temple, whether they were willing to accept it or not, almost all cultivators clearly understood one thing at this moment:

     The Gate of Time, Space, Life, and Death had truly opened.

     Mo Ran controlled the wind of the void, his eyes filled with blood and his pupils flashing with excitement and madness.

     He was muddled back and forth by Shi Mingjing several times. He had been reborn and died, then died and was reborn again. His memory was in tatters, with only a wisp of his conscious soul in his body to support him.

     As a result, his entire being was insane, and he was even more impossible to reason with than before.

     Destroying the heavens and earth.

     Very quickly, half of the cultivation world was covered by the black cloud. Taxian-Jun raised his head and laughed deeply—but what was he laughing at?

     He didn’t know, nor did he want to know.

     His mind was a jumbled mess, and the only thoughts in his heart were the continuous orders from his master, which spiraled and circled around him.

     He narrowed his eyes, looking at the crystal-clear barriers beneath the rolling black clouds, his lips forming a cold sneer. Then he raised his hand and said in a low voice, “Bu’gui.”

     Bu’gui appeared immediately.

     Taxian-Jun brushed his fingers across each section of the saber, polishing it.

     Then he ruthlessly slashed down at the two barriers separating the two mortal worlds!!

     It was dead silent for a moment—

     Suddenly, the earth rumbled.

     The Gate of Time, Space, Life, and Death was finally opened, and the barriers were broken and shattered by him.

     In an instant, the entire world was transformed.

     His malevolent and tyrannical spiritual power and the aura of his holy weapon, Bu’gui, caused the rift to expand so completely that it would be absolutely impossible to seal completely within the next hundred years!

     The mission was completed.

     Taxian-Jun stood at the crack in the sky, where the wind whistled, and squinted his eyes for a moment, looking back at the mortal world. He paused for a moment, then turned around and stepped into the world that truly belonged to him—

     When the wind stopped whistling in his ears, he raised his eyes.

     Before those eyes was a vast expanse of white. He had once again returned to the world where he claimed the title of emperor and ruler. He returned to the Kunlun Taxue Palace of his previous life.

     “Your Majesty.”

     “Welcome back to His Majesty the Emperor.”

     As he stood on the dense, snowy plain, a large crowd ran towards him and knelt in the snow one after another like a tidal wave, prostrating themselves three times and kowtowing nine times to meet the emperor.

     Taxian-Jun didn’t say a word. His hawk-like eyes swept across the rows of kneeling cultivators, each of them covered with a black cloak.

     There was no end in sight to these people; they extended all the way to the foot of the mountain.

     Leading the group was a trembling old man, whose white hair was blown in the wind. It was none other than Liu-gong, who had served him for many years.

     The year Taxian-Jun died, Liu-gong was also dismissed and sent back to his hometown, like the rest of the palace servants. He originally thought everything would end there, but not long after, a medicine master called Hua Binan appeared out of nowhere, revealing his ferocious nature, and refined Taxian-Jun’s corpse into a living-dead person to control.

     However, this living-dead person still retained a certain level of emotion and willpower and was dissatisfied by the mute servant Hua Binan had sent to serve him. He didn’t relent until Hua Binan found and retrieved the old palace servants of Wushan Palace.

     Later, for reasons unknown to Old Liu, Hua Binan disappeared from this world, leaving the emperor alone, unable to attain the will to live but unable to die in this world, perpetually at death’s door.

     As time passed, even the most foolish of people could see that the emperor had been controlled all along, and Old Liu was no exception. But what could he, a thorny old man with half of his neck buried in the earth, do?

     He had no family or purpose, and all of his friends had died long ago. He could only hold onto serving Emperor Taxian-Jun, regarding it as his last chance to place his trust and hopes, and handled tasks in an old-fashioned and unsophisticated manner.

     It was because of this hope that when Liu-gong saw him again, his eyes were filled with both sorrow and joy, which looked far more real than the others.

     Taxian-Jun’s lips moved. “Old Liu.”

     “Your Majesty.” Liu-gong kowtowed. “Your Majesty has finally returned.”

     “...Do you know?” Taxian-Jun spoke, not even realizing that he seemed like a child eager to share joyful news with his elders: “This Venerable One saw him again.”

     Liu-gong was startled. “...Chu-zongshi?”

     “Yes, I’ve seen him many times. This Venerable One’s spiritual core has also been restored. Once the important matters are taken care of, This Venerable One can—”

     Perhaps he caught a glimpse of his own excitement in the reflection of the old man’s opaque eyes, but Taxian-Jun abruptly stopped talking and glanced at the people kneeling around him, somewhat embarrassed.

     Fortunately, no one dared to laugh at him.

     He pursed his lips, making himself appear cold and majestic once more, then flicked his sleeves and said, “Alright. Stop kneeling. Everyone stand up and follow This Venerable One back to Wushan Palace.”

     He used the imperial sword technique to fly all the way back to the middle Shu region. Everything that passed below his eyes was lifeless, the scene desolate.

     There weren’t many living people left in this world, and he had long since grown accustomed to it. But after spending some time another world and seeing the bustle of people again, he still felt a little lonely when returning to this hell on earth.

     That night, he opened a jar of Pear Blossom White and drank alone in the empty Wushan Palace.

     Since obtaining Mo-zongshi’s spiritual core, his body had recovered remarkably, and he could do many things that only living people could do, such as drinking and eating. However, no matter how much he was restored, a corpse was still a corpse, and the flavor he could taste with his tongue wasn’t even thirty percent of what he could taste when he was alive.

     Still, he was satisfied with it.

     After three rounds of drinking, he was a little tipsy, and he lay on the couch with his head propped up and thought about some past memories in his boredom. These memories were actually unpleasant and would always make one feel melancholy when accompanied with wine.

     He didn’t want to think about it before, but now he wasn’t afraid anymore.

     The two mortal worlds had been connected, and no matter how unhappy the past was, it would soon be changed. He narrowed his eyes, his fingers wrapping around the red tassel of the wine jar, and murmured, “Chu Wanning…”

     He stood up and went to the Red Lotus Pavilion, which had been sealed for a long time. When he reached the door, he ran into Liu-gong, who was walking out from inside. When they saw each other, they were both stunned.

     “Your Majesty, rest assured.”

     Taxian-Jun asked, “What are you doing here?”

     As he spoke, his eyes fell on a basket of rags, feather dusters, and other things that Liu-gong was carrying.

     “Cleaning up?”

     Old Liu sighed. “Yes. I didn’t know when His Majesty would want to come back again, but I was afraid that things would rot from being out of use for a long time, so I tidy them up every day.” Old Liu paused. “This place looks the same as before. Your Majesty, please enter.”

     Taxian-Jun suddenly didn’t know what to say.

     He walked alone to the lotus pond, which was filled with spiritual energy and thus had an unchanging fragrance. Deep in the lotus blossoms, frogs croaked, heedless of whether it was spring or autumn. He tilted his head and listened for a while, slowly recalling an afternoon when he was also on this bridge.

     The summer breeze had been so scorching that it made his head spin. He was suddenly captivated, pulling Chu Wanning over and kissing the man on his forehead.

     At that time, aside from sex and passion, there didn’t seem to be much warmth between them. The sudden kiss didn’t have any trace of salacious meaning, so Chu Wanning was slightly taken aback.

     The cicadas in the trees chirped a few times, but the frogs in the pond croaked just as loudly.

     He looked at the slightly widened phoenix eyes and found them even more interesting, so he said, “Since there’s nothing to do, why don’t we play a game to amuse ourselves?”

     Before Chu Wanning could refuse, he put his finger on the other’s lips. “Shh. Let This Venerable One finish.”

     “...”

     “Let’s make a bet. When This Venerable One counts to ten, if the frogs in the courtyard croak, you lose, and you have to bring This Venerable One a pot of sour plum soup. If the cicadas in the trees chirp first, This Venerable One loses, and This Venerable One… will bring you down the mountain to relax.”

     Going down the mountain was indeed a substantial temptation. Chu Wanning hadn’t wanted to pay attention to him at first, but after spending time with him day and night, Taxian-Jun had already clearly grasped his soft spots and made an offer that was impossible for him to refuse.

     The handsome man smiled and said, “Then, shall we begin?”

     “One, two, three…”

     The low, deep, and fiery voice flowed slowly, and both of them listened attentively to the croaking frogs and chirping cicadas. However, the emperor of the mortal world was probably unlucky. As soon as he started counting, the cicadas chirped loudly, while the frogs lazily withdrew their voices, as if intending to stop.

     “Eight, nine…” The more he counted, the more his voice dragged. By the end, it was too obvious that he was being a scoundrel, dragging it on to the end, which made Chu Wanning turn around and look at him coldly.

     Taxian-Jun was truly shameless. After being stared at like this, he simply stopped at nine and didn’t count any more. Instead, he asked Chu Wanning, “Do you think this frog is dead?”

     “...”

     “Why else wouldn’t it make a sound?”

     “...”

     “Wait a minute, and This Venerable One will see if it’s still alive. Otherwise, it’s not fair.” He picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the clearly lively green frog.

     “Ten!”

     “Croak!”

     The frog was startled and jumped into the pond, causing ripples as it croaked and floated away. Taxian-Jun laughed loudly as he wiped the mud off his fingers and said to Chu Wanning, “You lose. The frog croaked first.”

     Chu Wanning was about to leave when his sleeve was pulled. Having gotten the upper hand, Taxian-Jun was in a good mood, and with the fragrance of the lotus pond floating in the air, he ignored his opponent’s anger and said, “The sour plum soup should be iced, especially icy.”

     “Do you have any shame?” Chu Wanning said, almost gritting his teeth.

     “That thing can’t relive the summer heat, so what’s the use of having it?” Taxian-Jun poked his forehead and said, “Go on. Remember to add less sugar.”

     Perhaps he was in a really good mood that day. After eating a pot of sweet and refreshing iced sour plum soup under the scorching sun, even the croaking of frogs was indescribably pleasant.

     In the evening, he suddenly said to Chu Wanning, “It will soon be three years.”

     “What?”

     Seeing his reaction, the young emperor’s face showed a layer of slight displeasure. “Since being crowned emperor. This Venerable One was crowned emperor almost three years ago.”

     As he spoke, Taxian-Jun tried his best to find a ripple of emotion in Chu Wanning’s eyes, but unfortunately, the result was quite frustrating. He wrinkled his nose, feeling somewhat gloomy and resigned. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly said, “You have been with This Venerable One for three years.”

     “...”

     “Since this pot of icy sour plum soup tastes good, This Venerable One will take you down the mountain to relax. But we can’t go too far, only to Wuchang Town.”

     The carriage and horses were ready, with bamboo curtains, pillows, teacups, and folding fans at their disposal.

     Standing before the main entrance of Sisheng Peak, which had been expanded and renovated three times, Taxian-Jun touched the gold-threaded ring worn by the white horse and turned his head to say to Chu Wanning, “Does it look familiar? This is the carriage you liked to use when you traveled before. It doesn’t get in the way, so it’s fine to keep it.”

     Chu Wanning didn’t show any joy but stepped on the rosewood footstool like before, pushing aside the bamboo curtain to enter the carriage.

     The servant was dumbfounded and turned his head to look fearfully at Emperor Taxian-Jun under the sunset.

     This man had a menacing personality, and it was normal for him to kill innocent people, regardless of the reason. He really didn’t know what kind of courage Chu-zongshi had to actually ignore etiquette and dare to enter the carriage and sit down before His Majesty the Emperor.

     But what the servant didn’t expect was that Taxian-Jun didn’t seem to mind it. His eyes even curved, and he smiled, intrigued. “Look at that; this man still considers himself to be Yuheng Elder.”

     Just as he was about to get into the carriage, he suddenly heard a woman’s soft and delicate voice behind him.

     The woman called softly, “A-Ran.”