Xue Meng of the previous life stood amidst the strong wind and rain, his voice extremely hoarse. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, his adam’s apple rolling several times. When he finally spoke, he said the most respectful words: “Disciple Xue Meng greets Shizun.”

     Simple words that no one could say for over ten years.

     After Xue Meng said this, he felt all sorts of emotions rise to his throat. It was so bitter that he couldn’t say another word.

     Behind him, Mei Hanxue said, “Ziming, focus.”

     The appearances of the two Mei brothers in their previous lives hadn’t changed much, but there was a hint of steadiness in their brows, and their spiritual energy was far greater than before.

     “I know your mind is affected, but your spiritual flow must not be disturbed along with it. I have just seen your younger self come into this world. If the fight is lost this time, you’ll lose face in front of yourself. Quickly snap out of it.”

     “...”

     Xue Meng was no longer the reckless and ignorant young man from before. He knew Mei Hanxue was right, so even though he was reluctant, he took a deep breath, turned his gaze away from Chu Wanning, and looked back at Taxian-Jun.

     “Who are you?” Taxian-Jun narrowed his eyes dangerously in the middle of the array. “Are you looking for death?”

     Mei Hanxue was startled. “What’s going on? He doesn’t seem to recognize us.”

     Chu Wanning took a deep breath and said, “He has completely lost his consciousness. Now, he will recognize no one.”

     Xue Meng: “...”

     If it could be said that after only seeing Chu Wanning, his mind churned, then at this moment, when he heard that familiar voice again—the voice that could only be heard in his dreams later—Xue Meng could no longer hold back the tears that slowly filled his eyes.

     How many years had passed?

     He didn’t dare to look back on those years. He was afraid that the slightest recollection would cause his tears to fall uncontrollably.

     In fact, for him, it felt as if time passed very quickly yet very slowly. He still remembered the first year of Chu Wanning’s imprisonment, when it was unknown whether he was alive or dead at Sisheng Peak. Back then, he was running this way and that, all alone, begging for help. However, perhaps because he was too proud and arrogant in the past, almost no one in the cultivation world paid any attention to him.

     Later, a rebel army finally gathered, and he desperately hoped to rescue his old friend from the lair of demons, but everyone deemed him impulsive and selfish and so mocked and ridiculed him.

     During that time, Mei Hanxue was stationed with a group of troops elsewhere, instead of the front line, so he was alone and had no choice but to go up the mountain on his own.

     But what waited for him on the mountain? It was a Sisheng Peak where the things remained the same but the people had changed, a dying Emperor Taxian-Jun, and—the Red Lotus Pavilion, where Chu Wanning’s corpse beside the cold pond gradually faded away as Taxian-Jun died.

     Almost ten years.

     The person he had waited almost ten years for had become a corpse—a corpse that crumbled to ashes right in front of him.

     The pillar supporting him had disappeared, and all he could do was kneel in the drifting ashes and cry like a helpless child.

     He was too late. He didn’t even touch the corner of his revered master’s sleeve.

     He could truly no longer hear Chu Wanning call out to him: “Xue Meng.”

     And later, things became even more terrifying.

     Taxian-Jun returned from the dead, Shi Mingjing revealed his fangs, and they began a massacre. The world was reduced to a ghost land. For Xue Meng, all of his old friends had either died or changed. When the jar of Du Kang wine buried under the osmanthus tree since he was a teenager was dug up, who could drink it with him?

     So in truth, Xue Meng didn’t even know the magnitude of effort he had to put in to take his first glance away from Chu Wanning after more than ten years.

     “I’m finally not too late this time.” Xue Meng said, “Shizun, I’m here to help you.”

     At this moment, the other world's Xue Meng arrived with the two other Mei brothers. Although they knew they might meet some incredible people after the Gate of Time, Space, Life, and Death was opened, the sudden appearance of themselves more than ten years in the future was still quite the shock to all three young men.

     Young Xue Meng said, “You… you…?!”

     Xue Meng of the previous life only glanced at him, with envy and sadness in his eyes, then laughed softly and said, “I almost forgot. So, it turns out this is what I was like more than ten years ago.”

     “...”

     “How foolish.”

     Young Xue Meng was labeled a fool by himself out of nowhere. Before he could react, Emperor Taxian-Jun’s ball of fire already shot towards his back—

     Xue Meng sidestepped. He originally didn’t want to use Xuehuang, but at this moment, he reflexively drew out the holy weapon, barely parrying the attack, and then staggered back a few steps. After finally managing to stabilize himself, he shouted angrily and rushed towards Taxian-Jun, but was stopped by a sword flowing with blue light.

     Mei Hánxue of the previous life stood in front of him with narrowed eyes. “Since we are here, there is no need for you to take action.”

     Mei Hanxue also said to himself from ten years in the past with a smile, “The trouble this mortal world has caused will naturally be resolved by the people of this mortal world. There’s no need for you to come along. Mei-xianjun is in his prime; if surrounded by such deep bitterness and resentment in the prime of life, the rest of your life will be as pallid as mine. That wouldn’t be good.”

     Young Mei Hanxue: “...”

     At this moment, the array the three people had used to trap Taxian-Jun suddenly shook violently. Mei Hanxue stopped teasing his former self and immediately turned around and said sternly, “Not good! His strength is much greater than before!”

     Chu Wanning said, “A new core has been melted into his body.”

     “!”

     Xue Meng cast a spell with all his might, the meridians on his hands bulging as he gritted his teeth and said, “I’m afraid the period of time we can hold out for may be shorter than we expected. Shizun, you have to go back as soon as possible and kill Hua Binan!”

     Before Chu Wanning could respond, the younger Xue Meng asked, “Kill Hua Binan? Why kill Hua Binan and not this… this…”

     For a moment, he didn’t know whether to call him Emperor Taxian-Jun, Mo Ran, or something else.

     Xue Meng glanced at his younger self. “This is a puppet made from a corpse. It cannot be killed. But once the man manipulating him dies, he will soon follow and turn to ashes. And—” He paused, reluctantly raising one hand, and a fiery red array immediately lit up under the younger Xue Meng’s feet.

     “It’s dangerous here. You’re still young and shouldn’t suffer like this. Go, all of you. Return to the army attacking the mountain.”

     “No! I don’t want to! Why are you—hey!”

     Although the younger Xue Meng struggled with all his might, he, like the Mei brothers, was quickly enveloped by a wave of spiritual butterflies released from the light array.

     Right after he sent the three young ones away, he heard a crisp “crack.” Mei Hanxue’s expression changed. “The array is about to break, Ziming!”

     Xue Meng suddenly unleashed all the spiritual power in his body towards Emperor Taxian-Jun. His entire body trembled as if he was trying to restrain a vicious beast that was eager to break through the sky, and the rope around the beast’s neck was about to break.

     “Shizun, go—!”

     Without Xue Meng having to say anything else, Chu Wanning leaped into the air, his eyebrows knitted as he glanced at Xue Meng. “I’ll be back soon. Don’t get hurt.”

     “I should be the one saying this to Shizun.” Xue Meng gritted his teeth and said, “Don’t worry. This disciple is no longer the same person I was before. I can hold on.”

     He could hold on.

     He had been holding on so long in this world that it had become a habit, and the habit, in turn, kept him going. He survived so many days without seeing the light of day, and now that he met his master again, there was no reason why he couldn’t hold on.

     Chu Wanning sighed and said, “I’m sorry for leaving you alone all these years…”

     His voice still rang in his ears as he left.

     Xue Meng’s tears finally began to flow down his face.

     It wasn’t a pleasant appearance for a man in his forties to cry. Although he was obscured by the torrential rain, it couldn’t hide the slight trembling of his shoulders and the redness of his eyes.

     Taxian-Jun was going berserk within the array, and the light was like ice cracking and breaking apart in Heavenly Lake, revealing traces of danger within the fragments! Just as he was about to break out of the encirclement, a red light shot toward him and locked him firmly in place. Taxian-Jun became even more furious and raised a pair of blood-red eyes to stare in the direction of the red light.

     Xue Meng met Taxian-Jun’s eyes. “Give up. I won’t let him disappear in front of me a second time.”

     As he spoke, he exerted the entirety of his spiritual power, the veins in his neck throbbing and his eyes as hard as steel.

     “Shige, in the past, you have always surpassed me. Today, Shizun is by my side, and I don’t want to disappoint him, so… you can’t even think about winning against me!”

      Mei Hánxue reacted very quickly. He was already startled and frowned as he shouted, “Ziming! What are you doing?!”

     There was a loud bang, and a fiery red light emerged behind Xue Meng. He shouted loudly and pushed his palms together as flames rushed toward Emperor Taxian-Jun along the array. In an instant, it was like thousands of arrows had pierced his heart, and there were scattered chains in all directions, trapping Taxian-Jun’s entire body!

     “Ugh—!”

     Taxian-Jun’s eyes were bloodshot, and he raised his head with a muffled groan. The wild current of spiritual energy surrounding him suddenly weakened by more than half. His dead black eyes slowly turned and stared at Xue Meng silently like a resentful ghost, black blood dripping from the corners of his mouth.

     There was a scar on the left side of his chest, close to his heart.

     This was the place that had once been pierced by Xue Meng’s Longcheng sword.

     Now, hundreds more of these forbidden spell strips created by Xue Meng stabbed into his body, and the sharpest one had pierced through his chest again in the same place as before.

     Empty, bloody holes…

     Mei Hanxue was shocked and anxious. “Stop now. You’re already harnessing the power of your spiritual core. If you go on like this, your spiritual core will…”

     “You talk too much!” Xue Meng interrupted him sternly.

     He stared at Taxian-Jun. The former shidi stared at his shixiong, the once-assassin staring at the tyrant.

     The former brothers stared at each other, and all the years of life and death were written off with one stroke. Although Xue Meng’s expression was terrible, his eyes once again lit up with the fiery brilliance that belonged to the Son of the Phoenix back then.

     “Everything I, Xue Meng, have learned in my life will be for today’s battle.”

     Mei Hanxue: “...”

     As soon as these words fell, a phoenix broke through the clouds in an instant, and blazing flames shot into the sky!

     In the raging fire, it seemed as if a young man in silver-blue light armor and a ponytail adorned with gold could be seen from long ago, yelling and declaring resoundingly:

     “I want to take first place in the Spiritual Mountain Competition!”

     “Hmph! I will have something like those holy weapons sooner or later! What’s so rare about it?!”

      “In fifty years—no, in just thirty years, I will absolutely have the ability for Sisheng Peak to flourish in my hands, and make it a powerful force that can shake the nine provinces!”

     His eyebrows and eyes were as tender as new buds, his voice as fresh and crisp as a peach. The young man had no constraints, no fear of the heavens, earth, or fate, and declared his ambitions loudly.

     The firelight illuminated almost half of the sky above Sisheng Peak. So much of yesterday was burnt to ashes and embers…

     Everything was fractured, and only the current Xue Ziming was left.

     His eyes were deep and steady as he said, “I don’t want success and fame; I only want people to be as they were before.”