The lamp was lit in the night.

Wax dripped from the candle.

Chen Changsheng glanced at his Soul Flame. It didn’t seem to have many days left.

He took out that Sutra of Rebirth and began to read it.

This was the first time he was seriously looking at this Sutra of Rebirth since Manyue gave it to him.

It was just a book, neither too big nor too small, yet it consumed countless millennia of accumulation and was stained with blood and Karma.

Chen Changsheng read by the candlelight.

He turned page after page, but the further he went, the stranger it felt.

If the Sutra of Rebirth he had found earlier in Southern Garden was written from a human perspective, then the one in Chen Changsheng’s hands followed the laws of the heavens.

Chen Changsheng sat up straight, studying it carefully.

He remained seated like this from the middle of the night until dawn.

Chen Changsheng rubbed his temples and carefully tucked the Sutra of Rebirth into his robes.

“You don’t seem the least bit surprised,” Manyue’s voice came from beside him.

Chen Changsheng turned to look and said, “I had some idea back then already. Though I was surprised, perhaps it just wasn’t obvious.”

He looked at Manyue and asked, “Seems like you’ve read this Sutra of Rebirth yourself?”

Manyue shook her head. “I wanted to, but I couldn’t open it. My very existence is tied to this book too closely. Though… I can probably guess what this book contains.”

“What does Miss Manyue think it is?”

“The Great Dao of the Cycle of Reincarnation, the Path of Reincarnation. Am I right?”

Chen Changsheng nodded. “Exactly.”

By now, this Sutra of Rebirth was no longer merely a practice scripture. It was a Great Dao leading straight to the heavens.

Chen Changsheng looked at Manyue and said, “Yu Xuan really thought of everything.”

Manyue seemed slightly confused by Chen Changsheng’s gaze.

Chen Changsheng asked, “Miss Manyue, you don’t have any plans for what comes after, do you?”

Manyue shook her head. “I have nowhere else to go.”

Chen Changsheng said, “I ask for Miss Manyue’s help to forge a realm of the Dark Abyss, an Underworld. Would Miss Manyue be willing?”

Manyue paused. “What do you mean?”

“The Six Paths of Reincarnation, forming its own realm, becoming the Underworld Palace. What do you think?”

When Chen Changsheng spoke like this, Manyue was visibly stunned.

“You are defying the heavens!”

“The workings of fate are in chaos, the Disrupted Providence. Now is our chance.”

Chen Changsheng looked at Manyue. “And this matter… I am determined to see it through.”

This was something he absolutely must do.

It concerned the Mayfly Curse. It concerned whether he could truly live out one full life.

It was an obsession Chen Changsheng couldn’t let go of.

Even at the cost of his life and cultivation, he had to try.

……

Chen Changsheng decided to leave Qingshan City early.

He told Ruyi and Ping’an about his departure.

Ruyi asked, “How long will you be gone?”

“A long time.”

“But Ruyi doesn’t want to hear ‘a long time’.”

“Quickly? Maybe a few years. Slowly? Perhaps over a dozen years.”

When Ping’an heard this, he too was startled.

“Where is Mr. Chen going? That long?”

Chen Changsheng never did tell the two of them where he was going. Because he himself didn’t know where his chance lay.

Forging the Underworld Palace was never an easy task.

Ruyi stayed angry for a long time. She didn’t want to speak to Chen Changsheng.

Sitting under the eaves, her eyes unaccountably turned red.

She felt she had been weak-willed. Wiping away tears, she asked,

“Won’t you stay?”

Chen Changsheng felt helpless. He didn’t answer that question.

“You liar…”

Ruyi bit her lip as this single sentence escaped her. Then she ran back into the house and buried herself in the bedding.

As if that could muffle her crying.

Ping’an could only try to slowly comfort his Elder Sister.

Chen Changsheng in the courtyard heavighed repeatedly.

If he had any other choice, he wouldn’t want to leave either.

But this was something that had to be done.

After leaving the small courtyard, Chen Changsheng went to the house across the street.

After many days, he once again knocked on the gate of this courtyard.

It was Yu Hongjin who opened the door.

Yu Hongjin glanced at him, then invited Chen Changsheng into the courtyard.

When Yun Xiang saw Chen Changsheng in the yard, she paused.

Coming downstairs, she said to the Maid beside her, “Zhishu, take Hong Jin upstairs to play.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Zhishu agreed, then walked over beside Yu Hongjin.

“Little Miss, come with me.”

Yu Hongjin blinked. “Can’t I listen?”

Yun Xiang looked at her. “Hong Jin will get her palms hit if she doesn’t behave.”

“Oh…”

Yu Hongjin agreed reluctantly but still followed Zhishu away.

The two of them sat at the stone table in the courtyard.

Yun Xiang brewed tea. The two barely acknowledged one another. Silence hung over the table for a long moment.

Not until the tea was brought up and Chen Changsheng took a sip did he speak. “I need to make a long journey, a distant place.”

Yun Xiang’s hand holding the teapot froze slightly.

She slowly set the pot down and looked up. “For how long?”

“Likely longer than before… ever before,” Chen Changsheng said.

Yun Xiang fell silent. Suddenly, she felt irritable and unsettled.

A faint wisp of steam rose from the teacup.

Yun Xiang took a sip but found the tea had somehow turned cold. She heated it up again.

But this time she became flustered.

“Clatter!”

Accidentally, she knocked the teapot off the table.

It shattered on the ground.

Yun Xiang took a breath, then bent to pick up the pieces.

“Miss Yun.”

Chen Changsheng spoke, but Yun Xiang didn’t react.

“Miss Yun?”

Yun Xiang wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. Breathing deeply, she finally looked up. “It’s nothing…”

But her reddened eyes couldn’t be hidden.

Yun Xiang stood up hurriedly. “Mr. Chen, if you have business to attend to, please go. Yun Xiang isn’t feeling very well, I won’t see you out…”

Chen Changsheng opened his mouth, thought for a moment, then stood and walked towards the gate.

Reaching the door, he said, “The road ahead for me is treacherous and distant. My return… may never come. Please take care of yourself, Miss Yun.”

Yun Xiang didn’t dare look back at him.

Not until Chen Changsheng walked out of the gate.

She nearly fainted then.

Yun Xiang spun around and ran towards the entrance. Her gaze locked onto Chen Changsheng walking down the lane.

“Chen Changsheng!!”

Yun Xiang shouted.

Chen Changsheng paused in his steps and turned around.

The girl standing in the doorway was now weeping, her face streaked with tears.

“Please don’t go.”

Chen Changsheng stared at her. He remembered that all these years, Yun Xiang had never called him by his full name like this.

He felt dazed, as if only now realizing that young Maid had grown up. She was no longer that little girl.

Hot tears welled in Yun Xiang’s eyes. “It was so hard to finally find you…”

Chen Changsheng remained silent for a long while. Finally, he clasped his hands in salute.

“I have failed you, Miss Yun.”

“If fate allows our paths to cross again in the future, I will repay you then.”

Yun Xiang said nothing more. She stood in the doorway, silently watching the Green-Robed Gentleman walk away.

Deep down, she had understood long ago.

No matter how hard she tried, she could never keep pace with that Green-Robed Gentleman.

But even though she understood, her heart still felt pierced by a knife.