Chapter 3

Meng Ruji stood there in a daze until the cold wind and snow numbed her entire body. Realizing she couldn’t stay any longer, she knew she had to drag the boy away.

This was still Snow Mirror Cliff on Hengxu Mountain. Although she didn’t know how long she had been asleep, Hengxu Mountain remained unchanged. Her guardians and disciples were still there. Her seal had been broken, but perhaps it was merely a loophole that had been exploited...

Now, without any spiritual power, Meng Ruji couldn’t harm the boy. Once she got down the mountain, she would find someone with spiritual power. She would find a helper, cut open this little thief, and take back the inner elixir!

As these thoughts raced through her mind, Meng Ruji struggled to lift the boy and began walking towards the only path down the mountain.

Suddenly!

A dazzling white light appeared in the sky, rushing straight towards Snow Mirror Cliff like a meteor.

Meng Ruji noticed that the light was filled with spiritual energy and guessed it must be a great immortal who had achieved enlightenment and noticed the strange phenomenon in the world, rushing here.

She wasn’t particularly nervous. Before sealing herself, though she sought the title of "Demon King," her relationship with the immortal sects had been decent.

Back then, she was famous for employing people regardless of their birth. Hengxu Mountain wasn’t just home to demons; there were also immortals.

When it came to eliminating evil and slaying villains, Hengxu Mountain's philosophy was in harmony with various immortal and demon sects. As a result, Meng Ruji had good relations with several immortal sect leaders and elders.

Even now, though uncertain how much time had passed, Meng Ruji believed that her character wouldn’t provoke the hostility of the immortals.

As she pondered, the white light stopped above Snow Mirror Cliff. As the figure descended, the breeze blew, turning the black snowflakes white.

In the slightly dazzling light, a white-clothed immortal floated down with the wind and landed on Snow Mirror Cliff, then...

staggered.

He almost fell.

Meng Ruji was a bit stunned.

The tall, thin immortal in white steadied himself on the platform of Snow Mirror Cliff. He had a handsome face, but unlike other immortals, his expression wasn’t cold and indifferent. Instead, he looked anxious, and the concern in his eyes was unmistakable.

"Meng Ruji!"

The immortal in white quickly surveyed the surroundings on Snow Mirror Cliff, then shouted. But as soon as he did, he noticed Meng Ruji carrying the black-clothed boy.

Meng Ruji, dazed by his shout, blinked and stood there, staring at the white-clothed immortal in confusion.

The immortal in white also stared at her, his eyes filled with excitement...

as if seeing her open her eyes had left him both surprised and shocked: "You..."

His lips trembled as he uttered the word, then fell silent again. He stared at Meng Ruji’s face with tears in his eyes.

Um...

but...

"That..."

Compared to the immortal’s excitement, Meng Ruji felt what she was about to say might be a bit rude:

"Who are you...?"

This "Who are you?" seemed to strike the white-clothed immortal like a bolt of lightning, causing him to stagger back a step.

"You don’t remember me? You don’t remember me!?"

He asked twice in a row, and the pure spiritual energy around him suddenly became a little chaotic.

Consumed by his own emotions, he continued to speak loudly:

"For the past eight hundred years, I’ve missed you every day, like a madman! I rushed here as soon as I saw your seal was broken! I don’t know if you broke the seal yourself or if someone coveted you, but I worried all the way! And now! You don’t remember me! You’ve forgotten everything!"

"Um..."

Seeing how confidently the visitor spoke, Meng Ruji began to wonder if she had injured her brain and forgotten some very important people and events. But as she lightly recalled, everything from her past—people, places, and moments—came back to her clearly and logically.

She remembered when she did certain things, who she met, what hardships she endured, and what goals she ultimately achieved. Everything that had impacted her life was intact in her memory.

But the person in front of her... From what he said, it seemed as though...

Meng Ruji and this man had a relationship in the past?

It must have been quite deep...

At least it was deep for this immortal...

Yet Meng Ruji searched through all her memories and couldn’t recall ever meeting him.

Who is he...

"Who is he?" Before Meng Ruji could ask, the immortal in white grew angry first, pointing at the black-clothed boy she was carrying and harshly questioning him.

Meng Ruji was startled and instinctively looked at the boy she was carrying: "I... don’t know."

"Why are you in rags!"

Meng Ruji looked down at herself and then at the boy again: "Are you alright?"

"You and him..."

Meng Ruji was at a loss for words: "Wait a minute, don’t get me wrong, I just woke up, and I don’t know more than you do."

The immortal fell silent, and jealousy flashed across his face.

Meng Ruji found it absurd. Why should she explain her relationship with one stranger to another stranger she had never met?

Despite her thoughts, Meng Ruji remained polite. After all, she knew she couldn’t possibly defeat this immortal now. He came from an unknown place and seemed strange. It was inconvenient for her to reveal that she no longer had her inner elixir.

"Why don’t you introduce yourself first? I may have just woken up, and my brain isn’t working well..."

"Ye Chuan," he said loudly.

Meng Ruji pursed her lips and asked cautiously: "Which Chuan?"

Ye Chuan’s face suddenly darkened, and the aura around him became more chaotic and foreboding.

Seeing this, Meng Ruji felt a chill in her heart.

She finally realized what was wrong with him. This aura clearly belonged to someone who was possessed!

Meng Ruji restrained her emotions and didn’t speak directly. She just carried the boy and took two steps back. She glanced around, realizing there was no way out on the platform at Snow Mirror Cliff. The only path down the mountain was blocked by the man in front of her.

Without her inner elixir or spiritual power, she couldn’t gauge his strength, nor could she send a distress signal to others in Hengxu Mountain.

She calmed herself and decided to placate him first.

"Just now you mentioned eight hundred years... Have I really been asleep for eight hundred years? Maybe my mind is a bit muddled, and I can’t remember right now. Could you wait for me to go down the mountain and return to my residence so I can think things through?"

"No..." After a long silence, Ye Chuan spoke, "You just forgot."

His expression was one of utter disbelief after a great shock.

"You just forgot."

Chaos energy condensed around him, and dark clouds began to gather in the sky from all directions.

Meng Ruji felt increasingly uneasy.

"No, no, no, I didn’t forget." She started to make up stories, "Ye Chuan, right? I remember now! It’s been eight hundred years; you’ve changed... become more handsome..."

Thunder roared in the dark clouds above. Ye Chuan stared at Meng Ruji, his face alternating between black and white.

"Then tell me, what is my name?"

Meng Ruji looked up at the sky full of dark clouds, her heart pounding, and responded quickly: "Ye Chuan, of course. What else could it be?" She guessed boldly, "Chuan must be... the Chuan of mountains and rivers... right?"

"I’m asking about my courtesy name."

"Oh, your courtesy name..."

Meng Ruji didn’t dare to be bold this time.

A courtesy name is a name that represents virtue, given after reaching adulthood. Meng Ruji didn’t originally have a name. When she was human, she was the daughter of a small farmer. People politely called her the Meng family girl, and those close to her only used her nickname, Shengsheng.

Later, by chance, she became famous in the martial arts world and gave herself the courtesy name Ruji, meaning that life is like a guest, and one should live in the present.

And this Ye Chuan...

Who knows what interpretation he might have given to his "Chuan" character.

Dahe?

Ye Dahe?

No way!

Meng Ruji was so anxious that she broke into a sweat, feeling as though she had been stuck in an examination room for three days, unable to write a single word.

Seeing that she couldn’t answer, Ye Chuan’s aura darkened completely, thunder roared in the sky, and a bolt of lightning streaked through the air!

Meng Ruji’s pupils shrank, and in a split second, she instinctively threw the boy to the ground and then threw herself onto his abdomen.

Dantian!

The inner elixir is in the dantian!

As long as she could bite out the inner elixir, the lightning wouldn’t kill her!

Desperate to survive, Meng Ruji opened her mouth and bit down hard on the boy’s stomach, but the body that was previously invulnerable to swords and spears couldn’t be harmed by her teeth now.

So, in the midst of the thunderous roar, the world spun, and Meng Ruji died in an undignified posture, biting someone’s abdomen. At least, at that moment, she thought she was dead.

It’s so unfair!

She had just woken up from an 800-year sleep, had her inner elixir stolen, and then met a madman! First, she was beaten, and then struck by lightning!

If she had known that after sealing herself, she would encounter such strange, evil creatures upon waking, she might as well have cut off her meridians and died 800 years ago!

That would have been less painful.

Meng Ruji listened to the thunder’s roar, feeling the pain of the lightning striking her body. While accepting her fate, she silently complained in her heart.

But in the last moments, perhaps it was an illusion, she vaguely felt the boy’s body curl up slightly. He protected her head with his hands, then turned sideways, shielding her in his arms as if she were a child.

In his embrace, she smelled blood and felt a burning warmth unlike anything she had ever known...

It was so warm that even the thunder seemed quieter.

Meng Ruji once heard that before a person dies, the brain, which has worked for the body all its life, creates an illusion, blurring the pain of death and making one think they have found warmth and comfort.

Meng Ruji believed that the warmth she felt at this moment was her mind’s way of comforting her in her final moments...

As a human and half-demon, she had experienced many ups and downs in life and weathered countless storms, but in the end, she died at the hands of a madman.

It was unconventional, but in a way, it made sense.

Meng Ruji gave up and calmly accepted the impermanence of life...

After the familiar silence,

Meng Ruji opened her eyes.

She opened her eyes again.

As with every time she had awakened in her life, her mind was confused for a moment, then slowly cleared and regained its rationality.

Am I dead?

Meng Ruji stared blankly at the foggy night sky. Her nose, having regained its senses, first caught the scent of damp earth, and then she heard the sound of trickling water nearby.

Meng Ruji turned her head while lying down, feeling the damp gravel against her cheek as she lay on the ground. She saw a small river not far away, its ripples lapping gently against the shore, with a strange blue light flickering in the water.

Meng Ruji blinked, then sat up, following the river’s flow with her eyes. As she looked downstream, Meng Ruji was stunned.

The river flowed into the distance but then suddenly arched back towards the sky, like a ribbon of dim light winding its way into the endless night. The night sky was painted with a hazy hue.

The river had drawn a "Milky Way" in the sky, but in the end, all the blue light sank into the blackness of the night, returning to tranquility.

This river didn’t look like anything from the human world.

So, am I really dead?

Is this the legendary underworld?

It’s actually not so bad.

Meng Ruji thought as she tried to stand, using her hands for support. But as she did, she felt something different beneath her...

It was a chest.

A man's solid chest.

Meng Ruji suddenly looked down...

Why was this little thief who stole the elixir still beside her?

Was he struck down by lightning along with her?

What terrible luck!

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