Si Tu Nan offered a wry smile, reaching for his wine flask only to find it drained. With a flourish, he produced a large clay jar from his enchanted pouch, cracking the seal and taking a deep draught. Wine dribbled down his chin as he lowered the jar, sighing deeply. “Good fortune that this old dog still has some tricks! I devised a desperate measure to fight this poison. By coupling with female cultivators in… a certain way… I channelled their vital essence, ensuring my own cultivation wouldn’t dissipate. The poison remains trapped in a state of perpetual… arousal. It’s the only reason I’ve lasted this long.”

A glacial frost seized Wang Lin’s eyes, a potent killing intent blooming within them. He lifted his gaze to the star-strewn expanse above, focusing on the accursed Fengluan Star that had brought Si Tu Nan to such a state. His desire for vengeance was a storm gathering force. “Are there any Soul Rending cultivators upon that Fengluan Star?” he asked, his voice low and measured.

Si Tu Nan shook his head. “None who have achieved Soul Rending. At most, Mid-stage Nether Nirvana, and even those are scarce. No Late Stage or Perfected cultivators reside there. However… Fengluan Star teems with Nether Nirvana cultivators. Add to that the mercenary allies they’ve hired, and you’re looking at a dozen or more.”

A cold smirk played upon Wang Lin’s lips. He nodded slowly. “This slight demands repayment. But above all, we must find a way to purge this poison from your system.”

Si Tu Nan’s eyes gleamed. “I have given that much thought. From what I have learned, the women of Fengluan Star possess only the venom, not the cure. The true antidote, I suspect, lies within the Immortal Realm. We need only await the next opening of the Rain Immortal Realm to enter. There, we might find what we seek.”

“The Immortal Realm?” Wang Lin’s brow furrowed. “Was this poison concocted in the Rain Immortal Realm, then?”

Si Tu Nan nodded. “The ancient texts I consulted record it so. Brewed in the Rain Immortal Realm.”

Wang Lin fell silent, his mind racing. He still possessed the Immortal Jade Tower given to him by Zhou Yi. Within it lay the corpse of Immortal Monarch Qing Shuang, who had once ruled over the Rain Immortal Realm.

“Echoes of the past suggest that within the most enigmatic chamber of the Demon Spirit Land, we might find the legacy of Qing Lin, the most powerful Immortal Emperor to ever live. Qing Lin was Qing Shuang’s father. Perhaps he holds the key to his daughter’s revival. Should Qing Shuang be restored, this paltry poison would be no match for her power.” Wang Lin’s eyes shone with resolve as he looked at Si Tu Nan. “Perhaps we need not venture into the Rain Immortal Realm for a cure.”

He then recounted all that he had seen and experienced within the Demon Spirit Land, sharing his analysis with Si Tu Nan.

As Si Tu Nan listened, his eyes began to burn with an unusual light. When Wang Lin had finished, he remained lost in thought for a moment before erupting with a hearty laugh. “Sounds promising! I’ll wager my fortunes on it! Regardless, I intended to accompany you to the Demon Spirit Land anyway. As it stands, success here would be to kill two birds with one stone.”

“As for the wenches of Fengluan Star, they will not escape their fate,” Wang Lin declared, his voice a low growl. His nature was to leave well enough alone, but Fengluan Star’s actions against Si Tu Nan had crossed a line.

They continued to speak and drink on the mountain peak until the first light of dawn. Si Tu Nan drained the last jar of wine from his pouch, scrutinizing Wang Lin with a sly grin. “I say, Little Lin… has that block of wood you call a heart finally begun to bloom?”

Wang Lin paused, instinctively touching his nose, unsure of what Si Tu Nan was implying.

“Don’t feign ignorance! You came to this Water Spirit Star for those two lasses, or I’m a fool!” Si Tu Nan’s expression was knowing. “I had thought to abduct them for you as handmaidens, but it seems you moved faster than I did, arriving on the Water Spirit Star. First come, first serve, they say. I must still chide you, though. You’re not getting any younger; why play these games of courtship? If I were you, I’d simply take them by force. By the time the rice is cooked, what choice do they have but to like it? Even if they don’t, they’ll learn to!”

Si Tu Nan snorted. “Back when I was still the Vermillion Bird Son, I did this countless times! If I wanted something, I took it! Who would dare say no?”

Wang Lin offered a wry smile. He knew Si Tu Nan too well to doubt his words. The man was capable of such things. Clearing his throat, Wang Lin shook his head. “I have no such designs upon those girls. One of them shares a certain affinity with me, but not in the way of lovers.” As he said this, his face darkened slightly as he thought of Li Muwan, still sealed in the coffin, and Liu Mei, who stirred such conflicting emotions within him, even a sting of pain.

“Liu Mei is not dead…” Wang Lin murmured, staring at the heavens. He had sensed this ever since returning to the Alliance Star System – a gut feeling, a vague sense of things to come, honed by over a thousand years of cultivation and the attainment of the Second Step.

Si Tu Nan saw the deep sorrow hidden within Wang Lin’s eyes and sighed inwardly. He knew something of the tale of Wang Lin and Li Muwan, which was why he had gone to such lengths to find suitable female cultivators, hoping to pull Wang Lin from his grief. He could not know that Wang Lin’s wounds had been reopened by Liu Mei, leaving behind scars upon his soul that would never fade.

Wang Lin’s love life was a tragic one. Li Muwan’s passing had taught him the value of cherishing, but by the time he understood, the one he wanted to cherish was already gone. A life spent staring at the stars, alone and lonely, was a path understood by few. And Liu Mei’s betrayal had left Wang Lin with a burning pain that had taken him a century to subdue.

Grasping the last jar of wine, Wang Lin took a large gulp and slammed it down with a thud. He laughed heartily. “Si Tu, you once taught me that the world of cultivation is a cruel one, where the weak are preyed upon by the strong. One wrong step leads to ruin. To survive, one must be ruthless and venomous. Only by becoming savage can one live!”

“These past thirteen hundred years of cultivation, I, Wang Lin, have learned to be ruthless, learned to kill, and learned to be alone. But I have lost so much… I lost my parents, my clan, my love, my child, my joy, everything! Sometimes I ask myself, what is it that I, Wang Lin, am chasing?”

Si Tu Nan remained silent, gazing at Wang Lin, his mouth agape. The words of this fierce cultivator shook him to his core.

“When my parents died, I was consumed by grief and rage, but powerless to change it. I could only turn my pain into a demonic flame, waiting for the day I could unleash it! When Li Muwan died, I could not defy fate or pull her back from the wheel of reincarnation. I could only watch as she aged and faded away… You do not know that Liu Mei, through a twist of fate, bore my child, but gifted me with an infant saturated with hundreds of years of resentment, an embodiment of hatred for its father! All of this stems from my cultivation. Had I never cultivated, I would be dust by now, but I also wouldn’t have endured so many tragic moments…” Wang Lin’s expression was utterly grief-stricken. He could share these things with no one else. Only one man existed who would allow him to share his pains of a thousand years – only Si Tu, who had seen him grow from a naive youth into a cultivator, who had guided him onto the path of cultivation, and who had brought him away from Vermilion Bird Star.

Si Tu Nan took up a wine jar in silence and handed it to Wang Lin.

Wang Lin accepted it and drank deeply. He laughed again, “A cultivator cannot even find solace in drink.” His laughter echoed, but it clearly contained an unspeakable sorrow.

“If you wish to be drunk, I shall make you drunk,” Si Tu Nan declared, slapping his storage pouch. Instantly, he produced a purple jade bottle and placed it on the table. “This wine was brewed in the Immortal Realm. Little remains of it. I acquired it by chance. It will not increase your cultivation, but a single drop will allow you to know the true feeling of drunkenness that mortals experience.” Si Tu Nan nudged the bottle forward. “Wang Lin, with me here, you can be drunk for once.”

Wang Lin seized the bottle without looking and took a deep gulp, pouring the Immortal liquid into his mouth. As the Immortal wine passed his lips, a wave of bitterness arose and turned into a flow of energy that spread through his entire being.

“Cultivation, cultivation… Si Tu, do you know that I once returned the bones of an old friend to his village, and I heard the following there?” Wang Lin held the bottle and drank again, his eyes filled with suffering.

“The apricot tree blooms with white flowers. Maidens should not be given to the houses of Taoists. Only a few years ago, Second Brother ascended the mountain, and by the end of the year, First Brother’s bones lay cold. A maiden’s cries accompany the dead, yet she treats the coffin as her own home… The apricot tree blooms with white flowers. Children should not look upon the houses of Taoists. If you ask me how old I am, I will say I have no fate with the Tao. A dog barks, a cat scratches, and they scare the Taoist back to his home!”

The nursery rhyme escaped Wang Lin’s lips with a tinge of sorrow, a hint of helplessness from more than a thousand years of cultivation and understanding, falling on Si Tu Nan’s ears and making his hands tremble.

“More than a thousand years of cultivation, so many near-death experiences in exchange for this cultivation. Was it all worth it… I dare not ask myself, I dare not… I dare not think of the happiness I could have had if I had not cultivated… Because I have already embarked on the life of a cultivator. One step in, and there is no retreat. Too many things make retreat impossible, and one can only continue on. If the heart wavers, then there can be no more cultivation. Si Tu, I have a son who you have never met. His name is Wang Ping. I chose that name to mean that he should be safe and happy… To never cultivate… I shall accompany him for the rest of his life. That child has asked me three times why I will not let him cultivate… Why… Because he cannot cultivate, and also because I do not want him to become like me.” Wang Lin held the wine glass and downed it, and his head began to spin. The drunkenness of his childhood came over him, when he had secretly taken a sip of his father’s old wine.

“What I am chasing, no one can understand, and no one can know. Only I understand what it is I’m chasing…” Wang Lin swayed, drunk at last.