Leaving Maplewood City through the west gate, and following the main road for roughly seven or eight miles, one then turns left onto a small path. Before half an incense stick’s time has passed, the willow-lined banks of Green Willow River will come into view.

At this moment, the evening breeze caressed their faces, and the bright moon reflected in the shimmering waves, a scene of sparkling beauty.

As Jiang Wang emerged from the small path, he saw Ling He’s slender figure standing by the riverbank, like a silent tree.

“Let me see, let me see!” Zhao Rucheng darted in front of him, craning his neck. “I bet he’s hiding and crying, isn’t he?”

Ling He looked somewhat helpless. “Why did you guys come?”

“Your voice is even a little hoarse. You definitely cried!”

Just then, a rough voice boomed from the riverside bushes. “Zhao, sometimes you really need a beating, you know that?”

“Brother Hu, you’re here too?” Zhao Rucheng shrank his neck. Du Yefu was a boorish brute, truly one to strike at the slightest disagreement, and without any regard for his handsome face.

“I was already here, drinking.” Du Yefu said gruffly, his body radiating the stench of alcohol in the evening breeze. “Never thought he’d drag that fellow over here too. Bad luck.”

“Exactly! Why even bury him?” Zhao Rucheng chimed in. “That heartless beast should have been tossed straight into the river, let him float downstream, feed the fish and shrimp.”

Jiang Wang glanced in the direction Du Yefu had emerged from. “He’s buried there?”

“Third brother,” Ling He explained, mindful of Jiang Wang’s feelings, “I haven’t forgotten Pengju’s evil deeds, but I also remember his kindness. My family was poor, and I often went hungry. Pengju would always make excuses to have me teach him martial arts, keeping me from leaving until it was time for dinner. He deserved to die for his sins, but I couldn’t bear to see his corpse left to rot in the wilderness… Of course, you’ve been good to me too. That year, during the Qingniu Stronghold raid, you saved me…”

“Why are you saying all this?” Jiang Wang interrupted. “When my father was alive, he told me that adults are different from children. The first thing an adult must learn is to seek common ground while accepting differences. The childish attitude of ‘I don’t play with him, so you can’t play with him either’ is for children. You and Fang Pengju, and me, we each do our own thing. I won’t influence your deep affection for him, and you won’t influence my severing all ties with him.”

“That’s the right way to think about it,” Ling He said.

He looked around at the Green Willow River under the night sky. “I have a feeling as if this all happened yesterday. This place hasn’t changed much, but we are all different.”

“Nothing stays the same. The only constant in this world is change.” Zhao Rucheng delivered this profound line with a straight face, then shamelessly sidled up to Ling He. “Burying a person shouldn’t take this late. Did you two hug and cry your eyes out?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he leaped into the air, nimbly dodging the flying kick from Du Yefu.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, someone’s embarrassed into anger…” He managed to taunt before quickly cupping his hands in a bow. “My mistake, my mistake, Brother Hu.”

Du Yefu was already rubbing his fists together, chasing after him. “You’re not wrong. I’m about to hug you and cry with you.”

Watching the two playfully fighting, Ling He sighed. “But I believe that some things will never change.”

“I agree with half of what you said,” Jiang Wang replied.

Du Yefu and Zhao Rucheng’s “sparring” somehow evolved into a four-person free-for-all. Fists and feet flew, and everyone tripped each other up. Eventually, breathless and exhausted, they all burst into laughter and then into tears, embracing each other.

If anyone had passed by Green Willow River that night, they might have spread tales of water ghosts or other strange happenings.

The four brothers finally left Green Willow River side-by-side, leaving behind a place that held memories of youth and friendship.

No one spoke.

Only Zhao Rucheng muttered a last sentence, turning his head back:

“When you get to the other side, don’t harm your friends anymore. You dead ghost.”

…

Moonlight streamed onto the shimmering Green Willow River, and also poured down from the dilapidated roof of Still True Temple.

Perhaps it was the moonlight, but the faces of the two people speaking in the ruined temple appeared extremely pale.

One of them was a captivating woman, dressed in a scarlet robe. Her figure was exquisite, curvaceous and alluring. Especially the hint of dazzling white skin at the slightly open collar, captivating the eyes.

Her face was also too pale, which should have made her seem frail and sickly, but instead gave off a stunningly vibrant beauty. Perhaps it was because of her excessively bright red lips?

She sat casually on the dusty incense table, so beautiful yet so unconcerned.

She lightly smeared her red lips with her little finger, saying, “The beggar children in this temple have all died. It’s really distressing. How are we going to obtain the divine decree?”

Her voice seemed to circle the spiderwebs in the eaves before reaching its intended destination, sounding somewhat hollow.

“The life soul of a cultivator will suffice.”

The person speaking stood at the entrance. Unlike the woman in red, he seemed unwilling to even let half a foot enter the dirty, ruined temple. He held a handkerchief embroidered with plum blossoms to his mouth and nose.

“Oh, how easy you make it sound,” the woman in red said. “We have to be secretive just to kill a few mortals. Kill a cultivator? Are you afraid the Zhuang Country Dao Academy won’t come knocking?”

“Everyone in this city will die sooner or later.” As the man spoke, he frowned. “Did we have to choose this place to talk?”

The woman in red chuckled. “The world-renowned Zuo Guanglie fell here. The people of Zhuang Country have searched this place inside and out at least ten times. There’s nowhere cleaner around here.”

Speaking of Zuo Guanglie, she even closed her eyes slightly, revealing an intoxicated expression. Even her pale face quickly flushed red. “I seem to still be able to smell his manly scent~”

“Let’s get back to business.” The man interrupted her reverie without changing his expression. “Wei Quji isn’t easy to deal with, and now Dong A is here too. We must find the Dao child as soon as possible. Those Qin and Chu barbarians are fighting each other, disrupting the sacrificial ceremony at Still True Temple. I say, instead of secretly grabbing some mortals, it’s better to just sacrifice a cultivator. It’s simpler and more direct.”

“There’s more than one way to court death. Why do you insist on this?”

Perhaps displeased by the interruption of her reverie, the woman in red opened her beautiful eyes and withdrew her smile. “Before the Dao child manifests, you better know what it means to be discreet!”

The man seemed somewhat annoyed as well, covering his nose and saying, “Miaoyu! As if attacking Maplewood Dao Academy wasn’t your idea! Now it’s stirring up a storm in the city. If things go wrong, our grand plan will fall apart!”

“What do you understand? This world is too big, there are too many unexpected events! Who could have imagined that Zuo Guanglie would die just like that? And conveniently ruin our sacrificial plan. The bones at the bottom of the Forgotten River have been silent for too long! There can’t be any more accidents! Right now, Dong A is crucial to Maplewood City. We must determine his strength and bottom line! Some sacrifices are unavoidable. Besides…”

The woman in red, named Miaoyu, licked her lips. “Do you know that the beggars in this ruined temple haven’t all died? I smelled a familiar scent in Maplewood City Dao Academy…”

The filthy environment made the man even more impatient. “Is the life or death of a mere beggar worth my concern?”

Miaoyu simply stretched languidly, showing off her beautiful figure. “Fool.”

The man narrowed his eyes, also concealing a fleeting glimpse of desire in his eyes. “Don’t think that just because you’re nominally the Dao child’s woman, you can be so presumptuous. The cult has had many holy women over the millennia. When the Dao child appears, whether he wants you or acknowledges you remains to be seen.”

“Red faces, white bones, all emptiness and illusion. Can’t you see through it?”

“Hehehe.” The man turned and walked out of the temple. “Whether I can see through it or not, what does it matter? This is how it is.”

After a long time, in the quiet and dilapidated old temple, a tempting murmur finally sounded softly, spreading like moonlight.

“How could he not love me? How could he not want me? I’ve guarded for so many years, waited for so many years…”