“Qi Qi, second disciple of the Moon God in Central Province, greets Sage Guizhong!” Qi Qi cupped her fists and spoke with neither arrogance nor servility.
Sage Guizhong—this was Yun Wangshu’s Dao title.
Yun Wangshu gently nodded, her gaze brushing past the delicate and bright Qi Qi before shifting toward Lin Luochen.
Ten thousand years… seeing you again… I’ve missed you so much…
Longing swirled in her heart, but none of it showed on her face.
“Junior Lin Luochen greets Sage Guizhong!” Lin Luochen also bowed respectfully.
[Why is she here? Could some great fortune have emerged in this mountain range and drawn her attention?]
[What am I even thinking, feeling as if she came for me? After all that’s happened, how could I still entertain such a fantasy?]
Lin Luochen smiled bitterly to himself. He didn’t believe Yun Wangshu came for him. In her eyes, he was nothing more than someone dispensable.
He had long since awakened. There was no room left for delusion.
Yun Wangshu’s starlike eyes flickered with surprise. She hadn’t spoken, nor transmitted her voice.
Was that… his inner thoughts?
She found it hard to believe, but her unparalleled face remained cool and emotionless.
“Sage Guizhong…” Yun Wangshu gently swept aside the strands of hair at her chest, her beauty like a dream. “Call me Master.”
Qi Qi froze, turning to look at Lin Luochen, a hint of astonishment in her violet eyes.
Along the way, she had secretly listened to Lin Luochen’s inner thoughts. She knew his master and senior sisters had mistreated him. She also knew there was a junior brother named Ye Chen who had framed him.
But Qi Qi never expected Lin Luochen’s master to be Yun Wangshu, the woman praised as the most beautiful in the world.
“Sage Guizhong, we share no master-disciple bond. I’ve never formally acknowledged you as my master, nor have I learned any techniques from you,” Lin Luochen said calmly and cupped his fists again. “You’ve never cared whether I lived or died, nor about my cultivation. So, to me, the title of ‘Master’ feels unearned.”
Well said!
Qi Qi’s violet eyes sparkled. She almost blurted it out. Her heart felt immensely satisfied.
After listening to Lin Luochen’s thoughts earlier, she’d felt extremely stifled.
If it were her, and her master had been so indifferent to her survival, she’d have long since turned against them.
Yun Wangshu’s expression dimmed. Her starlike eyes lost their light for a moment before she looked steadily at Lin Luochen. Ignoring the others present, she softly said, “You’ve been reborn too, haven’t you?”
Lin Luochen’s body trembled slightly. He forced calm into his voice, “I don’t understand what you mean, Senior.”
[Could she have been reborn too?]
[That’s fine. Thoughts that shouldn’t exist should be strangled in the cradle. Start anew!]
Qi Qi stood to the side, completely stunned.
Wait… so you really do have feelings for your master?
You really wanted to… betray your master and ancestor?
Lin Luochen’s inner voice once again drifted into Yun Wangshu’s ears. A faint red flush rose on her delicate earlobes. She seemed to summon great courage and gently parted her lips.
“I know you were reborn. Will you give me… a chance to start over?”
The cold, emotionless Yun Wangshu—who had walked the path of detachment—actually said such words. If word got out, it would shake the entire world.
After all, as the most beautiful woman in existence, she had countless admirers. Even ancient monarchs had never received a glance from her.
So, the weight of her words could be imagined.
Seeing that Yun Wangshu had seen through his rebirth, Lin Luochen no longer pretended, “Since you know I was reborn, then why try to keep me from leaving?”
“Do you plan to treat me like in the previous life—accepting my care while remaining indifferent to me? I paved the path to the Emperor Realm for you, and you ignored whether I lived or died.”
“Having lived again, do I not even have the right to choose my own life?” His voice was cold, laced with disappointment and pain.
He bore the Supreme Bone, Dual Pupils, and once wielded the unmatched Desolate Ancient Sacred Body.
In this life, the Sacred Body was considered trash. But he carried a tenacious obsession. It was that obsession that pushed him to such heights.
In the past life, Lin Luochen endured Ye Chen’s slander, tried to explain himself to his senior sisters, and still cared for Yun Wangshu’s feelings.
Later, he broke through the curse and fully awakened the Sacred Body. All of it was to repay Yun Wangshu for recognizing his talent—to protect her and help her become an Emperor.
He held no grudges, asked no reasons. For her, he gave everything. In the end, he died on the battlefield among the stars, exchanging his life for peace through the ages.
But in this life, he was truly exhausted. He didn’t want to keep holding on to something that never belonged to him.
Because Yun Wangshu didn’t love him.
Because without love, everything was wrong.
Hearing Lin Luochen’s thoughts, Yun Wangshu felt a sharp pain in her heart, and her eyes filled with sorrow.
“Chen’er, you misunderstood me. In this life, I want to protect your path and lay down a road for you.”
“There’s no need. I don’t want to see your shadow on my path.” Lin Luochen shook his head and spoke heartlessly.
Yun Wangshu stared blankly at him, then slowly lowered her head. Her starlike eyes dimmed, “So… you’re blaming me?”
Lin Luochen closed his eyes, his handsome face tinged with pain. He turned away, unwilling to look at her.
His emotions were in turmoil.
Even now, Yun Wangshu’s sudden appearance shook him.
After all, she was the person he had loved deeply in his past life. Wanting to completely erase her from his heart in this life was too difficult.
Otherwise, how could he have endured betrayal and disappointment again and again, yet still given everything for her?
Facing away from Yun Wangshu, Lin Luochen exhaled a heavy breath, “I’ve never blamed you. You have your own path.”
“And I have mine. No one has the right to force others to walk a road they don’t want.”
“You walk the Dao of Detachment, incapable of forming attachments. So, in the face of right and wrong, you’ve always been indifferent.”
Yun Wangshu stared at his back. She wanted to say that she had carved his name into her Dao heart long ago and could never erase it.
But the words caught in her throat. In the end, she didn’t say it—because she knew Lin Luochen still held resentment toward her.
“I don’t blame you. Your path is right. You owe no one anything,” Lin Luochen looked at her, his eyes shimmering.
“Our bond in this mortal world is over. Let us meet again on the road to immortality.”
His voice was calm, with no trace of love.
“But in the end, I did abandon you. That was my mistake…” Yun Wangshu lowered her gaze.
“There is no right or wrong. Compared to that, if someone truly loves you, they’ll do everything for you without expecting anything in return.”
“But if you don’t love them, then everything they do is wrong.”
“Because without love, everything is wrong.”
“We owe each other nothing now. Our bond has ended. Let’s part ways here.”
Lin Luochen turned around resolutely. At this moment, his heart was clearer than ever. He knew exactly what he was doing—and he didn’t regret it.
“Wait!” Yun Wangshu called out.
“What else is there, Sage Guizhong?” Lin Luochen paused in his steps.
“In this life, I don’t want to leave any regrets. I’ll do my best to treat you well—not to make up for the past, but because…”
She wanted to say “because I love you,” but seeing Lin Luochen’s growing impatience, she swallowed the words.
So, she chose to bury this love deep in her heart, just like Lin Luochen had done in the past.
“If you insist on leaving today, then before you go, allow me to play one final tune… to send you off.”