Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

The sound of dripping water inside the cave became exceptionally clear, each sound like a drumbeat striking the heart.

The monk leaned against the pool, his newly grown face, though refined, revealed a deathly pallor, as if he had never seen the light of day.

He raised his hand, looked at his withered and thin fingers, and a hint of self-mockery flashed in his eyes.

Gu Xiang stared at him, the sword in his hand not sheathed, his righteous aura fluctuating on the blade.

"You said you were waiting for a change in circumstances," Gu Xiang's voice broke the silence. "Then what are you in your current state? A living person? A dead person? Or a monster that's neither human nor ghost?"

The monk smiled, but the smile made the new flesh on his face look somewhat stiff.

"Lord Gu speaks as directly as ever," the monk said slowly. "In the eyes of Heaven, the first emperor of the Great Zhou, the monk, died three hundred years ago. He died after his heart was ripped out, and then under the Xuan Yin's butcher's knife, his soul scattered and not even a trace remained."

He pointed to the hazy dome above his head, then to the vibrant medicinal field beneath his feet.

"This is the most yin place in Ghost Cry Valley, the boundary between life and death. I used the evil energy of Ghost Cry Valley accumulated over ten thousand years to obscure the secrets of heaven. And I used the spiritual herbs in this medicinal field to keep it afloat."

The monk's voice was low and deep, carrying an indescribable weariness.

"I deceived the heavens, I deceived Xuan Yin, and I deceived... her."

Su Qing snorted coldly, her eyes flashing with anger: "Lies? You call this a lie? You're just running away. Do you know that because of your death, that silly fox sat in the Star-Picking Tower for three hundred years? To protect the Great Zhou you left behind, she turned herself into a stone!"

The monk trembled slightly. He lowered his head, not daring to look into Su Qing's piercing eyes.

"I know," the monk's voice was hoarse. "I know everything."

"For the past three hundred years, although I have been unable to leave, the winds of Ghost Cry Valley occasionally bring news from the capital. I know she has put on a mask, I know she has become the Imperial Advisor, I know she... has suffered greatly."

"Since you know, why don't you go out?" Su Qing took a step closer. "Even if you have to crawl, you should at least crawl back to your senses and see her!"

The monk raised his head, his eyes swirling with gray mist, revealing a deep despair.

"We can't get out."

He stretched out his hand and pointed towards the cave entrance.

"The moment I step out of this Ghost Cry Valley, the moment I am exposed to the Heavenly Dao, I will be reduced to ashes in an instant. This body, pieced together with medicine and malevolent energy, simply cannot withstand the scrutiny of the Heavenly Dao."

"I am a person who clings to life," the monk said with a bitter laugh, "a lonely ghost who should have died long ago, but refuses to leave."

Gu Xiang frowned, looking at this once powerful man.

"Since life is so painful, why not just die?" Gu Xiang asked. "With your pride, you shouldn't stoop to such a wretched existence."

The monk remained silent for a long time.

He turned his head, his gaze piercing through the void, as if he saw that distant figure.

"Because I'm not willing to accept it."

The monk said softly.

"I'm not willing to die like this. I'm not willing to give her even one last hug in this life. I'm not willing that our ending is just that cold death notice."

"I want to live."

The monk's voice suddenly rose a few decibels, carrying an almost obsessive madness.

"I want to live with dignity. I want to go back to the capital, I want to take off her mask, I want to tell her that I'm back. I want to... hug her again."

The cave was deathly silent.

Gu Xiang loosened his grip on the sword slightly. He could hear the true meaning in the monk's words. It was a man's deepest obsession with his lover, so deep that it could defy life and death, defy time, defy this damned fate.

Gu Xiang understood this unwavering conviction.

Because he had also made the same vow for Su Qing under the paulownia tree at Luofeng Slope.

"So, you need us," Gu Xiang said. "You need us to break this deadlock, to break the curse of 'the phoenix must die.' Only then can you get out of this hellhole."

The monk nodded.

"Yes," he readily admitted, "I have my own selfish motives. Helping you is helping myself."

Su Qing took a deep breath, suppressing her anger. Although she looked down on the monk's retreat back then, she had to admit that this man's obsession moved her.

"Okay," Su Qing said. "We'll remember your story for now. Now, let's talk about her."

Su Qing turned around and pointed at Li Qingge, who had been standing by watching the show.

"You said she's your daughter." Su Qing narrowed her eyes. "As far as I know, besides the bloodline of the Great Zhou royal family, I haven't heard of any other bloodlines circulating within the royal family. Where did this girl come from?"

Li Qingge remained calm even when the fire reached her.

She walked over with a smile, sat down by the pool, and reached out to take the monk's withered arm.

"Sister Su, the way you're talking makes it sound like I popped out of a rock." Li Qingge shook her head. "I do have a name, my name is Bi Yao."

"Shut up." Su Qing glared at her. "I'm asking about your father."

The monk patted Li Qingge's hand, his eyes softening.

That was the look a father gives his daughter, full of doting affection and guilt.

"She is indeed my daughter," the monk said slowly, "but she wasn't born, but rather... forged."

Gu Xiang and Su Qing were both taken aback.

"Forged?"

The monk nodded, his gaze falling on Gu Xiang's chest.

"Back then, before I decided to remove her heart, I took a drop of her heart's essence blood." The monk's voice trembled slightly. "I then infused that drop of essence blood into the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart."

"I wonder, if we really had a child, what would she look like? Would she look more like me, or more like her?"

"Day and night I nurtured that drop of essence with my soul and watered it with the vitality of my exquisite heart. Originally, this was just a thought of mine, a little comfort I found for myself in despair."

The monk gave a wry smile.

"But I never expected that the Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart, a divine object of heaven and earth, would actually give birth to a trace of intelligence."

He turned to look at the girl beside him.

"She was born from my heart and formed from my blood. She possesses my divine soul imprint and also carries the bloodline of the Celestial Fox. In a sense, she is my child with her."

Su Qing stared at Li Qingge in shock.

No wonder.

No wonder this girl exuded an aura that made her feel close to her. It was the resonance of blood ties and the attraction of primal power.

"Then why did she become like this?" Gu Xiang asked. "She has a soul but no form, and she needs to borrow someone else's body?"

Upon hearing this, the gentle light in the monk's eyes shattered instantly, replaced by endless pain.

"Because of the lightning tribulation."

The monk gritted his teeth, each word seeming to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

"Back then, I faked my death and escaped into this Valley of Ghost Cries. Although I deceived the Heavenly Dao, it still sent down a world-destroying lightning tribulation, trying to completely eliminate me, this variable."

"At that time, I was seriously injured and had no power to resist."

The monk gripped the edge of the pool tightly, his fingernails digging deep into the cracks in the stone.

"It's Yao'er."

"She had just developed sentience and hadn't even taken human form yet. She sensed my danger and rushed out without hesitation."

"She used her newly formed divine soul to shield me from that lightning tribulation."

Inside the cave, Li Qingge remained smiling, as if the monk was telling someone else's story, not hers. She reached out and smoothed the wrinkles between the monk's brows.

"Father, it's all in the past," Li Qingge said cheerfully. "Look at me, I'm doing just fine now, aren't I? Although I don't have my own body, the world is so vast, I can go wherever I want, and borrow whose body I want. How carefree and unrestrained I am!"

The monk looked at her, his eyes red-rimmed.

"Freedom?" The monk laughed bitterly. "You are a Dao puppet. An anomaly rejected by heaven and earth. You have no physical body, and your soul will never be complete. Every full moon night, you must endure the torment of ten thousand ants devouring your soul. Is this what you call freedom?"

Looking at the carefree girl laughing in front of her, Su Qing suddenly felt a tightness in her chest.

Dao puppet.

Based on the Tao, guided by the soul. Not entering the cycle of reincarnation, not entangled in cause and effect.

This girl, in order to save her father, turned herself into a wandering ghost.

"So, that's why she possessed Li Qingge's body?" Gu Xiang asked. "Because Li Qingge possessed the imperial dragon energy, which could nourish her soul?"

The monk nodded.

"Yao'er's soul is severely damaged and requires extremely strong luck to suppress it and prevent it from dissipating. The dragon energy of the Great Zhou royal family is the best nourishment."

"Moreover..." The monk glanced at Gu Xiang, "Li Qingge is also a girl with a tragic fate. She was attacked in the dark, and the dragon energy backfired, so she shouldn't have lived past eighteen. Yao'er possessing her body and helping her to regulate the dragon energy can be considered a mutually beneficial arrangement."

Gu Xiang fell silent.

He looked at the father and daughter. One was a living dead, neither human nor ghost, and the other was a formless, lonely soul.

They hid in this dark and sunless underground, clinging to a broken family bond and a faint hope.

The entire Zhou dynasty, this prosperous capital, was built upon such sacrifices.

"Is it worth it?" Gu Xiang suddenly asked.

The monk was taken aback.

"What?"

"For a promise, for an embrace I may never receive, you've ruined yourself like this, causing your daughter to suffer as well." Gu Xiang looked directly into the monk's eyes. "Was it worth it?"

The monk did not answer immediately.

He lowered his head and looked at his reflection in the pool. His face, though young, exuded an aura of death.

After a long while, he raised his head and smiled.

"Lord Gu, you ask me if it's worth it."

"Then let me ask you," the monk pointed at Su Qing, "If one day, to save her, you need to rip out your heart, need to become like me, a ghost, even worse off than me, would you be willing?"

Gu Xiang did not hesitate at all.

"willing."

These two words were spoken with resounding force.

The monk burst into laughter. The laughter echoed through the cave, making the luminous pearl above his head tremble.

That settles it.

The monk laughed until tears streamed down his face.

"In this world, there's no such thing as 'worth it' or 'not worth it.' It's all about whether you're willing or not."

"I'm willing to wait. Even if the sea dries up and the rocks crumble, even if the Great Zhou Dynasty falls, as long as I can see her one more time, I'm willing."

Su Qing turned her head and secretly wiped the corner of her eye.

This father and daughter, along with that foolish scholar, are all lunatics.

A complete madman.

But ironically, she was also a madwoman.

"Alright." Su Qing turned around, her voice regaining its usual coldness. "Stop with the sentimentality. Tell me, what do you want us to do?"

"Since it's a collaboration, we need to show some sincerity." Su Qing looked at the monk. "A few nice words won't fool us into risking our lives."

The monk suppressed his smile.

He stood up from the pool. As he moved, the tubes inserted into him came loose. Milky white liquid slid down his emaciated body, dripping onto the ground with a crisp sound.

Although he was thin, he stood up straight at this moment and exuded an aura of imperial majesty.

"Sincerity is certainly present."

The monk raised his hand, palm facing upward.

Suddenly, ripples appeared in the center of the pool. Then, a blood-red lotus flower slowly rose from the bottom of the water.

The lotus flower was only the size of a palm, yet it emanated a chilling aura. Its petals were crystal clear, as if watered with fresh blood. At the center of the lotus, lay a golden seed.

"This is..." Su Qing's pupils contracted, "The Karmic Fire Red Lotus?"

"Not bad," the monk said. "This is the Karmic Fire Red Lotus that I nurtured for three hundred years using the ten-thousand-year-old malevolent energy of Ghost Cry Valley."

He pointed to the golden seed.

"And this is the seed of the phoenix's rebirth."

Gu Xiang was startled.

Phoenix Nirvana Seed?

"When the Phoenix Emperor fell, besides leaving behind her seven-aperture exquisite heart, she also left behind a trace of the meaning of Nirvana," the monk explained. "Although I failed back then, before digging out her heart, I intercepted this trace of the meaning of Nirvana and sealed it in this red lotus."

The monk stared intently at Gu Xiang.

"Lord Gu, although your current righteous spirit is strong, it is still far from enough."

"This Nirvana Seed can help you."

"It can awaken your keen mind and transform you from a substitute for 'Phoenix' into the true... mastermind."

With a flick of his wrist, the Bhikkhu sent the Karmic Fire Red Lotus flying lightly to Gu Xiang's side.

"Take it."

"This is my sincerity to you, and it is also the last bit of hope I leave for this Great Zhou."

Gu Xiang looked at the red lotus floating in front of him and felt the terrifying power contained within it.

He knew that this was a tremendous opportunity, but also a heavy responsibility.

By accepting this red lotus, one accepts the karmic consequences of the monk.

They took on the heavy responsibility of defying the destiny of heaven and earth.

Gu Xiang reached out and caught Honglian steadily.

A burning pain shot through his palm, but he didn't let go.

"Alright." Gu Xiang looked at the monk. "I'll take this deal."

"However, I did it not for you, nor for the Great Zhou."

Gu Xiang turned to look at Su Qing beside him. Su Qing was looking at him with concern, her red dress as fiery as fire, reflecting in his eyes.

"I did it for her."

"So that I can live with her for a long, long time."

The monk nodded with satisfaction.

"That's good."

He sat back in the pool, and the pipes automatically reconnected to his body.

His aura instantly weakened, as if his previous imposing presence was merely a fleeting moment of brilliance.

"Go," the monk waved his hand, his voice growing weak, "take Yao'er with you."

"Although she doesn't have a physical body, she understands the formations of Ghost Cry Valley. She will help you."

Li Qingge walked to Gu Xiang's side and winked at him.

"Lord Gu, please take care of me in the future."

Gu Xiang glanced at her, then looked at the man in the pool who was slowly closing his eyes.

He didn't say anything more, but simply held Su Qing's hand tightly and turned to walk out.

Now that we've accepted this cause and effect, let's fight.

Forget about the laws of heaven and destiny.

As long as I still have the sword in my hand, and as long as the people around me are still here.

The sky will not collapse.

"To the Tune of Yu Meiren: Feelings Found in the Underground Palace"

In the depths of the netherworld, where neither sun nor moon shines, only withered bones and white hair grieve.

A wisp of her broken soul rests on her beautiful bride; only her undying longing remains, breaking one's heart.

I made a promise of immortality back then, and now I am a guest in the Yellow Springs.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, witness the foolish child break through the impasse and battle against the heavens.