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

The image did not disappear.

Su Chang'an thought the scene around the campfire was the end.

No.

The scene shifts to daytime, to the desolate wilderness outside Luoyan Town. The sky is low, with gray clouds pressing down on the horizon.

Gu Tianhu walked half a step ahead of Li Changgeng. He was still wearing the same gray robe and the same old cloth shoes. On his back, he now carried a bamboo basket containing several bundles of herbs.

Li Changgeng followed behind, carrying an iron sword. The sword was short, and its blade was rusted. His strides were longer than Gu Tianhu's, and he would deliberately slow down every three or four steps to maintain his distance.

The two walked across the wasteland. Neither of them spoke.

The wind blew in from the west, carrying the earthy smell of soil.

Su Chang'an was trapped within those eyes, staring at the hazy horizon ahead. She had stopped struggling. Struggling was useless; this body wouldn't listen to her. She could only watch.

They walked for about half an hour.

Li Changgeng stopped.

"etc."

His voice was very low.

Gu Tianhu stopped. He didn't turn around.

Li Changgeng held the sword horizontally in front of him, his right hand gripping the hilt and his left hand on the scabbard. His gaze swept over a pile of rubble on his left.

Su Chang'an saw it too.

Something is moving behind the pile of rocks.

Not just one.

The ground trembled. Gravel rolled down from the top of the pile of stones. A pungent, bitter stench seeped from the ground.

Li Changgeng took a step back, blocking Gu Tianhu's path.

"Let's go," he said.

Gu Tianhu didn't move.

The pile of stones exploded.

A colossal, greyish-white beast emerged from the rubble. It stood two zhang tall, its entire body covered in rough scales, and its four legs were thick and strong, causing the entire wasteland to tremble when it stepped on the ground.

It has a single horn on its head. The horn is covered with black stripes.

Su Chang'an recognized him.

Iron-Horned Bull. Transformation Realm.

What realm was Li Changgeng at that time? Su Chang'an recalled the scale of his spiritual energy circulation in the previous scene. Opening Mansion Realm. At most, early stage of Casting Cauldron Realm.

They're two major levels apart.

It's not a gap. It's an insurmountable chasm.

Li Changgeng also knew.

His face paled for a moment. But he didn't run. He raised his sword, the tip aimed at the raging bull.

My hands are shaking.

A cloud of black mist billowed from the bull's single horn. It lowered its head and charged towards the two. Cracks were etched into the ground by its hooves.

Li Changgeng gritted his teeth and took a step forward to meet them.

His sword thrust forward. Spiritual energy flowed into the blade, and the iron sword hummed.

The tip of the sword touched the scales of the bull.

broken.

The iron sword broke in two. The front half flew out and stuck in the mud ten feet away.

The bull's head swung over. Li Changgeng was struck on the left shoulder by the residual force of the horn, and he was sent flying.

He flipped twice in the air, crashed to the ground, and slid out of a long ditch.

Blood gushed from his mouth.

He tried to stand up, supporting himself on the ground. His left arm hung down, and his shoulder bone was dislocated.

The bull didn't chase him.

It turned its head and looked at the ancient celestial fox.

Two puffs of white air shot out of her nostrils. The black unicorn horn was aimed at her chest.

Su Chang'an's heart was in his throat.

Gu Tianhu stood still.

It didn't move.

The bull let out a low growl, pawed at the ground, and charged.

Li Changgeng roared from behind.

"run--!"

Gu Tianhu's hand emerged from his sleeve.

Su Chang'an saw that hand.

Fingers with distinct knuckles. Nails neatly trimmed. Several bluish veins on the back of the hand.

Very thin. Very ordinary. The hand of a wandering monk.

The hand is stretched forward.

Spread your five fingers.

My palm lit up.

It's not spiritual power.

It's red light.

Light emanated from his palm, carrying an ancient aura that seemed to belong to another era. The aura was so intense that it seemed to solidify the air itself.

Su Chang'an's soul trembled violently.

Because she recognized that aura.

The Origin of the Celestial Fox.

It's exactly the same as the one inside her body.

The bull stopped when it reached within three zhang of the ancient fox.

It wasn't that it wanted to stop. It was that its four legs wouldn't obey its commands.

A crimson light spread from the ground, covering an area of ​​ten zhang in radius. The scales of the raging bull began to crack in the crimson light. It let out a painful roar, and the black aura on its horn was peeled away inch by inch by the crimson light.

Gu Tianhu did not retract his hand.

Her grey robe fluttered in the red light. The wooden hairpin on her head had come loose. Her hair fell down.

It's not black.

It's red.

Her dark red hair fell to her waist, the ends curled and covered with shards of ice.

Her ears changed. Round ears became pointed. The tips of her ears peeked out from between her hair.

The air behind me distorted.

A tail emerged from under the robe.

Two.

Three.

Nine red tails spread out in the wind, covering an area several feet in radius behind her. The fur on her tails was blown by the wind, turning a fiery red against the gray sky.

The bull's scales were broken.

It knelt down. All four legs were broken. Its single horn broke off from its head and crashed to the ground.

It lay prostrate at the feet of the ancient celestial fox. Not in submission. Its will to resist had been utterly crushed by this aura.

The red light dissipated.

The wasteland fell silent.

Gu Tianhu withdrew his hand. His fingers were trembling slightly.

Su Chang'an felt it—this palm strike had depleted one-tenth of the remaining essence in her dantian. She was already constantly consuming it. Now there was even less left.

Gu Tianhu turned around.

Li Changgeng sat in the mud. His left arm was crooked, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. The broken sword was still clutched in his right hand.

He looked at Gu Tianhu.

Look at those nine tails.

Looking at that face.

After the wooden hairpin fell off, the makeup and disguise both lost their effectiveness. The eyebrows regained their original arch, the lines at the corners of the eyes softened, and the color of the lips deepened.

It was that face.

He had been searching for that face for many years.

Li Changgeng opened his mouth.

No sound.

His throat was moving. His lips were trembling. But no sound came out.

Gu Tianhu stood there. His nine tails slowly converged behind him. His long red hair was blown across his cheeks by the wind.

She looked at Li Changgeng on the ground.

Su Chang'an could sense what was happening inside this body. His heart was racing. But it was different from the feeling in the alley last night. Last night it was repressed. Now it was—

I've accepted my fate.

Gu Tianhu lifted his foot and walked to Li Changgeng. He squatted down.

Li Changgeng looked up at her. His eyes were red. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth to his chin, but he didn't wipe it away.

Gu Tianhu stretched out his hand.

It hit him on the head.

It's exactly the same action as patting that little baby's head on the snowfield.

"Why are you crying?"

She spoke.

The voice was different. It was no longer the deliberately lowered tone of a rogue cultivator. It was the voice of a celestial fox. Lazy, with a drawn-out ending, and a touch of huskiness.

Li Changgeng's tears fell.

He didn't wipe it off. He stretched out his right hand and grasped the hand that Gu Tianhu had placed on his head. He grasped it very tightly.

"master."

Two words.

Su Chang'an's consciousness was shaking violently.

She thought of Chen Xuan.

When Chen Xuan cut off his hair late at night when he was sixteen, that's what he called her too.

No, Chen Xuan called her "sister."

But the essence of that voice is the same.

Gu Tianhu did not pull her hand away. She squatted there, letting Li Changgeng hold it.

Her other hand was inside her sleeve.

Su Chang'an couldn't see the hand, but she could feel it.

The wounds on my palm from last night haven't healed yet.

The screen skipped.

As darkness fell, the two sat under a withered tree at the edge of the wasteland. A campfire burned brightly; this time the firewood was dry.

Li Changgeng's left arm was bound with a strip of cloth and hung from his neck. The bloodstains on his face had been wiped clean.

He leaned against the tree trunk, staring at the fire.

Gu Tianhu sat opposite him. His nine tails retracted, and he returned to human form. But he no longer disguised himself. His long red hair was loose, with the tips of his ears sticking out.

"Why did you come back?" Li Changgeng asked.

Gu Tianhu threw a branch into the fire.

"Just passing by."

Li Changgeng remained silent.

"While you're at it, check if you're dead yet."

Li Changgeng's lips twitched slightly.

"He's not dead."

"I saw it."

The two remained silent for a while.

The fire crackled.

"You've lost weight," Li Changgeng said.

Gu Tianhu looked down at his wrist.

"You haven't gained weight either."

Silence fell again.

Li Changgeng took the wine flask from his pocket and handed it over.

Gu Tianhu took it. He didn't drink it. He unscrewed the cap and smelled it.

"It's still this lousy wine."

"Can't afford the good ones."

Gu Tianhu took a sip. Then he put it down.

"I want to do something," she said.

Li Changgeng looked at her.

"Humans and demons are killing each other in this place, cultivators are bullying mortals, and large sects are swallowing up smaller sects." Gu Tianhu's voice was calm. "Nobody cares."

Li Changgeng didn't interrupt.

"I want to build a place," Gu Tianhu said, looking at the fire. "Whether you're human or demon, anyone who wants to learn can come in."

Su Chang'an's consciousness jolted violently.

This sentence.

The secret of the sect that the patriarch told in the Sutra Repository in the previous article was that three thousand years ago, a female rogue cultivator established rules in the snowy wilderness, adhering to the principle of "education for all" and founded the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect.

is her.

It is the ancient celestial fox.

Li Changgeng stared at the fire. The firelight danced on his face.

"it is good."

One word.

No hesitation.

"You didn't even ask my name," said Gu Tianhu.

"No need to ask." Li Changgeng placed the broken sword on his lap. "I'll do what you need to do."

Gu Tianhu looked at him.

In the deepest part of those eyes, Su Chang'an saw that light again.

Just like yesterday. Pressed down at the bottom of the pupil. Pressed down tightly.

But this time, the edges of the light trembled.

Gu Tianhu withdrew her gaze. She handed the wine pot back to her.

"I've decided on the name for our sect."

"What?"

"The highest form of transcendence is detachment from emotions."

Li Changgeng was stunned for a moment.

Gu Tianhu didn't look at him. She looked at the fire. The firelight reflected in her eyes.

"What we cherish is our own," she said. "But the highest level is not that one is without feeling; it is that one dares not."

Su Chang'an's tail was tangled into a knot in his sea of ​​consciousness.

She understood.

The highest form of detachment is forgetting emotions.

It's not forgetting.

I dare not remember.

The screen shattered.

It shattered completely.

As the red light faded, darkness surged in from all directions. Su Chang'an's consciousness was pulled upwards by a tremendous force. A deafening roar filled his ears.