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

The black mist in the icy abyss finally sank down little by little.

Three hundred and seventy-two blood-red chains stretched across the wind and snow, one end of each chain piercing the limbs, heart, and nine tails of the ancient celestial fox.

At the other end, it disappears into the unseen death veins throughout Kyushu.

The permafrost of the northern region.

The evil winds of the demon realm.

A mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood on earth.

Those calamities that should have burst forth from the earth and engulfed all living beings were dragged back into the abyss inch by inch by chains.

The price was that the blood on Gu Tianhu's body became increasingly dark.

Inside the Black Stonehenge.

Young Li Changgeng remains unconscious.

His face still bore the ashen residue of the Black Fiend's corruption, but his hand gripped a section of a fox tail tightly, as if afraid that if he let go, the person in front of him would disappear.

Gu Tianhu lowered his head.

She raised her hand and wiped away the blood that had congealed on the boy's lips.

The movements were very gentle.

The nine tails pressed down on the core of the Cold Abyss Formation, and not a single tail left its original position.

The black stripes on the tip of the tail did not fade.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, knelt not far away.

The blood-red ferry behind him was suspended in mid-air, its hull damaged, and the remaining extremely malevolent energy at its bottom churning continuously.

That calamity energy was originally the source of his confidence that had allowed him to defy the currents for three thousand years.

Now, however, they are being pulled back into the abyss by chains, bit by bit.

He looked at Gu Tianhu.

Looking at the chains that pierced her heart.

The bony palm landed on the snow, leaving five deep scratches.

"Is that enough?"

Gu Tianhu did not look up.

"go back."

The soul fire of Li Changgeng, the White Bone Demon, flickered.

Gu Tianhu continued to straighten the boy's blood-stained collar, his voice remaining calm.

"Don't touch Han Yuan again."

"Don't touch this formation again."

"And don't touch him."

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, slowly raised his head.

Gu Tianhu looked at the unconscious boy as if he were talking about something he had already decided.

"I chose to stay."

"It's not about waiting for someone to come and save us."

"It's not like I'm waiting for someone to change my fate."

The wind and snow fell on the white bones.

Li Changgeng remained motionless for a long time.

His bony palm tightened little by little.

The calamity energy on the blood-red ferry was drawn in and began to emit a muffled hiss.

"You chose it yourself?"

His voice was hoarse and deep, as if squeezed out from between his bones.

"Master."

"You always say that."

Gu Tianhu did not answer.

Li Changgeng, the white-boned warrior, slowly stood up.

His mutilated body was covered in cracks, and with each step he took, ashes fell from his shoulders.

But those eyes, burning with soul fire, were fixed on Gu Tianhu.

"You will save the Nine Provinces."

"You saved this icy abyss."

"You saved me back then."

"But why do you never choose me?"

The wind and snow stopped for a moment.

Behind the snow slope, Su Chang'an lowered his body, his palm pressed against the cracked earth veins.

She didn't move.

The white-boned Li Changgeng seemed to have finally found an outlet for words that had been suppressed for three thousand years.

"I have guarded you for three thousand years."

"I founded the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect."

"I cultivated myself to the level of a Quasi-Emperor."

"I paved the way with my own bones, returning against the flow of time."

He raised his bony palm and pointed at the chains on Gu Tianhu's body.

"Isn't that enough?"

"Haven't I done enough?"

The last sentence caused the snow above the icy abyss to slide down in a rustling sound.

Gu Tianhu finally looked up at him.

She wasn't angry.

There was no sadness.

He only glanced at the young Li Changgeng.

"His fate is not yet stable."

"The calamities of the Nine Provinces have not yet subsided."

"If you take me away, the Cold Abyss will collapse."

"If you take him away, the evil spirits will fall on him again."

"No matter who you take away, it's a dead end for someone else."

"A dead end..."

Li Changgeng, the white-boned warrior, repeated it softly.

The soul fire suddenly shot up.

Deep within the icy abyss, the black mist that had already sunk began to surge again.

A crack appeared at the edge of the Black Stonehenge.

A wisp of black energy emerged from the ground and drifted toward the heart of the young Li Changgeng.

Gu Tianhu raised his hand.

The fox tail pressed down heavily.

The Black Demon was slammed back into the ground.

But a thin line of blood appeared on her lips.

Li Changgeng, the white-boned warrior, looked at the blood-red stain, then raised and lowered his bone palm.

"Why can't I share the burden?"

His voice suddenly rose.

"Why!"

"You could have told me!"

"You could have let me face this with you!"

"But you left me in the wind and snow, hid everything, and sent me alone to carry the chains, to bear the calamity alone, to wait for death alone!"

The wind blew through the cold abyss.

The ancient fox, dressed in red, moved lightly.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, took a step forward.

Gu Tianhu did not retreat.

But he stopped.

Because all 372 chains lit up at the same time.

The crimson runes on the chains flowed slowly, like countless eyes watching him.

"I have never hated the chains."

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, lowered his head.

"It's not the way of Heaven either."

"What I hate is that you took me in as your apprentice, but then abandoned me all by yourself."

"You said it was a choice."

"But to me, this is abandoning."

"You let me live."

"But do you know how I've lived all these years?"

His voice grew softer and softer.

"I dare not break the formation."

"I dare not see you."

"I don't even dare to think about whether you're still willing to acknowledge me as your apprentice."

Gu Tianhu watched him quietly.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, raised his head, his soul fire carrying a hint of almost insane stubbornness.

"I'm going against the current."

"I'll take you away."

"What did I do wrong?"

Behind the snow slope.

Su Chang'an gently exhaled a breath of white air.

"That's completely wrong."

The sound wasn't loud.

But it passed through the wind and snow, only to fall into the cold abyss.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, suddenly turned around.

The demise of the quasi-emperor swept across the snow-covered slope, hurling large swaths of snow into the air, while rubble and ice exploded together.

Su Chang'an remained hidden behind the snow.

She did not show up.

He simply spoke coldly.

"If you really wanted to save her, you should have learned to share her burdens three thousand years ago."

"If you really want to save her, you should see her choice clearly three thousand years from now."

"It's not about going back in time and stealing her away like an object."

The soul fire of Li Changgeng, the skeleton, trembled violently.

"Who are you!"

Su Chang'an ignored him.

"You said you've guarded it for three thousand years."

"But are you guarding your master's legacy, or your own regret?"

"You're afraid she'll be chained up."

"What's even more frightening is that she doesn't want to go with you at all."

"You're afraid she's not waiting for you."

"You're afraid that from beginning to end, she only chose to stay on her own."

"Because as long as she is willing, your three thousand years of obsession becomes a joke."

"Shut up!"

Li Changgeng, the White Bone Demon, raised his hand.

The blood-red ferry trembled violently, and the remaining calamity energy at the bottom of the ship transformed into a giant black and red wave that rushed towards the snow slope.

He wants to find the person hiding in the shadows.

But his sternum cracked at that moment.

click!

A crack spread from the chest cavity to the spine.

The backlash from spacetime did not stop.

The chains were also pulling at the extremely malevolent energy within his body.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, swayed slightly.

The crimson wave went out of control and crashed into the edge of the icy abyss, shattering large swathes of black rock.

That's enough.

Gu Tianhu spoke.

This time, the voice turned cold.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, stood frozen in place.

Gu Tianhu raised his hand.

She did not cast a spell.

She simply pressed down on him gently through the wind and snow.

"I told you not to move."

"Can't you hear me?"

White Bone Li Changgeng's bone palm stopped in mid-air.

The soul fire slowly contracted.

That rebuke seemed to pull him back three thousand years.

At that time, he was just a boy covered in injuries.

He practiced swordsmanship until his palms cracked.

They were bullied but dared not fight back.

Huddled by the fire at night, I was always afraid that my master would abandon me.

And every time she spoke like that, he would fall silent.

Inside the Black Stonehenge.

The unconscious boy, Li Changgeng, stirred.

He frowned and gripped the fox tail of the ancient fox even tighter.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, stared at the hand.

Then he looked at Gu Tianhu.

He suddenly chuckled.

There was not a trace of joy in the laughter.

"So you can call me that too."

Gu Tianhu remained silent.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, lowered his head.

Snow fell into his empty eye sockets, only to be burned to ashes by the soul fire.

"For three thousand years, it's not that I didn't want to save you."

"I dare not."

His bony palm slowly drooped down.

"I'm afraid I'll cut the chains."

"What I see is not you waiting for me to save you."

"It's not that you simply don't want to come back."

"I'm afraid you'll tell me that you left alone back then not because you had no other choice."

"It's because you think I'm useless."

"You think I can't handle it."

"I feel that taking me along would only result in another death."

In the wind and snow, only the sound of chains dragging gently could be heard.

Gu Tianhu stared at him for a long time.

Then, she raised her hand and placed it on the forehead of the young Li Changgeng.

"Back then, you really couldn't handle it."

The soul fire of Li Changgeng, the white-boned warrior, trembled.

Gu Tianhu did not avoid his gaze.

"You were too weak back then."

"Once the extreme evil strikes you, you won't live more than three days."

"Once the Cold Abyss falls, the deadly veins of the Nine Provinces will erupt simultaneously."

"I'm not letting you take on these responsibilities because I don't want you."

"It's because I don't want to watch you die."

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, stood motionless in the snow.

Gu Tianhu continued:

"But you shouldn't use your three thousand years of obsession to decide my life and death."

"If you really want to save me."

"Learn to respect my choices first."

"Not possession."

The last two words fell.

The aura of calamity emanating from the blood-red ferry suddenly dissipated.

Large swaths of black and red mist were pulled into the icy abyss by chains, like a reversed black rain.

The cracks on Li Changgeng's body had increased.

But he didn't try to grab the ferry.

He didn't look at the road leading out of the past again.

The soul fire flickered in his eye sockets.

for a long time.

He slowly lowered his head.

The clenched fist gradually loosened.

Snow fell on my palm bones.

The cold abyss fell silent again.

Gu Tianhu was still sitting in the center of the Black Stone Formation.

The Nine-Tailed Fox suppressed the core of the formation.

The young Li Changgeng lay beside her, his breathing weak, but he was still alive.

Behind the snow slope.

Su Chang'an withdrew his hand from the earth's veins.

She stared at the spot where the chains intersected with the cold abyss, her eyes darkening.

Li Changgeng's obsession.

Finally, a crack was pried open.

Above the frigid abyss, only wind and snow remained.