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

The moment the Soul Flame of the Same Origin broke, the blood-red ferry moved backward several feet.

The ship's hull struck a spatial rift, the damaged hull emitting a screeching sound as large amounts of calamity energy leaked out from the cracks, only to be forcibly dragged back into the Cold Abyss by the three calamity-splitting arrays.

Exhausted, young Li Changgeng collapsed into Gu Tianhu's arms.

He was still holding that ordinary iron sword in his right hand.

His palm was cut open by the broken blade, and blood dripped down the old cloth on the hilt. Gu Tianhu pried his fingers apart one by one, placed the blood-stained iron sword across their knees, and then lowered his head to probe his heart.

The extremely dark markings were still moving under the skin, but they had been pressed back to the chest by the coldness of the Yin energy.

At least they won't die for now.

White Bone Li Changgeng stood in front of the ferry, his outstretched bone palm already retracted.

He looked at the boy in Gu Tianhu's arms, at himself who would rather endure the extreme evil's bone-devouring than exchange his master's life for peace, and the soul fire in his eyes flickered constantly.

For a long time, he didn't utter a single word.

Only the sound of chains grinding remained in the cold abyss.

The ancient fox raised one of its tails, completely enveloping the boy and placing him in the center of the black stone array. Its other tail coiled around the iron sword, and it slowly used the remaining tail to prop itself up.

She still had nearly half a celestial chain binding her.

The moment she took a step, the chain piercing her shoulder bone was taut. The cold iron hook dragged deep into her flesh, quickly staining her red clothes with a dark hue.

Su Chang'an raised his hand to support himself on the frozen ground, trying to get up.

Her mortal body was covered with dark red cracks, and her palm bones were also injured by the Primordial Purple Qi. She could only lift half of her body before losing strength in her knees.

Gu Tianhu turned around and glanced at her.

"Don't move."

"He's a hopeless case, completely impervious to reason." Su Chang'an wiped the blood from his lips. "Are you sure you can reason with him?"

"If it doesn't make sense, then it's my turn to explain."

Gu Tianhu withdrew his gaze, his fox tail dragging the chain as he continued forward.

"This time, let me, as his master, speak to him personally."

Su Chang'an remained silent for a moment, then pressed down on the array's core again and did not move.

This cause and effect originated from Gu Tianhu and Li Changgeng.

It should be their turn to settle this matter.

When Li Changgeng, the White Bone Demon, saw Gu Tianhu approaching, he instinctively took a step back.

His heels were already on the edge of the ferry, beyond which lay a chaotic rift in spacetime. Within the rift, the tides of time surged and tore at his tattered body.

He raised his bone palm and pressed the last few wisps of calamity energy into the hull, barely managing to stabilize the ferry that was about to fall apart.

"Don't come any closer."

Gu Tianhu did not stop.

The chain dragged across the black stone, leaving a trail of blood.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, looked at the boy in the Black Stone Formation, his voice squeezed out from between his teeth and bones.

"He doesn't understand at all."

"He doesn't know how long three thousand years is, nor does he know that you will be pierced through the flesh and bone by three hundred and seventy-two chains."

"He had no idea that the snow and wind outside the Cold Abyss would fall for three thousand years."

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, pointed to his own chest.

There was no flesh and blood left there, only a flickering, uncertain soul flame.

"I founded the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect, transforming it from a few dilapidated houses in the wilderness into the number one sect in the Northern Region. I cultivated to the level of Quasi-Emperor, traversed the Nine Provinces, and searched for all the secret techniques in the world."

"I stand guard outside the Cold Abyss, watching generation after generation of disciples grow old, watching the sect's rules change again and again, watching it transform from the way you wanted it into a grave I don't even recognize."

"In the end, even my physical body rotted away."

He looked down at his cracked, bony palm.

"He dares to say he's willing to endure it now only because he hasn't truly experienced it yet."

"After he has walked my path, after he has guarded this place for three thousand years, he will still come here."

Beneath the blood-red ferry, the extremely malevolent aura surged once more.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, raised his head and stared intently at Gu Tianhu.

"He is me."

His choice cannot change the final outcome.

Gu Tianhu stopped ten steps away.

She neither denied the suffering of those three thousand years nor told Li Changgeng that everything would pass.

Some suffering will never pass.

What has happened will not disappear just because you say you've let it go.

She only asked:

"So, you want to kill your current self and destroy everything I've protected to prove your suffering is not wrong?"

The soul fire in Li Changgeng's eyes suddenly dwindled to a single point.

The ferry lost the support of the laws of nature, and its stern crashed heavily into the spacetime rift, the cracks creeping up the ship's side to the bow.

He opened his mouth.

"I'm saving you."

Gu Tianhu continued forward.

"If you take away your youthful self, your future self will cease to exist."

"I can reshape cause and effect."

"Chen Xuan almost died in the Nine Netherworld Refining God Formation."

"That's to open up the river of time."

"You forcibly extracted Bai Yin's extremely evil calamity energy, and his physical body was almost turned into sand."

"As long as I bring you back, everything can be made up for."

"Gu Xiang, Chen Xuan, Bai Yin, countless lives in later generations, and even the Central Continent that nearly collapsed because of your reversal of time—were all done for me?"

Gu Tianhu took another step.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, could not answer.

Every word spoken for his master ultimately circled back to his regret.

It wasn't that Gu Tianhu wanted to go back.

He couldn't accept that she didn't want to go back.

It wasn't Gu Tianhu waiting for him to save him.

He has guarded this path for three thousand years and no longer dares to admit that it was the wrong path from the very beginning.

"Stop!"

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

The last wisp of primordial purple energy surged out from the gaps in his bones, transforming into an invisible force that blocked the way in front of the ancient celestial fox.

The purple aura pressed down, causing the snow to crack inch by inch.

The chains on Gu Tianhu's shoulders tightened suddenly, the iron hooks digging deeper into his flesh and bone once more. Blood flowed down his arm to his fingertips, dripping onto the snow.

She did not use her source to fight against him.

Walk forward only towards the purple aura.

"Master!"

Li Changgeng's skeletal body trembled, and the ferry behind him began to collapse.

"If you insist on staying, what's the point of me going back?"

"Without you, what is the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect?"

"What does my three thousand years amount to!"

As he finished speaking, he even deliberately dispersed the aura of calamity that was protecting his mangled body.

The power of time immediately climbed up his bones, grinding away a layer of bone dust from his shoulder. The blood-red ferry also tilted, half of its hull protruding into the turbulent currents of time and space.

He was forcing Gu Tianhu to stop.

He was also using himself to force her to make a different choice.

Inside the Black Stone Formation, the young Li Changgeng briefly opened his eyes.

Through the churning blackness, he saw his future self standing before the wrecked ship, a skeleton on the verge of collapse, begging his master for a reason to live.

Gu Tianhu still hasn't stopped.

She neither held the ferry for him nor took his pain upon herself.

She simply dragged the chains along as she walked step by step toward him.

"Chang Geng".

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, froze.

Gu Tianhu raised his blood-stained hand and pressed it against his forehead.

That hand didn't have much strength.

But when the familiar touch landed, the Primordial Purple Qi in Li Changgeng's palm instantly stopped.

Three thousand years ago, on the snowy plains, he failed to condense his spiritual power and sat in the wind and snow, crying so hard he couldn't lift his head. The ancient celestial fox pressed his forehead in the same way, using its fox tail to shield him from the snow, and told him, "If you can't do it today, try again tomorrow."

Three thousand years have passed.

Her movements remained unchanged.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, could have retreated, but his feet seemed rooted to the spot.

Gu Tianhu closed his eyes.

Through that flickering, dying flame of his soul, she saw the three thousand years he had traversed.

He erected a sect stele in the wilderness.

He sat in solitude outside the cold abyss for a hundred years.

He drank alone before the remains of generations of disciples of the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect.

After he became a quasi-emperor, he walked to the entrance of the abyss several times, but turned away when he heard the sound of chains.

It's not that there's no chance to find out the truth.

He simply didn't dare.

He feared that the person under the chains would no longer recognize him, and he was even more afraid that his master, once she regained consciousness, would tell him in person that she had never intended to leave Hanyuan.

So he confined himself to the role of a gravedigger.

They guarded it until the flesh and blood decayed, leaving only a skeleton filled with regret.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, slowly lowered his head.

Go ahead and insult me.

His voice was so low it was almost drowned out by the wind and snow.

"I'm late."

"It's also because I didn't dare to save you."

"I've cultivated for three thousand years, and in the end I don't even dare to cut the last few chains."

He stopped arguing and simply awaited the judgment that was three thousand years overdue.

Gu Tianhu's palm was still pressed against his forehead.

"Chang Geng, I have never blamed you."

The skeletal remains trembled violently.

The soul fire did not stabilize as a result; instead, it scattered large patches of pale sparks.

Forgiveness is more important than blame.

Gu Tianhu opened his eyes.

"But I never asked you to turn back the clock to save me."

"You've guarded this place for three thousand years; you don't owe me a debt. You established the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect, but that shouldn't be just to guard my crippled body."

Her fingers traced the cracks on the white bone's forehead.

"You destroyed the future, harmed Bai Yin and Chen Xuan, tore open the river of time, and made countless people pay the price for your obsession. But these things cannot be attributed to me."

Su Chang'an had already raised his right hand, ready to add array patterns when Li Changgeng went berserk again.

Upon hearing this, she slowly withdrew her hand.

Gu Tianhu did not make excuses for his disciple out of pity.

They didn't take away his guilt either.

This is the truth that Li Changgeng should hear.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, looked up at her.

"If I don't save you..."

"Then what have I been all these years?"

This sentence has been hidden for three thousand years.

Now, when asked for an answer, all that remains is bewilderment.

Gu Tianhu pressed his forehead and answered without the slightest hesitation.

"Consider it a wrong path you've taken."

"Consider it a regret you dare not admit."

"It's the only thing that can't be considered my last wish."

White Bone Li Changgeng's bone palm drooped down.

Gu Tianhu looked at him and said, word by word:

"The highest form of detachment from emotions does not mean erasing feelings."

"It is not about turning a deeply loved one into a relic that can be taken back, possessed, or even repeatedly manipulated."

"Deep affection doesn't mean deciding how the other person should live their life."

"Even if it hurts, I acknowledge that she has the right to choose her own path."

For the first time, Gu Tianhu solemnly called out his full name.

"Li Changgeng".

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, lowered his head.

"Disciple is here."

"Stop living with my broken body."

"Stop using saving Master as an excuse to evade responsibility."

"Go back to your time, face those you hurt, and mend the cause and effect that you tore apart."

Gu Tianhu tightened his fingers.

"Live as yourself."

"Not my disciple, not the quasi-emperor guarding the tomb, nor this skeleton that only knows regret."

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, raised his hand, as if trying to grab her.

The bony palm stopped in mid-air.

After a moment, the five finger bones slowly loosened.

The last wisp of primordial purple energy that had been drawing in the ancient celestial fox in his palm dissipated into the wind and snow.

The blood-red ferry stopped towing.

The taut Heavenly Chains slowly receded, the three Tribulation Arrays on the snow relit, and the rumbling of the earth veins subsided.

White Bone Li Changgeng took a half step back, straightened his long-vanished clothes, and bowed his remaining body to Gu Tianhu.

This ceremony was three thousand years late.

"disciple……"

"I obey."

He straightened up, no longer begging his master to leave with him, nor did he touch the boy in the Black Stone Formation again.

Li Changgeng, the skeleton, only glanced at the space-time rift torn open by his obsession behind him.

This time, I'm not taking you with me.

"I will no longer let you bear the consequences of my debts."

Gu Tianhu withdrew his hand and turned back to the side of the young man Li Changgeng.

The wind and snow fell between the two Li Changgengs, one old and one young.

That obsession with force that spanned three thousand years was finally severed by her own hands.