What are you doing, Mr. President? I'm just an extra!

late at night.

Building A, No. 17 Wenlan Road, Jianghai City.

Ji Hanyue sat cross-legged on the wooden couch in the bedroom.

Outside the window, the branches and leaves of the old osmanthus tree swayed gently in the autumn wind, and its subtle fragrance seeped into the room through the cracks in the window.

The Persian cat, Snowball, was curled up next to her knees, fast asleep, purring softly.

From the second bedroom, separated by a wall, Bai Xiaolu's even snoring could be faintly heard.

Building A was unusually quiet.

Moonlight filtered through the sheer curtains, casting a cool, silvery glow on Ji Hanyue's pale white, wide-sleeved dress.

She was neither meditating nor circulating the Zhou Tian Xin Fa (a mental cultivation method) of the Tai Shang Wang Qing Palace.

She simply lowered her head quietly, looking at her left hand.

Ji Hanyue slowly opened her left palm.

In the very center of her fair, jade-like palm, there was a faint frostbite mark.

It has a faint bluish-purple hue.

This wasn't frostbite caused by the cold air leaking out last night.

This was left behind by Lu Li when he forcibly used his Ancient Sacred Body to act as a "human heater" for her in the cold storage in order to save her.

At that moment, Lu Li hugged her tightly from behind, and out of instinct from her thirty years of cultivation, she dug her ten fingers into his forearm.

When the extremely cold true qi is stimulated by the pure yang qi and blood in the outside world, it produces an instinctive backlash.

That mark was burned out at that moment.

Ji Hanyue raised her right hand.

Bring your index and middle fingers together, and a faint but pure Supreme Jade Shattering Force gathers at your fingertips.

Simply wipe this wisp of true energy across your palm, and the faint bluish-purple mark will peel off along with the necrotic flesh, leaving not a single scar.

The fingertips are suspended about an inch above the palm.

Stop.

one second.

two seconds.

three seconds.

The true energy gathered at the fingertips dissipated silently.

Ji Hanyue slowly closed her five fingers, clenching the mark back into her fist and covering it with her body heat.

She closed her eyes, forcing herself to calm down.

Begin silently reciting the "Supreme Heart Sutra of Forgetfulness".

She has practiced this mental cultivation method for thirty years.

From the time she was brought to Zixiao Peak at the age of four, every word had long been etched into her bones and integrated into her blood.

She can recite the entire text word for word with her eyes closed.

"Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs."

"The Great Dao is formless, yet it gives birth to Heaven and Earth."

In the first six sentences, the vital energy flows smoothly along the meridians.

The blood and qi that Lu Li had forcibly regulated last night obediently suppressed the remaining cold poison deep in the dantian.

The seventh sentence.

"A heart as still as water remains untouched by dust..."

"Don't move!"

Lu Li's voice suddenly entered her mind.

It wasn't his usual submissive assistant's tone, but rather the low growl he gave her last night when he had her wrapped around his arm—a growl that was both forceful and tinged with genuine panic.

What followed was the visuals.

That burning hot body pressed tightly against her back through the thin silk nightgown.

The domineering and tyrannical pure yang blood energy of the Ancient Sacred Body was like a furnace, roasting her frozen meridians.

And the sensation of her own fingers digging into the muscles of his forearm.

The true energy within his dantian suddenly stagnated.

The Heart Sutra has been broken.

Ji Hanyue suddenly opened her eyes.

For the first time, an emotion other than confusion appeared in those pale purple pupils that had always been calm and undisturbed.

It's not anger.

It's not the disgust that comes from being offended by ordinary people.

It wasn't murderous intent either.

It was something that she couldn't categorize as "Dao Heart" even after searching through all the books in the Supreme Palace of Forgetfulness.

The core of the Supreme Way of Forgetting Emotions can be summed up in just two words: severing all attachments.

The thought arises and is immediately severed, leaving no trace.

Ji Hanyue took a deep breath and closed her eyes again.

He forcefully mobilized the sharpest Supreme Jade Shattering Force within his meridians and slashed it down at the image in his mind.

The first cut.

The burning sensation on my back disappeared.

But only three seconds passed.

"Should I thank her for risking her life to save you, or should I hate her... for using that life to bind you so tightly?"

Su Feiyan's chilling words from last night, spoken at the door, echoed in her mind.

The second cut.

Su Feiyan's voice disappeared.

But images from the daytime scene in the president's office of the Su Group flooded back uncontrollably.

Lu Li sat at that small workstation, surrounded by five women.

He hunched his shoulders, bracing himself on the armrest of the swivel chair with one hand, trying to slip away along the wall, but Shen Weilan pulled him back.

And then there was his desperate, disillusioned outburst: "What do you take me for? I'm a fucking buffet!"

The third strike.

It can't be cut off.

The Supreme Jade Shattering Force not only failed to shatter these images, but instead acted like a fire, making these memories even clearer.

Ji Hanyue lowered her head and looked at her tightly clenched left hand.

His lips moved silently.

It can't be broken.

This thing is even more stubborn than the vein she shot out.

It penetrates even deeper into the bone marrow than the cold poison that seeps into the heart.

Each time it is cut, it grows back once.

And it pierces even deeper.

Ji Hanyue stood up.

Barefoot on the cool wooden floor, I walked step by step to the window.

Push open the wooden lattice window.

The early autumn night breeze, carrying the fragrance of osmanthus blossoms from the courtyard, wafted directly into the bedroom.

She raised her head, her gaze passing over the low walls of Wenlan Road, over the dazzling neon lights of Jianghai City, and landing on the distant southern part of the city.

The direction of Genting Villa.

There was a light still faintly lit there.

She knew whose light it was.

I also know that the "self-service restaurant" with its head full of whimsical ideas is probably being forced to write a self-criticism by that domineering female CEO at the moment.

"Meow."

The Persian cat, Snowball, jumped onto the windowsill at some point.

It gently rubbed its furry head against Ji Hanyue's slightly cold wrist.

Ji Hanyue lowered her head, stretched out her fingers, and stroked Xue Tuan's soft back twice.

"Supreme detachment from emotions..."

After a long silence, the night wind blew her waist-length silver hair.

Her voice was very soft, as if she were only speaking to the wind.

"I can't forget it."

The next room.

Bai Xiaolu's even, carefree snoring suddenly stopped.

In the darkness, the twin-tailed loli who only knows how to eat chicken legs every day and whose IQ never seems to be online, turned over.

She opened one eye and quietly gazed in the direction of the wall next door.

Those big, clear, and seemingly foolish eyes were now completely clear and bright.

She smacked her lips, savoring the taste of the chicken leg, a rare, all-knowing clarity in her smile.

She pulled the blanket over her head again.

Not a sound was made.

The night wind picked up, and the osmanthus branches and leaves in the yard rustled.

Ji Hanyue closed the window, shutting out the night.

She turned and walked back to the wooden couch, sitting cross-legged again.

On the table lay the rubbing of the bronze incense burner that had been brought back from the legal department of the Su family.

These past few days, she has focused all her energy on the first four lines of the medicinal and food ingredients used to prepare the "Supreme Mandarin Duck Hot Pot".

As for the last line of ancient characters, she had actually recognized them long ago.

But she had never seriously considered its meaning before, taking it only as an insignificant closing remark left by the founder.

Ji Hanyue reached out and took the rubbing.

The clouds dispersed, and the cool moonlight shone through the thin gauze curtains, falling perfectly on the yellowed paper.

That line of ancient text appeared exceptionally clear under the moonlight.

It's as if some ancestor who left this bronze incense burner three hundred years ago is giving her a stern reminder across the vast expanse of time.

Ji Hanyue read line by line, her gaze finally settling on the last sentence.

The teachings of the Supreme Palace of Forgetfulness over the past thirty years, and the ironclad rules passed down orally on Zixiao Peak, were met with a heavy blow at this moment.

She finally read the complete sentence.

"The Way exists among men, and emotions cannot be severed; those who forcibly sever them will suffer a backlash from their own meridians."

Ji Hanyue's fingers, gripping the edge of the rubbing, began to tremble uncontrollably.

The paper made a soft rustling sound.

Those who forcefully sever the meridians will inevitably suffer a backlash.

The uncontrollable extreme cold energy within her body, and the rampage of the cold poison that nearly cost her her life last night, were not due to her lack of proficiency in her cultivation techniques.

It's because she fixed it wrong.

All the sect leaders of the Supreme Palace of Forgetfulness over the past thirty years have cultivated incorrectly.

If you can't pick something up, how can you put it down?

Ji Hanyue stared at the line of words, her pale purple eyes surging with turbulent emotions.

Her hand holding the rubbing began to tremble.