Entertainment: A song that brought his deceased wife back to life.

The Ghost Festival (Zhongyuan Festival).

Abyss of Ten Thousand Souls.

The coldest and most gloomy place in the cultivation world of Kyushu, where black mist surges year-round and eerie light flickers at the bottom, rumored to lead to the Yellow Springs. Every year during the Ghost Festival, a crack appears at the mouth of the abyss, where yin and yang energies converge, and occasionally a wisp of the remnant soul of the deceased can float to the surface.

So every year on this day, the banks of the abyss are packed with people.

Some cried for their fathers, some called for their mothers, some burned paper swords for their deceased friends, and some sent magical treasures and spirit stones to their deceased Daoist partners.

But this year, at the edge of the Abyss of Ten Thousand Souls, everyone's attention was focused on the same person.

On the rocky platform directly north of the abyss, a man dressed in black sat cross-legged, with three rows of objects laid out in front of him.

The very first row: Premium joss paper, each sheet is handmade by Seven Star Spirit Paper Workshop, burning one sheet is equivalent to burning a whole truckload for others.

In the middle row: six magic swords in excellent condition, three fourth-grade pills, a women's cloak woven from ice silkworm silk, and a box of rouge whose age was indiscernible but whose spiritual energy was overflowing.

The last row: a jar of wine, a bowl of noodles, and a pair of chopsticks.

The noodles were still steaming.

The onlookers exchanged glances and whispered among themselves.

"That's... Xu Qing, the Shattered Star Sword Immortal?"

"It's him. He's come every year around this time for three years."

"His Daoist partner died in the war between the Heavenly Demons three years ago. His body was never found, not even his soul."

"I heard that he sheathed his sword after that and never made a move again. He suppressed his late-stage Golden Core cultivation, neither undergoing tribulation nor breaking through."

"What a tragedy. What a glorious sword couple they were back then, the Shattered Star Sword Immortal and the Koi Fairy..."

Xu Qing ignored the stares from those around her.

He took out a piece of joss paper from his sleeve, pinched the edge with his fingertips, and lit it with a "poof".

The firelight illuminated his face.

He had sharp, sword-like eyebrows, thin lips, and very defined features, but there were noticeable dark circles under his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept well for three years.

The ashes of the paper fell into the abyss and were swallowed by the black mist.

He spoke.

"Little fish."

The sound wasn't loud, but as soon as the wind by the abyss calmed down, everyone heard it.

"It's been three years."

He burned another one.

"You won't even give me a dream."

The third one.

"You were most afraid of the dark when you were alive. The Abyss of Ten Thousand Souls is so cold, how scared you must have been all alone."

Some of the onlookers began to wipe away tears.

Xu Qing didn't cry. His tone was calm, as if he were talking about someone else's business. But his fingers were trembling as he burned the paper money.

He threw the three rows of things into the abyss one by one.

Magic sword—throw it.

Pills—throw them away.

The Ice Silk Cloak—I paused for a second before throwing it, ran my fingers over the fabric, and then let go.

Rouge—throw it away.

After throwing it away, he picked up the bowl of noodles and placed it by the abyss.

"When you were alive, you always complained that my noodles were too salty. This bowl doesn't have any salt in it."

He poured himself a glass of wine.

"You also complain that I can't hold my liquor. This pot is your favorite peach blossom wine."

The surroundings were completely silent. Not a single one of the more than three thousand cultivators uttered a sound.

Xu Qing lit the last stack of joss paper, and the ashes drifted into the abyss like snow.

Then he stood up.

He took a step forward.

My toes were already on the edge of the abyss.

The cultivators behind him changed their expressions.

"He wants—"

"Stop him!"

Xu Qing's voice drowned out everyone else's.

"Little Fish, I'll keep you company."

He leaned forward.

Just the instant his toes left the ground—

At the bottom of the Abyss of Ten Thousand Souls, a red light exploded.

The beam of light shot into the sky, carrying a devastating pressure that instantly overturned all the rubble within a hundred feet of the abyss's mouth. The three thousand cultivators were forced back seven or eight steps by this force, their protective auras shattering with crackling sounds.

The red light abruptly stopped in mid-air.

A woman's figure emerged from the light.

Her long hair was loose, and she stood barefoot in the void. She wore a black and red robe with demonic patterns, and her entire body was shrouded in an intensely dense demonic aura. Her face was extremely beautiful, but the expression on her face at this moment had nothing to do with beauty.

It was rage.

It's that kind of raging fury, like magma, like "I've finally put up with you for three years."

She grabbed Xu Qing by the collar and pulled him back from the edge of the abyss.

Then she spoke.

The sound was so loud that it echoed throughout the entire Abyss of Ten Thousand Souls.

"I'm not dead!!!"

The entire room fell silent.

Absolute, deathly silence.

Luo Qianyu's hand, gripping Xu Qing's collar, was trembling—not from fear, but from anger.

"Xu Qing, listen to me carefully—"

She took a deep breath.

"Stop throwing paper money into my meditation pool!! My magical powers are almost completely filled with your worthless joss paper!! Do you know how it feels when I'm at a crucial moment in my cultivation and a piece of Seven Star Spirit Paper is smeared on my face?!"

Xu Qing froze in mid-air.

His brain had clearly crashed.

His gaze swept over Luo Qianyu's face inch by inch—her eyebrows, eyes, the tip of her nose, her lips, and her jawline.

It was the outline he had dreamed of seeing for three years.

He opened his mouth.

"...Little fish?"

"Are you trying to summon my soul?!" Luo Qianyu threw him to the ground, stood barefoot on the rocks by the abyss, and put her hands on her hips.

Three thousand monks were petrified.

Some people's jaws can no longer close.

A young disciple tugged at his senior brother's sleeve from a distance: "Senior brother... the Koi Fairy... she's not dead?"

"What are your eyes for? There's someone standing right in front of you."

"She just came up from the bottom of the abyss, isn't the bottom of the abyss the underworld?"

"You're asking me? Who should I ask?"

At the edge of the abyss.

Xu Qing got up from the ground, covered in dust, and a clear sign of loss of control appeared on his usually calm face.

He looked at Luo Qianyu.

Luo Qianyu looked at him.

"You fucking—" Xu Qing's voice was hoarse, "alive?"

"You're the fucking dead!"

Xu Qing suddenly raised her hand—

Luo Qianyu subconsciously shrank back a little.

But the hand didn't attack; instead, it pulled her directly into its embrace with such force that it felt like it wanted to crush her into its bones.

Luo Qianyu was nearly strangled to death.

"You...you let go..."

Xu Qing did not relax.

His voice came down from above Luo Qianyu's head, trembling.

Three years.

Luo Qianyu stopped moving.

"You made me think you'd been dead for three years."

The wind by the abyss was cold, blowing against the two of them.

Luo Qianyu slowly raised her hand and placed it on Xu Qing's back.

"...I never expected you to be so stupid as to actually believe I was dead."

In the ensuing silence, someone muttered something under their breath.

"So all those priceless magical treasures that the Shattered Star Sword Immortal burned over three years... were thrown into the Demon Lord's secluded cultivation pool?"

Another voice chimed in, "That grade-four pill must be worth 30,000 spirit stones per pill, right?"

"And those six magic swords... they'll fetch at least 150,000 at the auction house."

"Plus three years' worth of top-quality joss paper..."

Someone gasped in shock.

"The Shattered Star Sword Immortal burned about 500,000 spirit stones worth of paper money for his living wife."

The largest uproar of laughter in the history of the cultivation world erupted at the edge of the Abyss of Ten Thousand Souls.

Xu Qing hugged Luo Qianyu, her ears turning red.