art was pounding wildly. Soon my body felt like it was submerged in water, and my consciousness drifted further and further away. I kept reminding myself that Jiang Qiyun was right beside me, no matte...A giant white moon hung in the sky, holy and lonely.

Under the moon, shadows danced and swayed, adorned with blood-colored flowers that spread beneath the towering black city.

The heavy city gate, the silent towers.

I saw a back.

Her dark robes resembled ink, and her wide sleeves danced like fairies.

Who is it

I wanted to run after him and get a closer look, but a cold, determined voice rang out in my ear—

"Mu Xiaqiao...Xiaqiao..."

I hesitated, halting my steps. The voice... it was him.

The river rises.

All around, there was nothing but those silent swaying flowers, vast and lonely.

I stood alone in the midst of flowers, looking around in bewilderment. He was gone.

That illusory figure in the distance was about to disappear, and I couldn't help but take two quick steps to catch up.

That frigid voice sighed softly, "The line between god and demon... you have ultimately, ruined everything..."

What What's wrong with me

"Xiaoqiao, why are you so foolish to follow him... The Nine Heavens Hua and the Ten Directions Worlds, how could they tolerate such an arrogant little empress..."

The words were laced with sorrow and indignation. No matter how lightly he spoke, I could sense a tinge of bitterness.

But...what on earth did I do

"Qiyun... Qiyun, where are you"

Bang…

The city gate closed, and that illusory figure vanished. I could no longer hear Jiang Qiyun's voice. I was left standing alone in a sea of blood-red flowers, lost and confused.

What on earth is going on

I rubbed my temples, trying to remember.

"Joe... Little Joe... Mu Xia Qiao..."

Who is calling me

"Little Qiao! Come back to your senses!"

My brother patted me on the shoulder, and I suddenly woke up.

"How did you suddenly fall asleep while talking Have you been working too hard these days" My brother parked his car on the roadside, looking at me with concern.

"How long have I been asleep" I asked.

"Just a few minutes, I didn't want to call you, but we're at our destination." My brother lifted his bag from the back seat and organized the contraband inside.

"... How many minutes did you fall asleep"

"What Not enough Let's get down to business first. You can sleep after that." My brother patted my shoulder, urging me to wake up.

I rubbed my face and adjusted my makeup in the small mirror, saying to my brother, "Just a few minutes ago I was having a nightmare."

"Come on, your so-called nightmares are probably just you and your husband bickering. If you could actually stand up to him in an argument, I'd be impressed."

Wouldn't it be nice if you could speak in a more relatable way

"I really had an argument with him." I covered my face, a little embarrassed. Arguing with Jiang Qiyun was unprecedented.

My brother's hand froze as he was organizing his backpack. His face contorted in disbelief: "Really fought What happened"

"I… I told Yuhu and Younan about what Mommy and Daddy do for work, and he got angry when he heard it."

"...What did you teach"

I sighed helplessly, "Listen, if the kindergarten teacher asks about Mom and Dad, just say that Mom runs a business at home and Dad is doing aid work in Africa and rarely comes back."

My brother twitched the corner of his mouth, holding back a smile and saying, "African aid Where did you come up with that! He's the aloof Underworld God, you're making him sound so down-to-earth…"

"I'm afraid I have to ask parents for help with the kindergarten activities!"

"Alright, alright, you two can argue or have nightmares later, but first we need to deal with this." My brother pulled out a notebook from his backpack and waved it in front of me.

It was a binder, inside of which lay a stack of old-fashioned letters.

The words inside are all written vertically. The first half is my uncle's diary, and the last page is his final testament.

There were four words on that page:

Lead me into the mountains.

》》》

There's no such thing as "peace" in the world of yin and yang.

Fate and karma, right and wrong cause and effect, are always chaotic and troublesome.

Both the Mu and Shen families are going through a lot right now, and my brother and I won't easily accept commissions.

Matters concerning Aunt's husband are considered family business, and I had to come here in person.

Our father's family was in the business of dealing with aged, ominous and bloody things. Now my older brother has inherited the family business and is working hard to launder their wealth and develop it into a cultural enterprise.

And my mother hails from the Shen family, renowned within the Yin-Yang Circle for their practice of Kun Dao.

Most of the Shen family were headed by women, and marriages required the man to marry into the woman's family. My father is the eldest grandson of the Mu family, so he couldn't marry into our family. My mother abandoned her position as heir and eloped with him.

After that, my aunt, Old Madam Shen, had been the head of the Shen family. Over the past few years, the feud between the Mu and Shen families had gradually subsided, but my aunt’s health was deteriorating. So she appointed me as the “acting head” of the Shen family.

Our maternal uncle, Mr. Zhou, is said to have saved our aunt during the famine years. He was traveling with other performers who went from village to village begging for food and happened upon our aunt by chance.

When his aunt saw how pitiful he was, she took him into the Shen family and had him learn from the ancestors of the Shen family.

Those years were hard times. The two of them were childhood sweethearts who grew up together. Later, when they grew up, their uncle didn't have much family pressure, so he married into the Shen family.

They had no children and supported each other for decades.

My elderly aunt passed away a month ago. When I received her diary from her most devoted disciple, I was stunned for a long time.

My older brother couldn't believe it either. That imposing Mr. Zhou, who was so protective of my aunt, had passed away

And his last wish was clearly written: after sixty years away from home in his youth, he wished to return to his hometown and be buried there, for leaves must return to their roots.

Thus, our Shen family followed his last wish and brought Lingzhu to this unfamiliar village.

Before I left, I went to see my aunt. She was nearing the end of her life, sometimes awake, sometimes asleep, as if she could depart at any moment.

Those who cultivate the Tao have long since seen through life and death.

After I finished my story, Auntie just mumbled, "Be careful, be careful... Careful after..."

What then I couldn't hear her words.

My brother, after reading through my great-uncle's diary, reminded me, "What aunt meant was: 'Beware the back mountain.'"

He pointed to several places: "Look, it's also mentioned in this diary that people said you weren't allowed to go into the back mountain when he was a child. He didn't come back for decades after leaving home, and sometimes he received letters from his family saying that disobedient relatives’ children went to play in the back mountain and were never found."

"Let's see the situation first, maybe Uncle meant 'sending him into the mountains' just as a way of saying he's buried. Look, people from Zhou's family and village officials are here." I pointed ahead at the cars.

A group of relatives dressed in mourning, surrounded a man with an eerie countenance, waiting at the village gate.

The man turned to us, his eyes blazing with malice.

He... only has half a facethem, but nobody dares to really catch them… Thanks to Miss's scare of the Lin family once, these people are just sick. They don't drink when offered wine, so they have to pay the penalty. Now even if...