Da Hua didn’t follow but connected with her mentally: “It seems this world really has a dual-line task. Last time, the Goddess probably issued a task to you, but since you weren’t bound to me, I didn’t receive it, and you didn’t know.”
Ying Ran: “So what is this place?”
Task information shared by Da Hua appeared before her eyes:
Current time: Year 19 of Tengyu, Yiwang Dynasty.
Task: Assist the righteous cultivators in rescuing people from Xu Licheng’s dungeon.
Year 19 of Tengyu, Yiwang Dynasty…
A thousand years ago!
Ying Ran froze, looking around for those righteous cultivators.
In the hazy rain, she saw only one familiar figure sitting on a rock, gazing at the heavens and earth.
His indigo-gold Confucian robe was soaked in blood, his long black hair completely loose.
His form was like a jade crane, with the frailty of youth, as if he were a wandering soul on the battlefield.
Ying Ran recognized him at once.
Xu Liling.
A Xu Liling closer to the young immortal lord in the portraits.
The Xu Liling from her last dream, who nearly killed her with a long spear.
Ying Ran stood frozen, unsure, then turned to flee.
Suddenly, a clear, languid voice rang out: “Stop.”
Ying Ran quickened her pace to escape.
“Stop, ghost girl.”
Ying Ran didn’t want to stop, but she felt something pressing against her from behind.
If she took another step, it might pierce her.
Ying Ran halted and looked back.
Behind her was a floating dragon spear.
Xu Liling was still sitting on the rock, now facing her with a half-smile, playing with a string of jade-white prayer beads.
The same face, but Ying Ran felt it was unfamiliar.
She had never seen such a carefree, irreverent expression on Xu Liling’s face.
“You called me Huai Zhen and ran toward me before. Why are you fleeing now?”
Ying Ran silently stepped back, trying to distance herself from the spear.
But as she retreated, the spear advanced.
She asked Da Hua in her mind: “What now?”
Da Hua: “What? I can’t see what’s happening.”
Ying Ran: Alright, I’ll handle it myself.
Ying Ran said truthfully: “You tried to kill me.”
He smirked: “If I wanted to kill you, you wouldn’t be standing here talking to me. Besides… aren’t you already dead?”
Ying Ran looked at herself.
Indeed, like last time, she appeared as a soul.
Ying Ran looked up at Xu Liling, not arguing about whether she was dead: “Then last time, were you trying to kill someone behind me?”
Xu Liling blinked, saying nothing.
Ying Ran understood and tentatively pushed the spear aside.
The spear obediently moved, and she sighed in relief.
But it soon aimed at her again, as if toying with her.
Ying Ran, annoyed, instinctively glared at Xu Liling: “You…”
How could you!
Knowing he wasn’t the Xu Liling of the future, Ying Ran quickly controlled her irritation.
But she wasn’t a professional, and Xu Liling could still sense a hint of familiarity in her annoyance.
Last time, too, she had called him Huai Zhen with habitual affection.
Many knew his courtesy name, Huai Zhen, but those who called him by it were all dead.
How could someone still call him Huai Zhen and run toward him?
That was why he spared her.
Xu Liling: “Have we met before? Where were you from when alive?”
Ying Ran: “Yunshui County.”
Xu Liling raised a brow, as if recalling something, his wicked smile softening: “Yunshui County… a scenic place.”
It was the last place he visited before becoming a demon.
“But why don’t I remember you? When were you born? Whose child were you?”
Seeing his gentleness, Ying Ran thought of the young immortal lord in the portraits, drunkenly reciting, “I wander to where the water ends, and sit to watch the clouds rise.”
Her gaze passed over his blood-soaked body and disheveled hair, her heart aching despite herself.
She tentatively stepped forward, and the spear retreated.
Emboldened, she approached him.
“I was born in the ninety-ninth year of Honghui, Yiwang Dynasty. My father was a teacher in Yunshui County, running an academy called Spring Toad.”
“…”
Xu Liling tilted his head, as if recalling.
“No impression. The ninety-ninth year of Honghui, Yiwang Dynasty… was that long ago? Never heard of it. Are you a ghost from a past era? Did you see me in Yunshui County?”
Ying Ran reached him, and the spear turned into a bone bead, returning to his wrist.
She gazed at him, then asked Da Hua in her mind: “Can I contact the Goddess?”
Da Hua: “Yes.”
Ying Ran waited, and a cold, authoritative voice sounded in her mind: “What is it?”
Ying Ran paused, thinking, no wonder she’s the Goddess; her voice alone conjured an image.
She asked: “This is the past. Will what happens here affect the future?”
The Goddess pondered: “Yes, but not immediately. Only when all past tasks are complete and the designated node is reached will time converge.”
Xu Liling, waiting for her response, let out a curious “Hm?”
That’s good enough.
Ying Ran asked: “Can I save someone?”
Goddess: “Who?”
Ying Ran: “Someone who fell from immortal to demon.”
The Goddess replied readily: “Yes. If you can save all six immortals, even better.
Though, at this time, it’s not yet when the six immortals fall.
The only one barely qualifying as having fallen from immortal to demon is the one who slaughtered Xu Licheng, the former son of Xu Licheng’s lord, now the sole Holy Demon—Xu Liling.”
But since the tasker wanted to save someone, she supported it.
Ying Ran smiled, thanking the Goddess.
She looked into Xu Liling’s eyes, her voice soft as the wind: “A thousand years from now… I’m from a thousand years in the future.”
“In the spring of the fifth year of Honghui, we’ll meet in Yunshui County’s Qingheng Mountain.
“We’ll marry, have a small courtyard in the mountains, raise a dog, later buy a flying steed, and have a cat.”
Xu Liling stared at her for a long moment, then burst into laughter, as if hearing a hilarious joke.
Ying Ran calmly removed the wooden hairpin from her head.
She was glad that, after binding to the system, her soul mirrored her appearance.
Her tied-up hair fell loose.
The breeze lifted her hair, brushing his face.
Her hair’s fragrance dulled the smell of blood.
She handed him the peach-blossom bamboo hairpin.
“You carved this for me yourself.”
Xu Liling looked at the hairpin, its familiar craftsmanship startling him.
Ying Ran looked at the sky, catching rain in her hand, her voice slow and gentle.
“The day we met, it was sunny. I only went to Qingheng Mountain on sunny days. But that day, after I arrived, it rained.
I met you in the rain.
The first thing I heard you say was a murmur—
‘Such clean rain.’
I didn’t understand what it meant then.
Is there such a thing as dirty rain?
There was no pollution in ancient times.
But now, I understand.”
The rainwater in her palm looked normal at first, but as it pooled, it took on a blood-diluted hue, as if even the rain here was tainted with blood.
Realizing this, she wondered:
He’s been here for a thousand years, drenched in this rain for a thousand years?
If possible, she wanted him to escape being a Holy Demon from the start.
Not to be a demon, to see the world outside, to see clean rain.
Xu Liling fell silent, looking at her pale hand, the tainted rainwater, breathing in her hair’s fragrance.
He suddenly chuckled: “Spring Toad, huh…
‘At night’s depth, I don’t reach Spring Toad, stirring my heart to chaos…’
What a bold beauty’s scheme.”
Xu Liling asked: “What’s your name?”
“Huang Ran.”
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