After leaving the temple, Nan Shan looked at the blood-red sun that had been obscured by black spots until it was reduced to a thin crescent.
For a moment, she thought it was the newly risen crescent moon—
But the moon wouldn’t be red, and it certainly wouldn’t be hanging high overhead when it first rises.
Feeling anxious and unsettled, she returned to the back courtyard.
As soon as she stepped inside, she saw Shou Xin dozing off while holding a broom.
Every time night was about to fall, he seemed to get overwhelmingly sleepy.
Nan Shan stared at him for a moment and said, “Go back to your room and sleep.”
“Hm?”
Shou Xin jerked his head up.
When his gaze met hers, he yawned.
“I can’t. I haven’t cooked for you yet.”
“I have cultivation protecting my body now. I don’t actually need to eat on time,” Nan Shan said with a laugh.
Shou Xin rubbed his eyes.
“But you’re always happy when you eat.”
“You want me to be happy?”
Nan Shan asked in return.
Shou Xin rolled his eyes at her.
“You’re the one our immortal lord has acknowledged as his wife. Of course I want you to be happy.”
“What if I’m not anymore?”
Nan Shan asked again.
Shou Xin froze.
“What do you mean? The immortal lord has had a change of heart?”
Nan Shan found his dazed expression amusing and let out a long, dramatic sigh.
“He’s too much!”
Shou Xin suddenly exploded with anger and stormed toward the front hall.
“I’m going to confront him! How could he keep someone here so long and then change his mind!”
Nan Shan hadn’t expected him to turn against his beloved immortal lord on her behalf.
She quickly pulled him back.
“I was just joking. Why are you taking it seriously?”
Shou Xin stiffened and turned his head silently, as if betrayed.
Nan Shan cleared her throat.
“It was just a joke… Are you really that mad?”
“Hmph!” Shou Xin shook off her hand furiously and stormed off—not to the front hall this time, but toward the kitchen.
“Hey! It was just a joke! Are you really that angry?”
Nan Shan shouted at his back, then couldn’t help but laugh.
“I didn’t expect I mattered so much to you. You were actually going to confront Ji Yue for me. Thanks!”
Shou Xin only walked faster.
Playful Nan Shan got her comeuppance at the last meal of the day.
Shou Xin made two extremely spicy dishes.
Her lips were swollen before he begrudgingly served her a bowl of porridge.
While she ate, Shou Xin almost fell asleep several times.
As soon as she finished, he immediately got up and walked toward his room.
“Wash the dishes before you come back to sleep.”
Every night, she would sleep in his room.
Nan Shan agreed and went to the kitchen with the bowls.
These dishes were already quite old—still usable, but very fragile.
She had once tried cleaning them with spiritual power and ended up breaking three of them, which had made Shou Xin jump in anger.
Since then, she had obediently washed them by hand.
When she came out of the kitchen, the “crescent moon” in the sky had grown thinner.
Based on her few days and nights living here, she figured it would still take some time before that last sliver of light disappeared.
The scattered noises from the front hall reached the courtyard again.
Shou Xin was already asleep, but she wasn’t the least bit sleepy.
Knowing she’d have to find Ji Yue later tonight, she strengthened the protective ward around Shou Xin and left the courtyard alone.
Dongyi Island only welcomed night after an unusually long daytime.
Nan Shan thought that aside from those who came to pray near dusk, most people who were used to a relaxed life would have gone home early to sleep, and the streets would be empty.
But she was wrong.
She had barely stepped out when she almost ran into someone.
She quickly dodged, and in the next second, recognized the person’s face.
“Aunt Li?”
She said in surprise.
Aunt Li looked up abruptly.
When she saw who it was, her eyes lit up, and she grabbed Nan Shan’s wrist.
“Immortal Lord’s Lady, I finally found you!”
“What’s wrong?”
Nan Shan frowned at her anxious face.
Aunt Li said, “The immortal lord… what’s going on with him? I’ve been to the temple several times to offer incense, but he hasn’t fulfilled my wishes.
We’ve used up all the usable fish at home. If we can’t catch anything tomorrow, I won’t be able to open my stall.”
Aunt Li sold food, and all the fish and shrimp she used had to be caught by boat.
Not being able to catch anything was a big deal for her.
Nan Shan gently patted her hand to calm her.
“Tell me carefully—what exactly happened?”
“In the past, every time I went to offer incense, my husband would return with a full catch. But lately, we only get half a bucket each time—nowhere near enough. I just want to ask the immortal lord—has he forgotten his people?”
Aunt Li’s eyes welled up with tears as she spoke.
Outside, just a narrow alley away, someone was angrily ranting—Ji Yue’s name was mentioned, but the usual respect and reverence were gone.
Aunt Li was still clutching her hand, so Nan Shan couldn’t listen in and had to keep focusing on Aunt Li.
“Ji Yue bestows blessings diligently every day. He wouldn’t forget a single citizen… I remember your family uses a small boat that can’t go far out to sea. Half a bucket from the shallow waters isn’t too little. If you just went out a few more times, wouldn’t that be enough?”
“How can that be!”
Aunt Li shook off her hand, a flash of resentment in her eyes.
“Immortal Lord’s Lady, you’ve clearly been living too comfortably—how else could you say something like that? Do you know how exhausting it is for ordinary people like us? Forget going out a few more times—just once more is already too much. Ji Yue is merciful to all beings—how could he let us suffer like this?”
Nan Shan opened her mouth to respond but paused.
She recalled how Aunt Li spent most of her time chatting, and her husband just casually rowed around before coming back to relax.
They lived carefree like most others on the island. It didn’t look hard at all.
Though Nan Shan wasn’t born to a seafaring family, she had once lived through hardship.
The people on this island were clearly living more comfortably than county magistrates in the mortal world.
But now that she was the Immortal Lord’s Lady, there were things she couldn’t say outright.
Still, even without her saying it, Aunt Li seemed to sense what she meant.
Her expression shifted several times before she forced herself to look pitiful.
“Immortal Lord’s Lady… Nan Shan… your good Aunt Li… for all the meals I’ve made for you, could you please ask Ji Yue to look after me more?”
Nan Shan wanted to say she never interfered in Ji Yue’s blessings, but when the words reached her lips, she instead said, “Alright… I’ll speak with him.”
Aunt Li’s eyes lit up with joy, and she ran off cheerfully.
Nan Shan watched her overly light-footed figure and felt that same odd unease rising again.
The clamor outside the wall grew louder—it sounded like an argument.
Someone said Ji Yue no longer cared for the people and wasn’t fit to be a god.
Others shouted back, saying it was only because they hadn’t prayed sincerely enough.
Accusations flew back and forth, and the conflict seemed to be escalating.
Nan Shan cast an invisibility spell over herself and stepped out of the alley.
Even though she had mentally prepared herself, the sight of the chaotic street still stunned her.
She had been in Dongyi for a while, through many cycles of day and night, but had never been out this late.
Now, stepping out for the first time this late, she saw trash strewn everywhere along streets that were usually clean.
Leftover fish and shrimp were dumped in corners, reeking terribly.
Some people were sleeping on the street, their clothes so filthy their original color was indistinguishable.
Others were engaged in brutal fights, as if trying to kill each other.
Still others knelt by the roadside with incense sticks, kowtowing toward the temple, their foreheads bloodied.
If the serene paradise she’d known before was her image of Dongyi, then what was all this in front of her now?
Nan Shan stared at a broken rattle drum lying at her feet.
That long-lost sense of absurdity surged up again.
The last sliver of light was swallowed by the black spots, and the world fell into total darkness.
For a moment, Nan Shan couldn’t see anything.
She calmed herself and added a layer of spiritual energy over her eyes.
When she opened them again, the world was cast in a dark red hue—but at least she could see.
The street, which had been in chaos just moments ago, was now still as death.
Everyone stood numbly, heads raised, staring at the place where the hanging sun had disappeared—like rows of dried silverfish, stiff and vacant.
“We should go find the Immortal Lord Ji Yue…”
No one knew who murmured something, but it was as though everyone came alive, repeatedly saying they wanted to find Ji Yue, claiming that if they received his blessing once more, the Eastern Yi would return to its former glory.
The same words were spoken by thousands, and the itchy, painful sensation of ants crawling into one’s ears returned.
Nan Shan shuddered and hurriedly sealed her hearing.
But the usual technique she used was completely ineffective this time.
Countless voices still drilled into her ears, and she felt the world spinning, nausea rising, her steps unsteady.
The scene before her gradually became blurry, and Nan Shan barely managed to hold onto a nearby tree to keep from falling backward.
The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was the sight of people with the same greedy, frenzied expressions rushing toward the temple.
“Ji Yue…” She gasped for breath and passed out.
When she woke up again, the sky was still dark, but the blood-red sun, partially obscured by dark spots, had begun to show a sliver of light, indicating that dawn was approaching.
The streets were deserted, and a clapper was still at her feet, the thick morning mist pressing down so heavily that it made it hard to breathe.
The ant-like voices had disappeared, and Nan Shan’s discomfort faded along with them.
As she got up, she remembered the scene of the people rushing toward the temple and felt a pang of anxiety.
Without thinking, she rushed toward the temple.
Ji Yue… Ji Yue had already become extremely weak by the time the night fell, and no one knew what might happen when the darkness fully arrived.
Those people seemed to have gone mad, and they might harm him.
The more she thought about it, the more anxious she became.
She drew upon all her spiritual power and appeared in front of the temple in an instant.
The blood-red sun’s light revealed more of itself, while countless black-red air currents poured down toward the temple.
These were the same type of air currents that had been enveloping the island of Eastern Yi, containing similar darkness and resentment.
The doors and windows of the temple were tightly shut, and in the darkness, it looked like a silent monster, quietly waiting for the next victim to walk into its mouth.
Nan Shan took a deep breath and walked toward it with a solemn expression.
But in the next moment, something smashed through the door and flew directly toward her.
She instinctively dodged, and that object fell heavily where she had just been standing.
When she looked up, she saw what it was.
“Aunt Li?”
Nan Shan was stunned, her mind going blank.
Aunt Li’s face was covered in blood, as if she could no longer recognize Nan Shan.
She was desperately crawling forward, leaving behind a long and eerie streak of blood on the ground.
She dragged her half-dead body, reaching for the cracks in the stone tiles with her fingers, until her last breath was taken.
The sea breeze howled, and the humid air was permeated by the smell of blood.
Nan Shan had seen death before, but this was the first time she had witnessed such a tragic death.
The person who had died was someone she knew well, Aunt Li, who had made food for her many times.
After the door to the temple had been broken open, it stood wide open, and though the candles inside still burned, Nan Shan couldn’t see anything clearly through the door.
Her breathing became more urgent, and her heart raced so fast it felt as if it would burst from her chest, but she didn’t turn away.
Instead, it felt as if something was pulling her forward, and she walked stiffly step by step.
Before entering, she had an inkling of what she might see, but when she truly laid eyes on the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, her mind went blank from the shock.
How many bodies were there? Were all the people of Eastern Yi here?
Nan Shan’s gaze scanned the unfamiliar and familiar faces among the corpses, and finally landed on Ji Yue’s face.
He was not weak at all.
On the contrary, he seemed to be in good condition, just like every morning she saw him.
However, his light blue robe was soaked with blood, giving off a strong stench, and his pupils had shifted from black to red, exuding an eerie and cold aura.