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Rong Shu's eyelashes fluttered as she took the medicine jar, softly uttering her gratitude.

After Baoshan left, Rong Shu undressed Gu Changjin. The blood on his clothes had frozen, making it feel like a cold sheet of iron when touched, causing a strange ache in her fingertips.

This was not the first time she had taken care of him after an injury. The scene was all too familiar to her, and her actions were now second nature.

The white cloth gradually absorbed the blood, turning the water in the wooden bucket into a faint pink.

With her eyes lowered, Rong Shu methodically applied medicine, changed his clothes, and covered him with a thick blanket. She then pressed her ear to his nose, listening quietly to his shallow breaths.

His face was stubbled, dark circles beneath his eyes, and his lips, cracked from dryness, bled.

Rong Shu's slender fingers gently traced the stubble on his face and the chapped lips.

How many days had he gone without proper rest or meals in order to rush here?

"Why are you always in such a sorry state?" Rong Shu held back the sourness rising in her nose as she whispered into his ear, "You said you'd be fine, that you'd return safely. If you dare to lie to me, I won't answer you, I'll never answer you again!"

Chapter 111

As the short dagger pierced his chest, Gu Changjin distinctly felt his heart pause for an instant.

In that fleeting moment, the world was eerily silent.

It should have been excruciatingly painful, but he seemed to feel no pain. Instead, a profound and bone-chilling loneliness engulfed him entirely. This loneliness was ingrained in his very being, as if it had been haunting him for an eternity.

So profound was this loneliness that he would rather endure any pain than suffer through it.

The loneliness of that instant seemed endless, yet it passed in the blink of an eye.

Thump... Thump...

When the sound of his heart beating like a drum resounded again, Gu Changjin found himself in a dim and chilly corridor.

Cold, briny winds swirled around his clothing.

Gu Changjin had been down this corridor before, in his dreams.

Looking up, he saw a faint glimmer at the end of the passage. Beyond the light, a vague figure could be seen wearing a bright yellow dragon robe.

Footsteps echoed through the dark corridor as Gu Changjin approached steadily, step by step.

Beyond the passage, a sudden expansion of space revealed an underground palace. Hundreds of wall lamps illuminated a sea of shimmering light.

The indistinct face from his dream began to take shape as the light gradually illuminated it.

Twelve crested headdresses swayed, casting a chilling glow.

Beneath them, the man's eyes remained as deep and sharp as ever, like frigid pools. Fine lines radiated from the corners of his eyes, while streaks of white adorned his temples. Two profound vertical wrinkles were etched between his brows.

It was him.

Gu Changjin, but many years later.

The man sat at the yang fish’s eye, cradling a small black jade vase, his unwavering gaze fixated on an invisible point in the void. Unaware of the additional presence in the palace, he lowered his gaze to the massive Taiji Bagua array beneath his feet. A mysterious force seemed to guide him as he took two steps forward, lifting his robe to sit slowly at the yin fish’s eye.

The instant he sat down, the man across from him, as if sensing something, lowered his eyelashes and looked over.

In that instant their eyes met, an intense and blinding flame burst forth from him, simultaneously igniting the Taiji Bagua Formation on the ground in a slow burn.

The Taiji Bagua Formation began to rotate gently.

Amidst the array, red light filled the sky as a fierce gale blew. The yin and yang fish eyes seemed to be drawn together, gradually and incrementally merging.

As the two fish eyes fused into one, the two figures within the Taiji Bagua Formation also slowly overlapped.

Right at that moment, a thunderous roar echoed through the underground palace, akin to the collapse of a world.

Or perhaps, the birth of a new one.

Under the tremendous impact, Gu Changjin shut his eyes and lost consciousness.

A flood of memories surged into his mind: his childhood on Floating Jade Mountain, his parents and siblings cursing and yearning amidst the flames, as well as the image of Ah Chai running behind the carriage when he left with Xiao Fu, holding the jade pendant belonging to Xiao Yan.

Scene after scene, frame by frame, flashed past like pages being swiftly turned by the wind.

Until that night, under the glow of the crimson wedding candles burning quietly, time seemed to slow down, gradually becoming more leisurely.

He lifted the veil covering her head, and from that moment on, he had a wife.

He should have kept his distance, remained wary of her.

Yet, he couldn't resist being drawn to her.

He had never imagined that someone like him, who walked in the darkness and trod on thorns, would also have a chance to experience the warmth of spring and the bloom of flowers.

As long as she was around, the world in his eyes was no longer merely black and white.

His life was no longer solely about ambition for power and vengeance; it now included a lamp in the still of the night, a bowl of porridge to soothe his hunger, and a cluster of flowers in the freezing cold.

When she was by his side, the fierce wildfire raging through his limbs seemed to be soothed, as tame and content as Ah Chai after receiving a bone.

He wanted to be Gu Yunzhi to Rong Zhaozhao, openly revealing his affection for her without any pretense or concealment.

Back then, he would always tell her, "Just wait a little longer."

Wait a little longer, Rong Zhaozhao.

Hold on just a moment, Gu Yunzhi.

He believed he could wait, and that they would have countless tomorrows together.

Gu Changjin opened his eyes to a dusky world, illuminated by flickering lightning and rumbled by thunder, with autumn rain dripping persistently.

The girl in his arms was no longer breathing.

Suddenly, he recalled Shiiun's words from before: Chang Ji is dead.

Gu Changjin turned his head slowly, casting a glance at Shiiun and whispering, "Where's Heng Ping?"

Pausing for a moment, he added, "Speak softly, don't disturb her."

Shiiun stood silently, not responding.

Before him, the man had bloodshot eyes, his nearly translucent pale face flushed, with dark purple blood on his lips. His gaze, directed at Shiiun, was hollow and pitch black.