The wind around the shrine stood perfectly still.
But Ling Shan's heart was anything but calm. Something inside his chest continued to churn …hot… and dark.
Bai Jing stood before him. Her lips were still warm from their touch a moment ago. There was no anger in her eyes… only a depth too profound to read.
Ling Shan reached out, intending to pull her into his arms once more.
"Hey!"
A voice split the silence, sharp and urgent.
Li Xuanwu burst through the line of trees, his robe torn in several places, his breathing heavy. The protective formation he had set earlier was half-shattered.
His sword was drawn in an instant.
"Step away from her!"
The forces of heaven and earth spiraled around Li's body.
But by the time he reached them…Bai Jing was gone. No sound. No shadow. Only a faint fragrance lingered in the air ….something like night-blooming flowers ….as though she had never set foot in this place.
Ling Shan stood alone, his gaze still fixed on the spot where she had been.
"Were you lured by a demon?" Li asked, his voice lowering.
Ling Shan did not answer.
Because inside his mind… the red lanterns were still glowing.
The red silk still fluttered. The vows beneath the moon still echoed….
"No matter how many lifetimes…"
He clenched his fist. His heartbeat slowed… but grew heavier. Li studied him quietly.
"The power within you today is not normal," he said. "It is not merely human."
Those words sent a chill through Ling Shan's chest. An image struggled to surface , ,not the wedding night… but the night after.
He saw the shrine floor.
He saw a formation drawn in blood. Someone's blood. His own hand… was the one drawing it.
Ling Shan jolted. The image tore apart, like a page ripped from a book before he could finish reading it.
"What do you remember?" Li asked.
Ling Shan shook his head.
"I remember only… that we made a vow to each other."
His voice was soft, as though he did not trust his own words.
"What are you talking about? I don't understand any of this."
Li did not respond, but his gaze sharpened, as if he were piecing together fragments of a puzzle.
On the other side of the drifting mist, Bai Jing stood alone.
Her fingertips brushed lightly against her throat, at the place where a seal had once rested. A seal carved with the blood of a certain general.
Not out of hatred. But out of "choice." She closed her eyes. "He remembers only half…" she murmured.
A crimson wind coiled around her feet. "Then he will feel only half the pain."
Her eyes opened once more. Still. Calm. Yet laced with something that resembled sorrow.
The night wind slipped through the cracks of the old wooden shrine. A faint scent of dust and ashes lingered, as though this place had never forgotten what had once transpired here.
Ling Shan remained seated on the wooden floor. His breathing gradually slowed, yet the images from his dream refused to fade.
Li Xuanwu walked in from the side, his head tilting slightly as his sharp eyes swept across the shrine once more, checking for any lingering demonic presence.
"Are you still going to chase her?" Li asked quietly.
Ling Shan did not answer.
He raised a hand and pressed it against his chest, at the very spot where, in his dream, the sealing formation had closed.
Li exhaled.
"We're not going anywhere tonight," he said shortly. "The formation here was just broken. The spatial boundaries are unstable. If something else slips through, you won't be able to handle it."
He placed his sword beside one of the wooden pillars and took out several talisman papers. Inked runes were affixed to the corners of the pillars, the doorframe, and above the threshold. A faint light flickered from each talisman before settling into a steady glow.
"At least this will keep the lower-level filth out," Li muttered.
Ling Shan watched his friend in silence. The truth he had just glimpsed made him feel as though the entire world had tilted the wrong way.
"Li," he called softly. The other man turned.
"If one day you discovered that… you had done something unforgivable, what would you do?"
Li fell silent for a moment before answering evenly.
"First, make certain it is the truth , not a demon preying on your own mind." His gaze locked onto Ling Shan. "And if it is the truth… then you atone."
The word atone landed heavily in the shrine.
Ling Shan lowered his eyes.
The night wind stirred the red lantern at the entrance, making it sway gently. Its light flickered against the wooden walls, as though someone were still standing there. But when he looked again…There was nothing.
Li spread his outer robe over one side of the wooden floor.
"Rest," he said. "Tomorrow we'll descend the mountain to the village below. I'll look for ancient texts on sealing formations and review them."
Ling Shan nodded.
He leaned back against the cold wooden pillar, his gaze fixed on the old ceiling above, where faint scorch marks still lingered. Li's breathing gradually became steady….the controlled rest of a trained cultivator.
But Ling Shan could not fall asleep so easily.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the red bridal robes. The glowing formation. The eyes that asked only one word….
"Why…"
And deeper still, he began to feel that this shrine… was not merely the site of an incident.
It was the place where he had chosen. Chosen the righteousness of the world….Over someone's heart.That night, the two of them remained in the old shrine. One slept in guarded awareness. The other stayed awake with memories not yet whole.
Above the aging wooden roof, the shadow of a single white fox tail swept silently across the moonlight ,, as if something still lingered, watching… waiting for dawn to arrive. Waiting for an answer no one wished to speak aloud.
That night, Ling Shan dreamed again. The same shrine. The same red lanterns. The same red silk. But this time, there was no laughter from wedding guests. The candle flames died out sooner than before. He saw his past self standing outside the glowing formation.
Bai Jing, dressed in her bridal robes, stood at its center. Golden light streamed upward from the ground. One by one, white fox tails were pinned in place. Her eyes looked at him. There was no anger. Only a question.
"Why…"
His past self raised a hand. The seal closed. Ling Shan jolted awake. Cold sweat soaked his back. His breathing faltered. And a voice sounded in the darkness of the shrine. Not from a dream…..But real.
Bai Jing stood at the doorway. Moonlight cast her shadow long across the wooden floor.
"You remember the wedding night…" her voice was calm, merely asking,
"But do you remember the night you sealed me beneath this shrine?"
The wind swept through. The red lantern swayed. Ling Shan could not speak. And in the eyes of the thousand-year demon, there was no hatred. Only waiting.