I buried my master with my own hands. After ensuring the unconscious snow leopard disciple was safe, I took one st look at this once lively but now desote and empty "home" and resolutely returned to my cave.

  My body was stronger than ever.

  My focus was sharper than ever.

  My heart was clearer than ever about what needed to be done.

  When I went to find her, it took no effort at all.

  Because she was waiting for me by the Moonlit River, her red gauze dress contrasting with the white snow, a beauty so tragic it took my breath away.

  When the perfected sword pierced her heart, it took no effort at all. She didn’t dodge, didn’t evade.

  She fell into the snow, staining the world red. Her st words to me were, "I'm sorry."

  I could not tell whether her regret was real or not. Her eyes closed peacefully, and the flower that always bloomed in her body and eyes withered into a faint mark on the thick snow.

  The familiar body gradually turned to smoke. I watched the sharp snow winds sweep the trembling three-petaled red flower on the ground, carrying it farther and farther away.

  My sword fell to the ground with a cng.

  I became the new Mountain God of Moonlit Mountain.

  A hundred years, two hundred years—time passed slowly, and I was numb to its flow. Day after day, I remained in the mountain, either sitting in silence or falling into deep slumber.

  A certain wound gradually healed over time.

  Yes, I had only eliminated a yaokai who had killed my master and harmed my fellow disciples. There was sadness, and there were moments when I woke in the dead of night with lingering thoughts. But everything quietly settled with the passage of time, and I buried it deep within myself.

  Everything here flourished because of my spiritual essence—lush mountains and clear waters. Yet, the weather was always overcast; the sunlight never reached the mountain or the water.

  ′The mood of the Mountain God affects the weather.′

  One spring afternoon, as I was napping under a tree by the river, a woman woke me up.

  "You really look like a very mencholic fox," she said, squatting beside me. She wore bck clothes and had bck hair, with almond-shaped eyes and red lips, ughing carelessly.

  "You really are a very boring tree yaokai," I gnced at her and then pced the lotus leaf back over my face.

  I've known this tree yaokai named Sha Luo for nearly ten years. Every spring, she comes to the mountain to pick a type of wild fruit that's incredibly sour, saying she uses it to make wine to give to people. Occasionally, we'd chat, and over time, she got to know my story, and I learned parts of hers. Despite her cultivation being far above mine, she always acts like a naive little yaokai, purposely making offbeat jokes that really get on your nerves.

  "Hey, I came today to bring you some good news." She took the lotus leaf away from my face. Annoyed, I sat up, ready to snap at her, but was interrupted by a childish, urgent voice—

  "Master, Master, Snow Leopard Uncle has woken up!!!" A chubby child, my white rabbit disciple, ran urgently towards me from the forest.

  My heart jolted. I jumped to my feet and flew back on the wind. It was only just now that I realized, subconsciously, I had been waiting for this awakening...

  In the deep of night, I stepped out of Snow Leopard's room and looked up to see the full moon hanging in the sky.

  It was a night long ago, something that had broken free from the deepest part of me.

  I took a deep breath and turned, walking back into the mountains.

  On the silver-white peaks, the shadows of me and the tree yaokai were stretched long by the moonlight.

  "Have you decided?" She raised an eyebrow.

  "When I'm not here, please take care of Yingyue Mountain for me."

  "You can't leave for too long. I'm not the mountain god here; my spiritual energy can't manage everything properly."

  "One hundred years. One hundred years from today, I will definitely return." I looked at her face, asking with a seriousness I had never shown before. "I hope you'll help me."

  "I'll help you, but only if you pay me a lot of gold." She pouted.

  "Deal."

  I slowly sank to the bottom of the Yingyue River. There, in the dark and warm cavern, was the safest, most suitable pce for me to rest.

  Perhaps I should be thankful that the snow leopard had been unconscious for centuries. If he had awoken years ago, I would have chosen to destroy him. But now, what I wanted was to make amends. The first words the snow leopard said when he woke up were, "Senior sister, help me!"

  Master told us the greatest lie. He took us in, raised us, and taught us, not to give us happiness or find the best successor, but for our inner elixirs. His son's illness could only be cured by consuming 99 completed inner elixirs. We were not his disciples, just a group of pills waiting to be consumed.

  Now I understand the "sorry" spoken by Bu Yu before her death was not an apology for her "sins," but because she had broken her promise—to never lie.

  But what I still don't understand is her original intent behind deceiving me.

  I must see her again. To resolve my doubts, and to ease my guilt.

  The good news brought by the tree yaokai was that the King of Hell, after listening to public opinion, had changed the rules and given those yaokais with good hearts but regretful deaths a chance to be reincarnated as humans. Although Bu Yu had died by my sword, her soul still lingered in the human world, and reincarnation was possible. However, when and where she would reincarnate was unknown.

  In the vast human world, I wasn't worried about not finding her.

  Because her warmth, her smile, had already been buried in my blood, inseparable. As long as she returned to the world, I would sense her immediately. After all, I was a fox who had become a mountain god. I buried myself at the bottom of the river, along with all the memories of the past. The essence separated from my body was a brand new, pure life, free from any memories or burdens.

  I wanted to enter her life again in this state, to get to know her, understand her anew.