When Su Ming'an finished changing his body, two days had already passed.

The white-haired person still sat quietly under the peach blossom tree, sleeping peacefully, as flower rain intertwined upon their brow and eyes.

"I'm back," Su Ming'an called out.

Yuanyuan lowered her head, not responding.

"Wake up," he called again.

She still gave no reply.

He stood there for a long time, his hand remaining stiff. Until a petal of peach blossom fell upon his finger.

Not a trace of breath flowed at his fingertips.

She had already stopped breathing.

In the end, she must have sat here alone, waiting from dawn till dusk, gazing into the distance at the end of the peach blossom forest, awaiting his return... until she stopped breathing.

Su Ming'an buried his head, resting his forehead on the inside of his arm, remaining still for quite a while. The only sound in the air was the lowered breathing of Xiao Kai.

Time seemed infinitely drawn out at this moment, and Su Ming'an never lifted his head, leaving his expression unreadable to anyone.

Until Su Ming'an finally raised his head, seemingly calm as if nothing had happened.

"You said that after your time, your soul would find a new body. I believe in your words." Su Ming'an said, "Xiao Kai, give me a hand."

With diligence, Xiao Kai dug the earth open, and Su Ming'an placed Yuanyuan into the wooden coffin. As per her request, this wasn't a real death, so no fresh flowers or relics were placed, just simple soil filling.

"...Father, do you really believe people can be reborn after death?" Xiao Kai asked quietly.

For more than a decade, Xiao Kai called Yuanyuan "Master," but always called Su Ming'an "Father," which couldn't be corrected.

"Yes," Su Ming'an responded, "According to the original plan, I'll go inland with you."

"Alright! I'll pack your luggage, and you can just wait here." Xiao Kai joyously put down the shovel, disregarding the dirt on his body, he ran towards the house.

"Swish!"

Suddenly, Su Ming'an heard the sound of a blade piercing through flesh.

Hot blood splattered across his face, his pupils shrinking tightly.

A pointed cane had pierced through Xiao Kai's chest, and blood flowed all over the ground. The golden-haired man, who appeared out of nowhere, swiftly withdrew the cane, took out a silk handkerchief, and nonchalantly wiped off the bloodstained lily on the cane.

It seemed Xiao Kai was still holding on to life, struggling, when the golden-haired man lifted a foot to crush Xiao Kai's throat, his toes grinding against the ground, emitting a teeth-chattering creak. Then, like discarding trash, the man tossed the bloodstained handkerchief away, letting it drift with the wind.

The setting sun cast a long shadow, the golden-haired man tilted his head, the sapphire earring swinging slightly, as he looked at Su Ming'an and smiled:

"...I've found you, my friend."

No questions needed, Su Ming'an knew who this was.

"I thought it would take longer."

"Blame me for coming too soon." The golden-haired man walked forward.

"When you possessed others before, you couldn't directly kill, how can you kill now?" Su Ming'an asked.

"Some lives inherently belong to me, so of course I can reclaim them."

"When did you find out that I was here? Was it my returning to the Holy City that alerted you?"

"Hmm... perhaps even earlier." The golden-haired man lowered his gaze, contemplating: "I probably found you when you set out to sea for the first time. But I thought you deserved to experience a happy life, so I waited until she died to show up before you."

...So it was that early.

"However, I don't see the point," Dieying said, "Letting a deity live out an ordinary person's life, coming to such a remote place to live out his days, farming and weaving, is this what you humans desire? I really can't see any significance in that for you."

Outside the peach blossom forest, hundreds of shadows approached, all people bewitched by Dieying, mostly soldiers and farmers.

Although Su Ming'an's current body wasn't strong, dealing with these small fry was no problem. Until Su Ming'an cut down the fourth wave of people, Dieying walked over the pool of blood, weaving a net in his hand.

Just at this moment,

A hand suddenly reached out, grabbing Dieying's ankle tightly.

"...Stop." Lying in the pool of blood, Xiao Kai, who hadn't been breathing for a long time, slowly raised his head, his dark eyes seeming to hide an abyss: "Do not harm my father."

"I specifically let you exit early to avoid ruining the persona you carefully crafted, yet here you are standing up again," Dieying kicked Xiao Kai away.

Xiao Kai, although kicked, quickly stood up, the wound on his chest no longer bleeding, and even the shattered bones in his neck had healed. This was not something an ordinary person could achieve, unless he was an extremely powerful talisman user. Once again, he grabbed Dieying: "You are not allowed to harm my father."

"..." Su Ming'an's pupils shrank slightly. This newsboy he had watched grow up was not a simple person at all?

He suddenly recalled the multiple encounters with Xiao Kai, the bruises all over his body, which had stirred Yuanyuan's feeling of compassion to adopt Xiao Kai. So even those scars were deliberately self-inflicted by Xiao Kai? All just to evoke Su Ming'an's sympathy, to be adopted?

But back then, Xiao Kai was only twelve years old, how could he have such deep scheming, why would Su Ming'an attract him so much...

Su Ming'an stared at Xiao Kai, pondering who he truly was.

Xiao Kai looked towards Su Ming'an, his tone suddenly becoming profound, as if finally shedding all disguises, he called out in a low voice:

"...Father."

...

["You really don't remember me?" The man stared intently at Su Ming'an, after a moment, he said: "...You even forgot your own son, not a very competent father."]

...

As the blade tip cut through skin, Xiao Ying felt a sense of pleasure.

After sacrificing the deity, he became a sinner through the ages, rejected by the Holy City, shunned by every era.

He lived like an exiled orphan in a remote small house, clutching peach blossom brew, getting drunk for days on end. Occasionally waking up, he'd take a knife to self-harm, when drunk he would clutch a black bird sculpture as he slept, even he didn't know how much time had passed.

He always remembered the deity's final gaze at him... a gaze of extreme indifference. It could be predicted that the billion audiences behind the deity would have vilified him with the harshest words, even if standing in his shoes they would mostly make the same choice, but the camera only captured him.

Even after cutting to a bleeding mess, Xiao Ying still felt no sense of "redemption," he stared at his scarred arms and sighed.

"... What should I do." He caressed the black bird sculpture in his arms: "Su Ming'an, what else can I do for you..."

He did something ridiculous, even he thought he was ill.

... Before the Deity's sacrifice, he cut a small piece of the Deity's white tendril, ground it into powder, and treated it as the Deity's ashes. He made an opening in the black bird sculpture and stored all these "ashes" inside. This way, every time he cut himself and let the black bird sculpture look at him, it seemed like a kind of atonement.

Otherwise, he had nothing left to atone for.

His brain continuously secreted dopamine, turning self-harm into a pleasurable experience. He used every scar on his body to remind himself... he had once, because of a choice he could not make, caused the death of the White Tower in his heart.

One day, he finally ran out of his liquor. Slightly sober, he contacted Dieying, using the communicator Dieying had given him before.

...

[Baisha Xiaojing: Are you there?]

[Strawberry Sago: (Auto-reply) Just say what you want, don't ask if I'm here.]

[Baisha Xiaojing: You took Su Ming'an to the stars, is he still alive? Please don't hurt him.]

[Strawberry Sago: ... (Read but no reply)]

[Strawberry Sago (Returned only after half a year): ... Am I familiar with you? He's already dead.]

[Baisha Xiaojing: I knew it... I knew it... your true purpose was just to devour him. You high-dimensional beings have no emotions. It was me... who killed him.]

[Strawberry Sago: I'll give you three sentences. If you can't say something that interests me, I will permanently sever your communication line. I still have new targets to find, no time to indulge with a low-dimensional human like you about past matters.]

[Baisha Xiaojing: You spared me and my mother in the end. I thought you really had feelings for humans, but it turns out when I have no more use, you just... don't want to talk to me.]

[Strawberry Sago: You have two sentences left.]

[Baisha Xiaojing: Where's his body? Please, tell me.]

[Strawberry Sago: The body is gone, even if it existed, it wouldn't be given to you. Who knows what you'd do with it. You have one last sentence left.]

[Baisha Xiaojing: ... I want to make a deal with you.]

[Strawberry Sago: Oh? This sentence finally has some meaning, you've piqued my interest... so, what's the deal?]

[Baisha Xiaojing: I offer my soul, my reincarnations, my everything to you. I only ask you to tell me how I can make amends to Su Ming'an. Even if he's already... dead.]

[Strawberry Sago: Do you think your soul is as precious as Su Ming'an's? I'll give you one last chance to propose a condition that interests me.]

[Baisha Xiaojing: My condition is... some matters concerning Noel Agnini.]

[Strawberry Sago: ...]

[Baisha Xiaojing: Of course, just some harmless information, not a leverage, just enough to satisfy your little curiosity.]

[Strawberry Sago: You truly are... someone who uses any means to achieve their goal.]

[Baisha Xiaojing: I was never a good person and don't need anyone to judge my good or evil. I also have the opportunity to chat with the Organizers. I'm sure a little background info, the Organizers will be happy to share with me. Although I don't know what your relationship with Noel is, you seem very interested in him.]

[Strawberry Sago: I am indeed a bit interested in him, but not to a very deep extent. So, what do you want? Let me see your greed.]

[Baisha Xiaojing: Let me have the ability of reincarnation.]

[Strawberry Sago: Just... that simple?]

[Baisha Xiaojing: Yes. If I can't reincarnate, my life span is just a hundred years. Even if I keep switching bodies, I must... continue to live. If Su Ming'an is already dead, I will become his tombstone. If he's still alive, I will do anything for him.]

[Strawberry Sago: Hmph... To call you kind, yet you easily sell other's information. To call you evil, yet your evil is for doing good. An interesting human, for Su Ming'an, you can commit acts of extreme evil and utmost good, truly amusing. (Tongue out bean.jpg)]

[Baisha Xiaojing: Will you do it or not?]

[Strawberry Sago: I appreciate your unabashed greed, I naturally can marvelously grant your desire, Xiao Lv.]

...

After obtaining the ability of reincarnation, Xiao Ying no longer feared death.

Upon receiving the news of Su Ming'an's death, he already had no will to survive, now he almost eagerly ran towards death.

As if releasing his nature, he experienced various near-death sensations of suffocation, blood loss, and falling. Each time he narrowly escaped death, he felt genuine pleasure. He wasn't a normal person, it was only the White Tower in his heart and his mother that barely maintained his humanity.

... But now, the person who could hold onto his rationality had disappeared.

He confused happiness with pain, pleasure with death.

All day long he hugged the peach blossom brew, with disheveled hair, stumbling along the road, he became a madman whom passersby avoided giving way.

"It's we who failed to recognize Mount Tai and robbed you! Please forgive us! I'm kowtowing to you!" A roadside robber, knocked to the ground by a single hand from Xiao Ying, realized they'd kicked a steel plate, and hurriedly knelt to beg for forgiveness.

Xiao Ying squatted down, poked the robber's head: "Here, take this."

A revolver was shoved into the robber's hand.

"Play a game with me, if you win... I'll die. How about... send me to death, how about it..." Like a child, he repeatedly shook the robber's shoulders.

The robber trembled with fear, trembling as he pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

"Ah, you didn't die, my turn..." He squinted his eyes, smiled aiming the gun at himself:

"Eh? It's still an empty gun... hic, your turn..."

Beneath the terrifying game of life and death was a person extremely yearning for death.

When all the robbers died from bullets, he somehow never encountered the fatal bullet, this feeling of narrowly escaping death again brought him joy, followed by deep disappointment... why didn't he die this time either?

If he died, that feeling in his heart gnawed by guilt... maybe would ease a bit.

"Bad luck, didn't die." Xiao Ying kicked the revolver stained with blood, humming: "Next time, continue..."

The threshold for excitement became higher and higher, he began attempting various thrilling deeds... skydiving from heights, crossing dangerous rainforests alone, laughing and dancing by active volcanoes, leaping off tall mountains... even if all his bones broke, with blood streaming down his face, he could still laugh openly with blood and guts spilling from his stomach.

Even Dieying was amazed by Xiao Ying's liberation of his nature. He couldn't help but lament that Su Ming'an truly was a sinful person, able to drive someone insane without doing anything.

In the 20th year of the Heavenly Era, Su Ming'an still hadn't returned, almost everyone believed he was already dead. Xiao Ying thought so too.

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