The day after the three imperial edicts fell.

Whether in the imperial court or among common folk, when they learned that the ruler had abdicated in favor of the crown prince, everyone’s feelings were complicated beyond words.

However, aside from petitions written by the people of the realm, begging Qin Siyao to stay, not a single official in court spoke to remonstrate and urge her to remain.

Because those ministers all understood: Her Majesty had used Qin’s dynastic fortune to forge those three imperial edicts. Those edicts were linked to the Great Dao. There was no taking them back.

Seven days later, a grand ceremony was held in Qin’s imperial palace. Qin Siyao followed the rites and procedures and handed the throne to Qin Lan’er.

The morning after the ceremony, Qin Siyao changed into an ordinary long dress and quietly left Qin’s imperial palace.

Qin Siyao walked out of the imperial capital. She turned her head and glanced at the city gate behind her.

She didn’t know when she would return.

Perhaps… she might never come back again.

Huasheng, standing to the side, asked, “Miss, are you truly not going to say goodbye to Lan’er?”

Qin Siyao shook her head. “There’s no need. Lan’er knows I’m leaving—she’d insist on seeing me off, and then she’d cry until she’s a complete mess. She’s the master of Great Qin now. If she’s still shedding tears, what would that look like?”

She drew her gaze back and looked at Huasheng. “That said… Huasheng, you’re returning to your clan, aren’t you?”

“Mhm.”

Huasheng nodded.

“Back then, this servant promised a Qin ancestor that I would serve as Qin’s honored protector.

“First, because Qin’s dynastic fortune helped this servant cultivate.

“Second, because I was close friends with that ancestor’s empress.

“So I agreed to remain in the palace.

“In truth, after your imperial father ascended the throne, this servant could have left.

“But when you were born, Miss, Heaven and Earth stirred with an anomaly.

“This servant was curious, so I stayed again—planning to remain at your side and watch.

“And the more I was with Miss, the more I felt that Miss was truly pure and adorable.”

As she spoke, Huasheng let out a soft sigh. In her eyes flashed helplessness—and displeasure.

“Now that Miss intends to travel the world to find Young Master, this servant truly wanted to accompany Miss. But something happened in the clan. The clan chief kept saying the clan had forgiven me, and said my mother’s injuries and illness are worsening. I have no choice but to return to the demon-race world.”

“I see.” Qin Siyao nodded. “Then Huasheng, return as soon as you can. And please—give my greetings to Aunt. I pray Aunt recovers soon and enjoys peace and health.”

“Miss… are you truly going to be all right alone?” Huasheng lifted her head, still unable to hide her worry.

Qin Siyao smiled faintly and shook her head. “Me—I’ve lived in the palace since I was little. I haven’t gone many places. But my husband… he fought campaigns from the moment he was young, marching south and north.

“I’m going to find my husband, yes—but I also want to see this world.

“To see the flourishing age my husband carved out.

“To see the places my husband once walked.”

Huasheng sighed again. “After I return to the clan, this servant will have my clansmen help search along with Miss. And in the future, if the clan encounters anyone with the surname Xiao—so long as that person’s heart is upright and they are righteous—if we can help, my Vermilion Bird clan will lend support.”

“Thank you, Huasheng.” Qin Siyao bowed slightly.

“Miss, there is no need for courtesy.” Huasheng looked at the woman before her, reluctant to part. “This servant… is leaving.”

“Mhm. Until we meet again.”

“Until we meet again.”

Huasheng’s body flashed, and a crimson vermilion bird rose into the sky beyond the imperial capital. It dragged an extraordinarily long trail of flame behind it, dyeing the clouds red as it flew into the distance.

Only after Huasheng vanished beyond the horizon did Qin Siyao draw back her gaze.

The woman took out the clay figurine from her robes and looked at it. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly.

Then she put the clay figurine away again, raised her head, and stepped forward with the small feet beneath her skirt, continuing on.

She wanted to see it with her own eyes.

To see this human world.

She walked through town after town, driving off demons and wicked things for ordinary households.

People called her an immortal lady.

She walked through village after village, helping poor women deliver their children.

Mother and child safe—those families called her a bodhisattva.

She opened academies for children in the streets and alleys.

Boys and girls alike could study.

The tuition was only one coin, yet what the woman taught was worth far more than a thousand pieces of gold compared to what ordinary scholars offered.

She also opened one or two medical halls.

Treatment was cheap, and what she asked was little.

Each time a medical hall had been open for a month, it became packed to the point of overflowing.

The people of the city all knew it—

A kindhearted young woman had come to their town, and her medicine was extraordinary.

And compared to that extraordinary medicine… she was even more beautiful.

She crossed mountain after mountain.

Wherever she went, the gods of mountains and rivers kept their distance and bowed from afar, not daring to draw near.

She had seen demons and monsters.

And she had also seen hearts more terrifying than demons and monsters.

She liked to sit alone by the riverbank, gazing into the distance.

When «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» scholars traveling to take the civil examinations saw her, they thought an immortal had descended into the mortal world.

They said they had seen an immortal by the river.

She went to the Ten-Thousand-Li Great Wall and slew a great demon.

Everyone was astonished.

Yet no one knew her name. They only knew that this incomparably gentle woman wore a mask—and beneath the Great Wall, killing enemies looked like a dance.

She supported herself on a small skiff and drifted downstream, floating toward the distance.

Flood dragons made way. River gods escorted her.

The boatman marveled to himself in silence—why did the waterway feel so much easier to travel today than it usually was?

At night, she walked alone through mountain forests, watching fireflies fill the sky, like a starfield fallen into the human world.

Ten years.

A hundred years.

A thousand years.

Ten thousand years.

As sects above the mountain changed again and again.

As the stars shifted again and again.

As seas turned to mulberry fields.

She still walked among mortals.

Every place he had once been.

Every road he had once walked.

She walked them all.

Thirty thousand years passed. Because of those three imperial edicts, the backlash of Heaven’s law kept her from ever stepping into the Ascension Realm, and her time was nearing its end.

Yet she still looked no more than twenty.

Only her black hair had been dyed white by the years.

It was a day of heavy snow.

She wore a plain dress and walked alone through the mountain forest.

Her cloud-pattern embroidered shoes left one small, neat footprint after another in the mountain paths.

Xiao Mo followed behind her.

Thirty thousand years had passed.

She was searching for him.

He was accompanying her.

[The Book of a Hundred Lives: Fifth-life reward calculation complete. Host will soon leave the River of Time. Please prepare.

Ten.

Nine.

Eight.]

As the Book of a Hundred Lives echoed in Xiao Mo’s mind, Xiao Mo stopped.

In the snow, he stood still and looked out—watching that slender back grow farther and farther away.

[Three]

[Two]

“Siyao.”

“I…”

“am leaving.”

With the final sound from the Book of a Hundred Lives falling.

A cold wind wrapped in white snow swept through the mountain forest.

The woman halted. She spun around sharply and looked behind her.

But on the road she had come from… there was nothing at all.

She stared for a long, long time—

Until fine snow piled across her hair and shoulders.

Until she exhaled a warm breath.

Until she drew from her robes an asura mask stained with blood.

Until she lowered her head and put the mask on.

Until she turned around.

And kept walking forward.