The mountains and rivers of the Human Race, the hearth smoke of the mortal world, the days and nights in a mountain village, the little moments they had shared—all of it rose in her heart, scene by scene, clear as yesterday.
Those were the years when she had still lived as a mortal among the Human Race, before the cold solitude of her divine station as Taiyin, before the ages she had spent sitting alone in Guanghan Palace.
Back then, the mortal world had been warm and gentle. She had been an ordinary woman living with the valiant Houyi in a Human Tribe. He went out to hunt at dawn and returned to her at dusk, and they shared the warmth of home through the years.
The simple joys, the tenderness, the warmth of being together—and then the pain of parting, the longing as she gazed at the moon, and countless years of loneliness.
Every feeling and desire, every yearning and infatuation suppressed by Taiyin's divinity and buried by time broke free. They became fine, enduring strands of Obsession that wound tightly around her newly restored Primordial Spirit.
These mortal feelings were neither fierce nor violent, yet their roots ran deep, etched into her soul. They gently drew in Chang Xi's mind, leaving her, even after attaining the supreme Origin Dao Fruit, lost in an ancient dream she could not escape.
Her divinity was complete, but the roots of love remained.
She could attain the Dao Fruit, but the trial of love was harder to overcome.
Who knew how much time passed? Rustling leaves fell from the osmanthus tree in the Moon Palace, breaking her reverie.
Chang Xi finally opened her eyes.
After the restoration of her Primordial Spirit, the surge in her cultivation, and the return of her mortal