Everyone silently watched the two figures retreat into the distance, their hearts a jumble of emotions.
Master Shuiyue stared at the figure disappearing at the end of the forest path, her expression frozen.
In the end, he had still left.
He hadn't looked back at her once or said a single word. He had simply walked away without turning around.
"Why?" she murmured, her voice full of hurt.
Her body tipped backward.
"Master!"
Wen Min, who had been standing nearby, cried out and hurried forward to catch her as she began to sway.
"Master, are you all right?" Wen Min asked anxiously.
Master Shuiyue looked at her and shook her head.
The sadness and despair on her face vanished, replaced by a dead stillness.
"I'm fine," she said softly. "I'm just a little tired."
Yes, she was tired.
She had waited for a hundred years, yearned for a hundred years, resented for a hundred years, and hated for a hundred years.
Now that person had returned, only to choose to leave again.
Master Shuiyue pushed Wen Min's supporting hands away and turned around.
Her gaze fell on Lu Xueqi, her eyes complicated.
Perhaps it was time for her to let go, too.
To let go of that obsession that should never have existed, and the person she should never have fallen in love with.
Then she could spend what little time she had left protecting this child, who was just as deeply devoted.
That would be a way to draw a not-so-perfect close to the youth she had lost.
She walked over to the disciple who was crying.
She reached out and drew her into her arms.
"Xueqi," Master Shuiyue said gently.
"Let's go home."
The back mountain of Morning Sun Peak.
The small courtyard that had once witnessed