Clear Spring Temple.
A misty drizzle drifted down in fluttering wisps.
Xiao Qiushui, clad in plain long robes, arrived before an inconspicuous graveyard in a corner of Clear Spring Temple.
Her five fingers slowly caressed the inscription on the tombstone, and a deep sorrow gradually surfaced in her eyes.
She knew that the person lying beneath was her last remaining relative in this world.
And now, even that last relative had left her, bidding farewell to the mortal world forever.
At that moment, she suddenly felt incomparable regret.
Regret beyond measure.
She regretted the choice she had made back then.
Beside her, an elderly monk stood quietly beneath a locust tree, allowing shattered blossoms to fall over him without making a sound.
A moment later.
He sensed the atmosphere gradually growing oppressive, as though even the air had become heavy. He could not help glancing at Xiao Qiushui before him.
"Little sister, I was wrong!" Xiao Qiushui's fingers brushed across the three characters on the inscription, her eyes filled with grief.
"What severing the seven emotions and six desires, what Supreme Forgetting of Emotions! Your sister failed. Your sister couldn't do it! Your sister was wrong too!!"
"Your sister shouldn't have let you go to your death alone. Now, even after death, you've been buried in a remote corner of a temple, left as a homeless wandering soul!"
"Don't worry! Your sister will take you home!!"
As her low murmur faded, the surroundings returned to silence, and the atmosphere grew even heavier.
The fine rain continued to drift down, adding several more shades of melancholy.
The elderly monk looked at Xiao Qiushui, who leaned against the stone tombstone with her face pressed against the rain-soaked inscription. He remained silent, appearing as though his spirit had wandered beyond heaven and earth.