Su Shi'er and Shen Miaoyin turned to look at the same time.
There, in their line of sight,
an elderly man with a stooped back and snow-white hair was slowly emerging, one hand braced against the stone door.
His aura was weak, and several Dark-Gold Divine Runes flickered across his body.
But the instant he saw Shen Miaoyin clearly, tears glimmered in his clouded eyes.
"Immortal Lord... You... You're finally awake!"
"Cen... Yuting?"
Shen Miaoyin's eyes stirred. She hesitated, then spoke the name.
The moment it left her lips, she herself froze slightly.
In a blur, she drifted down before the old man.
"My name is Shen Miaoyin now, not the Qionghua Immortal Lord you speak of."
"Shen Miaoyin..."
The old man murmured the name. His gaze lingered on the starlight that had yet to fade from her brow, then he nodded gently.
"Just as well! Whether you're the Immortal Lord or Shen Miaoyin now, suppressing the remnants of your past consciousness and preserving the mind you have in this life is a good thing."
His voice was hoarse. As he finished speaking, his gaze passed over Shen Miaoyin and settled on Su Shi'er nearby.
Su Shi'er still had the appearance of a burly middle-aged man. His aura was restrained, and the earlier clash had left numerous tears in his clothes.
As the old man looked at him, Su Shi'er studied this figure who had appeared so suddenly.
His face remained calm, but every nerve drew taut.
The old man had appeared without warning, and seemed to be an old acquaintance of his senior sister Shen Miaoyin—or rather, of the Qionghua Immortal Lord she had once been.
But his arrival at this moment was still something Su Shi'er could not afford to ignore.
The old man narrowed his eyes and