Chang'an.
Red Toad True Person's great sleeves fluttered as he gazed down upon the crowd from on high.
Though he called himself a True Person, long severed from worldly attachments, neither rejoicing over material gains nor grieving over personal losses.
Yet whenever he recalled how his manifestation had descended here, only to be forcibly beaten back by a girl who knew neither the heights of heaven nor the depths of earth...
How could he not hate her?!
At this very moment.
Seeing the people of Chang'an so terrified, he could not help feeling somewhat vindicated.
This was how mortals ought to look when facing him.
Reverence, fear, despair.
The corners of his mouth curled upward. His gaze swept through the crowd, but he failed to find that figure.
"Oh, right... where is that girl?"
"..."
No one answered.
Red Toad True Person sneered. "Wasn't she awfully arrogant when she shattered my manifestation? What now? Has she seen me arrive in person and hidden away like a turtle drawing its head into its shell?"
At those words.
Bitterness crossed the emperor's face, his heart tangled with conflicting feelings... on the one hand, Gu Yue's habit of running all over the place had saved her life today.
Had she been in Chang'an now, that girl's explosive temper would surely have made her the first to charge forward.
Her absence from Chang'an now... had spared her life.
On the other hand, he himself did not know why he still harbored a sliver of hope.
In this moment of despair, deep in his heart, he faintly yearned for that figure to appear.
As though the girl could descend from the sky just as she had before, shatter all this gloom with a single punch, and trample those five undying old bastards beneath her feet.