West of the city, Tie Family Ancestral Grave.
Su Yueli followed the muddy path overgrown with wild grass for a long while before finding Tie Ling'er's grave amid a desolate field of ordinary stone markers.
She had been buried beside her father, Tie Tu.
Thirty years of wind and rain had eroded the once-new grave into an old mound choked with weeds.
The originally clean bluestone tombstone was covered in thick moss, sealing the cracks in the stone tight.
The words "Tomb of Tie Tu" and "Tomb of Tie Ling'er" carved upon it had been washed away by years upon years of rain until they were blurred and peeling, difficult to make out.
Standing before the grave, Su Yueli took an immaculate golden nanmu box from her Storage Pouch.
Inside lay more than a hundred thousand taels' worth of heavy banknotes, along with a yellowed final letter.
"Ling'er, I'm back. I got the money... In your next life, don't be a mortal. Life is too short—not long enough to wait."
Su Yueli let out a long sigh and put the box away again.
Tie Tu had been her master's closest friend, and Tie Ling'er had long been a friend she acknowledged in her heart.
Now, both of them had become a handful of yellow earth beneath these steles.
In this vast Azure Province City, the last person she knew was gone as well. It was time to leave.
Su Yueli turned around, her figure becoming a wisp of clear smoke as she departed without hesitation.
"..."
A day later, on a desolate field of jagged stones outside Fengling City.
Beside a crooked-necked tree that had long since withered, Su Yueli found Shen Qing'an's grave.
Thirty years had already passed. The little earthen mound from those days had been scoured by