It was the Lantern Festival. Winter's chill had yet to leave Chang'an City, but the city was bustling with life.
Along a neighborhood street, shops on either side were adorned with lanterns and festive decorations. The scents of food and spices filled the street, and noisy yet rhythmic calls from vendors rang out without end, brimming with the warmth of everyday life.
A man in a blue robe walked slowly through the crowd, his shoulders swaying and his steps somewhat feeble. He stood in stark contrast to the cheerful pedestrians hurrying past him, looking utterly out of place.
His head was lowered, his brows knotted tightly, and his thoughts tangled like a skein of hemp.
"A hundred years. A hundred years have actually passed..." the blue-robed man murmured, slowly lifting his head.
He had delicate features and looked quite young, though his face was somewhat pale.
He was none other than Shen Luo.
Yet now, his eyes were slightly sunken, and his pupils were dark and deep, lending him an air of having weathered the vicissitudes of life.
Just moments earlier, Shen Luo had learned something from the owner of Chang'an Bookshop that he found difficult to accept: nearly a hundred years had passed since he entered the dream.
"This is bad. A hundred years have already passed. Chi You's seal has probably begun to loosen." Anxiety suddenly gripped Shen Luo.
In the dream, they had endured a thousand hardships and ten thousand dangers, even staking almost everyone's lives on their efforts, before finally sealing Chi You again. Yet what they had saved, in the end, was a dark future.
If possible, he would much rather prevent all of that from happening.
But a hundred years had hurried past, and the affairs of the mortal world had changed. He had