"Ow! That hurts, that hurts! Fairy Jiang, at least warn me before you pull it out!"
Si Shuo clutched his temple, grimacing and yelping.
Jiang Ling ignored his antics and held the white hair up before her eyes.
Both fell silent.
In theory, even with their cultivation suppressed, their bodies had long since shed their mortal limitations, and their lifespans were so vast they bordered on eternity.
Yet white hair meant life slipping away. It meant that, in this realm, they were truly becoming mortals who would age, fall ill, and die.
"We're... really growing old."
Jiang Ling frowned and murmured, "Stripping away our cultivation wasn't enough-now they're taking our lifespans too? Do they want us to live, age, fall ill, and die here like mortals?"
Si Shuo stared at the white hair in silence for a long time, then suddenly gave a carefree laugh.
"Then we'll grow old."
He reached out and casually flicked the white hair into the wind. "Since this is the Years of Withering and Flourishing Formation, how could we see through the true meaning of withering and flourishing without experiencing birth, aging, illness, and death?"
"But the person behind this..." Jiang Ling's brows were tightly knitted.
"He wants us to despair, to collapse in fear." Si Shuo interrupted her and stretched lazily. "Then we'll refuse to give him what he wants."
"If he won't show himself, we'll stop looking."
He radiated the clear-eyed understanding of a shameless rogue seasoned in the mortal world. "We'll stay right here and live our mortal lives properly. Let's see whether a mortal's birth, aging, illness, and death can really trap me, Third Master Si!"
Jiang Ling sighed.
They could find no clues, nor any way to break the formation.
They could not even find an enemy they could truly