A thousand years ago, at the foot of Mount Unreturning.
"Xiao Zhan, Xiao Zhan, look!" A Green-Clad Girl hooked her index fingers into the corners of her mouth and pulled them upward. "This is called smiling. Have you learned how?" she asked the man in black before her.
"Are you done pestering me?" The man in black waved her off coldly. "I know how to smile. I don't need you to teach me."
"You do?" The Green-Clad Girl covered her mouth and giggled softly. "Then smile for me!"
"Why should I smile for no reason?"
"You're no fun..." The Green-Clad Girl pouted. "You fished me out of the bottom of the lake, but you won't even talk to me. If I'd known, I should have stayed and played with Little Red."
"Who is Little Red?"
"A fish." The girl chuckled. "My good friend."
"How pointless." The man in black snorted and turned to leave.
"Stop right there!" The Green-Clad Girl ran up to him. "Zhan Qisheng! Why did you save me, anyway? You could have just left me alone, couldn't you?"
"Who knows?" Rather than look at her, the man gazed into the distance. "Perhaps I thought... you were like me?"
"Like you?" The girl stared at him with wide, innocent eyes. "Are you a vengeful spirit too?"
"Vengeful spirit, my foot." He shot her an irritated glance. "Perhaps you share my... loneliness."
"Loneliness?" The girl looked at him in confusion. "You're not like me, trapped at the bottom of a lake by a jade pendant. You should be able to find plenty of people to talk to, shouldn't you?"
"I have no friends. I'm an immortal cultivator. Even when I have someone to talk to, they're merely passing travelers in my life."
The girl still didn't quite understand. "So