[Blue-gold rain of light drifted down from the sky, brushing your shoulders, then sweeping past her trailing skirt, before finally seeping soundlessly into the earth beneath your feet.]
[You stood where you were, your gaze resting on that slender figure, as four years flashed through your heart-]
[From the dying seedling with curled leaves in that cold, gloomy cave, to the blades of grass that quietly wound around your fingertips in the morning light of the town's backyard, and finally to the sturdy ancient tree with flowing golden patterns amid the mountainside sea of Blue Silver Grass in the Ancestral Land.]
[Stumbling all the way, from the brink of death to the breaking dawn.]
[At this moment, Ah Yin finally stood before you.]
[Not an ethereal spirit, not a hazy, illusory silhouette of light, not that stalk of Blue Silver Grass whose warmth you could only feel by touching it with your fingertips-]
[But in the form of a real, flesh-and-blood person, she had come before you.]
[Morning light pierced the overlapping treetops, gilding her shoulders with a soft golden edge.]
[Ah Yin stood amid the green waves covering the mountains, her blue hair cascading to her waist. Several delicate Blue Silver leaf ornaments adorned her hair, golden patterns winding along their veins, gleaming softly in the dappled light.]
[You suppressed the thoughts surging in your heart, opened your arms, and took two steps forward, wanting to give her a hug to celebrate her new life.]
["Ah Yin, welcome..."]
[Before you finished speaking, however, Ah Yin instinctively took a step back.]
[It was a light step, landing on soft earth without the slightest sound, yet it was like an invisible chasm that had suddenly opened between you.]
[Your advancing steps stopped short. Your heart lurched, and a bad premonition abruptly rose within you.]
[You raised your head and met her blue eyes.]
[Those eyes still held the tenderness you knew, but deep within them surged far too many complicated emotions you had never seen before-]
[Reminiscence, restraint, and a trace of desperately suppressed struggle and bewilderment.]
[It felt as though something had struck your heart hard.]
[A thought suddenly flashed through your mind-]
[Upon taking human form again, Ah Yin had recovered all her lost memories.]
[Everything she had once forgotten, her entire past after taking human form and entering the world-]
[Tang Hao, Spirit Hall's pursuit, her sacrifice through suicide, and the child named Tang San... all returned to their places at this moment, returning to the depths of her memory.]
[During the days you spent guarding the cocoon of light, you had imagined countless scenes of your reunion.]
[Perhaps you would stare at her in a daze, perhaps she would run toward you with a smile, or perhaps you would gaze deeply at each other through the rain of light filling the sky.]
[Yet this sudden turn of events caught you completely off guard.]
[Your smile froze on your face. Your arms remained spread, looking thin and awkward amid the dappled shadows of the trees.]
[You made no rash move. In a single breath, you reined in every sign of losing your composure. Slowly lowering your arms, you let a natural smile return to your face. You looked at her, your voice quiet but steady, without the slightest tremor.]
["Welcome back, Ah Yin."]
[Ah Yin's eyelashes quivered gently. Her blue eyes gazed steadily at you, and her lips moved, as though she were gathering her words.]
[Only after a long while did she speak, her voice heavier than before, wrapped in an indescribable complexity.]
["...I... I'm back."]
[After a pause, she took a step forward. Neither too far nor too short, it precisely closed the distance her retreat had created.]
[Ah Yin raised her hands slightly, seemingly wanting to complete the interrupted embrace, only to discover that your hands were already hanging at your sides.]
[She froze for a moment. Her fingertips lingered in the air before she finally withdrew them slowly.]
[The Blue Silver King quietly watched everything from the side, a barely perceptible sigh passing across his aged face.]
[He bowed deeply, breaking the stagnant silence at just the right moment.]
["Your Majesty, welcome back."]
[Ah Yin turned toward him and nodded gently, her voice regaining its steadiness. "Thank you for your efforts, Blue Silver King. I'm sorry to have kept you worrying all these years."]
["You are too kind, Your Majesty. Protecting the Ancestral Land and respectfully welcoming Your Majesty's return are simply my duties as your subject." The Blue Silver King's vines drooped even lower, his tone respectful and steady.]
[Ah Yin nodded slightly and said nothing more.]
[You stood to one side, quietly watching sovereign and subject face each other, and fell silent as well.]
[The daylight gradually brightened, stretching the three figures' shadows long across the earth, where they overlapped before diverging again.]
[In the days that followed, the various details of your interactions soon confirmed your suspicions.]
[You both remained in the Blue Silver Ancestral Land.]
[As the Blue Silver Emperor, Ah Yin began setting the clan's bloodline inheritance in order, awakening intelligence in seedlings breaking through the earth, and occasionally guiding the Blue Silver King's cultivation.]
[As always, you cultivated the Zhou Tian Star Dou Art every day, studied your Martial Soul, and honed your Soul Skills.]
[Everything seemed no different from before.]
[Ah Yin was still the same gentle Ah Yin.]
[She would sit with you beneath the ancient tree and watch the sunset; quietly listen as you told strange stories from another world; and stay beside you while you entered a meditative state in cultivation, quietly soothing the agitation in your meridians with the life aura of her Blue Silver Domain...]
[Her gaze upon you remained as tender as water, like a spring breeze brushing Blue Silver Grass leaves, soft and lingering.]
[But you knew that some things had already changed quietly, without your noticing.]
[When you watched the sunset together, she no longer leaned against your shoulder; when she listened to your strange stories, she no longer wound grass leaves around your fingers; and when you entered a meditative state in cultivation, although she still soothed the agitation in your meridians, she always kept half an arm's length away, no longer sharing that unreserved intimacy of the past.]
[Sometimes, she brewed you a pot of flower tea she had picked and prepared herself. When her fingertips inadvertently brushed your hand as she passed it to you, she would pause slightly, then quickly draw them back.]
[Sometimes, when you looked up from the pages of a book, you would find her watching you. Her gaze was light and gentle, as though afraid of disturbing something. When you looked back, she would quickly avert her eyes, a faint smile on her lips, hiding far too many emotions you could not read.]
[Your relationship became neither close nor distant.]
[An invisible barrier seemed to stand between your hearts. So close at hand, yet beyond reach.]
[You knew very well that you could never return to the way things had been.]
[The Blue Silver King also sensed something of the stagnant atmosphere between you and Ah Yin, and had roughly guessed its specific cause.]
[Compared with Tang Hao, he clearly preferred you-whether for Ah Yin's safety or the clan's long-term development.]
[But in matters of the heart, he ultimately had no room to intervene, much less when the matter involved their emperor.]
[The night grew deep and still.]
[You lay alone on the vine couch in the treehouse, watching the starlight falling outside the window as memories gradually flooded your thoughts-]
[Her timid spiritual transmission when she first awakened in the town's backyard; the mellow warmth of her presence beside you as you hunted Soul Rings; the fresh, soothing touch of vegetation as she calmed your meridians while you worked out cultivation methods; and, on that slightly chilly night, the soft, warm kiss she had placed on your cheek after forming an illusory figure.]
[You turned over, pressed those scattered images into the depths of your memory, and closed your eyes, letting the darkness wash over your mind as you sank into sleep.]
[Early the next morning, daylight had barely broken, and a thin morning mist still drifted through the woods.]
[You packed your belongings and carefully took stock of everything in your Storage Soul Tool: the Immortal Herb Essence, the Antidote Pills, the Dark Thunder Scale Armor Dragon's External Soul Bone, and all the rare materials you had collected over the years.]
[Then you went to Ah Yin.]
[She was bending over a newly sprouted Blue Silver Grass seedling, tending its channels, golden Soul Power flowing like fine threads between its leaves. Wherever it passed, the seedling's stems and leaves unfurled a little further.]
[Hearing footsteps, she raised her head, tiny flecks of golden light reflected in her blue eyes, a lingering trace of tenderness still on her lips. "Why are you up so early today?"]
[You were silent for a moment, your voice as calm as a pool of deep water.]
["Ah Yin, I'm leaving."]
[The golden Soul Power at her fingertips abruptly stalled. She straightened and looked at you, the warmth in her eyes instantly shattering into shock. "Leaving? Where are you going?"]
["Back to Heaven Dou City."]
["Heaven Dou City?" She froze for a moment, her brows drawing together slightly. "What are you going there for?"]
["Revenge." Your tone was indifferent, as though you were speaking of some small matter left unattended for a long time, or reciting an excuse you had rehearsed countless times.]
["Revenge?" Ah Yin carefully thought back for a moment. It seemed you had mentioned it to her before-]
[You had come from Heaven Dou City, where you had endured cold looks and bullying, suffered the slaughter of your entire family, been pursued over a thousand miles, and stirred up storms throughout the city.]
[Yet you had also said that the past had long since become smoke, and you did not care.]
["Didn't you say... those things no longer mattered?"]
[You lowered your eyes, your voice growing a little muffled. "They really don't matter. It's just-some debts have to be settled eventually."]
[Of course, only you knew what exactly this "debt" referred to.]
[Ah Yin faltered. Having spent so long with you, she quickly noticed something unusual in your expression.]
[She had not been entirely unaware of the strange atmosphere between you lately.]
[She had also tried to forget the past and draw close to you without reservation, as she once had.]
[Yet the moment that thought arose, those deep memories would surge back like a tide.]
[She could not forget that she had once been someone's wife, and a child's mother.]
[Those identities were like invisible shackles, holding her firmly in place.]
[She looked into your eyes, trying to discern something within them. But you kept your eyes lowered, and she could see nothing.]
[Silence spread soundlessly between you.]
[After a long while, she ventured, "Then... will you come back?"]
[You were silent for a moment, your throat moving slightly, before you finally shook your head gently.]
[After a pause, as though finding that inappropriate, you added, "I probably... will come back."]
["Once I've settled my grievances, traveled the continent, and thought things through, perhaps I'll come back."]
["After all, we're friends."]
["Friends..." she repeated softly, lowering her eyes. Her long eyelashes cast faint shadows beneath them, concealing the emotions surging in her gaze.]
[A moment later, when she looked up again, every ripple in her eyes had subsided, leaving only one firm thought.]
["Take me with you."]
[You froze slightly and raised your eyes to her. "What?"]
["I said, take me with you." She repeated herself, her tone calm but brooking no argument. "At least let me travel with you on the road to Heaven Dou City."]
[You instinctively wanted to refuse, but when you met those eyes holding a thousand unspoken words, every refusal rose to your lips, only to scatter entirely in the wind.]
[In the end, you merely nodded gently.]
Before you continue