Late spring and early summer, with continuous fine rain.
The rain in the capital had been falling for over two days, drizzling relentlessly even today, causing the already withering peach blossoms to scatter all over the courtyard.
Some petals even floated lightly into the small creek outside the yard, drifting downstream to faraway places.
The servants of the Shangguan household had started leaving one after another two days ago.
Unprecedentedly, they were granted nearly five days off from their usual duties to return home and visit their families.
No one cared about the reason behind this; after all, everyone liked such a joyous event, and no one dared to speculate recklessly about the head of the household’s thoughts—they did not want to stir up trouble.
“Is everyone gone?”
Inside the main courtyard, Shangguan Hongzhi stood at the center, questioning the black-clad guards before him.
In his hand was an oiled-paper umbrella held at an angle to shield from the rain.
Lin Yayue stood beside him under the umbrella, gently rocking the already asleep young girl in her arms.
“Replying to the master, except for your confidants, all unrelated servants have left.”
“Hm… then you all go and set up the Formation,”
he lowered his eyes, scanning the black-clad figures.
Raising his hand, he tossed a Qiankun pouch, “Inside are the Medicine to Enhance Starforce. Drink it before arranging the Formation, understood?”
“Yes! Understood, sir.”
No sooner had he spoken than the figures flashed and disappeared from sight.
Not long after, men took their positions at the eight directions surrounding the Shangguan estate.
Shangguan Hongzhi raised his eyes to the sky where raindrops still fell.
He caught a withered leaf drifting down and instinctively glanced at the nearby peach tree, frowning slightly.
In just a few days, this peach tree had already lost all its petals, even showing faint signs of decay.
Such a condition was far from a good omen in his eyes.
“Hongzhi, the time… it should be almost here, right?”
Lin Yayue asked softly, lowering her gaze to the girl in her arms, her expression tinged with worry.
At her words, Shangguan Hongzhi finally withdrew his gaze, his tone softening considerably.
“You should go in. Hand Qiuyue over to Physician Lu.”
“What about you? Aren’t you coming in with me?”
“No. I will stay here guarding the Formation to prevent any errors. After all, the Liuli Sacred Body and the Wanfa Eyes are both Innate Sacred Bodies. This time, it’s bound to cause anomalies. His Majesty’s side doesn’t mind, but if other families find out… the consequences would be unthinkable.”
He sighed deeply, reaching up to gently stroke the beautiful woman’s hair.
“If you really can’t bear to watch, don’t force yourself. You can come out anytime. Physician Lu and Princess Luo Yi are both here; there won’t be any problems.”
“Mm… alright…”
The beautiful woman nodded in agreement, raised the umbrella held slightly above at an angle, and turned to walk toward the backyard.
Inside the largest room of the backyard.
All the original furniture had been cleared away, leaving only one bed and a movable bamboo bed.
On the bamboo bed, Yun Mu lay shirtless, his expression calm, even somewhat unexpectedly serene.
On his bare skin, a jade hand adorned with a silver chain gently caressed. Between them, faint streams of green Starforce subtly flowed.
“Cough cough… Your Highness… this kind of thing should wait until you come privately later. Old man here is still around,”
Lu Qi gang turned his head, intending to check Yun Mu’s condition but immediately averted his gaze after witnessing the scene.
“This kind of thing? Lu Qi, you’re not that young anymore, yet your thoughts are still so dirty?”
Qin Luoyi’s hands never stopped moving, but her mouth launched a new round of verbal attacks.
“I’m using my cultivation method to help you complete this treatment. Now you want me to be more reserved? You’re supposed to be a teacher—can’t you see what I’m doing? I wonder how you even got to be a celestial physician…”
“Uh… this…”
The old man was left speechless by her words.
Honestly, though he knew the power of a girl’s Starforce, he had never understood exactly how it was used.
But his confusion over her behavior was completely because—
He had only asked her to use her power on Shangguan Qiuyue, whose Starforce came from the Sixth Heaven and contained a trace of the Law of Life, to temporarily enhance the girl’s vitality and constitution, thereby achieving a form of immortality.
As for Yun Mu, he had never made any such request.
After all, as long as he was here, the boy could not die.
Lu Qi lowered his gaze toward the boy on the bamboo bed, then glanced at the girl whose eyes were slightly glazed, sighed deeply, and assumed the princess was imposing some kind of protection for reassurance.
As for other reasons, he could not imagine any.
After all, who would have thought that the eldest princess of the ancient kingdom of Lixun would be infatuated with a boy three years younger, who had just met her a few days ago and whose status was far below hers?
Such a thing, if told, would be even more absurd than the Four Ancient Nations suddenly declaring war.
“Ah, madam, you’re here?”
At the open door, Lin Yayue bent slightly, shielding the rain, holding Shangguan Qiuyue as she stepped inside.
The short distance had already soaked her clothes.
Before Lu Qi could approach, Qin Luoyi had already taken a few strides to the woman’s side.
She pulled a delicate white handkerchief from her bosom and handed it over, then took the girl from her arms.
“Sister Lin, you wipe off the rain first. Leave the rest to me and the doctor.”
The change in address made Lu Qi blink in surprise, but he dared not argue with the eldest princess.
Seeing Qin Luoyi turn to carry Shangguan Qiuyue away, Lin Yayue reached out and grabbed her arm, her body trembling uncontrollably.
“What’s wrong? Sister Lin, do you have something else to say?”
“Qiuyue… I’m entrusting her to you… and little Mu… you must keep him alive, okay?”
“Don’t worry, we will.”
Upon hearing this, Lin Yayue finally released her grip.
She cast a distant glance at Yun Mu lying on the bamboo bed, feeling a suffocating heaviness in her chest, her left hand tightening instinctively at her side.
She whispered something inaudible before turning toward the door.
Two “Good Luck Charms” carved from dark wood pressed painfully into the flesh of her palm, reddening the skin.
Once the door closed completely, Qin Luoyi turned and laid the girl on the bed.
She subconsciously examined her from head to toe, then raised her hand to flick her own Face of the Moon, a proud expression on her face.
Although their beauty and complexion were on par, I’m still clearly the superior one—hmph…
Little Yunzi is right to follow me.
Obviously, she didn’t realize the girl was only twelve, so some aspects being ordinary were perfectly normal.
But after the fleeting joy, an unpleasant expression returned to her face.
She glanced back at the old man preparing medicine and asked in a questioning tone, “Lu Qi… we don’t need to remove the clothes for bone replacement, do we?”
“Take off clothes? Naturally not. Liuli Bone isn’t a traditional bone, so replacing it doesn’t damage the skin at all,”
the old man bent down to continue his work, unaware of the murderous intent in the girl’s eyes.
“By the way… why do you ask?”
“Nothing… just asking casually. Good if not needed.”
She muttered softly and fell silent.
Qin Luoyi raised her right hand, and in an instant, her Starforce filled with life energy burst forth like a spring gushing from a vein, filling the entire room.
A giant shadow of a tree appeared behind her.
Then, after a few murmurs, this power began converging toward Shangguan Qiuyue, eventually condensing into a single point of starlight that entered her body.
“Lu Qi, start the bone replacement quickly!”
The girl wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, her face pale as paper, completely drained of color.
Hearing this, Lu Qi dared not delay.
He drank a dose of the Medicine to Enhance Starforce to increase his Starforce concentration, raised his crossed hands, and rapidly performed complicated hand seals.
Pure white Starforce began to gather at his fingertips, and complex runes appeared in the air with each flick.
“Condense!”
With a sharp shout, the runes began to assemble and weave around Yun Mu’s body like venomous snakes, eventually converging on his chest.
“Rise!”
When the moment was right, Lu Qi raised two fingers.
Accompanied by the boy’s low, painful groans, a milky white bone shadow slowly separated from his chest.
Beside him, Qin Luoyi stared at the scene, slightly stunned.
She sensed the aura belonging to Yun Mu, and at the same time, she felt a unique Taoist Law force contained within.
“So this is Liuli Bone? A unique treasure of the Liuli Sacred Body among the Thirty-six Sacred Bodies… truly fascinating…”
Inside the courtyard.
Thunder roared, rain poured.
Shangguan Hongzhi felt the rapidly rising Law Taoist Runes around him and instantly unleashed all his Starforce.
Next to him, Lin Yayue, who had just arrived, was channeling her power into him just in case.
In mere moments, the previously shaky Formation had completely restored itself, containing all the Starforce that was about to leak out.
After a long while, as the gentle rain resumed, he laughed aloud, even embracing his wife in joyful laughter.
“Yayue, it worked! It really worked! Hahaha!”
Feeling his joy, the beautiful woman clearly understood what ‘worked’ meant.
She softly replied with a
“Mm,”
tears—rain or otherwise—dampening the corners of her eyes.
Inside the room,
The treatment continued, but this time it was not bone replacement but the additional eye replacement that Shangguan Hongzhi had requested.
This time, the surgeon was no longer Lu Qi but Qin Luoyi.
“What a beautiful pair of eyes. I really want to keep them for myself…”
The girl whispered as she gazed at Yun Mu lying quietly on the bamboo bed.
In her right hand was a green dagger unique to her.
“Lu Qi, what do you think… what would happen if I took these eyes now?”
“Don’t mess around. Even without these eyes, Yun Mu is still yours. Isn’t that enough?”
Hearing the weak yet slightly angry voice, the girl giggled twice.
Naturally, she knew about this deal and had no intention of retorting.
“Don’t worry, I’m just joking.”
She said this and gently brought the dagger to hover over the boy’s eyes.
Slowly, with madness and excitement, she stabbed down.
The green dagger barely touched the eyeball, like cutting tofu.
With slight pressure, the Obsidian Crystal Film was sliced open.
Then, with a circular flick of her hand, a thin crystal-like film lifted into midair.
Pain drove the boy’s instincts to raise his hand, but behind Qin Luoyi, the tree-like shadow extended vine-like tendrils that tightly bound his limbs and neck.
The Starforce named “Life” enveloped his entire body, gradually smoothing out his originally grimacing expression.
After a long moment, the girl slowly stood upright, gazing at the pair of “Black Obsidian” eyes suspended by Starforce in midair, her eyes filled with affection.
“Indeed, they are truly beautiful.”
“Qin Luoyi, don’t waste time…”
Another urgent voice called out; this time Lu Qi directly shouted her name.
She glanced at the old man casting a spell on Yun Mu, flicked the dagger disdainfully, then leisurely looked at the boy whose eyes still bled slightly.
Bending over, she leaned close and licked the blood away with her Peach Blossom Eyes, then smacked her lips with satisfaction before standing back up.
“Keep Yun Mu’s life force stable. If anything happens to him, I’ll have my father kill you, understood? Teacher.”
“Don’t worry, I do bear the title of celestial physician after all. Such a minor matter is manageable.”
Upon hearing this, she turned toward Shangguan Qiuyue.
“Peach blossoms blooming brilliantly, so beautiful, just like Sister Lin’s eyes. But alas, they’ve been tainted. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
She looked at the girl’s Peach Blossom Eyes, now stained with black, and sighed softly.
“I originally thought about keeping one eye for Little Yunzi. After all, one eye is better than none. Too bad, looks like it’s impossible.”
With that, she raised the dagger, her tone turning noticeably colder.
“You’re really lucky, little girl. Such beautiful eyes of Yunzi—make sure you cherish them.”
The blade fell, a more practiced removal, followed by an infusion of even stronger life force.
This time, her movements were noticeably rougher.
To her, since the girl’s eyes were useless, they no longer had reason to exist.
So after discarding the disheveled cherry-pink remains, countless arcs traced the air before falling to the ground.
The girl then donned the Pain Mask.
“All done… now just rest well. Such a ‘dying and living’ expression, you almost had me fooled into thinking you were Yun Mu…”
Qin Luoyi lightly tapped the girl’s face, flicked the blood from her hands with disdain.
Carefully, she held Yun Mu’s eyes between them as a greater Starforce began to surge from her.
She stared at the girl on the bed, slowly pushing the pair of eyes forward, her expression growing more pained.
“Shangguan Qiuyue… from now on, these eyes belong to you…”
“Yun Mu, belong to me.”
With those words, the treatment concluded, and the girl collapsed exhausted by the bedside, a faint smile curling at her lips.
Many years later, if anyone asked Yun Mu about his experience that day, he would smile and explain,
“That day, I felt some pain at first, but it soon disappeared. After that… I slept deeply until I woke.”
But… he would never say he had a dream.
In the dream, he first woke in a sea of blooming red spider lilies, unable to tell direction or time of day.
Only a bright star hung at the horizon, and he could only follow that single beam forward.
After an unknown time, a sharp pain spread throughout his body from a sudden collision, and he passed out.
When he awoke again, he sat beneath the peach tree in the side courtyard.
Many familiar faces walked past him—parents, master, Xun Yi, Qiuyue, even strangely, the not-so-familiar Sha Qianmo and Qin Luoyi.
Yet he didn’t find it odd because he also saw many faces he didn’t know at the time, including some small animals.
They came from afar, passed by his side, but they were strangers to him.
They merely passed—no words, no eye contact, no touch.
Yet… his heart stirred no waves.
He would never tell others that at that moment he seemed like a different person, even one unfamiliar to himself.
He would never tell others that Qin Luoyi later revealed the truth.
After that day, he had truly lost the soul called emotion.
Of course.
If anyone asked whether he knew how Shangguan Qiuyue felt, he would just shake his head in silence.
After all, he could never tell others that she, too, had a dream.
A dream in which she could only watch the boy walk further and further away, eventually disappearing from her world.
A dream that was far from pleasant.
But everyone knew: that night, the peach tree that had stood in the Shangguan household for many years fell.
There were signs before, but the cause remained unknown.