While Ye Yun and Gu Chen were chatting over tea, Gu Xiaoyue on the other side had transformed into a tour guide for the Gu Dao Immortal Palace, leading the others on a stroll.
Although they were mostly uninterested in an ordinary lower-level continent, this world, having birthed the anomaly that was Ye Yun, made everything feel incredibly novel.
Especially when Gu Xiaoyue guided Fang Zhiwei and the others to places Ye Yun had previously frequented.
For instance, the peak of Mount Qianren, where the Grand Competition of the Four Sects had taken place, followed by the ruins of the Sage's Remnant where Ye Yun was later besieged, and then they even visited the demon race's territory…
Among them, Lin Xueyan and Bai Xiaoxiao did not accompany them, both finding excuses to leave temporarily.
Lin Xueyan, returning to the Profound Heaven Continent after many years, went directly back to the original location of the Lin family.
After all these years, the Lin family's former residence within the city remained unchanged. With the prestige they had left behind, no one dared to harbor any ill intentions towards the Lin family ruins.
It was somewhat ironic that after learning about Lin Xueyan's story, many people began visiting the place as a tourist attraction.
Standing before the ruins, Lin Xueyan gazed at everything in front of her, her expression exceedingly complex.
Sometimes she wondered, if nothing had happened, what would she be like? Perhaps she would have grown up ordinarily, naturally becoming a pillar of the Lin family, married to a normal young master from another family, and lived an ordinary life thereafter.
If that were the life, what would it be like? Would she still have met her master and experienced so much with him as she had now?
Lin Xueyan lingered briefly in the city before leaving and heading straight to the place outside the city where the Lin family members were buried.
Everything was so familiar yet foreign. As no one had tended to it for a long time, the burial mounds were overgrown with weeds and piled high with fallen leaves.
"Father, Mother, your daughter has returned to see you…"
She knelt before the tombstone and lightly kowtowed.
Although she was now considered a Female Emperor even in the Heavenly Domain, here, she was merely the eldest daughter of the Lin family, protected by her parents and family.
Time passed slowly. Footsteps sounded from behind, and a graceful figure appeared at some unknown moment.
She raised her hand, and streams of light shot from her fingertips. The nearby weeds turned into green light and dissipated, and the fallen leaves on the ground vanished into the earth.
She walked to Lin Xueyan's back, then to her side, and slowly knelt down, offering a salute just as Lin Xueyan had done.
"I'm sorry."
She didn't say much more, as some things were meaningless to discuss now.
Clearly, after interacting with Ye Yun, she had undergone many changes subtly.
Listening to the voice beside her, Lin Xueyan remained silent for a long time.
Finally, Lin Xueyan slowly shook her head and said,
"The true culprit who killed them, I have already killed with my own hands."
…
In contrast to the somber atmosphere here.
On the other side, at the Bai family on Misty Mountain, although they were severely weakened by Ye Yun's previous actions,
As the family that produced Ye Yun's disciple, the Bai family, despite being ostracized and even ridiculed due to Bai Xiaoxiao's affairs, no force dared to truly harm them.
And today happened to be the death anniversary of the family head's wife, so the entire Bai family's atmosphere was quiet from top to bottom, with no one raising their voice.
Inside the newly built ancestral hall, the memorial ceremony had just concluded.
Bai Qinghong, along with the elders and disciples of the clan, then departed.
Only Bai Tianchen remained kneeling before the ancestral tablet, his expression somber as he looked at his deceased wife's memorial tablet.
Compared to the spirited demeanor of several years ago, he now possessed a touch of the weariness befitting an old man.
"Yu'er, fifteen years have almost passed in a blink of an eye, and it's been many years since that incident. I wonder if you can forgive my selfishness back then in the underworld…"
The "incident" referred to was naturally the day Ye Yun came looking for Bai Xiaoxiao and took her away.
That day was still deeply etched in Bai Tianchen's memory. He couldn't say whether he hated Ye Yun or thanked him for preventing him from continuing down the wrong path.
But no matter what, it had all passed. Bai Xiaoxiao had left him and never returned, and perhaps they would never see each other again.
Thinking of this, some long-buried memories gradually resurfaced, and unconsciously, he began to murmur, as if speaking to the person in the memorial tablet.
"In the years right after you passed, every time I came for the memorial ceremony, your daughter used to sit behind me. She would always wait until I called her to leave."
"If you could see, you would have been very happy all those years, wouldn't you? I'm just sorry, but after that, I couldn't let her see you again."
"Looking at it this way, I was not only a bad father but also a bad husband."
"I don't know if I'll ever have the chance to let her see you again…"
He said this distractedly, and almost instinctively turned his head to look.
But it was precisely this glance that revealed a white figure, as if appearing out of thin air, kneeling at the entrance of the ancestral hall, in the same position where Bai Xiaoxiao used to be.
But it was only a fleeting glance. He instinctively cried out.
"Xiaoxiao?"
However, before he could even speak, the white figure had already vanished from the spot the moment he lost focus. It was as if it were a hallucination.
Everything seemed to have never happened, as if it had utterly vanished without a trace.
"Was that… a hallucination?"
This fleeting scene made him doubt his own eyes.
After all, from beginning to end, he hadn't felt anything unusual, not even a trace left behind, not even a speck of dust disturbed.
If it were truly a person, how terrifying would their strength be?
At least, killing him would probably be as easy as playing.
When he turned around in confusion and looked at the memorial tablet again, he was stunned.
Before his wife's tablet lay a pale green crystal cube, emanating an unparalleled sacred aura.
Bai Tianchen looked around in astonishment, but he found no one, as if a ghost had appeared.
But soon, Bai Tianchen seemed to understand something, his hands holding the object trembling, and two streams of tears uncontrollably flowed down his face…
…
On a peak of Misty Mountain, Bai Xiaoxiao sat alone on the edge of the cliff, gazing peacefully at the mountain scenery.
After many years, she could still vaguely see traces left by her master back then, but now, after so many years, everything had changed.
In unfamiliar buildings, there were familiar figures, much like herself, who had been born here yet felt so estranged from it.
After so much time had passed and so much had been experienced, looking back at the past, she found that nothing from back then could stir even a ripple in her heart.
Whether it was her hateful elder brother Bai Qinghong or her scoundrel father Bai Tianchen, it didn't matter to her anymore.
The only one she cared about, perhaps, was her mother who had doted on her, and now her wish was fulfilled.
"I wonder if Master and the others are done talking. I should hurry back…"
Bai Xiaoxiao stood up, stretched languidly, showcasing her graceful figure, and then her form vanished.
…