"Banknote, we've arrived."

Tao Mian had hired a carriage, drawn by a bone demon horse unique to the Demonic Realm, and it moved swiftly.

They traveled westward, following the direction in Chu Liuxue's memory. Throughout the journey, the young girl kept peering out through the small curtain of the carriage window.

Around the hour of the Ox, they finally arrived.

After getting off the carriage, Tao Mian tipped the driver with a few pieces of silver. The driver touched the brim of his hat and nodded slightly in thanks.

With a whistle, the demon horse galloped away, leaving the place behind. Tao Mian turned back to see his disciple standing under the largest pear tree at the village entrance, her hand touching the trunk as she looked up.

The tree was barren, with no flowers or fruit, not even leaves—it had long since withered and died.

The village was much the same.

Chu Liuxue seemed lost in her memories, becoming even more silent. Tao Mian didn't want to disturb her and simply walked quietly behind her.

They passed through the sandy village road, with houses lined up on both sides. Once inhabited, they were now empty.

The things remained, but the people were gone.

Chu Liuxue mentioned to Tao Mian that there had been a famine here, and said no more.

There was no need to say more; everything was understood without words.

The village was built at the foot of a low mountain, with two or three households at its base. Chu Liuxue stopped in front of one of them.

This house was smaller and more dilapidated compared to the others, with half of its fence already broken. Chu Liuxue pushed open the courtyard gate and walked in, with Tao Mian following behind.

She didn't linger inside the house, as if there was nothing worth remembering, and instead walked straight through to the backyard.

There was another large pear tree here, even bigger than the one at the village entrance. Although it wasn't blooming, the lush canopy suggested that when it did, it would cover the sky with exquisite snowy white.

"It's still alive."

Chu Liuxue patted the trunk, as if visiting an old friend. Seeing that the tree still had a trace of life, she breathed a sigh of relief, her uplifted eyes revealing a hint of joy.

Beyond the courtyard was a small mountain. Chu Liuxue opened the small gate in the fence, and after Tao Mian passed through, she closed it behind them.

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This mountain was not as spiritually abundant as Peach Blossom Mountain, but it had a small amount of spiritual charm. Chu Liuxue walked along a long, narrow path, which to Tao Mian seemed indistinguishable from the surrounding shrubs and wild grass. Only the girl's familiarity in brushing aside the weeds with her sleeves revealed it was a path leading into the mountain.

They walked for an unknown amount of time before Chu Liuxue seemed inclined to stop. She looked around and finally arrived at a clearing.

The clearing was remote, with a cliff on one side, where a misstep could lead to a fall.

The wind in the valley stirred their clothes as Chu Liuxue stood tall and graceful in front of several desolate graves.

Five graves, four with tombstones, and another seemed to have been dug up and reburied, its story unknown.

A long trench separated two of the graves from the other three.

The girl's ponytail was blown by the wind as she stood with her back to Tao Mian, speaking of the graves' occupants in a quiet voice.

"Four graves, burying the old servant who saved me from the Dou family, my adoptive father, Scholar Chu, and the couple who later adopted me."

Chu Suiyan said that after she left the Demonic Realm, the old servant exchanged her for his newborn granddaughter, escaping death. The pursuers were relentless, and she barely managed to reach this village at the border of two realms, utterly exhausted.

She thought she and the infant would meet their end here, despairing on the path into the village, surrounded by blooming pear blossoms, covering the sky like pure white snow.

A kind scholar discovered the old and the young. At that time, the baby in the swaddling clothes opened her eyes, reflecting the endless white pear blossoms.

"Liu Xue, he gave me this name, not because of the winter snow, but because of those snow-like flying flowers."

The scholar took in the baby and the old servant. The old servant was illiterate, so the task of naming the child fell to the educated scholar.

He named the girl "Liu Xue." Pear blossoms filling the path, a thousand trees like snow—he imprinted the most beautiful moment of their first meeting into the girl's name.

Not long after, the old servant passed away. Her loyalty led her to sacrifice in times of crisis, but the baby, who should have been her granddaughter, haunted her dreams, bloodied. The old servant was tormented by guilt, becoming despondent, and soon her health failed.

Not wanting to burden the scholar, she walked into the woods, neither eating nor drinking for seven days, passing away on a silent moonlit night, her regret and guilt ending with her death.

From then on, the scholar and the girl, who had no blood relation, depended on each other. He taught her to read, to observe the stars, and took her to the mountains to learn which plants were poisonous and which were medicinal.

The scholar showed her a bright pink flower, calling it oleander. This flower was poisonous throughout, deadly to humans and animals if ingested.

But it was also a medicinal herb.

The scholar taught the girl not only knowledge but also principles. Flowers were innocent, only the intentions of those who used them mattered.

And human hearts were ever-changing, with good and evil born in a single thought.

The scholar was frail, and the girl, in order to treat him, taught herself medicine, even testing it on herself.

But life was like that, no matter how hard you tried, it was like drawing water with a bamboo basket—futile.

The scholar didn't want the girl to risk herself for him anymore, nor did he want her constantly going into the mountains. He wanted to talk with her a little longer.

He told her about her origins, as it was the old servant's dying wish, which he couldn't defy. But he didn't want the child he raised to be caught in a cycle of hatred. He said love has its limits, but hatred is endless. Revenge only begets more revenge, where does it end?

The girl didn't want the scholar to die with regrets, and even though she knew he had been poisoned, she nodded in agreement.

The scholar peacefully closed his eyes, as if falling asleep. The girl checked his breath, then slowly withdrew her trembling hand.

Knowing his days were numbered, the scholar had arranged a future for the girl, entrusting her to a couple in the village.

The couple asked for the girl's name, and she said she was called Chu Liuxue—Chu as in Chu River, Liu as in fleeting, Xue as in flying snow.

She thought that since nothing could be retained, there was no need to hold onto a name, a bubble-like beautiful thought.

The scholar gave all his savings to the couple, and only then did they agree to take in Chu Liuxue. Living under someone else's roof, she learned various household chores at a young age, serving her nominal "parents," but at that time, she didn't resent them.

It wasn't until they sold her to a high-class brothel that Chu Liuxue felt the emotion called "hatred" for the first time.

She poisoned the traffickers to death; no one expected such a young child to know how to use poison, and the traffickers were naturally unprepared.

Neither were Chu Liuxue's adoptive parents.

"My benefactors are buried here, and so are my enemies."

Chu Liuxue looked at the four graves with tombstones—the old servant, the scholar, her adoptive father and mother—their spirits seemed to silently watch her, right in front of her.

There was also an empty grave, prepared early, abandoned several times.

"Tao Mian," Chu Liuxue suddenly called the immortal's name, "you are a person of utmost goodness, being with you makes one forget scheming, forget past hatred."

She seemed to recall everything about Peach Blossom Mountain, her expression relaxed, her eyes sparkling like stars.

But that starlight dimmed again.

"But my cultivation is insufficient, love and hate, I still cannot let go."

She didn't want those she hated to laugh in their graves, disturbing the ones she loved next to them.