Rong Zheng got her answer and was ready to leave, not wanting to stay a moment longer.

However, the usually reticent Chen Yan suddenly had the urge to chat with her.

"Senior Sister Zheng, are you still seeking?"

Rong Zheng's steps slowed down involuntarily. Though she was anxious, she answered Chen Yan's question.

"Not seeking anymore, now I just want to reclaim what's mine."

"Reclaiming is also a form of seeking."

Chen Yan's arm tilted slightly, and the clear stream from the watering can sprinkled through the small holes, pattering down.

"The Twelve Shadow Guards of the Floating Pavilion, the previous leader was 'Kite', which is you, Senior Sister Zheng. The code names of the Shadow Guards are passed down through generations. When the previous Kite falls, the next Kite emerges. But your situation is special, so the Pavilion Master has temporarily put off the renaming.

Chen Yan wasn't trying to take the title from Senior Sister Zheng; he just remembered something. Before you, the leader of the Shadow Guards had a code name that was the character for 'struggle', a single word.

Why change it to 'Kite'? The Pavilion Master's thoughts are unfathomable, not for us to speculate. But I dare to think, whether it's 'struggle' or 'kite', both are destined to be trapped by their own constraints.

So, Senior Sister Zheng, since you've decided to cut the long string, don't linger, fly high and far."

It was rare for Chen Yan to speak so much, and even Rong Zheng, who had known him for so long, was hearing this for the first time.

She was a bit surprised, but also comforted. It seemed her past care for junior brothers and sisters like Chen Yan hadn't been in vain, as he was considering her well-being.

Rong Zheng smiled, not directly responding to Chen Yan's words, but instead saying that she would come back someday to water the stones with him when she had the time.

Chen Yan sighed.

"My mind is free of distractions, so I can do one thing here without worries, over and over.

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But you, Senior Sister, have a thousand thoughts, and will be weighed down by the stones on this mountain, unable to go far."

As he said this, his dark eyes glanced at Tao Mian, who was pretending to be invisible nearby.

"That one might be able to."

Tao Mian grinned, acting like he didn't understand anything, exuding a simple-minded aura.

Chen Yan could only shake his head helplessly.

"Well, well. Your fate doesn't lie here."

With a satisfied response, Tao Mian and Rong Zheng left.

They walked in silence. Rong Zheng was pondering, and Tao Mian was thinking too, one looking at the ground, the other at the sky.

Until Rong Zheng realized her mood was off and tried to change the atmosphere.

She tilted her head to look at Tao Mian walking beside her.

"Little Tao, if you keep staring at the moon, you'll bore a hole through it... What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking..." Tao Mian teased, as if about to share some profound insight, "Turns out Big Stone Mountain is really called Big Stone Mountain."

"......"

"I knew it," he said, punching his palm with satisfaction, "No one could see that big stone and not name the mountain Big Stone Mountain."

Rong Zheng's worries were unfounded.

She rubbed her cheeks to perk herself up.

Only then did Tao Mian remember the important matter.

"By the way, disciple, you said you know where the Snow-Embroidered Sword went. Where?"

Rong Zheng's eyes looked towards the end of the road.

"We need to return to the mortal world."

"The mortal world? I thought it was in the Demonic Realm."

Rong Zheng shook her head.

She said Du Hong had a woman he cherished like a treasure, and that woman was a mortal. To protect her, Du Hong never let her go to the Demonic Realm.

Just a few words, but they carried a lot of information.

Even the well-informed Tao Mian couldn't react immediately.

A woman?

And a mortal woman at that?

His first thought was that someone as cold as Du Hong, with ice in his veins, actually had the capacity to love someone.

And such a forbidden object of affection at that.

"Are you sure about this, Little Hua? This is too surprising. Du Hong actually has someone he loves? I'd sooner believe your junior brother Chen Yan would one day smash that big stone."

Rong Zheng was helpless.

"Junior Brother Chen Yan won't smash the big stone, and Pavilion Master Du will never waver in his feelings."

Du Hong would give anything in the world to that person, just to see her smile.

And what was the Snow-Embroidered Sword she valued so much? It was nothing.

If that person wanted her life, Du Hong probably wouldn't hesitate to have her, his capable subordinate, take her own life.

But she was too kind to ever make such an absurd demand.

Rong Zheng once wondered why this world was always unfair, needing darkness to highlight light, needing the mud in the pond to set off purity.

She was the moss that couldn't see the light, the dirty mud beneath the lotus.

The clearer Du Hong saw the blood on her hands, the more he cherished her purity.

No matter how many times she told herself it was all in the past, it didn't matter.

Rong Zheng would still clench her teeth, her hands and feet cold.

She owed Du Hong nothing, so why was she always forced to be compared to another?

What about moss? What about mud?

She was just—

"Little Hua?" Tao Mian called out to his disciple, and Rong Zheng realized he had already walked a few steps ahead, "What are you thinking about now?"

"…Thinking about some moss and mud."

"Oh," Tao Mian nodded, picking up a stick from somewhere and waving it in the air, "When we get back, let's use that empty water jar in the yard, make a simple landscape, grow some moss, and add a few red fish."

"No flowers?"

"Moss isn't good? Arrange a few stones in the jar, fill it with water. When the moss grows, my mountain will be in the water."

He pointed the stick high at an imaginary point in the air, perhaps a star, smiling as if his water mountain had already come to life.

Rong Zheng gazed at his profile for a long time, then suddenly smiled too.

"Then we must hurry back. Let's go, let's go, Little Tao, I've already passed you."

Tao Mian exclaimed, dropped his stick, and quickly caught up.

The place they were heading to was the Hibiscus Mansion in the mortal world.