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One can live as they wish in this realm. Rafting, swimming, fowl-watching, fincatching... You're not me, so how would you understand the joy I derive from this land?

You find joy in dragging your tail through the mud?!

Seasons change, life and death come and go, joy is but a speck, and sorrow the same... to me, these joys and sorrows are but floating weeds on the Dusk River. Where the wind blows, I go.

If one day a finbeast devours me whole, I shall drift freely for ten thousand miles with the current; if a fowlbeast snatches me, I shall be lifted up into the highest heavens.

Will you raise your weapon against the wind, a fin, a fowlbeast?

To be used or cast aside is of the times; to act or to hide is of my own will.

That is what Ju and I have come here to tell you.

Continue your reckless act, and you shall only meet your end—A Feranmut's end, with your shell no more, as only ash and dust.

Simply put, we pity you, our kin.

Pity?! For your kin?!

The two of you only leave me with shame.

Kin, you say?

The two of you, as primordial manifestations of 'nature' and 'rules', are groveling at my feet to surrender the ages?!

Puny, weak, filthy, low... What grants you two rotting corpses the right to call yourselves my kin?

I'll lose my body, and end as only ash and dust?

Heh, the destruction in your eyes is to me simply a return.

A return.

To the sleepless chaos, the indistinguishable dawn.

So what if I am reduced to nothing? So what if I am consigned to eternal nothingness?

This realm is but a coffin with no borders in sight. A thousand years I have waited, and the only thing missing is a dark red pattern—

Soaked, painted, lined, and carved...

A breathtaking pattern made from Its flesh and cries.

You take this realm as a coffin... Is it then not a waste, preserving this vast realm when only death awaits you?

I dwell within a leaf, but see an entire realm within... All things arise from the mind, and it should stay free and unfettered.

*sigh*...Is it this realm that confines you?

The land trembles from its master's rage. The chill of the cold, jade mountains grows even sharper from Her raging fury.

But the old man merely taps his long staff on the water's surface, and a plum blossom blooms on the river that has never melted.

Hah... so you wish to face me in my own realm?

Arrow's nocked.

Yes, use your arrow, your staff, your pest-like forms to smash all that you see as coffins!

Then come with me in your sly disciple's stead, and take a good look for yourselves...

Witness how this thousand-year old feud shall finally end.

Ya's figure vanishes into thin air, leaving only Ju and Hou on the frozen river.

...Ju?

I see stopping the war is no longer possible.

Are we really going to destroy this realm She has preserved for so many years?

Pity for your kin' really struck a nerve with Ya, but isn't that why we've been trying to make Her see the error of Her ways? How can we drive the knife even deeper when She's already wallowing in self-abandonment?

So from now on, must we only watch from the sidelines as Wang's plot unfolds?

We guided that lass once. We saved that Candleholder, and even stood in for that precious disciple of yours. We've done our part for Wang.

He probably knows we can't stop Ya, which is why he even let us involve ourselves in this troublesome affair in the first place.

He really is like It. Only, he has a bit more...

What's done is done. Let's just rest on this river and partake in the scenery from a millennium ago.

Time's running out for It as well.

Aiyo...

Wait, I'm back?

And you're alive too! Where's Ya?

I saw an old man and a... person covered with machinery.

They stopped Ya, then they all vanished.

Someone covered in metal? Don't tell me—

Damn it, I was so close! Why am I the only one who hasn't seen Him!

Forget it. Since He's already here, I'm sure I'll get another chance to meet Him when this is all done with.

...*cough*...

Thanks... for saving me earlier.

Saving you?

Haha... Without my convincing performance, she would've thought my actual intel was fake, right? Wouldn't that be a real shame?

...What?

What were you planning, divulging the location of Bu Fan to that proxy?

You keep asking me what mission the Old Tianshi gave me, right?

Man... you wouldn't believe me anyway, maybe when you become that Sui Regulator Supervisor whatchamacallit...

...What was that?

From far away, a bugle horn sounds, sending Mo Yi in a frantic search for its source, but to Zuo Le, it could not be more familiar.

That's Yumen's call to march.

Yumen... is preparing for an assault on the Tomb of Sui.

So soon?! The bestial Sui hasn't woken up, right—

The bestial Sui has yet to wake, the city is in chaos, and the Sui Regulator still hasn't fulfilled its duties... how could they possibly issue the order to attack the tomb right now?

Something must have happened inside Yumen... I should—

Well then, get going!

But we have to take that token to the Tomb of Sui!

After a moment of silence, Zuo Le speaks with hesitation.

Can I... trust you...?

Just shut up... and leave it to me.

...Since you saved my life earlier.

...Stay safe.

<p=2>The Day of the Full Moon</>

Baizao outskirts, near the Tomb of Sui.

An old man stands alone amidst dry grass and withered poplars, silently staring at where the barrens end, in the direction of Baizao's urban core.

Gah... it's been so cold this autumn.

What are you doing out here all alone, on a day this cold?

Waiting for someone.

Oh... have you eaten?

Here, I have a bag of buns with me. Fill your belly a little?

We can eat once everyone's here.

If we're gonna wait for more, then I better prepare a proper meal, buns won't do...

...Do you think they'll come back?

What do <i>you</i> think?

Of course I think they will!

I know we rarely come together, we always argue whenever we do meet; we don't share the same hobbies and have conflicting personalities...

But it's times like these that I believe our hearts are all as one!

Though, even if everyone comes back, can we even...?

*sigh*...

I'll wait with you then.