Chapter 75

The grotto estate at Changguang Mountain.

Immortal Lord He jolted awake from his sleep, cold sweat crawling down his back and soaking through his entire night robe. He looked like he had just been fished out of water. In his sheer panic, beads of sweat still seeped from his hair and dripped down the wrinkles of his face.

He had never felt such intense terror. Possessing Lin Zhao's body, he had truly died once. Lin Yu's reaction had been too fast—she had sensed something amiss within two sentences and, without a moment's hesitation, driven a blade into him.

A ripple of dread that started at his head and worked its way down to his toes stirred a wave of fear in his heart. His pulse, silent for a hundred years, now pounded violently once more. It was rare for him to feel so vividly "alive."

"Immortal Lord, why are you up?" the attending immortal servant asked, seeing the man on the bed startle awake. "Was it a nightmare?"

The servant's words snapped Immortal Lord He out of his churning emotions. He was deeply displeased with these newly recruited servants. "Immortals do not have nightmares," he reminded coldly. "Nightmares are for weak mortals. Get out and stand guard. You are not to enter unless I summon you!"

The servant knew he had misspoken and quickly withdrew. Once he had walked a good distance and left the grotto estate, he grumbled to himself, cursing Immortal Lord He twice under his breath. Feeling satisfied with his little revolt, he bounded off cheerfully.

Once the figure disappeared from sight, Immortal Lord He felt a sudden, inexplicable fear. The pitch-dark grotto revealed nothing. He was sensitive to light and never allowed lamps at night, but this utter blackness now stirred a thread of unease in him.

"Someone, come back! All of you, guard the entrance of the estate. Let no one approach—don't even let a fly in!" Immortal Lord He ordered toward a small bronze mirror beside his bed.

The mirror carried his voice. Soon, a steady stream of immortal servants returned under orders and took up their posts outside the estate. The silent grotto filled with rustling footsteps and murmurs. The new servants were utterly ignorant of proper decorum—had this been any other night, Immortal Lord He would have scolded them. But tonight was different. Hearing the voices, he settled slightly and lay back down under the covers.

The events of the past few days flashed through his mind in rapid succession. Ten days ago, he had his third dream since ascending to immortality, and once again, he had dreamed of the madwoman who had killed him.

His instincts told him that Lin Jiyue was certainly not dead. So he had gone to Si Ming in the dead of night and, through her fate ledger, tracked down her elder sister, Lin Zhao. From there, he had followed the trail to Yu Jia.

He had skimmed through Lin Zhao's fate ledger. Ten years of cultivation, extraordinary talent, a half-immortal body, and the potential for ascension. Reading the first part of the ledger, Immortal Lord He had felt genuine fear. If Lin Zhao possessed such talent, then Lin Jiyue could only be even more formidable.

But when he turned to the final page, he laughed in relief. The ledger gave Lin Zhao a hasty end: no further possibility of ascension, and death at the hands of an elder of Heaven's Mandate Tower on the eve of the Moon God Festival, serving as the eleventh sacrificial offering.

Immortal Lord He's fingertip traced the last line of the ledger, and he spotted a familiar name—Yu Jia. He had seen Yu Jia once at a sacrificial rite. And so, a plan took shape in his mind.

Through the Xianzun of Heaven's Mandate Tower, he summoned Imperial Preceptor Yu Jia and "revived" Lin Zhao's body before his eyes. Yu Jia was moved to tears on the spot, cradling "Lin Zhao" and sobbing so hard he could barely speak. But Immortal Lord He found it all rather dull. Having overseen mortal matrimony for a hundred years, he could easily see that Yu Jia's eyes held nothing but guilt.

Guilt was only natural. Besides, that puppet was merely a construct he had shaped from a red thread—not a real person. Immortal Lord He let out a cold snort. Anyone would feel guilty over Lin Zhao's fate. And once the guilt passed, it would only turn into disgust.

Immortal Lord He had helped Yu Jia "revive" his so-called wife, so it was only natural that he proposed his own deal: Yu Jia was to find Lin Jiyue and kill her.

He was extremely confident in this. Lin Jiyue must still be alive. So he manipulated "Lin Zhao" to lead Yu Jia around on aimless outings, certain that Lin Jiyue would come looking for her sister.

As soon as she showed up, Yu Jia would kill her.

But things had taken an entirely different turn than he had expected. A few hours ago, through the puppet of Lin Zhao's eyes, he had seen Yu Jia's desire to marry. His nearly prophetic instincts flared again. He sensed that Lin Jiyue would come to find "Lin Zhao" tonight, so he possessed the puppet.

It was only when he saw Lin Yu in that instant that the blood in his veins seemed to run cold. He realized then that everything was wrong. He had seen Lin Yu's face before. Not in a dream—but three months ago, at the Divine Maiden's sacrificial rite. That day, he had possessed a minor worshipper to observe the ceremony. Not for any particular reason—just because the Xianzun had said the new Divine Maiden bore a striking resemblance to A Si.

At this very moment, Immortal Lord He was possessing Lin Zhao's body. He sat on the bright red wedding bed, layers of crimson fabric reflected in his eyes, and everything felt unreal.

Ten years of dreams. Ten years of nightmares that had haunted him.

Only now did he understand why he had never caught the little girl from back then. He had dreamed of the future, and ten years later, Lin Jiyue knew about his prophetic dreams. So when she came to kill him, she had worn a disguised face. He had spent ten years searching for a face that didn't exist, never able to piece together the logic of it all.

He had been born with the gift of absolute, accurate foresight. He had thought it was his talent. Even as a mortal, he had known he would one day ascend to immortality, so until the day of his ascension, he had never expected anything. Everything was simply fate.

But heaven had granted him too great a gift, and he lacked the ability to match it. And so, that same gift became his death warrant.

It was only upon seeing the real Lin Jiyue that Immortal Lord He considered retreat. He had schemed for years, but when confronted with the real thing, he understood that fear had already burrowed deep into his bones. Even before she had done anything, he was already afraid.

Immortal Lord He knew that Lin Jiyue now went by the alias Lin Yu, which the Xianzun of Heaven's Mandate Tower had mentioned. So he had speculated on how Lin Zhao might interact with Lin Yu, and, bewitched by his own thoughts, he had called out, "Little Yu."

But with those two words alone, Lin Jiyue had instantly known that "Lin Zhao" was a fake and, without hesitation, killed her body with a single strike.

The sensation of dying nearly dragged Immortal Lord He back a hundred years, to when he was still a mortal. He had been an immortal for centuries, and never had he been so utterly humiliated.

As he ruminated in the darkness, an unpleasant smile surfaced on Immortal Lord He's lips. So what if she had seen through him? At least he had gotten a look at Lin Jiyue's face. He knew her identity now.

He burst into wild laughter. A Divine Maiden of Heaven's Mandate Tower, trying to slay gods—she might have gotten away with it once, but if he sent a single command to the Xianzun of Heaven's Mandate Tower, Lin Yu was as good as dead. There was no reason for him to be afraid.

Immortal Lord He's racing heart calmed slightly. He had already left Lin Zhao's puppet body and escaped that damned Imperial Preceptor's manor. No matter how capable Lin Jiyue was, she would never find him here. All the cards were in his hands now.

With that thought, Immortal Lord He threw off the troublesome brocade quilt, climbed out of bed, and strode to his desk. He dashed off an order in no time, then picked it up to read it over. Satisfied with the ink on paper, he addressed the shifting shadows outside his door: "Go. Deliver this order to Heaven's Mandate Tower and give it to their Xianzun!"

"No, a mere order won't be enough. To be safe, I'll go to Heaven's Mandate Tower myself as well. I need to tell that mortal Xianzun that a villain has infiltrated their tower!"

Immortal Lord He muttered to himself: "And who knows what fool picked that Divine Maiden? That Xianzun is an idiot too. He let someone like that infiltrate Heaven's Mandate Tower without sensing a thing. I say that tower is doomed to be torn down sooner or later!"

"Ha! That bastard Xianzun even dared to say Lin Jiyue looks like A Si. He's blind!"

Immortal Lord He stood behind the door, talking to himself for a long while. The shadows outside still swayed, but no one answered. No one pushed the door open to take his order. Puzzled, he shoved the door wide. The several immortal servants by the door stood stiff and straight, all with their backs to him. He called out twice, but no matter how loudly he shouted, there was no response.

The servants still stood motionless, as if deaf. A gust of fierce wind swept up, chilling to the bone. Their slender, water-blue robes were whipped upward and spun in spirals, resembling nothing so much as white silk nooses, and with their rigid postures, it was a truly eerie sight at first glance.

Immortal Lord He failed to notice the subtle death in the air. Annoyance simmered into rage. "Are you deaf or mute? When you were my followers, you all talked so sweetly. Now that I give you a task, you play dumb? You—"

He slapped the shoulder of the nearest servant, but to his surprise, the man toppled over like a wooden board and rolled twice on the ground.

"D-dead!" Immortal Lord He's pupils contracted sharply. At the same moment, a gentle, almost imperceptible draft slipped through the collar at the nape of his neck and seeped into his robes. His mind nearly stopped from sheer fright.

He tensed and shoved the others one by one. They all fell at a touch, long since lifeless. Instantly, terror seized him. He felt someone staring at him from behind. Shivering, he turned stiffly—and met a face he feared more than anything in the world.

Slightly upturned phoenix eyes made her features look remarkably bold. It was a face utterly different from Lin Yu's true visage. The crimson divine mark on her brow was hidden; her forehead was smooth and bare. The most striking feature of her entire face were her lips, painted with bright red lip color.

Ten years ago, Immortal Lord He had dreamed of and sketched this very face, and he had ordered his people to find it. Anyone of the right age with even a trace of resemblance was to be killed without exception.

Only when reality replayed it all before him did he realize that Lin Yu's lower face had been covered by a mask—a pale, paper-white mask with bright red lips painted into a wide, laughing grin. So what he had seen all along was simply a mask, and he had mistaken it for the real thing.

Lin Yu gave him a faint smile, her phoenix eyes curving gently. Her tone was soft and warm. "Immortal Lord He. We meet again."

Those few words branded themselves onto Immortal Lord He's heart like the whisper of a demon. When a person is terrified to the absolute extreme, they cannot scream. His mouth gaped wide, his eyes bulged as if they might pop from their sockets—but not a sound came out.