The morning mist curled lazily across the forest path, and birdsong flitted between the trees. Somewhere ahead, Jiang Fenglie was loudly arguing with Liu Fenglan about who got to carry the dried meat snacks they'd bartered from the last hunting.
"I'm just saying," Fenglan huffed, "if I carry them, there's less risk of someone eating them all before lunch."
Fenglie snorted, tossing his braid back over his shoulder. "I didn't eat all of them. Zhenhai had three!"
Zhenhai, walking calmly at the back, didn't even glance up. "...I had one."
Mo Tianzun, walking a little further behind the group, hid his laughter behind a raised sleeve. His lips curved faintly, but there was a tension to his eyes—like sunlight breaking through a storm cloud, only to vanish again.
He had been unusually quiet since sunrise.
Not that the others noticed—yet. Shuiyun was busy collecting dew from rare flowers. Huayin was giving Longxuan an in-depth lecture about the medicinal properties of squirrel poop, which Longxuan regretted asking about.
Only Longxuan occasionally glanced back.
Mo Tianzun's steps were just a beat too slow.
"Your foot's dragging again," the Crown Prince said when they paused by a stream. He bent slightly and touched Xuanji's sleeve. "Did you twist something?"
"No," Tianzun said shortly, then smirked. "Unless you count the twisted fate that made me your companion."
Fenglan snorted behind them. "Is that your way of flirting?"
Tianzun raised a brow. "Was I not clear?"
Zhenhai whispered to Fenglan, "He's not denying it."
As the group laughed, Tianzun turned away. His fingers twitched at his side.
He could feel it again. That sharp surge of energy under his skin—an ancient qi not meant to be contained in this mortal flesh. It whispered beneath his ribs like wildfire, pulsing with each breath. Andhis hair… he caught a glimpse in the stream.
White. More than yesterday.
He shoved the thought aside.
Later, as they reached a clearing for rest, Shuiyun threw himself onto a patch of grass and dramatically declared, "If anyone wishes to bathe me, I am open to suggestions!"
Huayin didn't miss a beat. "The lake's that way. Throw yourself in."
"Cruel fox," Shuiyun sniffled.
Tianzun managed a chuckle but excused himself quietly.
He didn't walk far—just to the edge of a low cliff that overlooked a narrow valley choked with mist. The wind was cool here, brushing past his sweat-damp collar, lifting strands of that betraying white hair.
He leaned against a tree and breathed out.
His body was too still. Not weak, not dying—but shifting. Reforging itself. The vessel that once held Lin Xuanji's soft soul now straining to hold the storm that was Mo Tianzun, Lord of the Abyss.
"...Ican't stay like this," he murmured. "Not with them. Not with him."
A familiar warmth pressed behind him.
"You always try to leave when you're hurting."
Tianzun stiffened. He turned to see Longxuan there, gaze steady, expression soft.
"I'm not—hurting."
Longxuan didn't argue. He simply walked closer until their foreheads touched.
"I know what returning power feels like. I saw you in the palace for the first time—a deity's reincarnated vessel breaking open from the inside. It's not something a body forgets."
Silence.
Then Tianzun's voice broke, low and bitter. "I was supposed to die. I was meant to stay buried in that abyss. I chose to return to save you… but now this—this thing inside me is waking again."
Longxuan cupped his face. "You're not a thing."
"I'm not Xuanji anymore. I was never been that Xuanji everyone knows as a weak Young Master of Yunxiao Healer Sect"
"I never asked you to be."
That undid him.
Tianzun trembled, the wind catching the edge of his robes. Longxuan stepped forward and wrapped him into his arms.
"If the heavens turn against you,I will not," he whispered.
"Even if I turn against myself?" Tianzun asked, voice raw.
"Then I'll fight you," Longxuan smiled against his ear. "And win."
Tianzun's laughter shook against him, low and pained and grateful. "That's cheating."
They stood there for a long time—past when the sun dipped low, past when the others finally stopped shouting and looking for them. Just two figures on a cliff, holding the truth of who they were in silence.
The wind rose again, scattering white strands into the air.
But this time, Mo Tianzun didn't hide them.