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"Of course! I’m so bored, will you take me down the mountain to play?" Lan Xi lay on the soft collapse in front of him, her little paws tugging at his ink-black hair.

Crown Prince Ya shook his head, firmly refusing, "No, I must practice techniques. Become stronger, much stronger. That way, I can protect Lan Xi."

"Tsk, I don’t need your protection," Lan Xi pouted, then disappeared again.

The purple-clad young man suppressed the stirring in his heart and returned to entering meditation to practice techniques.

How could he not want to play with her?

But every time he thought about what happened in the Demon Realm, he felt a shudder of fear.

He would never let what happened last time occur again, so he had to work hard to become strong, so strong that he could protect her anywhere.

Lan Xi sat on the roof of Taibai Hall, gazing at the endless mountain ranges below and watching the white clouds float amongst them.

With one hand propping up her chin in low spirits, she thought of the handsome brother who was the first person she saw upon waking up from her illness.

Where had Ah Qing gone, and why hadn’t she seen him for so long?

Didn’t he say he would play with her, accompany her to pick peaches?

In some corner she couldn’t see, the young man had always been silently watching her.

It was just that he was commanded by Immortal Taibai and Queen Mother of the Heavenly Emperor, forbidden to approach Lan Xi.

But he had promised her, to always be by her side, no matter what he had gone through.

He would never leave her, even if he couldn’t see her, he’d watch over her from afar.

Days swiftly passed by.

One thousand years, two thousand years, three thousand years...

Five thousand years... ten thousand years...

Lan Xi had once again grown from a tiny dot into a tall and slender young girl with a graceful figure, an ethereal fairy robe, exquisite looks, and skin as white as snow.

She was recognized as the most beautiful girl in heaven and earth.

Crown Prince Ya had grown taller.

He was no longer the boy in the purple clothing, but instead a man of outstanding elegance, as debonair as a jade tree facing the wind.

Wearing a purple robe with dragon patterns, regal yet dashing, he liked to follow behind Lan Xi, calling her "wife!"

Lan Xi also learned from her mother that she was betrothed to Crown Prince Ya since childhood.

Although she hated him calling her that, her mother said the engagement was set and it was an unchangeable ending.

The day was sunny and bright.

"Elder martial brother, where are you?" Lan Xi, holding a seed the size of an egg, searched all over the room for someone.

And ten thousand years later, Mi Xi was no longer the young boy who couldn’t even beat the black-clad youth in a fight.

He had also become a sunny, carefree, and handsome large man, with white clothes fluttering, and a folding fan in his hand, his presence casting splendorous lights, attracting the Fairy Maids to pause in their tasks and steal glances at him.

Lan Xi looked around but could not find Mi Xi.

Her dejected appearance was noticed by Zi Yun, who then told her, "Your Highness Lan Xi, Immortal Mi Xi is at the foot of Mount Taibai."

Without a second thought, Lan Xi vanished in the blink of an eye.

At the foot of Mount Taibai, Lan Xi, holding the seed, landed in the valley. She crouched on the ground, observing from a distance the man lying on the grass fast asleep.

Afterward, she cheerfully approached him, "Elder martial brother, come take a look, Crown Prince Ya gave me a seed of the Tree of Immortality. I want to plant it at the foot of White Cloud Mountain by the Western Sea, and in the future, it will bear the Fruit of Immortality."

Hearing this, Mi Xi opened his eyes, looked back at her with a gentle smile, "Sister, you really do have clout. Heaven treats these seeds as treasures, never willing to give them away. It seems our Crown Prince Ya really treats you exceptionally well."

This little martial sister of his, she genuinely used to scare him.

She was also the one who caused the most trouble, but since she stopped seeing that mortal man, she had become much more obedient.

The biggest trouble she had caused in recent years was stealing an entire tree of peaches from the Queen Mother to give the junior martial nephews at Taibai Hall an extra treat.

Yet, instead of taking her to task, the Queen Mother even sent the Seven Fairies to deliver a lot of peaches specially.

"Isn’t that obvious! Since I was little, everyone has been good to Xixi... But I know, it’s all because I will inherit Mother’s will and become the supreme deity of this world," Lan Xi crouched beside Mi Xi, her expression turning solemn.

Although she didn’t care about those things, she was well aware that without this status, the Heavenly Emperor would never let Crown Prince Ya marry a wife who could do nothing but cause mischief.

"Lan Xi you are the daughter of a deity, a princess of the Goddess Palace. In the future, you will marry into the Heavenly Family. Whatever belongs to the Crown Prince is also yours. Since the engagement is set, stop thinking of other things. Crown Prince Ya is good to you, isn’t he?"

"Stop talking about it, elder martial brother, I don’t want to marry him! Hurry over and help me plant this seed," Lan Xi diverted the topic. Every time she thought about marrying Crown Prince Ya, it made her feel suffocated and uncomfortable.

White Cloud Mountain by the Western Sea, where the Spiritual Energy was rich and few people ventured, was most suitable for planting the Fruit of Immortality.

Lan Xi and Mi Xi planted the fruit together, and afterward, they visited every day to water it, watching it grow.

Over ten thousand years, Mi Xi watched Lan Xi grow up, so, naturally, he developed feelings for her. At least, he felt that aside from a few minor flaws, she was full of virtues.

For example, she was beautiful and astute.

That day, Lan Xi, as usual, intended to find Mi Xi to water the Fruit Tree of Immortality together.

However, she couldn’t find him anywhere.

So she went alone.

At the White Cloud Mountain by the Western Sea, clouds steamed and mists rose; the large swaths of clouds at the horizon adorned this world with incomparable beauty.

As she approached the Tree of Immortality, she stumbled upon a man in black.

The man had a tall figure and a slender frame, with a seven-foot longsword thrust into the ground. His black hair hung loosely behind him, topped with a simple hair bun secured by a jade crown.

It was just a silhouette, but Lan Xi felt a sense of familiarity.

Out of curiosity, she quietly flashed over to stand in front of the man.

Her sudden appearance startled the man.

And Lan Xi was stunned as well.

The man before her had thick brows and sharp eyes, a high nose bridge, and thin lips pressed in a faint arc.

The lines of his face were smooth, and his eyes held an indelible coldness and pride, much like drifting clouds, extremely familiar to her.

"Ah Qing!" she called out his name.

He was about to flee, but suddenly, he couldn’t move.

"Is it you, Ah Qing? Didn’t you say you would accompany me to pick peaches? Why did you vanish all of a sudden? I searched the entire Taibai Hall, did you leave?" She grabbed his sleeve, fearing he would disappear in the blink of an eye.

The man stiffened for a long while before slowly turning back, not expecting that after ten thousand years, she still remembered him.

The extremely handsome man revealed an awkward smile for the first time in ten thousand years, "Your Highness Lan Xi. I have always been by your side!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he withdrew his sleeve and, indeed, disappeared the next second.

She could tell he was not an immortal, yet he possessed a mighty power that allowed him to traverse time and space instantly.

She looked up, searching for traces of him but found nothing.

She squatted by the sapling, feeling a wave of despondency. It was as if with his departure, he took some piece of joy from her heart.

"Ah Qing, am I too nasty? Is that why you don’t want to play with me? Have you always been hiding from me?" Lan Xi hugged her knees, sitting under the Tree of Immortality by herself for an entire afternoon.

Not far from her, behind a large tree.

The man in black stood there, keeping her company for the entire afternoon as well.

For ten thousand years, he had been by her side; it was just that she couldn’t see him.

If possible, he wished to stay with her for eternity.

He thought since their lives were intertwined, they should be able to walk together to the end of life.

Another thousand years passed, and Lan Xi miraculously became even more ladylike and well-behaved than before.

Other than practicing her techniques, she either slept or secretly ran to the back mountain to drink.

Because she found that sometimes when she got drunk, she could see Ah Qing.

Every time she saw him, she felt an intense warmth.

And often, when she sobered up from her drunken state, there was a blanket over her.

She knew he was around, but she couldn’t grasp his shadow.

"Ah Qing, I know you’re here. Can you come out so we can talk?" Lan Xi hugged the blanket, looking for the man everywhere. In the end, all she found were cracks left by the longsword.

She knew that was where he had once stood; he liked to thrust his sword into the ground.

More than ten thousand years had passed, enough time to change many things.

And the Demon Realm gained a drop of Primordial Spirit Blood.

As a result, their Demon Lord cultivated into a demigod and acquired unparalleled strength.

The Yellow Desolation Mountain was the boundary between the Demon Realm and the Immortal Realm, on the edge of the Northern Wasteland.

It had always been a battlefield between immortals and demons hence the harsh environment, overgrown weeds, random boulders, and bones scattered across the ground.

The Demon Lord, aiming to expand the Demon Realm, wished to push the Immortal Realm out of the Northern Wasteland.

Although the land of the Northern Wasteland was barren, it had many veins of Spiritual Energy underground. Those dark veins of Spiritual Energy, unsuitable for immortals, could be absorbed and refined more effectively by the beings of the Demon Realm.