"You're awake!" Qu Huashang nestled contentedly against Yang Kai's chest, her face radiating bliss. "Thank you for your hard work."
Yang Kai slowly shook his head, reaching up to brush her long hair aside.
Gazing past Yang Kai's shoulder at the figure behind him, Qu Huashang asked with a frown, "What's going on with Xiao He?"
Having shattered her own mental barrier and regained her memories, she naturally recalled all the details of those cycles of reincarnation. From the sixth life onward, Xiao He had appeared within the Samsara Realm born of her mental block, which deeply troubled her.
In all her memories, she had never known a woman named Luo Tinghe. By all logic, such a person should never have been able to exist inside the Samsara Realm.
"I don't know either, but we'll find out once we leave."
Qu Huashang nodded, lifted her head from his chest, and cast him a sly, gleaming look. "Then… see you in the next life!"
Yang Kai's face drained of color. "There's another life?!"
Qu Huashang didn't answer, merely blinking at him playfully. But everything around them was already dissolving like a painting burned to ash, fading away layer by layer.
Yang Kai watched helplessly as his body melted into the void inch by inch, his consciousness drifting through what felt like an endless journey.
When he finally came to his senses, darkness surrounded him.
But it wasn't long before a sliver of light was born within that darkness. The light gradually expanded, and the scenery of the Samsara Pavilion slowly materialized before his eyes.
Yang Kai blinked, then realized — there was no next life. Nine lives was the limit of the Samsara Pavilion, and the mental barrier Qu Huashang had set for herself spanned exactly nine lives. She had only been teasing him at the end.
He shook his head slowly, caught somewhere between laughter and exasperation, then rose and walked out of the tree hollow. He lifted his gaze to the sky above.
Returning to the real world felt somehow unreal. Every detail of those nine lives of reincarnation remained vivid in his mind, each hardship and setback as fresh as yesterday. The experiences within those cycles had been so lifelike they might as well have truly occurred.
Yang Kai could distinctly feel that those nine lives of reincarnation had polished his state of mind into something far more refined and steady. Nine lives, all told, had spanned barely a hundred-odd years, but the tempering of his mind was worth more than a thousand years of ordinary cultivation.
The Samsara Pavilion truly lived up to its reputation as a place to refine the heart.
For anyone whose cultivation had progressed too quickly and whose mind was unstable, spending time training inside would yield extraordinary benefits.
Without any conscious reason, Yang Kai found himself walking in a particular direction. Though he had no concrete clue, he was absolutely certain that Qu Huashang was that way.
It was the silent understanding forged by nine lives shared together.
But before he had made it halfway, a graceful silhouette appeared ahead, walking toward him.
Their eyes met. Qu Huashang flashed a radiant smile and drifted over to stand before him.
Yang Kai extended his hand. "Let's go. Senior Uncle Yu is probably getting anxious."
"Okay!" Qu Huashang obediently placed her small hand in his.
Outside the Samsara Pavilion, people came and went.
It had been over a hundred and thirty years since Yang Kai first entered the Samsara Pavilion. For an ordinary mortal who had never cultivated, that was a span longer than an entire lifetime. But for an Open Heaven Realm expert, it was nothing more than a single period of seclusion.
During this time, whenever she had a spare moment, Yu Xiangdie would come wait outside the Samsara Pavilion.
Unfortunately, after all these years, Yang Kai and Qu Huashang had yet to appear. The first ones to walk out, in the early period, had been Chen Xiu's two disciples.
In the last decade or so, she had been spending even more time standing watch here, because according to her calculations, if Yang Kai truly succeeded in bringing Qu Huashang out, it would happen within these few decades.
Waiting was not something she found tedious. She had waited for a certain brute for many years and had long grown accustomed to the feeling.
When those two familiar figures finally emerged from the Samsara Pavilion, walking hand in hand, Yu Xiangdie finally let out a deep breath. The heavy stone that had sat on her heart for so many years finally dropped away.
"Senior Uncle Yu!"
Yang Kai and Qu Huashang bowed together.
Yu Xiangdie smiled warmly, looking from one to the other, and nodded with satisfaction. "Good. It's good that you're back. You've both worked hard."
She too had once trained inside the Samsara Pavilion and knew what one could encounter within. The mental barrier Qu Huashang had set this time must have been extraordinarily difficult. What the two before her had endured inside was surely far more harrowing than what she herself had gone through.
"I've troubled you, Senior Uncle," Yang Kai said.
Yu Xiangdie shook her head. "You're the one who put in all the effort. Never mind that — you must both be exhausted. Go rest first."
"No rush," Yang Kai said, turning to look back toward the Samsara Pavilion. "Let's wait a bit longer."
Yu Xiangdie frowned. "Wait for what?"
Qu Huashang knew what Yang Kai was waiting for. She was about to ask Yu Xiangdie whether she knew anyone named Luo Tinghe when she suddenly noticed Yu Xiangdie's eyes go wide, her expression one of sheer shock, staring at a point somewhere behind them.
At the same time, a powerful aura was rapidly approaching from behind.
Qu Huashang turned her head and saw Xiao He floating through the air with a smile on her face, drifting down to land lightly before them.
Yang Kai and Qu Huashang exchanged a glance, and both wore the same expression — just as expected.
From the sixth life onward, Xiao He had been by their side through every cycle. They had long suspected she was some powerful figure from Yin-Yang Heaven, though they had no idea why a wisp of her consciousness had been pulled into their Samsara Realm.