The earth had fallen into slumber.
Moonlight was hazy, tree shadows swayed.
A gentle breeze occasionally brushed past, and the birdsong in the mountain forest, or the rare cry of a wild beast, seemed like the murmuring dreams of these endless mountain ranges.
A small cottage in the valley had an oil lamp burning, its light dim.
Feng Jinhuang lay on the bed, weak and powerless, her face deathly pale without a hint of color.
She looked at Fairy Bai Qing sitting by the bedside and whispered an apology: "Mother, I was wrong. Next time I won't—"
Fairy Bai Qing wore a stern expression. "Jinhuang, I know what you're thinking. You've been pushing yourself so hard in your cultivation — over these past several dozen days, you've already injured yourself five or six times. From the very start of your training, I warned you: cultivation demands naturalness, demands the right balance between exertion and rest. If you keep this up, not only will haste make waste, but you'll break yourself down — you could even lose your life!"
Feng Jinhuang lowered her lashes, her voice small and weak. "Mother, I'm sorry."
"I've placed a Gu on you. You're forbidden from cultivating for seven days and seven nights, and you may only move within this valley. When you're hungry, pick wild fruit. When you're thirsty, drink from the mountain spring. Take some time to think things over." Fairy Bai Qing spoke in a somber voice.
"Mother, no!" Feng Jinhuang cried in alarm.
But Fairy Bai Qing merely brushed her long sleeve, the cuff sweeping lightly across Feng Jinhuang's cheek.
Instantly, a violent drowsiness surged through her heart.
Her eyelids grew heavier than they had ever been, and an incomparable exhaustion robbed Feng Jinhuang of any further words.
In the blink of an eye, she had sunk into deep sleep.
Seeing her daughter asleep yet still with brows faintly furrowed, Fairy Bai Qing felt a mixture of grief and worry.
The news of Feng Jiuge's death — she had not yet told Feng Jinhuang.
First, Spirit Affinity Hall needed to keep the death secret, to delay as long as possible while they made arrangements. As a mortal, Feng Jinhuang had no right to know. After all, gathering intelligence on mortals was far easier than gathering intelligence on Gu Immortals.
Second, Fairy Bai Qing simply didn't know how to say it.
Why was Feng Jinhuang pushing herself so desperately in her cultivation? She was trying to improve herself, to grow stronger, so she could go find her father and rescue him.
But how could Fairy Bai Qing cruelly tell her daughter the truth?
She couldn't bear it.
"Sigh..." Gazing at her daughter's face, Fairy Bai Qing let out a long, heavy sigh.
Her once-straight posture and immaculate white robes, in the dim light, now looked thin and frail, their luster faded.
These past days, she had truly been exhausted.
Only now, in this moment, had she shed her mask. Her true feelings had surfaced.
Fairy Bai Qing reached out and gently stroked Feng Jinhuang's cheek. The tenderness in her eyes could have melted steel.
Feng Jinhuang had inherited the finest features of both Feng Jiuge and Fairy Bai Qing.
In her face, Fairy Bai Qing could still make out the shadow of Feng Jiuge.
Feng Jiuge was gone. Feng Jinhuang had become her sole reason for living.
She gazed in silence for a long while. Outside, the sky along the horizon had begun to brighten.
The light of dawn made Fairy Bai Qing realize how time had slipped away. She had to leave.
She slowly rose to her feet and walked unhurriedly out of the cottage, carefully closing the door behind her.
Then she cast one last deep look at the valley cottage and murmured to herself: "Jinhuang, wait for Mother to come back in seven days. Take care of yourself in the meantime, and calm your heart."
Fairy Bai Qing was not worried about Feng Jinhuang's safety.
After all, this was the heartland of Spirit Affinity Hall.
Even with the sect's internal conflicts, there were limits — they would not lay a hand on Feng Jinhuang.
Fairy Bai Qing stepped upon cloud and mist, flying off toward the northwest.
Her destination was the source of the Falling Heaven River.
Why go there?
It turned out she had accepted a sect assignment to investigate the lead involving Bo Qing.
Bo Qing had originally been a Gu Immortal of Spirit Affinity Hall, and the sect possessed a wealth of records for her to search through.
In her investigation, Fairy Bai Qing discovered that Bo Qing's experiences had been strikingly similar to Feng Jiuge's. What interested her even more was Bo Qing's dao companion, Mo Yao.
Mo Yao had been a fairy of Spirit Affinity Hall in that generation. Unlike the fairies of other eras, she was a Mo person — not a pure member of the human race.
And yet, Bo Qing and Mo Yao had fallen in love at first sight.
"Though Bo Qing never traveled to or from the Northern Plains, Mo Yao did — she even entered the Royal Court Blessed Land. Could it be that the collapse of the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building is somehow connected to Mo Yao?"
Fairy Bai Qing knew that Mo Yao had risked entering the Royal Court Blessed Land to help her husband Bo Qing undergo his tribulation.
Back then, Bo Qing, at Peak Eighth Transformation, was undergoing tribulation in an attempt to break through to the Ninth Transformation. This was a momentous event — not only in the Central Continent, but across all four other regions, it had drawn widespread attention.
In the end, Bo Qing perished, swallowed by the terrifying calamity. And Mo Yao perished alongside him.
This was something all Gu Immortals of the Central Continent knew.
Fairy Bai Qing had heard of it many times in her earlier years.
But now, recalling it, the words carried a different weight — she felt a deep sense of shared fate.
She even envied Mo Yao. Even in death, Mo Yao had died alongside her husband. Neither had failed the other — a couple bound by deep love who met their end together, a death worthy of their devotion.
Fairy Bai Qing had investigated tirelessly, exhausting every ounce of her mental effort, but progress had been limited. In the sect's texts, she had found several clues, all pointing to the same place: the source of the Falling Heaven River.
When she could find no breakthroughs elsewhere, Fairy Bai Qing made the resolute decision to explore the Falling Heaven River in person.
The source of the Falling Heaven River was where Bo Qing had perished all those years ago.
Spirit Affinity Hall was a great distance from the source of the Falling Heaven River.
If Fairy Bai Qing relied solely on her own abilities, the flight alone would take at least several years.
She would naturally do no such thing. Before departing, she had made thorough preparations.
She flew at top speed, continuously using Spirit Affinity Hall's Gu formations to teleport along the way — a single teleportation spanning hundreds of thousands of li, greatly saving time.
She did not head directly toward the source of the Falling Heaven River, but first turned toward Myriad Dragon Dock.