A light breeze, and the coiled leaves of the Titmotri tree swaying, filled the air with a sweet fragrance. The cool breeze brought laziness, and it felt like sleep would fall any moment.

  Wuang Shi stood next to Gu Zong, looking at the tamarisk flowers.

  His voice was calm, almost composed.

  "I still have enough spiritual energy left to survive," he said, without looking at Gu Zong's face. He took out the Moyu Legend from his robes and offered it to Gu Zong.

  And Gu Zong just stared at him. He glanced at the Moyu Legend, then back at Wuang Shi's calm face, where Wuang Shi's eyelids were drooping once again, as if Wuang Shi had a habit of drooping his eyes. But Gu Zong's hands didn't rise, neither towards Wuang Shi nor towards the book. Gu Zong's eyebrows slowly tightened. He took a step forward towards Wuang Shi, bringing the book to touch his chest.

  "Wuang, you know very well what price you can pay for this, but it's not just about you. If it were just about you, then..."

  Gu Zong's voice choked, his breathing becoming heavy, but the quiet fire in his eyes was revealing its warmth.

  But then Wuang Shi's eyes lifted, he looked into Gu Zong's eyes, where Wuang could clearly feel the heat rising on Gu Zong's face. Then Wuang Shi said...

  "So...so what?"

  Wuang Shi said in his innocent yet mature voice, but with that, Gu Zong stepped back a little. His face calmed, and he replied in a low voice.

  "Everyone knows that a tree doesn't die as long as the nature that protects it is alive."

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  Gu Zong looked at the titmotri, his eyes and voice speaking with a pause.

  "Master Kang Jue has forgiven our punishment. You can return from Qasiong Temple and go straight to Fukun Xueyuan. You won't need me to go in anymore."

  As he said this, his slow but heavy voice spoke with a cold, yet gentle tone.

  The words that had just echoed through the air burned Wuang Shi's heart to ashes. His eyes filled with unspoken questions, and then the hand that had held the book slowly began to loosen and fall. Even Wuang Shi's face had lost its muscles.

  Wuang Shi still didn't look up, and Gu Zong, who had been staring at Wuang Shi's drooping eyelids, also lowered his eyes and took a few heavy steps back. Gu Zong turned to leave, uttering a single word that tore something inside Wuang Shi in two.

  "Goodbye."

  He cast a half glance at Wuang Shi, saying this, and then walked on. He didn't look back even once, as if his body was leaving, but his soul had remained somewhere.

  But when Wuang Shi heard these words, his very ground cracked, his very sky shifted, he was numb, his mind incapable of thought. But the moment Gu Zong took a few more steps and then walked away in a calm posture, it was as if a single mountain had split into two pieces, falling in opposite directions.

  The atmosphere was so silent that it became deaf. Wuang Shi stood there like a stone statue, and Gu Zong vanished from the atmosphere like a flowing river.

  Some time passed, but the silence remained. Wuang Shi's eyes didn't dare look in the direction where Gu Zong's figure had disappeared. But something hadn't completely left Gu Zong. Wuang Shi looked at the book once more, as if he were looking not at a book but at a spirit. After a moment of silence, Wuang Shi took a step, but in a completely opposite direction, down the path that the Moyu legend was now about to show him. But as they say, "How long will the heart suppress its attraction until love flows as tears?" Wuang Shi's steps rose, but his eyes were moist. His body shook, but his soul remained frozen. Though heavy, his steps began to move toward a destination that was perhaps not his own, but someone else's gift. He couldn't refuse it, and finally, placing the book in his robes, he moved forward. But he knew where he was going. Then, after driving for a while, his patience finally broke. He looked back, where even though he saw emptiness, the warm feeling of Gu Zong flowed from his eyes like tears and touched his cheeks.

  "We will definitely meet again," he said with a smile on his lips and tears in his eyes. His voice barely escaped his throat, and it permeated the surroundings like a mantra. And with that, Wuang Shi, completely satisfied, began his journey. Where perhaps time was already waiting for him.