Shenzhou, Chongqing, a town near Tianqiong Peak.
At this moment, the sun had set and the moon risen—time had reached nightfall.
But the jade disc hanging high in the sky scattered bright moonlight, dispelling the night curtain and draping the town below with a light veil.
On the streets, the usually somewhat deserted road was now decorated with lanterns and colored streamers. Quite a few shops had hung out festive bright red lanterns.
At the street entrance stood a man and woman—precisely Lucius and Kiana.
"So lively! Is this Shenzhou's temple fair?"
Kiana carried her backpack, looking at the novel scenery around her with sparkling eyes. This was her first time setting foot on Shenzhou soil—curious about everything unfamiliar.
After leaving Shencheng Pharmaceuticals building, Lucius didn't go back on his word and took Kiana touring around Chongqing.
After visiting quite a few attractions during the day and hearing there was a temple fair here, under Kiana's curiosity he brought her here.
"Yes, though I also haven't visited a temple fair in a long time."
More precisely, hadn't visited one in over ten years. This time, nominally as Kiana's guide taking her to tour the temple fair, actually he himself also had thoughts of revisiting the past.
Of course, Lucius also had something to say.
He'd worked so long for humanity's survival. Rarely having time to come out and play, relax a bit—what was wrong with that?
Thus, Lucius said to Kiana beside him: "Let's go, let's go in and look around."
Soon, the two entered the temple fair grounds. But walking along, Kiana stopped.
Lucius looked over and found she'd stopped at a stall selling candied hawthorns.
He saw Kiana converse with the boss in fluent Shenzhou language, then take a bill from her wallet and hand it to the boss, after which she received several strings of bright red round candied hawthorns from the boss.
"Here, Dad's treat." Kiana smiled and stuffed a string of candied hawthorn into Lucius's hand.
"Candied hawthorn I can eat, but Dad I won't acknowledge." Lucius smiled and accepted the candied hawthorn.
Then Kiana saw—
After receiving the candied hawthorn, Lucius didn't leave with her but walked to the boss's stall, conversed a few sentences with the boss, then handed him a bill before returning to her side.
Kiana became curious. "Lucius, what did you do?"
Lucius just smiled without answering this question, instead saying: "Let's go, let's go further in. Temple fairs have many interesting performances."
Kiana didn't understand but seeing Lucius had no intention of explaining, she let the question pass.
Then she bit down on a hawthorn wrapped in sugar coating.
"Mm mm mm..."
As the candied hawthorn entered her mouth, sweetness surged into her heart, giving her taste buds—long ravaged by Mei's cooking—long-awaited moisture.
However, as the sweetness entered her mouth, her azure eyes actually began turning bright red, as if about to seep blood.
That was Brown Sugar, similarly long ravaged by Mei's cooking, finally tasting sweetness and immediately becoming reactive.
Seeing this, Lucius looked around and bought a pair of round-lens sunglasses from a roadside stall, placing them on Kiana's face.
"Perfect." Lucius nodded with satisfaction.
Hearing Lucius say this, Kiana looked at her current appearance using a roadside shop window's glass and couldn't help laughing: "Feels like a roadside fortune teller."
Having covered Kiana's abnormal eyes, the two continued forward.
But at this moment, after swallowing a hawthorn, Kiana involuntarily shivered.
She surveyed the surroundings, saying somewhat strangely: "Why do I feel cold?"
However, this feeling came fast and left fast. After finding no abnormalities, Kiana just took it as her own illusion.
Lucius naturally noticed Kiana's abnormality but didn't say anything. He just glanced at the candied hawthorn shop they'd just passed, then nonchalantly continued taking Kiana further inside.
After the two walked far away, beside that candied hawthorn stall, a beautiful girl with long purple hair wearing black glasses emerged.
—Precisely Mei.
Although Mei also knew her current behavior was very suspicious, she easily convinced herself.
"Stalking? No, I'm just worried about their safety..."
However, no matter how she convinced herself, in others' eyes, her current behavior was indeed extremely strange.
And this naturally included the candied hawthorn stall boss.
"Miss, what are you doing?"
"Noth... nothing..."
Mei smiled somewhat awkwardly, then prepared to continue following.
Just as she was about to leave, the boss called her and handed her a string of candied hawthorn.
"That young man earlier told me to give this to you when I see a strange girl. He already paid."
Mei accepted it blankly while feeling somewhat embarrassed inside.
"So he already knew..."
Looking at the candied hawthorn in her hand, Mei suddenly felt at a loss standing on the street.
Although knowing Lucius had already discovered her, having just been found out, she was still too embarrassed to follow directly.
"Forget it. Since I'm here, might as well look around. I've stayed in the laboratory a long time too."
She prepared to browse here first, then encounter the two more coincidentally later.
Then, amid the stall boss's emotional words about "the past," "youth," "innocence," and such, Mei also walked toward inside the temple fair.
Simultaneously, she lightly bit down on a hawthorn. Moderate sweetness spread in her mouth.
Chew chew chew.
"Mm... pretty sweet."
"When can what I make reach this level..."
...
Entering the street and winding around, a building with a style distinctly different from the surroundings fell into Lucius and Kiana's view.
This was an antique-style building with bracket sets and flying eaves as the roof.
Standing before the building, faint sandalwood fragrance entered their nostrils.
Kiana's face showed curiosity: "I remember this should be... a Taoist temple?"
"Want to go in and see?" Lucius asked.
"Of course. I'm quite interested in Shenzhou mythology."
Thus, Kiana finished the candied hawthorn in a few bites and entered the Taoist temple with Lucius.
However, upon entering the temple, they found the main hall didn't enshrine the Three Pure Ones' statue but rather a lifelike goddess statue.
"Which deity is this?" Kiana muttered.
At this moment, a female voice came from one side.
"This is the Crimson Immortal."
The two looked over and found the speaker was a woman in Taoist robes with black hair and golden eyes.
Her long hair was fixed with a simple hairpin. She held a horsetail whisk, her temperament tranquil—like an ancient person walking out of a painting.
"So it's the Crimson Immortal." Kiana nodded with understanding, then asked: "Speaking of which, which deity is the Crimson Immortal?"
"An immortal existing only in my memory." The woman said thus.
However, Lucius examined the deity statue and shook his head.
"The Crimson Immortal isn't like this."
The woman was somewhat surprised and asked: "How can you tell?"
Lucius said: "I once heard the immortal say: Eight is greater than fifty thousand."
Then he looked at the goddess statue's curvaceous figure and shook his head somewhat regretfully.
"Dramatization isn't fabrication. This is too fake..."
"???"
Under the woman's puzzled gaze, Lucius left with Kiana.
"Strange, strange, strange."
The Taoist-robed woman, or rather Fu Hua's eldest disciple Lin Chaoyu, lightly shook her head and set aside her confusion.
Having already left, Lucius and Kiana brushed past a girl with long brown hair and a peony-like temperament at the temple entrance.
Lucius glanced at her, then ignored her and continued taking Kiana around the temple fair.
Qin Suyi, who'd brushed past them, also swept a glance at Lucius and Kiana but paid no mind.
She entered the temple and saw Lin Chaoyu inside, straightforwardly expressing her purpose.
"Senior Sister, I need your help."
"What matter?"
"Master has appeared." Qin Suyi said, then added: "The real Master."
However, beyond Qin Suyi's expectations, this eldest senior sister didn't show much excitement upon learning this news.
She just lightly nodded, using a matter-of-fact tone: "True. If even we can live a second life, there's no reason Master can't."
"Senior Sister, Master has become possessed. We must do something."
Lin Chaoyu remained calm about this, saying: "Not interested. Becoming possessed is also Master's own choice. If possessed because of hatred in her heart... I owe Master two lives. Repaying is all."
Qin Suyi heard the eldest senior sister's rejection, but she didn't mind because she knew with this eldest senior sister's personality, she'd definitely be persuaded.
"But Senior Sister, that demon thought born from Master seems to want to XXOO Master, then OOXX her!"
Hearing this, Lin Chaoyu looked at Qin Suyi standing before her with a pure innocent appearance, asking somewhat incredulously: "Junior Sister, did you... say something strange?"
Qin Suyi smiled lightly, using a gentle tone:
"Since Senior Sister didn't hear clearly, Junior Sister will say it more clearly."
"That demon thought has its eyes on Master's chastity. If we don't do something, Master will be XXOO'd by that demon thought."
"Crack!!!"
A crisp sound came from Lin Chaoyu's hand.
Qin Suyi saw Lin Chaoyu had forcibly crushed the whisk in her hand. She knew—eldest senior sister couldn't escape.
...
Through Fenghuang Down in Qin Suyi's mind, Lucius of course knew what happened, but he didn't care.
After all, this time he truly came out to play.
"Wow... is this acrobatics?" Kiana's voice came from ahead.
Lucius looked over. On the open plaza not far away, an acrobatic performance was taking place, surrounded by quite a few people.
After squeezing beside Kiana, Lucius looked inside and discovered the acrobat was actually a white-haired girl and an even younger blonde boy.
At this moment, that white-haired girl lay on a wooden board, face expressionless like a block of ice, chest covered with a thick stone slab.
The blonde boy was holding an iron hammer taller than himself, face showing hesitation.
Yanqing looked at Fifth Senior Sister lying on the board and couldn't help asking: "Fifth Senior Sister... really strike down?"
Hearing this, Cheng Lingshuang said: "No problem. I have body protection cultivation. Even a mountain striking down can't kill me. Just do it."
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