No matter what, there was simply no way to make Xiao Nu leave.

Yueyang abandoned the idea.

If she refused to go — then she could stay. Trying to make her leave was, in its own way, a silent concession to death. True Sovereign intent was supposed to be fearless in the face of all things. If he wanted to walk out of Desire Valley, he had to transcend the boundary between life and death. What was the Fourth Stage to him — he had made up his mind to surpass Vivienne, clear every stage, and earn the final recognition. He wasn’t about to be stopped here.

Set aside the Phoenix Sisters’ protection. Set aside the possibility of Nirvana rebirth.

What his own state of mind needed, right now, was a great leap forward.

Could the calamity god-force, ten thousand years of resentment, and Desire Valley’s Laws truly not be overcome?

There had to be a reason Pandora was sealed here. Whoever imprisoned her had done it with purpose. If he could grasp what that purpose was, he wouldn’t just be able to leave Desire Valley — he could undo the seal on Pandora entirely, and give this scattered, pure soul who had suffered through imprisonment long enough her freedom at last.

“All right — you can stay,” Yueyang said. Xiao Nu let out a cry of joy, her tear-streaked face breaking simultaneously into laughter and more tears, like a rainbow appearing after rain. She threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek with all the emotion she couldn’t contain. As long as he was willing to let her remain at his side, she didn’t care what happened the very next second. If life was the price of leaving him, she would rather not pay it.

“Master is the best — wuuu!” Before Xiao Nu had even finished the sentence, Yueyang had pulled her across his knee and administered several firm smacks to her backside.

“That is your penalty for defying my instructions. This isn’t over — we’ll settle the rest when we’re out of here.” Yueyang did his best to project the appropriate severity of a strict master.

“Xiao Nu understands!” Xiao Nu was completely unperturbed, and stuck her little pink tongue out at him in the most adorable possible way.

“…”

He genuinely had no power over this sweet little creature.

When she wasn’t being told to leave, there was no one more obedient.

When she was — no one more stubborn.

Yueyang cleared his mind entirely and sank into the expanding World, thinking deeply within the boundless resentment, searching for the key to breaking free. Only by awakening to the truth could he hope to survive. Otherwise, he would have to gamble on death — and see whether he could transcend the boundary of life and death to step into the divine realm. There was still half a day left. He wanted to turn the situation from passive to active.

Only by walking out of Desire Valley through his own understanding would it count as true success.

Otherwise, how could the later stages ever acknowledge him?

Yueyang sank deep into contemplation within the World, withdrawing the purifying Nirvana Flames. He merged his own presence with the resentment force, offering no resistance at all, allowing more of the resentment energy to flow into the World — and within it, began searching for the truth.

Pandora and Xiao Nu, seeing that Yueyang had begun his attempt at self-rescue, instinctively fell silent and watched.

After a while, Pandora shifted her attention.

She looked at Xiao Nu.

Studying her up and down, and amid a private assessment of the half-elf’s rather spectacular figure, she blurted out: “What did you eat growing up? How did your chest get so large?”

Xiao Nu immediately lowered her head in embarrassed mortification, shaking it back and forth. “I don’t know. Maybe it just grew that way. It’s not entirely ideal, honestly — walking is fine, but running is very awkward. Mistress Wuxia’s figure is truly the most perfect. Mistress Qianqian’s is lovely too. Everyone has a beautiful figure in their own way. Bigger isn’t necessarily better — Lady Xiayi’s isn’t large, and she looks absolutely lovely!”

Pandora privately thought that when she’d still had her body, she certainly wouldn’t have lost any comparison — but she no longer had one, and the envy showed. She moved on: “Does he hit you often?”

Xiao Nu turned more deeply crimson.

She reached around and gently touched the spot that was still warm from Yueyang’s hand, which she’d only just noticed was genuinely a little stinging.

If Pandora hadn’t brought it up, she probably would have barely registered it, so absorbed was she in the happiness of being allowed to stay.

“No, no — this was the first time he’s ever punished me. Master is always very gentle. He doesn’t scold people and he doesn’t strike them. It was only because I didn’t obey him that he was angry.” Xiao Nu felt the punishment was nothing to speak of — it barely hurt. Just warm, and oddly strange.

“He’s rather frightening when he’s angry,” Pandora recalled, and added before she could stop herself: “At the time I was genuinely afraid he might hit me too!”

“He would never, he would never!” Xiao Nu immediately reassured her.

“Hmm. Though if I wanted to be hit, I couldn’t be anyway — I don’t have a body.” Pandora sighed with a faint trace of wistfulness.

“Your head was severed — but where did the body go?” Xiao Nu found this puzzling. Wasn’t it said that a divine being’s body was indestructible? If the head was severed, the body should still exist somewhere.

“Perhaps the body became the calamity god-force. Oh — wait, I just remembered something. I think it was precisely because my calamity force had grown too powerful that someone severed my head.” Pandora looked startled by her own recollection.

“But isn’t having powerful divine force a good thing?” Xiao Nu was even more confused.

“I don’t know. That was just a memory fragment that flashed through just now. Never mind — ten thousand years have passed. I’ve grown accustomed to life without a body. Hmm — you have a body. Would you lend it to me for a bit? I’d like to hold his hand. He said just now that in a relationship, everything begins with holding hands.”

“But… Xiao Nu has never held Master’s hand either. Could Xiao Nu hold it first, and then lend it to you?” Xiao Nu wasn’t hard to get along with, but she felt that certain things really ought to be experienced by oneself first.

“What? After all this time together, you’ve never held his hand? I assumed he’d already knocked you over long ago.” Pandora was genuinely astonished.

“No, no. Xiao Nu is just Master’s personal attendant, mainly responsible for looking after his daily life.” Xiao Nu flapped both hands in denial, flushing deeply.

Though in truth she had long wished to serve him more fully — she had simply never had the opportunity.

The two of them glanced at Yueyang, still lost in silent contemplation, and resumed talking — growing more at ease with each exchange, which was partly because two scattered souls with similarly guileless natures had an instinctive kinship. Pandora asked about Yueyang, and Xiao Nu told her everything she knew — and as she listened, Pandora found herself drawn in, and occasionally, one of Xiao Nu’s stories would jar loose a small shard of memory from somewhere deep inside.

Through Xiao Nu, Pandora learned of Xue Wuxia. Learned of Princess Qianqian and City Lord Luohua. Learned of Yue Bing and Yue Yu. Learned the small details of Yueyang’s life.

A thought rose in her, and she let out a quiet, reflective sigh: “You know — people like you are so much happier than people like me ever were. I remember, long ago, when I still had a body — because I radiated calamity force at every moment, anyone who came near me suffered misfortune. Everyone kept their distance. To stand in front of me, like you and he have done, talking openly and freely — something like that never happened once. Everyone wanted me to fall. Everyone wanted my power to disappear from the world forever. I don’t know with certainty whether that had anything to do with whoever severed my head — but I know that I was, and have always been, something the world regarded as a catastrophe.”

Xiao Nu shook her head warmly. “It doesn’t matter. Xiao Nu is just a servant girl — speaking with you is an honor.”

Pandora looked at her. “Does it not bother you that your master almost died because of me?”

Xiao Nu was quiet for a moment. Then she shook her head gently. “That wasn’t something you wanted. And it hasn’t happened. Xiao Nu trusts Master. He is the most extraordinary and irreplaceable person in the world. Nothing can defeat him. This brush with death — he’ll get through it too. I believe in miracles. Master is the kind of person who creates them. I’ve witnessed it more times than I can count. So I trust him. Whether in the past, or the present, or the future — I will always trust him.”

This time, it was Pandora who fell silent.

“…”

Time moved on, moment by moment.

Daylight was fading.

Darkness crept in, little by little.

Yueyang, who had been sitting in deep contemplation searching for the truth, had now begun to act.

Within the World, he moved his arms in slow, deliberate patterns — gradually, carefully separating the resentment energy from Desire Valley’s original Law energy, fraction by fraction.

The pace was slow — but the fact that separation was happening at all confirmed that Yueyang had found the right approach. Given enough time, he could break through Desire Valley’s restrictions, could push past the threat of death that the resentment force represented.

But even Xiao Nu could see it — there wasn’t enough time.

Ten more minutes, and the death Pandora had prophesied would arrive.

There was no time left.

Xiao Nu didn’t cry. Not a single tear fell. She turned instead to Pandora with a radiant smile.

“I’m going now. It was wonderful to know you, Pandora. Goodbye.”

A small silver dagger appeared in her hand. This had once been a knife Yueyang had given to Xiayi — taken by Xiayi on her return to the Ancient Wind Continent to protect her honor should she be captured during her intelligence work. When Xiayi had returned safely, she had given it back to Yueyang. Today, Xiao Nu had drawn it out.

As a swift instrument for following her master wherever he went next.

“You would die for him without hesitation?” Pandora understood what Xiao Nu intended. She was clearly preparing to follow her master in death.

“Mm.” Xiao Nu nodded with a smile — then also shook her head. “I still believe in Master. But I want to be prepared. If Master goes, his personal attendant naturally goes with him. No matter where he is, I’ll be at his side, serving him. It might be a little presumptuous for someone in my position to say aloud — but I do love Master. He is my whole life. With Master, Xiao Nu has the entire world. Without Master, even if you gave me the entire world, Xiao Nu would not feel happiness. Death holds nothing frightening for me. Even death — the thing everyone fears — cannot take my happiness from my heart.”

“Happiness…” Pandora’s expression changed. “Happiness that even death cannot take away?”

In that single moment, something seemed to awaken fully inside her.

Supreme divine force surged.

The entire Desire Valley filled once more with terrifying calamity god-force. The ten thousand years of resentment churned like a storm-tossed ocean — but Pandora’s expression was not the blind rage that had once lost itself. It was the tearful joy of someone who had just understood something they had spent an eternity searching for.

Pandora exhaled softly, and let a gentle energy wrap itself around Xiao Nu, keeping her safe and untouched within the raging resentment.

She turned to Xiao Nu and offered the most brilliant, most heartbreakingly beautiful smile in the world.

“Thank you. You’ve shown me what love is.”

“Ten thousand years ago, I made a terrible oath. I cursed those in the Upper Heavenly Realm who had rejected me. To complete the calamity, I severed my own head in my rage and refined my body into the most insoluble calamity god-force that could exist in this world. Through the war of the gods, I caused the fall of dozens of beings you would call divine. But an ancient god told me — that when I encountered true love, I would finally understand: what hatred is, what love is, what sacrifice is, and what eternal life is.”

“Now I am beginning to understand.”

“What I — who was once the Calamity Goddess — lacked all along was one thing: true love.”

“You can face death unflinching for the one you love, guarding your happiness with everything you are. You, a mortal, can do this. So can I.”

“When he wakes, please tell him that I was here, and that I loved. In his life, I am only a passing stranger — and a fool who didn’t even understand love. But this fool, just like you, fell in love with him beyond any hope of saving herself, and just like you, is willing to give up everything for him.”

“Happiness that even death cannot take from me — it will not slip through my fingers now.”

“Don’t forget me. Even if only occasionally — please think of me sometimes.”

“Farewell.”

“My happiness.”