"What in the world could it be? Master told me to find it..." Somewhere deep within the Bamboo Forest of Lost Demons, Reisen walked with extreme caution, crouching down to carefully examine every stalk of bamboo she passed. She seemed to be searching for something, yet a look of confusion clouded her face, as she truly had no idea what she was meant to be looking for.

Around her were many youkai and fairies—the Three Mischievous Fairies of Spring, Daiyousei, Inaba Tei, and the Three Yuyukos, among others—all relatively weak spirits. There were even more rabbit demons who hadn't even managed to take on a humanoid form. Like Reisen, they all searched with the same look of bewilderment... tapping a bamboo stalk a few times, moving on, then approaching another, cycling through the same actions repeatedly.

Although everyone treated the search as a fun game at first, as time wore on, this monotonous "game" extinguished any enthusiasm they held. Inaba Tei, especially, complained incessantly.

"Ah, this is so boring. I’m going over there to watch them fight." Inaba Tei stood up, pointing toward Eientei, the location where Lin Luo and the others were locked in fierce combat with the Evil King. The violent energy fluctuations were so intense they could be clearly felt even here.

"No! This is Master's order!" Reisen’s expression instantly sharpened, and she spoke in a low voice. Though typically compliant, witnessing Kaguya’s death had fundamentally changed Reisen; she could no longer approach others with the same gentle demeanor she once held.

"...Ugh, fine, I'll look. Why so fierce?" Inaba Tei had never seen Reisen so assertive and was immediately startled. After all, even stacking hundreds of her own power couldn't match Reisen’s strength. Still, her inherently cunning nature compelled her to grumble a few complaints while continuing the search, muttering under her breath.

The other fairies and youkai also found the task a bit dull, but compared to observing a battle in such a terrifying location, remaining idle here felt much safer. Not everyone enjoyed watching high-stakes confrontations, after all. Thus, after a brief period of playful bickering, the group resumed their journey of "searching for the unknown."

"Bamboo... there's nothing here. Why would Master say such a thing?" Among them, Reisen searched the most diligently. She had personally witnessed the tragedy and heard Eirin Yagokoro's instructions with her own ears... Before Eirin sent her to the Bamboo Forest of Lost Demons, she had whispered something to Reisen in a tone only she could hear: Kaguya is in the Bamboo Forest of Lost Demons; search the bamboo.

"She said I would know once I found it. What does that even mean?" Although learning that the Princess was alive offered Reisen some measure of comfort, she simply could not decipher the meaning behind Eirin Yagokoro’s words.

After searching for an unknown amount of time, Reisen gradually separated from the main group, venturing deeper alone into the lost bamboo. She meticulously inspected every stalk along her path, yet still found nothing noteworthy. Just as she was racking her brain in confusion, she suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Ah!" Reisen was startled, instinctively leaping up and spinning around. When she saw the person opposite her, her expression instantly shifted. She instinctively backed away, appearing flustered and at a loss. "You..."

"You don't need to be so guarded against me. Things aren't exactly as you imagine." The one who had appeared before Reisen was Lin Luo. Seeing her fearful posture, tinged with a faint wariness, he couldn't help but force a wry smile. "Sometimes, what you see isn't necessarily the truth."

"What... what do you mean?" Although Reisen spoke to Lin Luo, her gaze strayed elsewhere, looking expectantly in another direction. In her heart, she thought: Why hasn't Master arrived yet?

Since Lin Luo was here, it meant the battle was over; she could figure that much out. The violent fluctuations had indeed vanished. Compared to Lin Luo, she desperately wanted to see Eirin Yagokoro.

"It means the truth is often hidden where the eyes cannot see. Speaking of which, have you found Kaguya yet?" Lin Luo smiled faintly and asked the question that concerned Reisen the most.

The girl immediately fixed her gaze on him and urgently asked, "The Princess truly didn't die?"

"Of course not," Lin Luo replied decisively. "Didn't you know Kaguya is inherently immortal? How could ordinary attacks possibly kill her?"

Reisen certainly knew that, but the true puzzle was why she hadn't revived after dying. Logically, a resident of Houraisan should resurrect immediately upon death.

"What... what exactly is going on?" Reisen finally couldn't hold back her question.

"Well, I’ll explain it simply. You know about the God War, right? Kaguya’s death was actually a strategy to mislead perception..." Lin Luo smiled slightly and began explaining to the girl.

Everything revolved around Kaguya’s World Heart—the Heart of Eternity. As the first known Host, and the only one with a one-hundred percent compatibility rate, Kaguya understood the God War better than even the Walkers, especially regarding the relationship between Hosts and Walkers. She knew better than anyone else the benefits her Heart of Eternity offered to other Walkers. She knew that if other Walkers learned of her condition, they would attack her by any means necessary—like the Evil King, who was willing to sacrifice a large contingent of Earth-rank subordinates just to obtain the Heart of Eternity.

Eirin Yagokoro's prophecy was incredibly close to the truth, and Kaguya, through the power of the World Heart, understood with even greater clarity that her death was inevitable this time—that the fatal tribulation could not be averted... Although the people of Houraisan could not truly die, once she became the Host of the World Heart, this greatest potential became the sole weakness of her immortality. Walkers could kill the Host's life by absorbing the World Heart; once the World Heart was lost, even immortality would perish, because the World Heart represented existence itself.

"Then, the only way is to die once." Back then, within the False Moon, facing the shocked gazes of Lin Luo and Eirin Yagokoro, Kaguya had smiled and uttered those very words.

Just as order can be destroyed by power, absolutes can also be shattered by force. There is ultimately no such thing as absolute in this world; what seems inevitable is composed of countless chances.

From Kaguya's understanding, there was only one method to break this death tribulation: death.

By activating the World Heart’s ability, she would place her entire existence within the artifact, leaving her physical body as a normal flesh-and-blood form susceptible to aging and death. In this state, she became a Host with absolutely no combat capability. When that body perished, it would signify the end of the First Host.

It was precisely because the body was so fragile that Lin Luo's Black Flame of Destruction could incinerate her in an instant.

Simultaneously, at the precise moment of her death, the existence stored within the World Heart would, by leveraging the artifact’s power, actively trigger the Houraisan immortal power, just as Princess Kaguya of Mount Hourai would herald her rebirth in bamboo after being exiled to Earth a thousand years ago.

"So you mean, the Princess dying was her own doing, and the real her didn't die—she's inside the bamboo?" After listening to Lin Luo, Reisen was dumbfounded, her face a mask of disbelief.

Lin Luo nodded. That was correct. Kaguya’s death was a proposition she herself made, serving both to dissolve the current death tribulation and to set a trap for the Evil King. After all, the First Host truly had died; her very existence was gone, making resurrection impossible by any measure—the Evil King saw this clearly.

Thus, the Evil King instinctively believed Lin Luo killed Kaguya only to prevent him from obtaining the Heart of Eternity. Then, Lin Luo would find a second Host and merge with it. By then, no matter how high the second Host's compatibility was, the Heart of Eternity would become ordinary to other Walkers, and the Evil King would cease his relentless pursuit of it.

This was the Evil King's assumption, but the facts were indeed such: as long as Lin Luo managed to repel the Evil King and safeguard the Heart of Eternity, Kaguya would be safe... What the Evil King failed to grasp was that the existence of Kaguya, the First Host, had been sequestered within the Heart of Eternity. What died was merely the First Host, not Kaguya herself.

Once the Heart of Eternity re-merged with the reborn Kaguya, she would remain the First Host, unchanged in any fundamental way... The only difference would be that other Walkers could no longer sense that she was the First Host.

This was something only Kaguya could achieve, because apart from her, no other Host had initially possessed both one-hundred percent compatibility and the gift of immortality simultaneously... It was the combined presence of these two abilities that allowed Kaguya's scheme to completely deceive the Evil King.

"So complicated..." After Lin Luo finished explaining, Reisen couldn't help but frown. She understood barely half of what he said, but as long as she knew the Princess was alive, nothing else mattered.

"It is a bit complicated, but precisely because it's so complex, the enemy wouldn't consider it a ruse," Lin Luo chuckled.

"Mm," Reisen nodded happily, finally feeling completely relieved.

Seeing her genuine smile, Lin Luo also felt a weight lifted from his chest. The reason he sought out Reisen alone was to explain everything to her. After witnessing that scene, she was bound to carry some trauma. If he didn't explain it personally, it might leave a lingering resentment... For someone who might eventually take possession of the Heart of Eternity, such resentment was undesirable.

"But why didn't you tell me sooner? It would have saved me all this worrying."

"To deceive the enemy first, you must deceive yourself. If you hadn't shown any surprise then, acting as if nothing was wrong, the enemy would certainly have become suspicious. If that had happened, our plan would have been half-failed."

"I see," Reisen nodded, comprehending vaguely.

"Alright, let's go find Kaguya now. She must be inside one of these bamboo stalks."

"Mm."

Reisen nodded firmly, following closely behind Lin Luo, her face filled with smiles.