The moment my eyes opened, I frantically searched for Tan Ping'er’s silhouette, only to find the blank-faced expression of Ji Ye staring back.

“Where is Ping’er?” I gripped Ji Ye’s arm, demanding.

“She… she went where she was meant to go!” Ji Ye’s face remained wooden.

“Where is a place she is meant to go? That coffin? Is she the real Blood Soul Stele?”

“Yes. The Ancestor figured this out long ago. The Blood Soul Stele is not an object, but a person—a living, breathing person. Only this way can it be passed down for a thousand years, flowing ceaselessly, and remain impervious to destruction! What we needed to do was place the true Blood Soul Stele atop that Suoluo tree.”

Tears streamed down my face in torrents. “I don't care who or what she is; I just want her back.”

Ji Ye stood up. “Master Qinghe actually told us all along—she is the true Blood Soul Stele! When Tan Ping’er recounted her history, didn't Master Qinghe say, ‘A-Hu, you go! Don’t worry, I will take good care of her!’ Think about the meaning of that sentence.”

I felt struck by lightning; the tears froze on my cheeks, refusing to fall further.

...

After a long silence, I learned that Man Niao Niao had not died, but had become vegetative. Old Man Wen Shu liquidated everything he had, gathered a sum of money, and took him far away from Xia Ma Kou. After that, they vanished, and despite my extensive searching, I could never find any trace of them.

Master Qinghe’s four cryptic verses—"The person is the former acquaintance, the former acquaintance is not a person; if it is the former acquaintance, it must be a person’s former acquaintance"—remained an impenetrable mystery to everyone. Ji Ye grew taciturn, abandoning the arcane matters he used to dabble in. I questioned him about the meaning of these verses repeatedly, but he remained tight-lipped, offering no response whatsoever. After much contemplation, I could only form this tentative conjecture: Tan Ping’er was the true Blood Soul Stele, intrinsically linked to me through countless threads. And this “me” certainly didn't refer to my actual self—this corresponds to the phrase, “The person is the former acquaintance.” The second “former acquaintance” might refer to my unique identity, the Vermilion Bird, hence, “the former acquaintance is not a person.” The third “former acquaintance” could also be referring to me, and the final clause, “it must be a person’s former acquaintance,” suggests the “person” there might be Man Niao Niao, interpreted as “passed away due to someone’s cause.” But what does the phrase “if it is the former acquaintance” in the third line imply? Is it that Tan Ping’er did something for me? Perhaps it was to resolve the ancient enmity between our two clans? —All of this, ultimately, remained unknown.

Furthermore, I distinctly remember that the day Ji Ye placed Tan Ping’er into the coffin was not the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. What was going on with that discrepancy? No one would tell me!

...

Three months later, a raggedly dressed man, accompanied by a black dog with white patches on all four paws, was roaming the Qingjiang Grand Canyon, inquiring vaguely and somewhat deliriously about the Sacred Suoluo Tree.

Five months later, the same ragged man furtively slipped onto the campus of Fengcheng University. Walking through the beautiful grounds, his eyes held a look of sorrowful bewilderment. Time and again, he stopped passing students, pleading, “Do you know Tan Ping’er? Do you know Tan Ping’er?” The students hurried away, giving him a wide berth... Suddenly, the man’s eyes lit up. He darted forward and stopped a girl with an unusually striking appearance. Then, tears burst forth, flooding his face. “Ping’er, I finally found you! I finally found you!”

“You… how do you know my name?” The girl looked at the madman before her with clear confusion.

The man began to ramble incoherently, spouting nonsense that no one could decipher. The girl, notable for her two startlingly blue eyes, listened patiently to the end, then offered a single, placid remark: “You must have had a terrible nightmare, haven’t you?”

(The End)