Where could Ji Jiang have gone at a time like this? Ye Xiu lightly sprawled onto the sofa. His older sister was his only family, and for him to be alone on such an important day—his birthday—made him feel a loneliness he hadn't known in ages. Why would his sister abandon him now?

Missing? The police station? Reporting it? That was unrealistic. It was the only solution he could think of. It was also strange how Sister Ji Jiang never used a phone or seemed to have any other relatives. His own Jie Jie (barrier/domain) was so peculiar.

"Sister Ji Jiang, where in the world are you..." Ye Xiu stretched out his hand as if he could grasp something—it should have been his sister's hand. "Where are you going? What are you doing?!"

"Ye Xiu, no! Someone is coming, I must leave. You must understand me!" Ji Jiang's face was so clear, tears still glistening at the corners of her eyes, revealing a purity that touched the heart. "As long as you believe, we will definitely meet again. Remember that, you are absolutely not an ordinary person."

"Sister... wait a moment!" Ye Xiu roared, "No! Sister, you must wait for me."

"We will meet again, someday!"

"Sister!" Ye Xiu continued to shout, but what good was such a shout? Everything felt so ephemeral.

Ye Xiu got up and leaped directly onto the sofa. He felt his hands slick with sweat. No one could understand the true nature of his relationship with Ji Jiang, but all he could do was pursue his dream, continue pursuing his dream!

A dream? Ye Xiu had never had such a strange dream. Sister Ji Jiang's voice seemed to linger right beside his ear. Just who was coming that forced Ji Jiang away? Why did she force Ji Jiang away? Why was all of this happening?

The current Ye Xiu couldn't fathom any of it. The doctrines of the Jiugong (Nine Palaces) were esoteric, perhaps enough to interpret dreams, but even he knew that no one knew what his future held.

"Hoo..." Ye Xiu took a deep breath. When he saw Ji Jiang's Cang Feng (Azure Phoenix/Wing), he seemed to hear a crisp sound—a sound so invigorating that even he felt a surge of excitement.

For what happened next, Ye Xiu could find nothing else to do but wait. But this wait stretched out for a long, long time.

One day, two days, three days, a week, a month, perhaps even longer—nothing came...

The empty house remained just that: empty. Ye Xiu couldn't understand why he was doing this. Instant noodles for several days in a row had left him visibly drained. Worse still, not only had his sister not returned, but his girlfriend Mei Yi, who usually clung to him, hadn't even called to check in. Why was this happening?!

Awkwardness, fatigue, depression, and helplessness had nearly enveloped his entire existence. So, Ye Xiu decided to flee the apartment, but where to go became the immediate problem. The closest destination was a mountain range called Yunmeng Mountain!

The so-called Yunmeng Mountain belonged to the Taihang Range. Its main peak stood at an altitude of 577 meters. It boasted overlapping ridges, swirling mists, rising clouds and glorious vapors, presenting a spectacle of grand atmospheric changes. Springs gurgled, and a hundred flowers bloomed in splendor, earning it the reputation of being "the beauty of a celestial realm beyond the green rock." It had been a popular tourist destination since antiquity. Literary figures and scholars of successive dynasties flocked there, leaving behind numerous poems, cliff inscriptions, and stone tablets.

It was this Yunmeng Mountain that became the beginning of the dream. The dream starting in the mountain—this was an irony, and an irony of this nature.

"La la... la la..." Just then, his phone rang, finally breaking Ye Xiu's silence. He glanced at the screen; it was Mei Yi, his girlfriend, the girl he had assumed was perfectly matched and fated for him. Just like that.

"Hey, where are you? Why haven't you been answering my calls?" Mei Yi's voice lacked its former gentleness and playfulness. "I have something important to tell you; I need to say it now."

"What is it? I'm at Yunmeng Mountain, just... vacationing," Ye Xiu replied absentmindedly. What important thing could a girl like Mei Yi have? It was probably just to interrogate him about where he'd been for the past few days.

"Let's break up. Don't contact me again." The voice on the other end turned sharp, followed by a series of irritating dial tones.

"Hello... what the heck?" Ye Xiu hadn't quite grasped the gravity of the situation, thinking Mei Yi was just angry and playing a joke; a few calls later to placate her would fix it. But this time, there was no response from the other end.

The summit of Yunmeng Mountain wasn't that grand; the scenery at his feet was not beautiful at all. It was desolate, so desolate it made one want to die!

Ye Xiu began to feel that his twenty years had been lived in vain. All his striving and effort had culminated in this: his sister was gone, his girlfriend was gone, and he was back to being an orphan alone. What else could he do besides drink? Yes, drink more.

He didn't know how many bottles he had finished. The headache was gone, replaced by dizziness, and more awkwardly, his stomach was painfully bloated. Damn this alcohol; who invented this stuff?

What was this thing? It didn't taste good at all. Casting aside any concern for appearances, he unzipped his fly right at the cliff edge. Just as he was about to aim for a vibrant mushroom below the precipice, a white brilliance suddenly emanated from his chest, so bright it nearly blinded him.

"Ah! Help me!" With a dizzy spell and a slip of his foot, he tumbled down. This was no ordinary fall; he plunged into the abyss of Yunmeng Mountain. This abyss was the kind that killed people.

This time, it was the end of everything. Ye Xiu felt he was finally free, able to let go of all worries and responsibilities. But why, at this very moment, was the cry of that wild pheasant growing louder?

"A person is about to die, what are you yelling about..." He got angry. To be able to get angry on the verge of death—that was a talent in itself. What the hell was this Cang Feng making such a racket for?

"We will meet again. I believe that too." Sister Ji Jiang's voice was still gentle. He wondered if her embrace could bring peace and serenity.

"Sister... I'm coming..." Ye Xiu was startled awake again by such a dream, his hands still reaching out for something, only to grasp empty air once more.

"Damn it! Where is this place? Am I not dead?" Ye Xiu jumped up in astonishment. "I'm not dead! Is this a dream?"

He looked around frantically, checking his body. Nothing seemed out of place, and in fact, the surface beneath him felt quite soft, with no sensation of pain at all.

"Where am I?" Ye Xiu found it hard to believe his eyes. He had clearly fallen from a cliff just moments ago, so why was he now lying safely on a patch of grass with blue sky and white clouds overhead? He closed his eyes and meticulously recalled the scene just before the fall—the white light from his chest.

Right! There was light. Ye Xiu buried his head, but there was nothing noteworthy on his chest besides that "Cang Feng." He chuckled. What was there to look at on a man's chest? His pectoral muscles were quite decent; perhaps if he squeezed them, he could achieve an A-cup. Truly ridiculous self-deprecation.

Ye Xiu looked around helplessly at the beautiful scenery. He had wandered this mountain range countless times, yet today, through some twist of fate, he had discovered such a vast expanse of emerald green land. Regardless, he hadn't died from such a high fall.

"Ah! You **thief, what are you doing..." Suddenly, a girl's voice shot out from the other side of the grass patch. "You shameless thing, how dare you peek at me!"

"**Thief? Holy crap, that title..." Just hearing such a word made Ye Xiu feel an inexplicable awkwardness. Was someone being indecent in broad daylight? But shouldn't they be called a hooligan or a pervert? Did he perhaps transmigrate, moving to some unknown place!

"Holy crap!" A miserable sound came from Ye Xiu, as, following the powerfully air-resistant "thief" shout, a huge stone smashed into his face. It hurt, it really hurt.

"Senior Brother! Hurry over here, I've taken down a **thief, come look at this guy," the girl's voice lost its sharp edge, becoming steady with a hint of shyness.

"What is it, Junior Sister!" A sturdy man's voice rushed over from behind. "What is this? It looks like a person?"

"He..." The girl used one hand to cover half her face, while the other finger pointed at the fallen Ye Xiu, whispering, "You look yourself! Senior Brother, this guy."

"Who is this young fellow..." The man's voice didn't sound as rash as the girl’s, but when he saw Ye Xiu lying on the ground, he couldn't help but show a look of disdain.

Ye Xiu, who had been on the verge of complaining, wanting to fight, even wanting to kill, only managed to rub his throbbing head and realize he had truly disgraced himself this time.

He suddenly remembered that when he was falling from the cliff, he had just been reaching to relieve himself, and somehow, he had ended up falling to the base of Yunmeng Mountain.

"Who are you people? What are you doing..." Ye Xiu awkwardly pulled up the zipper on his pants, but the pain from the stone hitting his face was intense, making it hard to control his facial expressions while speaking. "Damn it, what kind of situation is this? What's going on?"

"**Thief, thank goodness I only have an older sister and no younger sister, otherwise you'd be eyeing her too! You keep saying 'my little sister, my little sister.' What are your intentions!" The girl in red spoke with evident disgust. "Senior Brother, how should we deal with this **thief? Should I just kill him with my sword and put an end to it?"