Chapter 2: Help, Who’s About to See Their Ex!

Immortal Lord Li Xuan was a good immortal lord.

Even though he felt utterly devoid of the will to live, he still clung to the simple principle of not wasting food. With a head full of lingering stupid memories he couldn’t shake, he silently finished his breakfast.

Heaven knew, he actually hated sweets the most.

And above sweets, he utterly, utterly despised ginger. Before meeting Jiang Chen, he’d avoid the stuff like the plague—it was his number one taboo food.

Yet during those years in the Mortal Realm, out of affection for Jiang Chen, he’d forced himself to eat ginger at every meal.

…Looking back now, what the hell had been the point?

As if eating a few more pieces of ginger would make Jiang Chen like him even a little bit more!

As he mulled this over, the clear cultivation bells and drums rang out from the plaza outside. Morning assembly time had arrived. Immortal Lord Li Xuan hurriedly shoved down the last few bites.

Ugh. So cloyingly sweet. Painful mask!

…

He dozed through the interminable morning assembly, then Zhao Lixuan decisively threw himself into the vast sea of immortal spell tomes in the Scripture Pavilion.

Yes, even after all these years, he was still obsessed with that possible memory-loss spell—thief-hearted to the end!

Unfortunately, heaven didn’t fulfill an immortal’s wish.

Today’s Immortal Lord Li Xuan, nursing his battered and broken heart of shame, spent a precious morning in the Scripture Pavilion. He scoured the ancient texts again and came up empty-handed.

He did, however, stumble upon a few amusing minor immortal spells along the way—like “Point Stone to Bag” and “Empty Valley Blooms Flower”—and casually learned them.

Great. A few more weird little tricks to help him escape reality.

In short, as long as he kept pretending he’d forgotten that dark chapter of his history, today would be another easy, pleasant, elegant, and dignified day!

Escapism was shameful, but useful.

But in the blink of an eye, the sun hung high, and lunchtime had arrived.

Zhao Lixuan only hoped the midday meal wouldn’t have any ginger…

With that thought, he strolled out of the Scripture Pavilion. But the sky, which had been clear and blue that morning, was now drizzling with a light rain, draping the world in a veil of damp mist.

Luckily, the Scripture Pavilion always kept rain umbrellas on hand.

Zhao Lixuan selected an exquisitely beautiful Hundred-Colored Long Butterfly Silver Xuanhua Umbrella from the assortment of oiled paper umbrellas. His fingertips elegantly brushed over the Azure-Eyed White Jade Cicada Silk Tassel dangling from the handle—crafted by Immortal Capital’s premier accessory shop, Sunken Wood Manor—before he opened it with satisfaction.

Clad in his plain white Daoist robes, he stepped gracefully into the misty rain, where pavilions and towers unfolded like an ink wash painting.

The path from the Scripture Pavilion to his residence, Pear Flower Water Pavilion, was a mere incense stick’s worth of a walk.

In this hazy, melancholic rainscape, paired with his ethereal, otherworldly figure in white…

It was no wonder the young disciples sheltering from the rain under the distant colonnades stared at him in stunned awe. Zhao Lixuan’s hearing was sharp as ever, and he clearly caught their hushed exclamations:

“Quick, look! What luck today—we get to see Immortal Lord Li Xuan!”

“The Lord is always so solemn and reclusive; you rarely catch a glimpse of him. Seeing him stroll in the rain today? Totally worth it!”

“I’ve heard that though he seems aloof and distant, if any disciple in the sect runs into real trouble, he always helps out without hesitation!”

“Immortal Lord Li Xuan might look lofty, but he’s actually approachable, warm-hearted, and kind—a true gentleman!”

“No surprise he’s been voted ‘Fu Xi Palace’s Most Beloved Immortal Lord’ year after year!”

Zhao Lixuan: “…”

He deserved it.

It wasn’t wasted—the twenty years of him keeping up the act, always in pristine white robes, dashing and ethereal. Now, whenever anyone mentioned Immortal Lord Li Xuan, they’d say, “Handsome and elegant, peerless grace in Fu Xi Palace.”

The gold-bedecked, hyperactive dumbass from back then had been completely reborn. Now there was only the aloof and detached Immortal Lord Li Xuan.

Perfect.

Zhao Lixuan kept his face impassive, but he tilted the umbrella brim slightly downward to hide the faint, almost imperceptible smugness at his lips. He continued maintaining that flawless immortal poise, drifting elegantly toward Pear Flower Water Pavilion.

The scenery was beautiful, and so was the mood.

In the misty rain, he could already make out the familiar upturned eaves and corners of Pear Flower Water Pavilion.

But then, against all odds, a fatal thought popped into his head at the worst possible moment—

This foggy, rainy, windy haze where everything was blurred and damp… it was just like the morning twenty years ago, when he and Jiang Chen parted for the last time.

…

No, wait—stop.

…

Great life ahead. Think of something else.

…

I said think of something else!!!

He still remembered that parting day twenty years ago: another drizzle with drifting white mist.

He’d been clad in red robes stained unrecognizable with blood and mud, dragging his wounded body along. He’d fought back tears, stumbling pitifully and foolishly right up to Jiang Chen.

Little Ginger, I know I was wrong… Don’t go, okay?

I can change—anything. Stay, don’t go. We… we can start over, okay?

Little Sweet Ginger, I really do like you.

We’ve been together two years—two years, over seven hundred days and nights…

In all that time, you never… never felt even a little moved? Never liked me even a bit?

…

Is that it? You never liked me at all. So I was that repulsive in your eyes… Sorry, I thought—I really thought…

Turns out it was all me being presumptuous.

…

Snap.

In an instant, the meticulously carved Azure-Eyed White Jade Cicada Silk Tassel on the Xuanhua Umbrella was crushed to powder under his suddenly clenched fingers.

Rain pattered down as veins throbbed on Immortal Lord Li Xuan’s forehead.

His face bore none of its usual steady dignity—instead, it twisted ferociously, like some villainous old demon about to go on a murderous rampage, slaughtering cities and committing atrocities.

True shame.

Shame so deep it warped his features.

Shame so profound it sparked murderous intent!

…One shouldn’t—no, mustn’t. But seriously, what the hell had possessed him back then???

Facts proved that no matter how heartbroken the self-delusion, after long years of relentless tempering, all that remained was an overwhelming tide of accumulated shame—and bone-deep regret wishing he could strangle his past self.

Twenty years later, Immortal Lord Li Xuan could no longer recall even a shred of that gut-wrenching agony from back then.

He’d been truly stupid. Really.

Never mind that pile of eye-roll-inducing drivel wouldn’t have coaxed anyone back.

Just consider his injuries—

Those were the glorious results from the Mortal Realm’s largest-ever clash between demon immortals and human immortals: a brutal, no-holds-barred barrage of spells!

He was a pure-blooded human immortal—pure through eighteen generations of ancestry, couldn’t get purer.

Jiang Chen was a demon immortal.

At the time, the two sides were at each other’s throats. He couldn’t bear to strike Jiang Chen, so he’d just gotten skewered through by the other’s fierce sword array.

And yet, even skewered like a pincushion, the old him had slept like a log—only to wake the next morning, drag his mangled body out, and pull off that braindead maneuver: tearfully, groveling to apologize and beg for reconciliation???

Truly speechless.

If that little Zhao from back then stood before him now, present-day Immortal Lord Li Xuan would slap the wretched beast dead on the spot.

What level of love saint was that?

Terrifying!

Needless to say, human immortals and demon immortals were at war then—swords drawn, battles raging. Anyone they met got fought to the death, no questions asked.

In that hellish environment where his life hung by a thread, he’d survived the first day by sheer luck—only to boldly infiltrate the enemy camp the next morning, heavy wounds and all, just to beg his merciless ex—who’d stabbed him a dozen times—to get back together???

This went beyond terrifying. Utterly unprecedented, a thousand-mile head delivery—light on the gift, heavy on the intent!

He’d just gotten lucky, really.

If Jiang Chen had been half a ruthless bit more that day, he could’ve quietly finished him off with his demon immortals.

Skinned, dismembered, core obliterated—clean as a whistle, no traces left. Turned into an unsolved Immortal Realm mystery.

In summary.

For an immortal second-gen as dumb as him to survive to this day—and even stumble into fame as the renowned “Immortal Lord Li Xuan”…

That was an Immortal Realm miracle.

…

That day, Zhao Lixuan ultimately failed to saunter back to Pear Flower Water Pavilion.

He got intercepted midway by two friends.

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Fu Xi Palace’s Lord Xia Yunjie, and his senior brother Yu Rumu—who always carried the scent of fresh herbs—flanked him naturally, one on each side.

Zhao Lixuan: “Ah, wh-what’s up?”

Xia Yunjie narrowed his eyes at him: “Still asking?”

Yu Rumu sighed: “Yunjie was right—you were there in body but not in spirit during morning assembly. Didn’t hear a word.”

Zhao Lixuan: “…”

“It’s one thing on normal days,” Xia Yunjie said helplessly, “but today’s discussion was no small matter. Lixuan, you’ve had it too easy these years—you’ve forgotten… The Immortal-Demon Blood Alliance is nearly twenty years old. The ‘Demon Hunting Moon Hunt’ is about to begin?”

…

Zhao Lixuan froze for a moment.

Twenty years ago, that utterly devastating immortal-demon civil war—the top powerhouses from both sides fought heedless of consequences, shaking the Three Realms and even splitting the Unstained Immortal Realm in two.

The Immortal Realm’s fracture damaged the Sealing Demon Great Array that maintained the Three Realms’ balance. The seal cracked, demonic qi flooded in, and the eternally suppressed Demon Clan nearly broke free—nearly plunging the Immortal and Mortal Realms into catastrophe.

At the brink of annihilation, former Fu Xi Palace Lord Zhao Lanze sacrificed himself, burning his immortal soul to forcibly mend the array’s core and barely avert disaster.

After Zhao Lanze’s sacrifice, human and demon immortals finally came to their senses and called a truce.

Under the Human Emperor’s witness, the two sides forged a blood oath alliance, vowing to set aside grudges and jointly safeguard the hard-won peace of the Three Realms.

Though the Sealing Demon Great Array was reforged, the Misty Crevice Abyss—formed at the Three Realms’ convergence due to the Immortal Realm’s split—still festered with demonic qi, spawning rampant demon beasts and plants.

Especially each year during the cycle when demonic qi peaked, powerful demons repeatedly tried to cross the abyss and invade the immortal borders and Mortal Realm.

To counter the demonic threat, experts from both immortal and demon realms took turns patrolling the abyss year-round.

Ten years ago, the Mortal Realm’s premier sect, Liao Yuan Court, organized a massive Demon Hunting Moon Hunt purge of the Misty Crevice Abyss—achieving brilliant results.

…Zhao Lixuan just hadn’t realized that Moon Hunt felt like yesterday, yet it was already a decade past.

Time flew that fast.

“Indeed, days pass like shuttles,” Xia Yunjie said. “I still remember the last big hunt—demon immortals led it, but plenty of human immortals from Unstained Immortal Realm joined to help.”

“Now, another ten years gone—it’s our human immortals’ turn to shoulder the demon-hunting duty. Leading this purge is an honor from the Immortal Emperor to Fu Xi Palace, and a tribute to Senior Brother Lanze’s immortal soul. We must slaughter those demons without mercy!”

…

Zhao Lixuan paused thoughtfully: “But Brother, demon hunting is no easy task. I heard even Liao Yuan Court’s illustrious hunt last time came at heavy cost…”

Xia Yunjie nodded: “I know what you mean. That’s why, to ensure success, I sent a letter to the Mortal Realm days ago, sincerely inviting Liao Yuan Court’s fellow Daoists to assist in this grand hunt.”

“They must have plenty of experience from last time to share with us.”

Yu Rumu chimed in: “Lixuan, you don’t know yet? Liao Yuan Court got a new immortal leader last month—our old Senior Sister Ziyuan!”

“She’s naturally invested in our affairs and already replied: she’ll bring every top demon immortal powerhouse from Liao Yuan Court, without exception, to support us!”

Zhao Lixuan: “…”

“All of them?”

Yu Rumu: “Yeah. Hey, what’s wrong, Lixuan? Why’s your face suddenly so weird?”

“Yunjie, quick—look at Lixuan. He… seems kinda stiff and petrified.”

“Right, speaking of that immortal-demon war twenty years ago—Lixuan, you were young then, but… you were studying in the Mortal Realm at the time.”

“Not that among the demon immortals coming from Liao Yuan Court this time… there’s an old acquaintance of yours?”