81.2

"And they say it's better in the north, I think we've come to the wrong place. This lord is moody and unpredictable, he isn't any easier to serve than Princess Shunde."

"Shouldn't be... I heard this lord was not like this before..."

"He changed after coming out of that island courtyard. Don't know what kind of a demonic curse fell on him. Look at how his room freezes over every morning, it's even worse than standing outside in the snow. Thank god I don't have to go serve him tomorrow."

"Sigh..."

They thought they were complaining in private, little did they know that everything reached Changyi's ears word by word. Changyi listened, and felt they were right.

His temper had grown increasingly uncontrollable. To him, the world now looked like a barren field, lifeless and dull. And looking at people's faces was like looking at objects, without the slightest feel.

He knew he was becoming less and less interested in this human existence. All of his passion and desire had been used on one person, and she took them all away...

Changyi looked at his hands and pale fingertips. Every breath he took formed a mouthful of white air.

His body changed after sealing Ji Yunhe in ice. Changyi knew it was the mark he had left on Ji Yunhe's ear that caused him to suffer this freezing pain. The bite on Ji Yunhe's ear was a promise from the jiaoren to his mate, and it established an invisible link. While she was alive, the mark allowed him to sense her whereabouts and wellbeing. And after she died...

Jiaoren lived in the depths of the ocean their whole lives. Their power came from the sea, so when they died, the power naturally would return to the sea. Their body would turn to foam and dissipate into the waves.

Although Ji Yunhe was not a jiaoren, she was marked by one. If Changyi had buried her at sea, the water would take away the mark and maybe turn her body into foam as well. And once the mark faded, Changyi would no longer have to suffer.

But he did not want to do that. He sealed Ji Yunhe's body in layers of ice and sank her to the bottom of the lake because he did not want to break the last link between them.

Ji Yunhe was able to let go and be free. He was not. He stubbornly held on to this meaningless bond, illogical, unwise, and could even be called reckless. Just because...

It allowed him to feel her presence in his dreams, as if he were sleeping in the same icy lake as her. He could still hear her whispering inside his ears,

"Changyi… Changyi…"

It helped him sleep through the cold of the night. Changyi left the bed and stepped onto the frosty floor. He walked out under the sun, but felt none of its warmth. Nothing was of interest to him anymore. He remembered hearing that the Grand Master wanted to mourn the world...

Mourn for the world...

It was probably the same way he was feeling right now...

Because he no longer felt anything. The sky could fall and the earth could tumble, it did not matter to him.

"Your Highness." Another servant came, and Changyi looked at him. In his eyes, this servant's face looked no different from the previous one.

The servant continued, "A demon master who has joined us recently, Lu Jinyan, clashed with a snake demon. Their fight aggravated the disputes between the demon masters and demons here. Things have subsided for now, but they still hold a grudge. Your Highness, we've always sheltered both demon masters and demons, but since the population was low, they got along fine. Now with the huge influx of new residents..."

"Just kill." Changyi softly voiced out two words. The servant was stunned,

"Your… Highness...?"

"Peace disruptors, kill," Changyi ordered blankly then turned and left, leaving the servant staring at his back with a face full of dismay.

...

Aji grabbed her bag, turned into a man using the art of transformation and made her way south. At first she thought she would be bewildered, but to her surprise, she was surprisingly adaptable.

Walking through the mountains along the river, she found that she unexpectedly liked this way of life. No stress over gains and no worries over losses, she was happy-go-lucky and carefree.

After leaving the plum grove, Aji discovered her true self. She loved the blue sky, the bright sun, and the warm breeze. She also loved catching fish in the stream, lying in the grass after eating, and sleeping all day.