“Brocade City.”

Seraphine murmured the name under her breath, fingers massaging her temples as she rose from the ornate bed. The room around her was pristine—all silk curtains and delicate furnishings that screamed expensive taste. But something felt…… off.

Dark clouds seemed to press against her thoughts, obscuring memories that should have been crystal clear.

“Why am I here? Where was I supposed to go?” She tilted her head, and the golden ornaments in her hair caught the light, scattering tiny sparkles across the room.

The woman sitting on a low stool nearby stood gracefully. Her hair was like flowing clouds, her robes light as feathers, and she carried herself with the kind of effortless elegance that made other people feel clumsy just by existing. She laughed softly—the sound like wind chimes in a gentle breeze.

“Why trouble yourself with such thoughts? Today’s perfect for a flower-viewing trip outside the city.”

Before Seraphine could respond, bright laughter echoed from outside. Several women drifted in like colorful clouds, each radiating their own brand of refined beauty. They clustered around the doorway, peeking in with playful smiles.

“Such gorgeous weather! Why waste it hiding indoors? Come play with us!”

“Yes, let’s go out and have some fun!”

Seraphine hadn’t even moved when the woman beside her grasped her wrist. The touch was oddly cool, making Seraphine glance down—only to find her view blocked by a decorative fan. The fan bore a painted cluster of hibiscus flowers, their pink petals almost luminous.

“I painted this fan especially for you. Do you like it?” the woman asked. “It matches the peach blossom mark on your forehead perfectly.”

“Come on, the peach and plum blossoms are at their peak right now. We should go see them.”

Before Seraphine could protest, she found herself pulled from the room, through an elegant garden, and out onto the bustling streets.

The entire city seemed to have the same idea. Crowds filled every street and alley, their voices creating a cheerful din. Seraphine looked up to see colorful fabric banners stretched overhead—embroidered with birds, fish, and insects—like strips of sunset cut from the sky itself.

Clusters of flowers bloomed beside the green-tiled buildings. Seraphine’s attention was caught by a woman accepting a candied hawthorn from a vendor. Almost without thinking, she started to call out “Ec——”.

“Sister, this flower would look lovely on you.” The woman beside her smiled, offering a sprig of pear blossoms. Seraphine’s thoughts scattered. She accepted the flower, tucking it into her hair, and let herself be swept along with the crowd toward the city gates.

Whatever name she’d been about to call was lost in the press of bodies.

Outside the city walls, peach groves stretched endlessly—a pink ocean dotted with white pear trees and flame-red apricot blossoms.

One of the more energetic women waved her fan excitedly. “Look, there are azaleas and peonies over there! Should I pick some for everyone?”

“I want peonies,” Seraphine said without hesitation. “Pear blossoms are too plain for this outfit.”

The group burst into delighted laughter, the sound drawing amused glances from other flower-viewers.

“Our little sister is quite the beauty, isn’t she? Though really, who in this entire city could compare?” The woman who’d led Seraphine here spoke fondly. “Go on, pick the biggest, most gorgeous peonies you can find for her.”

“Right away!”

Seraphine touched her hair ornaments and smiled, then let her hand fall as she strolled through the peach grove. The others followed, chattering about which flowers would make the best rouge, and which patterns they wanted to embroider on new dresses.

She examined her fingernails—painted a deep crimson—and nodded approvingly.

Soon the flower-gatherers returned, their sleeves full of blossoms and their clothes fragrant with petals. The first woman suggested, “We collected so many—why not weave them into flower crowns?”

Seraphine made a noncommittal sound and moved to stand beneath a peach tree, gazing into the distance.

The city sat surrounded by pink groves like something from a dream, and beyond that, even more flowers bloomed—hibiscus, their petals shifting color throughout the day.

“Morning fresh as jade, evening bright as sunset clouds.” Seraphine murmured.

The other women settled around her on the grass. One laughed. “Sister, you’re quite the poet! Do you enjoy reading?”

Not particularly.

Seraphine lazily raised an eyebrow and plucked two peach blossoms to fidget with. She watched the women weaving their flower crowns and was about to speak when a breeze stirred her hair. Pear petals drifted down like snow, landing on her blood-red sleeves.

For an instant, she could almost feel someone standing beside her, leaning close to whisper in her ear—a voice cool and gentle, calling her name. Silver hair falling like those same pear petals.

“Seraphine.”

She went completely still.

The women sitting on the petal-carpeted grass looked up at her. “Sister, would you like a flower crown?”

Seraphine glanced at the peach blossoms in her fingers, then let out a soft, mocking laugh. She opened her hand, letting the petals fall.

“No need. I already have one.”

Someone once thought I needed a flower crown. She would have picked an entire mountain’s worth of flowers just to make me one, trying to include every beautiful bloom she could find. Just that single crown would outshine all of spring’s glory.

Calmly, Seraphine channeled spiritual energy into her storage ring and withdrew the flower crown she’d treasured but never dared to wear. She removed the pear blossom the woman had given her and handed it back.

“Is there something wrong with the pear blossom?” the woman asked.

“Nothing wrong with it. My crown already has pear blossoms.”

She placed the crown on her head. Objectively speaking, the craftsmanship wasn’t particularly refined—the stems were roughly woven and the weight was a bit uncomfortable. But in Seraphine’s eyes, it was the most beautiful crown in existence.

The women sitting on the ground had stopped their work, all staring up at her.

One sighed. “Sister, you’re absolutely stunning. Completely captivating.”

Seraphine met her gaze and smiled faintly. “Indeed. Many people have told me so.”

Then she drew her natal weapon.

The cheerful chatter died. The woman who’d brought Seraphine out asked curiously, “Is something wrong?”

Seraphine’s smile widened. “What season is this?”

“Spring, naturally.”

“Then the hibiscus bloomed rather early this year. And your fans seem to have been painted prematurely as well.”

As she spoke, the haze over her vision cleared. The peach groves remained, Brocade City still stood in the distance, but the women sitting on the grass revealed their true forms.

They still wore silk robes and flower ornaments, but their faces had become wavering, translucent shadows.

Seraphine arched a brow, her voice low. “Soul remnants.”

These people were nothing more than fragmented souls.

The lead woman sighed softly but made no aggressive moves. “We’ve been gone so long, we’d forgotten what the seasons should look like. Autumn flowers blooming in spring—how embarrassing.”

She raised her hand, releasing a pulse of spiritual energy. The cloud-like hibiscus flowers scattered on the wind, their petals swirling upward.

Seraphine pressed her lips together. When the woman had acted, a golden light had flashed from her chest—a golden dragon’s fragment. Despite being only a soul remnant , her cultivation was at the early Soul Transformation stage!

Seraphine looked toward the city and saw golden lights glowing from every person’s chest, like stars wandering through the pink groves. None of them seemed troubled by her discovery of this false paradise.

“Why not stay?” the woman asked gently, watching the other soul remnants continue their carefree conversations. “This place is like pure land, free from worldly troubles.”

Seraphine shook her head, eyeing the woman warily.

The woman sighed and pointed skyward. Another pulse of spiritual energy revealed the truth—a barrier curved over them like an enormous bowl, trapping everything beneath.

“You may not wish to stay, but you cannot leave. As long as you remain within this barrier, your memories will fade bit by bit. Even if you remember now, what’s the point? It only adds to your suffering.”

Seraphine smiled back, dismissing her natal weapon and drawing Brahma Bell instead. Her voice was perfectly calm.

“That’s fine. Someone will come for me.”

“She’ll take me away from here.”

The woman looked up in surprise.

Seraphine arched an eyebrow. “What? You don’t believe me?”

“How about we make a wager?”

The woman’s curiosity was piqued. “What kind of bet?”

“If someone breaks through your barrier and takes me away, you’ll gather all the golden dragon’s fragments from everyone in Brocade City and give them to me. If no one comes……” Seraphine shrugged. “Do whatever you want with me.”

“That hardly sounds like a fair trade,” the woman mused, then smiled. “But we’ve been bored for so long. A little entertainment wouldn’t hurt.”

Seraphine’s lips curved upward. “Excellent. Shall we all swear an oath to the Heavenly Dao?”

⁂

CRASH!

Half a mountain tumbled sideways into the ground, and molten lava erupted from the impact point, flowing everywhere and swallowing nearby peaks.

I floated overhead with a guilty expression bubble, quickly storing the Fire Mysterious Bird’s corpse in my storage ring. I swung Nine Heavens a few more times, and wherever the sword energy passed, the lava instantly froze into solid rock.

Error zipped around excitedly in the air, her eyes lighting up. “Orb! Look over there!”

I followed her tail-tip and spotted a blackened token embedded in the rapidly cooled stone—clearly a teleportation token. It had been hidden in the lava flow, and if I hadn’t split the mountain and caused the eruption, it probably would have stayed buried forever.

“Fantastic!” Flowers bloomed in my expression bubble as I gave Error a thumbs up.

Error grabbed her own tail and spun in a circle before diving down to coil around my wrist. I ran over to dig out the token, this time keeping Nine Heavens’ scabbard firmly in hand instead of carelessly tossing it aside.

After some determined excavation, I discovered the token was actually green—the black coating was just soot from my battle with the Fire Mysterious Bird. The token bore an engraved chrysanthemum in full bloom.

The flower petals in my expression bubble began falling one by one. I lowered my eyes and silently gripped the token.

White light flashed.

The moment Echo vanished, Shi Yingyue arrived at the Vermillion Bird Mountains on her flying artifact. She stared in shock at the devastation—the lingering spiritual pressure, the scattered battle damage across the landscape.

After searching every nearby volcano and finding no trace of the Candlefire Golden Lotus, she sighed deeply. “Someone beat me to it. What a shame!”

Echo crouched in tall grass with the spirit dragon.

The plains stretched endlessly, green grass rippling like an ocean. Sitting down meant being completely swallowed by the vegetation, invisible to anyone passing by.

When wind bent the grass low, Echo’s silver hair flowed like a stream through the green sea, occasionally attracting curious birds that would land briefly before fluttering away.

I didn’t mind the attention and shared peanuts with Error.

Error was in a sullen mood, cramming peanuts into her mouth without even bothering to shell them first. She crunched through hull and nut together while I observed her behavior.

A thinking symbol appeared in my expression bubble. “Error, we’re good friends, so I’d like to ask you something. I hope this isn’t too forward.”

Error blinked her large eyes. “Go ahead.”

“You don’t want to die, right?”

Error’s face went pale with shock. She whipped around to stare at the enormous green snake corpse behind them—still warm and bigger than her true form. “Why?! I only ate an extra handful of peanuts!”

“That’s not what I meant…… Never mind. As long as you don’t want to die, that’s good enough.”

I used Nine Heavens to dig a small hole, buried the peanut shells, brushed the dirt off the sword, and stored the giant snake in my storage ring.

“Let’s go.” I told Error.

Error sighed dramatically and slithered into Echo’s sleeve with an air of noble suffering.

I smiled and said, “Desperately anxious.”

I grasped the token I’d found in this grassland and blinked out of existence.

A solitary bird dropped onto the empty patch, tapped at the grass with its beak, then lifted into the sky.

⁂

Three days later, same grassland.

Two cultivators descended on their flying artifacts. The senior disciple instructed his companion: “Junior brother, the Shadow-Devouring Serpent is extremely vicious. It sprays green poison mist that disorients victims before killing them, and it’s nearly impossible to spot hiding in the grass. We must be careful!”

“Don’t worry, senior brother! Once we kill the Shadow-Devouring Serpent and harvest its gallbladder, we can refine Great Origin Pills. Our breakthrough is within reach!”

“Excellent!”

The two cultivators were filled with determination, ready to fight to the death for their prize. However, after extensive searching and attempting to lure out their quarry, they found no trace of any serpent.

“Strange. Young Master Zhao clearly said the Shadow-Devouring Serpent was in this area. How could there be nothing here?” the senior brother wondered.

His junior brother looked baffled. “The Immortal Ascension Commerce Association never lies to customers. Someone couldn’t have gotten here first, could they?”

⁂

“Achoo.”

I trudged through desert sand, squinting up at the blazing sun with a question mark in my expression bubble.

I rubbed my nose and climbed the next sand dune. My eyes immediately lit up. “Error, look!”

Error poked her head out of my sleeve. Below us, beside a small oasis, grew an enormous cactus covered in spines. The lake wasn’t particularly interesting, but the cactus bore a single snow-white flower of exquisite beauty!

“Wow!” I clapped my hands in rare excitement. “Seraphine will love this!”

I used spatial compression to reach the lakeside, but just as I was about to pick the flower, the ground shook violently. A massive black scorpion—ten feet long with razor-sharp pincers that gleamed in the sunlight—burst from the sand.

I stared wide-eyed as the ellipsis in my expression bubble drifted lazily before transforming into flowers.

What a big scorpion. I should catch it and show Seraphine!

[Author’s Note]:

Massive black scorpion: ???