"You..." Ye Nishang's face turned pale, as if she had been stripped in public. She shouted in a panic, "Who the hell are you?"

  "I am..." Ding Xiaocuo's eyes shifted. "I am just someone with innate divine strength. Do you believe I can listen to people's hearts?"

  Listen to people's hearts? His expression didn’t seem like he was joking. Both Ye Nishang and Beitang Ken were startled. Ding Xiaocuo smiled. "Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is this: Ye Nishang, you don’t deserve his love. If you truly loved each other, the “Spiritual Rhino” Sword wouldn't have reacted like it did just now!"

  The room fell into a deathly silence. "Beitang, do... do you believe her?" Ye Nishang rushed forward and hugged him. "You've known me for so many years, and you still trust her over me?"

  Beitang Ken stared directly into Ye Nishang's eyes and pushed her away, saying, "I don't know the secret of the “Spiritual Rhino” Sword, nor do I know how to unlock it. My parents never mentioned it. I only wanted to save you. The Ye family raised me, and I don't want to say more... Just go." There was no expnation, but he believed every word Ding Xiaocuo had said. Her eyes, her demeanor, carried an honesty that he could see. He wasn't upset at being deceived, nor did he feel resentment. In fact, he felt somewhat relieved.

  "You wretched person! You ruined everything!" Seeing Beitang Ken treat her like this, Ye Nishang went mad and lunged at Ding Xiaocuo, knocking her to the ground. Just as Beitang Ken moved to stop her, a gust of cold wind swept through the doorway, and all the lights in the room went out.

  When the lights flickered back on, Beitang Ken found that both Ding Xiaocuo and Ye Nishang had disappeared without a trace.

  "Master, please wait!" On the open ground, Ye Nishang staggered in the snow as she chased after the masked man, grabbing hold of his leg. "I am Beitang Ken's fiancée, the woman he loves most in this life! I can definitely unlock the “Spiritual Rhino” Sword! Please tell the prince to give me another chance! I will surely..."

  "The prince will find another way," the masked man interrupted coldly, shaking off Ye Nishang's grasp. "There's no need for the young dy to worry about the “Spiritual Rhino” Sword any longer." He turned and disappeared into the wind and snow.

  "No... no!" Ye Nishang colpsed to the ground, crying out in anguish, like a beast struck through the heart by an arrow. Ding Xiaocuo rubbed her neck and coughed as she sat up from the snow. When the masked man had appeared, Ye Nishang had been desperately clutching her neck, and somehow, he had been the one to pull her out of the situation.

  "You wretched [person]!" Ye Nishang turned around, her eyes bloodshot with despair, and lunged at Ding Xiaocuo. "It's you! If it weren't for you, I would be the future empress of the Great Song, bringing glory to my ancestors! You! You!" Ye Nishang's strength grew impossibly great as she mounted Ding Xiaocuo, tightening her hands around her neck, her rage demanding blood to quell it.

  "Ye Nishang, you and Beitang Ken should never have crossed paths!" Ding Xiaocuo struggled, her voice filled with anguish. "It was my youthful ignorance and desire for revenge that tied you and Beitang Ken together with a red thread! Beitang Ken's feelings for you are nothing but an illusion, a red thread forced upon him, meaningless and hollow!"

  "I was once a “Spiritual Rhino” , sent to the world to correct the disruption I caused in Beitang Ken's fate!" Ding Xiaocuo gasped; the long-dormant memories that had been buried for nine hundred years suddenly erupted within her, like a storm, shaking every vein in her body.

  A burst of white light emanated from Ding Xiaocuo's feet, rapidly spreading across her entire body. As the white light passed, her clothes disintegrated, and thick scales grew on her exposed skin. A wave of intense heat lifted Ding Xiaocuo into the air. Ye Nishang covered her mouth in shock, her eyes wide as she watched Ding Xiaocuo spinning in the air, the blinding light turning half of the night sky into daylight.

  When Ye Nishang finally opened her eyes again, there was no sign of Ding Xiaocuo. Instead, standing before her was a monstrous creature she had never seen before. Its body resembled a tiger, its head like a bull, its legs like an elephant's, and its snow-white scales covered its entire body. A pair of curved, white horns sprouted from the middle of its forehead. The creature was not only bizarre but also hideously ugly. It shook its head, emitting a harsh, low growl from its throat, its front legs kicking restlessly on the ground.

  "You... you..." After Ye Nishang's senses returned, she stared at the yaokai in front of her, dazed. After a long pause, she suddenly burst into manic ughter, cpping her hands wildly. "You're actually a yaokai! A yaokai! Ha! Ha!"

  The creature's small eyes regarded the nearly mad woman, snorting hot breath from its nose.

  "You're so ugly! He won't like a yaokai like you! Hahaha!" Ye Nishang cpped her hands loudly, the sound echoing. "Heaven has eyes! Ugly yaokai! You'll scare everyone away! Everyone!" To her surprise, she began to sing joyfully, spinning in circles as if she were celebrating.

  "Ugly yaokai! Ugly yaokai! Shame—shame—shame! Haha, I can become empress now! I can become empress now!" She ughed and cried before colpsing to the ground, unconscious.

  The yaokai lowered its head, hesitated for a moment, and then quickly charged toward the direction of the stone forest.

  She almost remembered everything.

  In the Lao Yue's temple, with the matchmaker and Beitang Ken, whose red thread had been severed by him. From the moment she traveled back to the Northern Song and met him, the paths she walked, the things she did—this entire trajectory had already existed nine hundred years ago, with only minor differences, but ultimately leading to the same end. Nine hundred years ago, she descended to the mortal realm to atone for her mistakes and met Beitang Ken. Nine hundred years ter, she returned to the past to right her wrongs and once again met Beitang Ken. The trajectory of nine centuries, the fate after nine hundred years, overpped because of the lost “Spiritual Rhino” Sword.

  The Moon Elder had once said that when correcting this mistake, one must not use magic; otherwise, her human form would be lost, her true form would emerge, and it would take three years to recover. In the stone house, she had used the powers of “Spiritual Rhino,” peering into Ye Nishang's heart, learning all the truths. She couldn't care about much anymore; only one thought occupied her mind—save him! Beitang Ken, don't go back to your origin! Don't come looking for me! Don't climb that mountain wall!

  From a distance, she saw him just as the sky was beginning to lighten.

  His bck clothes stood out as he raced through the snow, calling her name loudly. Her heart swelled with joy and anticipation, and she was about to step forward when she suddenly stopped.

  "Yaokais are always so ugly and repulsive." — These were his words. "He won't like a yaokai like you!" — Ye Nishang's eerie ugh still echoed in her ears. She was a yaokai, an ugly “spiritual rhino,” and that was a fact that would never change. Beitang Ken, the brilliant and handsome King of Ghosts, the man who hoped to roam the world and tend to horses on the frontier with her, would never want an ugly yaokai by his side…

  A deep, overwhelming fear rose in her heart. Unwillingly, her steps began to retreat. Three years—she would return to him after three years. If, by then, he still remembered her... She turned away before he could notice.

  The next day, she felt a deep unease, a restless urge to go see him, to see if he was still searching for her whereabouts on the desote pins. She crossed through the stone forest, only to be stunned by the sight of bodies and blood scattered across the ground. Most of the dead were Khitan soldiers, but there were a few Han people among them as well. She followed the trail of blood, running frantically, until she reached the jagged mountain wall that resembled a sword's thrust. The snow-covered ground had been torn open by some sharp force, exposing the earth beneath.

  The masked man was slumped against a rge rock, his body already stiff with death. One arm had been severed, and a deep gash marred his throat. He, however, was half-kneeling, a bloodied hole in his chest, clutching the “Spiritual Rhino” sword tightly in his right hand, its bde deeply embedded in the earth, propping him up to prevent him from colpsing.

  She stood frozen, staring at him. His eyes were still open, stubbornly fixed on the direction she was coming from. Beitang Ken was dead.