In that instant, a fragment flashed across Wu Xingxue’s mind—

Another occasion when he oughtn’t to have uttered a sound, and was in the same posture as now, with Xiao Fuxuan’s hand muffling him. He even remembered the feel of the other party’s thumb lightly touching the tip of his nose, the light breath of his whispered words sweeping past his earbones.

His shoulders and neck went taut for a moment, and he spoke quietly to the one holding him down: "Xiao Fuxuan, do you know how reckless it is to touch the Devil Lord from behind?"

It was a vital gate, too easy to incite an instinctive killing move.

"I know." After a moment’s silence. Xiao Fuxuan said lowly and methodically: "But Wu Xingxue… you withdrew your internal energy."

Wu Xingxue returned to his senses.

He realized in hindsight that when he was clapped on the shoulder, he’d also instinctively curled his fingers. But upon knocking against Xiao Fuxuan’s chest, upon hearing the other’s voice, he slowly disengaged his internal energy.

Before he could react, he’d already been carried by Xiao Fuxuan behind a sound-barrier wall.

The market was still noisy, but it was only on the other side of the wall.

Looking toward the piping steam at that faraway tea shop, he asked: "Is it really an illusion realm?"

The palm over his lips stirred, withdrawing

"What did you say?" Xiao Fuxuan asked, "It was too noisy outside to hear clearly."

"I said, is this place really an illusion realm? I can’t help but feel it’s too realistic." Wu Xingxue looked outside the wall for a while.

Xiao Fuxuan replied, "You can think of it that way."

"What do you mean?" Wu Xingxue asked.

Xiao Fuxuan: "What you see is an illusion, but the scene is real."

Wu Xingxue: "……"

After a beat of silence, he turned his head around to say: "Immortal… that didn’t help."

Xiao Fuxuan: "……"

He shot Wu Xingxue a look as though he had no words, but still opened his mouth to supplement: "Falling Flower Mountain Market is long-gone, yet it appeared now out of thin air; naturally it is an illusion realm. But this mountain market’s scenery isn’t built on naught; it is Falling Flower Terrace as it once was on a certain day."

Falling Flower Terrace as it once was on a certain day?

Wu Xingxue looked back at the market.

This had truly been too much of a coincidence from start to finish. As soon as they’d set off from Valley of Great Sorrow, Falling Flower Terrace had exhibited strange phenomena.

The previous strange phenomena had always been sudden bursts of firelight, yet the moment they’d stepped foot into the mountain, the strange phenomena were no longer just flames, but a certain day in Falling Flower Terrace’s past.

The first time one could still call it coincidence, but if coincidences piled up, there must be something else behind all this.

If the illusion was Falling Flower Terrace as it once was on a certain day…

Was this to let them know something? Or to get them to do something?

Wu Xingxue mulled it over, and turned his head to say: "Xiao Fuxuan, is your memory good?"

Xiao Fuxuan: "……"

The Tianxiu Immortal’s expression was a bit complicated.

Before Wu Xingxue could say anything else, Xiao Fuxuan said. "I can’t tell which day it is."

Wu Xingxue: "I didn’t even ask yet."

Xiao Fuxuan’s gaze swept over him, "It’s written clearly on your face."

Wu Xingxue: "……"

Okay.

He had indeed been planning to ask this, and in the end, his question had been choked back in advance by the Tianxiu Immortal. However, he was simply not ready to give in.He looked toward the market. That previous tall figure was already nowhere to be seen, submerged somewhere in the bustling tide of people. Without turning his head, he asked: "That one you said couldn’t be called for just now, was it you?"

After asking, he subconsciously grumbled out: "It should be, I’d never mistake you."

Behind him, Xiao Fuxuan suddenly asked, "Why?"

Wu Xingxue turned his head to look at him: "Hm?"

Xiao Fuxuan withdrew his line of sight from the market, his gaze slightly lowering to Wu Xingxue’s body: "Why wouldn’t you mistake me?"

Wu Xingxue opened his mouth but didn’t answer. All of a sudden, he went quiet.

The teahouse’s shop assistant again bellowed a long plug for his wares, breaking the ambiance of this nook.

Wu Xingxue hastily turned his head to glance over, and changed the subject: "Since you came here that year, do you by chance still remember—"

As he spoke, upon again turning round, he saw that the Tianxiu Immortal was peering over at that teahouse with a withering glare.

Wu Xingxue: "……"

He paused, then abruptly began to laugh.

This seemed to be the first time since waking up in the Northern Frontiers that he’d laughed like this, completely unburdened and unhampered. He wasn’t scaring people, wasn’t sneering, wasn’t helpless out of anger, wasn’t even scheming against others.

Xiao Fuxuan withdrew his glare from the teashop to look at him. After a long while, he said: "Done laughing? If so, let’s go."

After he finished speaking, he strode out of the nook, carrying his sword.

Wu Xingxue followed up behind him. His words still bore laughter between the lines: "Hey, I still hadn’t finished asking."

Since this illusion realm had a Xiao Fuxuan in it, then he could have him try and think back to the year he’d come to Falling Flower Mountain Market, and whether he’d ever run into something fishy.

But reconsidering it, Wu Xingxue thought, it’d already been centuries ago. After all that time, who’d remember that stuff?

Hence, he changed his mind after saying that, and said: "Whatever, just act like I hadn’t said anything."

But Xiao Fuxuan seemed to have guessed his intent, and said: "I’d come to this mountain market quite a few times."

The implication was: just based on a single silhouette, he truly couldn’t determine which time it was, let alone recall what had happened at the time.

Wu Xingxue nodded his head: "Then where to now?"

Just as his voice fell, they happened to walk to a high lookout point, so that upon raising his eyes, Wu Xingxue could take the entire meandering crowd of people before him.

In a somewhat distant place, he again caught sight of that familiar back. Because both his appearance and height were particularly outstanding, he was easy to spot in a crowd.

That was the Xiao Fuxuan of the illusion realm.

"So, just, following you on your own?" Wu Xingxue asked.

These words sounded very weird. Xiao Fuxuan "mm"ed in agreement without saying anything more.

"Then why not just follow after him instead of dragging me into a corner?" Wu Xingxue then said.

These words sounded even weirder. After a beat of silence, Xiao Fuxuan finally opened his mouth, "Too close and we’d be detected."

True.

Wu Xingxue thought to himself, after all, the illusion realm’s Tianxiu Immortal was also the Tianxiu Immortal. Having a couple people tailing him at that distance, it’d be impossible he wouldn’t be aware of it.

Just imagine if an unidentified person were to be tailing him, let alone for it to be an identical person…

A fight would be an understatement. Killing moves would probably be unleashed without a doubt.

No wonder Xiao Fuxuan had to cover his mouth before; if he hadn’t it would’ve meant trouble.

***

Falling Flower Mountain Market Mountain supposedly went on for nearly a dozen miles, too long to see the end at a glance.

Within the twinkling lights, they hadn’t yet crossed one mile when they abruptly smelled an extremely heavy fragrance.

The entire street nearly overflowed with this scent, so strong it made Wu Xingxue’s headache. Pinching his nose, he said in a low voice: "They must have overturned an entire cart of rouges and perfumed powders, right?"Sure enough, he heard a commotion up front, full of endless complaints. It so happened that a group of passers-by were curiously rubbernecking, stopping up the entire area before them.

They watched as a shop assistant scuffled a couple paces like a skinny monkey and clambered up on the table to address the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, guests and officials, don’t worry, don’t curse, please calm down and quell your anger. Next door, Liji House’s Rouge, right when they were opening up, somehow a falling rock crashed down and knocked over their cart, so the rouges and perfumed powder cases scattered all over the ground. They’re cleaning it up right now."

"There are falling rocks in Falling Flower Mountain Market?" Wu Xingxue was somewhat astonished.

Because he was pinching his nose, his voice came out muffled.

Xiao Fuxuan tilted his head to hear clearly, then said: "Indeed strange."

Normally speaking, this mountain market happened every year. All the buildings and shops were built into the mountain and arranged along the mountain wherever it was stable. Wherever it was dangerous ought to have long been clearly demarcated. If there were falling rocks from time to time, this Falling Flower Mountain Market could never have become so flourishing and lively.

"These shop roof tiles, weren’t they all reinforced by the immortal sects?" Quite a few people in the crowd also erupted in doubts, "How could there be falling rocks, in all these years I’ve never seen such a thing."

"Indeed," the shop assistant said, "Indeed, our shopkeeper said he’d already sent people to ask after the Feng family, please don’t be afraid everyone."

"Feng family again?"

Wu Xingxue himself didn’t remember those immortal sects clearly, and had the deepest impression of the Hua family. Feng family could roughly be considered to have made the second deepest impression on him, because right before they’d gone through Zhaoye City’s entrance, they’d heard about the relationship between the new city lord Xueli and Feng family. Hearing them mentioned again now, it was hard to ignore.

"If there’s trouble in the mountain market, they’ll go call on the nearest immortal sect, or the most powerful immortal sect in the vicinity," Xiao Fuxuan explained.

As he spoke, Wu Xingxue noticed that the "Xiao Fuxuan" they were following had abruptly stopped and swept a penetrating glance over the crowd behind him.

Wu Xingxue came back to himself rapidly. He immediately grabbed the person next to him and yanked the other party into the nearest inn, using the corridor’s column to hide.

Compared to the mass of people in front, this inn was quite lonely. There was only a middle-aged man with bags under his eyes click-clacking an abacus behind a wooden counter.

Upon hearing the sound, he didn’t raise his head, just let his rough voice drawl out: "Bellboy, there are people here."

Wu Xingxue was originally going to leave after hiding, but saw a little bell hanging from a rack above the front counter. It was also made of white jade, and flowed with a warm, glossy light under the lamps.

At first glance, it was quite similar to the dream bell.

In this pause, a short and chubby silhouette plodded down the wooden staircase with a round ‘Dong Dong Dong" sound.

"Who’s here boss? People have come again? Our shop’s really been odd these past couple days!" The little chubby kid wasn’t fully grown, and looked like a ball rolling over. He nearly knocked straight into them, but was blocked by Wu Xingxue’s outstretched hand.

Wu Xingxue’s hand was cold as ice. The little chubby kid let out a shiver at the freezing touch, at which point he fixed his eyes on the two people who’d come. Then, for some reason, he was struck dumb.

He took a look at Xiao Fuxuan, then took a look at Wu Xingxue, his mouth opening and closing without uttering a word all the while.

"Is something wrong here?" Wu Xingxue rubbed his fingertips together, thinking to himself, no wonder, my hands are too cold, gave him quite a shock.

The little chubby kid promptly waved his hands: "No no no no."

Perhaps it was because he was so close now, and he’d made a large movement. Moreover, the street full of perfumes and powders wasn’t so heavy in this nook.

In the wind from this little chubby kid’s hand-raising motion, Wu Xingxue sniffed out a subtle scent. The smell could’ve dispersed without anyone’s notice, leaving no trace.

Were it another person, they might not have noticed it at all.

But Wu Xingxue was different. Before, in his dream, he’d had a deep impression of this smell, and then smelled it a second time at Zhaoye City’s entrance.

This was the third time today—

On this little chubby kid’s body, there was actually that same musty scent as those cultivating the corpse-refining path like Sang Yu and Xueli.

This was no ordinary inn.

The little chubby kid stuttered for a while, at last attracting the innkeeper’s attention. The middle-aged man behind the counter pushed aside his abacus to slowly ask: "Bellboy, don’t dawdle, do these two want to stay the night?"

Recalling that weird musty scent from just now, along with the dream bell hanging on a rack above the counter, Wu Xingxue was about to say "Yes."

He watched as the innkeeper raised his head.

The middle-aged man finally saw the guests’ appearances dearly. His first reaction was a retroactive shock, and then he slowly opened his mouth, looking just the same as the little chubby kid.

After a beat, he asked in a raised pitch: "Hang on, didn’t You two just check out?"

Wu Xingxue’s "Yes" plunged back down.

"………"

Um???

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Fanart for this chapter: https://weibo.com/7240057442/Lb3kY7CKr