Chapter 1 Prologue I want to change her fate.

In the cold winter morning, the snow stops after a night of snow.

In Xuandu Temple, two young nuns went to Sanqing Temple together to sweep the snow.

"This twelfth lunar month is getting colder every year. I heard many people have frozen to death!"

"Wait for the new emperor to ascend the throne and pray for his blessing, maybe the weather will get warmer."

"Why is the new emperor so reluctant to ascend the throne?"

"It's not necessarily unwillingness, I guess it's fear—"

Before the nun finished speaking, she looked up and saw that the door of the Sanqing Hall was open, and the wind and snow blew in like a curtain.

A man was kneeling in the temple, without shaking off the snow on his shoulders, and was slowly bowing to the statue of the Three Pure Ones.

The stone bricks in front of him were soaked with melted snow and sweat.

The older nun looked at the footprints in the snow and asked him, "Have you been praying here all night?"

The man did not respond, but continued to kowtow slowly and stubbornly with his palms clasped in front of his forehead.

“This person…”

The two nuns murmured, "I guess they've run into trouble?"

They moved closer with lanterns in hand, first illuminating the hem of a plain white dress, then the graying temples and the haggard profile.

Although his face was pale and his lips were bloodless, this embarrassment did not detract from his noble demeanor.

So much so that the older nun recognized him at first sight: "Master Xie... No, it's Prime Minister Xie!"

No one in Yunjing City doesn’t know Xie Xuanlan.

Hearing that the new emperor was dragging his feet and refusing to ascend the throne, he had to find him, appoint him as prime minister, and get his recognition.

Now everyone in and outside the government was going crazy, but who would have thought that he would kneel in the Sanqing Temple for a whole night!

The nun was in a hurry to report to the abbot, but when she turned around, she found the abbot of the Jiangxia abbot walking in with a whisk hanging from her hand.

Hearing her voice, Xie Xuanlan, who had been as wooden as an old bronze vessel, finally reacted. Two lines of tears fell on the bluestone bricks in front of him, and he said in a hoarse voice, "She lied to me... I can't get her back."

The Crimson Cloud Crown Lady counted the days and said suddenly, "Fifteen years have passed in a flash. Half of my life has already passed. Thinking of your wife's voice and appearance, it seems like yesterday."

"Is it like yesterday?"

Xie Xuanlan smiled bitterly: "I have spent these five thousand days and nights counting the hours."

He said, "She left without saying goodbye, promising me in a letter that we would meet in fifteen years. I have done everything she asked of me. The osmanthus trees in the courtyard are shady, and fireflies are like streams of fireflies in the autumn night... I wish I could shrink the years and see her sooner. Even if she hates me, she should hate me to her face."

The owner of the crimson cloud crown lowered her eyes and remained silent.

Xie Xuanlan continued to kowtow until he had kowtowed a thousand times.

This is the number for the afterlife requested for the deceased.

The Crimson Cloud Crown Lady sighed, "She knew her injuries were serious and incurable. While you were rushing back to the capital, she wrote fifteen letters day and night, asking me to give you one every year. With your insight, perhaps you guessed the truth fifteen years ago."

Xie Xuanlan thought of the contents of the letter, wished him good health, and prayed that they could meet soon after his recovery. He wanted to drink with him by the candlelight window and listen to the rain in the boat at dusk.

What a touching wish! She wrote these words until her life was over.

"Yes, I guessed it back then."

Xie Xuanlan said: "So over the years, I have taken revenge on everyone who has hurt her, and now I am the only one left."

The Lord of the Crimson Cloud Crown did not completely withdraw from the world. He had heard many rumors about the turmoil in the court in recent years.

First, Princess Chun'an's power was weakened and gradually collapsed, and she died on the way to her fiefdom.

Then, Xie Xuanlan's father, Prime Minister Xie, suddenly retired and took the Xie family back to Chenjun. The entire Yunjingdu fell into the control of Xie Xuanlan.

Everyone says that he is the uncrowned king, so the current emperor dare not ascend the throne without his nod.

As the saying goes, "The more powerful you are, the more lonely you feel." Yi Yin and Huo Guang were no exception.

The Lord of the Crimson Clouds said, "She and I both believed that you would gradually accept the truth, and that the power you've gained over the years would soothe your pain of losing your wife."

But his sudden visit today, his despair and anguish as strong as before, suddenly made the Lord of the Crimson Cloud Crown waver in his original thoughts.

Xie Xuanlan said, "I've been married to her for several years, and she's never cheated on me, so I'm clinging to a glimmer of hope, hoping... hoping she'll keep her promise this time too."

Unfortunately, this delusion was shattered yesterday when he found her grave.

"There's another reason that's kept me going for the past fifteen years, and that's why I came here to seek the crown."

As soon as the words fell, the two nuns who had just been sent away hurried back and said anxiously through the door, "Master's wife, Master's wife, the emperor has come to Xuandu Temple, I'm afraid he is looking for Prime Minister Xie! He brought... brought a lot of weapons!"

The Lord of the Crimson Cloud Crown looked at Xie Xuanlan, and Xie Xuanlan calmly curled the corners of his lips, as if it had nothing to do with him.

"Given your abilities, you must have a backup plan," said the Crimson Cloud Crown Master. "It would be even better if you could avoid committing sins in Xuandu Temple."

Unexpectedly, Xie Xuanlan shook his head and said, "I went up the mountain alone last night and didn't have any plans."

The Lord of the Crimson Cloud Crown was speechless: "Are you planning to commit suicide here for love?"

Xie Xuanlan took out a dagger from his sleeve. The sharp blade reflected the cold light of snow and shone brightly.

He said, "A few years ago, your senior brother, Taoist Taixiao, disappeared. I was the one who captured him. I asked him for the secret technique to bring the dead back to life, but he refused, saying it would bring divine punishment. What a coward! I'm not afraid of dying suddenly and then being reincarnated as an animal for thousands of lifetimes, but he's afraid of a few lightning strikes and fire."

The decades of cultivation of the Lord of the Crimson Cloud Crown was almost broken in an instant, and he raised his whisk and slapped Xie Xuanlan hard.

"You are crazy! Where are the others?"

Xie Xuanlan wiped the bright red blood from the corner of his mouth and continued, "But he pointed out another way for me. He told me to come to Xuandu Temple and ask you for help on the day of Chongyin fifteen years from now."

When the Lord of the Crimson Cloud Crown heard the words "the day of heavy shadow", his face changed. He turned around to leave and heard Xie Xuanlan raise his voice behind him.

"He said that you, Master, have mastered the secret technique of Zhuangzi's butterfly transformation, which can help people enter dreams and switch between reality and illusion!"

Xie Xuanlan recalled what Taoist Taixiao had said, his heart beating violently in his corpse-like body.

Zhuang Zhou can dream of being a butterfly, and the butterfly can also turn into Zhuang Zhou. In the eyes of the Heavenly Dao, everything in reality is fleeting and connected to illusions and dreams. Therefore, the secret technique of entering a dream and then replacing reality and dreams does not violate the Heavenly Dao.

The Lord of the Crimson Cloud Crown paused. "Do you want me to weave a dream of growing old with her and indulge in it?"

Xie Xuanlan said: "No, I want you to send me back to my past dream and then replace the dream with reality."

"Why bother with this?"

Xie Xuanlan said, "Because I want to change her fate."

The Lord of the Crimson Cloud Crown was moved for a moment, but after a while, he still shook his head.

She said, "Although this matter does not violate the laws of heaven, it goes against my path to immortality. Brother, if you want to kill him, go ahead and let him fend for himself. As for you..."

She looked out the window and saw that the mountain road was filled with imperial guards, with bows and arrows drawn, aiming at the deserted Taoist temple.

"I don't believe you don't have a backup plan. With your arrogance, how could you be willing to die at the hands of others?"

Xie Xuanlan sighed, "Is the Crown Master determined to do this?"

Jiangxia said: "You are the one who insisted."

As long as she refused to agree, Xie Xuanlan could only use his backup plan to save himself -

Before he could comprehend this complete thought, the Lord of the Crimson Cloud Crown heard the sound of a sharp blade cutting cloth behind him.

She suddenly turned around and saw a line of blood spurting out from Xie Xuanlan's neck, which instantly turned into a bloody mist. His expression was calm and composed, and he fell backwards in front of her shocked gaze.

As if a tired traveler from a long journey welcomed a long sleep, he closed his eyes with a smile, without uttering any sound of pain.

Immediately afterwards, blood gushed out from his neck and quickly flowed to the feet of the Master of the Crimson Cloud Crown.

She took a few steps back as if she had been scalded.

...I really overestimated his character and underestimated his despair.

It turns out that everything he said today was from the heart, without a single word being exaggerated.

The Master of the Crimson Cloud Crown looked at Xie Xuanlan's corpse for a while, then turned and left. Unexpectedly, before he even walked out of the mountain gate, he saw arrows flying down from the sky like a rain of locusts.

She swung her whisk to dodge, and the other nuns in the temple could only scream and dodge. Some had already been hit by arrows and were crying in pain and panic.

Just as the flying arrows stopped, a burst of flaming arrows fell, nailing into the wooden beams and thatched roofs, and quickly turned into a sea of ​​flames.

"I heard that the emperor issued an order to kill all living people without mercy..."

The nun who brought the news burst into tears.

The emperor's fear of Xie Xuanlan had reached the point of losing his mind. Even a small Taoist temple was regarded as an accomplice of Xie Xuanlan and was as terrifying as thousands of troops.

The Lord of the Crimson Cloud Crown looked at the sea of ​​fire around him and sighed, "Xie Xuanlan, oh Xie Xuanlan, you really should have died fifteen years ago, so that you wouldn't plot against me again now."

Finally, she turned back to the Sanqing Temple and knelt down and kowtowed to the Sanqing Heavenly Venerable beside Xie Xuanlan's body which was still cold.

"I am an unworthy disciple. I have never been able to escape from the mundane world and leave my illusory body. I cannot stand by and watch my disciples die in vain."

She glanced at Xie Xuanlan and actually saw a look of success on the dead man's face.

“So I practice the secret technique of Zhuangzi’s dream of the butterfly. I regard this world as a great dream, and the great dream as this world. I enter the dream and revisit my past life.”

"May the Three Pure Ones bless me, and may the old friends in my dreams remain the same as before."

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Happy New Year to everyone!