"It's invisible to the human eye, but some of these little worlds are incredibly technologically advanced! When I visited once, I overheard them saying that their technology had reached the point where they could take pictures of that tunnel!"

"...What kind of photo is it?"

"Uh, yeah, it's just that the machine draws automatically—oh, don't worry about the details! They call the passage a 'black hole,' and maybe in many years, they really will be able to cross the passage and go to other small worlds."

"Yeah, who knows..."

No one knows what will happen in the future, but everyone knows that Xi, the once纨绔 (playboy) who ultimately saved the prehistoric world and became infamous as a demon prince, has disappeared without a trace.

No one knew where he went or what he was doing. Only Dijun and Xihe would receive a letter from him every few years to let him know he was safe, but no one knew where he had gone off to.

Emperor Jun tried more than once to bring Crown Prince Xi back to inherit the throne so that he and Xihe could go on their honeymoon, but Crown Prince Xi never came back and became increasingly wild outside.

Di Jun was busy with political affairs all day long, so tired that he couldn't even hold Xi He to sleep at night. But when he turned around, he saw Xi He with a noblewoman of the demon race, laughing and watching young demon hunks sing and dance all day long. He immediately became depressed to the point of exploding!

He gritted his teeth, threw the Demon Emperor's Jade Crown into Taiyi's room that very night, and ran off with Xihe on his back.

Taiyi: "……………………Brother, I don't want to do it either."

Di Jun: "Who told you to be single! Single demons have no rights! Goodbye!"

Taiyi: "I miss my nephew."

Di Jun: "I also think that if you can find him, then you will be free."

Taiyi began sending demons everywhere to search for Prince Xi, but after thousands of years, there was still no result.

Until one day, a demon who had breathed his last, whose soul had returned to the underworld, but whose life had been forcibly taken back, awoke and leaped up to rush towards the demon imperial palace—

"Your Majesty, I see the Crown Prince! I see the Crown Prince!"

The demon race was shaken. Taiyi rushed out of the imperial palace like a madman, raising his eyes, which were as dark as a panda's from staying up all night reviewing official documents, and glared fiercely at the little demon: "Where is he?!"

The little demon trembled with fear, stammering, "In...in the River of Oblivion..."

Xi is in the River of Oblivion.

The River of Oblivion is a river.

Fiery red spider lilies grow along the riverbank. A long road to the underworld is walked through the flowers. At the end of the road stands the Three Lives Stone. Beside the stone is the Naihe Bridge that spans the river. Before and after the bridge, Tu, who has become Meng Po, is cooking soup under the Wangxiang Terrace.

A complete soul enters through the Gates of Hell, walks the Road to the Underworld, sees the Three Lives Stone, ascends the Terrace of Longing for Home, drinks the Meng Po Soup, crosses the Bridge of Helplessness, and finally, clean and pure, jumps into reincarnation to live another life.

Incomplete souls don't have such trouble; they follow the Yellow Springs into the River of Oblivion, where they tumble and solidify in the water.

Only when the remnant soul coalesces into a complete being capable of independent reincarnation will it climb ashore again to be reborn.

Xi didn't know how long he had been sitting in the river. So long that he forgot the passage of time, so long that Houtu, who had transformed into Meng Po, would chat with him.

"...Aren't you going to come up from the River of Oblivion? Although you are now cultivating the path of the underworld, this river contains countless vengeful ghosts. Every second you spend in it feels like ten thousand ghosts are devouring your heart! Aren't you afraid of the pain?"

"I am afraid of the pain, but I am even more afraid of going ashore and missing the passage of her soul."

"Her soul has already departed; you will not find her in the river."