As night deepened, Rouge dared to return to the gate of the Cold Palace, to the mimosa tree.
She placed her hand on the tree trunk, and the rough, gray bark cracked open, revealing a tiny seedling like a bean sprout. Rouge breathed a sigh of relief; at least he had shown some mercy and hadn't directly destroyed this immortal root.
Her aptitude was too poor; if she wanted to become an immortal, she could only cultivate her own immortal root. However, this immortal root was extremely difficult to cultivate; it required watering with snow water for ten years, crushing up a hundred-year-old Ganoderma lucidum to make soil, and nurturing it with a thousand-year-old ginseng.
Rouge took out the thousand-year-old ginseng from her bosom and carefully buried it in the soil beneath the immortal root. In the blink of an eye, the old ginseng was completely absorbed.
"I'll provide you with the best food and drink, so please bless me to become an immortal soon," she sighed.
Suddenly, a strange sound broke the stillness of the night, like the rustling of pages turning.
Rouge became alert and quickly looked in the direction of the sound. She saw a booklet lying by the wall not far away, being rustled by the wind.
Intrigued, she picked up the booklet and saw three large characters written on the cover: "Book of Love and Affection".
Part Three
The Book of Love is a celestial artifact of the Lord of Love, recording the love and marriage destinies of men and women in the mortal world. Recalling the events of the day, Rouge was secretly astonished: "He's actually the Lord of Love?"
Rouge flew up to a branch and, by the moonlight, began to peruse the Book of Love, page by page. The writing on it was like scribbles, and after a while she became dizzy and disoriented. Just as she was getting bored, she suddenly noticed a name written on a page: Hehuan (Albizia julibrissin).
At the same time, she also saw another name on the bottom of that page: Linlang.
At that moment, it felt like a thousand troops were crashing into her mind; her head throbbed with pain, and the world spun before her eyes. When her mind cleared a little, she discovered that she could actually understand those characters that looked like scribbles.
Rouge's hand, gripping the book's pages, trembled slightly. She should have suspected long ago—how could a demon with such shallow cultivation have a name, how could she understand worldly affairs and human relationships?
It turns out that I benefited from someone else's success.
This book of love affairs reminded her of some past events. When she was not yet in human form, but only a mimosa tree, she had seen two women, one with unparalleled beauty and the other with heavenly fragrance.
Hehuan and Linlang were concubines who entered the palace together. The Emperor's favor towards Hehuan aroused Linlang's jealousy. Later, Linlang framed Hehuan and had her banished to the Cold Palace by the Emperor. Hehuan, who was proud and aloof, was urged by the eunuchs to walk to the gate of the Cold Palace. When she looked up and saw the mimosa tree, she was suddenly overcome with grief and threw herself against the tree, dying on her own.
Her blood gradually seeped into the soil. And her wandering spirit lingered on the mimosa tree for several days before departing. However, it was because of this inextricable bond that the vengeful spirit allowed the mimosa tree spirit to understand the joys and sorrows of human life, thus opening its mind and enabling it to transform into a human.
The tree spirit, having transformed into a human, naturally chose the form of Hehuan. She named herself Rouge, completely forgetting Hehuan. "Hehuan is dead, then what about Linlang?" Rouge hurriedly looked at the Book of Love again, and after reading that passage, her heart sank to the bottom.
Five years after Hehuan's death, Linlang was also banished to the Cold Palace. Just a month ago, Yanzhi had seen her passing under the tree, weeping bitterly. However, her love for the Emperor was not severed, and the two would soon be reunited.
"Why should I?" Rouge was inexplicably indignant. It was Hehuan who had opened her heart, so naturally she would share Hehuan's hatred. Without thinking for a moment, she raised her hand and chanted a spell, making some changes to the Book of Love and Fate.
She severed her ties with Linlang but continued her relationship with Hehuan.
【Four】
The next day, Rouge was sleeping soundly when she suddenly felt her arms empty. She quickly opened her eyes and found that Gongzi Bai was standing in front of her, flipping through the Book of Love and Destiny, his face full of anger.
"Little tree spirit, how dare you touch this Book of Love?" Judging from his expression, he probably wished he could grind her to dust.
Rouge was so frightened that she almost lost her mind. She threatened, "Don't make things difficult for me, and I won't tell anyone that you lost the fairy item."
This register of information is the livelihood of the immortals; losing it means being expelled from their ranks. Now that he has leverage over it, he's not afraid the immortals won't let him off the hook.
Upon hearing this, his face paled, but thankfully, the murderous intent gradually subsided. Rouge boldly landed on a branch and muttered, "Just for a ginseng root, is it really worth it? I lied... wasn't it all for the sake of cultivating immortality?"
Why do you want to cultivate immortality?
"I don't know, I just want to fix it." Rouge idly fiddled with the tassels on her skirt, then suddenly noticed something amiss and glared at her with her almond-shaped eyes: "Why are you staring at me like that?"
Gongzi Bai looked at her with a half-smile: "How would you know I'm looking at you if you're not looking at me?"
"Regretting not falling for my seduction yesterday? Too late!" Rouge began to shoo him away. "From now on, we'll keep to ourselves. You can leave!"
He persisted, looking at her thoughtfully: "You remind me of a woman I know."
She'd seen this clichéd pickup line three hundred and sixty times already. Just as Rouge was about to unleash a torrent of abuse, she suddenly remembered that these immortals were all mortals before they attained enlightenment. Perhaps her face really did resemble one of his old acquaintances?
She wiped her face and transformed into Linlang's appearance: "Doesn't it look like that now?"
After he finished speaking, his expression changed drastically.
A trembling voice came from behind: "Linlang?"
Yan Zhi was surprised and turned around to see a group of palace servants. The young man at the head of the group was wearing a bright yellow dragon robe and was looking at her eagerly.
She realized that it was because she had transformed into Linlang's appearance that the Emperor had mistaken her for someone else.
Can……
She inexplicably remembered the altered Book of Love. Linlang severed her ties, Hehuan continued the bond; now Hehuan was long dead. Could it be that she was fulfilling this prophecy?
But she is Rouge, not Albizia...
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