Su Jiu didn't dare to speak, and just quietly took out a spirit fruit from her storage ring.

Destiny was supposed to be an unshakable choice among three options.

Yet Su Ji forcibly extracted a fourth one?

Su Ji didn’t care about missions or grand purposes.

He had only one thought:

To make himself appear more trustworthy, more responsible.

That alone was worth a red-tier reward.

Wasn’t this tailor-made for an outstanding young man like him—honest, reliable, and true to his word?

From now on, who would dare say Su Ji was untrustworthy?

Without hesitation, he claimed it outright!

...

Meanwhile, within the depths of the Dragon’s Abyss.

The golden pupils of the red-haired little dragon girl blazed with fury and hostility—until, in an instant, it all receded like a tide.

All that remained was boundless confusion.

That voice, that aura—she could never mistake it.

It was him...

But... why was it coming from a woman’s body?

Could it be...?

Countless unsolved mysteries, countless vague hints, suddenly became clear at this moment.

The red-haired little dragon girl opened her mouth, but her throat felt clogged, unable to utter a single sound.

A hundred thousand years of solitude.

A hundred thousand years of resentment.

In the end, had it all been one colossal misunderstanding?

She didn’t speak.

Instead, with all her strength, like a fledgling bird returning to its nest after millennia, she threw herself toward the figure clad in green robes.

She wanted to feel that familiar warmth, to confirm this wasn’t an illusion.

Yet, there was no solid chest to meet her.

Her body passed straight through the green-robed woman as if through a gust of cold, intangible wind.

Her expression froze.

The momentum sent her stumbling—a fall she could have easily steadied in an instant, yet now her coordination had utterly failed her.

Thud!

This unfathomably powerful true dragon fell flat on the ground, utterly graceless.

She lay there on the cold stone, slowly lifting her head, her golden eyes hollow.

Nearby, Su Jiu was completely dumbfounded.

What in the world was happening now?

She glanced back and forth between the two, her mind in chaos.

This mess of relationships was even more tangled than the nascent Golden Core in her dantian.

The green-robed woman looked down at the fallen figure and let out a long, weary sigh.

Her voice carried deep, helpless regret.

"I’m sorry. My true form can’t descend here."

She glanced at her current body, her tone heavy with resignation.

The red-haired little dragon girl shuddered violently, as if grasping something crucial.

"Then where are you?" Her voice was hoarse, on the verge of breaking.

"You’re just sending a wisp of divine sense to brush me off?"

"I love sleeping with women. I adore sleeping with women."

"I’m coming to find you."

The green-robed woman snapped, "No! Stay here. Don’t you dare leave."

The little dragon girl defiantly retorted, "I won’t."

The green-robed woman sighed again.

"Guess why I haven’t returned in a hundred thousand years?"

"Or why this is just a wisp of divine sense?"

"I’m trapped... I’m trying to break free."

"If not for that sliver of heavenly punishment descending from the upper realm just now, even this remnant... this trace of my soul wouldn’t have slipped back."

"If you want to wander around and clear your head, fine."

"But you are not to leave Great Xia. Don’t add to my troubles."

She didn’t want to offer comforting lies.

But...

For a cultivator at the Golden Core stage to leave Great Xia... there was still a sliver of hope.

But she couldn’t be sure—after a hundred thousand years—whether those people still held grudges.

Perhaps it was all water under the bridge.

But if a true dragon were to appear...

Old hatreds would flare anew without question.

And that would mean certain death.

The little dragon girl’s face twisted in bitterness. "Even you... can’t handle this?"

The green-robed woman shook her head.

"You know how it is. We of Great Xia are universally recognized as... outsiders, demons... despised by all, rejected by the heavens. It’s only natural we’re besieged."

Su Jiu didn’t dare speak. She huddled in a corner, quietly fishing out a spirit fruit from her storage ring.

She had just broken through to the Golden Core realm—surely eating a spirit fruit to stabilize her foundation was reasonable, right?

So she took a bite.

Chewing slowly, she glanced between the two figures.

The green-robed woman arched a brow.

"Enough snacking. I nearly forgot about you."

With a flick of her sleeve, she said, "Go find your senior brother."

"And... cherish those before you while you can."

Su Jiu: !!!

She hadn’t even finished watching the drama!

But the green-robed woman paid no heed to her protests.

With a mere thought, she ejected her from the space.

...

Su Jiu felt the scenery blur for an instant.

The chains that couldn’t restrain a true dragon, the two figures entangled in a hundred-thousand-year-old grudge—all vanished.

Instead, she was met with scorching heat and the pungent scent of sulfur.

She was back.

Instinctively, she took another bite of the half-eaten spirit fruit in her hand.

The sweet juice soothed her chaotic thoughts slightly.

Today’s events had been... overwhelming.

The imperial clan of Great Xia were outsiders? Demons?

And that domineering yet tragically clueless dragon elder, kept in the dark for a hundred thousand years...

Su Jiu chewed thoughtfully, then suddenly noticed something odd about the surface beneath her.

It didn’t feel like the scorching ground.

Just... slightly warm.

Clearly, someone else was in the dark here.

Just as she was about to get up and investigate, a hand suddenly reached out from below and gave her a light push.

The motion was so abrupt it startled her.

Freshly ascended to the Golden Core stage, her reflexes were razor-sharp.

Before she could think, demonic energy surged in her palm, ready to strike downward.

But the moment her fingers brushed that hand, she recognized it.

Then, a muffled voice, as if struggling to breathe, drifted up from beneath her.

"Shi... shimei... you’re... heavy..."

Su Jiu’s demonic energy froze mid-strike.

She stiffly looked down.

There, sprawled beneath her, was none other than her beloved senior brother—Su Ji.

He lay flat on his back, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.

Boom.

Su Jiu’s face burned hotter than the surrounding lava.

You see...

Earlier, to sell the illusion of "overcoming inner demons" and wrap up the act neatly, she’d... well...

But who could’ve guessed that Su Ji, fresh from his Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment, would be so absurdly strong?

At the same Foundation Establishment stage, her illusion had lasted only a split second before he shattered it.

The backlash left her dazed, her spirit in turmoil.

The whole thing happened so fast she barely had time to pull her disheveled robes back on.

(So much for that "hunting fire dragons" excuse...)

Then, without warning, the red-haired little dragon girl had whisked her away.

And in the chaos, she’d... forgotten.

She’d slapped a talisman on him as a half-hearted fix.

Now, though the medicinal essence had fully absorbed... the situation was still...

And so... she’d landed squarely... on top of Su Ji.