The Seeds of Betrayal

Bai Xi’s revenge was simple—and devastatingly effective.
She wanted to destroy everything Qin An cherished,
to make him live a life worse than death.

And since Xihan was what he valued above all else,
destroying Xihan would be the perfect punishment.

The path was clear.
To ruin Xihan, she must go to Dongyi.

Now that Gu Yi had ascended the throne of Dongyi and declared war upon Xihan,
it seemed only fitting for me to go there—
perhaps even earn a general’s title of my own.

But this new emperor, Gu Yi, seemed… strange.
Rumors swirled throughout the capital,
that he had been possessed by mountain spirits and ghostly demons—
that his very nature and appearance had changed.

I remembered the day he left, broken and defeated.
Perhaps he had truly grown steadier,
no longer the arrogant man he once was.

When I arrived at the imperial palace of Dongyi,
it was quiet—eerily so.
Even the eunuchs at the gate were dozing off.

Casting an invisibility spell,
I wandered through the halls until I found him—
in the imperial garden.

He wore a green robe and a wide-brimmed hat,
digging in the soil like a farmer.
From afar, he looked absurdly like a giant scallion.

The grand imperial garden had been turned into a vegetable patch.

Kneeling before it was a line of civil and military officials.
At their head, an elderly minister wiped his tears, sobbing aloud:

“Your Majesty, I beg you—return to your duties!
Govern the nation!
Please, stop pretending to be a farmer!
If you wish to plant vegetables, let the servants do it!
The war with Xihan grows more urgent by the day—”

Before he could finish,
a clump of mud flew through the air,
landing squarely in his mouth.

Gu Yi didn’t even look up.
“What’s so urgent? Don’t you know Xihan is doomed already?
Even the greatest of wars can’t compare to my vegetables.
Take him away.
And if anyone else dares to chatter,
next time I won’t be throwing mud.”

The official whimpered,
dragged off by trembling eunuchs.

The others quickly dispersed, muttering under their breath—
“Gods help us,” “Heaven wants Dongyi destroyed.”

Soon, only one man remained kneeling:
General Lan, his eyes blazing with fury.

“Your Majesty,” he said, voice deep as thunder,
“I, Lan Mo, have urgent news to report.”

Gu Yi didn’t look up.
“Leave.”

Lan Mo stayed where he was.
“This matter is grave.
It requires your judgment.”

Gu Yi’s hand paused above the soil.
“Speak.”

Lan Mo said solemnly,
“Dongyi is now plagued by monsters.
The Ghostmen run rampant, and our ruler is blind to it.
As a general of this nation, I cannot sit idly by.”

My heart skipped a beat.
Something was wrong.

Then, slowly, Lan Mo stood.
His hand gripped the sword at his waist.
“I, Lan Mo, have sworn loyalty to Gu Yi alone.
But the man before me—
you are no longer him.
You are a monster wearing his face.”

For the first time, Gu Yi moved.
His head tilted slightly beneath the hat.
A low, quiet sound escaped his lips.

“Oh? So—you intend to kill me?”

Lan Mo’s eyes blazed.
“Give me back my prince!”

He leapt high into the air,
his sword flashing down like lightning—

But with a mere flick of Gu Yi’s wrist,
the blade snapped clean in two.
In the next instant, Gu Yi’s hand closed around his throat.

Lan Mo’s face turned purple.
“Give him back… give me back my prince…”

A soft, chilling laugh drifted from beneath the hat.

“Loyal to the end, General Lan.
But tell me—
do you not realize that the man before you
is the real Gu Yi?”

A sharp crack split the air.
Lan Mo went limp.

Without a word, Gu Yi bent down,
dug a hole in the vegetable patch,
and buried the general right there.

When he finished,
he took off his hat and smiled.

“Have you watched enough, Bai Xi?”

My spell faltered—
and I fell from the air, landing hard.

Before I could hit the dirt,
he appeared in front of me,
catching me effortlessly.

“Bai Xi,” he said softly,
“Three thousand years, and you’re still the same—
clumsy as ever.”

I froze.
That face—

“Mas… Master?
Little Green?”

Yes.
The man before me was not Gu Yi at all.

He was Tu Xin—
the wandering immortal who had once taught Bai Xi for three thousand years.
The man who had drawn my face with his own divine brush.

The true orchestrator of everything.

Memories flooded through me like a tide.
Tu Xin had found Bai Xi when she was young—
taken her in, taught her, raised her,
helped her ascend to immortality.

When she was sealed within the Soul-Suppressing Stone,
he used all his power to save her spirit,
and placed it within my body to heal.

It had all been him—
from the beginning to the end.

She was the treasure of his heart.
He was the only one she trusted.

It should have been their story.
But somehow, I had been dragged into it.

Tu Xin chuckled softly.
“What’s wrong? Did I scare you?”

I shook my head,
though my skull felt like it was splitting apart.

“Master… how did you become Gu Yi?
He’s human—how can you… how can you be him?”

He smiled and ruffled my hair.
“What do you mean ‘become’?
Gu Yi has always been me.”

He scooped up a handful of water
and poured it gently into the garden soil.

“Twenty-five years ago, I met Qiao Qiao once.
With my jade brush, I painted her a new face—your face.
The jade brush creates whatever it paints.
It’s a forbidden tool, one that drew Heaven’s wrath.
They hunted me for it.
So I reincarnated.
Even as a wandering immortal, I’m bound by celestial law.
I sealed my power inside a single creature—
a mouse.
If ever I was in danger, or wished to awaken,
I only had to eat that mouse.
Then I would return—to myself.”

A mouse…

My breath caught.
Could it be—A Bao?

Tu Xin nodded kindly.
“Yes. It was A Bao.”

Something inside me snapped.
My heart clenched so tight I could barely breathe.
Tears poured down my face.

A Bao—
that timid, greedy, endlessly loyal little creature.
He would abandon me when afraid,
but always return when it mattered most.

So careful.
So afraid of death.
How could he have died—
and worse, died by the hand of the one he trusted most?

A Bao…

Tu Xin went on, smiling as if nothing were wrong.

“You must be wondering how I found you at the general’s mansion that night.
It was nothing but a minor reincarnation spell.
I worried my little fox would lose her way to the palace,
so I gave her a small hint.
Thankfully, it worked.
Otherwise, you’d never have awakened so quickly.”

He kept talking—
but his words no longer reached me.

My mind exploded into a storm of color and fire.
I wanted to burn the world down.

Nothing was real.
Nothing.

I was false.
Gu Yi was false.
Even A Bao—
was false.

From the very beginning,
none of us had ever been given a choice.

We were all laid neatly in the same bowl,
waiting to be devoured.

Everything—
every pain, every love, every death—
was nothing more than a grand welcome feast
for Bai Xi’s return.