On the next day, the entire city held a grand festival.

From east to west, north to south, the sounds of ceremonial songs filled the air, and elegant music permeated the city.

Just the day before the festival, wealthy families in the city had invested large sums of money into the celebrations, causing the incense and offerings to more than double.

That strange illness that caused people to lose their souls was miraculously cured without medicine before the auspicious day arrived. It must have been the blessing and protection of the deities that led to this joyous outcome.

Faced with such a miracle, everyone naturally made active offerings to the gods, hoping the deities would bestow more blessings, protect the people in the ancient city, and allow the citizens to enjoy blessings for thousands of years to come.

The festival was magnificent and dazzling, but the offerings to the Stone God were few and far between.

The Stone God Temple had sparse incense, with only the elderly burning incense and praying to the heavens, recounting various legends that the young people were not interested in hearing.

The old temple keeper, who was over sixty years old, welcomed a young worshipper on this day when the temple was deserted.

It was a young man dressed in fine clothes, looking to be at most twenty-three or twenty-four years old. However, his offering was very generous, donating ten gold ingots, enough to renovate the facade of the Stone God Temple.

This made the old temple keeper very flustered. He followed and served the man attentively, but in his nervousness, he almost tripped over the high threshold of the temple door.

Fortunately, the young man supported him in time: "Old fellow, watch your step."

The old temple keeper bowed and said embarrassedly, "Thank you, thank you."

He had grown up in the temple since childhood, and his father was the previous temple keeper who had ascended the mountain and entered the stone twenty years ago, never to return.

He had watched helplessly as the Stone God Temple declined over the years.

When he was young, he was also indignant, believing that people did not worship the true god and were blind. But now, a sizable incense offering was enough to make him happy.

"Make the statue look better," the young man said. "Although it's said that the divine is in people's hearts and talking about money is vulgar, gold-adorned gods and Buddhas are always better than plain ones. A temple that is too shabby might seem to others as if it is not even blessed by the deities."

The old temple keeper gratefully accepted the offering and sent him off with a thousand thanks.

Leaving the temple, Feng Rugu turned left.

He was traveling alone. Luo Fuchun and Sang Luojiu stayed at the inn to report the details of their investigation in the ancient city to Fengling, urging their senior brother to quickly send people to deal with the sky-splitting matter.

Left with nothing to do, he went out alone to amuse himself.

Feng Rugu held his smoking pipe and walked alone on the crowded streets.

The bustling scene on the streets was something he hadn't seen in ten years, even more lively and noisy than the previous few days. But when he was alone, Feng Rugu's face was almost expressionless, completely lacking the enthusiastic demeanor he had when touring with Ruyi before.

He wandered around aimlessly, and even the most exquisite trinkets couldn't hold his gaze for a moment.

Except for pausing for a while in front of a revolving lantern, watching a complete little story with a playful heart, nothing could make him stop.

When he bent over to look at the lantern, Yi Shangchen and Lian Ruxin walked past him shoulder to shoulder from behind.

Feng Rugu didn't turn around, staring intently at the little figures in the lantern. It was Lian Ruxin who glanced back at him.

Lian Ruxin's expressionless face and casual glance made Yi Shangchen feel that he might be looking at the lantern and not at the person.

Yi Shangchen knew that he had caused big trouble for Lian Ruxin this time. Since he woke up yesterday, Lian Ruxin had been indifferent to him. Yi Shangchen naturally wanted to please him. He tugged at Lian Ruxin's sleeve and leaned close to the lantern, enthusiastically introducing, "Brother Lian, do you know what this is?"

Lian Ruxin knew, but now he just wanted to hear Yi Shangchen say a few more words: "I don't know."

Yi Shangchen exaggerated, "Wow, you've really been cooped up in the mountains for too long. In the future, I must take you down the mountain to walk around from time to time. This is a revolving lantern, driven by the heat of the candle inside..."

Yi Shangchen tried hard to please Lian Ruxin, while Lian Ruxin's attention had already wandered, glancing at Feng Rugu from time to time.

However, Feng Rugu acted like a true young master from a wealthy family. After watching the lantern for a while, he lost interest, opened his folding fan with a flourish, and left gracefully.

Lian Ruxin withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes slightly.

...The heat from the revolving lantern made his cheeks feel hot.

At this time, Yi Shangchen was concerned about another matter.

He noticed the deserted Stone God Temple not far away.

...It seems that there will be no worshippers going up the mountain this year either.

Even though he knew that Lian Ruxin must be well aware of the amount of incense offerings, Yi Shangchen couldn't bear to let Lian Ruxin see this scene. He held Lian Ruxin's arm and acted coquettishly, pointing to another temple in the opposite direction of the Mountain God Temple: "Brother Lian, let's go over there. They have river lanterns."

Lian Ruxin said "hmm", looked up at the moon, and then lowered his eyes: "Okay."

Yi Shangchen was secretly delighted. He grabbed Lian Ruxin's sleeve and quickly headed towards another lively place.

They wandered around like this for the entire night until it was almost midnight, and the noise in the city still hadn't stopped.

But as the son of the Mountain God, Lian Ruxin had to reach the mountain path before midnight to open the barrier and wait for people to come and offer stones.

Even if no one came, he had to wait. This was Lian Ruxin's responsibility.

It was Yi Shangchen's first time experiencing the triennial god worship ceremony. Therefore, as he followed behind Lian Ruxin, he secretly decided to wait with him until dawn and then accompany him to watch the sunrise, determined not to fall asleep.

However, on the mountain path, Lian Ruxin stopped.

The usually taciturn Lian Ruxin took the initiative to ask, "Did you have fun today?"

Yi Shangchen nodded without hesitation.

Lian Ruxin: "I was also very happy. Today was the most joyful day I've ever had."

Yi Shangchen smiled. He was about to go up and grab Lian Ruxin's shoulders when he saw Lian Ruxin turn around on the stone steps, bathed in moonlight, silently looking down at him: "Thank you."

Yi Shangchen joked, "No need to thank me. Just give me a couple more kisses and it'll be fine."

Lian Ruxin: "Thank you for accompanying me these past two years."

Yi Shangchen turned his back, afraid that the smile on his face wouldn't hold: "Okay, I won't accompany you. I'm a demon cultivator and can't accompany you to guide others. I'll go wait for you under the divine stone now."

With that, he was about to run up the mountain.

Lian Ruxin called out his full name from behind: "Yi Shangchen."

Yi Shangchen's ankles went soft. With his back to Lian Ruxin, standing on the mountain path, his heart alternated between cold and hot. The laughter in his voice was completely forced: "I caused trouble for you, didn't I?"

Lian Ruxin didn't speak.

Yi Shangchen didn't dare look at him, but his tone became urgent: "I know I was wrong, I really do. I will go down the mountain tomorrow and do a hundred good deeds for a hundred consecutive days to make amends. I won't be foolish anymore, I won't smash other people's statues. You're too lonely here by yourself, wouldn't it be better if I stayed to keep you company..."

Lian Ruxin's voice was as cold as ice: "You should go."

Yi Shangchen abruptly turned around, his voice turning shrill: "I won't go!"

After shouting, Yi Shangchen felt this wasn't the right attitude for admitting his mistake. His expression and voice softened together.

"I won't do it again," Yi Shangchen said dully, "Don't make me leave..."

"I didn't say you were wrong." Lian Ruxin tucked his sleeves, his expression calm. "But the existence of the demonic path will bring trouble for the stone god. If you behaved yourself, that would be one thing. But now, I just want to peacefully guard the stone god. As for anything else... I won't consider it."

Yi Shangchen clenched his fists tightly.

...The stone god, the stone god.

He wasn't even as good as a cold stone that had imprisoned Lian Ruxin for life.

He wanted to clench his teeth to clear his head, but when he tried, he discovered his jaw was shaking too badly to stop chattering.

Yi Shangchen could barely hear his own voice: "Since I'm hindering your duty of guarding the stone god, why did you bother saving me? Wouldn't it have been better to let me die from my heavy injuries?"

"Although you died for the stone god in error, I still had to save you and return your life, thus clearing our debts."

"Debts..." Yi Shangchen muttered, "Between you and me, it's just debts?"

Lian Ruxin asked in return: "If not debts, then what is it?"

...Two years of companionship, and he called it debts?

The corners of Yi Shangchen's mouth twitched, as if he was about to cry or laugh as he pointed at Lian Ruxin: "Do... do you even have a heart?"

As soon as the question was out, Yi Shangchen was stunned for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter, holding his stomach.

"That's right, I forgot! You don't have a heart, you were born from a stone!"

Lian Ruxin looked at him quietly, not angry, not sad, just watching him with intense focus.

Yi Shangchen thought, yes, it was precisely because of this kind of especially focused gaze that he had mistakenly believed Lian Ruxin had special feelings for him.

In the eyes of a divine being like Lian Ruxin, he was probably no more than a pet animal, fun to play with usually, but easily kicked aside as soon as he touched upon his and his stone god's interests.

Because he simply had no heart.

Ruxin, Ruxin, it was all just an illusion.

Yi Shangchen spread his hands and laughed loudly: "I've stayed here for two years, I'm long sick of this place..."

He faced Lian Ruxin and retreated backwards, waiting for him to ask him to stay.