Nesting Phoenix had been brought back from the ashes; Nana Toki’s heart settled like a still lake, ready to finish the main quest.

A few days later, Nana took Nesting Phoenix to the Immortal Realm, picked an immortal rank like plucking a leaf, then drifted back to the mortal world to live.

By mortal chatter, Nana and Nesting Phoenix were the most dumbfounding immortals they’d ever seen, tongues swaying like wind-tossed reeds.

Who ascends and then refuses the Immortal Realm, choosing to loiter among mortals like a kite that won’t take the sky? Broken, right? No dreams at all?

Of course, those words only rustled behind doors; face to face, they bowed like lambs under a shepherd’s gaze.

Still. Yeah. Even with lifespan stretched like a winter plain, boredom gnawed at Nana like frost.

Beyond idling in the purple bamboo grove with Shrine Water and Shuiqin Lin, Nana’s one pastime was dragging Nesting Phoenix to visit other sects, then getting cheerfully cursed and smilingly chased out.

Nana didn’t know where the leading lady went; the System whispered she’d been snatched by Chiliao, turned into a cultivation furnace—a living cauldron—for retraining.

Two lifetimes tossed in the river, and she still couldn’t shake those chains; who knew when she’d flip her fate.

As for Jiang Chen. Heh. Nana didn’t even want to waste breath.

After he carried Nesting Phoenix’s flame back to the Demon Realm to balance the two realms’ spiritual pressure, he kept slipping into the mortal world like smoke, claiming he needed fresh air and was strengthening human–demon relations. Mutual development, right.

If he hadn’t proposed to Shuiqin Lin centuries later, Nana might’ve bought his sugar-coated lies; the mask would’ve stayed lacquered.

“You played one move ahead, tricking my junior sister,” Nana said at the Demon King’s wedding, a pebble thrown into a clear pond.

“Ah, the family pressed hard like a storm,” Jiang Chen sighed, old skin thick as bark. “This king was fine for millennia, then one trip to mortals and I fell for a silly girl. Is this love at first sight?”

“No. In our world, that’s called being blind,” Nana said, blade-glint bright.

Jiang Chen: “...”

Nana talked sharp but blessed her junior sister all the same, a lantern set on water.

On the wedding day, Shuiqin Lin stared at Nana with eyes shimmering like rain; it made Nana itch, like a collar too tight.

To strangers, it looked as if Nana had wronged her—storm brewing over calm fields.

Tch—wait.

If you thought about it, Nana’s fondness for women was practically folklore in this realm—no proof, just smoke. Lately, there’d even been rumors that immortals had quirky tastes, like rare spices.

Seeing Shuiqin Lin so dazed, it almost seemed plausible, a shadow mistaken for a figure.

The Demon King briefly wondered if he’d been cuckolded by a woman, green hat fluttering like a flag in his head.

Even Shrine Water sighed at the edge, saying the young ones really know how to play, like foxes in snow.

Fortunately, the reason turned out simple: Shuiqin Lin wanted Nana to hug her on her wedding day, a wish soft as moth-wings.

Almost five hundred years had flowed by; after meeting Nesting Phoenix, Nana hadn’t touched her. If not for her master patting her head sometimes, Shuiqin Lin would’ve suspected poison in her skin.

The Demon King’s eyes at Nana grew stranger, like night deepening; looked like his wife had been trained well by this Phoenix girl in the mortal world.

Shuiqin Lin wanting a hug was something Nana hadn’t expected. If she didn’t ask, Nana might’ve forgotten her wager with Nesting Phoenix; centuries together had felt too natural, like river to sea.

Nana glanced at Nesting Phoenix. Since she and Shuiqin Lin got along well these years, Nana went to ask.

Nesting Phoenix pondered half an hour, moon slow over clouds, and agreed only because Shuiqin Lin’s cooking tasted like home.

Shuiqin Lin whooped, joy like sparrows lifting.

But.

It really was only one hug. According to Shuiqin Lin afterward, embracing her senior sister felt like holding a breeze—caught and not caught, silk slipping through fingers.

Intriguing, a riddle in fog.

Nesting Phoenix pulled Nana back too fast; before Shuiqin Lin could react, Nana was already returned to Phoenix’s arms, swallow to nest.

Shuiqin Lin: “...”

Nana spread her hands—chance came like a passing cloud; if you didn’t snatch it, she couldn’t help it.

Later, the shameless duo peeked at the Demon King and Shuiqin Lin’s room, moonlight like a veil at the window.

The former watched with relish, cat by the fishpond; the latter grew foggy-eyed, like dew.

“Does Luo Luo like that?” Nesting Phoenix asked back in their room, cheeks blushing like peach petals.

She couldn’t really decipher it, but it felt thrilling, thunder under skin. And Luo Luo looked into it, starry-eyed.

“Emmm, it’s okay.” Nana sat up, answering like a stream speaking to stones.

It all starts with studying animal reproduction, fields and seasons teaching their blunt truths.

“What? Do you want to try it too?” Nana, lounging at the headboard, eyes curved like crescents, lips lifting, looked at Phoenix as if teasing a fascinating toy.

“N-no.” Nesting Phoenix flushed, head down, like a shy flower turning from sun.

“Really none?” Nana leaned to her ear, voice a warm wind.

“...” “J-just a little... maybe...” Phoenix’s cheeks went crimson till they seemed to drip, brighter than pomegranate seeds.

“Nesting Phoenix, do you like me?” Nana’s hands cupped her face, palms like warm spring, question dropping soft as petals.

“Mm... I like you...” Phoenix’s voice was mosquito-light, while Nana’s gentleness masked a hollow like a winter well.

She still didn’t understand why Phoenix loved her—unearned, tireless, across hundreds, thousands of years.

No return demanded; just being together, like two cranes sharing sky.

It left Nana adrift, like a boat in mist. Maybe everything about Phoenix was baked into this world, a script written before breath.

Who did Phoenix like by design? Feng Luo Luo? Or her? Or anyone wearing Feng Luo Luo’s name like a robe?

Nana followed the root down, fingers dirty with soil. It could be a honeyed trap set by the System, bait to pry other truths.

Phoenix might be just an NPC, born to this plane, strings knotted at birth—hobbies, temper, power, bloodline, all ink dried.

Restart it all, and ink would trace the same pattern.

“Luo Luo... Luo Luo... what’s wrong?” Phoenix’s whisper coaxed Nana’s gaze to focus, like a bell ringing through fog.

“Luo Luo, what’s wrong?”

“...” Seeing Phoenix so frantic, Nana’s heart sharpened like a blade; she wanted the truth, a mirror set at the core.

In Phoenix’s eyes, what was Feng Luo Luo?

Even if it couldn’t leave the world, at least let it burn bright here till the last ash.

“In your eyes, what am I?” Nana asked.

“The most important person in my life, mm...” Phoenix’s answer came like lightning, fast as breath.

And in the next heartbeat, the world blurred. Warmth brushed her lips, a gentle tide; a subtle fragrance bloomed, like osmanthus under moon.

The most important person, huh...

Kissing Phoenix, Nana thought that, a smile like a dagger hidden in silk.

What a pretty lie; she’d heard it like a refrain, seasons repeating. Maybe this time, her heart shifted like a bird’s wing.

Trap or script, she chose the path with flowers; if she liked it, that was enough.

Her road here had been a ravine of fire; she didn’t mind stepping into a hell-trap while enjoying the last dream-lull.

“Mm...” Feeling Phoenix’s flustered hands at her waist, unsure where to land, Nana let go of those soft lips, eyes full of warm dusk. “We’ll do the rest next time.”

Call it a surprise for her future self, a ribbon tied for later.

Nana chuckled at herself; she hadn’t expected feelings to bridle her like reins.

Time was a frightening beast, fang and fog.

“Luo Luo, I’ll marry you.” Suddenly, after the kiss, Phoenix gripped Nana’s hand with solemn fire. “I want to be with you forever.”

“Alright.” After a blink of surprise, Nana smiled quick as sunlight. “If there’s a next life, I’ll marry you.”

“This life then?” Phoenix held her hand tight, unhappy with promises like clouds.

“Depends on your performance.” Nana spread her hands, body relaxing back onto the bed like a cat into sun.

...

In this life, Nana Toki lived a long, long time—so long the years drifted like snow until she nearly forgot she was a traveler.

In the end, the System forcibly recalled her life, snapping the thread; that plane’s journey closed like a book.

[Plane Settlement begins.]

[Settling plane...]

[Main Quest: Completed.]

[Hidden Quest: Completed.]

[Side Quests: Completed.]

[Current Karma: -100000020000]

[Current Item: Sorrow of the Queen of Time]

[Current Points: 115]

Back in her private space, Nana scanned the settlement like reading ripples; as expected, the System docked another five thousand, coins sliding into a deep well.

Heh. Nana’s heart held no waves now, a lake under winter glass.

No matter what she did, that damned System would dock her Karma; she’d seen through the trick, cards face-up.

[Ding! Host, the previous plane has follow-up plot. Want to watch?]

Follow-up plot, huh...

For a moment, an image of Nesting Phoenix flashed across Nana’s mind like a lantern in wind. Then she pressed it down, ember pinched out.

“Skip it.” Nana withdrew her gaze; the sweetness had been tasted. No need to chase lingering scent like a moth.

Next, finish the tasks and go home; the path was a straight line under stars.

“Welcome back.” A voice cut in, a blade across silk.

Nana bristled, ready to spar words with the System; she turned instinctively, a knife hidden in sleeve, and saw a figure in a black robe standing in a corner of the space like a shadow pillar.

Head to toe swathed, face unreadable, gender blurred like fog.

While Nana wondered how this dead-silent place held another soul, the System stammered, voice flipping like a fish: “Master! Why are you here?”

“Master?” Nana’s gaze twitched; her eyes on the robed figure grew sharp, like starlight on ice. So this was the puppeteer who dumped her here?

“Ma, relax,” said the one the System called Master, tossing greeting like a pebble, then tilting their head toward Nana with a meaningful smile, crescent and knife. “Nana, put away that plan to pull a little blade from your hidden space and stab me. Dangerous.”

“This is my space. Nana can’t kill me here,” they added, voice soft as velvet over steel.

“...”