He lived for a thousand years, all to wait for her return.
At a Taoist temple, Bu Li found an abandoned baby girl and named her Xiao Qi. He taught her to read, gather herbs, and practice martial arts, watching her grow from a little girl who cried easily into a radiant young woman. His fellow disciples said he was too good to her, while their master merely smiled in silence.
But there was a blade hidden in that smile.
A forbidden immortality technique, ninety-nine lives, and a sacrifice disguised as a prayer for blessings. On the day the truth came to light, the temple became an inferno. Xiao Qi traded her life for his and pushed him out of hell.
The magic spiraled out of control, and heaven and earth turned upside down. He didn't die. He became immortal.
But the person who saved him was gone.
A mysterious old man told him: She will be reincarnated. In each life, her memories of the past will awaken when she turns sixteen. You need only do one thing: find her and protect her.
So he posted a recruitment notice, entered the imperial court, and became the state preceptor. He watched over a six-year-old princess, waiting for her to grow up and remember him.
When she turned sixteen, she took his hand and called him "Senior Brother."
He had waited ten years just to hear those words.
But power struggles at court, the great clans' siege, and the barbarian cavalry all came one after another. She went from princess to general, then from general to the throne. He stood behind her, just as he had stood at the temple gate a thousand years ago, watching her stumble toward him.
When that life came to an end, she closed her eyes in peace. He tucked the blanket around her, then rose and walked into the snowstorm.
Where would she be in her next life?
