After the Dark Moon Immortal Venerable Became a Furnace Cauldron

The first thing Rong Che did after becoming a cultivation furnace was learn what kind of person his master liked him to be.

His master liked him gentle, so Rong Che lowered his eyes and obeyed.

His master liked him devoted, so Rong Che stayed by his side every day.

His master liked hearing him say, "I have only you," so Rong Che smiled and said it to him again and again.

The entire cultivation world knew that the cold, distant powerhouse had taken in a beautiful cultivation furnace and treasured him like a priceless jewel. He would even grow displeased if anyone else looked at Rong Che for too long.

No one knew that whenever his master turned away, Rong Che would quietly gaze at his back.

As if looking at a dead man.

Later, his master died.

Even on his deathbed, he held Rong Che's hand, lamenting that the only person he could not leave behind in this life was him.

Rong Che wept until his eyes were red, closed his master's eyes, and kept vigil in the mourning hall all night.

At dawn the next day, he dressed himself neatly, then turned and left with another man.

The man asked him, "Aren't you sad?"

Rong Che was silent for a long time, then nodded gently.

"I am."

"After all... it took me three years."

Later, more and more people came looking for Rong Che.

Some said he was the senior disciple who had vanished from their sect years ago.

Some knelt before him, eyes red, and called him their master.

Some placed a marriage contract in his palm and asked whether he still remembered the vow they had made to become cultivation partners.

They all wanted to take him away.

But Rong Che never contradicted them.

Whatever anyone told him, he believed. So everyone thought this amnesiac cultivation furnace was far too easy to fool.

Until one day...

Someone fell out with their closest friend just to keep him.

Someone destroyed the foundation of a thousand years of painstaking cultivation with their own hands to possess him.

Someone betrayed their sect and gave up ascension, all for the chance that Rong Che might look back at them once more.

And Rong Che sat on his high platform, gazing down as they argued, grew suspicious of one another, and broke apart. Suddenly, he smiled softly.

So this was all

that deep love amounted to.

A little tenderness, a little favoritism,

and they would willingly place the knife in his hands.

--

The only thing Rong Che had ever lost was his memory.

He had forgotten who he was, but not how to make people willingly lose themselves in him.

The immortal sovereign of old, who had once stood high in the Ninth Heaven, beyond anyone's reach, was now stepping along the path they had laid for him with their own hands, returning to the summit one step at a time.

On the day of the Immortal Sects' Grand Ceremony, Rong Che took his place at the highest seat once more.

Those who had once fought over him knelt all along the great staircase, pleading with him to remember their past bond.

Only the person in the corner never knelt, nor did he claim that Rong Che had once belonged to him.

Rong Che looked at him and, for the first time, could not tell what the man wanted from him.

The man simply laid Rong Che's old sword at the foot of the stairs and said:

"I'm returning what belongs to you."

Theme: Everyone has desires. Love and obsession eventually become shackles.