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But before she could recover from the joy of learning of his rebirth, before she could even see him again, he had vanished without a trace. So, he was still him, and she was still herself.

Is he the mysterious merchant that Manqing and the others were talking about?

He is the mysterious person who saved Xia Ao and the others not long ago.

She understood his character and knew that until a new "Bokdo" was established, even though he was no longer a member of the church, he would absolutely adhere to those strange promises and principles meticulously. Otherwise, he wouldn't be the Tosang she knew.

Chapter 277: Tuosang Returns

But all these years, I've been longing to see him in person, to see him as soon as possible, to see him every day. This feeling has only grown stronger as the great war approaches.

Is such a request really too much?

"Tuo Sang, where are you? Now that the new 'Bokdo' has been established, no one will force you to do any 'Bokdo' anymore. But why don't you show yourself? When are you going to come find me? Do you want to wait until I die on the battlefield before you come to pay your respects?"

Silence enveloped her. She sighed, suddenly realizing she was complaining about Tuosang. Over the years, she had rarely complained about anyone, but now she felt resentment—resentment towards this man who always appeared by her side in times of great trouble! Resentment towards this man she knew so well, who clearly had many hardships to overcome!

Perhaps this resentment has never ceased since his "death," but today, this feeling is particularly strong.

"Tuo Sang, there is no one in this world who is better to me than you. But why can't I help but resent you?" Junyu shook his head and muttered to himself, "Tuo Sang, if you don't show up again, I will stop resenting you! Because I will never pay attention to you again."

"Heaven has eyes, and it will surely make that villain Zhu Yu die at Marshal Jun's hands!" She recalled Xia Ao's deep curse, and a terrible shudder surged in her heart again.

She suddenly smiled and said, "With a major battle imminent, I might just die at Zhu Yu's hands."

It was getting late, and the wind and snow outside were getting stronger, causing the old, dilapidated wooden door to open and close repeatedly with a bang. Junyu listened indifferently to the sound of the door opening and closing, a wave of weariness washing over him.

This kind of fatigue is not physical, but mental.

In the midst of the busy military affairs, there is rarely time for mental fatigue. However, in these occasional moments of leisure, it creeps into the heart like a terrible demon without warning.

Tomorrow is Lunar New Year's Eve. Although everything for today has been arranged, there are still many things to do tomorrow, and every single one of them is so urgent.

As for today, I'll take a break for now.

Junyu looked at the blazing fire pit, buried her head in her knees, sighed, and slowly closed her eyes.

"Junyu!"

A pair of hands stroked her hair, the voice extremely gentle.

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Chapter 278: Jun Yu

"Junyu!"

A pair of hands stroked her hair, the voice extremely gentle.

Junyu smiled inwardly; it was that strangely familiar atmosphere. Whenever she felt this strange atmosphere, she would often sleep soundly all night. She closed her eyes, about to drift off to sleep, when she realized that the hands stroking her hair were so gentle, warm, and real.

She instinctively reached out and grasped that gentle hand. Instantly, the warmth from her palm felt just like the real thing.

"Takusan?"

The man before her had a face as handsome as jade, wore long boots, and his blue robe was covered in snow, but his smiling face only made him appear more dashing and extraordinary. Junyu stared at him with wide eyes, suddenly becoming fully awake, and tears streamed down her face.

"Silly child!" That gentle hand turned into a deep, unforgettable embrace. So tight, so profound, it was almost suffocating, a slight pain. "Junyu, I will never leave you again. From now on, we will always be together."

All sounds in the world ceased instantly, time froze, and everything began to blur. When dreams truly become reality, the heart seems to want to ascend to heaven.

After a long while, Junyu finally lifted her head from that almost suffocatingly tender embrace, but instead of looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar person, she looked at the vast snowstorm outside the door.

So many questions lingered in her mind: How did he escape death during his cremation? Where did that flower that flew out of the flames come from? Where had he been and what had he been busy with for the past three years? She had thought countless times that she would ask him all these questions when she saw him again. But when they finally met, she couldn't remember a single one of them; her mind was a complete blank.

"Junyu!"

"Um."

"Junyu".

"Um."

"Junyu, from now on, I will always belong to you alone."

"Yes, I know."

“Junyu, I heard rumors of a major battle and rushed back to Xining Prefecture half a month ago. I went to the military camp today but didn’t see you. I guessed you would come here.”

"Yes. I see."

“Junyu, I promised the elder that I would wait until the new ‘Bokdo’ was established. Alas, I can hardly wait any longer. It’s too late. I…”

"Yes, I know."

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Chapter 279: The Secret of Tosang's Resurrection (1)

He called her name so softly, and she answered softly in return. Feeling the warmth and tenderness of those hands on her face, Junyu gradually regained her senses. She gently took his hand and examined it closely. There were still faint, centipede-like scars on those hands, and they still felt very rough. Perhaps those rough, unfamiliar hands she had touched when she went blind were from those injuries?

After a long while, Junyu finally raised her head, looked at that all-too-familiar face, and said softly, "What happened to your hand?"

"I almost suffered a qi deviation while practicing, but I'm all better now." Tuosang took her warm hand in his. Despite the snowstorm outside, his heart was filled with the brightest sunshine in his life. He gazed into her gentle and concerned eyes, knowing the question in her heart, "Junyu, have you ever heard of something called 'fire-resistant cloth'?"

"Fireproof cloth"?

Junyu knew it was a legendary fire-resistant item from the Western Regions. It was said that wearing this "fire-resistant cloth" would leave one unharmed even if engulfed in flames. Emperor Wen of Wei, Cao Pi, had dismissed the news of "fire-resistant cloth" as mere tales and declared it nonexistent in his book, *Dian Lun*. His son, Emperor Ming, upon ascending the throne, ordered this record to be inscribed on stone. Less than a month after Emperor Ming's death, the young Emperor Cao Fang ascended the throne, and the fire-resistant cloth from the Western Regions suddenly arrived. Cao Fang then held a grand assembly of officials to test it in the palace, proving the rumors true. He was forced to have the *Dian Lun*'s assertion about the fire-resistant cloth completely erased, and this incident became a source of amusement for the people of the time.

Although the existence of fire-resistant cloth has been proven, it disappeared from the court and the public after the Wei Dynasty, gradually becoming a legend. Unexpectedly, their religion actually possessed such a sacred object.

"Back then, I was severely injured and afflicted with a serious illness; there was no way I would have survived. However, I had already cultivated my 'Mind-Calming Technique' to the third level, which allowed me to barely preserve my last breath. Elder..." he smiled slightly, "The Elder is that old monk who is as old as can be..."

Junyu nodded.

"The Fire-Resistant Cloth was hidden in the sect along with the Mind-Stabilizing Technique. The elder knew that I had practiced the Mind-Stabilizing Technique, but at that time I only had a trace of energy left in my heart meridian, which was not enough to protect my body. So, before the cremation, the elder wrapped my entire body with the Fire-Resistant Cloth..."

Junyu recalled the strange, tightly wrapped skin that the old monk had used to wrap around Tuosang, and realized that it must have been "fire-resistant cloth".

"When we were being hunted down by the Crimson Gold Clan's army, we already knew that a great calamity was inevitable, so the elder arranged all of this. But even the elder wasn't sure, after all, no one in the sect had ever successfully cultivated the Mind-Stabilizing Technique before, and he didn't know if my 'corpse' would truly be resurrected. So I didn't know his specific plans before I 'died'..."

Later, he realized that the elder's main purpose was to have everyone witness his "passing away," to settle a grudge, and to end the obsession between him and Junyu, hoping that he could truly "be reborn as a Buddha"! Who would have thought that he would be so "stubborn and unenlightened," turning all his wisdom into flowers to maintain his bond with Junyu, which led to the failure of his final cultivation and his complete transformation into a worldly person.

"What's strange about that sandalwood tree? Why did you suddenly disappear?" Junyu recalled that almost the instant the flames soared into the sky, Tuosang's "corpse" vanished completely. This became her biggest piece of evidence later when she suspected that Tuosang was not dead.

“You know, that sandalwood tree is the birthplace of a great monk. Later, his secret meditation chamber was built below, a secret known only to a very few within the sect. The elder tampered with the stone slabs of the secret passage under the sandalwood tree, using a very special wood oil. When a fire was lit, the oil melted, and the passage immediately opened and closed on its own. My ‘corpse’ fell into the passage…”

For the next year, he devoted himself to cultivating the art of calming the mind in the secret passage, but at the last moment he almost went mad and failed.

Junyu listened as he calmly recounted his mental journey during the last month of his cultivation. Although his tone was calm, Junyu knew how much pain Junyu had endured, recalling the rough hands he had touched and the hoarse, unrecognizable voice he had heard.

"Oh, Tuosang, you've become so devoted to me!" She sighed inwardly, her heart filled with sweetness.

Seeing that she remained silent but had a bright smile on her face, Tuosang felt a surge of excitement in his heart. He hugged her and whispered, "Junyu, actually, I don't want to become any great 'Bokdo' at all. I just want to be with you forever."

Junyu hugged him back and whispered, "I know. Now, aren't we together?"

Chapter 280: The Secret of Tuosang's Resurrection (2)

The two embraced in silence for a long time before Junyu finally raised her head and asked, "Where have you been these past two years?"

"I'm helping Xia Ao and the others find the reincarnation of the Great Abbot, and doing what a man should do."

Junyu had already guessed that Tuosang had helped Xia Ao and the others, so she wasn't surprised. She looked at him with some astonishment: "What are the things a man should do?"

Tuosang's face suddenly flushed, and he whispered in her ear, "I've heard that ordinary men have to support their families and children, so I have to learn some ways to make a living, so that you'll never go hungry or cold, right?"

Junyu blushed and smiled, whispering, "Even if I stop being the marshal and the chieftain, I won't have to worry about food, right?"

“Of course.” Tuosang sighed. “I first realized this responsibility when you were blind. I suddenly thought, if you didn’t have any gold on you at that time, wouldn’t I just have to watch you suffer? In the future, we will be together for a long time. We can’t just hide in the deep mountains and live a primitive life.

At that time, Tuosang had just come out of the secret cultivation chamber with only some dry food and water that he had managed to find. Junyu was injured and blind, so he needed care, nutrition, and medicine; he couldn't survive solely on wild vegetables and herbs.

Before this, he had never had any money, nor had he ever used a single coin himself. The only time he had ever lived a secular life was during the "Robe Exchange Festival" when he and Junyu secretly escaped to Bajiao Town for a few days. Even during those few days of secular life, everything—buying clothes, staying at an inn, eating, drinking—was perfectly arranged by Junyu.

But what if Junyu is no longer intact? Who will make arrangements then?

Junyu laughed: "I couldn't see it at the time, and I wasn't sure if it was you. But I was afraid that if it was you, you probably wouldn't have any money, so I deliberately gave you those gold leaves."

“I know, so I didn’t refuse.”

Fortunately, his time living with Junyu in Bajiao Town allowed him to quickly understand some aspects of worldly life. Over the past two years, he has begun to learn various ways of making a living and has started doing business. Perhaps it was because of his extraordinary wisdom and skills, or perhaps it was because he possessed a wealth of memories and exceptional knowledge, but he mastered everything he did at an incredible speed.

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Chapter 281: The Wedding Ceremony and the Wedding Night (1)

Junyu thought that no matter how intelligent he was, he was still a novice in the world and knew nothing about worldly affairs, so she couldn't help but ask, "Did you suffer a lot at first?"

"Although I was unfamiliar with the outside world at first, I was very familiar with all kinds of livestock and could tell the good from the bad at a glance. At first, I made some money by helping merchants who traded large quantities of livestock to judge horses, and then I gradually started my own business. It went smoothly when I tried other things. In fact, no matter what kind of hardship I experienced, it was nothing compared to the pain of not being able to be with you. For the past two years, my heart has been full of hope."

He held a high position in the "Bokdo" (a high-ranking official) from a young age, but upon entering the secular world, he was assigned to "judge horses" (a skilled horse connoisseur). The hardships he endured at the beginning must have been far more difficult than he described so lightly.

She sighed and stroked Tuosang's smiling eyebrows: "Ah, Tuosang, you've really worked hard."

“I only realized after I came out that many ordinary people have to struggle in life. I am an ordinary person now, so even if there is hardship, it is necessary and I am willing to do it…” Tuosang gently closed the hand that was stroking his eyebrows and eyes, and gazed at her. “Later, I have been grateful to Buddha many times for giving me this opportunity to work hard, and I am able to get what I want today.”

The two gazed at each other for a long time, both feeling as if they had been separated by a lifetime.

The sky outside was already pitch black. Tuosang added a few pieces of firewood to the brazier, and soon the firewood was fully burning, the bright flames gradually illuminating the hut.

He looked around, found a small earthenware pot, got up, opened the door, went out, filled it with some ice and snow, and placed it by the brazier. The ice and snow quickly melted into water. He then placed the melted water at the doorway, where the cold wind and snow cooled it down rapidly.

Junyu watched his every move closely, and saw that he immediately picked up the water as soon as it cooled down. He gazed deeply at Junyu, his eyes filled with tenderness, smiled without saying a word, and then carried the water out the door, sprinkling it in a very strange gesture in the east as a form of worship.

Junyu's heart skipped a beat. Having spent a long time on the border, she was familiar with many strange customs and rituals. And what Tuosang was doing now was actually a sacrificial ceremony that men in their tribe had to complete before a wedding.

Large, fluffy snowflakes fell on his head and body, but he seemed oblivious, completing the ritual with utmost reverence. Then, he turned and walked towards her, gently extending his hand. Junyu smiled and nodded, then stepped forward, took his hand, and together they bowed three times towards the east.