The God of Love gulped and carefully straightened out his expression. Only then did he raise his head to face Xin Lan. “This might be slightly more complicated than expected. Apart from the one or two lovers Senior Xin Lan knows about, I am afraid there are a lot of others.”

Xin Lan gave a huff. This was to be expected from a demon. They just were like that. Although … he probably had no room to judge. To be honest, if he tried to think back to his own lovers over the millennia he had lived … well, he could maybe remember half of their names if even. Most likely, he hadn’t even bothered asking for them when they met. He hadn’t intended for most of those situations to last, after all. So really, there was no need to be sanctimonious. “Well, what about his true love then?”

The God of Love looked at the leaf in his hands again. “That isn’t so easy to say. Senior Xin Lan might not be aware but there are few couples whose fate is decreed in the High Heavens for eternity. Those are the people who will be drawn to each other no matter what, usually meeting again and again in each and every life of theirs, falling in love, and hopefully finding happiness.”

Xin Lan hesitated. He actually knew a bit about this. Because of who he was, he had inquired about a lot of things related to the soul and to the love that connected others. From his understanding though … “But doesn’t something similar happen to others as well? I heard that those who meet in one life, are bound to meet again in another. I always figured that the only thing missing was a decree from the High Heavens.” And frankly, he couldn’t give a shit about that. He wasn’t sure if ‘decreed in the High Heavens’ referred to being put in motion by Tian or if there was something else at play but … it didn’t sound like something he’d like if he knew more about it either.

Yue Xia could only sigh. “Saying that you would be bound to reunite is a bit strong. You are more likely to meet again if you were connected once already, yes. But there are no guarantees and the way you connect with the other person can differ as well.” He furrowed his bushy brows, pondering for a moment how to explain this.

“Well, let’s talk about this demon Yan Xia as an example: He has had a lot of lovers. In fact, there are so many, I can’t even make out the characters on this leaf. Does this mean that he will meet all of these people again and also fall in love with them once more?”

Xin Lan shook his head. “Since he should be a mortal now, that is unlikely.” Unless, of course, he became a cultivator with a long enough life. While most of those focused on their cultivation, there were still some lascivious ones around, not to mention that there were also some pair cultivation techniques around. If he practiced one of those, reconnecting with the flames from his old life might not be impossible.

The God of Love nodded. “Indeed. It also makes sense: If you encountered everyone you had met in a previous life again, wouldn’t you always be surrounded by the same people? But every soul reincarnates at its own pace so chances are that some of them might not even be alive at the same time and the people they reincarnate as will definitely not be of the same age. The difference might be that of decades which matters little to us immortals but is a major rift in the mortal realms.”

Xin Lan gave a hum. “So they wouldn’t necessarily be lovers.”

“Yes. Usually, the stronger the connection one cultivates in one life, the more likely you are to meet again. There are some other factors that play into this such as the time of death or the type of relationship they had while alive but generally, just knowing this is enough to make a good guess.”

Xin Lan nodded. “Then Yan Xia …?”

“Well, as I said, there are many lovers and I don’t know who else was there in his past life. The strongest connection he had is likely the one that would turn into a love fate in his next life. The problem is: I can’t say whether this connection is with one of his lovers. Many of these were short-lived situations and …” He hesitated, once again thinking of what the leaf had mentioned about his relationship with that fallen god. In the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Anyway, there could have been other relationships that were more important to him but that wouldn’t be included on the leaves of the Tree of Love. For example, a family member might fill that role but I wouldn’t know about their relationship. So, right now, I can at most make a guess which of these people is likely to have played a big enough role in his life to warrant meeting again.”

Xin Lan’s brows furrowed. “But you can’t say whether any of them will be his current lover.”

“Yes, especially so since … well, you know so little about him, are you sure that his current life is the one directly following after the one lived as the demon Yan Xia? After all, you said this was at least nine thousand years ago. That is more than enough time to reincarnate once or twice. And if this is the case, then … well, the relationships he originally had might have fizzled out long ago.”

Xin Lan closed his eyes, cursing under his breath. Damn that Xiang Yu! Why couldn’t he have told him anything before he left? Now, the few clues he had turned out to be useless and he still had no idea how to find him in the mortal realm.

Would this trial really pass without the two of them meeting even once? Or even worse, could it be that they would meet but he would fail to recognize him? Just the thought made him uncomfortable. No, he definitely couldn’t let this happen. No matter what, he had to find a way. Xiang Yu … even though it might not make much sense, but after falling in love with his mortal reincarnation once, he wasn’t willing to let go of this chance at love. So whatever obstacles there were, he would overcome all of them until he finally found him.