The scenes changed again and soon, the Jiyi Festival shown on the water mirror ended, making space for other experiences. Most of it still revolved around Qiu Ling, now maybe more than ever. He remembered all of those moments but it still felt different when watching from the perspective of a bystander.

This difference, he noticed it even more when the time came that Qiu Ling seemed to pull back from him, suddenly not appearing in front of him any longer. He languished, unable to eat or sleep, and the change in his mood and finally even the loss of weight were obvious to the naked eye. In the end, he even collapsed in Qiu Ling’s arms, unable to hold on any longer.

Watching as Qiu Ling cared for him afterward, his heart fluttered. Somebody who cherished him so much … how could he not be the perfect partner for him? With a spouse like this, he would be not just content but contented. He would never want for anything and the day they married would be the happiest of his life, followed by many more that would show he had made the right choice.

But beneath the beauty of Qiu Ling’s comfort lay the ugly truth of just how deep this man’s influence over him was. He usually paid attention to him, yes, but as soon as he stopped, this was what awaited him. He simply couldn’t live without him any longer.

Jing He tilted his head as he watched, his heart squeezing painfully. Right now, he could see the past in front of his eyes and watch it from this new perspective. Seeing the good things that had happened made him feel happy but … he also missed Qiu Ling more and more as he continued to watch.

This kind of thing should be done together. He should be lying in his lover’s arms, feeling the heat from Qiu Ling’s body as his fingertips trailed over his arm or as he stroked his back with his palms. Every now and then, his fiance would whisper loving words into his ear as they were watching their past with each other on their minds.

It would be perfect. They could even pretend that the bad things hadn’t happened or promise one another that they wouldn’t repeat. They could reaffirm their feelings and plan their future, every moment of this pastime a reminder of what they loved about each other.

But this wasn’t the case. Qiu Ling was nowhere to be seen. They weren’t even in the same realm. Instead, he was here with another man and …

Jing He glanced down, staring at Xing’s face in a daze. He wasn’t even sure what to call this. Was Xing … dead? Was this just a corpse Tian had kept in a pristine state to look at? It seemed odd to think about but there was no sign of life in this body. Surely, the soul had long since left and only an empty husk remained just like his body had been while he was on his trial.

Next to him, Tian once again reached out, grabbed his chin, and forced him to raise his head. He didn’t bother to say anything, just quietly taking care of Jing He’s renewed lapse in attention.

Fallen gods were like this. Their obsession was the strongest in the very beginning. Depending on what it was, their behavior could take on all kinds of appearances but, usually, it would be inspired by something that had already been present in their life and that might have been part of the reason they fell in the first place.

Jing He was actually easy to deal with. His fall was due to his indecisiveness which came with a tendency to agonize over possibilities no matter how small they were. Right now, even though he stayed quiet as he watched, chances were that his mind was turning in this direction and that, sometimes switching from one extreme to the other and back again in a matter of minutes or even just seconds. As a result, he would easily get distracted by small details that were magnified in his thoughts, seeming much more important than they really were.

For now, it was enough to pull his attention back every now and then so he would see what he was supposed to see. In a few days or maybe in a few weeks, his behavior should slowly even out and only become this volatile again when provoked by specific stimuli. This process couldn’t be sped up unless Jing He had a sudden insight and managed to let go of part of his obsession. Judging by his reactions so far though … that truly wasn’t likely.

Tian glanced at the youth next to him who was now back to staring at the water mirror above, his eyes sometimes twinkling before dimming again just as fast. Obviously, he was still changing his moods very frequently, unable to not be influenced.

He retracted his gaze and silently glanced at the surface of the water mirror himself. Those two had spent ten years together in the Nine Heavens. Even though he was speeding things up by quite a bit, it would take more than just a day to watch all of it. Plus, there was also the trial. Chances were that by the time they were done, Jing He’s mood should have stabilized a lot. Even if he wasn’t back to perfectly normal — or whatever the average state of a fallen god was —, he should at least be able to hold a conversation without his mind wandering off every few minutes.

By that time, he could finally start to work on guiding Jing He to deal with his obsession. With a little bit of help, the actual process of healing his shattered soul might not even take all that long. Yes, in just a few months’ time, all of this might be over, and then, he only had to wait a little longer until his own goal was within reach.