Chapter 1924 - Choice (1)
After obtaining the World Piercer from the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor, the first place she teleported to was the Dragon G.o.d Realm.
The Forbidden Land of Samsara was sealed off by a barrier that had been set up by the Dragon Monarch himself, but Xia Qingyue never even made contact with it since she was using the World Piercer.
At the time, the Forbidden Land of Samsara had already become a wilted garden that had lost all of its holy light.
She soundlessly stepped toward the small residence where Shen Xi used to live.
It was impossible to miss. It was the only place with lush, brightly colored flowers.
At the center of the flower bush was a pool of blood. It had been many years since the blood was spilled, but it was still wet and s.h.i.+mmering with a bit of light profound energy.
“It wasn’t my misperception or delusion after all,” she whispered to herself. “Long Bai’s hatred toward him… far exceeded even the worst case scenario I had envisioned.”
“If the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor hadn’t returned to the Primal Chaos, he might already have…” she closed her eyes for a moment to steady herself. Icy fear lurked inside her heart.
That’s right. If it wasn’t for the Crimson Calamity, Long Bai would’ve killed Yun Che already. At the time, no one had possessed the power to stop him.
“Thankfully, he has the Evil Infant to protect him now.”
It was her biggest consolation. The Evil Infant was without a doubt Yun Che’s greatest talisman besides Qianye Ying’er.
She slowly scanned the wilted garden with her spiritual perception. Immediately, her eyes locked onto a pile of shattered bamboo.
It was the bamboo house where Shen Xi used to live, and where she and Yun Che had become one. It was nothing more than a ruin now.
Xia Qingyue walked over to it and made a tapping motion with her finger. An intact piece of bamboo flew out of the pile and into Xia Qingyue’s hands.
Engraved to its surface was a poem with exquisite handwriting:
“He
A strange cloud
Meets a bright smoke and saw the light
She
The first light of dawn
Chases away the wind of chaos and nurtures the strange cloud
Together
They slumber atop a bed of flowers as one.”
“...” Surprise crossed Yun Che’s features. It was the poem he had recited thoughtlessly after he slept with Shen Xi for the first time. Shen Xi had glossed it over with a seemingly casual smile at the time, so he didn’t think that she would engrave it onto a piece of bamboo.
It had most likely happened after he left the Forbidden Land of Samsara.
Was it her way of… remembering him?
He hadn’t found this piece of bamboo when he and Qianye Ying’er entered the Forbidden Land of Samsara. What they found were two other, deeply buried, pieces of bamboo.
One of them had the word “Xi” engraved into it, and the other was “Yun”.
Xia Qingyue stared at the bamboo piece for a very long time. Then, she stored it instead of putting it back where it was.
Yun Che: “...?”
Xia Qingyue didn’t linger for too long. She turned away and was about to teleport away when suddenly, the crimson divine light of the World Piercer faded, and she turned her gaze on Shen Xi’s blood.
She raised her hand and made a clenching motion. A ray of purple light lifted a dozen or so blood beads into the air before they all vanished into her palm.
On the surface, the blood pool looked the same as before except it was “drier”.
“I pray… that I will never have to use this,” she whispered before truly vanis.h.i.+ng from the Forbidden Land of Samsara.
She didn’t leave a single trace behind.
…………
In the lower realm s.p.a.ce to the south of the Southern Divine Region.
Xia Qingyue floated in s.p.a.ce while watching a small planet that shone a dreamy blue light.
“A planet that’s mostly made up of water and with a similar appearance, aura and even spatial environment to the Blue Pole Star.” She whispered its name, “The Sky Water Star…”
“It is a good enough choice.” She closed her eyes before continuing in a dry voice, “Though… the purpose you were chosen for is most cruel and unfair.”
“I hope… that I am just worrying too much.”
…………
After the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor left, and everything went to h.e.l.l.
Yun Che saw Xia Qingyue searching for him like crazy after he was teleported away by the Void Illusion Stone. As soon as she was out of everyone’s perception, she immediately teleported away to a star region and scanned the entire s.p.a.ce for him.
She repeated this at least dozens of times until finally, she reined in her impulse to continue with everything she had.
It was because she needed to save the World Piercer’s spatial divine power for something even more important than searching for him.
She teleported to the east of the Eastern Divine Region and arrived at her homeworld, the Blue Pole Star.
The purple light in her eyes grew so bright that her pupils looked like dark jadeite.
Power circulated throughout her entire body. She poured it all into the World Piercer in her hand.
“Spirit of the World Piercer… please… awaken!”
“One breath… two breaths… ten breaths… finally, the World Piercer let out a shrill sound that almost sounded like a person’s cry, and the crimson light that represented the greatest spatial divine power in the current universe enveloped the entire Blue Pole Star.
At the same time, a spatial pa.s.sage that crossed nearly half of the Primal Chaos began to open slowly.
On the other side of the spatial pa.s.sage was where the southern s.p.a.ce of the Southern Divine Region and the Sky Water Star were.
However, when the crimson light fully enveloped the Blue Pole Star, the World Piercer’s cry suddenly grew weaker and strained, and the Heavenly Profound Treasure itself shook violently in Xia Qingyue’s hands.
Shui Meiyin once told Yun Che that awakening the World Piercer’s spirit from its slumber with a power of the primordial universe, then forcing it to use the World Piercer’s spatial divine energy would damage it greatly, especially since it was much weakened in the first place.
Even then, switching two planets across a distance that spanned nearly half of the Primal Chaos was still an almost impossible task. In Shui Meiyin’s words, it might be a “miracle” that could never be replicated again.
Now that Yun Che was witnessing the scene with his own eyes… he realized that the price of the miracle wasn’t just the heavy damage sustained by the World Piercer Spirit. Not even close.
The World Piercer Spirit’s cry kept growing shriller until it became utterly soul-wrenching. If this planetary teleportation were to fail here, it would never be able to perform it a second time. Steeling herself, Xia Qingyue spat out a mouthful of blood right on the World Piercer.
At the same time, countless purple rays shone from her body as if she might explode there and then. It was so bright that it even pierced the World Piercer’s crimson glow for an instant.
That was the purple flash Yun Wuxin had captured with the Eternal Imagery STone.
Although the terrific purple flash had only lasted for an instant, the World Piercer’s spatial divine power did grow much greater all of a sudden. At the same time, Xia Qingyue’s aura deflated to almost nothing.
The star region shook, and the crimson light quickly faded into nothing. However, the watery blue planet in front of her was no longer the Blue Pole Star.
In the distance, the Sky Water Star looked extremely similar to the Blue Pole Star. In fact, Xia Qingyue herself had to confirm multiple times that she hadn’t failed the planetary teleportation after all.
Then, the price of the planetary teleportation caught up with her. Her complexion turned deathly pale, and her body became so weak that she wasn’t even able to withstand the spatial storm blowing her way. She wobbled unsteadily as blood quickly dyed over half of her purple robes red.
As the purple light in her pupils faded into almost nothing, she let out a weak whisper. “This… is an unforgivable sin… I can only… spend the rest of my life… repaying it… with him…”
Unable to hold on any longer, the World Piercer flashed a weak red and took her back to the Moon G.o.d Realm.
BANG!!
She dropped heavily to her knees the second she returned to her bedroom. Her purple robes had become fully drenched in blood at this point, and not a trace of its true colors could be seen anywhere.
She panted for a long time before she struggled back to her feet. Then, she activated a purple-colored profound formation beneath her feet and bathed herself entirely in purple light. It was something she had prepared a long time ago.
However, she didn’t even get to recuperate for twenty hours before she was disturbed once more.
It was Lian Yue approaching her at high speed, and she had ordered her not to disturb her unless she had new news regarding Yun Che.
Her blood-drenched clothes shattered into pieces inside the profound formation, revealing her flawless skin for an instant before it was replaced by a new set of purple robes.
Lian Yue then reported that the Eternal Heaven G.o.d Emperor and the Dragon Monarch were travelling to the Blue Pole Star together.
She opened her eyes. The purple gleam in her pupils had come back to life.
As the profound formation faded and she rose to her feet, she ordered, “Summon Yue Wuji to me now! Tell him that we will be departing immediately!”
Disaster had struck much too early.
She used the vestiges of Purple Pylon Divine Power she just regenerated to hold her body together. Right now, the worst thing she could do was to reveal her weakness.
Yun Che had no idea that Xia Qingyue was this weakened when he met her again outside “the Blue Pole Star”.
After that, the Blue Pole Star was destroyed, and Xuanyin perished in battle. Yun Che had once again escaped in a manner that didn’t fall into her plans, but she no longer had the strength to search for him like she did before. She had no choice but to return to the Moon G.o.d Realm.
“I need to be in seclusion for a while. Before I come out of seclusion, all matters, big or small, will be decided by Yao Yue and Wuji. Unless the matter is of grave importance, you must not disturb me.”
“Yes,” Jin Yue responded as obediently as ever.
As Jin Yue watched Xia Qingyue’s departing figure, she became absent-minded for a long while.
She did not know if it was just a misperception, but she sensed that Xia Qingyue seemed to be extremely exhausted… so, so exhausted that even she could hide it no longer. [1]]
The scene changed again. In seclusion, Xia Qingyue woke up from her dreams with tear stains streaked across her face.
“No… it can’t be real… it can’t be real!” She sobbed while pressing a palm to her forehand. Yun Che almost couldn’t believe how tormented she sounded.
What on earth… did she dream?
“It’s just… a dream.”
She told herself this after she wiped away her tears.
However, the dreams didn’t end there. They happened again, and again, and again…
Each time, she would dream the same dream. Each time, her dream grew clearer and clearer.
Her anxiety growing to unmanageable levels, Xia Qingyue ended her seclusion prematurely despite not having fully recovered her profound energy or her internal injuries.
She was greeted by the sight of Jin Yue after she stepped out of the barrier. Her faithful attendant had been guarding outside the whole time. She was asking Jin Yue about the latest happenings when Jin Yue suddenly let out a surprised cry.
“Master, your… mirror is… cracked.”
She looked down. A long, thin crack had appeared on the bronze mirror Yue Wugou had left behind. [2]
For a long time, she simply stared at the bronze mirror without doing anything. Finally, she held it in her palm, opened it, and… felt as if a lightning bolt had struck her. Her entire body turned stiff, and her pupils contracted visibly.
Once upon a time, the bronze mirror had contained the profound images of four people. They were Xia Hongyi, Yue Wugou, the young Xia Qingyue and young Xia Yuanba.
However, there were only three people left in the bronze mirror. Her young self was conspicuously missing.
“Coincidentally”, the long, thin crack had pa.s.sed through the location where her profound image should be.
It was a merciless reflection of the cruel dream she had refused to believe.
Wisps of purple light surged around her hand as she slowly tightened her grip. She wanted to destroy the bronze mirror then… but she ultimately couldn’t bring herself to do such a thing. In the end, she let out a long sigh and said,
“Jin Yue,” she folded the bronze mirror shut and tossed it into the hands of a surprised Jin Yue. “Please destroy it for me.”
She was far away by the time she finished her words. It was as if she couldn’t bear to watch it be destroyed.
“Ah?” Jin Yue caught the mirror, but Xia Qingyue was already gone. For a long time, the woman looked completely lost.
When the line between dream and reality had disappeared, Xia Qingyue could fool herself no longer.
There was only the lonely wind to accompany her as she knelt in front of Yue Wuya and Yue Wugou’s grave.
“It was me… I… was the one who killed you…”
Again and again, she mumbled things that no one except her could truly understand.
“The world exists because of balance. Where there is life, there is destruction. Where there is life, there is darkness. Just the same, fate has its own counterpart…” she whispered what the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor had said to her back then. “That was the answer to my question after all.”
“No wonder… you said that my fate was the most sorrowful you had ever seen.”
Tears dripped onto her palms as she held her hands before herself.
“I never thought… I would come to loathe my own existence so, so much…”
“When I d.a.m.ned the Sky Water Star to save the Blue Pole Star, I thought that I no longer deserved to live like a human… but to think… that I actually am less than a human… I’m just… a tool… a wish… a medium…”
“Heh… hehe…” She was chuckling, but it was more painful and terrible to look at than when she was crying her heart out.
Tool?
Wish?
Medium?
Yun Che watched and listened blankly.
What… is she talking about!?
1. 1533
2. 1581