“Your Majesty.”
In his dream of rain falling in the capital, Xia Qing had heard these two words before; it was the respectful address of the merfolk to their deity.
The purple divine pearl floated up, affectionately approaching Lou Guan Xue.
“No!” Zhu Ji’s eyes widened, and she reached out and grabbed it tightly.
Her fingers clenched the pearl spasmodically, her pupils riddled with crack-like red threads, trembling all over. “It’s fake, all of it’s fake, this can’t be possible. The god was long gone, torn apart along with the Divine Palace, collapsed deep in the sea. How could he still be alive?”
Lou Guan Xue said lightly, “I actually quite agree with you on that.”
Zhu Ji looked at him silently, taking a step back.
She was already wounded by the Ananda Sword, and now her mind shattered by shock, tripped over the white bones, stumbling down to a half-kneel. Her black skirt flowed like seaweed, her hair spread out.
Zhu Ji’s five fingers trembled, and dazzling purple light seeped from between her fingers. Her gaze was scattered, whispering softly, “No, the god is dead, I saw him die with my own eyes.”
“You can’t be the god.” She lifted her gaze, her soul trembling, a fear and submission written into her blood. But she still persisted, inch by inch, staring at Lou Guan Xue’s features.
Lou Guan Xue asked her, “Do I look very much like the god?”
Zhu Ji didn’t speak, but her expression told him everything.
A slow smirk curled up at the corner of Lou Guan Xue’s lips, his mockery deepening. “Indeed, Yao Ke is also a lunatic.”
Zhu Ji suddenly erupted, her eyes red with hatred as she asked, “Who are you?!”
Lou Guan Xue no longer wanted to waste words with her, the bone flute in his hand turned into a sharp sword, piercing straight into Zhu Ji’s brow.
“Get lost!” Zhu Ji’s eyes surged with a ferocious brutality, her body instantly erupting with an overwhelming power to destroy everything. Her black dress fluttered, and the surging pool water formed by blood was whipped up by the gusts, splattering into countless murderous droplets in the air. Even the butterflies were under her control, their teeth and claws bared, swiftly attacking Lou Guan Xue.
For a moment, the entire Chunshang Cave turned into a purgatory.
Seeing this, Lou Guan Xue’s lips curved into a cold smile.
The next moment, silence fell.
Water droplets and butterflies fell to the ground.
“You…” Zhu Ji seemed to have been drained of all her strength, her hand holding the bone flute weakly falling to her side.
Suppression, absolute suppression, like a vast net covering the sky and earth, enveloping her, forcing her to be powerless.
The power of the merfolk was bestowed by the gods, naturally, it could also be taken away entirely. The only one who could render her completely defenseless was the god.
Blood overflowed from the corner of Zhu Ji’s mouth, the last string holding her brain together finally shattered completely. Her face was as pale as paper, trembling slightly, her scattered pupils devoid of any emotion.
She thought that after reincarnation, her first enemy would be Song Guichen, but she never imagined… it was someone she didn’t even dare to think of.
For a long time, Zhu Ji whispered softly.
“I once thought that people didn’t understand the gods. I didn’t expect… that I myself didn’t understand.”
Zhu Ji’s lips were bloodless, the white flowers in her hair shattered into starlight, sprinkling down among the dust.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Vtf pera xcfia bc atf ugbecv, ja atf fcv bo tfg gbjv, bc tfg ojmf aklrafv klat ugffv jcv tjagfv, jii fwbalbcr vlrrlqjafv.
Cii ofjg, gfrlrajcmf, wjvcfrr, vlryfilfo, rtjaafgfv lcab qbkvfg lc atf ojmf bo ygeaji gfjilas.
“C tecvgfv sfjgr jub, sbe kfgf vfmflnfv ys atf tewjc jcv wfgobix, sbeg atgff rbeir kfgf ajxfc, sbeg vlnlcf ybcfr kfgf ajxfc, sbeg qbkfg kjr ajxfc. Vb cbk, jgf sbe tfgf obg gfnfcuf?”
Zhu Ji lifted her hand and gently touched her face. The trembling fingertips inevitably touched the scales that had grown, a sign of dying for the merfolk.
Zhu Ji paused for a moment, then laughed faintly and ironically. How ridiculous it is. She and Song Guichen have fought for so long, scheming against each other for a hundred years, but they never thought that from the beginning, the outcome of the story had nothing to do with them.
They were both sinners.
Sinners who dared to challenge the gods.
Lou Guan Xue looked at her with interest, stooping down and gently saying, “Do you know what Xuan Jia said to me before she died?”
All of Zhu Ji’s words stopped in her throat, she stiffly raised her head, gazing up at him in such a kneeling position. It was said that the merfolk’s illusionary pupils could deceive people’s hearts, but who knew that this was actually an art inherited from the gods? The true manipulator of hearts was the eye of the god.
Dark, distant, like the abyss at the end of the heavens, ruthless and desireless, bearing the weight of snow all year round.
Lou Guan Xue said, “She warned me to be careful of Song Guichen, and to be careful of you.”
“She said you used the reincarnation witchcraft, and the vessel for the witchcraft was Wen Jiao, isn’t that right?”
He smirked, “Zhu Ji Saintess, I just want to ask, is it true that all the children born to the Saintess are meant to die at the right time?”
As Xia Qing heard him say these words from the side, his heart trembled violently, and he instinctively looked up.
Zhu Ji repeated, “Die?”
She was stunned for a long time before she found her voice again.
Her gaze pierced through the vast sea of paper scraps and butterflies, landing on Xia Qing.
She had manipulated the entire Peng Lai as a leverage against Song Guichen.
She forcibly brought Xia Qing to the Chu Imperial Palace and placed him by the side of the current Emperor of Chu.
She thought that even if he was the supreme ruler, he was still just a mortal ant. But she never expected… it was this person, whom she had always overlooked, who walked out of the Liang Kingdom’s Imperial Tomb and became her eternal nightmare.
“Do you hate me?”
In the end, Zhu Ji only trembled as she asked this question.
Lou Guan Xue chuckled lightly, lazily saying, “Why would I hate you? The god has long been dead.”
“Now, our goals are the same.”
Zhu Ji’s pupils contracted to a point, but soon intense pain made her scream out loud.
“Ah—” She covered her face, collapsing on the ground in despair.
The purple pearl shattered in her palm, and the Divine Light she swallowed along with the residual power inside the purple pearl all transformed into a pure white stream of light, surging into the tip of the bone flute.
Suddenly, gusts of wind swept over the previously sunny valley, dark clouds slowly enveloped the sky, resembling that night at the Feng Yue Tower, with rain, fog, and flickering lights, a scene of chaos in the mortal world.
It always rains after the death of each holy maiden of the merfolk .
No thunder, no lightning, just the sound of desolate wind.
Zhu Ji curled up in pain on the ground, her black hair starting to turn pale, slowly withering like Xuan Jia did when she died, her skin wrinkling and aging.
She gazed silently at the blood-red flowers blooming on the grass, a thick sense of trance filling her silver-blue eyes.
Is this how she will die?
She coughed up darkened blood; she never shed tears, so the icy blood flowed from her eye sockets instead.
No!
She refuses to accept this fate.
She hasn’t made Song Guichen pay yet.
While the god suppressed all her powers, he did not suppress her instincts.
Zhu Ji clenched her fingers tightly into the earth. At the final moment, she seemed to muster all her strength to lift her head, staring at Xia Qing with a pair of almost eerie pure white eyes.
Xia Qing was already feeling troubled by the words uttered by Lou Guan Xue earlier. Suddenly locking eyes with Zhu Ji, his entire body stiffened, and his mind exploded.
At the same time.
The suppressed rain poured down heavily. With a splash, it fell on the lush vegetation, creating a thick layer of mist.
Without hesitation, Lou Guan Xue used the bone flute to blind Zhu Ji’s eyes. Blood splattered onto his snowy white sleeves, but quickly washed away by the raindrops, leaving no trace of red. He absorbed the Divine Light, lowered his gaze, wiped the blood from the bone flute with an expressionless face, his profile appearing extremely cold in the rain and fog.
Zhu Ji screamed, covering her eyes, her body cracking open with visible fissures, screaming in agony as if undergoing torture, the pain unbearable.
The rain dispelled the enchanting fragrance of the Jingwei and the black miasma emanating from the blood pool.
Kou Xinghua and the others gradually woke up, realizing what had happened.
The cultivators, awakened by the rain, stared blankly at the scene ahead. They looked at the scattered bones and the dead woman.
Lou Guan Xue turned back in the pouring rain.
Xia Qing’s hazel eyes gazed calmly ahead. Through the rain and amidst the carnage, he locked eyes with Lou Guan Xue.
Xia Qing recalled that he had felt a stirring in his heart back in the Ling Guang Palace.
That night, as his fingertips neared Lou Guan Xue’s eyes, a single glance stirred his entire being. In a heartbeat, his pulse thundered in his ears. He had thought it was an illusion, a result of the thunderous night.
Now, experiencing this feeling again, it became clear and unmistakable.
It wasn’t the thunder.
“Lou Guan Xue.”
The saint’s illusionary pupils could enchant the heart, penetrate the soul, and unearth the most suppressed past.
Xia Qing called out his name as if bewitched.
His mind was filled with various strange and surreal sounds, with stones flying and palaces collapsing, mixed with the incessant rain, making it hard to distinguish reality from illusion.
One answer emerged from his heart.
No wonder.
No wonder he resisted picking up the Ananda Sword again;
No wonder, despite Lou Guan Xue’s despicable behavior at the Zhai Xing Tower, he still chose to believe in him.
The capital city welcomed its longest rainfall in three years.
This rain submerged the entire Chunshang Cave, destroying the Liang Kingdom’s Imperial Tomb.
However, Ling Guang City received two pieces of good news: the return of the emperor, who had been missing for nearly a month since the lantern banquet, and the arrival of the Saint’s Pearl brought by the Xuanyun Sect, needed to activate the Demon Suppression Array.
“The Saint’s Pearl? What exactly did you give him?”
Sitting in the carriage, Xia Qing nibbled on a fruit and listened to the rumors outside, asking Lou Guan Xue with great perplexity.
Lou Guan Xue smirked and said, “Just something I happened to have on hand. Since Song Guichen’s power isn’t sufficient, I lent him a bit.”
Xia Qing suddenly found the sweet fruit tasteless, set aside the core, and was about to say something when Lou Guan Xue naturally leaned over, inserting his fingers into Xia Qing’s mouth, forcibly feeding him blood, and calmly said, “Take care of your health before talking to me.”
Xia Qing: “…”
On the day Lou Guan Xue returned to the palace, Yan Lan Yu ignored everyone’s obstruction and ran out barefoot from the Jing Xin Hall. In Ling Guang City, the osmanthus flowers bloomed in May, filling the whole city with a delicate fragrance. Yan Lan Yu, dressed in a plain green dress, stood under the osmanthus tree. When she saw Lou Guan Xue, her eyes, bloodshot from days of insomnia, lit up with relief, seeming almost crazed.
After returning to his bedroom, Xia Qing, nibbling on a sugar figurine, sighed sincerely, “I almost thought Yan Lan Yu had deep feelings for you.”
Lou Guan Xue asked, “What are you eating?”
Xia Qing replied, “A sugar figurine from the town near Chunshang Cave. Their sugar figurines are really delicious, with a sweetness that’s indescribable.”
Lou Guan Xue glanced at him, then leaned down and bit his lips, gently running his tongue between them.
Xia Qing was dumbfounded, his face and ears flushed red. He pushed him away in frustration, “I was trying to have a serious conversation with you.”
Lou Guan Xue said, “I want to taste the sweetness you can’t describe.”
Xia Qing: “…”
Xia Qing stuffed the sugar figurine he was halfway through eating into Lou Guan Xue’s mouth, silencing him.
Lou Guan Xue was momentarily stunned but didn’t spit it out. He chuckled lightly, then continued reading the memorials. Halfway through, he suddenly said, “Yan Lan Yu is urging me to choose a queen.”
Xia Qing: “She hasn’t given up yet.”
Lou Guan Xue said, “The demon suppression event is set for the fifteenth of May. She says if I choose a queen on such an auspicious day, it will surely receive the blessing of the gods.”
Xia Qing: “Deceptive.”
Lou Guan Xue: “I don’t need the blessing of the gods, but I think that day would indeed be a good one.”
Zhu Ji’s end felt somewhat anticlimactic… I mean she’s been planning this for a while so it ending with only a few strikes from LGX wasn’t what I expected lol Well atleast now Xia Qing and Lou Guan Xue can live out their live peacefully now 😀 (I hope so… the synopsis has me worrying >_<)
Thank you for the chapters!!!❤️❤️❤️
Please 🙏 don’t scare me 😭 I am trying to ignore it. It must be a slip of hand right🙏🙏🙏
So.. we are looking at a wedding next? Hahahaha… I love these couple, and i also love the ending of both evil mother and son. Yep… theres always a price for everything.
Flute chan!! U r so heroic!!Thank you for the wonderful chapters translator san!!
I hope they get closer and closer. More sugar, please! Thanks for the updates!! “)
Que entendió Xia Qi??????????????