Heart-Wrenching Regret

Shangguan Wan'er did not take Ye Xuan away.

Like a cold-blooded executioner, she held Ye Xuan's head down, forcing him to stand guard outside Elysium for three full days and nights.

During these three days.

The sounds from inside were intermittent, sometimes high-pitched, sometimes low whispers.

Every single sound was a trampling upon Ye Xuan's dignity.

Ye Xuan just stood there.

Not eating, not drinking, not moving.

He did not even shed a single tear.

His eyes slowly shifted from their initial shock and agony into complete emptiness.

This emptiness was more terrifying than death.

Finally.

On the morning of the third day.

The barrier of light surrounding Elysium rippled.

"They are coming," Shangguan Wan'er whispered. She dispelled the concealment array and stood openly at the exit with Ye Xuan.

The curtain of light dissipated.

Wu Lingxiao, dressed in a magnificent red robe, was glowing with health, her brow radiating utter satisfaction and languor.

Her right arm was intimately wrapped around a man whose white clothes rivaled the snow.

The man possessed a handsome, almost demonic beauty. At this moment, he was nestled in Wu Lingxiao's embrace. The two walked out flirting and laughing, looking like a perfect celestial couple.

"Night Consort, next time I will bring some..."

Wu Lingxiao's words were cut short.

Her gaze suddenly froze.

Less than ten zhang away from her.

Ye Xuan, dressed in white, looked emaciated, a mere shadow of himself.

He stood there quietly, staring at her with an unfamiliar, heart-palpitating gaze, his eyes dead-set on the hand she used to hold Yeh You.

The air froze in that instant.

The smile on Wu Lingxiao's face cracked little by little like a frozen mask, ultimately transforming into endless terror.

"Hus... Husband?"

She instinctively tried to push Yeh You away, but her hand was so stiff it refused to obey.

A massive wave of panic instantly shattered her rationality.

She was caught.

Her most unbearable, dirtiest side had been witnessed by him with his own eyes.

"Why are you here?" Wu Lingxiao's voice became so shrill it changed pitch. "Weren't you in secluded cultivation? Who brought you here?!"

Her gaze swept over to Shangguan Wan'er standing nearby, and she instantly understood. Murderous intent surged in her eyes. "Shangguan Wan'er! How dare you!!"

However, before she could lash out.

Yeh You, who had been snuggling in her arms all along, suddenly laughed.

He was not panicked at all. Instead, he pressed himself even tighter against Wu Lingxiao, even rubbing against her neck provocatively before lifting his head to look at Ye Xuan with the posture of a victor.

"Oh, isn't this Lady Consort Xuan?"

"What? Is Her Ladyship also here to serve Her Majesty?"

Yeh You adjusted his slightly disheveled collar, deliberately revealing a bright red hickey on his collarbone, and smiled.

"What a pity, Her Ladyship is late."

"For the past three days... Her Majesty has already been thoroughly satisfied by me."

"Isn't that right, Your Majesty? The one you dote on the most... is indeed me."

Boom!

These words became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Ye Xuan looked at the hickey on his neck.

He looked at Wu Lingxiao's face, which, despite its terror, still carried the lingering afterglow of lust.

Every little detail of the past ten years, those solemn pledges of love, those promises of one life, one lifetime, one couple, transformed at this moment into poisoned daggers, viciously stabbing into his heart.

"Ugh..."

A bizarre gasp came from Ye Xuan's throat.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But the extreme agony and nausea made it impossible for him to utter a single sound.

The next moment.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, his eyes rolled back, and he fell stiffly backward.

Overcome by rage and grief.

His soul and spirit fracturing.

"Husband!"

Wu Lingxiao let out a mournful scream, violently shoving Yeh You aside as she threw herself at Ye Xuan like a madwoman.

Sweet Dew Palace.

Ye Xuan remained unconscious for a full day and night.

For this entire day and night, Wu Lingxiao stayed by his bedside without even taking off her clothes to rest.

She held Ye Xuan's hand, continuously transferring spiritual energy to him, crying and repenting without end.

"I was wrong... Little Ye, please wake up... I was truly wrong..."

"That was all fake... I was bewitched by someone..."

Finally.

Late at night.

Ye Xuan's eyelashes fluttered, and he slowly opened his eyes.

"Husband! You're awake?"

Overjoyed, Wu Lingxiao hurried closer, wanting to help him up, wanting to hug him. "Are you feeling unwell anywhere? Imperial Physician! Hurry and summon the Imperial Physician!"

However.

The very instant her hand touched Ye Xuan's shoulder.

"Ah!!"

Ye Xuan let out a terrified scream, as if he had been burned by a red-hot iron.

He violently sprang up from the bed, scrambling and crawling until he shrank into the corner of the bed, curling himself into a trembling ball.

"Don't touch me!"

This hoarse roar was filled with ultimate terror and disgust.

Wu Lingxiao's hand froze in mid-air.

She looked at Ye Xuan.

Ye Xuan was also looking at her.

His eyes...

Were no longer the dead silence of ten years ago, nor the emptiness of yesterday.

Instead, it was the look of someone staring at the filthiest, most disgusting thing in the world.

This physiological nausea, that rejection stemming from the deepest depths of his soul.

It brought her ten thousand times more agony than if he had killed her.

"Husband... I am Lingxiao..." Wu Lingxiao's tears surged wildly. "I am your wife..."

"Wife?"

Hearing these two words, Ye Xuan suddenly started dry heaving.

"Blegh!"

He leaned over the edge of the bed, vomiting violently as if he wanted to throw up his very internal organs.

"Stop insulting those two words."

Ye Xuan wiped the bile from the corner of his mouth and raised his head. His face was as pale as paper, yet his expression was terrifyingly indifferent.

"Wu Lingxiao, there is no need to act anymore."

"I heard it. I heard everything."

"You said I was weak, that I was boring. You said that men in the Tribulation Realm brought you more pleasure."

Ye Xuan looked at her, a self-deprecating sneer curling at the corner of his mouth.

"You finally spoke your true feelings, didn't you?"

"Makes sense. You've been pretending for ten years, you must be exhausted, right? Having to act deeply in love with a piece of trash like me every day, you really suffered a great grievance."

"No! It's not like that!" Wu Lingxiao shook her head desperately, trying to explain. "That was just playing along with the occasion! It was just drunken nonsense! You are the only one in my heart..."

"Enough!"

Ye Xuan interrupted her, his voice cold.

"Dirty."

"Wu Lingxiao, you are so dirty."

"Your mouth, your hands, your body... every single pore oozes the scent of that man."

"Now, even your mere breathing makes me feel sick."

Wu Lingxiao's face instantly went deathly pale. She was pierced to the core by the words dirty and sick.

The guilt and panic in her heart, driven by extreme pain, twisted into violent fury at this very moment.

"Do not look at me with those eyes!"

Wu Lingxiao abruptly stood up. The oppressive aura of the Tribulation Realm erupted uncontrollably, causing the entire grand hall to tremble.

"I am the Female Emperor! I am the ruler of this world!"

"For you, I served you like a slave for these past ten years! I dismissed my harem for you, I washed my hands and made soup for you! Have I not done enough?"

"I merely made a mistake that any woman in the world would make! I only indulged myself once! What right do you have to sentence me to death like this?"

"What right do you have to despise me?"

Listening to this hysterical roaring, Ye Xuan smiled.

He smiled with incomparable sorrow.

"Look at you."

"This is the real you."

Ye Xuan slowly closed his eyes, his voice as calm as a placid lake without a single ripple:

Since it has come to this, let us divorce.

The Dao Companion contract is annulled. From now on, you can be your promiscuous Empress, and I will be a wandering lonely ghost.

We... are over.

No!

Wu Lingxiao went completely mad.

She rushed over, tightly gripping Ye Xuan's shoulders. Her nails dug deep into his flesh, her face as twisted as a demon.

You want a divorce? You want to leave me? In your dreams!!

You are mine! In this life, the next life, and for all eternity, you are mine!

Even if we torture each other, even if we go to hell together, don't even think about escaping the palm of my hand!

It's all them... It's all Shangguan Wan'er! It's all Yeh You! They are the ones who harmed me!

It was that slut who seduced me! It was that venomous woman Shangguan Wan'er who took you there! I won't spare them! I will tear their bodies into ten thousand pieces!

Ye Xuan looked at the frenzied Wu Lingxiao, merely gave a cold sneer, and said no more.

He was like a corpse, letting her shake him, letting her roar.

His heart was dead; nothing mattered anymore.

Wu Lingxiao rushed out of the Sweet Dew Palace.

She needed to vent.

She needed to slaughter.

She needed blood to wash away her shame, to salvage the shattered situation.

First, she rushed to Yeh You's residence.

However, the place was already empty.

On the table, only a letter and a jade slip were left.

Wu Lingxiao opened the letter with trembling hands.

[To Her Majesty:

This play was indeed spectacular.

In truth, all of this was a conspiracy between myself and Chancellor Shangguan.

She wanted a ruthless emperor, and I wanted to conquer an empress.

We hit it off immediately.

But Your Majesty, please remember one thing.

You and I are both in the Tribulation Passage realm. If you were unwilling, I never forced you, nor did I have the strength to force you.

The pleasure of those few nights was real. Your surrender was also real.

Everything I did was to help you find your true self.

Whether you hate me or want to kill me, so be it.

I only hope you can leave that piece of trash Ye Xuan and return to being the decisive, ruthless Empress of the Great Xia that so mesmerized me.

Yours lovingly, Yeh You.]

Ahhhhh!

After reading the letter, Wu Lingxiao let out a shrill scream.

The letter in her hand turned to dust.

It was true.

What he said was true.

No one forced her. She was the one who felt moved, she was the one who climbed into the bed, and she was the one who enjoyed the thrill of betrayal.

But this truth was too cruel; she could not face it.

She had to find a scapegoat.

A scapegoat upon whom she could shift all her sins.

Shangguan... Wan'er...

Wu Lingxiao's eyes turned pitch black, a sign of falling to her inner demons.

It was you... You ruined everything of mine!

If you hadn't taken him to see... If we hadn't been discovered... We would still be very happy...

It is all your fault!

That night.

The imperial capital of the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty flowed with rivers of blood.

Empress Wu Lingxiao personally led the Imperial Guards and surrounded the Chancellor's estate.

There was no trial, no reason.

Kill! Leave no one alive!

The Shangguan family, all three branches of their clan, were exterminated.

Regardless of men or women, old or young, women or children—on this night, they all became the dead souls under the blade of the Empress's vented fury.

Blood dyed the entire long street red, and miserable shrieks echoed to the heavens.

As for Shangguan Wan'er, she was captured alive.

Her cultivation was crippled, the tendons in her hands and feet were severed, and she was dragged into the grand hall of the Weiyang Palace like a dead dog.

Why?

Wu Lingxiao sat on the dragon throne, covered in blood, like an evil ghost crawling out of hell. She stepped on Shangguan Wan'er's face, crushing down hard, and asked in a hoarse voice:

I trusted you so much! I entrusted my empire to you! Why did you harm me like this?!

Why did you take him there? Why did you ruin my home?

Shangguan Wan'er's face was covered in blood, but her eyes remained bright.

She struggled to raise her head, looked at this completely maddened Empress, and suddenly laughed.

Heh heh...

Your Majesty... are you still... deceiving yourself?

I did not harm you... I was saving you, and saving the Great Xia...

A monarch addicted to romantic love, subservient for the sake of a man... will sooner or later ruin this empire...

Furthermore...

Shangguan Wan'er looked toward the direction of the Sweet Dew Palace, a trace of tenderness and relief flashing in her eyes:

I succeeded.

I made him see your true face.

I destroyed your dream, but I preserved his truth.

A man like Ye Xuan... should not be deceived by your hypocritical love...

He deserves... someone cleaner...

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

Struck in her sore spot, Wu Lingxiao drew her sword like a madwoman, stabbing Shangguan Wan'er over and over again.

Who permitted you to mention him? Who permitted you to pity him?

He is mine! Even if I am filthy, he can only be mine!

For three whole days.

Wu Lingxiao used every cruel torture to torment this former best friend, her former right-hand woman.

The dungeon floor had long been soaked in blood, so sticky that one could hardly lift their feet.

Shangguan Wan'er collapsed in a pool of blood, her limbs twisted—the miserable state after having her tendons severed.

Her face was covered with crisscrossing sword scars, flesh rolled outwards; her once nation-toppling beauty was now nothing but hideousness.

But her eyes were terrifyingly bright.

It was the final burst of vitality before death, and the obsession to watch this final good show.

Cough cough... Hahaha...

While vomiting blood, Shangguan Wan'er let out a laugh like a broken bellows.

She looked at the currently maddened Wu Lingxiao, whose eyes were bloodshot red, and the mockery in her own eyes was so thick it could not be dissolved.

What are you laughing at? You are not allowed to laugh!

The imperial sword in Wu Lingxiao's hand was still dripping blood. She stared fixedly at Shangguan Wan'er, her chest heaving violently. It was an anger born of humiliation from being exposed, and even more, a fear she could not conceal.

She was afraid Shangguan Wan'er would say something else that she could not bear.

Wu Lingxiao...

Shangguan Wan'er's voice was weak, yet every word drilled clearly into the Empress's ears: Do you think... that by killing me, by killing the entire Shangguan clan, you can cover up your filth?

Do you think that by pushing the blame onto me, onto Yeh You, you can go and win back Ye Xuan with a clear conscience?

Shangguan Wan'er panted with difficulty, the corners of her mouth curling into an eerie arc:

You have absolutely no idea... what I did to Ye Xuan during this past month... while you were off having a torrid affair with that man in the Elysian Heaven.

Buzz!

Wu Lingxiao's face instantly turned deathly pale, a stronger wave of nausea and terror than before surging in her heart.

Her hand gripping the sword began to tremble violently, her voice so shrill it changed pitch:

What... what did you say?

Wu Lingxiao lunged forward, grabbing Shangguan Wan'er's blood-soaked collar, and roared hysterically:

Could it be you defiled him?

You slut! You touched him? You are at the peak of the Golden Core realm, he couldn't resist you at all! What exactly did you do to him!

Wu Lingxiao's anger at this moment, aside from possessiveness, actually held a trace of secret anticipation.

What if... what if Ye Xuan had also been defiled?

What if Ye Xuan was no longer pure either?

Would that mean they were even?

Would that mean he no longer had the right to look at her as if she were trash?

Seeing the Empress's shifting expression—a mix of terror and a trace of despicable anticipation—Shangguan Wan'er let out a cold sneer.

"You really are a fool."

"Even at a time like this, you are still thinking about such things?"

"Very well."

"Since you want to know so badly, I will grant your wish."

Shangguan Wan'er struggled to move her fingers, summoning a bloodstained black recording stone from the depths of her shattered storage bag.

"This is my final grand gift... to you."

"Every single thing that happened over the past month, every single detail, I have recorded it all."

With a tap of her finger, Shangguan Wan'er injected her last bit of spiritual energy into it.

"Watch closely, Wu Lingxiao."

"See exactly what kind of man you have lost."

"See... just how unworthy you truly are!"

The recording stone hovered in midair, projecting a massive screen of light that instantly illuminated the dim, bloody grand hall.

Within the light screen was an utterly luxurious yet sealed and gloomy secret chamber.

The scene began to play.

The first scene was the very first day of Ye Xuan's imprisonment.

His wounds had yet to heal, and his face was deathly pale.

Shangguan Wan'er, wearing a seductive red dress as thin and light as gauze, was pressing closer step by step, holding a bowl of medicinal soup that emitted a sweet, cloying fragrance.

"Drink it." The Shangguan Wan'er in the projection had eyes filled with madness.

Ye Xuan kept his lips tightly shut, not saying a word.

"This is the most potent aphrodisiac in the world, concocted by blending the Powder of Ultimate Bliss and the Immortal's Intoxication."

Shangguan Wan'er's voice echoed from the scene, carrying a cruel smile. "It is said that even if a True Immortal were to ingest this, they would turn into a beast of desire, forsaking all ties and seeking only pleasure."

Hearing this, Wu Lingxiao's heart violently clenched in the grand hall.

She knew of this drug.

It was a forbidden drug of the Great Xia imperial family, possessing a potency strong enough to destroy anyone's rationality.

Let alone Ye Xuan, who was merely an injured Golden Core cultivator, even she, a Tribulation Transcendence expert, would not be able to withstand it if afflicted.

In the projection.

Seeing that Ye Xuan refused to drink, Shangguan Wan'er directly forced his mouth open and poured the bowl of red liquid down his throat.

"Cough, cough, cough..." Ye Xuan coughed violently, the liquid trailing down the corners of his mouth and staining his white robes red.

Very soon, the drug took effect.

Wu Lingxiao's eyes widened as she stared fixedly at the screen of light.

She saw Ye Xuan's skin instantly turn crimson. The blue veins on his neck bulged one by one, and his entire body curled up on the ground like a cooked shrimp.

His breathing became as heavy as a bull's, and sweat instantly drenched his entire body.

This torment, an intertwining of agony and lust, made one feel suffocated even through the projection.

Shangguan Wan'er leaned in close to his ear, whispering like a demon:

"Why struggle, my dear Xuan..."

"Her Majesty is currently in the Heaven of Ultimate Bliss, enjoying herself in the arms of that man named Yeh You."

"She does not even keep herself pure, so why bother living like a chaste widow for a woman who betrayed you?"

"Take me... Just nod your head, and I will be your cure..."

The Shangguan Wan'er in the projection traced her fingers across Ye Xuan's burning chest, doing everything in her power to seduce him.

Wu Lingxiao's fingers dug deeply into her palms, dripping with blood.

Watching this scene, she was driven mad with jealousy, yet simultaneously trembling with fear.

If it were any other man in this situation, facing such temptation and the power of that drug, it would be impossible to hold back.

However.

"Get lost!"

An extremely hoarse roar tore out from the projection.

Ye Xuan violently shoved Shangguan Wan'er away.

Because he used too much force, his entire body crashed against the wall with a muffled thud.

To fight against the surging, tidal-wave-like potency of the drug, and to maintain that single thread of clarity.

Ye Xuan performed an action that broke Wu Lingxiao's heart.

Squelch!

He pulled out his hairpin and, without hesitation, stabbed it into his own thigh!

Blood spurted out.

The intense pain made his whole body tremble, but it also instantly restored a hint of clarity to his hazy eyes.

"Ye Xuan! Are you crazy?" the Shangguan Wan'er in the projection screamed in shock.

"Get out..." Ye Xuan leaned against the corner of the wall, sweating profusely, yet his eyes were as fierce as a lone wolf guarding its food. "Don't touch me... I have a Dao companion... Don't touch me with your filthy hands!!"

Wu Lingxiao covered her mouth, tears bursting from her eyes.

At that time... what was she doing at that time?

She had been in the Heaven of Ultimate Bliss, drinking fine wine, listening to Yeh You's sweet nothings, and enjoying the thrill brought about by betrayal.

While Ye Xuan, for her sake, was using self-mutilation to fight against the most potent aphrodisiac in the world.

One night.

A whole night.

The room was covered in scratch marks.

They were gouged out by Ye Xuan's bare fingers against the hard black iron walls during his extreme agony. His fingernails were torn off, his flesh mangled and bloody.

The floor was covered in blood.

It was the blood he shed from stabbing himself time and time again just to stay awake.

Shangguan Wan'er exhausted every method at her disposal.

"It is merely a physical relationship; as long as your heart remains with her, isn't that enough?"

Shangguan Wan'er roared in exasperation: "Which man in this world does not have three wives and four concubines? The Empress even has a harem of three thousand! Why are you pretending to be a saint?"

Ye Xuan was covered in blood, slumped in a pool of his own gore.

He was weakened to the absolute limit, lacking even the strength to lift his eyelids.

Yet, upon hearing these words, he struggled to raise his head. Within those bloodshot eyes shone a light that made one afraid to look directly at him.

"No."

Ye Xuan gritted his teeth. Though his voice was faint, it struck like a massive bronze bell, shaking the soul to its core:

"If the body is not one's own, how can the heart be one's own?"

"We made a promise... one lifetime, one couple."

"This was the oath I swore before the Heavenly Dao when we first became Dao companions. It is also what she personally promised me."

"Since I made the promise, I must fulfill it."

Shangguan Wan'er furiously smashed a nearby vase and yelled: "What exactly are you holding on to? Even a fool knows that Her Majesty started building her harem long ago! She has already been lying to you!"

Ye Xuan fell silent for a moment.

His gaze pierced through his disheveled hair, looking into the void, as if he were looking at the woman he had deeply loved for ten years.

"That is a matter of the past."

"If I did not see it with my own eyes, I choose to believe her."

"I will no longer pursue the matters of the past, starting from the very second she made her promise to me."

"For every minute, every second that follows."

"I will keep my body pure for her."

Ye Xuan's voice grew softer, yet increasingly resolute:

"Because... missing a single minute, missing a single second... means it is not a lifetime."

"A lifetime... is a lifetime. Less one hour, less one minute, less one second, and it can no longer be considered a lifetime."

Within the light screen, the scene reached its end.

It was the break of dawn.

The drug's effects had finally faded.

Ye Xuan looked as if he had been fished out of the water, completely exhausted and collapsed.

The white robes on his body had turned into garments of blood. His thighs and arms were densely covered in wounds.

Shangguan Wan'er stood to the side, looking at this nearly broken yet still pure man. The expression on her face shifted from anger, to shock, and finally into a complex sense of reverence.

"You win."

Shangguan Wan'er said dejectedly, "Even a true immortal could not resist this drug... yet you withstood it."

Ye Xuan leaned against the wall, panting heavily.

He looked at Shangguan Wan'er without any resentment, only with a calmness that saw through the ways of the world.

"Sister Wan'er, just go."

"I won't tell Her Majesty what happened here."

Shangguan Wan'er was taken aback. "Why? You could report me and have me die without a burial place."

Ye Xuan shook his head, a trace of a bitter yet gentle smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"She has been busy with court affairs lately and is under a lot of pressure."

"You are her right-hand woman, the Prime Minister of Great Xia. If you are killed, who will help share her burdens?"

"It doesn't matter if I suffer a little grievance... As long as Great Xia is stable, as long as she is well, that is enough."

Snap.

The light screen shattered, dissipating into specks of starlight.

Inside the grand hall, there was a deathly silence.

Only Wu Lingxiao knelt on the ground, her hands covering her face, letting out whimpers like a wounded beast.

It hurt too much.

This truth was simply too painful.

She had thought Ye Xuan was just a piece of trash who needed her protection.

She had taken Ye Xuan's love for granted.

Even when she was in the Paradise Realm, she had comfortably thought to herself, "I treat him very well anyway. I'm just indulging myself a little. I'll just reward him with more things when I get back."

But now, this recording stone was like a resounding slap in the face, striking her so hard that her very soul trembled.

While she was betraying him.

He was struggling in purgatory to maintain his loyalty to her.

When he was tortured to the point where he wished for death, his only thought was that Shangguan Wan'er couldn't be killed, because it would affect her empire and state.

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

Wu Lingxiao suddenly threw her head back and let out an extremely mournful and piercing howl.

Her voice was filled with endless remorse, self-blame, and despair.

"What have I done... What on earth have I done!"

She frantically pounded the ground. Even with her Tribulation Transcendence realm physical body, she smashed her own hands into a bloody pulp.

She remembered the look in Ye Xuan's eyes when he woke up.

That look of disgust, finding her "dirty."

So it turned out.

He had every right to be disgusted.

He was the cleanest person in this world, while she was the dirtiest.

She truly... did not deserve to touch him.

"Heh..."

A faint sneer came from the side.

Shangguan Wan'er looked at the broken Empress, the light in her eyes rapidly dimming as her life force swiftly slipped away.

She had been jealous of Ye Xuan and wanted to destroy him.

But in the process, she had hopelessly fallen in love with this man.

Because she realized that in this cultivation world filled with scheming and betrayal, Ye Xuan's heart was the only priceless treasure.

Unfortunately, this treasure had been shattered by Wu Lingxiao's own hands.

"Wu Lingxiao..."

Using her last breath, Shangguan Wan'er looked at this former best friend and current enemy, and slowly spat out words meant to pierce her heart:

"I truly envy you so much..."

"To be able to have such a man, who loved you with all his heart for ten years..."

"But..."

The corners of Shangguan Wan'er's mouth curled into a cruel, triumphant smile, her gaze fixed on Wu Lingxiao's twisted face:

"I also think... you are so stupid."

"This recording stone was originally meant to force him to submit, and then serve as blackmail to threaten him... It's a pity that for this past month, despite me using every cruel torture, he never yielded."

"I destroyed his body, and you destroyed his heart."

"Neither of us... will ever find peace..."

As her voice faded.

Shangguan Wan'er's head tilted to the side, and she breathed her last.

Her eyes remained wide open, refusing to close even in death.

"No!"

Looking at Shangguan Wan'er's corpse and the dissipating light screen, Wu Lingxiao completely broke down.

"Wan'er! Wake up! Take your words back!!"

"I am not a fool! I am not!!"

"He still loves me! He must still love me!!"

Wu Lingxiao scrambled to her feet on all fours, stumbling as she ran toward the Sweet Dew Palace.

She had to find Ye Xuan.

She had to tell him that she knew she was wrong. She would kneel before him and repent. Even if it meant spending the rest of her life atoning for her sins, she would beg for him to come back.