You haven't cheated just once, but time and time again.

On the ground, Ye Xuan opened his eyes for the third time.

This time, he didn't scramble to his feet in a panic like the husband from the mortal realm, nor did he let out a perverse sneer like Ye Xuan usually would.

He merely sat up, extremely slowly and with some difficulty.

He raised his head and looked at Xia Lengyue, who was suspended in midair.

At this moment, Xia Lengyue's heart skipped a beat.

What kind of eyes were those?

They were like an ancient well that had been dry for millions of years, filled to the brim with ashes.

Within them lay an indescribable, bone-deep exhaustion and weariness.

It was as if nothing in this world could stir even the slightest ripple in the lake of his heart anymore.

Xia Lengyue recognized him at a glance. This was her husband, the man who had died under siege to protect her at Severed Soul Cliff!

"Don't look at me... don't look at me!"

Xia Lengyue turned her head away like a madwoman, not daring to meet his gaze.

She trembled all over like a fallen leaf in the wind, sobbing uncontrollably. "I was wrong... Husband, I truly know I was wrong! Scold me, beat me! Just don't look at me with those eyes..."

However, the Ye Xuan before her merely looked at her in silence.

He slowly stood up, his movements sluggish and heavy.

Walking to the edge of the blood pool, he looked at Xia Lengyue's twisted, agonized face and let out a long, deep sigh.

"Xia Lengyue."

His voice was incredibly hoarse, carrying the vicissitudes and dead silence of a man with one foot in the grave.

He didn't call her "Lengyue," nor did he call her "Wife." He simply called out her full name with utter calmness.

Hearing these three syllables, Xia Lengyue felt as if she had been struck by lightning. Her body went entirely limp. Had it not been for the chains suspending her, she would have collapsed to the ground like mud.

Ye Xuan looked at her. In those ash-filled eyes, there was no hatred, no anger. There was only a weariness that drove Xia Lengyue to absolute despair.

"I... no longer love you."

As soon as these words were spoken, Xia Lengyue felt as if a giant hand had forcefully crushed her heart. Her psychological defenses crumbled instantly, leading to a total breakdown.

"How could this be? No! How could you not love me?"

Xia Lengyue cried out hysterically, her tears mixing with the blood at the corner of her mouth in a miserable display. "You are my husband! You swore an oath! You said you would protect me for all lifetimes!"

Ye Xuan listened quietly to her shrieks, his face devoid of emotion.

He looked at Xia Lengyue, his gaze reflecting the lethargy that follows extreme exhaustion.

"Loving you... is truly so tiring."

"Ever since we entered the immortal sect... Zhao Wuji, Bai Yujing, Li Chengfeng..."

With every name he spat out, Xia Lengyue's body convulsed violently, and her complexion grew a shade grayer.

"For those cultivation methods, for those magical treasures, for your so-called Grand Dao of Immortality... how many men have you gone through?"

Ye Xuan's voice was very soft, but it acted like a rusty, blunt knife, sawing at Xia Lengyue's soul inch by inch. "I forgave you time and time again. Time and time again, I blocked the pursuits of your enemies for you. At Severed Soul Cliff, I even gave my life for you."

He tilted his head up slightly, a heavy sorrow flashing deep in his eyes. "I loved you until the very last moment of my life. Was that not enough?"

"Now, I am completely exhausted."

Ye Xuan looked at her, his tone laced with a suffocating deadness. "I don't dare to love you anymore."

"I was wrong! I have truly repented!"

Xia Lengyue frantically shook the chains, tearing the wounds on her wrists until flesh and blood flew, yet she remained completely oblivious to the pain.

She simply begged in despair, "Let's start over, okay? I'll cripple my cultivation! I don't want anything anymore! I definitely won't betray you this time! I swear it!!"

However, facing her pleas that were akin to weeping blood, Ye Xuan's expression did not waver in the slightest. He still maintained his utterly exhausted demeanor and spoke faintly,

"Perhaps. I believe you have repented."

"But so what?"

Ye Xuan pointed at his own chest, right where she had personally pierced him with a bone-scraping knife. "The pain I endured won't disappear just because you've repented. The memories of you lying in the arms of other men won't disappear."

"No! Husband! I was truly wrong! So wrong!!"

Xia Lengyue shrieked in near madness. She had originally thought that as long as she saw this husband who had died for her again, as long as she wept bitterly and admitted her faults, she would definitely earn his forgiveness.

She never expected that what awaited her was no forgiveness, not even anger, but only endless weariness.

This caused her a hundred times more agony than if he had simply killed her!

"I'm so tired... truly so tired."

Ye Xuan slowly turned around, his back to her, his voice growing fainter. "I don't want to love anyone ever again. I never owed you anything, Xia Lengyue."

"Husband, it is I who owe you! I owe you too much!"

Xia Lengyue screamed frantically, as if she were trying to tear her own soul apart. "I want to repay you! I want to make it up to you! Just give me a chance!!"

Ye Xuan stopped in his tracks, tilting his head slightly to the side, his expression as indifferent as still water.

"Your greatest compensation would be to leave my world."

"Forever, and ever... never appear before me again."

Despair.

The most bottomless despair instantly swallowed Xia Lengyue whole.

She wept bitterly, crying so hard her lungs felt torn apart, crying until she couldn't catch her breath.

Ye Xuan still didn't look back, his voice as calm as a stagnant pool.

"You didn't cheat just once, but time and time again."

"If we really got back together, could you guarantee you wouldn't betray me again?"

"I guarantee it! I swear upon my Dao Heart!" Xia Lengyue shouted madly, like a drowning person clutching at a final straw. "I will absolutely never look at another man again! I will only be your wife!"

Ye Xuan tilted his head up slightly, his hollow eyes gazing at the dark vaulted ceiling of the wine cellar.

"Perhaps."

"But I just don't believe it anymore."

That sentence became the final straw that crushed Xia Lengyue.

She let out an inhuman, shrill scream, her entire body convulsing violently in midair as she completely descended into a frenzied breakdown.

Right at that moment.

Ye Xuan, whose back was facing her, suddenly stiffened again and collapsed heavily to the ground.

When he opened his eyes and stood up from the floor once more, the dead silence and exhaustion had vanished without a trace. Replacing them was a chilling, demonic aura and absolute madness.

Ye Xuan turned around and looked at Xia Lengyue, who had been mentally tortured to the point of near insanity, only knowing how to weep and twitch.

A highly amused, cruel smile surfaced on his face.

"This is the husband you've been dreaming of. Well, Senior Sister, are you satisfied?"

Xia Lengyue jerked her head up and glared fixedly at the demon before her, her eyes brimming with endless hatred and madness. "No! This was all your manipulation! That was fake! My husband sacrificed his life for me, he would never treat me like this!!"

Ye Xuan scoffed disdainfully, looking down at her from above, his demeanor indifferent and ruthless. "Yes, he sacrificed his life for you. And then what?"

"He already sacrificed so much for you, even losing his life. Was that not enough?"

Xia Lengyue froze, suddenly finding herself at a loss for words.

Ye Xuan sighed, his tone carrying a sickening, morbid mockery.

"Let him go, Senior Sister. That fool, he is already very tired."

"I want to apologize! I want to make amends! I want to atone!" Xia Lengyue continued to scream madly, trying to grasp at an illusory salvation.

However, Ye Xuan abruptly dropped his smile.

He stepped forward, grabbed Xia Lengyue's bleeding wrist wound, and squeezed hard!

"Ah!" Xia Lengyue let out a miserable shriek as more blood poured into the wine vat below.

"Your greatest atonement right now..." Ye Xuan leaned close to her face, revealing a deeply sinister sneer, "...is to be a good girl and bleed a little more. That way, I can use your premium heart-blood to brew my supreme spirit wine."

"I am not atoning to you!" Xia Lengyue resisted in despair, staring fixedly at Ye Xuan. "I am atoning to my husband!"

Seeing her ridiculous, stubbornly oblivious appearance, Ye Xuan let go, allowing her blood to drip freely.

He slowly retreated into the darkness, leaving behind a vicious whisper that would plunge anyone completely into the abyss:

"Very well. For the sake of your excellent blood, I will occasionally come back to see you, and let you witness your pitiful husband once again."

The sinister sneer on Ye Xuan's lips flickered in the candlelight, making him look like a true evil spirit. "However, you should understand. No matter how much you bleed, no matter how much you suffer... your atonement is completely meaningless."

Ye Xuan looked at Xia Lengyue with a mocking expression. "You said you want to spend the rest of your life atoning?"

Xia Lengyue nodded frantically. "Yes, I will use the rest of my life to repent, to atone."

But Ye Xuan retorted, "If I hadn't saved you, you would have died at Soul-Severing Cliff long ago. What 'rest of your life' do you have?"

Xia Lengyue froze, her eyes turning lifeless.

"Your remaining life never belonged to you from the very beginning. You want to use the life I gave you to make it up to me?"

Ye Xuan patted her cheek, his eyes full of mockery. "You're not worthy!"

The heavy black iron doors slammed shut behind him. The dull thud of the mechanisms engaging completely locked Xia Lengyue's heart-wrenching, beast-like wails of despair inside that pitch-black hell.

The air outside the wine cellar was fresh and slightly cool, carrying the faint scent of spirit chrysanthemums from the royal gardens.

Ye Xuan stopped in his tracks, tilting his head back slightly, letting the blinding afternoon sunlight spill over his handsome face.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of air. Then, he drew a snow-white ice-silkworm handkerchief from his sleeve and methodically wiped away a small speck of blood that had accidentally stained his knuckles.

He wiped very carefully, as if performing an incredibly sacred task. It wasn't until his finger was rubbed slightly red that he stopped, casually tossing the bloodstained handkerchief at his feet.

Ye Xuan walked away, muttering to himself with a look of utter indifference: "A spell to seal memories? I don't know how to do something like that."