I don't mind your past; what I mind is that your past hasn't passed.

Time, for a Great Xia Empress at the Half-Step True Immortal realm, should have been the most worthless thing in the world.

A single session of secluded meditation would span a century of worldly changes; a brief nap would see several years pass in the mortal realm.

However, the following dozen or so days were harder for Wu Lingxiao to endure than the countless epochs of her long life combined.

Every minute, every second, felt as if she were being repeatedly roasted over the karmic flames of the Nine Netherworlds.

In the courtyard of the Weiyang Palace, the spring scenery was beautiful, and the flowers bloomed like brocade.

Wu Lingxiao hid in the shadows like a phantom that could not bear the light, staring intently at the nearby pavilion.

Inside the pavilion, Ye Xuan had rolled up his pristine white sleeves and was focused on blowing on a freshly baked piece of peach blossom pastry to cool it down.

His eyes, which had once only smiled for Wu Lingxiao, were now brimming with an overflowing tenderness as he carefully fed the pastry into Ying'er's mouth.

"Is it too hot?" Ye Xuan's voice was so gentle it felt as though water could drip from it.

"No! As long as it was made by my husband, Ying'er would gladly eat it even if it were poison!" Ying'er nodded as she chewed.

This radiant look was all too familiar to Wu Lingxiao.

Eight hundred years ago, every time she finished reviewing memorials, that young man named Consort Xuan would look at her with those same sparkling eyes, his heart and vision filled entirely with her.

But now, this light, this ultimate tenderness, was all being unsparingly offered by Ye Xuan to another lowly maidservant!

"Crack..."

A supreme-grade spirit stone in Wu Lingxiao's hand was crushed into fine powder. The stone dust, mixed with blood seeping from her palm, rustled to the ground.

She was going mad with jealousy. Watching Ye Xuan brush Ying'er's long hair, watching him chat with her about everything under the sun, watching their tacit understanding as they smiled at each other, Wu Lingxiao's heart was breaking.

When night fell, it became an endless hell.

The barrier in the side palace, which blocked the view but amplified the sound, became Wu Lingxiao's execution ground every night.

She curled up on the cold jade steps like a dying dog, listening to Ying'er's deeply seductive pants and Ye Xuan's uninhibited, joyful whispers coming from inside.

Those unbearable flirtations, those belittlements and mockeries directed at her, wove into an airtight net that slowly shredded her sanity.

Her mind roared ceaselessly, and terrifying cracks even appeared in her Dao heart. In a few fleeting moments, she even wanted to self-destruct her primordial spirit to end this agony that felt like death by a thousand cuts.

However, what truly crushed Wu Lingxiao's last line of defense happened on the tenth day.

That afternoon, the breeze was mild and pleasant.

Ye Xuan sat under a tree, surprisingly holding an embroidery needle in his hand.

Clumsily but with extreme earnestness, he was embroidering a pair of Mandarin ducks playing in the water with their necks entwined on a piece of pure white silk.

Meanwhile, Ying'er, with a blushing face, personally tied a belt embroidered with a few charmingly naive little ducks around Ye Xuan's waist.

"Husband, I am clumsy, it doesn't look good..." Ying'er lowered her head shyly.

"How could that be? This is the most precious gift I have received in my entire life." Ye Xuan smiled and gently kissed Ying'er's forehead.

Seeing Ye Xuan wearing that duck belt, which was identical to the one from years ago, walking freely around the palace, Wu Lingxiao went completely insane.

That was her belt! That was the token of love between her, Wu Lingxiao, and Consort Xuan.

That was the most sacred and inviolable memory belonging to the two of them! Now, it had actually been replicated in such a cheap manner by a lowly servant girl born in a brothel!

On the thirteenth day, in the Imperial Garden.

Behind the rockery, Wu Lingxiao could no longer suppress the wildly rampaging emotions within her.

Taking advantage of the moment Ying'er went to the imperial kitchen to fetch soup, she appeared behind Ye Xuan like a ghost.

"Do you know Ying'er's background?"

Wu Lingxiao's voice was hoarse, her eyes bloodshot, glaring fixedly at Ye Xuan: "She used to be a woman of the brothels! Before she met you, she served who knows how many men! She is a lowly slut who has been ridden and straddled by thousands, her body is not clean at all!"

She thought that by throwing out this bloody fact, she would see even the slightest hint of disgust and hesitation on Ye Xuan's face.

After all, he had been so disgusted by her body before.

However, Ye Xuan merely turned around slowly.

He looked at the nearly frantic Empress, his expression as calm as a pool of stagnant water, and calmly uttered a few words:

"I know, but I do not care."

"You do not care?" Wu Lingxiao flew into a rage; the extreme distortion and grievance made her instantly lose her mind.

She suddenly reached out, tightly grabbing Ye Xuan's neck, and pinned him against the cold rockery, roaring hysterically:

"So you only mind it when it is me, is that it? You would rather have a whore tasted by a thousand men than forgive me? Ye Xuan, what right do you have to treat me this way!"

A sense of suffocation came over him, and Ye Xuan's face flushed slightly, but the calmness in his eyes was like the sharpest sword, piercing straight into Wu Lingxiao's soul.

He did not resist, only looking at her with pity. Though his voice was faint, every word was a fatal blow to her heart:

"Sister, do you really think what I care about is your maidenhood?"

Wu Lingxiao froze, the grip of her hand subconsciously loosening a bit.

Ye Xuan coughed, a trace of extremely cold mockery curling at the corner of his mouth:

"Back then, when you were still the Empress, to consolidate your imperial power and for dual cultivation, you had three thousand in your harem and favored countless male concubines. At that time, you and I had not yet become Dao companions, so I never blamed you in the slightest for your past."

"What I truly mind is..."

Ye Xuan's eyes suddenly became as sharp as knives, pinning deeply into the depths of Wu Lingxiao's pupils: "At that time, you and I had already sworn to the heavens to become Dao companions, agreeing to be one couple for a lifetime... yet you still betrayed me for Holy Son Yeyou, and cheated on me with someone else!"

Wu Lingxiao stood dumbstruck, her whole body trembling.

Ye Xuan turned his head, his gaze looking tenderly toward the distant corridor, where Ying'er was carrying a soup bowl and walking this way with eyes full of anticipation.

"Her body is not clean, I knew that from the very beginning. But that was because her life was like duckweed, beyond her own control."

Ye Xuan turned his head back to look at Wu Lingxiao, the tenderness in his eyes instantly turning into ten-thousand-year-old ice: "But ever since she followed me, ever since we have been together, those eyes of hers could no longer hold a second person. She has never overstepped the boundaries with any man by even a fraction!"

Ye Xuan violently brushed away Wu Lingxiao's stiff arm, his voice exploding in the Empress's ears like a thunderbolt:

"She is not like you! She is not the kind of woman who cannot wait to throw herself at a handsome man the moment she sees one or feels a hint of novelty!"

"Sister..."

Ye Xuan looked down condescendingly at the collapsed Empress and coldly pronounced: "I do not mind your past, what I mind is... your past has never truly passed!"

These words were like a heavy hammer, completely shattering Wu Lingxiao's last shred of self-deceiving luck.

"It is not like that... I have changed... I really have changed..."

The Great Xia Empress slumped onto the muddy grass, her tears rolling down like a burst dam.

She covered her face, letting out a desperate and agonizing wail, but could no longer utter a single word of rebuttal.

Over the next few days, Wu Lingxiao's soul hovered on the brink of collapse. She was like a walking corpse, with only her morbid obsession for that young man sustaining her lingering breath.

Until the night of the fifteenth day.

Outside the barrier of the side hall, Wu Lingxiao waited numbly for tonight's torment.

Suddenly, Ye Xuan's voice, tinged with slight intoxication and boundless tenderness, drifted from within the barrier.

Ying'er, you have suffered grievances these past half month. Tomorrow, I will have the Internal Affairs Bureau make preparations. I want to give you the grandest wedding. I want to make you my lawful wife.

Really? Husband... I am so happy...

Wu Lingxiao was completely stunned.

The thirty-day agreement? The promise of endurance? In the face of the terrifying reality that Consort Xuan was going to marry someone else, everything was reduced to ashes!

I forbid it!

Wu Lingxiao let out a blood-weeping roar, and the terrifying coercion of a Mahayana realm expert erupted with a bang!

With a loud bang, the barrier capable of withstanding thousands of troops and horses, along with the heavy carved doors, was shattered to pieces by Wu Lingxiao's palm, sending wood chips flying everywhere!

Consort Xuan! You cannot do this! You are mine! You cannot marry her!

Looking like a mad demon, Wu Lingxiao rushed into the bedchamber. Her scarlet eyes scanned the large bed frantically, ready to tear the wretched woman who dared to steal her husband into ten thousand pieces.

However, when she clearly saw the scene inside the room.

This murderous Female Emperor of Great Xia froze in place, dumbfounded, as if struck by an immobilization spell.

Inside, the room was brightly lit.

There were no disheveled clothes, no lingering scent of intimate cosmetics.

In this massive bedchamber, there were actually two large beds placed far apart.

Ye Xuan, dressed in neat clothing, leaned against the bed on the left with a cup of clear tea in his hand. Ying'er, fully clothed, sat on the bed on the right, still working on an unfinished piece of embroidery.

Where was the passionate lovemaking? Where was the illicit affair?

This... what is going on here... Wu Lingxiao stared blankly at the two, her brain completely short-circuiting.

Are you surprised, sister?

Ye Xuan gently set down his teacup, the corners of his mouth curling into a cold sneer filled with extreme mockery and satisfaction.

He slowly got out of bed and walked up to Wu Lingxiao, his eyes so cold they lacked a trace of warmth. Let me tell you the truth. Over the past dozen days, I haven't even touched a single finger of hers. Those sounds were just illusions I synthesized using a voice-recording stone, and that affection was nothing more than a play put on for you to see.

Wu Lingxiao was stunned.

The massive contrast made her forget to even breathe. A play... it was all fake? You didn't... you didn't...

Yes, it was all fake. Ye Xuan suddenly leaned in close to her, his eyes revealing a bone-chilling cruelty. But even if it was fake, you still couldn't take it, could you?

You couldn't even endure it for half a month. A mere fake test was enough to make you smash the doors like a madwoman...

Ye Xuan abruptly straightened up, his eyes full of condescending disdain. Based on this, you still want me to forgive you? You still dare to shamelessly claim that you have changed?

Wu Lingxiao's legs gave out, and she fell to her knees with a thud.

The pain you are enduring right now is merely a taste of a ten-millionth of the suffering I went through back then.

Ye Xuan tilted his head back and closed his eyes, hiding a trace of deep exhaustion in their depths. Because, back then, I loved you far, far more than you loved me.

No! That's not true! Wu Lingxiao shook her head desperately, shuffling forward on her knees to grab the hem of Ye Xuan's clothes. I love you just as much as you love me! Even more than you love me! I truly love you!

Just as much?

Ye Xuan suddenly opened his eyes, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world, and asked back with a cold laugh.

Just as much, yet you still cheated?

Wu Lingxiao's hand froze in mid-air. Her lips trembled violently, but she couldn't utter another word.

All of her deep affection, all of her excuses, were smashed to pieces in the face of this simplest and most straightforward question. She lowered her head in despair, her tears crashing onto the smooth floor and shattering into countless pieces.

Alright, the game ends here.

Ye Xuan smoothed out his slightly wrinkled white palace robes, his gaze becoming indifferent and distant once again. You failed, Wu Lingxiao. I cannot forgive you.

There will be no reconciliation between us. Let us just continue to torture each other like this; it is better for everyone.

After speaking, Ye Xuan did not even cast another glance at the Female Emperor, who was slumped on the ground like mud, and walked straight out the door.

Ying'er, let's go.

Yes, Master.

Ying'er obediently followed him. The two of them, one after the other, stepped over the wood chips scattered across the floor and walked into the deep night.

Inside the bedchamber, only the once imperious Female Emperor of Great Xia remained, kneeling on the cold floor, letting out desperate and mournful wails like a wounded beast.

On the long, secluded walkway outside Weiyang Palace, the moonlight stretched their shadows far into the distance.

Ye Xuan stopped in his tracks, suddenly turning his head to look at Ying'er, who had been obediently following by his side. A cryptic curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Ying'er.

What is it, Master?

Ye Xuan lowered his head, his eyes locking tightly onto Ying'er's. His tone was gentle, yet it carried a spine-chilling eeriness.

Do you like me as Consort Xuan? Or do you prefer the previous Ye Xuan?

Ying'er paused for a moment. She tilted her head, blinked her pure and flawless eyes, and asked back with naive sweetness.

Master, what are you talking about? Didn't you just change your clothes?

The night breeze blew past.

A highly dangerous, cold glint instantly flashed through the depths of Ye Xuan's eyes.

He slowly reached out his hand, his slender, icy fingers gently grasping a lock of long hair by Ying'er's ear. Applying slight pressure, his voice sounded like a whisper from the abyss.

My little sweetheart... you know too much.

Faced with this killing intent that was enough to make one's soul tremble, Ying'er suddenly smiled sweetly.

Not only did she not step back, but she took a step forward, stretched out her arms, and tightly, gently embraced Ye Xuan's body, which exuded endless malice and coldness.

She pressed her cheek against Ye Xuan's chest, listening to the irregular heartbeat inside, and softly murmured in an almost morbidly obsessed tone.

Because I am your little sweetheart.