Don't let the good girls down, don't waste the bad girls.

The stone door of the secret chamber rumbled heavily as it opened, sending several days’ worth of dust scattering in every direction beneath the surge of spiritual energy.

Ye Xuan stepped out at an unhurried pace. The spiritual pressure swirling around him was far denser than before his seclusion, and his cultivation at the peak of the Void Refinement Realm seemed poised to break through its bottleneck.

His black hair fell over his dark-gold robe, while his gray-white eyes held the withered stillness of someone who had seen through the ways of the world.

Yet on the stone platform outside the chamber sat a vermilion lacquered food box.

A faint temporal law had clearly been applied to it, ensuring that the dishes inside would remain forever as fresh and hot as when they had first left the kitchen.

Ye Xuan raised an eyebrow and lightly tapped the box with his fingertip. The lid opened on its own.

Inside was a bowl of emerald spirit-fish soup, still steaming, several delicately prepared yet somewhat rustic side dishes, and even a bowl of white-jade fragrant rice, each grain distinct.

Ye Xuan fell silent for a moment. Instead of his usual derisive remarks, he merely rolled up his sleeves and sat down on the floor.

He picked up the pair of bamboo chopsticks and began to eat, one bite after another.

The fish had been cleaned thoroughly, but it had been cooked just a little too long, leaving behind the faintest trace of charred bitterness.

“Since you’re here, why hide?” Ye Xuan set down his chopsticks, picked up a handkerchief, and slowly wiped the corner of his mouth. His voice was as calm as still water.

From the shadows, a figure in a dark-gold imperial robe gradually emerged.

Wu Lingxiao was no longer disheveled as she had been over the past few days. She had redone her imperial coiffure and donned the heavy crown of nine hanging tassels. Yet her coldly beautiful face still bore an exhaustion that nothing could conceal.

She stared fixedly at the empty bowls and plates. In the depths of her eyes, there appeared a glimmer of hope so humble it was almost servile.

“Over these eight hundred years… your cooking has indeed improved quite a bit,” Ye Xuan said indifferently.

Wu Lingxiao’s body trembled slightly, and her eyes reddened at once.

She took several steps forward, her voice hoarse enough to break the heart.

“In the eight hundred years after your death… I stopped touching those spirit medicines and spiritual delicacies. I personally cleared a plot of land in the rear garden, planted the rice you liked, and raised the fish you loved to eat.”

“I practiced embroidery for eight hundred years. I practiced cooking for eight hundred years… I kept thinking that if you could return, I would make myself into… into the kind, virtuous wife you wanted.”

She bit her lip as tears welled in her eyes. “Ye Xuan, these years have been so painful for me.”

Ye Xuan looked at her, his gray-white eyes reflecting the Female Emperor’s current state—humble as mud.

After a long while, he finally nodded. For once, there was even a trace of pity in his voice.

“You have indeed suffered.”

At those words, Wu Lingxiao looked as though she had been struck by overwhelming happiness. She threw herself at Ye Xuan’s knees, clutching his robe tightly as she looked up at him, her eyes filled with wild joy and tentative hope.

“Then… does that mean… you’ve forgiven me? If only you’re willing to forgive me, I’ll give you anything you want! The Great Xia Empire, the Eternal Time Dao Fruit—I can give up all of it! We can be just like we were before…”

“Forgive you?”

Ye Xuan spoke those two words softly, the corner of his mouth curving into a cruel smile.

He reached out and gently caressed Wu Lingxiao’s breathtaking face. His fingertip brushed across her lips, sending a cold shiver through her.

“Wu Lingxiao, have you misunderstood something?”

“I, Ye Xuan, will never forgive a woman who betrayed me willingly.”

The smile on Wu Lingxiao’s face froze. The light in her eyes went out at a visible speed.

“If…”

Ye Xuan leaned close to her ear. His breath was soft and warm, but his words were colder than the deepest hell.

“If your betrayal back then had been forced—if someone had threatened your life, or you had been controlled by some irresistible power—then even if you had truly lost your chastity, even if you had stabbed me, I, Ye Xuan, would absolutely have forgiven you so long as you had been forced into it.”

“I would have slaughtered everyone in this world who humiliated you. I would have spent ten thousand lifetimes to heal your wounds.”

His gaze suddenly sharpened, each word cutting straight into her heart.

“But you weren’t.”

“No one forced you at the Elysian Heavens back then. When I laid my heart bare before you, you were the one who decided you had grown tired of it. You were the one who stepped across that line of your own accord, Wu Lingxiao. Even after ten thousand years, that line will still be there.”

“No… That’s not how it was… I only…” Wu Lingxiao stammered, trying to explain herself. Her gaze gradually grew unfocused, then transformed into utter madness.

She shot to her feet. The terrifying spiritual pressure of a peak Mahayana cultivator erupted in an instant, shaking the surrounding white-jade pillars into dust!

“If that’s the case! If nothing I do can win back your forgiveness, then what am I begging for?”

Wu Lingxiao ground her teeth, crimson flames blazing in her eyes.

“Ye Xuan! Do you truly think I don’t dare kill you? If I can’t have you, then I’ll destroy you! Then I’ll self-detonate my soul! We’ll die together—neither of us will ever find release!”

In the face of that world-shattering force, Ye Xuan did not even raise his eyelids.

He casually picked up the food box and replied with a flat tone:

“See? There you go, getting worked up again.”

Wu Lingxiao’s frenzy abruptly choked off.

Ye Xuan slowly rose to his feet and brushed the dust from his robe. His gaze was cold and unfathomably deep.

“My refusal to forgive you doesn’t mean I won’t keep you. The debts of this world can be repaid with more than forgiveness. They can also be repaid through service. From this day forward, abandon your dream of being the Female Emperor who rules over all. You were once the Ruler of Great Xia. From now on… you will be my concubine and remain by my side.”

Wu Lingxiao let out a cold laugh, her eyes filled with a mocking scorn that seemed to see through everything.

“A concubine? Ye Xuan, you’ve certainly made a fine calculation! You’ve realized that the power of time within me is the greatest counter to your ‘One Conquest, Eternal Conquest,’ haven’t you? As long as I remain by your side, your law could collapse at any moment! You want to keep me within your sight. You want to use my cultivation to protect your path!”

“Use you?”

Ye Xuan’s face revealed the utmost disdain. He stood with his hands behind his back, the phantoms of eternal stars reflected in his gray-white eyes.

“Wu Lingxiao, you think too highly of yourself. I told you—I’m not afraid of you breaking ‘One Conquest, Eternal Conquest.’”

“If the loyalty of you women truly has to be maintained by that sort of law, then that loyalty is nothing but garbage. It would be better if you broke free of it. Then, when I grow tired of playing with you and decide to kill you, I won’t hesitate on account of that laughable attachment.”

Wu Lingxiao’s delicate body trembled violently, and her face turned as pale as paper.

“You’re not afraid? Then why… why did you reincarnate through countless lifetimes? Why did you involve yourself with so many of us?”

Ye Xuan froze for a moment.

A rare trace of self-mockery suddenly flashed through his eyes—the desolation of someone who had endured the vicissitudes of countless ages.

“I once… believed that you could all change.”

He looked at Wu Lingxiao, his voice low.

“Take you, for example. I repeatedly warned you not to cheat on me. I gave you countless chances. Even when you hesitated, I tried to pull you back. But what happened? You went through with it anyway. Not only that—you did it more thoroughly than anyone else.”

Wu Lingxiao stood stunned as fragments of memories she had deliberately buried came surging madly back into her mind.

Yes, Ye Xuan had warned her—had even nearly begged her not to take that path.

But at the time, she had been intoxicated by the thrill of chasing novelty and had dismissed his words entirely.

A deep sense of guilt spread through her soul like poison.

“I have lived through countless reincarnations. In truth, it was all part of a selection process.”

Ye Xuan turned his head and gazed at the vast sky beyond the secret chamber. His voice was calm, almost divine.

“What I seek are women who, even without ‘One Sign, Eternal Proof,’ even when standing at the edge of an abyss ten thousand feet deep, can still hold on to the last shred of their purity for my sake. I want to select those who are truly pure and unsullied, the most gifted, and most worthy of entrusting my heart to—and take them with me to the summit of that higher realm. As for you…”

Ye Xuan turned back and cast her a sidelong glance, the mockery at the corner of his lips growing even more pronounced.

“You are nothing more than incidental byproducts of this selection process. Since I can’t get rid of you, I might as well keep you around to shine and serve some purpose. That’s all.”

“Incidental byproducts… nothing more than incidental byproducts…”

Wu Lingxiao repeated those words in a daze. At that moment, all the dignity and pride she possessed as the Female Emperor collapsed completely.

“You really are… truly ruthless.” She let out a bitter laugh, tears and mucus streaming down her face, leaving her utterly devoid of dignity. “Ye Xuan, you really are nothing short of a devil.”