I Regret It, Your Majesty

Meanwhile.

The Great Xia Immortal Dynasty.

This had once been an unrivaled kingdom, where immortals from across the realms paid homage and the dynasty’s fortune flourished. But now, within the imperial palace of Great Xia, an air of decadence and deathly silence hung in the air.

Inside the resplendent Hall of Mental Cultivation, the smoke of dragon’s-breath incense lingered without dispersing.

Empress Wu Lingxiao was drinking.

She wore a five-clawed golden dragon imperial robe, a garment that should have symbolized the supreme authority of the sovereign. Yet at this moment, the luxurious robe had slipped messily from her shoulders, exposing large areas of her smooth, snow-white skin and delicate collarbones.

Her majestic and stunning face, which had once struck fear into the hearts of countless feudal lords, was now flushed with heavy drunkenness and desolation.

Countless jugs of the finest immortal wine, tributes from the Eastern Sea, lay scattered across the floor. Outside the hall, the civil and military officials had been kneeling for three whole days and nights. But ever since Ye Xuan had left, she had ignored the affairs of state entirely.

That iron-blooded empress, who had once sworn to lead the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty in conquering the myriad heavens and worlds and establishing an unrivaled empire, seemed as though her soul had been completely drained away.

“Gulp… gulp…”

Wu Lingxiao tilted her head back and poured an entire jug of strong wine down her throat. The fiery liquor streamed down her slender neck, soaking into her golden imperial robe, yet she seemed completely unaware of it. Only indescribable pain and madness churned within her hazy phoenix eyes.

At that moment, the voice of the Time Dao Ancestor rang out in her mind.

It was an ancient and ethereal voice, a vast consciousness devoid of even the slightest trace of human emotion.

“I removed the restrictions of [One Conquest, Eternal Conquest] long ago.”

The voice of the Time Dao Ancestor echoed within her soul, tinged with a trace of incomprehension and indifference. “You have already regained your true freedom. With your current status and cultivation as the empress of Great Xia, you could easily continue expanding your harem and enjoy the finest male cultivators in existence. Why imprison yourself here?”

Back then, Ye Xuan had relied on the irresistible talent [One Conquest, Eternal Conquest] to make this once-arrogant empress completely fall for him.

But now, everything should have returned to the beginning.

Wu Lingxiao shook her head bitterly without saying a word.

She had thought that once she severed that strange bond, she would be able to return to her peak and become that unrivaled overlord who had no weaknesses and had severed all ties of emotion.

But reality had dealt her the heaviest blow of all.

After a long while, Wu Lingxiao finally gave a bitter laugh. “Ever since I experienced marital harmony and the love between husband and wife, there are many things I no longer care about.”

“In My eyes, those ordinary men and so-called peerless prodigies are nothing more than piles of rotting bones and flesh.”

Wu Lingxiao abruptly smashed the wine jug in her hand against the jade steps. The crisp sound of shattering porcelain echoed through the empty hall.

She staggered to her feet, fury burning in her eyes. “I once possessed the most perfect man in this world! After experiencing him, how could You possibly expect Me to settle for those useless fools?”

What she had lost was not merely the restraint of [One Conquest, Eternal Conquest], but also the solid chest that could let her sleep peacefully no matter how exhausted she was.

The Time Dao Ancestor remained silent for a moment. When that vast voice sounded again, it carried a trace of surprise.

“Could it be that you still harbor feelings of love for Ye Xuan?”

Wu Lingxiao shook her head, the corners of her lips curling into a self-mocking yet twisted smile.

“Love? Perhaps there isn’t much left. But obsession… there is plenty.”

Wu Lingxiao drew a deep breath. A terrifying, heart-shaking possessiveness erupted from her eyes.

“I want him to belong to me alone!”

“He is Mine! Even if I betrayed him, he can only be My man! The other women aren’t even worthy of looking at him!”

To an emperor like Wu Lingxiao, born to control everything, love itself was a luxury.

What she cared about more was absolute possession.

Ye Xuan’s heaven-defying talent and his unrivaled domineering presence had long since become the deepest obsession in her heart.

She could not stand the thought that the man who had once belonged to her now belonged to another woman.

Faced with her mad declaration, the voice of the Time Dao Ancestor poured over her like a bucket of cold water.

“That is impossible. You were the one who betrayed him. After reincarnating through countless lifetimes, his heart has long since become as cold and hard as iron. You are destined never to receive his forgiveness.”

Wu Lingxiao said nothing.

She collapsed dejectedly onto the dragon throne. Within the hall, the silence was so deep that only her heavy, suppressed breathing could be heard.

After a long while…

She suddenly sighed. Her voice carried, for the first time, a trace of vulnerability that even she was unwilling to acknowledge.

“I regret it. Do you understand?”

She regretted it.

She regretted it during the countless nights when she awoke from her dreams and stared at the empty imperial bed.

She regretted it whenever she saw that Ye Xuan’s eyes, once filled with tenderness, would never look at her again…

Only then did she finally understand what it meant for regret to gnaw at one’s heart and bones.

The Time Dao Ancestor sighed. “Regret itself is a price that can never be repaid.”

Yet upon hearing those words from the Dao Ancestor, the previously despondent empress revealed a strange smile.

The final trace of vulnerability in her eyes was utterly crushed beneath absolute madness and obsession. In its place remained a terrifying ambition that could make even the Heavenly Dao tremble.

“That may not necessarily be true.”

Wu Lingxiao slowly rose to her feet and extended her right hand.

In the palm of her hand, a miniature illusory river flowed slowly, radiating boundless antiquity and an aura of taboo. It was a projection of a fragment of the most mysterious and untouchable forbidden power in the myriad heavens and worlds: the River of Time!

“After all, time is in My hands.”

Wu Lingxiao’s smile grew increasingly sinister. Her laughter echoed through the empty hall, filled with reckless madness.

“Since the current him cannot be won back, since the karma of this life has already doomed him to never forgive Me…”

“Then I shall reverse the flow of time! I shall swim upstream through the ages!”

“I will return to the beginning of his reincarnations, to the lifetime when he was at his weakest and most helpless! Before all those wretched women appear, I will lock him completely at My side. In every life, he will belong to Me alone, nothing more than My private possession!”