Xiao Honglian’s fingernails had dug deep into the creases of her palms, but even that sharp pain was less than one ten-thousandth of the agony in her heart.
She truly wanted to strike. She wanted to summon the Eight Desolations Heaven-Refining Flame without regard for the consequences and burn this woman who had stolen everything from her to ashes!
But… she sorrowfully and helplessly realized that she did not dare.
Even if Ye Jiuhuang merely stood there, a single strand of True Immortal law circulating around her would be enough to reduce Xiao Honglian, a Flame Emperor in the Mahayana realm, to ashes.
What made Xiao Honglian feel even more desperate was this:
She had always believed herself to be breathtakingly beautiful, with few equals in the world.
Yet at this moment, as she looked at Ye Jiuhuang before her, she felt a deep sense of inferiority.
Ye Jiuhuang’s beauty was pure and immaculate, lofty and untouchable—a divine beauty. There was not the slightest trace of worldly vulgarity about her, as though she were a snow lotus blooming above the Ninth Heaven.
By comparison, although Xiao Honglian was likewise stunning, she had been stained by too much slaughter and obsession. Perhaps because she had once given herself to Xiao Huo, she carried an extra trace of worldly coarseness and the bitterness of a wronged wife.
She could not compare.
Whether it was strength, status, or the weight she carried in Ye Xuan’s heart, she had been crushed from every angle, ground into dust without a single blind spot.
“By the way, Junior Sister.”
Just as jealousy gnawed madly at Xiao Honglian’s heart, Ye Jiuhuang spoke again.
She smiled sweetly, as though chatting with a distant relative. “The wedding robes for the ceremony have already been commissioned. I ordered them to be made from the silkworm silk of the Star River of the Ninth Heaven, crafted day and night. But my husband has always been so particular. He insists that the color isn’t vivid enough and demands that I hunt a ninth-grade divine phoenix and use its true blood to dye them. Junior Sister, don’t you think he’s being a little overbearing?”
How was that a complaint?
It was plainly a display of Ye Xuan’s extreme favoritism toward her, flaunted before an old acquaintance!
Xiao Honglian’s mouth hung open like a fish pulled from water. She gasped desperately, yet could not make a sound.
Tears flowed silently down her face, blurring her vision completely.
Ye Xuan gently held Ye Jiuhuang in his arms. His cold gaze swept over Xiao Honglian, who was trembling on the ground like a sieve, and a trace of undisguised mockery entered his voice.
“Why tell her all this, my love? Junior Sister has spent all these years cultivating in a remote place like the Endless Flame Domain. How could she understand anything about the silkworm silk of the Star River of the Ninth Heaven? On the day of the wedding, all she needs to do is sit quietly among the ordinary guests and have a cup of wine.”
An ordinary guest.
Those two words completely severed the last sliver of hope in Xiao Honglian’s heart.
She was a guest—and not even one important enough to be seated among the honored guests. She was merely an ordinary attendee.
Ye Jiuhuang saw Xiao Honglian’s miserable state and knew that she had achieved the purpose of declaring her sovereignty.
A knowing cunning flashed through her ethereal eyes. Then she smiled with perfect consideration.
“My husband is right. I’ve talked too much and neglected Junior Sister.”
Ye Jiuhuang glanced at the sky. With practiced ease, she released Ye Xuan’s hand and said softly, “The Grand Elder of Internal Affairs should still be waiting for me to confirm the varieties of spirit wine for the banquet. The wedding preparations are so busy, with a thousand matters to handle, so I’ll be leaving first. My husband, be sure to entertain Junior Sister properly. Don’t neglect our guest.”
With that, Ye Jiuhuang rose gracefully onto her toes.
Under Xiao Honglian’s suddenly constricted gaze, so despairing it seemed blood might drip from it, Ye Jiuhuang and Ye Xuan kissed.
At that moment, Xiao Honglian heard the sound of her own heart shattering.
She closed her eyes, tears surging forth like a breached dam, while her body trembled uncontrollably.
A moment later, the two parted.
Ye Jiuhuang turned back and gave Xiao Honglian a smile worthy of the perfect hostess. “Junior Sister, I’ll take my leave. Be sure to have a few extra cups of wine on the day of the wedding.”
As her voice faded, Ye Jiuhuang transformed into a dazzling golden sword-light and shot into the heavens, vanishing into the depths of the sea of clouds and leaving behind only a refreshing fragrance.
With Ye Jiuhuang’s departure, the True Immortal pressure that had enveloped the heavens and earth also dispersed.
Yet Xiao Honglian felt that the air around her had become even colder, even more suffocating than before.
On the vast expanse of clouds in the void, only Ye Xuan and Xiao Honglian remained.
The atmosphere instantly plunged from its earlier tenderness into an abyss of ice that seemed to have endured for ten thousand years.
The warmth on Ye Xuan’s face vanished the instant Ye Jiuhuang disappeared. With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked down at Xiao Honglian, who had collapsed on the clouds. His gaze was as cold as if he were looking at a lifeless stone.
Xiao Honglian stared blankly at him.
The kiss that had seared her eyes kept replaying in her mind, as did the look in Ye Xuan’s eyes whenever he gazed at Ye Jiuhuang.
Sourness, despair, unwillingness, jealousy…
Countless emotions fermented and exploded wildly in her chest.
Trembling, she forced herself upright. The blow had been so devastating that she could not even stand. She could only kneel on the clouds in an utterly humiliating and submissive posture.
She raised her head. Her breathtaking face was streaked with tears and blood. In a voice hoarse to the extreme, as though her throat were filled with shards of glass, she asked forlornly, “You… you really are going to marry her?”
How ridiculous. How tragic.
Her wedding robes were already being made, and the invitations had already been sent out.
And yet she still refused to give up. She still wanted to hear him say it himself.
Ye Xuan lowered his head to look at her. Without the slightest hesitation, he nodded decisively.
“Yes.”
That single word completely shattered her hopes.
Xiao Honglian’s body lurched, and tears of despair once again burst from her eyes.
She bit down hard on her lip, clutching the hem of her skirt with both hands. Summoning the last trace of strength in her body, she asked the question whose answer she feared most, yet which she had to ask like a moth throwing itself into a flame.
“Do… do you love her?”
The moment she asked, Xiao Honglian even stopped breathing.
She stared fixedly into Ye Xuan’s eyes, afraid she might miss even the slightest change in his expression.
If Ye Xuan said that he loved her, then Xiao Honglian’s regret over the past several thousand years, all her obsession, would truly become a complete and utter joke!
Hearing the question, Ye Xuan did not answer immediately.
He frowned slightly, as though seriously considering it.
The wind swept through the void, lifting Ye Xuan’s white robes.
An unreadable light flickered in his deep black eyes.
A moment later, under Xiao Honglian’s tense gaze—so tense that her heart seemed ready to leap from her throat—Ye Xuan slowly shook his head. His expression remained calm, and in an utterly objective tone, he said four words:
“Not very much.”
The instant those words were spoken, it was as though lightning had struck Xiao Honglian’s mind!
In the eyes that had already fallen completely silent, that had already descended into the depths of despair, an incredible, wildly ecstatic light suddenly erupted.
He did not love her!
He did not love Ye Jiuhuang very much!
That realization was like injecting the dying Xiao Honglian with the most powerful cardiac stimulant in existence.
Her entire body trembled with excitement, as though she had seized the only lifeline in the world. The confidence that Ye Jiuhuang had crushed to pieces miraculously rekindled from the ashes at that very moment!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
