When we swap roles, I'll show you what cruelty really means.

Inside the cold, damp dungeon,

Ye Xuan sat quietly in a pool of blackened blood.

His battered body was already on the verge of collapse. His life force was fading away bit by bit, ready to flicker out at any moment.

Yet he was strangely calm.

He gazed at the distant gate, and the corners of his lips suddenly curled into an icy smile filled with boundless mockery.

“She’s here.”

He murmured the words so softly that only he could hear them.

“Boom!”

The dungeon’s heavy iron door was blasted open by a surge of terrifying force.

Qing Xuanyin, dressed in blue, rushed inside like a madwoman.

“Ye Xuan! Husband!”

She called out urgently. But when she reached the depths of the cell and saw Ye Xuan’s condition in the dim light, she stood rooted to the spot as though struck by lightning.

His clothes were soaked through with blood and pus. His back, chest, and thighs were covered in crisscrossing whip marks, burns, and knife wounds.

Some of the wounds were deep enough to expose bone, and several had already begun to rot and stink.

“What… what happened?!” Qing Xuanyin’s pupils contracted sharply, her voice trembling violently. A sky-shaking fury and overwhelming guilt swallowed her in an instant. “Who did this? Who?! I’ll kill her!”

Ye Xuan slowly raised his head and looked at her.

“You want to know who did it?”

His cracked lips pulled into a pale, mocking smile.

“Other than Lu Yanchen, your beloved new husband, who else in the entire Qing family would dare inflict such torture on me in your dungeon?”

“Lu Yanchen…”

Qing Xuanyin gritted her teeth as she said the name, tears bursting from her eyes.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Ye Xuan!”

She rushed forward without a second thought, wanting to embrace him, yet terrified that she would touch his wounds.

Frantically, she pulled handful after handful of top-grade healing pills from her storage ring and tried to force them into Ye Xuan’s mouth.

“It’s my fault… I was careless. I shouldn’t have locked you up here. I shouldn’t have indulged him… I’ll go capture him right now! I’ll tear him limb from limb!” Qing Xuanyin cried incoherently.

But Ye Xuan turned his head slightly, avoiding the pills she offered.

With difficulty, he raised one hand, covered in wounds and trembling uncontrollably.

“No need.”

His voice was as light as a passing breeze. Slowly, he opened his palm.

Resting quietly in it was an exquisite little die.

The die was crystal-clear, radiating an immense immortal power that made the heart tremble. Embedded within it was a bright red bean.

“What… what is this?” Qing Xuanyin froze. She could sense that this was no ordinary object. It was an immortal artifact of unimaginable value.

“This is the last gift… I’m giving you.”

Ye Xuan’s gaze grew distant. He gently placed the exquisite die into Qing Xuanyin’s trembling hand.

“Take it. It can help you… suppress your inner demon.”

Feeling the lingering warmth of the die, Qing Xuanyin’s tears poured forth like a bursting flood.

“Husband… why are you so foolish? After everything I’ve done to you, why would you still leave me such a precious immortal artifact?” Qing Xuanyin sobbed, her heart torn to pieces.

Ye Xuan did not answer her. His face was as pale as paper, devoid of all expression, as he quietly asked, “Do you know what the red bean inside this die represents?”

Qing Xuanyin nodded frantically. Through her tear-filled eyes, she recited the poem Ye Xuan had once softly sung beside her:

“Red beans grow in the southern land,

In spring, how many branches bloom?

I hope you’ll gather a few—

For they embody the deepest longing.”

She lifted her head and gazed at Ye Xuan with hope.

“You still have me in your heart, don’t you? You still love me, which is why you left me this token of longing…”

“Longing…”

Ye Xuan slowly savored the word, his gaze growing even more distant.

“Yes. Longing.”

That brief moment of tenderness made Qing Xuanyin feel as though she had finally seized a lifeline.

She hurriedly tried to explain, “Husband, listen to me. Everything that happened today was fake! That wedding was only an act! I never let him touch me!”

“I’m still a virgin! From beginning to end, you’ve been the only man I’ve ever had!”

“Still a virgin?”

Ye Xuan withdrew his gaze and fixed it once more upon Qing Xuanyin’s face.

He slowly shook his head, his expression so calm that it was utterly despairing.

“Qing Xuanyin, do you really think that as long as you didn’t sleep with someone else, you haven’t betrayed me?”

“For the sake of a man you don’t even love, you had my kidney removed. For his sake, you watched as I was gravely wounded by an evil cultivator. For his sake, you locked me up in this dungeon like a dog and let me suffer every kind of torment.”

“You even put on a red bridal gown and bowed before him in front of the entire world, all for the sake of your ridiculous inner demon.”

“Your so-called purity cannot change the fact that you have completely betrayed me. What you trampled upon was the dignity and sincerity I, Ye Xuan, had treasured for a hundred years.”

“No! Husband, I was wrong! I truly know that I was wrong!”

Qing Xuanyin was completely frantic. She shook her head wildly, knelt on the ground, and clutched Ye Xuan’s hand tightly.

“Please, give me a chance to make amends! I’ll even give you my life if you want it! Can we start over?!”

But Ye Xuan pulled his hand free.

He looked at Qing Xuanyin, whose exquisite face was drenched in tears and despair.

Then, suddenly, he smiled with extraordinary gentleness.

“Xuanyin, you don’t need to apologize. I understand everything.”

Ye Xuan gently stopped her from speaking further.

He gazed at her beautiful face and said with incomparable tenderness,

“Xuanyin. From now on, your title will be ‘Azure Emperor.’”

Qing Xuanyin froze.

A trace of intoxication and unbearable pain flashed through her eyes.

She remembered many years ago, in that peach blossom grove, when Ye Xuan had rested his head on her lap and promised her with starlight in his eyes,

“When I become the Azure Emperor one day, I’ll make all the peach blossoms bloom together.”

Tears streamed down Qing Xuanyin’s face as she nodded heavily.

“All right… I’ll bear the title of Azure Emperor! I will become the strongest person in the world and protect you for all eternity!”

With that, Ye Xuan took a recording stone from his storage ring and tossed it at Qing Xuanyin’s feet.

“Inside are all the records proving that Lu Yanchen colluded with evil cultivators and tortured me in this dungeon. With this, you can kill him openly and won’t have to feel guilty toward your sister.”

Seeing Ye Xuan behaving as though he were making arrangements for his final moments, Qing Xuanyin’s expression changed.

The terror in her heart expanded without limit. Her heart convulsed violently, as though something utterly terrifying were about to happen.

“Husband! Don’t talk like that! You’re frightening me!” Qing Xuanyin cried out in anguish. “I’ll definitely see justice done for you! I know how wronged you are! Please, don’t scare me!”

“Wronged?”

Ye Xuan shook his head, his expression calm and lifeless.

“Now that things have come this far, what use is there in saying any of that?”

“Husband! I…”

Qing Xuanyin sensed that something was wrong. She desperately lunged forward, trying to use her spiritual power to forcibly seal Ye Xuan's meridians.

But it was already too late.

Ye Xuan cast one final glance at Qing Xuanyin.

There was neither love nor hatred in his eyes. Only a bone-chilling coldness, as frigid as the ice of the Nine Netherworlds, and an unwavering resolve.

"Qing Xuanyin, you took advantage of my love for you, believing you could trample on me, use me, and cast me aside without consequence. Very well."

A cruel smile tugged at the corner of Ye Xuan's lips. His voice echoed through the silent dungeon.

"But things will be different in my next life."

"When our roles are reversed..."

"I'll show you what true cruelty looks like!"