Next, Ye Jiuhuang personally escorted the Azure Emperor away.
The Azure Emperor followed stiffly behind Ye Jiuhuang like a walking corpse bereft of its soul.
As she descended the white jade steps, she looked back three times with every step.
Through her tear-blurred eyes, she watched that white-robed figure grow farther and farther away.
She watched him hold another woman’s hand. Watched as he was about to become someone else’s husband.
That was the youth and love she had spent ten thousand years—and all her remorse and tears—trying, in vain, to reclaim.
A breeze swept up the withered yellow leaves scattered across the ground, sending them whirling around the Azure Emperor’s feet.
At last, she turned her head and stumbled onward through the despairing silence.
When they reached an unoccupied corridor, the Azure Emperor finally could not stop herself from coming to a halt.
“Sword Sovereign.”
Her voice was hoarse, carrying the last vestige of an empress’s stubborn pride. “You know perfectly well that Ye Xuan and I are husband and wife in name and in truth. I’ve already paid the price for that absurd wedding ten thousand years ago. I tormented Lu Yanchen for an entire ten thousand years until his soul was annihilated! Isn’t that enough?”
Ye Jiuhuang’s footsteps paused slightly.
She slowly turned around. Her peerlessly beautiful, icy face was devoid of expression.
She looked at the Azure Emperor with a gaze as calm as though she were looking at an unreasonable child.
“Whether it’s enough isn’t for you to decide.”
Ye Jiuhuang’s voice was soft, yet carried an unquestionable authority. “It’s for my husband to decide.”
The Azure Emperor’s tears spilled from her eyes once more. “But he clearly still remembers me! He remembers our past! If he still has his memories, why can’t he give us a chance to start over? I only want to atone…”
“Atone?”
Ye Jiuhuang suddenly let out a cold laugh, her voice brimming with undisguised contempt. “Azure Emperor, you say you want to atone. Then let me ask you: how have you atoned over these ten thousand years?”
The Azure Emperor abruptly raised her head and spoke anxiously. “I tormented Lu Yanchen! I sealed his soul in the Netherworld Demonfire and burned it for ten thousand years! I made him suffer a fate worse than death!”
“And what else?” Ye Jiuhuang asked, her voice utterly devoid of emotion.
“I… I’ve lived as a widow for ten thousand years! I rejected every powerful cultivator who pursued me. Every day, I thought of my husband. I…”
“Enough.”
Ye Jiuhuang cut her off coldly, a deep disgust flashing through her eyes. “Everything you’ve mentioned is nothing more than self-indulgence. You tormented Lu Yanchen because you hated him for deceiving you, hated him for making you lose your husband.”
“You lived as a widow because you felt guilty, because you were punishing yourself. What do any of those things have to do with my husband?”
“What have you ever done for him?”
Those words were like a sword, stabbing straight through the Azure Emperor’s heart.
She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found herself utterly speechless.
That was right. What had she ever done for Ye Xuan over these ten thousand years?
She had tormented Lu Yanchen to vent her own fury.
She had thought of Ye Xuan day and night to ease her own guilt.
Ultimately, everything she had done had been for herself.
She had never truly done anything for Ye Xuan.
Seeing her ashen face, Ye Jiuhuang’s tone grew even colder. “You should be asking why he chose me instead of you.”
Ye Jiuhuang lifted her chin slightly, her eyes carrying the pride of the Number One Sword Under Heaven. “Because what I gave him was unconditional favoritism and trust. And what did you give him? Exploitation, pain, and endless betrayal.”
“And now you come here claiming you want to atone? What could you possibly use to atone?”
The Azure Emperor was shattered by those words.
She staggered back two steps, her back slamming heavily against a cold stone pillar.
Clutching her chest, she felt as though someone had torn it open with their bare hands.
“I… I only wanted…”
“You only wanted to make yourself feel better.”
Ye Jiuhuang exposed the truth without mercy. “You aren’t atoning. You’re seeking peace of mind. You want my husband to forgive you so that you can set down the burden you’ve carried for ten thousand years and return to being the carefree Azure Emperor. But did you ever ask whether my husband was willing?”
“Why should he use his forgiveness to grant you peace of mind?”
The Azure Emperor finally broke down.
She collapsed onto the stone steps in the corridor, tears pouring from her eyes as her entire body trembled violently.
For ten thousand years, she had lived inside a lie of her own making. She had believed that she was atoning to Ye Xuan, that she was a devoted lover and an innocent victim.
But now, Ye Jiuhuang had torn it all apart without mercy.
She had never done anything for Ye Xuan.
She was not even worthy to stand beside the woman before her.
“But…” The Azure Emperor lifted her head, her eyes filled with despair and pleading. “But I love him… I truly love him…”
“Your love is worthless.”
Ye Jiuhuang spoke coldly and turned to continue walking. “You are a guest, so I will arrange lodgings for you. But remember my words: do not bother my husband again. Otherwise, even if you are the Azure Emperor, I will make you taste the edge of my sword.”
Watching Ye Jiuhuang’s departing figure, the Azure Emperor sat collapsed on the ground, as though she had aged ten thousand years in an instant.
At last, she understood that some mistakes could never be made right.
And some people could never be won back.
The following morning.
The first light of dawn filtered through the carved window lattice of the Sword God Palace and spilled into the Azure Emperor’s guest room.
She had spent the entire night sleepless, dark circles beneath her bloodshot eyes. She looked utterly haggard.
Everything that had happened replayed in her mind like a nightmare, tormenting her until she could hardly bear it.
She had thought her heart had already suffered the greatest pain imaginable, that she could never feel anything deeper.
But she had been wrong.
When she stood before the mirror and looked at her once proud and aloof face—now pale and worn—she realized that heartache had no limit.
It only grew deeper and more agonizing, until it completely consumed her.
“Husband…”
She murmured the word, her fingers gently stroking the exquisite die in her hand. The die was warm and smooth as jade, radiating a faint celestial light as it answered her call.
Yet that response only caused her greater pain.
After dressing, the Azure Emperor wandered toward the rear garden of the Sword God Palace as though she had lost her soul.
She knew Ye Xuan did not want to see her. She knew her presence would only earn his disgust.
But her feet moved against her will, driven by her heart to take one look—even if it was only a distant glimpse.
The rear garden contained a spirit lake with clear, rippling waters. Dense spiritual energy hung above its surface.
When the Azure Emperor reached the lakeside, a crisp, melodious laugh drifted into her ears.
The sound was like a blade, piercing straight through her heart.
She froze where she stood, her eyes fixed on the center of the lake.
At the heart of the lake, the water shimmered and rippled.
Ye Xuan stood barefoot in the shallows, his upper body bare.
Sunlight spilled over his powerful, well-built body. Droplets of water slid along the contours of his muscles, catching the light in crystalline flashes.
A radiant smile lit up his face—the kind of happiness the Azure Emperor had never seen before, genuine and unrestrained.
Beside him stood Ying’er, the girl in yellow whom she hated to the bone. She was standing waist-deep in the lake, scooping up handfuls of cool water and gleefully splashing it at Ye Xuan.
“Husband! Take this!” Ying’er giggled as water flew everywhere, drenching Ye Xuan’s hair and face.
“Oh, so you dare launch a sneak attack?” Ye Xuan feigned anger, scooped up some lake water, and splashed it back at Ying’er. Ying’er shrieked and dodged, but she was still hit squarely, sending her into peals of laughter.
The two chased one another through the water, their laughter and joyful voices echoing across the lake.
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?!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
