When one’s life-essence spirit core shatters, it’s equivalent to a celestial body self-destructing. In that instant, one’s cultivation can reach its ultimate limit, capable of transcending cultivation levels to harm others or travel anywhere within the Eight Wilderness.

Mi Chu’s situation had been different. She had intended to go elsewhere through the Reincarnation Mirror, not planning to pay the price of shattering her life-essence spirit core. When she tried to escape, Feng Fuming discovered her and extracted her life-essence jade bamboo. She had no choice but to grit her teeth and cause the jade bamboo to crack, taking advantage of Feng Fuming’s momentary pause to escape.

Even so, Mi Chu couldn’t bear to completely shatter her spirit core. She only dared to create cracks to temporarily borrow its power, waiting for the day when she could repair the jade bamboo and return it to her body.

If Liu Shuang wanted to leave, she couldn’t possibly pay a price as small as a few cracks. Her cultivation was far inferior to Mi Chu, who was thousands of years old. She could only crush her entire heart to break free.

Liu Shuang didn’t know what would happen to her if she truly lost her heart.

Would she die? Or would her soul scatter? She knew she didn’t have the good fortune of Heavenly Consort Mi Chu. If she truly paid the price of shattering her life-essence to leave, Yan Chaosheng wouldn’t save her. He wouldn’t nurture her soul with precious treasures from heaven and earth as he had done for Mi Chu.

Even the tourmaline pearl that Shao You had left for Liu Shuang had fallen into Mi Chu’s hands.

Without this heart, Liu Shuang would no longer exist in this world. Her eyes darkened at the thought.

The immortal maids didn’t notice Liu Shuang’s absent-mindedness. After bathing and grooming her, they brought a set of elegant white garments.

“What is this?”

Most of the immortal maids who came here knew the circumstances but dared not interfere in the Heavenly Lord’s affairs, so they dared not say much. They could only reply: “These are the immortals’ wedding clothes.”

Liu Shuang’s fingers brushed over the embroidered lines on the white wedding attire. She said softly, “I don’t like this color. Could you give me a red one instead?”

The immortal maids looked at each other. Her docile cooperation, without the outbursts of anger typical of a prisoner, her polite negotiation, made them reluctant to disappoint her. Finally, someone said: “This servant will go ask for instructions.”

Soon, the maid returned, saying: “The immortal is fortunate. The Heavenly Lord has agreed.”

Liu Shuang merely smiled. She had no such good fortune. The maids’ respectful attitude made Liu Shuang guess that Feng Fuming was only trying to frighten her. Most likely, Feng Fuming wanted to marry her to anger Yan Chaosheng.

If she had been afraid and angry before, now that she knew what to do, she was no longer afraid.

Wearing a wedding dress for the second time, for Liu Shuang, was equivalent to dressing beautifully for death.

She would never return to Yan Chaosheng’s side, but neither would she be anyone else’s plaything, including Feng Fuming. They were all the same, these high and mighty rulers—they wouldn’t save Cang Lan, wouldn’t truly love her. Did Feng Fuming also want to use her as someone’s substitute? Was it Mi Chu again?

Liu Shuang didn’t let them help her, dressing herself instead. She examined herself in the mirror and smiled faintly, as if seeing her innocent self from a hundred years ago.

How beautiful, she thought.

The immortal maids moved to help with her adornments, but she gently brushed them aside: “No need. I can do it myself.”

The maids lowered their heads and waited. Still, no one dared to untie the Immortal Binding Rope on Liu Shuang’s body. Seeing her movements restricted, they loosened it a bit. Liu Shuang said, “Thank you.”

Liu Shuang applied rouge, dabbing just a bit on her lips. She was already exceptionally beautiful, but recent events had made her increasingly pale. With this touch of color, she looked more festive.

Liu Shuang clumsily imitated the hairstyle she had worn a hundred years ago. She remembered that a hundred years ago, when she first wore the bright red garments, it was Shao You who had done her hair.

There should have been countless blessings and auspicious words, but at the moment, Shao You, looking at the joyful little celestial herb in the mirror, had said with a rough voice: “As you go to the Demon Realm, may he love and cherish you.”

“Thank you, Shao You.”

Liu Shuang was born without a father or a mother, with only a group of small celestial beings from Cang Lan as companions. Liu Shuang was innocent and unworldly, as were the beings of Cang Lan.

When she sat on the golden-winged bird’s cloud carriage to leave, she looked back at Shao You and her home in Cang Lan Immortal Realm. For some unknown reason, she suddenly felt immense trepidation about the future.

Shao You stood by the misty immortal pool, his features as beautiful as a painting, smiling as he watched her. He seemed to be reassuring her with his eyes: Don’t be afraid.

Strangely, she truly wasn’t afraid anymore. She smiled and waved at him, “Goodbye, Shao You.”

At that time, Liu Shuang didn’t understand that wedding attire in the Heavenly Realm was white, in the Demon Realm was purple, and only in the mortal world was it the festive red.

Before the wedding, following her mother’s instructions, she had earnestly asked Yan Chaosheng for a ten-mile bridal procession as betrothal gifts. Yan Chaosheng had just smiled and said, “Hmm, what else do you want?”

Liu Shuang had counted on her fingers, seriously recalling: “We need to match our eight characters, need red dates, peanuts, longan, and lotus seeds, and also need bright red wedding attire.”

Yan Chaosheng had raised an eyebrow: “This lord has noted it down.”

Later, he had been so audacious as to capture a divination immortal lord to match their eight characters for them.

The immortal lord, legs trembling, had glanced at His Majesty the Demon Lord. Yan Chaosheng had smiled ambiguously, and the divination immortal had immediately praised the compatibility of the Demon Lord and Liu Shuang to the heavens, delighting Liu Shuang, who kept saying, “Thank you, Uncle Immortal Lord.”

The betrothal gifts that Yan Chaosheng had his generals deliver had filled nearly one-third of the small Cang Lan Immortal Realm, far exceeding ten miles.

A hundred years ago, on the day Liu Shuang married, plants had flourished, and celestial spirits had cheered. Shao You had been there too. Liu Shuang had had family, friends, and a lover.

Yan Chaosheng had stood on Chi Yuan’s back, wearing red robes to welcome her, his eyes filled with mirth. On their wedding night, he had peeled a lotus seed and asked her: “Do you know what these things mean?”

Liu Shuang had shaken her head.

Anyway, her mother had said they were necessary, so they must be indispensable good things.

Yan Chaosheng had looked at her and snorted with laughter: “How shameless.”

Much later, when Liu Shuang recalled that time, she could vaguely remember the feeling.

She had married Yan Chaosheng with endless joy and hope, once believing that Yan Chaosheng truly loved her deeply, willing to accompany her through mortal customs, taking off his dark clothes and changing into red attire.

A hundred years had passed, and she finally understood.

It turned out that it wasn’t because he had accommodated her that Yan Chaosheng had worn bright red wedding attire with her. It was because in Yan Chaosheng’s heart, that grand wedding had been like child’s play—his purple wedding attire had been reserved for someone else.

Liu Shuang smiled. This was good; this was for the best. At least after drifting through a hundred muddled years, she could still wake up.

The immortal maids who served Liu Shuang had never had such an easy task. They didn’t need to do anything, just stood aside watching in a daze as this immortal, who resembled Heavenly Consort Mi Chu, dressed herself beautifully and followed them onto the cloud carriage pulled by nine divine birds.

Within the gauze curtains, a splash of red was exceptionally vivid. Liu Shuang folded her hands on her knees, her entire being very quiet and peaceful.

The immortal maids’ gazes involuntarily followed her. Strangely, although this immortal bore an extreme resemblance to Heavenly Consort Mi Chu, no one would mistake one for the other.

Apart from looking alike, they were indeed too different.

Heavenly Consort Mi Chu always flaunted her presence, keeping all the immortal maidens of the Heavenly Realm strictly in line. This immortal, however, was as quiet as a painting, yet when she smiled, she was extraordinarily pure and lovely.

Without any sense of pressure, she still made people unable to resist looking at her.

The same face could be like this.

When the divine birds took flight, their golden wings were extremely beautiful, carrying Liu Shuang through the vast and beautiful Heavenly Realm.

Liu Shuang didn’t know how long ago Lord Su Lun had returned, or whether Yan Chaosheng had already received Mi Chu’s life-essence jade bamboo.

Liu Shuang’s eyelashes lowered slightly. The Heavenly Realm was truly beautiful. No wonder Yan Chaosheng had fought everywhere, seeking new territories for his subjects who had long been forced to live in dark places.

As an emperor, Yan Chaosheng would one day undoubtedly become the most magnificent legend of the Eight Wilderness.

Liu Shuang’s hand rested on her heart. The heartbeat beneath her palm was rhythmic and strong.

Her life-essence seemed to sense something, filled with sadness, begging her not to do this. She wanted to say, “Don’t be afraid,” not knowing whether she was comforting this purple jade stone or the self curled up deep in her heart.

Her hand gathered green light and forcibly extracted her own heart.

In that instant, all the divine birds screeched, no longer flying forward. The immortal maids and leaders sensed something was wrong, but couldn’t peer through the gauze curtains of the cloud carriage to see what was happening.

They could only see Liu Shuang in red attire with black hair, and a faint purple light inadvertently leaking out.

The light purple color reflected in Liu Shuang’s eyes. With a deathly pale face, Liu Shuang opened her hand and saw this beautiful stone.

It was pure and warm, comparable to all colors in the world, with bright light flowing within. Being loved by such a heart should have been something no one could refuse.

Liu Shuang closed her hand.

Pale purple light scattered across the sky, like a galaxy falling to earth, no longer showing white radiance.

Inside the palace, Feng Fuming suddenly opened his eyes and flew out, instantly reaching the cloud carriage. He saw all the surrounding soldiers and maids unconscious, with countless purple lights like flowing feathers scattering everywhere.

Countless immortal lords followed, all marveling at this beautiful scene.

Feng Fuming lifted the gauze curtains of the cloud carriage. It was empty inside, with only a lingering fragrance.

The purple light fell into Feng Fuming’s palm. He was stunned for a long time, for the first time in his life, not knowing what expression to make.

Thousands of miles away, Su Lun had just handed the obtained life-essence jade bamboo to Yan Chaosheng. He saw the Demon Lord in dark attire suddenly change his expression.

Su Lun had followed Yan Chaosheng for hundreds of years but had never seen such an expression on his face—a moment of bewilderment, followed by blankness.

Almost instantly, Yan Chaosheng transformed into a stream of dark light and disappeared from his sight.