Su Lun sighed deeply but didn’t answer.

Liu Shuang didn’t press him further. After all, he wasn’t the one she needed answers from. She simply couldn’t understand—if Yan Chaosheng didn’t love her, why had he married her?

Su Lun escorted her back toward the Ghost Domain palace. As they approached, Liu Shuang noticed many demon envoys gradually filing out. In the past, she might not have paid attention to such matters, but today was different.

In previous years, Yan Chaosheng’s birthday had been magnificent—nine-headed birds singing in harmony, their tail feathers shimmering like rainbows amidst cups raised in celebration. Today, though the luxurious decorations for the banquet remained in place, the feast hadn’t even begun, yet the demon envoys were being dismissed from the Ghost Domain.

Chang Huan waited anxiously before the hall. Seeing Liu Shuang, she asked worriedly, “My Lady, how did you get injured?”

On Liu Shuang’s delicate white neck, a purplish-blue bruise looked particularly savage.

Liu Shuang didn’t answer Chang Huan, instead fixing her gaze on the departing demon envoys.

Yan Chaosheng had always attached great importance to this day, not because he particularly cared about celebrating his birthday, but because for all these years, he had been stationed in the Ghost Domain, fighting battles for the Ghost Realm, unable to attend to the Demon Realm’s affairs. As a result, the great demons had selected envoys to visit the Ghost Domain on this day—first to congratulate His Majesty the Demon Lord on his birthday, and second to report major events from the Demon Realm.

This morning, when she had begged Yan Chaosheng for a private moment, he had refused her. Yet now, he was dismissing the demon envoys.

For the first time in a hundred years, he was breaking tradition.

Something pushed through the fog, revealing a hazy outline.

Seeing Liu Shuang watching the departing demon envoys, Su Lun knew trouble was brewing. He said, “My Lady, this place is filled with all sorts of creatures. Let’s go back first.”

Liu Shuang tightened her cloak, pursed her lips, and for the first time, disobeyed him. Instead of being gentle and obedient, she walked toward the demon envoys.

She ascended the steps, one by one, her purple robes fluttering. Surrounded by envoys who had been ordered to leave, she stood among them. Once she had shut her eyes and ears to such things, but now the whispers of the mundane world reached her ears—

“Why has the Demon Lord canceled the banquet and ordered us to leave? Many matters from the Demon Realm remain unreported. What if there are delays?”

“You don’t know this, but Feng Fuming has never dared to provoke the Demon Lord. This time he sent troops to the Ghost Domain, all because of one person—his Mi Chu, the Heavenly Consort.”

“Oh? Mi Chu, the Heavenly Consort? The immortal known as the greatest beauty of the Immortal Realm?”

“Precisely. It’s said that several hundred years ago, this Lady Mi Chu had a romantic affair with our Demon Lord and nearly married our Heavenly Lord.”

“Is that true?”

“Of course it’s true. Back then, if not for Feng Fuming’s interference, Mi Chu would likely have married the Demon Lord and become our Demon Realm’s queen.” The envoy smiled suggestively. “So many years have passed, yet unexpectedly, the Demon Lord still harbors feelings for her. All these years of conquest across the four seas, scheming for centuries, he finally reclaimed the Heavenly Consort from Feng Fuming’s hands.”

“Mi Chu, the Heavenly Consort, is also fierce in character. To be with the Demon Lord and return with him, she even jumped into the Eternal Mirror, causing her soul to be damaged, nearly scattering completely. The Demon Lord rescued her and has been searching everywhere for spirit objects to stabilize her soul. However, Mi Chu’s natal jade bamboo is gone, and with her severe injuries, her newly stabilized soul remains in danger of dispersing again.”

The others suddenly understood: “Soul stabilization requires peace, not commotion. No wonder the Demon Lord ordered the banquet dismissed and postponed matters—it must be that the Heavenly Consort’s condition has worsened.”

“Separated for centuries, lost and found again—the Demon Lord truly cherishes her.”

The wind lifted the gauze on Liu Shuang’s cloak, layer upon layer, the light fabric dancing in the air. Standing amidst the murky demonic energy, she heard for the first time so many stories she had never known before.

The demons departed one by one, and the doors of the Ghost Domain palace slowly closed behind her. Finally, the palace was completely silent, with only Chang Huan and Su Lun remaining by her side.

She sat on the stone steps, absently holding the sash in her hands. The immortal energy it once contained had been corroded by the Ghost Domain’s spectral aura, long dissipated.

Su Lun didn’t know what she was thinking after hearing all this. He said, “My Lady, don’t listen to the one-sided words of these rabble. In his youth, the Demon Lord wasn’t as renowned as he is now—he was just an obscure disciple of an immortal sect. No one knows about that past except himself. These current rumors are merely baseless speculation.”

Chang Huan also called softly, “My Lady.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Liu Shuang said with a pale smile, looking toward Su Lun. “Thank you, Lord Su Lun. For a hundred years, even though you deceived me, you let me live happily and contentedly. I won’t think badly about this. I’m just sad that he… he never actually liked me.”

“Tree Grandfather said that heavenly-ordained marriages have their destiny that cannot be forced. After a hundred years as husband and wife, what I need to hear, what I believe in, must come from his lips, not from others’ gossip.”

Su Lun opened his mouth, watching her hold back tears in her clear, transparent eyes.

Even now, she still believed in Yan Chaosheng and wouldn’t completely deny him because of what others said.

Su Lun fell silent. In the past, as Yan Chaosheng’s advisor, when he first approached Liu Shuang to secure a better position for himself, he had looked down on her.

Her spiritual power was weak, and she seemed foolish, believing everything she was told, delighted with any worthless trinket he brought her, always appreciative. She had a good nature, gentle and fond of smiling.

A demon lord’s consort with neither authority nor strength—Su Lun was outwardly respectful but inwardly scornful, believing she wasn’t worthy of Yan Chaosheng, the lord of two realms.

But a hundred years had passed like a white colt glimpsed through a crack, and he had truly come to understand her.

Her thoughts were pure, her beauty bright. Even when neglected, she remained optimistic, planting a small sea of flowers and towering phoenix trees in the Ghost Domain. When wronged, she neither wallowed in self-pity nor harbored resentment, nor did she easily believe others’ criticisms of Yan Chaosheng.

Upon learning of Mi Chu’s existence, she hadn’t become hysterical or lost her composure. Instead, with those clear eyes holding back tears, she waited for Yan Chaosheng’s explanation. As if she would trust her husband as long as he explained.

Su Lun bowed deeply, this time using the etiquette reserved for monarchs: “My Lady will be very happy.”

For the first time in a hundred years, instead of using his silver tongue, he offered a simple blessing.

Being as good as you are, who could truly dislike you?

After helping Liu Shuang bathe, Chang Huan looked worriedly at the wound on her neck. Chang Huan was a ghost cultivator whose techniques were mostly venomous and domineering; she had never learned healing arts.

Lord Su Lun was merely an advisor who, to avoid impropriety, would not touch her skin. Thus, the glaring mark remained unhealed.

Liu Shuang said, “It’s all right. It doesn’t hurt anymore, it just looks frightening. Tell the Forbidden Area guards that if the Demon Lord has healed Mi Chu’s injuries, could he please return here for a moment? I have something to say to him.”

“This servant will remember.”

After Chang Huan left, Liu Shuang covered herself with a cloud-fragrant silk quilt, curling up and trembling slightly, gradually allowing tears to soak the silk bedding.

She hadn’t told anyone just how terrified she had been today when surrounded by ghost cultivators—their malicious laughter, the fetid smell of their bodies, countless hands reaching for her, and those ghastly pale faces had all frightened her terribly.

The words she had spoken to Lord Su Lun did not represent all her thoughts. She was deeply saddened, pressing hard against her heart just to contain the grief and sorrow that threatened to overflow.

Tree Grandfather, who had lived for over ten thousand years, had said that human greed, anger, and ignorance make the barrier of love most difficult to overcome—

When you love someone who doesn’t love you in return, if you don’t cherish yourself, you become pitiful.

Liu Shuang didn’t want to become pitiful.

Born of heaven and earth, from her birth until now, she was barely two hundred years old—to those immortals, demons, gods, and spirits who had lived for millions of years, she was truly too young. Yet she never felt small; instead, she was happy and fulfilled. She had spent a hundred years learning about human affairs, growing up in confusion. The other hundred years she had spent entirely loving Yan Chaosheng.

For Demon Lord Yan Chaosheng, these hundred years might have been just the blink of an eye, a diversion during boring campaigns. But for Liu Shuang, it was half her life.

Liu Shuang covered her lips, struggling to suppress her sobs. She wanted to be stronger, at least until Yan Chaosheng returned. Even if he said he had never loved her, she could leave him with dignity, telling him: she would be fine. After a hundred years, she was no longer as ignorant and fragile as when she first took human form. She had been trying to grow up, to become independent.

In the future, even if she truly left him, she could swallow and digest her sorrow and grief alone, still able to smile and wish him well.

However, on such a night, returning home was like a snail retreating into its shell. Paper cranes danced in the gentle breeze, every ray of light filled with comfort, and she couldn’t help but sob.

In her first experience of lovesickness, loving Yan Chaosheng had consumed all her tenderness and devotion.

This night, the Ghost Domain experienced a rare Yin Year that occurred only once every few decades. In the mortal realm, it would be like snow falling in June—a rare spectacle. Under the cawing of ghost crows, at midnight, a rain began to fall in the Ghost Domain.

Unlike rain in the mortal realm, Ghost Domain rain was black, mixed with concentrated ghostly energy.

Rain rarely fell in the Ghost Domain. For ghosts, such rain was a precious gift from the heavens, but for immortals and other beings, it was no different from corrosive poison.

Liu Shuang pushed open the window and saw the sea of flowers in the courtyard bathed in rainwater, all of them dying, their roots corroded.

She quickly called out, “Chang Huan!”

But no one answered. Chang Huan had gone somewhere. The howling wind blew fiercely, and a thin layer of black rain quickly accumulated on the ground. All was silent; even the ghost crows had disappeared. The world seemed to contain only her.

At this moment, she realized how poorly she had performed as Yan Chaosheng’s consort. Besides Chang Huan, Lord Su Lun, and the usually cold-faced General Fu Hang, she rarely knew anyone else, making any plea for help seem weak and futile.

The myriad things she had given life to were slowly withering before her eyes. These were her memories, proof that she had existed.

Although Liu Shuang had never fit into the Ghost Domain, after a hundred years, this small piece of heaven and earth had almost become her home. She stood in the corridor, watching the carefully nurtured courtyard become completely unrecognizable beneath the downpour.

When even the tall phoenix tree in the courtyard began to retract its branches, becoming transparent to the point of near disappearance, Liu Shuang finally couldn’t bear it anymore. She put on her cloak and ran out.

She opened her arms, and from her fingertips, which had only recently regained some tender green immortal power, energy flowed continuously toward the phoenix tree.

Such actions could only delay its corrosion, not truly save it. Liu Shuang tried to find something to shield it from the rain, but in the Ghost Domain, immortal power was weak and tiny. Even when she formed a barrier, it shattered moments later.

No one helped her. She realized she couldn’t even create a barrier to protect this courtyard from wind and rain.

Raindrops fell on her, and the corrosive pain made her groan, falling to the ground. In that moment, she finally understood what Tree Grandfather had said years ago: immortal herbs should live where immortal maidens belong, absorbing moonlight and morning dew, not forgetting the great way, continuing their cultivation.

Not stopping for someone, building walls around themselves, and giving up on moving forward.

She couldn’t save what she had carefully cultivated over decades. Now collapsed in the rain, she couldn’t even save herself.

Liu Shuang struggled to get up, but the grim ghostly energy began to corrode her body, turning her lips black.

In the violent storm, someone strode through the wind and rain. With a flash of black energy, he appeared beside her, lifting her from the ground.

For the first time, Liu Shuang felt that her body temperature was no lower than his. Her body, corroded by ghostly energy, trembled, yet she somehow found Yan Chaosheng’s body warm.

“What now, you don’t even want to live anymore?”

Liu Shuang had never heard Yan Chaosheng speak with such cold anger and urgency. The arms of the man holding her were so tight they made her bones ache slightly, as if he wanted to strangle her. The tightness gave Liu Shuang an illusion that he wasn’t entirely indifferent to her.

She looked toward the courtyard. Under the heavy rain, the myriad things born from her spiritual power left nothing behind. As if for decades, they had never existed.

Would there ever be colors and places she loved in the Ghost Domain again?