The sound of shattering echoed in his ears. He lay curled up in his long dragon form, head buried, not even moving his eyes.
He thought it must be an illusion—there shouldn’t be any sounds in this Ten Thousand Heavens Void. Until the breaking sounds grew louder, spreading from far to near, shaking one’s heart like thunder across the sky. Changyuan finally moved his eyelids, slowly opening his golden eyes.
Light…?
He looked up toward the source of light. A white dot like a star twinkled in the void, making him narrow his eyes slightly. The white spot grew larger, its radiance increasingly dazzling. The surrounding darkness shattered like falling porcelain, piece by piece, cascading down. As the Ten Thousand Heavens Void collapsed, energy from the outside world slowly surged in, and Changyuan felt his sealed powers gradually awakening.
He raised his head toward where the light first penetrated, his pupils slowly dilating in disbelief.
A woman in white mourning clothes approached steadily through the fierce winds that seemed capable of tearing everything apart. Her wildly dancing clothes and hair only emphasized her measured steps, as if her footsteps were breaking through all restraints, so powerful that he could only gaze up in awe.
Against the light, he saw her faint smile, her voice trembling with barely contained excitement: “Changyuan, as promised, I’ve come to save you.”
At that moment, Changyuan forgot to breathe, staring at her in a daze.
The darkness of the Ten Thousand Heavens Void was gradually pushed back, the bright sky once again appearing before his eyes. The scales on his dragon form emanated a dustlike golden light, all blown away by the fierce wind like scattered flowers. Before he even realized it, his dragon form had transformed into a human shape, perhaps only because in his heart, this form better matched the woman before him.
She couldn’t become a dragon, so he would become human—he didn’t mind accommodating her he was quite happy to do so.
He reached out his hand, taking hold of the slowly approaching woman. His extremely hoarse voice called out: “Ershen…”
A pair of soft hands gently caressed Changyuan’s cheeks, slightly startling him as he came somewhat to his senses. The person before him had clear eyes and profound divine power, with a calmness and serenity in her features that Ershen never had. Changyuan knew she was no longer his Ershen, but Siming.
The Star Lord Siming… of the Nine Heavens.
Siming studied him for a long time, her gaze carefully measuring his features, and finally, still not satisfied with just looking, reached out to touch his face. Yes, she thought, this was exactly how Changyuan should look: “Changyuan.” Siming’s lips held an irrepressible smile, “Indeed, you don’t look very clever at all.”
Changyuan’s eyes darkened slightly as he tilted his head back a bit: “Siming…”
These two syllables were called out somewhat stiffly; clearly, he had reservations in his heart. But having come this far, Siming had already abandoned everything of her own—how could she allow Changyuan to retreat? Her smile grew even more radiant: “But that’s fine, I’m the clever one, and I love your silly, innocent look.”
With these words, she didn’t give him a chance to respond. One hand pressed against the back of Changyuan’s head, gripping his hair tightly to prevent him from escaping, while her other hand cupped the other side of his face. With lightning speed, she forcefully pressed her lips against his.
Changyuan had never been forced like this before and was immediately stunned. He allowed Siming’s tongue to aggressively invade his mouth, sweeping through like an army of thousands, capturing all his breath.
There was a strong taste of blood in Siming’s mouth, and before long, the air between them was filled with the scent of iron rust.
Changyuan’s breathing gradually became unstable, growing chaotic. He wanted to push Siming away, but when his hands touched her waist, he involuntarily pulled her closer instead.
She was like an addictive poison—the more one tried to stay away, the tighter one became entangled. Changyuan’s hands began to disobey him, holding her tighter, pressing her even closer to himself. He wanted to embrace her with all his might, preferably to knead her into his blood and bones, so that no one could separate them.
The heavy iron scent made him momentarily think this was again the day he had to part with Ershen in death, when his entire body was stained with Ershen’s blood, his nostrils filled with an iron scent he could never clear away.
Fearful, grieving, and helpless. And in his mind, that damned rational calmness.
No one knew that each breath at that time only made him feel more suffocated as if every inch of his meridians were being crushed. Changyuan involuntarily tightened his arms again—he couldn’t forget the gradually stiffening coldness of Ershen in his arms, but now, the person he was holding and kissing was still so vibrantly alive before him.
This was already great fortune…
A salty taste mixed into their nearly biting deep kiss—Siming’s face was already covered in tears without either of them noticing when they had started falling.
No matter how strong she was, before Changyuan she couldn’t help but reveal her deeply hidden fears. Or perhaps this blood-tinged kiss had touched some emotions buried deep in her mind—desperate and panicked.
They had almost… they had rarely seen each other again.
Siming’s tears fell more uncontrollably, and the entanglement of their lips and tongues grew heavier and more inseparable. After what seemed like an eternity of such entanglement, as if the surging emotions in their hearts had found some comfort, Siming finally eased her assault and slowly withdrew from Changyuan’s territory. But her face still nuzzled against his, their rapid breaths mingling together, as if they had just finished an encounter that would make one blush.
Suddenly coming to his senses, Changyuan’s fingertips stiffened as he remembered how Ershen had once said he could only have her alone, and immediately felt his heart ache with regret. He tried to step back, but Siming forcefully held the back of his head, unceremoniously pulling his hair, making him furrow his brows in pain.
Without the Ten Thousand Heavens Void’s seal constraining him, Changyuan had recovered most of his divine power, and with his abilities, he could have forcefully pushed Siming away. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it, so he made another mental note that he had failed Ershen…
Siming gently rubbed her lips against his, her voice slightly hoarse with emotion: “Changyuan, Changyuan, whether Siming or Ershen, aren’t they the same soul… Why don’t you understand?”
Changyuan let out a light sigh: “You are Star-Lord Siming…” You’re in the Nine Heavens, and there’s someone else you deeply cherish.
“Not anymore.” Siming said softly as if both reassuring him and making a vow, “If possible, I only wish to forever be Ershen from that small mountain village, who one day met a Changyuan, and together we… never part until our hair turns white.”
These words “never part until our hair turns white” were like silk spun by spring silkworms, covering him inch by inch, wrapping him in a cocoon from which he couldn’t struggle free or escape.
He thought Siming was right—Ershen and she were the same person, and he loved this one person, just in a different shell, but the soul was still hers, and even if she only had one soul left, it was enough to captivate him completely.
Siming smiled lightly, though her voice inadvertently carried a hint of bitterness: “I must have loved you extremely deeply when I was still Ershen. Look, I forgot you, yet the moment I saw you, all the words recorded in that fate book turned into scenes before my eyes. I forgot everything around me, wanting to have you right here…” This thought made her laugh at herself, “Such a starved demon of lust, how could I still be that Star-Lord Siming who dreamed of the Heavenly Emperor’s favor?”
Changyuan started, repeating: “Forgot me?”
Siming’s eyes darkened: “Speaking of which…”
Before she could finish, there was suddenly a thunderous boom. Siming’s gaze sharpened as she looked past Changyuan, only to see that the gradually collapsing Ten Thousand Heavens Void had suddenly stopped breaking apart, and the darkness that had been falling like shattered porcelain was reattaching itself to the heavenly dome. Siming was shocked, but Changyuan had already instinctively pulled her into his embrace. His golden eyes swept sharply over the darkness behind them, and he frowned: “Someone is reforming the seal.”
Siming exclaimed in shock: “Once a natural barrier of heaven and earth is broken, who could restore it?” Then she thought of another possibility, and her face suddenly turned ugly, “Blood sacrifice?”
To restore a heavenly barrier required sacrificing one’s life force.
Changyuan nodded, his gaze turning to Siming. He pondered for a long while before hesitantly asking: “You came to rescue me?”
“What else?”
Changyuan slightly pursed his lips, looking quite pleased: “Then let’s leave.”
Golden light erupted around his body as he transformed back into his dragon form. Siming sat upon his dragon horn as they fled the slowly rebuilding darkness.
Siming didn’t know that the moment she broke the Ten Thousand Heavens Void’s seal, Wuji Wasteland City had also begun to collapse. Without the seal, the barrier outside the Wasteland City could no longer be sustained, and the city gates suddenly appeared in the void above the Boundless Forbidden Land. Those unaware of the situation were all terrified.
Nüyuan opened the city gates wide, releasing everyone inside, yet some “criminals” who had stayed in the Wasteland City for a long time became anxious upon seeing the outside world and retreated into the city. Some left with wild joy, while others remained with eyes full of desolation.
But Nüyuan no longer cared about any of this. She raised her sleeve—her fingertips had already turned to yellow sand, and the ancient sealing power was rapidly disappearing. She could feel the force of extinction more clearly than anyone else.
This wasn’t so bad, she thought. At least she could reenter the cycle of reincarnation and forget this life. After living neither alive nor dead for several hundred years, she was tired and no longer wanted to hold onto her grudges.
As people in the city either left or stayed, each lost in their thoughts, Nüyuan swept her wide sleeves and turned back to her small house, where she had erected a tombstone for two who had not yet died. The blood-colored tombstone wasn’t without writing—rather, because of daily writing, the characters overlapped until the tombstone turned blood-red, making the words illegible.
Today, Nüyuan looked at her fingers that had turned to yellow sand, her gaze lowered for a long time before finally raising her hand to write the four characters she had written on this tombstone countless times over these hundreds of years.
The yellow sand left traces on the blood-red tombstone. She had repeated each stroke so many times, but in hundreds of years, she never had the chance to see these characters. Now she finally could, and suddenly realized that the words which once made her smile just by speaking them could no longer stir her heart that had become like dead water.
“Chang’an” “Awu”.
After so many years, she had already let go.
“Chang’an, Awu… have become like past clouds and smoke.” Her voice retained its undispersible coldness, but at this moment, anyone would have heard the smile in her words.
The sealing power was draining away rapidly, and gradually, she didn’t even have the strength to sit up straight, only able to lean against the blood-red tombstone as she slowly closed her eyes.
Just then, Nüyuan suddenly heard a thunderous sound, and the gradually draining strength began slowly returning to her body. Her heart jolted slightly as she suddenly thought of a possibility, and her face immediately turned pale. Finding strength from somewhere unknown, she abruptly stood up and hurried toward the Wasteland City gates.
Amidst the yellow sand storm, the man she had loved to death had thrust his sword directly into the thick earth, the demon mark on his forehead burning like fire, blood pouring down like rain onto the ground. Yet his eyes were as clear as the Flowing Waves Immortal of the past, clearly reflecting her red figure.
“Awu.” His voice trembled slightly as he raised his hand toward her, calling out, “Come here, return with me.”
Return where…
There was no path left for them to retreat to.
Nüyuan’s lips, stiff for many years, moved slightly. The body formed from a woman’s resentment could still smile as she said: “Come find me.”
Chang’an froze. He watched as Nüyuan’s figure in red robes gradually turned into grains of yellow sand, and with each gust of wind, her features became more blurred: “Let this life pass. In the next life, after I drink Grandma Meng’s soup, cross the Bridge of Helplessness, and forget everything, come find me then.”
“At that time, we can start anew.”
Her voice dispersed in the dry wind of the Wasteland City, just like her figure mixing into the yellow sand storm, leaving no trace.
Chang’an’s pupils contracted in panic.
Clusters of grey resentful energy separated from the sand particles—the resentment of women from all under heaven, hatred that had long lurked within Nüyuan’s body. They screamed miserably, wailing in pain, some calling for their husbands, others for their flesh and blood, wandering, not knowing where to go.
Which woman’s resentment didn’t come from love? Which woman’s hatred wasn’t born from love?
Chang’an stared blankly at the grievance spirits filling the sky, suddenly realizing that what had led them to this point was entirely his own doing.
At this moment, he no longer hated heaven and earth for their lack of benevolence, hated Siming’s cold fate. He only hated himself, and deeply regretted it.
But in this life, he could never make amends…