Shui Meiyin had been trying her best to stop herself from crying all this while, but as her shoulders started to tremble, the dam completely burst. She kept trying to clench her teeth or bite down on her lower lip, but nothing worked.
“Alright, don’t cry, don’t cry,” Yun Che consoled her in a soft and gentle voice.
It hadn’t been an easy task for Shui Meiyin to stop his tears, but now, she suddenly ended up crying herself.
“I… I… Wuuuuuu…”
Yun Che didn’t say anything else, he only hugged her tightly… and he wouldn’t let her go ever again.
He knew that Shui Meiyin was also giving vent to her emotions. She had been keeping them bottled up in her heart all this while, and there was no way she could confide in anyone else either. It must have been a huge burden and torture for her.
Furthermore, every single teardrop that was falling from her eyes right now was shed because of him and for him.
She cried for a full fifteen minutes before she finally managed to stop her weeping. However, when she turned her delicate head up to look at Yun Che, her starry eyes were still filled with tears that had yet to fall.
As he bent his head to stare straight into Shui Meiyin’s reddened eyes, he chuckled to himself and said, “If your big sister were to see you now, she’d definitely come straight at me with her Jade Rivulet Sword.”
“Hmph, my big sister is really gentle! There’s no way she’d do that. Haha!” Shui Meiyin protested as she giggled. “Besides, you’re the grand and mighty Devil Master, who would dare to swing a sword at you…”
Her fingers lightly tapped against Yun Che’s chest as she said with teary eyes, “However, Big Brother Yun Che’s chest has become really warm now. It’s not like a cold block of ice anymore. That’s the reason why… I wasn’t willing to let go. Hee hee.”
Yun Che himself could very clearly sense that his blood was no longer as cold as ice.
“But…” Shui Meiyin’s finger suddenly stopped tapping his chest, as it gently nestled against his robes. She spoke in a soft and gentle voice, “Big Brother Yun Che, you can only give this warmth to me and the people that you care about. As for your enemies and the threats that you must eliminate, you must still be the pitiless and cruel Devil Master, okay?”
“Alright.” Yun Che gave a heavy nod of his head. “This was also one of the reasons why you were so conflicted with your decision, correct?”
“Yeah.”
Shui Meiyin’s voice fell to a hush as she continued, “I had originally wanted to tell you everything after you beat the Dragon God Realm and cleaned up all of the remaining threats.”
“I was afraid that if I told you too soon, you would start acting rashly and end up exposing the Blue Pole Star to danger. I was also afraid that your hatred and resentment would disperse once you found out, and you wouldn’t be as ruthless as you used to be. I was even afraid that your worries and attachments would start to mess with your decision-making process…”
“However, the method you used to deal with the Southern Sea God Realm caused my blood to run cold. Furthermore, your order to attack the Dragon God Realm was far too reckless and sudden… I was convinced that your confidence and determination to face the Dragon God Realm was due to some extremely cruel method you possessed. A method that would exact an equally cruel price on yourself.”
“…” Yun Che was unable to deny those words.
“I understand,” Yun Che said with a heart filled with guilt. “Don’t you worry, whether it’s the Dragon God Realm or the Western Divine Region, I will do my very best to protect myself while fighting them… I will no longer take such dangerous risks anymore.”
Now that it had come to this, he obviously understood why Shui Meiyin had wanted to tell him everything before he launched that attack on the Dragon God Realm.
She hoped that he would stop recklessly putting his life on the line once he saw the Blue Pole Star again, and that he would start thinking about his own self-preservation once more so that he could reunite with them once everything was over.
Shui Meiyin still ended up conflicted about whether she should tell him even when they were about to leave the Seven Star Realm, and their encounter with Jin Yue had clearly made her lean toward continuing to hide it.
However, fate had decided that they would meet Xia Yuanba, who had come to the God Realm to find Yun Che, today.
“Even if it is to use the rest of my life to repay my little Meiyin, I will make sure that I’ll live a good, long life from now on,” Yun Che said in a half-joking manner.
Shui Meiyin looked at him pensively before suddenly saying, “Big Brother Yun Che, if… if you really want to repay me, can… can you just promise me three things?”
Yun Che was taken aback by the request at first, but when he looked into Shui Meiyin’s starry eyes, which were trembling with a strange light, he slowly nodded his head and said in an extremely serious voice, “Alright, I’ll agree to anything, no matter what it is.”
This was an extremely solemn vow that he had made from his heart, because the debt he owed Shui Meiyin was far too great. Even if he slaved away his entire life, he wouldn’t ever be able to repay it, so what were three small promises?
Shui Meiyin wiped away the tears on her face as her expression turned solemn as well.
“The first thing I want Big Brother Yun Che to promise me… is that no matter what you encounter in the future, even if it is more dreadful than the traumatic events of the past, even if it plunges you into an even deeper despair, you must… must be kind to yourself. Don’t ever allow your hatred and resentment to harm you… and cause you to risk your life in hopes that you will die.”
“Because…”
Shui Meiyin, who had just calmed down a moment ago, started to crinkle her nose again as tears welled up in her eyes. “Your life and your wellbeing no longer belong to you alone. In this world, there is someone… who cares about you… and loves you… far more than you could ever imagine. For your sake, she truly was able to… give up everything… everything for you… Even… even…”
“Even if it is for the sake of not letting h… them down, you can never… throw yourself into that deep abyss again. Because even if they… even if they truly leave you… forever… To them, you being able to live on happily is… their eternal wish… even after they have departed.”
Tears fell from her face like a squall as she said those words.
Yun Che’s heart throbbed violently. He stretched out a hand to gently brush away the remaining tears on the girl’s face. After that, he said in a gentle but solemn voice, “Alright. I will remember every single word that you just said. I will never ever behave that way again. I promise… I promise for the rest of my life.”
What reason did he have to hold on to hatred and resentment if there was a person who was willing to do such much for him?
Shui Meiyin waited until she could compose herself again before she continued, “The second thing I want Big Brother Yun Che to promise me is that he will treat the rest of the universe with kindness and compassion once he defeats the Dragon God Realm and becomes the new ruler of the universe.”
Yun Che, “…”
Yun Che wasn’t the least bit surprised by this request. He had already more or less discerned it when he had spent time with Shui Meiyin in the Seven Star Trade Region.
“Even though the Dragon God Realm bit the hand that fed them by betraying Yun Che and the Dragon Monarch can’t be forgiven for his act of killing your master, the Dragon God Realm has been the best ruler that the God Realm could have asked for over its history. It’s done so well that no other king realm could ever hope to replace it.”
“The Dragon God Realm has unrivaled power and it could easily quash any of the other king realms if it so desired, however the dragon gods are a proud race that despise bullying the weak. Though they do not fear battle, they have never been the instigators of war. As a result, they’ve never used power to plunder others, despite the fact that they could easily do so. The other king realms also had no choice but to curb their own excesses and tyranny since the Dragon God Realm ruled over them with a watchful eye.”
“If it had been the Brahma Monarch God Realm or Southern Sea God Realm who had the power to rule the God Realm instead, you can well imagine how dreadful that would have been.”
Yun Che listened to her words sincerely. Even though he hated the Dragon God Realm to the core and would never spare Long Bai’s life, he could not deny Shui Meiyin’s words.
For the past million years, the Dragon God Realm had indeed been the best candidate to rule the God Realm.
“This Seven Star Realm is an extremely small corner of the God Realm, but they also know the truth about what happened because of the images broadcast from the Eastern Divine Region. They know that Big Brother Yun Che was hurt and betrayed, and that you were the one who actually saved all of them.”
“However, with the invasion of the Northern Divine Region, the very first reaction they will have is extreme fear and unease. As you have seen, some of them have even abandoned their ancestral homes and fled. The star realms have also become chaotic and lawless. Some of them may very well collapse before too long.”
“No one in the God Realm can imagine a world where the devils reign above them, and they are all deathly afraid of it coming to be.”
“Everything that is happening now is unavoidable. They are all things that have to come to pass. But…” She affectionately looked at Yun Che. “I believe that, in a future not so far from now, Big Brother Yun Che, who will have become the new sovereign of the universe, will do an even better job than the Dragon God Realm, right?”
Yun Che slowly stretched out a hand and stared at his own palm.
Back when he had died in the Star God Realm and had been reborn in the Profound Sky Continent, he had gone through a period of gloom and despair. However, he had also met Chu Yuechan and Yun Wuxin, which helped him step out from the gloom and into a never ending light…
Back when Yun Wuxin had sacrificed her own talent and risked her life to save him, he had stared at his hands just like this and vowed to never again stain those hands which he used to hug and protect his daughter in blood and sin.
That had caused a great change in his heart and temperament. Warmth and kindness had taken hold of his heart and soul, and he had even felt revulsion towards his past actions. Sin and bloodshed used to be a regular part of his lifestyle, but he began to reject them wholesale as the hatred, malice, resentment, and violence in his heart unconsciously started to wither away.
One memory struck him at this moment. When he had returned to the God Realm, Xia Qingyue had pinned him down with a single question. “Did your heart become soft because of your daughter?”
Not too long after that happened, his heart went to the other extreme… and it went to the most extreme of extremes.
Since then, his hands had been stained in more blood and sin than words could ever describe, and he would never ever be able to wash them clean.
“Alright,” Yun Che said in the softest of voices as he looked away and he clenched his hands.
All of this slaughter, blood, and sin are my responsibility.
I once wished to plunge this world into eternal darkness, to turn this filthy God Realm into a dark purgatory.
But now…
Even if just for the sake of not letting this boundless sin touch them, I will bestow light upon this world.
But that will only be after everything has come to an end!
Before that, everyone who needs to die, all possible threats… must be completely and totally eliminated!
Even if I have to steep myself in a thousand times more sin than I already have, I can never allow the mistakes of the past to repeat themselves again!
“Then what is the third thing?” he asked as a faint smile began to form on his face.
However, the look of sudden pain and loss in her eyes caused that smile to disappear even before it was fully birthed.
“You need to… atone… together with me.”
“A… Atone?” Yun Che asked in puzzlement and shock.
His body was stained with far too much sin already. In fact, the number of people who had died because of him had already grown beyond counting.
Atone together… for her sin?
Shui Meiyin’s delicate head sagged as she whispered, “The Sky Water Star that replaced the Blue Pole Star… It wasn’t a dead planet.”
Yun Che, “…”
“If the planet that replaced the Blue Pole Star didn’t have any trace of blood or countless souls being dispersed into the ether after its destruction, the people there would have immediately detected an anomaly.”
“So the Sky Water Star was also a planet teeming with life. Its aura of life was nearly as dense as the Blue Pole Star.”
“Every living being on the planet, down to the smallest blade of grass and the tiniest insect, were completely innocent. However, because of my selfishness, all of them… all of them were…”
“It isn’t your fault.” Yun Che cut her off. “They were killed by the Moon God Emperor and they died because of me. You merely teleported them there… None of this has anything to do with you!”
Before they had left the Northern Divine Region, he had destroyed three entire star realms in the Northern Divine Region in order to frame the Eternal Heaven God Realm and create an “excuse” to attack the Eastern Divine Region.
At that time, his heart hadn’t even rippled once throughout that entire undertaking. He hadn’t even felt a single ounce of guilt or hesitation.
However, Shui Meiyin was different from him.
She was the only person who possessed the Stainless Divine Soul in the universe. She was of exalted birth and near-unparalleled potential, and her profound cultivation had reached the exalted heights of level seven of the Divine Master Realm…
However, one couldn’t even smell the hint of blood on her and her eyes always seemed to glow with pure and unblemished starlight.
Even though she had already reached the late stages of the Divine Master Realm, it was very possible that she had never killed anyone before and had never stained her hands with sin even once.
Yet she now bore the guilt of killing an entire world because of him.
Shui Meiyin didn’t nod or shake her head. She merely mumbled these words in a very soft and drowsy voice, “Let’s atone together, okay?”
“…” Yun Che tried very hard to think of something to say, but he came up empty in the end.
No matter how many words he used, no matter how he tried to console, advise, or thank her, no matter what sort of guilt he tried to bear on her behalf, all of it seemed incomparably empty in front of Shui Meiyin’s starry eyes.
As such, Yun Che could only gently nod his head.
Could you atone for the sin of killing a man by saving a hundred more?
He didn’t know, and he didn’t think that anyone else could answer that question either.
If a hundred people weren’t enough, then he’d save a thousand. If a thousand weren’t enough, then he’d save ten thousand!
He could go to the deepest of hells, bear a boundless amount of sin on his back… but he would never allow Shui Meiyin to feel the way he did.
