“Sister Qingyue searched for you for a very long time after you were sent away by Sister Qianying. After all, the Void Illusion Stone’s teleportation is completely random. She was terrified that you would fall into the hands of your enemies.”
“After eight to ten hours of fruitless searching, she finally gave up temporarily and teleported to the Blue Pole Star using the World Piercer. She first teleported the Blue Pole Star from the east of Eastern Divine Region to the south of the Southern Divine Region, then teleported the Sky Water Star from the southern of the Southern Divine Region to where the Blue Pole Star used to be.” [1]
“The miraculous, planetary scale teleportation nearly exhausted all of Sister Qingyue’s strength, making it impossible for her to keep searching for you. Left with no choice, she teleported back to the Moon God Realm to recuperate. However, she didn’t get to rest long before the Eternal Heaven God Emperor announced the existence of the Blue Pole Star.”
Shui Meiyin sniffled again before adding, “You know what happened after that, Big Brother Yun Che.”
“…” Yun Che exhaled lightly. Yes, he knew everything that had happened afterward because he had experienced it personally… and yet he also knew nothing at all.
Shui Meiyin continued, “That fateful day seemed like it had happened naturally, but much of Sister Qingyue’s plans were hidden among them.”
“She knew that you would rush to the Blue Pole Star as soon as you heard that it was surrounded. She knew you would make it there in the shortest amount of time possible even though you knew you wouldn’t survive what awaited you.”
“You were also carrying the Vanishing Moon Celestial Palace she had given you back then. Again, she knew for certain that you would use it.”
“Therefore, Sister Qingyue took the fastest Moon God of Moon God Realm, the Golden Moon God Yue Wuji with her and rushed over.”
“Then, she used her unique status to persuade the god emperors to surrender control of you to whoever captures you first.”
“As expected, you soon appeared on the Vanishing Moon Celestial Palace. Since Sister Qingyue is the Moon God Emperor, she easily wrestled control of the structure from you.”
“While you were incapitated, Yue Wuji captured you faster than anyone else just as Sister Qingyue planned. After that, she destroyed the Blue Pole Star in front of you.”
That wasn’t true.
What she destroyed was Yun Che’s weakness, softheartedness, attachments, naivety, goodness, hesitation and longing.
She had saved the entire Blue Pole Star without letting anyone know about it.
“After that, she attempted to ‘execute’ you just like the first time,” Shui Meiyin said quietly. “She wanted the entire world to think you were dead when you were really teleported somewhere else. In fact, she’s decided to teleport you straight to the distant Northern Divine Region this time.”
“You would know that she really saved you after you appeared at the Northern Divine Region safe and sound, but that wouldn’t nearly be enough to dispel your hatred toward her for having destroyed your home planet. With only vengeance left inside of you, she was certain that you would evolve and grow at the fastest speed possible.”
“Everything went exactly as Sister Qingyue hoped, and yet once again, she was…”
Mu Xuanyin had finally broken her concealment and stabbed Xia Qingyue right before the deed could be done.
He ultimately escaped, but Mu Xuanyin perished as a result.
“Was it fate?” Xia Qingyue had murmured with a sigh when she lowered the Purple Pylon Divine Sword powerlessly, and the hot remnants of the “Blue Pole Star” illuminated her features.
“After that, Sister Qingyue did many, many things in secret while awaiting the day you returned to the God Realm. Also—”
“Meiyin,” Yun Che finally broke his long standing silence because he could no longer suppress the burning urge to ask that question, “before that, tell me why she wasn’t willing to tell me everything after she returned. Why… why did she choose to push everything on you!?”
He stared at Shui Meiyin’s eyes with intense desire.
However, Shui Meiyin did the unthinkable and shook her head.
As if to confirm that he wasn’t hallucinating, she mumbled in a powerless voice, “I don’t know.”
“… you don’t know?” Yun Che’s pupils dilated, and his voice grew impatient once more. “What do you mean you don’t know?? You said she told you everything!”
Shui Meiyin simply shook her head again. She and Xia Qingyue saw each other quite frequently during her time inside the Moon Prison. She knew the whole truth much, much earlier than Yun Che, which was why the damned question that would never be answered had tormented her for just as long.
…………
At the bottom level of the Moon Prison of the Moon God Realm, Xia Qingyue placed the World Piercer in her hands so that she could nurture its slumbering spirit with her Divine Stainless Soul.
“… I know I’m being terribly selfish. I know I’m asking something terribly cruel of you, but you are literally the only person in the entire world whom I can ask this of.”
“I don’t understand. I don’t understand at all.” She shook her head in confusion. “If you’re so certain that he will return and become the true king of the Primal Chaos, why don’t you just tell him everything directly when you see him? I don’t get why you want me to tell him that everything was my doing at all, I really don’t.”
“It’s because I want him to hate me as deeply as the time I destroyed the Blue Pole Star in front of him,” Xia Qingyue answered calmly. Her eyes looked as calm as a pair of moons. “Only by hating me will he remember me as the vile, ruthless woman who destroyed his home planet instead of his wife. Only then will I not become the eternal regret that will haunt him forever after I die.”
“Die?” She shook her head again. “You are the Moon God Emperor. You are both incredibly smart and powerful. How can you die? Who can even kill you? I… I don’t understand what you’re saying at all.”
“I cannot make you understand,” Xia Qingyue said quietly. “All I can tell is that there are many things in this world that can never be defied.”
“When he ascends to the peak, death will be my best choice and ending.”
“…” She shook her head again. How could she not when she still didn’t understand a single word of what she was hearing?
“You love him so much, Meiyin. You don’t want him to spend the rest of his life regretting my passing, do you? I will die as an evil person, and he will obtain his vengeance and all the things he thought he lost… there is no better ending than this.”
“We are husband and wife, and I dare say that I have fulfilled my wifely responsibilities to the best of my abilities.”
“I have wronged you, but I’m sorry to say that I won’t be able to repay your favor in this life. Perhaps in the next life…”
“The next life…” Xia Qingyue’s voice suddenly paused, and she kept repeating these three words with unfocused, sorrowful eyes…
…………
After that, a soul connection slowly appeared between Shui Meiyin’s Divine Stainless Soul and the World Piercer. She could immediately become the World Piercer’s new master once Xia Qingyue had separated herself from it.
However, she never found out why Xia Qingyue had made that choice even after Yun Che had returned to the Eastern Divine Region, and she had “escaped” from the Moon God Realm with the World Piercer.
All she could do was to bear everything and fulfill her final wish.
And she did, until…
“… she said she would rather you hate her so that you won’t become saddened by her death. She hoped that you would forget about her in time and treat her as naught but a distant memory.”
“But why did she choose to die? WHY!?!” Yun Che roared with bloodshot eyes. It was a question not even Shui Meiyin could answer, and his heart felt like it would explode at any moment. “She only needed to explain a few words to convince me of everything… why did she have to choose to die…”
“I’ve asked her the same question many, many times, and I’ve tried to change her mind just as frequently, but…” Shui Meiyin sobbed. “She always answered that she couldn’t give me an answer. She said that death was the ending she must choose, and…”
“… that it is her final rebellion against fate after having submitted to it.”
Yun Che was startled. “Rebellion against… fate? After having submitted to it?”
“Sister Qingyue didn’t explain to me what it meant. Also, she often muttered many strange things when she was lost in her own mind,” Shui Meiyin whispered. “I remember her saying that she was an unforgivable sinner… that she had brought death to her younger brother, her father and her mother…”
“!?” Yun Che abruptly looked up and retorted in a hoarse voice, “Yuanba has been doing fine since I saved him from that one near death tribulation! Not only did he become the master of the sanctuary, he is embarking on an adventure across the God Realm right now. What did she mean she brought death to her younger brother??”
“Her father is safe and sound at the Black Moon Merchant Guild as well. He may be lonely, but no danger has befallen him whatsoever… As for her mother, Qianying was the one who doomed her, so what the hell is she even talking about!?”
“I don’t know.” Shui Meiyin shook her head and repeated the three words she had repeated too many times throughout this conversation already. “She also said that her death was enough to keep the Moon God Realm safe.”
“However…”
“…” Yun Che’s eyes lost color, and his entire body shook like a leaf.
The Moon God Realm was the first and only star realm he had utterly annihilated.
No other star realm had even come close to being subjected to the same level of ruthlessness.
He had hated Xia Qingyue so much that the moment he saw her flying out to meet him, he detonated all of the Devil Crystals of Eternal Darkness he had obtained from the Bone Sea of Eternal Darkness and turned the Moon God Realm to cosmic dust…
Oh, he had been so delighted at the time!
Even more delightful was watching the final rays of purple light in her eyes extinguishing into perfectly blank holes with the crumbling Moon God Realm as the backdrop.
He even heard her muttering soullessly to herself,
“Is fate… really that… inexorable…”
…………
What…
What… have… I… done…
His chest felt like it was being sat on by innumerable mountains or gouged out by countless icy blades. His hands had clutched onto his skull before he realized it, and they were threatening to break under the sheer amount of force they were put under.
He had been doing his utmost to control himself and stay calm, but Shui Meiyin’s final words had obliterated that effort completely.
The crumbling light in his pupils and his suddenly collapsing aura frightened Shui Meiyin terribly. She hurriedly hugged Yun Che and said in a panic, “Big Brother Yun Che, don’t… don’t scare me. It’s not your fault, it’s really not your fault. For Sister Qingyue’s final wish, you… you cannot allow yourself to fall apart…”
Yun Che stretched out a trembling arm and pushed Shui Meiyin slowly but stiffly away from him.
Then, he rose to his feet and stared blankly forward.
“Please… leave me alone for a bit.”
After tossing out a line that sounded so off that it would worry even a complete stranger, Yun Che woodenly walked away from her.
“Big Brother Yun Che!”
Shui Meiyin hurriedly rose to her feet and tried to follow him, but a hand caught her shoulder and stopped her.
Shui Meiyin turned around to see who it was before sobbing out, “Sister Xuanyin…”
“Give him the time he needs.” Mu Xuanyin shook her head while watching Yun Che stepping further and further away from them.
1. (T/N: I call sus, but won’t explain because I love my readers)
