Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The wedding hall in Qingxi Town was draped in red silk. As dusk fell, layers of lanterns flickered to life.

Yan Guichen stood at the front of the hall, dressed in his wedding finery. In his hand, he gripped a length of red cord, polished smooth from years of rubbing. It was a fragment of the Love Knot that Fei Li had tied around his wrist with her own hands four thousand years ago. Later, the cord had been severed by Purgatory Fire, and though he had scoured the Three Realms, he had only managed to recover this small piece.

Today, he was finally going to tie it back onto her hand.

When the bride stepped out from the back hall, the guests were all smiles. Only Yan Guichen’s heart gave a violent shudder.

Wen He kept her eyes downcast, the gold hairpins in her hair swaying gently. She looked exactly like the red-robed princess who had stood by the Burial Moon River so many years ago. In this life, she was merely a mortal. She did not remember the Demon Race, she did not remember the Celestial Realm, and she did not remember him. She was someone who would squat by the river in the early morning to wash vegetables, who would give her unsold lanterns to the little beggars at the street corner, and who would complain that the firewood was too damp on rainy days to start a proper fire.

She lived a vibrant, light-hearted life, as if she had never been touched by darkness.

Yan Guichen had once thought that as long as she could live out this life in peace, he would have atoned for half of his sins from their past life.

The Ritual Master called out the rites in a loud voice: “First bow to Heaven and Earth!”

Wen He raised her head, but just as she was about to bow with him, her face suddenly turned pale.

The light in her eyes seemed to be snuffed out, transforming in an instant into a cold, crimson glare. In the next breath, the short sword used to weigh down the marriage contract on the altar flew up on its own and landed in her palm. She turned with lightning speed, the blade pressing directly against Yan Guichen’s throat without a moment’s hesitation.

The hall full of guests screamed and scrambled back.

Yan Guichen did not move.

He simply gazed at her, as if looking at an old dream he had waited for so long that he no longer dared to reach out and touch it.

Wen He-no, Fei Li-stared at him. Her eyes were filled with a hatred that had crawled out from the depths of Purgatory, yet her voice was terrifyingly soft.

“Yan Guichen.”

This was the first time she had spoken his name in this lifetime.

“You said the seal was only a thousand-year slumber.” Her wrist trembled, but the sword remained as steady as if it were nailed in place. “But I was awake for eight hundred years in the Endless Prison. Every day, Karmic Fire burned from my bones outward. Every night, I called your name until my throat was filled with blood.”

Yan Guichen’s Adam’s apple bobbed. A thin line of blood had already begun to seep out along the edge of the blade.

She stared at that speck of blood and laughed, though her tears fell first.

“This strike… I’m returning it to you.”