Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Four thousand years ago, Yan Guichen was already the youngest Upper Immortal in the Celestial Realm.

Through three millennia of bitter cultivation, he had severed all emotions and desires. Holding his sword, he guarded the Southern Border of the Nine Heavens, never stopping for anyone. Everyone in the Celestial Realm said that Upper Immortal Yan was born to stand atop the clouds, like a sword forged from snow-without a heart, without desire, and without flaw.

Until he met Fei Li at Burial Moon River.

At that time, the Celestial and Demon Realms were at war along the border, and blood flowed like rivers. Yan Guichen was ordered to pursue the remnants of the demon army. Following their scent, he broke into a Black Pine Forest, only to see a woman in red shielding a group of fleeing mortals with her own body.

Behind her lay a village destroyed by the fires of war; before her were low-level demon creatures that had lost control. She clearly could have walked away, yet she chose to stand there, her long whip coiled around the necks of those monsters as she pushed the mortals behind her.

Yan Guichen’s first meeting with the Demon Princess was not in the magnificent Demon Palace, but amidst a land of scorched earth.

Blood was splattered across her face. When she turned and saw him, she frowned first. “Do you people from the Celestial Realm always like to be the last to arrive?”

Yan Guichen’s sword should have been aimed at her.

But in the end, what he cut down was the Fire-Winged Demon Beast lunging at the mortals.

Only after that day did he learn that Fei Li was not the innately bloodthirsty Demon Princess the Celestial Realm spoke of. She loathed war, hated that the Demon Palace used mortals as sacrifices for formations, and detested how the Celestial Realm viewed all demons as things that must be exterminated. She said the most boring thing in the world was letting a group of people sitting on high decide who lived and who died.

When she said this, she was sitting on the highest branch of a tree in the Black Pine Forest, her toes swinging gently. The moonlight fell upon the tips of her hair like a layer of crushed silver.

Yan Guichen stood beneath the tree and watched her for a long time.

He used to think he only knew how to cultivate the way of the sword. Only later did he realize that for a person to fall, it only took a single glance.

Their feelings were hidden from many, but they could not be hidden from the Celestial Emperor forever.

The Celestial Realm was incensed. The host of immortals petitioned: either execute Fei Li or strip Yan Guichen of his immortal bones to serve as a warning to others. At that time, the Demon Realm was in internal turmoil; Fei Li’s Father Lord was heavily injured and in secluded meditation, while several elders in the Demon Palace were waiting to use her death to ignite a new round of war.

Everyone wanted to trade their love for a piece in their own game.

For the first time, Yan Guichen knelt in the Lingxiao Palace.

He asked for nothing else, only for her to live.

The Celestial Emperor sat high at the end of the jade steps, his voice as compassionate as if he were granting alms. “She possesses an Innate Demon Bone; sooner or later, she will bring chaos to the Three Realms. If you truly cannot bear to part with her, there is another way.”

Siming, standing to the side, took up the explanation. He told Yan Guichen that within the Endless Prison, a forbidden area of the Celestial Realm, there was an ancient Sealing Array that could seal a Demonic Bone and wash away one’s demonic nature. It would take only a thousand years for Fei Li to cleanse her Demonic Qi, after which she would be removed from the demon registers and regain her freedom.

Yan Guichen looked up and asked only one thing: “Will she die?”

Siming answered calmly, “She will only be in a deep sleep.”

Yan Guichen remembered those words for a thousand years, and they ruined their entire lives.

The night he went to see Fei Li, the moonlight was cold.

Fei Li sat atop the high walls of the Demon Palace. After hearing his intent, she remained silent for a long time. She knew better than anyone that if the Celestials and Demons fought again, it wouldn’t just be her and Yan Guichen who died.

“Only a thousand years?” She tilted her head to look at him.

“A thousand years.” Yan Guichen took her hand, his voice raspy. “I will personally guard the Sealing Array. When the time comes, I will come to get you. Fei Li, I swear.”

Fei Li looked at him and suddenly smiled.

“Yan Guichen, you people from the Celestial Realm are the best at lying.” She reached out and pressed her hand gently against his heart. “But I’m still willing to believe you this once.”

She split her life lamp in two, giving half to him and leaving half within the Sealing Array.

“If you betray me, this lamp will go out first,” she said.

Yan Guichen gripped the lamp so tightly his knuckles turned white.

On the day of the sealing, she did not struggle.

The gates of the Endless Prison slowly opened, and Karmic Fire swirled up from the abyss like countless gaping maws. Yan Guichen held the Sealing Sword, standing in the center of the array’s eye, watching as Fei Li walked in step by step.

When she reached the final stone step, she turned back and asked him, “A thousand years from now, will you be late?”

Yan Guichen’s eyes grew red, but his voice was very soft. “I won’t.”

Fei Li nodded, seemingly at peace at last.

In the next instant, the Sealing Array descended, and the world fell into total silence.