chapter 2
From that day on, I cultivated even more diligently.
The young Phoenix princess possessed power and influence, but I held no office and desired nothing. I spent every day cultivating in my courtyard. In everyone else’s eyes, I already lived a wretched enough life, so she could find no obvious way to punish me.
But she could not swallow her anger. Instead, she resorted to petty, disgusting tricks.
She threw stench fruit into my courtyard to smoke me out, only to make herself vomit for three days.
She deliberately lured a divine beast to my home. I reversed the tracking spell onto her, and the beast chased her across the entire Celestial Palace, snapping at her heels.
She accused me of stealing her divine hairpin, though my rooms and storage pouch were emptier than the bare courtyard outside.
Eyes blazing with rage, she demanded, “Is this how you seduced the Crown Prince? By pretending you have no wants or desires?”
Romantic obsession had destroyed her ability to think.
Without looking back, I shut my door.
She still refused to leave me alone. Several days later, demons attacked the Celestial Realm, and a general summoned me to the army camp on her orders.
I asked around and learned that the Moon God’s young disciple had gained sentience from a wisp of divine power left behind by the late Wind God.
The Moon God had taken her in because he intended to use her body as a vessel for the Wind God’s primordial spirit and resurrect his lost love.
When the disciple discovered the truth, she fled to the Nine Nether. There, she absorbed its foul demonic qi and fell into demonhood. Now she had led an army of demons against the Celestial Realm.
By the time I arrived, the celestial army had already driven the demons back down.
Mortals possessed no magic. As demons rampaged across their world, living beings suffered and died in droves.
A woman hovered in the sky, wrapped in demonic qi.
She held a pitch-black demonic saber. Her eyes burned with bone-deep hatred as she screamed the Moon God’s name.
“Yuemian! Come out and die!”
“If you don’t show yourself, I’ll slaughter every living thing in the Three Realms and Four Seas. The whole world can be buried with you!”
She was insane.
He had wronged her. What did that have to do with the rest of creation? How could it justify slaughtering innocents?
Crown Prince Xixuan flew out to face the madwoman.
I summoned the Fusheng Sword and descended with the celestial soldiers to kill the demons.
The demons had been imprisoned in the Nine Nether for ten thousand years. The moment they escaped, they attacked mortals in a frenzy, leaving corpses everywhere.
At last, the Moon God deigned to appear. Disappointment filled his every word as he berated the madwoman.
His reproaches drove her deeper into madness. She sacrificed her own flesh to the demonic saber. Demonic qi surged around her, and every demon in the mortal realm grew stronger.
I had had enough.
I stopped concealing my strength and unleashed the Lingyun Sword Art. The trace of the Heavenly Dao embedded in my sword intent tore through the demonic qi, and my blade punched through her back.
“No!” the Moon God screamed. He flew to catch the madwoman.
“Yu’er!” He glared at me. “Why did you hurt Yu’er?”
Insane.
I stabbed her again, straight through the chest. The Moon God struck at me with a spell. I twisted aside, turned, and stabbed her a third time.
Only then did I relax.
Surely she was dead now.
While the Moon God wept, I calmly took the demonic saber.
Its foul qi weakened on contact with my pure divine power. I sat in meditation and attempted to seal the weapon.
As the two powers fought, another stream of pure divine power joined mine. Crown Prince Xixuan descended before me.
Together, we temporarily sealed the demonic weapon.
The Moon God poured his power into prolonging the life of the woman in his arms. Sobbing uncontrollably, they confessed their feelings to one another.
“Yu’er, I was wrong. You’re the one I love.”
It was nauseating.
I was about to leave when Xixuan called after me.
“Fairy Lingyun.”
I turned toward him.
His hair was bound beneath a pearl-studded jade crown. A divine sigil glimmered between his brows, and his face was strikingly handsome. When I turned, his lips curved into a smile and his eyes shone. His bright yellow immortal robes fluttered in the wind, lending him an otherworldly bearing.
“Do you remember me?”
I searched my memory. “Has Your Highness mistaken me for someone else?”
“I have not.” His certainty was absolute.
“Three hundred years ago, I descended for a mortal tribulation. You saved my life at the foot of Mount Kunlun. I have thought of you ever since and have never been able to forget.”
At least the Crown Prince understood gratitude.
My expression remained calm. “Those who cultivate immortality are duty-bound to help the weak.”
“You hold all living beings in your heart. I understand. But I am one of those beings. May I ask whether there might be a place in your heart for me as well?”
That was direct enough. At last, I understood what he meant.
His mortal tribulation was meant to make him endure the seven forms of suffering and transcend worldly desire. Instead, he had fallen into romantic attachment.
With such weak resolve, how could he be worthy of ruling the Three Realms?
My voice turned cold.
“Your Highness is not pleasant to listen to. In the future, I suggest you speak less.”