Volume Two: Kunlun’s Ephemeral Life Chapter Eighty

“Victory, victory! The Emperor has triumphed and returned!”
Joyful news echoed through the Moonwatch Palace. Su Wen’s brows arched with delight. “And what of the Lady?”
“The Divine Maiden, for the sake of all beings, has fallen.”
Su Wen smiled, triumphant. Yun Mu, standing beside her, gloated, “Had the Saintess not told her the Emperor went to the Demon Realm, she would not have lost her composure.”
“She stood in my way. Now she’s dead, Tian Yu is dead, and justice is served.”
“Sage Saintess, you are wise. Tian Yu’s reputation is ruined, the Divine Maiden died nobly, and now, no one can stop you from entering Junhua Palace.”
As the words fell, the doors of Moonwatch Palace shattered. Through the fragments, Jing Ye strode in, disheveled, sword in hand, radiating a murderous aura, his gaze cold and fixed on Su Wen.
Su Wen was terrified, her strength drained, collapsing to the floor.
The sword scraped the ground, its sound like the voice of an avenging spirit.
Yun Mu barely uttered a word before Jing Ye struck her down.
“It was you who spread the rumors, falsely accusing Tian Yu of colluding with the Demon Realm, consorting with the Demon Lord.”
“It was you who incited Jiang Man to torment Tian Yu.”
“You took her to the Weakwater Pool, left her battered, threatened her, stole her voice, tricked her into leaping from Night Extinguishing Heavens.”
“Tian Yu died, and it was you who defamed her, destroyed her reputation, leaving her remembered as a demoness.”
“You allied with the Demon Realm, exchanged clandestine letters, lured Jin Li into your carefully laid trap…”
He towered above Su Wen, sword pointed at her, face cold as frost, as if wishing to tear her apart.
“Jing Ye… Jing Ye… you cannot kill me…”
The first strike pierced her chest, blood pouring from the wound, horrifying to behold.
The second pierced her arm. Su Wen was struck dumb with pain, unable even to scream.
Jing Ye spread his hand, revealing the Weakwater Tian Yu had once infused into him. Su Wen grew frenzied. “The voice I have now is that mortal’s! Can you bear to destroy it?!”
“Do you know why I never harmed you, despite knowing everything?”
Jing Ye’s eyes reddened, shifting away. “Because it was her voice.”
Su Wen trembled violently. Jing Ye ruthlessly stripped her voice from her, gazing at the blue immortal glow in his palm. “This is all she left me.”
Then he poured Weakwater over her. Her flesh and blood became a gruesome mess, but he never once stooped to her level—he even stepped back.
He found her filthy.
Su Wen howled hoarsely, rolling desperately on the ground.
“Su Wen, daughter of the Fox Clan, your glory ends today.”
He departed, with a sweep of his sleeve, and a sea of fire consumed Moonwatch Palace, leaving it empty.
From then on, Moonwatch Palace vanished from the Sacred Domain, and so did the Fox Clan of Su Wen.
Passing immortals would hear Su Wen’s wretched cries along the Lotus Path—from initial wailing to curses, finally breaking into fragmented pleas for mercy. A generation’s Saintess had doomed her clan with her own misdeeds, a tragedy that drew sighs from all.
After burning Su Wen, Jing Ye lived alone in Junhua Palace, one year, two years, three years—until, ten years later, the Emperor of Nine Realms abdicated, and the Heavenly Lord ascended.

At South Sea’s Sunset Gorge, the Emperor stood forlorn, cradling a puppet wrought from Soul-Forging Candle. The puppet moved and smiled; Jing Ye infused it with the voice, letting it speak, keeping him company.
He held it, showing her the world’s most beautiful sunsets.
“Tian Yu, listen, the merfolk are singing.”
Yet the puppet slowly withered, finally becoming nothing but cold, lifeless wood. The Soul-Forging Candle burned out, and his Tian Yu never returned. Perhaps she still blamed him, and so did not come back.
At night, he sat alone in the Celestial Palace, surrounded by empty wine bottles, beneath the pear tree whose blossoms drifted like snow. Step by step, he approached the tree, white petals covering his shoulders, whitening his hair.
At that moment, petals whirled and, within the blue immortal light, Jin Li’s spirit appeared.
Jin Li wore bridal robes, graceful and radiant, her peach blossom eyes curved as she gazed at him.
The Emperor had lost his former brilliance—now he was desolate, wounded beyond measure. His eyes red, he raised his hand, and together their shadows bowed in unison.
If two souls share the snow, then their lives are truly entwined till white-haired old age.
Henceforth, it was said in the Sacred Domain, the Emperor and Empress moved to the World of Mortal Life, wandering freely, living as immortal lovers for eternity.
After that night, Jing Ye no longer concerned himself with the affairs of the Six Realms. He spent half his soul’s cultivation to imprison himself in a dream, where Tian Yu remained, where their solitary dwelling endured. He took her across Lotus River, explored Clearwater, and, on pleasant days, basked in sunlight with her, living as before, as if she had never left.
That dream replayed again and again.
In his dreams, he watched Tian Yu leap from Night Extinguishing Heavens, again and again. Watched her become the Divine Maiden, raise her sword and end her own life, vanish in his arms, again and again.
Perhaps this was his punishment.
From then on, the Sacred Domain had no Emperor of Nine Realms.
He no longer wished to rule, only to live in the dream where she existed, content even if it meant his utter destruction.
The World of Mortal Life in Kunlun ended. Jin Li slowly opened her eyes, watching the tear in her palm dissolve into bubbles in the water—she had not been eroded by Weakwater. Xiao Ze also awoke.
“You’re awake.”
Jin Li was still dazed. Where was she now?
Xiao Ze, the mouse spirit, twisted his face, though he had watched the dream as a bystander, sighing for Tian Yu and revering Jin Li’s sacrifice. But now was not the time for sentiment. Once the dream ended, the Kunlun Divine Mirror’s barrier would vanish—they must return to the shore at once.
“This is Weakwater. We must leave immediately.”
Jin Li nodded, touched her forehead, and the two rose from the depths.
Xiao Ze immediately scanned the hills above for danger, but the demoness was gone.
He was certain—her brow bore the demon mark, she was the demoness.
He’d read records of the Demon Realm in the Immortal Mountains, but now she had vanished. Xiao Ze turned, Jin Li sat dazed on a stone, staring at her hands, still lost in dreamlike confusion.
“Are you… alright?”
He didn’t know how to comfort her. Her past now seemed to slip into her mind like lost memories—she was herself, yet hadn’t experienced it, her memory held no trace of those events.
Jin Li shook her head, her expression sorrowful, rising to her feet with Xiao Ze following. This place held many of her memories. They passed through thorny mountains, emerging into a scene of paradise.
The solitary dwelling.

Jin Li gazed at the immortal-protected house. She raised her hand and pushed the door open; an immortal shadow appeared beneath the pear tree—a young Emperor, upright as orchid and jade, smiling as the bright moon embraced him, immortal robes flowing.
He smiled at her as she entered.
“Ah Jin.”
He called her Ah Jin, not Tian Yu.
Jin Li’s clear eyes brimmed with tears. She spoke, “Jing Ye.”
He loved her to the utmost—his last drop of blood became a seal on the World of Mortal Life, desperately protecting their memories, reliving their joy and mourning their farewell. In the dream he forged, joy mingled with bitter sorrow.
He never wished to return, willing to let his last wisp of immortal soul remain, guarding this purity amid the overwhelming demonic aura.
Jin Li reached out to touch him, but at the faintest contact, the immortal shadow dispersed.
“Jing Ye!”
In a flash, the solitary dwelling shattered and vanished to the winds.
He had finally waited for his beloved.
Was it release, or did he slip into even sadder memories?
Xiao Ze’s eyes were calm, tinged with grief.
“Let’s go.”
Jin Li wiped her tears and walked forward.
After a long time, the two emerged from the Valley of Ten Thousand Demons. Looking back, none would have imagined that, for eighty thousand years, an immortal would willingly perish here for his beloved, using his last wisp of immortal magic to guard her home.
The maiden looked back, unsure whether the tears were hers or Tian Yu’s.
In the end, Jin Li sent Xiao Ze back to Mount Shadowless to focus on cultivation. Mount Shadowless had a spirit waterfall descending from the heavens. Jin Li, transformed into a young man in light robes, led a gray mule across the suspension bridge, with water from Shadowless Pool flowing beside her, seeking lost memories amid the silent valley.
“Hey! Will you come back to see me?!”
Xiao Ze hurried after her.
Her figure was delicate as a willow, and she did not turn, only raised her hand, her gentle voice drifting to his ears: “From now on, our paths are quiet, spring hills dark as brows, and grass as light as mist.”
Xiao Ze watched her fading silhouette beneath the scattering stars, knowing she had wandered the world for a thousand years.
Henceforth, she would travel all the rivers and lands of Jiangnan and Jiangbei.
Xiao Ze’s dream ended—this was the last time he ever saw her.
An elder, hair white as snow, sat atop Mount Shadowless, under a pine tree, a smile on his lips, fading silently from the world.
The Divine Maiden loved all beings as she loved one. Because of her, all the world’s beauty endured.
The pine remained unchanged; Shadowless returned.
Perhaps, in the unseen realm, there was a destined encounter yet to be.