# Chapter 1366: Hope
"These years... you've suffered," Yun Che said, his voice hollow and lost. These pale words were all he could manage.
"We haven't suffered," Chu Yuechan shook her head. "I was already used to such peace back at the Bing Yun Fairy Palace. Besides, I have Wuxin by my side."
"Then... have you ever thought about leaving this place one day?" Yun Che asked.
Chu Yuechan shook her head again. She gazed at her daughter, her eyes flickering with complexity. "Xin'er grows up day by day. I can't keep her by my side forever. She will eventually have to go out into the world and find her own life. But... she grows too fast—so fast it frightens me."
Yun Che: "..."
"At six years old, profound energy naturally began to form within her body. So I tried to guide her in cultivation. The result was terrifying—her profound strength grew at an alarming rate. She entered the Xuan Entry Realm in one month, True Xuan in three, Spirit Xuan in six, Earth Xuan by seven and a half, Heavenly Xuan by eight and a half, and before she turned ten, she had already become a King. Now, at eleven, she is at the ninth level of the King Xuan Realm, surpassing all the ancestors of the Bing Yun Fairy Palace."
"And every time she breaks through a realm, there is not the slightest trace of a bottleneck."
Although Yun Che had already witnessed Yun Wuxin's abilities, his heart still shook violently... If Chu Yuechan's words fell upon the ears of profound practitioners on the Tian Xuan Continent, every single word would sound like a fairy tale.
There was no doubt that Yun Wuxin's growth in the profound way was anything but normal.
"This only makes me worry even more. I dare not let her leave this place."
Chu Yuechan's concern was only natural.
She didn't know what the outside world had become, but one thing was certain—an eleven-year-old King, and a late-stage King at that, once revealed to the world, would cause an earth-shattering tremor in the world of profound cultivation. If she were alone, her life would never know peace.
"Mother, I don't want to go out into the world at all. I want to stay with you forever," Yun Wuxin said with a smile as she nestled against her mother. "Father, will you stay with us from now on?"
Yun Che smiled but said nothing.
Because he could see the light of longing and desire deep in Yun Wuxin's eyes when she spoke... She wanted to leave this place. She wanted to see the outside world. But even more, she didn't want her mother to be alone.
"And you?" Chu Yuechan asked. "How did you survive back then? And why are you..."
The youth who was once so young, whose brilliance outshone even the blazing sun, had become so broken and dim when they met again.
Yun Che tilted his head back slightly. His mind returned to the starting point of his life. He thought silently, and in that moment, his heart suddenly grew calm. "During those six months in the Dragon God Trial Ground, I talked to you countless times every day, told you countless stories. But I never told you who I truly am, or where I come from. I told you so many lies, empty words, jokes..."
Chu Yuechan: "..."
"In the twelve years I couldn't find you, I experienced many things. To you, they will surely sound unreal. But... I won't deceive you like I did back then. Every word I'm about to say is true..."
His story didn't begin with the disaster at the Tian Jian Villa, but at the turning point of his fate—his reincarnation from the Cang Yun Continent to the Tian Xuan Continent.
He told her about the reincarnation of his fate, about meeting Mo Li, about learning his true origins beneath the Sword Control Platform... about dreaming back to the Huan Yao Realm... about destroying the Xuanyuan Clan to save the world... about the series of upheavals at the Bing Yun Fairy Palace... about the Divine Realm, which was as mythical as a legend to the Tian Xuan Continent...
All the way until he died in the Star God Realm a little over a month ago, and then was miraculously reborn...
The scorching sun moved westward, and the stars filled the sky.
Every experience, every joy and sorrow, every secret—he held nothing back. For his regained Yuechan and Wuxin, he wished he could give them his entire world as compensation, without any concealment, without any reservation.
It was the first time in his life that he poured out his heart so freely and thoroughly.
Before they knew it, the starlight dimmed and the scorching sun reappeared. Outside the bamboo grove, Feng Xian'er did not disturb their family reunion, but she also did not leave. She stood guard silently.
In Chu Yuechan's arms, Yun Wuxin had fallen asleep at some point. She slept soundly and peacefully, a faint, almost imperceptible smile on her lips.
She didn't know what a legend her father was on this continent. She didn't know what kind of power she herself possessed.
Looking at her tranquil little face, Yun Che's lips curled up involuntarily. He couldn't describe this feeling... The darkness that had been entangled him all this time, the bottomless abyss of his heart that he had once thought he might never truly escape—before her smiling face, it was so fragile, defeated almost completely without a trace.
He remembered the doting, tender gaze in his mother's eyes every time she looked at him—a gaze capable of melting anything. He finally understood that feeling. He also understood and felt the guilt she had carried for over twenty years...
"No wonder Xin'er's growth is so astonishing," Chu Yuechan said softly, holding her sleeping daughter tighter. Although she herself had no profound strength, to Yun Wuxin, she had always been the warmest and greatest support. "So it turns out she has a father who is like a myth."
"Unfortunately, that myth has already fallen," Yun Che said with a smile. Strangely, he felt not a trace of loss in his heart when he said this. He vaguely sensed that Yun Wuxin's abnormal talent was probably related to him—not only because she had inherited his Phoenix bloodline and Dragon God bloodline, but also because the abnormality in her profound veins might very well... have been influenced by his Evil God profound veins.
Although he had lost his power, the satisfaction of being able to give his daughter such remarkable talent surpassed everything else.
Chu Yuechan reached out and gently wiped the dust from his forehead. "You've been here so long and don't want to leave. Is it because you don't know how to face them?"
In such a short time, he had become so aged and broken. It was easy to imagine how deep the abyss of his heart and soul had fallen during this time.
She had experienced such an abyss herself. She knew what kind of despair it was. Back then, when she had self-destructed her profound veins, she had only wanted to die. It was Yun Che who pulled her back from that abyss and miraculously saved her.
"..." Yun Che closed his eyes and nodded slightly.
Chu Yuechan said softly, "Although you've been through so many storms and seen countless worlds that others cannot imagine, your nature hasn't changed at all. You're always used to—even domineeringly—wanting to protect others, to be their support. But you can't accept relying on others yourself... especially those important to you. You can't accept becoming a burden to them."
Yun Che: "..."
"Think back to that year, when I was pushed into a dead end by those two flood dragons. To kill them, I had no choice but to self-destruct my profound veins and become a cripple."
Even as she spoke now, her voice was calm and gentle. "At that time, I couldn't accept being a cripple. I only wanted to die. Do you remember how you pulled me back from the mire of death?"
"..." Yun Che's lips moved slightly.
"To protect me, and even more to prove your resolve to me, you took me with you into the Dragon God Trial Ground. That doubled the difficulty of the trial, and you had to divide your attention and strength to protect me. At that time, did you blame me for being a burden?" she asked.
It was during that time that his persistent protection melted all the ice in her heart. Because of him, she reignited her desire to live... And after he "died," she was willing to betray her sect to bear his child, never once regretting it.
Yun Che shook his head without hesitation. "How could I? How could you ever be a burden!"
"Then, did you enjoy protecting me, being relied upon by me?" she asked again.
Yun Che nodded without hesitation again.
"Then why are you unwilling to rely on them?" Chu Yuechan smiled. "Your parents, your family, your friends, your wives... They love you, not because of your strength, not because you can be their support, but because you exist, because you are alive and well in their lives. Being able to rely on you is naturally a kind of happiness. But being able to be relied upon by you, to use their own strength to protect you—isn't that another kind of happiness for everyone who loves you?"
"Just like you protect them, and they rely on you."
Yun Che was stunned. Something seemed to silently melt in his heart. He shook his head and chuckled softly. "I really am... an idiot. I couldn't even figure out something so simple."
Actually, if it had been yesterday, if someone else had said the exact same words to him, his heart would still have been shrouded in darkness. Chu Yuechan's words merely swept away the last obstacle in his heart. What truly changed things was his own state of mind.
"There's one more thing... A sentence you said to me back then. I remember it clearly, not a single word forgotten." Chu Yuechan looked at him and said softly, "No matter what I lose, as long as it's not my life, as long as I'm still alive, there is always hope to reclaim it. Living is the greatest hope. Living means everything is possible!"
"!" Yun Che's gaze froze... That was what he had shouted back then, when Chu Yuechan had self-destructed her profound veins and was filled with the will to die.
He gripped Chu Yuechan's hand tightly and smiled. He thought he had already cried all his tears dry, but somehow, his eyes blurred again... He understood the meaning of her words. She was not only sweeping away all the shadows in his heart, but also making him hold on to hope.
"Little fairy," he called softly. "Don't worry. I will live well. Because I have you, I have Wuxin, I have parents who value me more than their own lives. My wife is the Empress of Cang Feng, my fiancée is the number one divine maiden of the continent... And there are so many people who love me. What reason do I have not to live better than anyone else?"
"Even if I never have profound strength again, I will strive to live a long time—a hundred years, a thousand years... I will watch Wuxin grow up... I will make up for everything I owe you and my daughter... a thousand times, ten thousand times..."
He tightened his grip on Chu Yuechan's hands bit by bit. This time, he would never let go again.
"Good." Looking into his eyes, Chu Yuechan's gaze grew misty. "Remember what you just said. If you forget, I will recite it to you word by word..."
Her voice suddenly stopped, and her face turned deathly pale.
Yun Che immediately felt something was wrong. "Little fairy, what's wr—"
Pff—
Crimson blood splattered onto Yun Che's body, and like thousands of red-hot steel needles, it pierced into his pupils and his very soul.