Chapter 1863: The Secret That Cannot Be Told
While the Northern Divine Region was reorganizing, the Divine Realm had fallen into the greatest upheaval in its history.
Especially the Western Divine Region—it was almost completely turned upside down.
When Long Bai forcibly ordered all Divine Lords from the Six King Realms of the Western Region to use the Qiankun Dragon City to leap through space and crush the Northern Divine Region's encampment, every cultivator in the Divine Realm was stirred with excitement and fervor.
And during the six hours Long Bai had ordered them to wait for Yun Che, the news that the Northern Divine Region's formation was completely overwhelmed spread without a doubt. At that time, almost everyone was certain that after the Dragon Emperor's return with thunderous speed and ruthless decisiveness, one battle would annihilate the Northern Divine Region once and for all.
During the clash between both sides, a large part of the Southern Divine Region trembled, and countless Southern Domain cultivators fled desperately. But when everything stopped, the news that came out nearly shattered everyone's hearts.
The Western Region collapsed, Long Bai died, and all Divine Lords from the four realms of Dragon God, Di Chi, Hui Dragon, and Wanxiang were completely annihilated… including all Dragon Gods and Dragon Lords… *all*!
Only the Qilin and Azure Dragon realms remained.
When this news arrived, everyone's first reaction was disbelief—not a single word could be believed. Only the people of the Azure Dragon Realm and Qilin Realm, after receiving transmissions that crossed entire Divine Regions, found themselves dizzy and disoriented for a long time in the face of such terrifying reality.
---
Inside the Qiankun Dragon City.
The barrier dissipated, and Yun Che let out an especially comfortable sigh. Then he saw Cai Zhi sitting in front of the jade couch, her face expressionless as she looked at him coldly.
His lecherous grin froze on his face. His mouth twitched several times before he managed to force out a dry voice: "Cai Cai Cai… Cai Zhi, you're awake?"
"I've been awake for three hours," Cai Zhi said coldly… during that time, she had even circled the Qiankun Dragon City three times.
"~!@#$%^……" Mu Xuanyin turned around. The faint icy radiance around her quickly dissipated the strange smell on her body, and her figure vanished in an instant—so fast that Yun Che couldn't even react.
For a moment, Yun Che didn't know whether to chase after her or not. Just a few hours ago, he had been the invincible Northern Domain Demon Lord who had cast the mighty Dragon God Realm into the abyss, but now his face was flushed with blood, his scalp tingled, and he wished he could split himself in half.
"Carrying on with another woman in front of your own official wife," Cai Zhi said, her creamy little face stiff and expressionless. "Is this how you fulfill the promise you made to me and to my sister—that you would treat me well?"
The word "sister" coming from Cai Zhi's lips made Yun Che freeze instantly. All the soothing words he had planned vanished, and he couldn't utter a single one.
"Cai Zhi, I…"
Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly heard a *snicker* from her. He raised his head in disbelief and saw Cai Zhi's pink lips pursed, her brows curved in a smile… For a moment, he seemed to see the same delicate, pure, elf-like girl, yet also the mischievous "Little Mo Li" from those days.
"Hmph, you're already a Demon Lord, but you still get startled so easily. Hee hee." Cai Zhi tilted her head, her delicate little feet swinging back and forth on the couch, completely different from her previous demeanor. She pouted slightly and said, "If it were some other random woman, I would definitely be angry—especially that vicious woman Qianye. I wouldn't talk to you for a month."
"But only Xuan Yin-jie, I'm not angry at all. If it weren't for her, back then I would have…"
She didn't finish. She reached out to Yun Che and said, "Brother-in-law, come here."
After waking up, Cai Zhi's demeanor had changed quite a bit. Clearly, she now knew what had happened while she was unconscious, and perhaps because of that, she had let go of the heavy shackles she had imposed on herself.
Yun Che walked over and sat beside her, speaking with affection: "Cai Zhi, do you still feel uncomfortable anywhere?"
Cai Zhi didn't answer. She moved her head over and gently leaned against Yun Che's chest, then closed her eyes… After a long while, she softly said, "Brother-in-law, everything is over, right?"
"Right, everything is over," Yun Che said. "Long Bai is dead. Almost everyone who deserved to die is dead. Only Zhou Xuzi remains—I spared his life. Letting him die so easily would be far too merciful."
"In this world, there is nothing left that can threaten us. The rules of the future world will also be set by us."
"Mm." Cai Zhi responded softly, then suddenly murmured, "Why… why is it that only my sister can't see this… why… why only my sister…"
The whisper was like a dream, every word shattering the heart.
Yun Che reached out and embraced her, letting out a long breath.
The Blue Extreme Star was intact. His homeland, all his family and loved ones were safe. He had successfully taken revenge. The Northern Divine Region had reversed its fate. Even Mu Xuanyin, whom he thought he had lost forever, had returned to his life.
Only Mo Li…
Even if he tortured Zhou Xuzi for a thousand or ten thousand years, he could never bring back his Mo Li.
---
As soon as Mu Xuanyin left the bedchamber, she saw Chi Wuyue, who had been waiting there all along.
"How many rounds?" Chi Wuyue asked with a smile.
"…" Mu Xuanyin really wanted to hit someone right now.
If it weren't for her ten-thousand-year ice-cold appearance, her face would probably be flushed red by now. In her entire life, she had never been so embarrassed.
In just three hours, Yun Che had subjected her to dominance, violence, disrespect, blasphemy… and toward the end, it even bordered on roughness and ravishment. He was using this most unrestrained, most extreme way to tell her—and himself—that he was no longer her disciple.
Unable to bear Chi Wuyue's gaze, Mu Xuanyin's icy figure flickered away. But before fleeing too far, she suddenly stopped, waved her snow-white hand, and set up a light blue soundproof barrier around the two of them.
"At Long Bai's place, what did you see?" Mu Xuanyin frowned icily and asked in a low voice.
Chi Wuyue's smile immediately faded.
She raised her jade hand and, within the barrier Mu Xuanyin had cast, set up another layer of soundproof barrier, entwining it with her Nirvana Wheel Demon Soul.
A double-layered barrier plus the Nirvana Wheel Demon Soul—even if someone with soul power as strong as Yun Che or Shui Meiyin tried to invade, they wouldn't succeed.
Chi Wuyue's jade lips parted slightly, and she spoke in a very soft voice: "When Shen Xi died, she was carrying… Yun Che's child in her womb."
"…" Mu Xuanyin abruptly turned around, her icy face dramatically changing: "What did you say!?"
"Back when Yun Che left the Reincarnation Forbidden Land, he clearly didn't know that Shen Xi was already pregnant with his child," Chi Wuyue said in the gentlest voice. "Shen Xi knew about Long Bai's twisted feelings for her, so she kept the existence of this child hidden all along, never allowing it to be born."
"However, this indirectly proves one thing," Chi Wuyue continued. "Shen Xi's feelings for Yun Che might not have been purely about using him. She might have developed some deep or shallow affection. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been willing to take such a huge risk to keep their child… and she poured very deep feelings into that child."
The words Shen Xi cried out after losing the child in her womb, the poisonous vows she made—Chi Wuyue couldn't help but be deeply moved by them.
But those words were too cruel and heart-wrenching; she would not tell them to Mu Xuanyin.
Mu Xuanyin was silent for a very, very long time before muttering to herself, "No wonder… no wonder…"
When someone heard that Long Bai killed Shen Xi, they would definitely find it impossible to believe. Because who in the Divine Domain didn't know that Long Bai had been infatuated with "Dragon Empress" for hundreds of thousands of years? No matter how angry he was, he would never have stooped to killing her outright.
So it was that child—that was the final straw that crushed Long Bai's sanity and made him completely collapse.
"Boy? Or girl?" Mu Xuanyin asked, her fingers curling tightly, her heart clenching in pain.
"I don't know," Chi Wuyue said. "In Long Bai's memory, Shen Xi called that child 'Xi'er.' Based on the name, it's more likely a girl."
As she said these words, Chi Wuyue's vision flickered with the image of Yun Che holding the Liuyin Stone his daughter had given him, his grief so deep it shattered his heart, and a long, suffocating tightness seized her chest.
It was easy to imagine what would happen if Yun Che found out about this…
"Did she really die?" Mu Xuanyin asked again.
"That palm—Long Bai struck Shen Xi's abdomen with all his strength," Chi Wuyue said with a soft sigh.
The memories she had seized were the images flowing through Long Bai's consciousness half an hour before his death. Because Long Bai's soul had shattered, most of those images were incomplete, but they were enough to reveal the outline.
"…" Mu Xuanyin closed her eyes, remaining speechless for a long time.
"However," Chi Wuyue's crescent brows tilted slightly, and she whispered, "In Long Bai's final memory fragments, there is no image of Shen Xi dying. The only image of him attacking Shen Xi is that one palm… and whenever he recalled that palm, his soul was accompanied by extremely heavy regret and pain."
"Regret? Pain?" Mu Xuanyin's voice turned icy. "He deserves that!?"
Then her voice shifted: "Are you saying Shen Xi might still be alive?"
Chi Wuyue shook her head. "I'm not sure. Over these few hours, I've carefully sorted through all of Long Bai's memory fragments several times, and I discovered something a bit strange."
Mu Xuanyin: "?"
"Just before his death, his final thoughts were not hatred for Yun Che, but longing for Shen Xi." Chi Wuyue's expression was somewhat complicated.
Half an hour before Long Bai's death, he was facing the brutal battle between the Northern and Western Divine Regions—the battle where Yun Che crushed and savaged him, and where the Northern Domain fought back and slaughtered the Western Domain…
Under such circumstances, no one would be able to divert their attention to anything else.
Yet a large portion of Long Bai's consciousness was filled with Shen Xi!
Especially when he was fighting Yun Che, all the thoughts churning in his heart and soul were maddened intentions to prove himself to Shen Xi.
His infatuation with Shen Xi had reached an extremely pathological level—so extreme that others might not even understand it.
"However, that longing was not the desire to find Shen Xi in another world after death," Chi Wuyue paused for a moment, then after thinking it over again, said, "Rather, it was the desire for Shen Xi to appear again and save him."
Mu Xuanyin said, "So Shen Xi might not have actually…"
"Don't be too optimistic," Chi Wuyue shook her head again. "Shen Xi possessed a special kind of light profound energy. Before Yun Che, it was a power that belonged only to her in that era."
"Long Bai had known her for hundreds of thousands of years and was extremely familiar with her aura. If she were still alive in this world, with her unique light aura and the vast power of the Dragon God Realm, Long Bai would have no reason not to have found her all these years."
This irrefutable reason caused the icy radiance in Mu Xuanyin's eyes to dim.
"Long Bai's final soul images might have been his inability to believe, forgive, or accept what he had done after killing Shen Xi. So he implanted a soul hint in himself, telling himself that Shen Xi had only disappeared. That way, his pain and regret could be alleviated, and he could forgive himself."
"Or perhaps… Shen Xi really isn't dead, but is hidden in some place where even the Dragon God Realm cannot find her."
"Only…" She looked at Mu Xuanyin. "Can this hope be given to him?"
"No." Without any need for thought, Mu Xuanyin directly shook her head.
Having endured the bone-piercing, soul-burning pain back then and the dark abyss of these past years, Yun Che had already accepted the fact that Shen Xi was dead.
If they gave him such hope now… it would likely only bring back the sharp pain of disappointment.
And if Shen Xi truly wasn't dead, then when she appeared again one day, it would undoubtedly bring a miracle-like, huge surprise.
"Do not tell him about the child either," Mu Xuanyin turned around, looking into the distance. "He has already borne far too much over these years. In the time to come, I only hope that he can live a life of pleasure without any more worries. Even if he indulges in lust and pleasure, wastes his life, or even becomes a tyrant, that's fine. We absolutely cannot drill another hole in his soul that will never heal."
In her eyes, this world already owed Yun Che far too much. No matter how much compensation or atonement, it would never be enough.
Even if Yun Che were to turn the Divine Realm into a disaster-ridden hell, she would not stop him.
After all, she had one major difference from those around Yun Che…
She had truly died once.
Chi Wuyue nodded deeply. "This matter, only the two of us will know."