Chapter 6

Su Lun sighed but didn’t answer.

Liu Shuang didn’t press him, as he wasn’t the one she wanted to ask. She just didn’t understand—if Yan Chaosheng didn’t love her, why did he marry her?

Su Lun took her back to the Ghost Realm Palace. As they approached, Liu Shuang saw many demons coming out one after another. Normally, she wouldn’t have cared, but today was different.

In previous years, Yan Chaosheng’s birthday was always a grand affair, with the Nine-Headed Bird performing songs, its tail feathers shining like rainbows, and cups clinking in celebration. Today, the lavish decorations were still in place, and the banquet hadn’t started yet, but the demons were being dismissed and leaving the Ghost Realm.

Chang Huan anxiously waited at the front of the palace. Seeing Liu Shuang, he worriedly asked, “Madam, how did you get hurt?”

On Liu Shuang’s fair neck, a fierce purple bruise from being choked looked particularly menacing.

Liu Shuang didn’t answer Chang Huan, instead staring at the departing demons.

Yan Chaosheng valued this day greatly, not because he cared much about his birthday but because, over the years, he had been stationed in the Ghost Realm, fighting for the Ghost Realm and unable to attend to the Demon Realm. Therefore, the great demons selected emissaries to come to the Ghost Realm on this day to celebrate the Demon Lord’s birthday and report important matters of the Demon Realm.

This morning, she begged Yan Chaosheng for a moment alone, but he refused. Now, he was dismissing the demon emissaries.

For the first time in a century, he broke the tradition.

It was as if something had pierced through the fog, revealing a vague truth.

When Su Lun saw Liu Shuang watching the departing demon emissaries, he knew it wasn’t good. He said, “Madam, this place is full of chaos; let’s go back.”

Liu Shuang tightened her cloak, pursed her lips, and, for the first time, didn’t listen to him obediently. Instead, she walked toward the demon emissaries.

She climbed the steps, her purple robe fluttering. Surrounded by the departing emissaries, she heard conversations she had always ignored but now found hard to miss.

“Why did the Demon Lord cancel the banquet and send us away? What if important matters of the Demon Realm are delayed?”

“You don’t know? Feng Fuming wouldn’t dare provoke the Demon Lord, but this time he attacked the Ghost Realm because of one person—his concubine, the Heavenly Queen Mi Chu.”

“Oh? The Heavenly Queen Mi Chu, the one reputed as the most beautiful woman in the Immortal Realm?”

“That’s right. It’s said that hundreds of years ago, she and our Demon Lord had a romantic past and nearly married him.”

“Is that true?”

“Of course. If Feng Fuming hadn’t interfered back then, Mi Chu would have married the Demon Lord and become our queen.”

The emissary laughed ambiguously, “After all these years, who would have thought the Demon Lord still had feelings for her? He’s been planning for hundreds of years, and finally, he seized her from Feng Fuming.”

“Mi Chu is quite spirited. To be with the Demon Lord, she followed him back and jumped into the Transcendent Mirror, damaging her soul and nearly dissipating. The Demon Lord saved her and has been searching everywhere for soul-stabilizing items, but her life-bound jade bamboo is gone, and she’s gravely injured. Her soul could disperse again at any time.”

Everyone suddenly understood, “Soul healing requires quiet. No wonder the Demon Lord ordered the banquet to be dismissed. Her condition must have worsened.”

“After centuries apart, to be reunited again—the Demon Lord truly cherishes her.”

The wind lifted Liu Shuang’s cloak, layers of gauze fluttering. Amidst the demon aura, she heard for the first time many stories she hadn’t known.

One by one, the demons left, and the door to the Ghost Realm Palace slowly closed behind her. In the end, only Chang Huan and Su Lun stayed with her.

She sat on the stone steps, lost in thought, holding the headband in her hands. The immortal energy had long been eroded by the ghostly aura.

Su Lun didn’t know what she was thinking after hearing all that and said, “Madam, don’t listen to these wild rumors. The Demon Lord wasn’t as renowned in his youth as he is now. He was just an obscure disciple of the immortal sect. No one knows his past except himself. These rumors are just baseless speculation.”

Chang Huan was also softly called “Madam.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Liu Shuang smiled weakly, her face pale.

“Thank you, Lord Su Lun. Even if it was a lie, you made me happy for a century. I won’t take it too hard. I’m just sad because he…he never really liked me.”

“Grandpa Tree said that the heavens decide fate, and we can’t force it. After a century of marriage, I want to hear from him, not from others’ gossip.”

Su Lun opened his mouth but saw her suppress her tears, her eyes clear and bright.

Even now, she believes in Yan Chaosheng. She wouldn’t deny him completely just because of what others said.

Su Lun fell silent. In the past, as Yan Chaosheng’s advisor, he initially approached Liu Shuang to further his own career and didn’t think highly of her.

She had weak spiritual energy, was naive, and believed everything she was told. She cherished even the most worthless things and was always cheerful. Su Lun, though respectful outwardly, inwardly thought she was unworthy of being the consort of the two-realm monarch Yan Chaosheng.

But a century had passed in a flash, and he began to truly understand her.

Her mind was pure, bright, and optimistic despite being neglected. She created a small sea of flowers and towering phoenix trees in the Ghost Realm. Even when betrayed, she didn’t wallow in self-pity or anger, nor did she easily believe others’ gossip about Yan Chaosheng.

Upon learning about Mi Chu, she didn’t lose control or act disgracefully. She just waited for Yan Chaosheng’s answer with clear, tear-filled eyes, ready to trust her husband if he explained.

Su Lun bowed deeply, this time with the reverence reserved for a monarch, “Madam will be very happy.”

For the first time in a century, he offered a simple blessing instead of his usual eloquent words.

Someone as good as her—how could anyone truly dislike her?

Chang Huan helped Liu Shuang wash and looked worriedly at the mark on her neck. As a ghost cultivator, Chang Huan’s techniques were mostly poisonous and aggressive, with no healing skills.

Lord Su Lun was just an advisor and wouldn’t touch her to avoid suspicion, so the glaring mark remained.

Liu Shuang said, “It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt anymore; it just looks frightening. Tell the guards that if the Demon Lord heals Mi Chu, he should come back. I have something to say to him.”

“I’ll remember.”

After Chang Huan left, Liu Shuang covered herself with a cloud-silk quilt, curled up, and trembled slightly, letting her tears soak the quilt.

She didn’t tell anyone how scared she was today when surrounded by ghost cultivators—their malicious laughter, foul smell, countless hands reaching for her, and their ghastly faces terrified her.

What she said to Lord Su Lun wasn’t all she felt. She was actually very sad, pressing hard on her heart to stop the overwhelming sadness and grief.

Grandfather Tree, who has lived for tens of thousands of years, said that among human desires, jealousy, and obsession, the most difficult hurdle to overcome is love—

When you love someone who doesn’t love you back, if you don’t cherish yourself, you will become pitiful.

Liu Shuang didn’t want to become pitiful.

Born of nature, she was only around two hundred years old, a mere child compared to the immortals, demons, and gods who had lived for millennia. She never felt insignificant, instead feeling happy and fulfilled. She spent her first hundred years learning about the ways of the world and growing up in innocence. The next hundred years were devoted entirely to loving Yan Chaosheng.

To the Demon Lord Yan Chaosheng, these hundred years might have been a fleeting moment, a distraction during his conquests. But to Liu Shuang, it was half her life.

Covering her mouth, Liu Shuang tried to suppress her sobs. She wanted to be stronger, at least until Yan Chaosheng returned. Even if he told her he had never loved her, she wanted to be able to leave him gracefully and tell him that she was okay, that a century had passed, and that she was no longer the ignorant and fragile being she had been when she first took human form. She had been trying to grow up and stand on her own.

Even if she had to leave him someday, she wanted to be able to swallow her sadness and grief on her own and still smile and wish him well.

However, on this night, when she returned home, she felt like a snail retreating into its shell. The paper cranes fluttered in the gentle breeze, and the light from the lanterns seemed soothing. She couldn’t help but cry.

In her life, the experience of longing for and loving Yan Chaosheng had consumed all her tenderness and affection.

This night in the GhostRealm, a rare event that happens once in decades, akin to snow in six lunar month in the human world, took place. At midnight, under the cries of ghost crows, it began to rain in the Ghost Realm.

Unlike the rain in the human world, the rain in the Ghost Realm was black and filled with dense ghostly energy.

Rain was rare in the Ghost Realm, and for ghosts, this rain was a precious boon from the heavens. But for immortals and other creatures, it was as corrosive as poison.

Liu Shuang opened the window and saw the garden, with its sea of flowers wilting under the rain and their roots being eroded.

She called out, “Chang Huan!”

No one responded; Chang Huan was nowhere to be found. The strong wind howled, and the ground quickly accumulated a thin layer of black rain. The world seemed silent; even the ghost crows were gone, and it felt as if she was the only person left.

At this moment, she realized how much she had failed as Yan Chaosheng’s consort. Besides Chang Huan, Lord Su Lun, and the usually stern General Fu Heng, she knew very few people, making it hard to ask for help.

Everything she had nurtured and cherished was withering before her eyes. These were her memories, evidence of her existence.

Even though Liu Shuang didn’t fit in with the Ghost Realm, after a hundred years, this small realm had almost become her home. She stood under the veranda, watching the garden she had meticulously cared for being ravaged by the storm.

When the tall phoenix tree in the courtyard started to retract its branches, becoming nearly transparent and ready to disappear, Liu Shuang couldn’t hold back anymore. She threw on her cloak and ran out.

She spread her hands, and a faint green glow of immortal energy began to flow from her fingertips towards the phoenix tree.

This action could only delay its erosion, not save it. Liu Shuang tried to find something to shield it from the rain, but in the Ghost Realm, her immortal energy was weak and insignificant. Even when she managed to form a barrier, it shattered moments later.

No one was there to help her. She realized she couldn’t even create a barrier to protect this garden from the rain.

The rain fell on her, causing corrosive pain that made her groan and collapse. At that moment, she finally understood Grandpa Tree’s words—immortals should live where they belong, absorbing the essence of the moon and dew, not forgetting the greater path, and continuing their solitary cultivation.

Not stopping for anyone, imprisoning oneself, and giving up on moving forward.

She couldn’t save the little world she had meticulously created over the past decades. Now, sitting in the rain, she couldn’t even save herself.

Liu Shuang struggled to get up, but the eerie ghostly energy began to corrode her body, turning her lips dark.

Amidst the storm, someone stepped through the wind and rain. In a flash of black energy, they appeared by her side and lifted her from the ground.

For the first time, Liu Shuang felt her body temperature was colder than his. Her body, eroded by ghostly energy, trembled, and she actually found Yan Chaosheng’s body warm.

“What, have you lost the will to live?”

Liu Shuang had never heard Yan Chaosheng speak in such a cold, angry, and urgent tone. The man’s arms holding her were so tight they made her bones ache slightly, as if he wanted to strangle her, giving her the illusion that he wasn’t completely indifferent to her.

She looked at the courtyard. Under the heavy rain, everything born of her spiritual energy had vanished, as if they had never existed over the past decades.

From now on, would there still be colors and places she liked in the Ghost Realm?