Chapter 92: The Dark Lady

In the residence of the Dark Maiden within the Vast Sea Realm, Xuanting had spent several days outside subduing many of her former followers. Lately, he had also gained some fresh insight and feared he might be on the verge of a breakthrough, so he remained in the palace to cultivate in hopes of ascending to divinity as soon as possible. Suoyun, meanwhile, had gone to the Stone-Guard Realm to search for the private treasures he had hidden away in former years, and had not returned for several years.

Since the first day Huaiyin saw his mother, he had devoted every waking moment to tending her injuries, scarcely stepping outside the palace even once.

Naturally, he was the first to notice the Dark Maiden’s strangeness.

Just as Rongling had once been, the Dark Maiden had exhausted too much of her spiritual essence, forcing her primordial spirit to retreat into the center of the brow. She lay in a state little different from a living corpse. Though Huaiyin diligently infused her with vital energy to aid circulation, there was no response.

When Xuanting was drawn over by Huaiyin’s cry, she had already recovered swiftly from her dazed state and greeted them both with composed calm.

“Xuanting? Then this must be my son, Huaiyin.”

“Mother? Mother, you are truly awake?” Huaiyin, abandoned alone in the Secret Realm of Hexi from the moment of his birth, had an attachment to his mother beyond measure. Though he had lived with her day and night all these years, he had always done so with his heart suspended in worry.

He worried whether his mother would ever wake; he worried whether he himself had grown into someone worthy of her pride...

And yet his mother had truly awakened, and recognized him at a glance. At this moment, a long-cherished wish was finally fulfilled, and Huaiyin, who had not cried once since reaching adulthood, could not help but break into tears.

The Dark Maiden smiled and drew her son into her arms, patting his shoulder gently as she said to Xuanting, “I never expected that upon waking, I would be able to see you all.”

Xuanting, too, was too stirred to conceal his emotions. Back then, it had all been because of his own moment of indulgence in drink that had caused his friend grievous injury, one to such a degree that one was left maimed and another reborn. He himself had been torn from wife and children. Though the true culprit had been One-Who-Awakened-Understanding, he had never been able to forgive himself, and even felt in his heart that his own sin was the greater one. That had been the reason he had previously been willing to let the matter be settled between himself and that man.

If only he had been able to control himself... how could One-Who-Awakened-Understanding’s scheme have succeeded, and how could the Dark Maiden have been driven to such desperate measures?

Thus, after finding the Dark Maiden, aside from accompanying her at fixed times each day and helping her clear her channels, he had been running all over the Vast Sea Realm, working to reclaim the foundation she had once built. He had not even returned once to his own Well-Fragrant Realm.

And now Rongling’s injuries had healed. Though Huayun had been reborn, her cultivation had advanced at a shocking pace, and she would surely regain the rank of Earthly Immortal far earlier than he ever would.

Moreover, he had quietly decided to make amends by giving her their son, which would also count as the settling of one more wish.

Only the Dark Maiden remained. So long as she was still unconscious, he would continue to suffer.

How could he not be agitated now? In that instant, excitement, remorse, joy, and hesitation all tangled together in his heart, until in the end they came out as nothing more than a dry, strained “Dark Maiden...”

Yet the Dark Maiden seemed not to blame him in the least. With a radiant smile, she said, “Quickly, tell me everything that has happened to you.”

Xuanting only felt gratitude too deep for words. To have such a wife—what more could a man ask? At once, he recounted everything about the others in full and without omission.

After some thought, the Dark Maiden asked, “You say Rongling has recovered. Where is he now?”

“He should have returned to his own Rosestar Realm. Since you have awakened, shall I summon him here?”

“No rush. You said that One-Who-Awakened-Understanding has now been reborn as a scholar-practitioner, and that he is also in the Rosestar Realm?”

“Yes. Dark Maiden, will you blame me for letting him go? I only thought...” Xuanting grew somewhat ashamed. He suddenly realized that One-Who-Awakened-Understanding had not only deceived him alone, but he had taken it upon himself to spare the man. He did not know whether the Dark Maiden, Huayun, and Rongling would be displeased in their hearts...

Seeing him like this, the Dark Maiden smiled and said, “No. He was only confused for a time. Cultivation has not come easily to us through all these years. When it is possible to show mercy, we should. Since you say to let him go, then of course I will listen to you.”

Yet inwardly she could not help sighing. In truth, he was far inferior to Rongling.

Back then, when she had been officially appointed as a realm lord in the Upper Realm, the very first person she saw was Rongling, and at a glance she had fallen for him.

At that time, the five of them had each been appointed rulers of separate lower realms, and what followed was ten days and nights of feasting and drinking.

One-Who-Awakened-Understanding was a Zen practitioner. Though elegant and exquisitely handsome, he was a Zen practitioner with a mind too sharp and a touch of devilry.

Huayun was rough and reckless, forever chasing after her day after day, annoying beyond words.

Xuanting, although more handsome and graceful than Huayun, more carefree and gallant than One-Who-Awakened-Understanding, and likewise more simple, kind, open, and generous, still could not compare with Rongling.

Rongling had an extraordinary bearing. He was intelligent without displaying it, upright without being rash, proper and cautious in manner, yet never petty. He was, in truth, the most perfect man she had ever seen in more than a hundred thousand years.

Alas, he was pure and restrained; no matter how she probed, he would not sink into temptation even a little.

It was not that she had to find a partner. Only, love had come too quickly, leaving one unprepared.

Just when she had used every means at her disposal and still failed to win him over, Xuanting had asked Dongli the Star Lord to act as matchmaker. She had not wished to agree, but one sentence from the Star Lord of Dongli awakened her.

“You are already one hundred fifty-nine thousand eight hundred years old, aren’t you? In another two hundred years, you will face the first thunder tribulation since becoming an Earthly Immortal. Have you thought how you will survive it? No matter what faults Xuanting may have, one thing alone makes up for all of them.

He has a lightning spiritual root...”

Yes. Compared with humans, the cultivation of the beastfolk was even harder. Even after becoming Earthly Immortals or Golden Immortals, they still had to find ways to endure the thunder tribulation that came every five hundred years. As their cultivation rose, each tribulation became harder than the last. It was said that even someone like the Rat King wanted to borrow the Second Crown Prince of Heaven’s golden bell dome, simply to ensure safe passage through his tribulation.

She possessed a wood spiritual root, making tribulation even more difficult. Though her regenerative power was strong, each time she survived by the skin of her teeth, she still lost half her life. But if, if she had the help of someone with a lightning spiritual root...

The temptation was simply too great. She had never been one to place some hollow notion of love above all else, and thus had immediately agreed to Xuanting’s proposal.

After that, her tribulations indeed became much easier to endure than before. Yet by an unfortunate twist of fate, she had become pregnant just as the next tribulation was about to arrive.

No matter how capable Xuanting was, he could not help her safely withstand two tribulations stacked together, and so...

When Rongling and Huayun arrived, the Dark Maiden was already able to walk about on her own and looked no different from a normal person.

Huaiyin, however, still refused to leave his mother’s side, clinging to her tightly as if trying to make up for all the years he had lacked maternal love.

Rongling remained as cool and faint as ever. Unexpectedly, Huayun was also completely unlike her former self. Of course, now that she had become a woman, she naturally would not pine for him as she once had. But still...

“Dark Maiden, you’re awake? Where is the Heaven-Throughing Mirror?”

As soon as Huayun spoke, Rongling and Xuanting both turned to look at her. Xuanting even slapped his own forehead. “Look at me. For so many days, I didn’t even remember to ask about the Heaven-Throughing Mirror.”

The Dark Maiden’s mind turned through dozens of circuits, and in the end she still smiled and said, “So the thing you care about most is the Heaven-Throughing Mirror’s whereabouts. I thought you would first ask how well I had recovered.”

Huayun looked at her somewhat strangely. “Since you can already stand here speaking with us, then naturally you are no longer in any serious danger. The Heaven-Throughing Mirror is obviously more important.”

The Dark Maiden smiled awkwardly, feeling a little embarrassed. Huayun had always been like this: when she loved someone, she cherished them to the depths of her bones; once she no longer loved them, she became so heartless it was as though she had never felt anything at all.

Seeing that she still had not spoken, Rongling asked as well, “Is there something you cannot say? If it has been lost, then it is no matter. Describe the form it took before it vanished, and we will search for it ourselves.”

Seeing that even he had asked in urging, the Dark Maiden hesitated before saying, “It’s not that there is anything I cannot say. It’s just that even if you found the Heaven-Throughing Mirror, it would be useless. The artifact spirit has already been taken away by One-Who-Awakened-Understanding. Without the spirit, even if you obtained the mirror, there would be absolutely no way to use it.”

“Besides, though I am much improved now, I still cannot withstand the heavenly thunder. Once the Heaven-Throughing Mirror is taken out and the path to the heavens is opened, the thunder accumulated over several tens of thousands of years is bound to descend. Surely you do not mean to watch me die beneath the heavenly thunder without so much as a trace of bones left behind?”

Hearing this, Huaiyin grew very worried. “Mother, didn’t they say that back then... when Suoyun took the Heaven-Throughing Mirror away, he had already deceived the heavenly thunder? How can it still descend?”

The Dark Maiden turned away, her figure slender and faint, as if she might be carried off by the wind at any moment. Her voice was lonely and desolate as she said, “Child, how could heavenly thunder be deceived? Even if it is delayed for a while, in the end it will only come down all the more violently. It will never miss its mark.”

“This...”

“If you knew from the beginning that this would be the result, why did you still have Huayun help you take the Heaven-Throughing Mirror away?” Rongling’s cool voice shattered the sorrowful atmosphere she had tried so hard to create. Huayun had originally felt a little sympathy for her, but hearing this, she immediately realized the matter and looked at her with bright, searching eyes.

“I only wanted to wait until after the child was born, prepare more fully, and then face the heavenly thunder. How was I to know I would drag Huayun and you into it... This truly was my fault. I caused you all to suffer for so many years. If you wish to take revenge, I will not say a single word against it.” With a sob in her voice, the Dark Maiden looked at the two of them pitifully. Huayun’s heart softened so much that she almost felt herself to be worse than a pig or a dog, how could she have misunderstood such a kind and responsible girl in this way...

Rongling merely turned his head away indifferently. Xuanting grew resentful and shouted, “How can this be the Dark Maiden’s fault? It is my fault! If you are to blame anyone, blame me entirely. The Dark Maiden is so good—how could you bear to hurt her?!”

“Lord husband, don’t say that. You are not at fault. You were only deceived by One-Who-Awakened-Understanding. We were all deceived by him. Rongling and the others have no fault in questioning me either. Who told me I was unable to see people clearly in the first place!”

When the Dark Maiden saw Xuanting flare up, she threw her arms around him at once and collapsed into his embrace, weeping as though her heart and liver were being torn apart.

Xuanting only felt that One-Who-Awakened-Understanding was the sole author of all the tragedy in his life. He must have been blind in the head back then to have let him off so lightly. Holding the Dark Maiden’s frail body in his arms, he felt he had utterly failed the beautiful woman in his embrace. At once he was ready to ignore his vows and rush off to find One-Who-Awakened-Understanding.

“Have you forgotten that you swore a demonic-heart oath?” With just one sentence, Rongling successfully stopped him again.

Even Huayun could not help grumbling inwardly. Just how did a person like Xuanting ever become an Earthly Immortal, and even manage to coax the Dark Maiden into marrying him... was it really just because he had too good a fate?

“But the artifact spirit is still in One-Who-Awakened-Understanding’s hands. We absolutely must find her first!” Xuanting finally managed to say something reliable, which at least kept him from looking too ridiculous.

“Find the artifact spirit... in any case, let us go first to the Rosestar Realm.” Rongling gazed toward the Rosestar Realm. There, the beginning of everything had occurred, and there too would be where everything ended.

The author has something to say: my computer went haywire and kept me from updating in time... sorry, sorry.