“Lixuan.”
Dappled sunlight spilled through the branches. In that instant, Jiang Chen’s ever-cool features rippled with unwonted gentleness.
He rarely looked at anyone so tenderly.
For the first time, he felt the twenty years of waiting truly worthwhile—though he’d never once regretted it, save occasional resentment at his absence.
The Zhao Lixuan before him was just like in the old days.
Vibrant and bright, vividly alive. Seemingly carefree, yet always harboring a pure clarity.
Thinking back… he’d rejected everyone else, allowing only this man to draw near step by step. Wasn’t it because he craved that beam of light piercing his own darkness?
Years later, Zhao Lixuan had changed—yet never truly.
Still so captivatingly interesting—though now that interest often came as carefree barbs that dulled into aches upon his heart, Jiang Chen savored it all the same.
Even if Lixuan despised him, refused to see him, and wouldn’t exploit him in the slightest.
He’d never changed.
Zhao Lixuan heard Jiang Chen chuckle softly.
Looking up, it wasn’t the sarcasm or bitterness of their reunions. Amid the shifting tree shadows, for the first time in those dark eyes, he saw an unfamiliar resolve and tenderness.
“It’s my own wish… to enter… the Divine Miracle.”
“Not… for you.”
“For… myself.”
Zhao Lixuan felt his chest stuff with tangled hemp, impossible to unravel. Past or present, Jiang Chen had always evoked damp ancient wood entwined with water weeds—rarely so bright and mild.
“Because… back then…”
Jiang Chen murmured softly: “Being with you… filled me… with such joy.”
That had been the most radiant, sweetest, happiest time of his life.
Only in the midst of it had he been oblivious.
“I truly… cherished it. I want… to live… those days… again.”
Dull by nature, aloof and stubborn to a fault. Amid spring’s bloom and honeyed bliss, he’d been unaware—or dimly aware, yet inexplicably resisted admitting it.
Now, at last, he understood.
Regret tinged with quiet relief. At least… he’d learned a bit more about this world.
His fingertips lingered, caressing the wrist tenderly.
Since reuniting, save a few uncontrollable embraces, Jiang Chen had restrained himself fiercely. Knowing Zhao Lixuan disliked his touch, he’d limited it to tugging a sleeve—until today, daring to hold on and unwilling to release.
Warm sunlight bathed them as he continued: “I know… the Divine Miracles… are perilous.”
“So, if… this journey… succeeds.”
“Will you… stop… despising me?”
“…And allow me… to stay… a while longer?”
“You don’t… have to love me.”
“Lixuan, I truly… ask for nothing more.”
“As long as… I can look upon you… joy… fills my heart.”
“…”
“……”
Afterward, Zhao Lixuan exchanged messages with Xia Yunjie and the others to discuss the matter.
Upon hearing that he planned to venture into the Divine Miracle after so many years, Xia Yunjie naturally opposed it vehemently.
The two of them argued right there.
The Fate-Linking Stone transmitted their voices loudly and clearly. Who would have thought that the seemingly steady and composed Immortal Leader Xia was just as unreasonable in private as that Yin Canshang?
And that Senior Brother Yin was there too, doubling the volume of their shouts: “Absolutely not!” “You get back here right now!” It gave everyone a headache, with Yu Rumu’s faint attempts at mediation occasionally interspersed.
Zhao Lixuan refused to back down, arguing his case with reason and logic.
Jiang Chen watched his animated expression quietly.
He really is that same boy from twenty years ago on the long street in Luo State, who grabbed him without a care and dragged him home. Clearly, he should have known back then—he liked him exactly like this.
Why so foolish? Wasting all those years before realizing it.
……
That night, Fu Xi Palace was silent as the grave, everything in perfect order.
Only Xia Yunjie’s quarters were in total uproar: “Where the hell is Rumu? Has Canshang found him yet? Why hasn’t he turned up? Aaaah, if something happens to Lixuan too, how am I supposed to explain it to Master?!”
Under the same moonlight, the Immortal Capital was hosting its grandest annual celebration.
It was the Autumn Evening Festival, and Immortal Emperor Shen Fengyu was personally crowning his mentor, the Divine Temple’s High Priest Yu Changxin, granting him the titles of Nine Heavens Patrol Envoy, Venerable Lord of Myriad Laws and Mysterious Core Mechanisms, Great Guardian of the Three Realms Against Demons—a string of long and solemn honorifics.
The High Priest Yu wore a glittering crystal crown, reflecting the myriad starlights, his dignity unmatched in that moment.
The Human Emperor attended the ceremony in person—a young man with unremarkable features but heterochromatic eyes, sitting quietly atop the jade steps.
Meanwhile, Zhao Lixuan clasped hands with Jiang Chen, swimming deep into the waters of Mirror Moon Lake.
Only now did he understand why so many immortal and demon powerhouses had faltered in the Divine Miracle—for to enter it, one first had to pass through layer upon layer of illusions.
Fortunately, Jiang Chen possessed an extraordinary gift and was utterly unaffected by the illusions.
It had been the same back then against the Myriad Phenomena Demon Pupils, and it was the same now.
With the demon power Jiang Chen channeled to him, Zhao Lixuan could maintain a sliver of clarity.
The layers of illusions they’d just fallen through—whether the afternoon games of Go with his brother in their youth, or the dusks spent climbing high and low with Xia Yunjie and Yu Rumu—had all felt utterly real, nearly drawing him under.
This one was no different.
He and Jiang Chen were clearly deep in the icy pool, yet before their eyes stretched the splendor of the Immortal Capital.
Even more strangely, he somehow knew that Chu Fusheng and Yu Rumu had been secretly dispatched to the Immortal Court during the Moon Hunt, all to escort the Human Emperor to the upper realms’ alliance meeting.
With the pact now sealed, this was the final grand ceremony before the Human Emperor’s return.
Amid the jade pavilions and crystal towers, immortal music floated ethereally; coiling dragons and colorful phoenixes danced with jewels in their mouths; from beyond the ninth heavens, ten thousand rays of rosy light cascaded down; fine wines and nectars turned into flying springs and waterfalls.
The Immortal Court was displaying its most brilliant and prosperous face to the sovereign of the mortal realm.
Outside the Immortal Court palace, thunder and rain raged.
Lightning tore through the sky, illuminating the peerlessly beautiful face of Demon Princess Tu Ji. She stood tall in her dark armor, long halberd in hand against the wind, with tens of thousands of demon soldiers surging like a black tide behind her: “Jia Ling, Yi Shu—are all units in position?”
Down in Mirror Moon Lake, Zhao Lixuan choked on a mouthful of water.
He knew it was just an illusion, yet his heart pounded like a drum.
After all, as Yu Rumu had said—illusions could reflect the past, manifest inner demons and fears, but they shouldn’t present scenes a person had never even imagined.
Otherwise, what they showed might very well be real.
And he had never imagined a scene like this!
Azure Cloud Pass was the only path from the outside world to the Unstained Immortal Realm, and he’d spent twenty years fortifying the Kanyun Terrace beyond the pass, personally setting up the Nine Heavens Star Web and the Wall of Returning Dust!
With those defenses in place, forget some Demon Princess or fierce demon generals—even an ancient demon god couldn’t possibly slip silently past the Three Realms Gate to reach the skies above the Immortal Court.
The Immortal Realm had its own “roads,” after all.
Though different from the mortal realm’s, they still followed the laws of heaven and earth—no such thing as traveling without a path.
And even if the Demon Clan could bypass Azure Cloud Pass, could they truly traverse the thousands of immortal gates between Fu Xi Palace and the Immortal Court without a single person detecting the invading demonic qi?
Impossible!
The Demon Clan could never breach those heavy defenses so easily, advancing unimpeded.
Yet here they were, the demon army at the gates of the Immortal Capital.
No path through, but they’d come anyway.
Zhao Lixuan choked again, the icy lake water jolting him back to awareness that he was still at the bottom of Mirror Moon Lake. Then a surge of pure demon qi flowed into him, and he widened his eyes in shock—Jiang Chen was… passing it mouth-to-mouth, replenishing his air?
But before he could think further, biting winds and rain lashed their faces.
He and Jiang Chen still clasped fingers tightly, yet in an instant, they stood in the Immortal Court.
Chaos reigned before them: silver-armored immortal guards formed arrays to meet the enemy; white-robed priests unleashed purification spells; the clash of golden spears and the roars of demons echoed through the clouds.
Illusion, or reality?
Either way, the situation was dire—no time to hesitate. He grabbed Jiang Chen and charged in.
Immortal Emperor Shen Fengyu commanded with calm resolve, ordering his close guards to protect the Human Emperor while redeploying troops to hold the line.
“Fengyu, watch out—they might be feinting east to strike west!”
Shen Fengyu whipped around, shocked and delighted: “Lixuan? H-how are you here…?”
“The Demon Clan’s target might not be you or the Human Emperor—it’s the Central Hub Grand Array in the Unstained Immortal Realm!”
The Core Mechanism Grand Array lay buried deep in the Immortal Capital’s spirit veins, the central hub sustaining the entire Unstained Immortal Realm’s spirit vein operations. If destroyed, the Immortal Capital would suffer first and worst.
Even if the spirit qi dispersal wasn’t immediately fatal to the Unstained Immortal Realm—with Kanyun Terrace beyond Azure Cloud Pass as a buffer—Zhao Lixuan’s true worry was: what if the uncontrolled spirit qi surged into the mortal realm!
The Demon Realm had always been unable to invade the mortal realm directly, precisely because the Unstained Immortal Realm’s spirit veins stood as a barrier between them.
But now that the demon army had reached the Immortal Capital, if the spirit qi backflow broke through to the mortal world, linking the Unstained Immortal Realm and mortal realm… the Demon Clan could advance unimpeded.
The consequences didn’t bear thinking about!
