Chapter Fifteen
1140 Words
The crimson ribbon faded.
The frozen stars resumed their journey.
Music returned.
Lanterns floated once more.
Laughter echoed across the Jade Palace.
The Festival of Falling Stars continued…
As though nothing had happened.
Only three people knew the world had nearly changed forever.
Mo Xuanyuan.
Bai Lingxi.
And Time.
Time looked at Lingxi with sorrow.
“It was too early.”
Her tiny body was already becoming transparent.
Golden cracks spread across her arms.
She smiled weakly.
“I’ve stayed longer than I was allowed.”
Lingxi stepped toward her.
“Wait!”
“I still have questions.”
“I know.”
“So answer them!”
Time shook her head.
“If I tell you everything…”
“…the future disappears.”
“I don’t understand!”
“You will.”
The little girl looked at Mo Xuanyuan.
“You don’t have much time anymore.”
“I know.”
“The Second Seal has already begun breaking.”
“I know.”
“If the Third Seal awakens…”
Her voice trembled.
“…Heaven will notice.”
Mo Xuanyuan remained silent.
Because Heaven already had.
Time’s body scattered into tiny golden particles.
Before disappearing completely…
She looked at Lingxi one final time.
“When your heart remembers before your mind…”
“…follow the peach blossoms.”
Then she was gone.
Only a single golden feather remained.
Lingxi instinctively caught it.
The moment it touched her palm…
It dissolved into light.
The festival resumed around them.
Immortals laughed.
Children chased stars.
No one noticed that Bai Lingxi stood motionless beneath the Celestial Tree.
Her hand unconsciously reached toward her wrist.
The crimson ribbon had vanished.
Yet…
She could still feel it.
Like a heartbeat.
Like someone gently holding her hand.
She looked at Mo Xuanyuan.
“You saw it too.”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
“So it wasn’t a dream.”
“No.”
“The wedding…”
He closed his eyes.
“Real.”
“The valley…”
“Real.”
“The promise…”
He hesitated.
“…Real.”
Her voice became softer.
“And…”
“My death?”
The silence that followed was answer enough.
Without warning…
She slapped him.
CRACK!
The sound echoed beneath the Celestial Tree.
Nearby immortals gasped.
A heavenly maid dropped an entire tray of spirit wine.
The God of War…
Had been struck.
No one in Heaven had dared touch him in over fifty thousand years.
Yet he didn’t move.
He simply looked at Lingxi.
Tears streamed freely down her face.
“You remembered.”
She struck his chest with both fists.
“You remembered everything…”
Another hit.
“…and you never told me.”
Another.
“I was crying every night.”
Another.
“I thought I was losing my mind.”
Her voice broke.
“You let me think I was alone.”
The final blow landed weakly against his chest.
She no longer had the strength.
Mo Xuanyuan looked at her trembling hands.
Then…
Very slowly…
He took them into his own.
“I know.”
His voice was barely a whisper.
“I’m sorry.”
Those two words carried the weight of one hundred thousand years.
Lingxi stared at him.
“You…”
“…apologized.”
He gave the faintest nod.
“It was my fault.”
She laughed bitterly through her tears.
“You really are terrible.”
“I know.”
“You always answer with those two words.”
“I know.”
She couldn’t help it.
Despite everything…
She laughed.
A small laugh.
Mixed with tears.
For the first time…
Mo Xuanyuan’s lips curved into an unmistakable smile.
Gentle.
Warm.
Beautiful.
It transformed his entire face.
Lingxi forgot to breathe.
“So…”
“…you can smile.”
He looked almost embarrassed.
“It seems so.”
Nearby heavenly attendants froze.
One whispered,
“Our Lord smiled…”
Another nearly fainted.
“Quick…”
“Someone write today’s date.”
Far across the festival…
Feng Yan watched from behind a pavilion.
His usual playful expression was gone.
“So…”
“It’s really her.”
A shadow emerged beside him.
An elderly immortal wearing dark blue robes.
“You’ve confirmed it?”
Feng Yan nodded.
“The Thread awakened.”
The old immortal sighed heavily.
“Then the prophecy has begun.”
Above them…
Hidden behind the clouds…
The Jade Emperor watched everything through a celestial mirror.
His expression was unreadable.
Beside him stood the Queen Mother of the West.
“You feared this day.”
The Jade Emperor nodded slowly.
“It has arrived sooner than expected.”
“The God of War’s heart is wavering.”
“He never stopped loving her.”
“I know.”
“If he chooses her over Heaven…”
The Jade Emperor closed his eyes.
“He will force my hand.”
That night…
Lingxi couldn’t sleep.
Again.
She stood on the balcony overlooking the endless sea of clouds.
The memories she had seen were incomplete.
Like pages torn from a book.
But one image refused to leave her mind.
Mo Xuanyuan…
Crying.
Holding her lifeless body.
She placed a hand over her chest.
“Why…”
“…does my heart hurt more for him than for myself?”
A quiet voice answered from behind.
“Because your soul remembers.”
She turned.
Mo Xuanyuan stood at the edge of the balcony.
This time…
He wasn’t dressed as the God of War.
He wore simple black robes without dragons or imperial emblems.
For the first time…
He looked less like Heaven’s strongest immortal…
And more like an ordinary man.
He walked beside her.
Neither spoke.
After a long silence…
He extended something toward her.
It was the cracked jade pendant.
The one she had accidentally broken on the day they met.
“I’ve repaired it.”
She looked closely.
The c***k remained.
“But…”
“It’s still broken.”
He smiled faintly.
“Some things…”
“…shouldn’t be erased.”
She accepted the pendant.
The moment it rested in her palm…
It glowed with a soft emerald light.
A single memory flashed.
A young Mo Xuanyuan fastening the same pendant around her neck beneath blooming peach blossoms.
“If we ever become separated…”
“Follow the pendant.”
The vision vanished.
Lingxi looked up slowly.
“…Xuanyuan.”
This time…
She didn’t call him “Lord Xuanyuan.”
Or “God of War.”
She simply spoke his name.
His eyes widened almost imperceptibly.
One hundred thousand years.
He had waited one hundred thousand years…
To hear her say his name like that again.
Neither of them noticed…
High above the Jade Palace…
A single peach blossom drifted silently through the night sky.
Peach blossoms…
Did not bloom in Heaven.
Someone…
Or something…
Had sent it.
- Writer
