"A'Xin, you're breaking my heart. As a grown man, how can have such a hard time entertaining a woman? I thought I'd trained you better." Though her words followed a mellow tone, Yuemi's eyes hid no less hatred than Qingxin's did at first—no, it was worst. And while the monk's hatred lessened, Yuemi's skyrocketed.
"What do you want?" Qingxin didn't beat around the bush, but faced with these words, Yuemi shrugged, and behind the dark veil, her lips curled up.
"Does a wife need a reason to visit her husband? Wuxin, as far as I can recall, unless the marriage wasn't blessed by their ancestor, divines don't divorce. Ours was, so…like it or not, Phanthom God, I'm still your legal wife—your Moon Goddess.
'Hiding beneath the sun, rising towards the night, the Phantom God chased the Moon Goddess—forever misled…by her reflection amidst the stars.' Hengye Wuxin, these words make it sound like I played and led you on when really it was always you that made a fool of me," Yuemi said. From A'Xin to Wuxin and from Wuxin to Hengye Wuxin, though her tone remained the same, Yuemi struggled to maintain the cordial facade that she faced Qingxin with.
The abbot didn't care, his eyes settled in an impassive stare.
"'A thousand years of chase, a thousand years of grief, and at last he holds her heart. Only then does the Moon realize that her glow, stolen from the sun, lulls in the darkness of the Phantom God's embrace.'
Yuemi, you're not a Goddess. You stole the Divine Spark of the Taiyang clan's Crown Princess and impersonated her in an attempt to rob Taiyang Yuan's cultivation. Though this heinous move enabled you to get the Thousand-Faced God's favor, it forced me to challenge and batter Taiyang Yuan so, for your father's sake, I could save you from certain death. That's…how we met." As the daughter of the previous God-Monarch, Hengye Yuemi always had sky-high status in the night.
But Divine Sparks were not always hereditary, so she wasn't born with one—yet dared to steal that privilege from the Taiyang clan's crown princess. In any other house, this deed—a sin by divine standards—should have led to the destruction of her soul. But in a strange twist of fate, Yongye not only forgave the move, but converted Yuemi's spark to a proper Night Spirit's. Still, she didn't have the right to climb the Divine Consecration Ladder.
"I never claimed to be a Goddess. You…called me that."
"Indeed—a young man's mistake." Qingxin didn't deny it. And if Yuemi found his level tone rattling, her smiling face didn't show it.
"How is Xian'er doing?"
"Baxian? Still alive. I find him repulsive to be honest. His face reminds me of you—makes me want to tear his head off and drink from his skull. But he is by far the strongest of his generation, one of the most powerful Heavenly Immortals of the Eternal Night Dynasty. On top of that, he's our God-Child. Killing him would be a bad look." The casualness in Yuemi's words didn't surprise Qingxin. In fact, knowing her, her current performance looked tame.
"What do you want?"
"I just don't understand. We had it all. Just one more push, and the entirety of the Great Desolation world, all the worlds of the Mortal Plane even, could have been ours. We could have completed the Ancestral Task, risen to the main clan as proud stars of the Night Pantheon. Why…why did you have to destroy it all for a mortal woman—not even a cultivator? Even as I tortured her to death, I looked and looked some more for an answer—just one—that made sense. But…I found nothing. Hengye Wuxin, please, help me understand." For the first time since she arrived, Yuemi's face twisted. The madness that lurked in her eyes crept to the surface, and her arms shook.
"The previous Clear Heart Abbot taught me that our mistakes define the burns in us. So Yuemi, the monk in me can accept that your deeds were the product of the way I treated you.
If my heart could bleed out the past, then Yuemi, I'd tell you all that you want to hear. That I made a mistake and let you down. But it can't. I can't. Not merely because I can't let go, but also…I owe you nothing," Qingxin said and stood up.
"Heaven is a dead place. Divines marry for benefits, not emotions. You chose me for the power and glory you knew I could offer you. And I chose you so that after I ascended, the heir we'd create together would have all the tools to inherit my seat.
Baxian exists because Hengye Wuxin treasured his legacy—not because I loved his mother. That's the type of life we led. You tell me that you don't understand my actions? But have you ever wondered if I could understand yours?
How can you lead such a colorless existence for millennia and not go insane?
How can you be satisfied with having so little bonds that, at your time of death, you can't name three people that will give you genuine mourning?" As Qingxin spoke, his tone grew louder, his eyes turned red, and his right hand slammed his chest.
"Did I betray the Night? What a joke! All that you have stem from me!
It was I who eradicated the latent threats of the Endless Sea! I who drew the attention of the Gods in Heaven!
Still I who conquered the Western Continent!
Battered the East!
And suppressed the Central Domain to the point that 10,000 years after my disappearance, Taiyang Yuan still doesn't dare to take a step out of his palace!
Why is that even without a reigning God-Monarch, the Hengye can still face the Taiyang? My contributions have left all previous rulers of this dynasty combined in the dust, and you have the nerve to label me a traitor?
If Baxian wanted me to give him the Records of the Eternal Night, I would have! But you relentless hounds refused to let me go! You had to persecute me even after I'd lost my Holy Path! After I lost my cultivation base, you refused to stop! Tortured my wife to death and didn't even spare my infant child!
Now you want me to repent? To give the Records back? In your dreams! It has long been bound to my Divine Soul! Even a True God with Immortal level cultivation or above wouldn't be able to strip it from me. There will never be another God-Monarch, and the night will no longer spread its foul wings beyond the wretched seas where it belongs!" Screams rolled out and tears trickled down as Qingxin lost his poise and faced his past.
"Hengye Yuemi, you want to know why even a mortal woman appealed to me more than you ever did? Because you're an empty, greedy and hollow husk that will not rest until she has drained all the blood under the Heavens!" Faced with Qingxin's brutal words, Yuemi's cheeks twitched, and her eyes turned moist.
The change drew no sympathy from Qingxin. Better, he sneered.
"No need to pretend in front of me. It's shame and rage that drove you insane. You can't accept that I replaced you with an average mortal wife, so you had to punish me for it. A petty and heartless whore—that's all you are."
"Hahahah! It's fine. It's all fine. Hengye Wuxin, I've found my perfect monarch. His divine potential is limitless, and I love him more than I ever did you. On the day of his Divine Consecration, I will make sure you eat your heart and wail as you realize that, throughout the Four Realms of Existence, the Thousand-Faced God is supreme, and those that offend it…wish for death, but spend an eternity in hell." Yuemi didn't try to argue and stood up as well. Calm returned to her pale face, and she turned heels.
"In the meantime, I will play with your little disciple—that incompetent errand boy—and vent on him…all that I can't on you." With this one sentence, Hengye Yuemi made a mess of Qinxin's thoughts, preventing him from connecting Xinzi to the "perfect monarch" she spoke of.
"Don't you…"
Qingxin wouldn't have time to state his piece that Yuemi's avatar vanished, returning to the Night.
