Chapter 203 Chapter 203 "I don't love you anymore."...
Countless images came one after another.
Jiu Zhao saw Fu Xu with a worried look on his face, holding himself who had fainted from exhaustion, and kneeling in the temple on top of the Fusang sacred tree.
The divine artifact, the Radiant Sky Mirror, which was supposed to crown the winner of the exam, suddenly gave him a divine oracle.
The oracle indicated that the war between immortals and demons would end with him and Lan Qi perishing together.
And Jiu Zhao loved him so much that she was willing to end her own life in exchange for his.
Astonishment, pain and disbelief appeared in the young man's eyes.
The scene shifted again, showing him breaking into the Huitian Palace at night, consuming half of his own lifespan to deduce the future.
The Huitian Mirror still gave the same answer.
This time, all emotions turned into despair.
Fuxu seemed to accept his fate. As warm tears rolled down his cheeks, he slowly closed his eyes.
…
The scene paused here, coming to an abrupt end.
Jiu Zhao's consciousness was pushed out and returned to the cold reality.
Fuxu's tightly clenched hands loosened at some point.
Suddenly losing her support, Jiu Zhao staggered back half a step, barely steadied herself, and looked forward again - unlike the young man in her memory who had closed his eyes and accepted his fate, the Fuxu standing in front of her was breathing rapidly, his cheeks slightly flushed with excitement, and a storm seemed to be brewing in his eyes.
It turned out that he signed the agreement so decisively and pushed her away with the most ruthless words, not because he was forced to marry her out of the responsibility of assisting the crown prince, but because he had never had her in his heart. Instead, he saw the inevitable future and decided to sacrifice her in exchange for his own death.
In order to extinguish the possibility that her love would lead her to destruction, as was her destiny.
He would rather cut off his feelings with his own hands and silently endure all her misunderstanding and hatred.
Silence spread down the corridor.
The silent atmosphere between the two people formed a sharp contrast with the blooming flowers in the garden.
There are so many words piling up between my teeth, ready to burst out.
Jiu Zhao subconsciously turned his head to avoid Fu Xu's overly intense gaze and looked at the overturned wine bottle on the long table behind him.
So what if you know the truth?
Today, even if she has thousands of words to say, she has lost the right to speak.
For a dying person, the so-called reunion is nothing more than trying to put the fragments together and then breaking them even further with the news of death.
Fuxu deserves a better life, so there is no point in clinging to her.
Trying his best to suppress his surging emotions, Jiu Zhao turned his head again and said softly:
"Well, the Huitian Mirror's prediction was correct. Sacrificing one's life for love is exactly what I would have done back then."
Her tone was nonsensical, as if she was casually commenting on a melodramatic play that had nothing to do with her.
This attitude of not caring about anything burned away the last bit of rationality in Fuxu's mind.
He grabbed her shoulders, his knuckles turning pale and bloodless from the force he applied. "Why are you still talking in that tone? You saw it all, didn't you? I did that to keep you alive—and what are you doing now? Do you really have to go that far?!
"I'm willing to go in your place—
"If I have to sacrifice someone, I'd rather it be me who dies!!"
He was almost driven crazy by Jiu Zhao's extraordinary calmness.
Hot tears trickled down her eyelids, staining her pale, thin lips wet.
Jiu Zhao just stared at him quietly and asked, "Since you were able to maintain your rationality, control your emotions, and choose the path you believed was right back then, why can't you do the same now? Just because you realized I would eventually die, the price you paid was meaningless?"
Without waiting for Fuxu to speak, she suddenly curled her lips, smiled at him, and stabbed him in the heart again accurately and neatly:
"Fuxu, you should understand that death isn't the only way to lose something. Three thousand years ago, you completely lost me."
The shoulders gripped tightly by both hands instantly lost their scorching heat and painful strength.
The young man's lips moved as he stepped back, but no sound came out.
He was embarrassed by Jiu Zhao's words, and even more disheartened by her "joking about loss".
Jiu Zhao no longer looked at the ripples in his eyes and walked out of the courtyard.
She reached out her hand, passed through the eaves, and gently held a ray of warm sunlight:
“Once you’ve missed it, you’ve missed it. Even if we have infinite divine power, we can’t turn back time. The same is true for human hearts.
"Are you telling me the truth about what happened back then so that I can soften my heart and give up my decision to absorb the resentment, and stay and start over with you?
"Fuxu, you might as well ask yourself, can you accept sacrificing the welfare of the people in exchange for love?
"Besides, I no longer love you, and you can no longer influence me in the slightest.
"No one will stay where they are forever, sinking into the pain of the past."
Finishing her words slowly, she turned around, her eyes clear as a mirror, reflecting Fuxu's pale, nearly dead face. She breathed a sigh of relief, "I clearly have a wider world to soar into, a more noble mission to accomplish—my sight has long since moved beyond those petty loves."
Fu Xu looked at Jiu Zhao's figure bathed in the sun in a trance.
From her gradually brightening eyes, he felt for the first time a pain that was sharper and more thorough than when he pushed her away with his own hands.
It was a feeling of helplessness and coldness left behind by time.
The world is passing by, and Jiu Zhao is moving forward without hesitation, towards the end she has chosen, towards a future without him.
Only he was nailed to the decision point three thousand years ago by a prophecy from the Huitian Mirror.
Keeping the self-righteous secret, they watched their relationship change from lovers willing to die for each other to her becoming the aloof and alienated leader of immortals and demons with the common people in her heart, while he was just the most vague and ordinary face among the thousands of kneeling figures bowing their heads in submission.
They have resolved the knot in their hearts from that year.
But the knot in the heart has been rooted in the body for a long time, and the sharp thorns left behind when it was removed have created a wound that will never heal and will cause pain day and night.
Jiu Zhao's voice sounded again, slower, but still unquestionable:
"There are so many people, events, and time between us. We are no longer the same as we were back then."
"If you still cling to the word 'love,'" she paused for a moment, her gaze passing him, gazing at the towering palaces of Ziwei Palace, at all the living beings under heaven, "why not love our common goal—to bring peace and prosperity to the three realms."
“Although I have power, I lack the means to strategize and balance the forces.
"Apart from this bloodline, you are far more suitable than me to sit on the position of the leader of immortals and demons.
“But what’s the use of blood?
"Subjects will only truly be satisfied with their ruler's wisdom.
"Fuxu, I believe you can do better than me. You are the only one I can truly trust."
Similar words to those spoken three thousand years ago were spoken again by Jiu Zhao.
For some reason, Fuxu suddenly remembered that night.
She unfolded the white silk in front of him, half-opened her eyes filled with sorrow and resentment, bit her lip and said:
"Ah Xu, a husband and wife are bound by a hundred days of grace. I've been betrayed time and again, and now that Xingyao is a traitor, I don't know the true strength of the remaining Supreme Gods and God Kings in the Three Pure Heavens, and I dare not trust them completely. Right now, the only one I can trust is you."
A husband and wife for a day are bound by a hundred days of grace.
They have been husband and wife for a thousand years. Perhaps only by enduring the pain and giving everything can he repay the lady's past love.
…
The last ray of light went out from Fuxu's eyes.
He bent his knees, slowly knelt down, and kowtowed to the ground: "Your Majesty, I obey the will of the Emperor."
After he finished speaking, he didn't look at Jiu Zhao again.
He stood up and walked out of the side hall step by step.
…
The crowd left and the wind was quiet. Jiu Zhao stood there for a long time, watching the young man's back as he walked away.
After a while, she returned to the table and filled a cup for herself with the kettle.
This time, she didn't summon any strength to expel the drunkenness. The moment the wine entered her mouth, the face of Wu Zhu, with a human head and a dragon body, appeared beside her hand.
He leaned closer, tilted his head, and looked at her with his eyes covered by white silk. He asked softly, "Do you really not love him at all?"
Jiu Zhao paused as he was holding up the glass.
She did not answer immediately, but just lowered her head and looked at the hazy reflection in the jade cup.
Plum blossoms are falling outside the window, and all is quiet inside the hall.
She drank a big gulp again, and said to the lonely table:
"Perhaps."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com