Chapter 20

#Three years of drought, and even kings would perform sacrifices to pray for rain

Did Xie Zhuo… just kiss me?

I stood there frozen in shock. He was so close, I couldn’t even see him clearly anymore. In the blur before my eyes, his breath filled the space between our lips and teeth, inside and out—it was all his scent.

The brush of his hair, the pressure of his fingertips, the soft sweep of his robes—everything was cool to the touch, yet somehow burned with heat.

But after that brief moment of shock and daze, my hand moved.

I slapped him. Hard. His head jerked to the side from the impact. Without a second thought, I shoved him back with both hands against his chest, using every bit of my strength.

He staggered back two steps. He didn’t reach up to touch the cheek I’d slapped red. He just turned his head back and looked at me, eyes stormy, like he was brewing a tempest.

And I returned his gaze just as coldly and mercilessly.

“We’re already divorced. What the hell do you think you’re doing now?”

“You left. I didn’t.”

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

“You drank my blood. As long as the contract isn’t broken, you’ll always be my Dao partner.”

That line was… a lot. I shut my mouth before the words “what the hell” came out, took a breath, and tried to piece everything together.

Last time, I found out Xie Zhuo was from the Snow Wolf Clan. The time before that, I found out that five hundred years ago, during my ascension and tribulation, Xie Zhuo had fed me his blood. And now, I know that drinking his blood made me his wife.

From these three pieces of information, I could deduce: when a Snow Wolf feeds someone their blood, that person becomes their mate.

So our bond wasn’t forged beneath the Love Tree at the Hall of the Matchmaker, but when I was ascending and he secretly fed me his blood.

And when I cut the red string, I had only severed my half of the connection—his was still tied to me.

No wonder he said earlier that the mark of a successful severing was to stop Xie Xuanqing from feeding Xiaxia blood.

Now that I’d connected the dots, the fury that had been simmering burst out of me: “You kept this stupid little thing from me all this time!?”

After that, the second wave followed immediately: “And don’t even start with that red string crap. Even if I was still your wife, what the hell is wrong with me strolling around Cuihu Tai Terrace?”

Xie Zhuo’s gaze grew darker. I fueled myself up and kept going, louder:

“We’ve been married five hundred years and not once have we even shared a bed! I’m barely even divorced, and someone else kisses me—not the other way around! What of it? Three years of drought, and even kings have to pray for rain—five hundred years, and not even the Jade Emperor can stop me!”

“Fu Jiuxia!”

He looked like the storm in his eyes had been boiled dry by fury. He stared at me and grabbed my wrist, eyes rimmed red with rage, fingertips trembling—but he still didn’t grip hard enough to hurt me.

I wasn’t in pain, and he wasn’t letting go. He just stared, like he wanted to stuff my own hand into my mouth to shut me up.

I was sure he wouldn’t hit me, so I just grew bolder: “Don’t yell my name like that! I’m not deaf! For five hundred years, you were all hands-off and proper, and now that I finally want to hold someone else, you’re here trying to make up for lost time? Too late!”

“And besides, I went there today to force Xie Xuanqing to leave. You really don’t know why I had to push him out? You don’t know why we had to rewind five hundred years for this stupid mess?”

“I did it all to help you cut your half of the red string! Now that we’re halfway there, you’re picking a fight with me!?”

I shouted until I was breathless, then sucked in a few sharp breaths and started to calm down.

Xie Zhuo, too, seemed to calm down a bit after being yelled at.

He was still holding my wrist, his lips pressed into a tight line, his face a stormy gray.

I looked at him, no longer angry—just sneering. “What? Don’t tell me, Xie Zhuo. After all this time, you finally realized… you’re in love with me?”

I stared straight into his eyes, searching for even the slightest reaction.

This question—I’d asked it before we got married, on our unfulfilled wedding night, and now again, five hundred years later. At different times, in different moods, I’d asked him:

Xie Zhuo, do you like me?

There were moments filled with hope, moments filled with desperation, and moments of total breakdown.

And every time, he’d only ever answered, calmly, “I don’t know.”

But today…

Xie Zhuo let go of my wrist.

I dropped my gaze, not even bothering to look at his expression anymore. My heart felt like a dead pool of still water. I flexed my wrist. “You should be happy, Xie Zhuo.”

I said, “Xie Xuanqing’s already gone. Once Xiaxia’s tribulation passes and he doesn’t show up, we can go back. Worth celebrating, right? Our divorce will finally be complete.”

Finally… no more drama.

I turned to head inside. I didn’t care anymore about why Xie Zhuo had lost control today. Things had come to this point—there was no point saying anything else.

But I didn’t expect that just as I stepped through the doorway, a thunderclap rang out overhead—loud and eerily familiar.

Startled, I turned to look. Above Kunlun, dark tribulation clouds had gathered—dense and heavy. That ominous mass could only mean one thing: someone was about to ascend!

But as far as I knew, at this point in time, there was no other immortal at Kunlun ready to face tribulation—except me, Fu Jiuxia. The current Xiaxia hadn’t cultivated enough for this yet.

“What day is it?” Staring up at those familiar clouds, I was so nervous I forgot I’d just been arguing and blurted out the question.

Xie Zhuo had also shelved his emotions. He frowned up at the clouds and murmured, “The twenty-fourth of May.”

“The tribulation came early?” I gaped at him, then suddenly realized something. “No wonder I didn’t feel pain today when I snuck in to steal money!”

When it comes to immortal ascension, the tribulation cloud always arrives on the day the cultivator is weakest.

I thought I’d just gotten used to it—but it turns out Xiaxia had reached her weakest point. When I went to the residence, she was weaker than me, so all the pain transferred to her!

“Oh no, oh no, oh no…” I panicked, pacing back and forth like a trapped animal, muttering:

“Five hundred years ago I failed my tribulation because I spent all my time taking care of you and neglected my cultivation. I confessed to you at the Kunlun assembly, and your vague response broke my heart…”

“So I couldn’t withstand the lightning. Though I muddled through somehow, probably because you gave me your blood. But this time…”

“This time, Xiaxia’s more broken, weaker—she definitely won’t make it. And you won’t give her your blood. She’s going to die. And if she dies, I’m dead too. But if I go help, it’ll only make things worse. I need a plan, I need a plan…”

While I was over here ready to claw the walls, Xie Zhuo had already taken to the air.

Hovering above, he called down, “I’ll help you. You go find Xie Xuanqing.”

“Why should I find him?”

“Stop him.”

“He’s so mad at me today, he’d never help Xiaxia.”

Xie Zhuo was certain. “Life or death—he’ll go.”

I was silent for a moment, gritted my teeth, and said, “Then where should I go to find Xie Xuanqing? Point me in the right direction, guess where you would go at that time?”

“I’m not the person I was back then.”

Xie Zhuo immediately took to the wind and flew away. Watching his back, I was so angry that I wanted to curse his whole family, but then I remembered how he had personally wiped out his entire clan…

I scratched my head, and after a brief moment, I closed my eyes and headed straight toward the cave.

Earlier, at the Cuihu Tai Terrace, I had just driven Xie Xuanqing away, and then Xie Zhuo followed. It hadn’t been long since he left.

But according to his cultivation method, if he was determined to leave, he should have been thousands of miles away from Kunlun by now.

Yet for some reason, my intuition told me that he hadn’t gone.

He had been hurt, and maybe, he would return to the place where I had saved him…