Chapter 34

#I don’t know. I won’t bless them.

I was feeling a little anxious.

Right now, although Xiaxia had temporarily blocked the outside with a barrier infused with her bloodline power, Xie Xuanqing inside the cave still hadn’t woken up. Things were also starting to differ from what I remembered, and I couldn’t be sure when he would wake. If he didn’t wake up for ten days or half a month, just having to smear her heart’s blood on the barrier every day would be enough to utterly drain Xiaxia.

And even if Xie Xuanqing did wake up, trapped in this barrier like this—would he still fall in love with Xiaxia?

Or would he just see her as a trespasser and stab her with a “puchi”?

As I was worrying about what might happen next, I saw Xie Zhuo across from me tilt his head slightly and speak to the cube on his ear:

“Qin Shuyan, have that fox demon leave. You stay behind.” He instructed Old Qin, “Once her heart’s blood weakens and she can’t hold the barrier anymore, you go in and take her away immediately.”

You goddamn bastard.

I gritted my teeth in hatred.

But then I heard Qin Shuyan’s voice in my ear—Xiaxia hadn’t turned off the yin-yang fish, and her barrier wasn’t soundproof either.

So even though she was already guarding Xie Xuanqing’s side, she could still hear what was being said outside the ice cave—Old Qin’s voice included.

Old Qin sounded a bit reluctant. “How am I supposed to know when her heart’s blood will weaken? What if it takes ten days or half a month… Should I just close up my Cuihu Terrace business?”

This old fox loved money—he had even taken top-grade spirit stones from me before.

I instantly curled my lips into a smile, thinking, no matter how strong a wolf demon or fox demon might be, they still can’t resist the power of money. Our alliance—Xiaxia and me—is still the most solid.

I knew that Xie Zhuo might have ability, power, secrets—but he didn’t have money.

Both of us were hundreds-of-years-old immortals and demons; long past the need for basic survival. I usually saved up some spirit stones for hobbies—buying little snacks, playing with trinkets. The token stipend from Kunlun’s Armory Department was more than enough for me.

As for Xie Zhuo, he didn’t spend money at all.

No food, no drink, no hobbies. Keeping him at home was easier than growing moss—didn’t even need watering.

Except he meddled way too much…

I was certain a man like Xie Zhuo, who didn’t even know how to spend money, couldn’t possibly keep a money-loving fox like Old Qin. I happily swayed my toes a couple of times, but then Xie Zhuo said:

“There’s a spirit stone mine three hundred li north of Kunlun’s outer range. Help me, and I’ll tell you the exact location later.”

At his words, I froze for a moment, while Old Qin immediately responded with enthusiasm: “Wow, big spender! For that alone, I swear I’ll stay till she drops!”

And I leapt up from the ground in fury.

“Xie Zhuo! You have a private stash!?”

A spirit stone mine!

A mine!?

He knew about this and never told me!?

Okay, sure, he didn’t tell me lots of things…

But this was a spirit stone mine!

Cultivators, aside from their own training, could absorb the spiritual energy from spirit stones to nourish their soul and increase their power.

A few spirit stones might not be much, but a whole mine was another story. You could harvest stones for money, cultivate within the mine for faster progress, and if you found top-grade stones, you could refine artifacts and talismans—something all cultivators dreamed of!

Owning a spirit stone mine was practically like owning a gold mine, an artifact mine, and an infinite spiritual energy source all in one.

Xie Zhuo and I had been married for five hundred years, and he kept this from me—only to spill it now, to deal with me, by telling Qin Shuyan!?

I didn’t even want to kick rocks at him anymore. I just wanted to jump on his face and stomp him to death.

And I did jump over, but I couldn’t reach his face, so I had to settle for landing between his legs. Xie Zhuo frowned and looked down at me.

“What are you—”

I bent my knees and slammed my whole body onto his abdomen. He grunted but said nothing.

His abdomen felt like iron, making my knees ache.

My hands were still tied behind my back, so I couldn’t use them. I pressed down on him, glaring with rage, and he stared back coldly at me… but didn’t push me away.

He raised a hand, tapped the cube on his ear three times, and cut off the feed to Qin Shuyan.

I glared at him, anger boiling inside: “Why wait till five hundred years later? Let’s just die together now!”

I shouted and lunged to headbutt him.

Xie Zhuo instinctively turned his head to the side to avoid it.

But I couldn’t stop in time. When he dodged, my head went straight for the stone wall behind him…

Yet there was no expected pain. My forehead landed in the palm of a hand. That palm wasn’t soft—it had some calluses—but it was still better than smashing into stone.

I pulled my head back. Xie Zhuo’s hand was still braced against the wall, and he slowly lowered it.

The back of his hand was scraped from the impact with the wall, skin torn, but his expression remained icy, like he felt nothing at all.

“I told you, Fu Jiuxia, if you want to die…” Xie Zhuo’s dark eyes stared into mine, his voice colder than a winter storm, “…don’t let me see it.”

I sneered. “Me? Want to die? All I did was suggest a divorce to a man who doesn’t love me—and that made him go insane, trying every way to kill me. I’ve been doing everything I can to survive! What death am I seeking?”

I sat on his stomach and stared straight into his eyes, shouting, “And you? I came here, and first thing you did was try to have me meet Xiaxia. If I hadn’t reacted fast enough and left, my grave would already have a two-meter-high weed patch! Then you used me, tried to break our marriage and sever our blood vow. If I hadn’t held back at the last second, you probably would’ve taken me back five hundred years and hacked me to pieces!

And now! Just to get Old Qin to take Xiaxia away, you’re even willing to reveal the location of a spirit stone mine! Five hundred years! You never said a word about it. You selfishly kept it for yourself all this time…”

Xie Zhuo frowned and finally cut in, “I never used it myself either.”

“And that’s the point?” I snapped. “The one who’s racking his brain, pulling every trick, using every resource just to kill me—is you, Xie Zhuo!”

His lips tightened, expression cold as ever: “Fu Jiuxia, you asked for the divorce.”

“Yes, I did!”

Just like that—so easily—my anger, which had just begun to cool, was stoked again by that one sentence of his.

“So what!? That gives you the right to try to kill me!?”

He opened his mouth, about to speak.

I shouted, “Shut up! Don’t say it! You were going to say how much it hurt when we cut the red string, weren’t you!?”

I stared at him, voice rising. “Let me tell you, Xie Zhuo! I don’t care how much it hurt—you still don’t have the right to kill me!

Even if you were in unbearable pain—you still don’t get to kill me! Because in these five hundred years of marriage, I never did a single thing to betray you! I did everything I could to preserve this relationship! And the reason I wanted a divorce…”

I couldn’t help it—my voice trembled with emotion.

All those years of endurance, of holding back. I thought I’d long since stopped expecting anything from Xie Zhuo. That I didn’t care anymore, that it didn’t matter. But the moment those words came out of my mouth—

I still felt the sorrow and humiliation in my heart.

“Do you still not have a clue even now?” I lowered my head, my voice softening. “You’ve hidden everything from me—your background, your past, your wounds…” I gave a self-deprecating laugh. “And even this spirit stone mine…”

“But now, to achieve your goal, you’ve told Old Qin everything.”

I looked at Xie Zhuo as if staring into a cloud of mist—mist that had shrouded him all this time, never once dispersing through all the years.

“It’s not that you can’t tell me. You just don’t want to.” I asked him, “What is it that makes a married couple end up like this—like us?”

My gaze dropped. I could clearly see the bloodstains on his clothes and the wound left by the evil spirit beneath his collar.

“Xie Zhuo.” I heard my own calm voice echo inside the cave where our story began. “I’m tired. I’ve figured it out. I finally don’t want to dig any deeper. Why must you keep entangling us, dragging it out to mutual destruction?”

I lifted my eyes to look at him, searching for an answer in those abyss-like eyes.

“You don’t know what love is—do you even know what it means to let go?”

He looked at me, his dark pupils filled only with me.

The me who was worn out and powerless after all the hysteria.

He seemed to grit his teeth, seemed to be suppressing his emotions. He seemed sad—deeply sad.

He said, “I don’t know.”

Just four words, yet frightening in their obsession.

Like a trapped beast clinging to its last thread of hope at the edge of an abyss. It gritted its teeth, gasping, clearly on its last breath, hands shredded by the very thread named “hope.”

“I won’t let go.”

I didn’t understand his stubbornness.

Why, after five hundred years of seeming indifference, of ice-cold detachment, did he unravel like this—just because of a cut rope and a single statement of divorce?

But like I said just now—

I’m tired. I’ve let go. I no longer want to investigate.

I just want to pry open his fingers, pull out the thread clinging to me, and walk away from his side.

“Then let’s keep going—till one of us is dead. Xie Zhuo, this is the path you chose.”

I delivered the harsh words, and he accepted them in silence.

“Uh… so…” In my ear, the voice of Xianxian came through the yin-yang fish, hesitant and awkward. “I don’t really get the emotional stuff between you two, and I’d rather not interrupt this lovers’ quarrel, but I think… there’s something more urgent here…”

I tilted my head slightly and looked off to the side. In my mind, the scene from her side grew clear again.

“Xie Xuanqing… seems like he’s waking up…”

Leaning against the stone wall, Xie Xuanqing’s breathing had grown heavier, and his eyelashes were trembling slightly.

“Don’t let your guard down. Don’t let him mistake you for an enemy and kill you…” I warned her quickly, then suddenly remembered something crucial. “Take off that yin-yang fish right now—get it away from here. Don’t let Xie Xuanqing see it. It was made by Xie Zhuo; it carries his spellwork.”

“Oh! Got it!” Xianxian immediately moved toward the cave entrance.

“Make sure the barrier blocks out sound and light from the outside. Don’t let Xie Xuanqing notice the old fox out there.”

“Okay.” Xianxian reached the cave entrance and quickly completed the tasks I gave her. All outside noise and light was sealed off. She lit a small flame to brighten her surroundings and said, “One last question… How can I not be mistaken as the bad guy by him?”

I fell silent, looking at Xie Zhuo before me.

He had roughly figured out the situation through my words and seemed to have come down from the emotional high of our argument. He frowned but said nothing.

I said to Xianxian with all seriousness, “Believe in fate. Hope he falls in love with you at first sight.”

“He won’t,” Xie Zhuo interrupted.

I gave him a sidelong glance and ignored him.

“Xianxian, I’m counting on you.”

“Alright. I’ll do my best—so I can stay alive five hundred years from now.”

The scene from her side cut off—she must’ve removed the yin-yang fish.

My world fell quiet again. I looked once more at Xie Zhuo in front of me.

My knee was still pressed against his abdomen. The position was close, but our hearts were worlds apart.

At this point, I didn’t even feel like hitting him anymore. Xie Xuanqing was about to wake, and my fate now rested elsewhere. All I had to do was wait here for Xianxian to send me the outcome.

I twisted my body to stand and move to the opposite wall, but just as I was getting up, Xie Zhuo suddenly raised a hand and tugged me back. With a thud, my knee landed hard against his stomach again.

Rock-solid—not soft in the least…

“What are you doing?” I gave him a cold glare.

This time, he didn’t even grunt. Without a word, he raised his hand again. His fingertips brushed through my hair and touched the yin-yang fish at my earlobe. I froze and turned my head to dodge, but it was too late—Xie Zhuo, with lightning speed, plucked the yin-yang fish from me!

“Xie Zhuo!” I shouted in anger. “What are you doing?”

“Disarming you,” he said, holding my yin-yang fish in his hand.

“Give it back!” I lunged at him with my mouth, trying to snatch it back, but he raised his hand over his head. I lost my balance and collapsed into his arms.

I was fuming.

I looked up at him and only saw the sharp line of his jaw. I nearly bit him right there out of spite.

“You. Are. Shameless!”

I glared at him and saw him tuck the yin-yang fish into the sleeve of his left arm.

I flailed a couple more times, and when that failed, he simply used his right hand to pull me off him.

Xie Zhuo closed his eyes and began to regulate his breathing.

Seeing that, I began struggling against the ropes binding me. It was a spellbinding rope left by Old Qin, one that suppressed my magic and made escape impossible. I had no choice but to lean against the stone wall and begin regulating my breath too.

I just hoped I could recover my strength and break free before Xie Zhuo could lift the Pangu Axe…