Chapter 49

#How could Xie Zhuo be “dead”?

“You’re going the wrong way,” the man said. His voice was unfamiliar. “Leave Undying City, go that way.”

He wasn’t Xie Zhuo…

Disappointment welled up in my heart, but a glimmer of hope ignited again. I steadied myself and stood up, stopping him—he was the only person so far who had noticed me and was willing to speak to me.

I gestured anxiously, trying to ask: “Have you seen a man, dressed in dark clothes, about your height? He has blood on his shoulders and waist, injured—his clothes are torn horizontally at the wounds…”

That was how Xie Zhuo had looked when he shielded me and was wounded by the evil spirits’ weapons…

“His face is a bit pale, his eyebrows and eyes look like this…”

I tried to draw Xie Zhuo’s features in the air, and the man looked me up and down. Then he suddenly said, “Fu Jiuxia?”

I froze—

He knew me?

The man in black was silent for a moment. He raised his hand and removed the wooden mask on his face. His features were refined and elegant. I was certain I had never seen him before, yet after removing the mask, he gave me a slight nod.

“Five hundred years ago, we met once. You may not remember.”

I looked at him, confused. “Five hundred… years ago?”

In my mind, the scene I had seen just before I lost consciousness resurfaced—Xie Zhuo took out the Pangu Axe. So he really had cleaved open time and space, bringing me five hundred years into the future…

And the moment I realized that, a sharp pain suddenly pierced my head. Countless memories that didn’t belong to me—but belonged to “Xia Xia”—came flooding in, pouring into my brain like a raging river.

I saw myself as Xia Xia in the past, communicating with the “me” from five hundred years later. I saw how Xia Xia and Xie Xuanqing lived together in the secret chamber of Cuihu Platform with Old Qin, how they got along.

Xia Xia and Xie Xuanqing went through a completely different journey from what Xie Zhuo and I had. They took down the Lord of Jingnan together and even dealt with the cannibal immortals of Kunlun in advance.

But during their final battle with Jingnan, Xia Xia still encountered a “tribulation”-like crisis. And Xie Xuanqing, just like during a real tribulation, fed her his blood.

They—no, we—still got married in the end.

What was different was that Xia Xia’s love for Xie Xuanqing lasted longer than mine.

Longer by a hundred years.

She knew Xie Xuanqing left to fight the evil spirits, so she forgave him for disappearing without a word. But just like Xie Zhuo, Xie Xuanqing never gave her a reason, not even a single explanation.

Xia Xia couldn’t understand. She knew Xie Xuanqing was a snow wolf demon, and she knew why he left.

But why did he have to vanish without a trace, and return just as suddenly? Why the secrecy?

Just like Xie Zhuo, Xie Xuanqing never explained.

Xia Xia asked, pushed, even forced him—but Xie Xuanqing stayed silent.

As time went on… three hundred years, four hundred years, five hundred years…

Xia Xia became me. Xie Xuanqing became Xie Zhuo.

And once again, we walked the path of separation…

Then Xie Zhuo picked up the Pangu Axe. He cleaved open time and space. He and I vanished from this current timeline. And then I—with all the memories—appeared here.

I clutched my head, trying to absorb everything. Then I looked up at the towering inner city wall in front of me, then turned to glance at the hundred-zhang-high outer city wall behind.

The two walls felt like shackles placed on me and Xie Zhuo. As long as the evil spirits remained, as long as Undying City stood, Xie Zhuo had to keep those secrets.

That was the rule set by the Lord Gods—the truth of this world that Xie Zhuo never wanted me to know.

As long as this secret existed, he and I, Xia Xia and Xie Xuanqing, would always—driven by human nature—walk the same path.

Until…

He brought me to Undying City. Only then would I understand the full cause and effect. Only then would I understand: his silence and concealment had always been an unspeakable form of protection.

My chest tightened painfully.

It took a long moment before I could breathe again and lift my head to look at the man before me.

“You’re the black-armored cavalryman with the spear on horseback.”

“You remember…”

To me, it had only been moments ago. Of course I remembered…

“I am Ji, the Lord God of Undying City.”

So Xie Zhuo had guessed correctly back then.

The Lord God of Undying City—sacrificing his own body, turning into a soul, and constantly searching for someone whose mind matched his, to battle the evil spirits within the city. In these five hundred years, he had no idea how many bodies he had occupied…

I stopped myself from thinking too deeply.

“I’m looking for Xie Zhuo,” I told him. “You saw him five hundred years ago too.”

Lord God Ji nodded, a trace of nostalgia in his expression. “Not just five hundred years ago—I’ve seen him more than once.”

His words hinted at stories untold, but I wasn’t in the mood to ask. I simply said, “Have you seen him now?”

Ji fell silent. He looked at me without answering. There was a kind of compassion in his eyes.

I remembered the blurry scenes that had flashed through my mind before. I couldn’t help but tremble again. “You… saw him?”

“When the evil aura vanished from the world, and the snowstorm barrier outside Undying City dissipated, Xie Zhuo… likely perished.”

I stood frozen.

That sentence turned me to ice—from my features to my limbs, organs, even my bones.

“Perished…?”

For a moment, I couldn’t comprehend the meaning of the word.

But in my mind, like a spinning lantern, those muddled images flashed again and again.

In a snowy forest, Xie Zhuo, shrouded in black mist, said, ‘With my body I shelter you, with my body I bury you’—and then drove his blade into his own heart.

That image flashed past, and in that instant, I felt like my own heart had been pierced as well.

Xie Zhuo had said it ten thousand times—when he came back, he would kill me. But why, now, in the chaos of my mind, was he the one driving the sword into his own chest?

I clutched my chest, breathing deeply.

Ji watched me. “When the evil aura vanished so suddenly, even though I guessed it was Xie Zhuo’s doing, I had many doubts. If you wish to return to Kunlun, I can go with you to see Queen Mother of the West.”

His words reached my ears, but I couldn’t process them.

Until, in the distance, flames lit up atop the inner wall of Undying City. I looked at the fire, still burning despite the evil aura’s disappearance, and suddenly said:

“I’m not going back to Kunlun.”

I looked at my hand, as if I could still feel Xie Zhuo’s warmth between my fingers.

“Xie Zhuo might still be here. Even if not in Undying City, then maybe in the inner walls, in the forest, or somewhere out in the Northern Wastes. I have to find him…”

Ji said nothing. But he seemed already convinced that Xie Zhuo had died. I could see the sorrow in his eyes. Still, he was kind enough not to shatter my denial.

I couldn’t bear to stay under his gaze another moment.

I stepped past Lord God Ji and continued searching through Undying City.

To me, it had only felt like one long sleep. That Xie Zhuo—the man who could split time and space—how could he possibly be dead?

Before our separation, I had already prepared myself for a life apart from him. I was ready to part ways at any moment, to never see him again in this lifetime. But I never imagined we would be parted by death.

How could Xie Zhuo be dead?

The miasma of evil in Undying City had already dispersed, and yet as I walked, it felt as though an even denser fog had settled before me—shrouding every path ahead, leaving me unable to see anything clearly.

“Xie Zhuo,” I murmured as I moved forward, “you brought me here… you have to take me back.”

In the empty, lifeless Undying City, not even the wind offered a reply.

Author’s Note:

If I ended it right here with a “The End,” would you jump up and smack me on the head…?

Just kidding, it’s not over. Not even close…