Chapter 3

#Just do it.

After learning I was going to help him, Xie Zhuo didn’t fly off on his own again. But he also didn’t help me—wouldn’t even lend a hand—letting me stagger along behind him on shaky legs, sore all over.

In silence, the two of us made our way to the snowy bamboo forest at the foot of Kunlun’s peak.

Even though he never turned around, I could sense from his aura… he was in a foul mood.

I stared at the back of his head the whole way, puzzling over it. I honestly didn’t get it.

Did I say something wrong just now?

Wasn’t it his idea to sever the bond? So why did he suddenly act like he had a chip on his shoulder when I said I’d help him with it?

“What are you mad about?” We were basically an old married couple, so I didn’t bother tiptoeing around. “You took the Pangu Axe and stirred up a huge mess. Who knows what chaos Kunlun is in now, five hundred years later? But you said you wanted to cut the bond before going back. Fine, fine—cut it. I’m kindly offering to help you deal with it. I’d say I’m going above and beyond, and you’re still not happy—”

He kept walking and I kept talking. It was just like our countless days of old: me rambling, him quiet as a chicken. But today, Xie Zhuo suddenly stopped in his tracks.

I bumped right into his back.

I looked up at him, but he still hadn’t turned around.

Apparently, today he didn’t want to play the part of the silent chicken.

I stepped back two paces to a relatively safe distance. Thinking of how much more powerful he was than me, I found myself a bit intimidated by that brooding figure.

Still, I braced myself and finished what I was saying: “I mean, whoever agreed to help me with this, I’d be thrilled—”

He turned his head, eyes sharp with a murderous glint. The moment his gaze met mine, a wave of oppressive energy exploded outward, shaking the surrounding bamboo forest. The snow bamboos were resilient and didn’t break, but the thick layer of white snow on them slipped off with a soft rustling sound.

Why is he this angry…?

I stared back at him for a moment, then took another two steps back. “Did I say something wrong?”

Still no reply.

I was used to his silence, so I started interpreting it myself. “Or… you feel like this is something you need to handle? You don’t want me involved?”

As the thought hit me, I had a realization. “Oh, I get it—you think I’m the one who severed the marriage bond, and you’re feeling bitter about it. Okay, sure. Honestly, do whatever you want. I’m not trying to fight you on this. I don’t have any expectations for you—I just want you to hurry it up. The Pangu Axe…”

Just return it already…

Before I could finish, Xie Zhuo suddenly took two fierce steps forward. His movements were so forceful that when he raised his hand in front of me, I genuinely thought he was going to hit me!

I couldn’t dodge in time. His long fingers hovered near my cheek, and I thought, with the strength it takes to wield the Pangu Axe and cleave through time and space, he could easily crush my skull—

But then, before I could react, he… pinched my cheek.

Yeah, with his curved index finger and thumb, like… actually pinched the flesh of my cheek.

I stared at him in silence.

He returned my gaze with an expression full of cold, murderous intent.

But… my dear ex-husband, are you serious?

I thought you were going to crush my skull, but you’re humiliating me with a cheek pinch?

He pinched for a long time, didn’t even leave a mark, but his expression was one of murderous rage.

Now I was starting to doubt myself. Maybe my read on him had been wrong. Xie Zhuo…

He might actually be crazy!!

Otherwise how could someone be so contradictory!?

But thinking back, in the five hundred years since, Xie Zhuo had never once laid a hand on me. Even on those rare occasions when I lost it and tried to fight him, he always dodged rather than strike back.

To this day, I still couldn’t figure out what kind of monster he was, or how he could have such terrifying power…

“Fu Jiuxia,” he called my full name, slowly and clearly. “Is this marriage bond… so worthless to you?”

I froze.

Only then did it dawn on me—Xie Zhuo…

He was heartbroken?

Because I had so casually said I’d help him sever our past ties, without any sign of hesitation or value, so he felt… hurt?

“But…” I let him keep pinching my cheek, answering in a calm tone, “didn’t we already dissolve our marriage?”

After I… well, after I chased him down and tried to beat him up (though I didn’t actually land a hit), I immediately asked him for a divorce. I even took him with me to see the Queen Mother of the West.

She was Kunlun’s Supreme Deity. Back then, she had been the one who approved my marriage with Xie Zhuo. According to Kunlun custom, only with her consent could our marriage be dissolved.

I still remember that day vividly. In the great hall, with Xie Zhuo, myself, and all the other immortals present, the Queen Mother was fuming after being informed that Mount Buzhou had once again been knocked off axis. She was rubbing her throbbing veins and asked Xie Zhuo, “What are your thoughts?”

Xie Zhuo glanced at her, then turned to look at me.

I was still fuming and didn’t even want to acknowledge him. Arms crossed, head turned, I wouldn’t even meet his eyes.

After a long pause, I finally heard Xie Zhuo say a single word: “Alright.”

The hall was in an uproar.

Xie Zhuo was always sparing with words. In front of others, it was either “Mm,” “No,” or “Alright.” Those few syllables handled most of his communication. Many immortals in Kunlun had lived alongside him for years and still thought he was mute.

He only ever said more to me, and even then it was just stuff like “No, don’t, can’t do that, stay inside”—those short, commanding, negative sentences…

Honestly, he probably said the most words of his life on the day we got divorced.

That day, the immortals were shocked—not just because Xie Zhuo spoke, but because we were actually divorcing.

When we first got together, Xie Zhuo and I had defied the entire realm.

Back then, no immortal in Kunlun had ever married a monster. Everyone was against me. But I was stubborn, and Xie Zhuo was too. Maybe it was that very determination that made other immortals reflect on themselves. Gradually, more and more came to support us.

Not long after, the Queen Mother made a special exception for us.

From that day on, Kunlun’s immortals were free to marry as they wished, regardless of whether their partner was god, demon, or spirit—so long as they were willing to live in harmony with Kunlun’s ways, they could be accepted.

In the eyes of many young women, Xie Zhuo and I were often seen as the epitome of “What the hell kind of divine love story is this!?”

And now, that divine love… was shattered to hell.

Because I, a goddamn Celestial Immortal, was sick and tired of a life completely under someone else’s control.

It was from the moment Xie Zhuo said “Alright” in the hall that we began the divorce proceedings—step by step, following Kunlun law to the letter. Throughout those weeks, Xie Zhuo never once objected.

On the day of the divorce, it was still Xie Zhuo who came to Mengmeng Manor of his own accord and told me to go to the Tree of Longing in front of the Yue Lao Hall to sever our bond.

I always thought that, even if he felt it was sudden or wasn’t fully willing, he would’ve come to terms with the divorce by now.

So why, on the very night we cut our Red Thread of Fate, did he suddenly lose all reason?

Wielding the Pangu Axe, splitting time and space, coming back to defy fate… One thing after another, each more astonishing than the last.

I sighed. “Xie Zhuo, I never once thought lightly of our bond.”

I looked seriously into his eyes. “Back then, I really, really, really… liked you.”

The murderous gleam in his eyes gradually faded, and he released the hand gripping my cheek.

I continued, “It’s just that we’ve come this far. Parting on good terms is the best ending I could hope for.”

I told Xie Zhuo what was truly in my heart. “So if you want to sever our bond from the very root—if that’s what you sincerely wish—then of course I’ll help you. Because even now, Xie Zhuo, I don’t hate you.”

His just-softened expression suddenly turned distant and cold again.

After a long silence, he finally said three words: “But I do.”

“Uh…” I was stunned, a little panicked. “You can’t possibly hate me, right? I mean, you could say you stopped liking me, or that you couldn’t stand some of my little flaws—that I’d understand. But… hate? From little things like that?”

I muttered in my head: Was sneaking spicy food or stealing drinks really that unbearable to him?

Then all the more reason we should’ve split earlier! What if one day he really couldn’t take it anymore and crushed my skull while I was sleeping?

“What could I possibly have done in the past five hundred years for you to hate me?”

I forced myself to stay calm and asked.

But Xie Zhuo didn’t answer. He waved his sleeve, and wind blades as sharp as knives burst out. With a series of cracking sounds, countless snow bamboos around us were sliced apart. Another flick of his sleeve, and the broken bamboos whirled twice in the wind before assembling into a small bamboo hut in the middle of the grove.

Without sparing me another glance, Xie Zhuo turned and walked toward the hut. “If you want to help me, then come.”

He left those words behind, and as his black-robed figure walked forward, the splintered bamboo followed his footsteps, forming a fenced courtyard around the hut. The bamboo gate creaked open and swung slightly, sounding like the jaws of a monster.

With his parting words, it felt like stepping into that bamboo hut meant stepping right into a trap he had set.

But…

For the Pangu Axe. For Kunlun five hundred years in the future!

I steeled myself. Fine, let’s go!

Even if you hate me, Xie Zhuo, didn’t you still save me before? You haven’t even laid a hand on me—would you really bear to take my life?

If I can keep my life, what do I have to be afraid of?

Just do it…

I stepped forward and entered the small bamboo hut that Xie Zhuo had built five hundred years ago, in the most remote snow bamboo forest beneath the peak of Kunlun.

I hoped that, in the days to come, Xie Zhuo and I could work together and finally destroy the bond that, back then, we refused to let go of no matter what—

Our fated connection.