Chapter Eighty-Four: Tears in Distant Glances

After landing, Nightless Abyss did not throw a fit. He only stood there in a daze, staring at the place where the golden radiance had vanished.

Xueqing’s cold indifference cut Nightless Abyss to the bone. He did not know when he had fallen in love with her, but he knew his own appearance had been nothing but an accident. In the end, the one Xueqing loved was still the Blood Demon; this much could be seen from their meeting today.

He hated it. Hated his own uselessness. Hated that he was not the Blood Demon. Hated that he had no strength. He hated even more that he had once touched the remains of a supreme Blood Demon and been reduced to what he was now.

A boundless hatred surged in him. He hated himself, hated that he had gone grave-robbing, hated that he had not left the tomb with the Fat One.

He hated himself for becoming a tomb thief, hated himself for everything...

The Saintess had already withdrawn the secret art. Her aura was somewhat disordered now, and beneath the veil her beautiful face was as pale as paper. Back then, from afar, she had seen the flood dragon prepare to strike at Nightless Abyss. In her anxiety she had unleashed the Mystic Moon secret technique, gaining tremendous power for a short time and thereby intimidating those great demon beings.

The other twelve fairies of the Mystic Moon Sacred Land stood quietly to one side. Their Saintess had not spoken, so none of them dared make a sound. They simply waited in silence.

Far away.

On a mountain peak, Xueqing stood quietly. Her gaze, too, was fixed on the direction Nightless Abyss had gone, her expression complicated, tears long since blurring her sight.

After a long while, Xueqing withdrew her gaze. Her slender white hand gently stroked the faintly bulging curve of her abdomen, her eyes overflowing with tenderness.

In the sky, a streak of golden light returned in the blink of an eye to the mountaintop and slowly descended.

“Did you send him away?” Xueqing asked coldly, glancing at the golden bird-man who had returned.

“Reporting to Your Majesty, this subordinate has already safely sent him—cough, sent them all away!” the bird-man said, sweating profusely. It was easy to see that this great demon with long golden hair was terrified of Xueqing.

Xueqing did not reply. With a casual motion of her hand, six beams of restriction light fell upon the six great demons. At once, the six of them erupted with an utterly terrifying aura, their boundless demonic power filling heaven and earth. The bird-man’s wings transformed into human arms, and the old flood dragon became a young man.

In an instant, the six great demons all took on complete human form, no longer the half-beast shapes they had worn before.

“For these past thousands of years, you have worked hard guarding the Empress.”

Xueqing turned around and looked at the six demon men before her as she spoke.

“For Your Highness, we would gladly go through fire and tread water without hesitation!” All six great demons bowed on one knee to Xueqing, saying with utmost reverence.

“How many human cultivators have come?” Xueqing asked coldly, her majesty overwhelming.

“Replying to Your Highness, about ten thousand human cultivators have arrived. They are all minor fish. Those old monsters from the sacred lands, divine dynasties, and noble houses are indeed cunning—there isn’t a single great fish among them, only two small ones,” the old flood dragon replied.

“If they had not come here knowing nothing, they would not have survived so long.”

Xueqing turned once more toward the direction Nightless Abyss had left and asked, “How is the evacuation of the demon race here?”

“Replying to Your Highness, everyone has already withdrawn. Not a single demon has been left behind,” the old flood dragon reported.

“Very good. Prepare yourselves. We return to the Southern Wastelands to merge.” Xueqing looked quietly at the little one lying in the lotus pond behind her, its eyes closed and body no bigger than a fist.

“But Your Highness, if we do it this way, the little highness...” the old flood dragon began.

Xueqing gave one last glance toward Nightless Abyss’s direction and said, “Do not worry. I have my own plan. Though the Empress’s true dragon bloodline is domineering, it is not without a means of restraint.”

“Activate the killing formation. We leave!”

With a sweep of her hand, the void before her was torn open. She lifted the Empress from the lotus pond and was the first to enter the space passage she had split open.

“Yes! Your subordinate obeys!”

Deep within the ruins, near the crater of the volcano, an ancient hall hovered in the air, and there gathered more and more cultivators...

Nightless Abyss slowly came to his senses. He looked over the veiled maiden nearest to him and the many fairies of the Mystic Moon Sacred Land, then laughed heartily as he walked outward, a stream of verses flowing from his mouth.

“Heartbreak in the red osmanthus by the moonlit window. Is the moon still like it was then? Are people still like they were then?”

“Who remembers, in the west wind, being lonely and cold, with rustling yellow leaves shutting the sparse window as I stand in the slanting sunset, lost in thoughts of the past?”

“Hahaha...”

His laughter, bitter and wrenching, poured from him without end. Turning his head, he looked at the women of the Mystic Moon Sacred Land following behind him and asked, “Have you any wine?”

The Saintess said nothing. With a delicate motion of her hand at her waist, a white wine flask of translucent divine jade appeared in her grasp. Holding it with both hands, she respectfully offered it to Nightless Abyss.

A rich wine fragrance drifted from the jade flask. Nightless Abyss threw back his head and drank deeply. As the fierce liquor burned down his throat, he suddenly felt strands of pure energy surging through every limb and bone, as though his organs were about to ignite.

He continued reciting: “Wine enters a sorrowful heart and turns into tears of longing.”

He took another swig and chanted:

“A beauty once seen is never forgotten; if unseen for a single day, one longs for her like a madman.”

“To say that longing is of no use is true enough; yet melancholy itself is a kind of clear madness.”

“Hahaha, mad! What a splendid madness!”

Nightless Abyss laughed wildly, like one possessed, with poetry, wine, and beauty at his side.

All the fairies could truly and clearly feel the emotions within Nightless Abyss’s heart at this moment.

Nightless Abyss tipped back his head and raised the flask to drink again, only to find the bottle empty. He poured out the last drop, then casually tossed it aside. The flask struck the ground with a crisp clang.

After drinking a bottle of unknown liquor, he was already slightly drunk. With a flushed excitement, he cried out, “Wine!”

The Saintess silently offered another bottle, then quietly led the other twelve fairies after Nightless Abyss as he walked outward.

There was wine, and he drank fiercely. He continued to chant:

“One longing, two places of idle sorrow. This feeling has no way to be erased; it had just left the brow, yet it had already risen in the heart.”

Nightless Abyss swayed as he spoke, feeling as though something within him was brewing, ready to burst forth at any moment.

He raised the wine in his hand and drank again.

“Looking at one another from afar, tears in our eyes, yet we were speechless, choked with emotion.”

The moment Nightless Abyss’s voice fell, a heaven-shaking roar erupted from the ruins behind him. Five-colored light blazed with dazzling brilliance, enveloping the entire wasteland.

“Ahhh...”

Screams rose one after another from within the ruins. The ancient demon hall burst forth with ten thousand rays of light, answering the wasteland from afar...

“The killing formation, rise!”

The fairies of the Mystic Moon Sacred Land all changed color. Looking back toward the ruins, they saw a boundless tide of bloody light flare up, overwhelming in force and grand in momentum. Within the ruins, cultivators were struck by divine radiance one after another, exploding into countless sprays of blood mist.

Nightless Abyss remained unmoved. He drank again, heavily, fiercely.

“Heaven does not grow old, and love is hard to sever; the river flows on and on, never turning back!”

He stepped forward.

Between heaven and earth, the winds and clouds suddenly changed.