In the end, under the moonlight, Feng Qingyun returned to the Xiān Gōng Sect, holding the still-unconscious egg in his arms. After the great battle, everyone was immersed in the relief of having survived a catastrophe. Coupled with the reopening of the heavenly path and the renewed hope of ascension, the entire cultivation world was wrapped in a jubilant atmosphere.
Only the Xiān Gōng Sect felt… strangely off.
Mu Hanyang, once the foremost figure, had caused such a massive stir at the Heavenly Gate Ceremony, yet now he had died under the name of the false Heavenly Dao. Not only that, but the world had also remembered everything he had done to Feng Qingyun in the previous life, so the reputation of the Xiān Gōng Sect had been utterly ruined by him alone. For a time, even his disciples no longer dared to mention his name.
Now that Feng Qingyun had returned to take up the position of Sect Leader, many of Mu Hanyang’s former supporters felt as though they were sitting on needles. They wished they could tuck their tails between their legs and keep a low profile every day. It would be strange if the atmosphere in the sect were pleasant.
But Feng Qingyun’s focus was not on any of this.
The path to the heavens had been completely opened, yet the Mistress of the Underworld did not become the first to ascend. Instead, the first to ascend was the Heavenly Fox Patriarch Qingqiu Yuan, who had regained his memories. In his urgency to reunite with his Dao companion, he ascended immediately after the battle, without even wiping the blood from his tails.
When Feng Qingyun received this news, he was in the Main Hall of the Xiān Gōng Sect, handling post-disaster reconstruction affairs.
…Dao companion?
Hearing those two words, his hand paused for no apparent reason.
His only Dao companion seemed to… have died by his own hand not long ago. Even now, the body lay buried in the back of the mountain, without so much as a grave marker. Some cultivators had whispered behind his back that although Mu Hanyang had treated him coldly in the previous life, he had never taken Feng Qingyun’s life. Yet in this life, Feng Qingyun had used him so thoroughly, killing his husband to prove his Dao, cruel and merciless. Perhaps cultivating the Ruthless Path suited him better.
But Feng Qingyun paid no mind to such talk.
Only the words “Ruthless Path” made him pause for a fleeting moment before he cast them aside. But now, as he looked at the table piled high with jade slips, for a brief instant, he felt that something was missing.
Something was missing…
Yet in the end, he couldn’t figure out what.
Irritated for no clear reason, he stood up and stepped out of the Main Hall. The moonlight tonight was just as bright, and Feng Qingyun raised his eyes to look at that luminous sky. After the great calamity, for reasons he did not understand, he had grown fond of the moon. Every night since returning home, only by standing beneath the moonlight could he feel true peace.
Therefore, watching the moon had gradually become a habit. But in the end, it was nothing more than a habit that had appeared out of nowhere, without cause, without meaning, without leading to anything.
The moon was just the moon.
And life continued to flow on.
…………………
As time passed, when the Mistress of the Underworld ascended as the second to do so, people across the world were surprised. The Heavenly Fox Patriarch, as an ancient powerhouse and in a hurry, being the first to ascend… made sense.
But the second was not Feng Qingyun?
Some who knew the inside story spread word: back then, the Mistress of the Underworld and Feng Qingyun had made an agreement. She had contributed so much in the great battle precisely to ascend first. Seen that way, her position as second to ascend was understandable. Many suppressed their doubts, assuming that the third to ascend would surely be Feng Qingyun.
But when even King Yama of the Pool of Reincarnation ascended, and Feng Qingyun still showed no intention of ascending at all, the entire world was stunned. That so-called King Yama was merely the eyes of the Mistress of the Underworld, burrowing the remnants of the Heavenly Dao’s power to control reincarnation… Even a pair of rotten eyes could ascend, yet Feng Qingyun showed no sign of doing so!
“…”
Why?!
Some speculated that he still held a grudge over his previous life and would only ascend after purging those who had spread rumors about him. And as soon as that rumor spread, the entire cultivation world fell into unease, but Feng Qingyun himself seemed utterly unaware of what others were thinking. He remained in the Xiān Gōng Sect, unmoved as a mountain, barely cultivating, simply handling the backlog of affairs Mu Hanyang had left behind.
One day, while Feng Qingyun was reviewing jade slips, Bai Ruolin rushed in anxiously, shouting, “Senior Brother, several cultivators have come again to thank you!”
After the great calamity, Feng Qingyun had become the greatest hero under heaven, and countless people came to the Xiān Gōng Sect to express their gratitude. There were also many with guilty consciences who, after sleepless nights, came in person to apologize for what they had done in the past.
And yet, Feng Qingyun didn’t even lift his head.
“Turn them away for me.”
Bai Ruolin sent out a communication talisman to have someone deal with the visitors, but she herself did not leave. Instead, she leaned against his desk. At first, she said nothing. But since Feng Qingyun didn’t acknowledge her presence at all, she eventually deflated like a punctured ball:
“Senior Brother… the Heavenly Fox Patriarch has ascended. The Mistress of the Underworld has ascended too… I heard that Senior Su Yunzhou and Senior Mi Zhiyun are also preparing to ascend.”
Feng Qingyun finally looked up at her.
“So?”
“So I just wanted to ask…” Bai Ruolin hesitated. “…why aren’t you ascending?”
This was, in truth, the question on everyone’s mind. Logically speaking, no one was more suited to ascend first than Feng Qingyun, yet he showed no intention of doing so.
“The Xiān Gōng Sect’s affairs have been neglected for a year,” Feng Qingyun paused before answering. “You’re still young and inexperienced…”
“Everyone in the world has regained their memories. That Mu bastard deserved to die a thousand times over for what he did to you! What do you have to feel guilty about?” Bai Ruolin interrupted. “As for me, you’ve been using this excuse to brush me off for days!” Seeing that ordinary questioning wouldn’t get an answer, she simply resorted to throwing a childish tantrum, continuing, “If you don’t give me an answer today, I’m not leaving!”
With that, she crossed her arms and sat right on the desk, clearly determined to be stubborn. Feng Qingyun couldn’t help but sigh, half amused, half helpless. He knew she was only acting this way out of concern for him, so, after a moment of silence, he finally said truthfully: “I just feel… I shouldn’t ascend yet.”
“…Huh?” Bai Ruolin blinked, utterly confused. “Why?”
Feng Qingyun pressed his lips together, offering no explanation. Instead, he took out the merfolk egg from his storage ring. As expected, the moment Dandan came out, it immediately wriggled frantically into his arms. Feng Qingyun quickly held it and gently rubbed the shell to soothe it, but the egg still seemed anxious, as if it wanted to say something. Unfortunately, it had no mouth and no eyes, just a helpless little mute, unable to express itself.
“Senior Brother,” Bai Ruolin wasn’t surprised at all, “are you staying because of little Dandan?”
“Mm.” Feng Qingyun stroked the shell. “I feel like it has something very important to tell me.”
“It’s probably just about to hatch and getting restless,” Bai Ruolin said dismissively. “What big secret could a tiny egg possibly have?”
Feng Qingyun didn’t respond. He simply lifted the egg and began feeding it demonic Qi with practiced ease.
In truth, even he didn’t know why he was unwilling to ascend.
Some disciples in the Xiān Gōng Sect believed it was because he couldn’t bear to part with the position of Sect Leader. Others were convinced that, having wandered for over a year and suffered so much, now that Mu Hanyang was dead, he intended to stay and settle old scores, leaving many disciples in constant fear.
And then there were those with truly baffling thoughts, who believed he still harbored feelings for Mu Hanyang. That even after killing him, love and hatred remained entangled, and that was why he refused to ascend.
Even Bai Ruolin scoffed at such rumors, and Feng Qingyun himself found them even more absurd. He knew very well that the root of the issue lay neither with the Xiān Gōng Sect nor with Mu Hanyang, but what exactly it was, he couldn’t say.
As far as his memories went, in his previous life, he and Mu Hanyang had reached the point of utter despair, on the verge of separation, when he himself died in the collapse of heaven. By chance, he was reborn on the eve of his Dao ceremony. In this life, he decisively tore apart the wedding robes at the ceremony, then wandered the world alone. From the remnants of his Master’s soul, he learned the truth of the Heavenly Dao’s death, and at the same time picked up a dying merfolk egg.
In the end, he traveled the mountains and rivers with it, gathered the hearts of the Four Ancient Beasts, used the guise of the Heavenly Dao’s incarnation, and made Mu Hanyang a decoy to draw out the immortals, ultimately repairing the heavens, reopening the Heavenly Path, repelling over a dozen invading immortals, and bringing peace to the world.
Now the seas were calm, the world at peace.
Even if people privately had opinions about his brutality in killing ten immortals a day, no one dared show it openly. All they displayed before him was admiration and reverence. Feng Qingyun didn’t care about any of that, but he still felt that this tumultuous story was somehow… incomplete.
As if something was missing.
But what… was missing?
He couldn’t answer, and the world had left him no clues.
It wasn’t until one day, while feeding the merfolk egg, that Feng Qingyun finally noticed something unusual. In his memory, the egg had always been well-behaved, obedient at every meal, never causing trouble. Back when he traveled the world with it in search of the hearts of the Four Ancient Beasts, there were times he couldn’t feed it in time. Even then, it would stay quietly inside his storage ring, never making a sound, even when hungry.
But now, the egg seemed like a completely different being.
Every time it ate, it grew restless, wriggling and rubbing against him in his arms. At first, Feng Qingyun, like Bai Ruolin, thought it was about to hatch. But a month passed, and it was still just an egg, with no sign of cracking.
Gradually, through its strange behavior, Feng Qingyun realized…
It truly seemed to have something it wanted to tell him.
But ever since leaving that cave, he could no longer hear the egg’s thoughts. Now it was nothing more than a mute little thing that couldn’t speak or write, able only to nudge his chest during meals, unable to express anything. After learning of that, Bai Ruolin had more than once urged Feng Qingyun to ascend with the egg and wait for it to hatch in the heavens instead.
But a single day in the heavens was a year on earth. Feng Qingyun felt that something couldn’t be delayed that long, yet he couldn’t remember what it was. All he had was a vague premonition that when the egg finally hatched, the sorrow that had long weighed on him might finally be resolved.
So now, he said nothing, simply holding the restless egg and feeding it demonic Qi. Bai Ruolin had been anxious when he remained silent, but seeing that, she suddenly froze. Once again, she sensed that inexplicable sorrow lingering around him, something that had clung to him ever since the end of the great battle, never fading.
Some cultivators who had seen him before had whispered in secret, half in shock…
Could that egg have been born by Feng Qingyun for Mu Hanyang?!
Otherwise, why did he always look so broken while feeding it, as if he had killed his own husband with his own hands, yet still carried such lingering grief?!
Bai Ruolin’s response to such rumors had been simple: she stormed over cold-faced and beat the offenders until they cried for mercy. As for Feng Qingyun, he didn’t care at all.
In fact, he didn’t care about anything.
At that moment, he sat there like a beautiful, empty shell without a soul, making Bai Ruolin uneasy.
When the egg hatches, will everything really be resolved?
She didn’t know, but she hoped for that day. Hoped for the day Feng Qingyun would finally be freed from that pale, hollow shell. Yet no one expected that day would come sooner than anyone imagined, only not in the most fitting way.
……………..
In this world, strength had always ruled. After the great calamity, a new order naturally formed in the cultivation world, with Feng Qingyun at its head. On the surface, no one dared object. At present, delegates from all sides had gathered in the Xiān Gōng Sect to discuss how to redistribute the authority of the Heavenly Dao, which had previously been held by various factions.
For example, Xiangqiu in the Demon World no longer needed to support the collapsing sky. Should powerful cultivators be sent to investigate whether the issue of spiritual Qi failing to remain there could be resolved? And similarly, there were matters concerning the now-empty Underworld and who should rule over the Wheel of Reincarnation.
Most of these discussions were handled internally by the ancestral demonic clans and the immortal Huangquan clan. The Xiān Gōng Sect merely formalized the process to inform the world, and Feng Qingyun had no objections.
In fact, he seemed somewhat distracted.
Unlike Mu Hanyang, he had no desire to become the ruler of the Righteous Path. But since everyone had pushed him into the position, he couldn’t easily refuse, yet sitting there idly was unbearably dull. So it was at this moment that he took the egg out to nurture it. The reason was simple: the egg had been far too restless today. Leaving it in the storage ring, he feared it might hurt itself.
Fortunately, there were many people present, and its timid nature hadn’t changed. Once brought out, it immediately became quiet. Seeing it trembling so pitifully, Feng Qingyun almost laughed, though he held back, gently cradling it and feeding it demonic Qi.
Today, the egg was unusually obedient, no longer wriggling during feeding, seemingly frightened by the crowd. But just as Feng Qingyun was about to finish, and the meeting was drawing to a close, Yue Jinshu, representing the Demon World, suddenly spoke:
“May I ask when Sect Leader Feng intends to ascend?”
Feng Qingyun paused, about to give his usual evasive answer, but the moment the egg heard “ascend” linked to Feng Qingyun, it suddenly became more agitated than ever before. It stopped eating, frantically rubbing against him, and then, in a moment of carelessness, it slammed into the corner of the table with a sharp crack.
The entire hall fell silent.
Bai Ruolin was so startled she nearly fainted, afraid she’d see yolk spilled everywhere, and hurried over. Feng Qingyun was equally flustered, quickly scooping the egg up. But oddly, touching it only made things worse: the shell cracked even more, with fragments falling away. Even Yue Jinshu, as the new Demon Empress, looked over with a panicked, grave expression.
Then, amid countless held breaths, a chubby, lotus-root-like little hand reached out from the crack, slowly prying apart the broken shell piece by piece.
No one in the hall dared speak. They simply watched, breathless.
When about a third of the shell had been removed, a round little head finally emerged. It was clearly inexperienced at hatching, as the little one hadn’t thrown all the fragments away, with some still clinging to its head. It shook them off after emerging.
It was a beautiful, adorable little merfolk child, with watery blue eyes and soft, light-colored curls, not yet differentiated in gender. It looked up at Feng Qingyun without blinking, wide-eyed, and lisped softly:
“Da… Daddy!”
The crisp voice melted everyone present.
Feng Qingyun snapped back to himself, his heart softening instantly. Carefully lifting the child from the shell, brushing off the fragments from its tail, he cradled it and kissed its cheek.
“Daddy’s here, good baby.”
A cultivator quickly stood up to congratulate him: “Congratulations, Sect Leader Feng, on your heir!”
Others followed with their congratulations, and Feng Qingyun accepted them with a smile. But even after hatching, the child seemed full of things to say. Clutching his robe, it babbled insistently, though its tongue was too soft to form proper words, growing so anxious it looked ready to leap down and slam the floor with its tail. As Feng Qingyun noticed and gently patted its back to calm it, Yue Jinshu asked: “Has the heir been named yet?”
“Not yet,” Feng Qingyun paused, then smiled. “If the Demon Empress doesn’t mind,” he added casually, “perhaps you could name the child. Let us share in your blessing.”
Yue Jinshu began to hesitate, but before she could respond, the child, who had struggled so long to speak clearly, suddenly blurted out: “Dan… Dan has a name!”
The clear words shocked everyone, and even Feng Qingyun looked down in surprise. The child’s face flushed red as it forced out each word: “Dandan is… called Beichen! Father gave Dandan this name!”
The hall fell silent, and the Xiān Gōng Sect members’ expressions changed instantly as they all assumed the “father” referred to Mu Hanyang. That name was taboo across the entire cultivation world, but Feng Qingyun didn’t think of Mu Hanyang not even once. Instead, he blinked in confusion.
“…Father?”
“Yes, yes!” Little Beichen clutched his robes, and after that first sentence, the rest came more smoothly. “Daddy said… Father is the one Daddy loves most! He’s Daddy’s Dao companion. Daddy told Dandan to remember Father, to remind you that you love him very, very much, and not to forget!”
The child’s innocent words stunned everyone, and Feng Qingyun froze as well, staring down at it in disbelief.
I have… a Dao companion?
He hesitated, then asked uncertainly: “The father you’re talking about… isn’t Mu Hanyang, right?”
No one expected him to bring up that name himself, but not even he realized the urgency in his voice.
“No! Father is Father, not some Mu Hanyang!” Beichen shook its head immediately. “Father’s name is Long Yin. He’s very beautiful, and Daddy loves him the most… Daddy told me that himself!”
As it spoke, it began reciting what Feng Qingyun had once taught it: “Father is… um… the Dragon God and Emperor of the Demon World! He’s very powerful and has a whole big palace.”
Dragon God?
Demon Emperor?
Feng Qingyun was stunned. After most of the Golden Core cultivators had already ascended, there were only a handful of Foundation-Building demons left in the Demon World, none of them at the level of a so-called “God”. At once, countless gazes turned toward Yue Jinshu, but Yue Jinshu herself was completely dumbfounded.
What is going on? Where did this Emperor of the entire Demon World come from?!
“Impossible.” Bai Ruolin was the first to react, immediately denying it. “Little Beichen, not just in the Demon World, even across the four seas and eight kingdoms, there has never been any such thing as a Dragon God. You must have misheard something from another world when you were little, right?”
“Dandan didn’t hear wrong!” Little Beichen’s face flushed with urgency. Tugging at Feng Qingyun’s robe, it turned and pointed at Yue Jinshu. “Sister Yueyue said it herself! Father sleeps with Daddy every night… Dandan also remembers, once Daddy even cried under Father…!”
Feng Qingyun reacted swiftly, covering the unfortunate child’s mouth at once, but it was already too late. The entire hall fell silent, everyone staring in shock. After a long moment, they all turned to look at Yue Jinshu in disbelief.
The newly appointed Demon Empress already dared to fabricate scandalous rumors about the Lord of the Righeous Path, and even told such nonsense to a child!
The demons were truly terrifying, ah!
The scene of Feng Qingyun slaughtering immortals like chickens was still fresh in everyone’s minds. For a moment, the way they looked at Yue Jinshu was filled with admiration, as if she were someone unafraid of death.
Yue Jinshu herself was stunned. When she came back to her senses, she looked like she was about to cry, nearly frightened out of her wits. She hurriedly stood up to defend herself: “Sect Leader Feng, I truly never taught the young heir any of this!”
She was afraid that if she spoke too slowly, Feng Qingyun might believe it and draw his sword to cut her down in a single strike! Yet upon hearing that, Feng Qingyun seemed to suddenly realize something, freezing in place. Beichen was also stunned.
Why doesn’t Sister Yueyue remember Father either?!
With its tiny mind, whatever Feng Qingyun and Long Yin said, it believed, but adults could be careless; if things weren’t explained clearly, misunderstandings would arise. Dandan had mistakenly thought the task was simply to help Feng Qingyun remember Long Yin, but… it had never expected that now, the entire world had forgotten Long Yin! This made the little merfolk seem like a child who had just hatched and was making things up, ah!
Little Beichen was on the verge of tears. To avoid seeming so useless, it even lowered its head and bit its finger, trying with its tiny walnut-sized brain to think of a way to make everyone remember. But Feng Qingyun quickly came back to himself and gently pulled the child’s hand away from his mouth, saying, “Daddy believes you. Don’t cry, baby. Be good.”
Beichen blinked up at him with teary eyes, looking wronged, as if asking, Do you really believe me, Daddy?
“Really,” Feng Qingyun said seriously. “Daddy truly believes you.”
Everyone assumed he was simply indulging the child. Yet after wiping away Beichen’s tears, Feng Qingyun softly asked, “In your memory, what does Sister Yueyue call me?”
Yue Jinshu froze, not understanding why he would ask that. Of course, she called him Sect Leader Feng, what else could it be…
“Sister Yueyue used to call Daddy Your Highness, and called Dandan Little Highness…”
The soft voice fell, and both Yue Jinshu and everyone present were stunned.
It wasn’t that they suddenly remembered anything. Rather, they realized the inconsistency: if Feng Qingyun had always been called Sect Leader Feng, and the Demon World had no previous Emperor, then why would Yue Jinshu have called a mere egg “Little Highness”?
The entire hall fell into dead silence once more, but when they came back to themselves, many felt goosebumps rise all over their bodies.
What kind of power could erase a person completely from the world?!
And what kind of person, doing what kind of thing, would incur such a terrifying punishment that even death was not the end, and every trace of their existence had to be wiped away?
Many suddenly realized this was something far beyond their reach, their faces turning pale.
Only Feng Qingyun stood frozen in place, a surge of hope rising within him. The vague, indescribable sorrow that had haunted him seemed to fade slightly, and the sense of loss finally found an outlet.
…So I once had someone I loved deeply. What kind of person was he? Why did I forget him?
For a moment, countless questions crowded Feng Qingyun’s mind. The words were already at his lips when he suddenly came back to himself, remembering there were still many outsiders present.
Seeing that many were already avoiding the matter and that the discussion had essentially concluded, Feng Qingyun took the initiative to end the meeting. Most people readily agreed, and the assembly dispersed immediately. Only Yue Jinshu lingered outside the hall for a moment, hesitating as she looked toward Feng Qingyun, seated high above, holding the little merfolk, yet without any trace of a smile on his face.
In the end, she still turned and left with the crowd.
That night, Feng Qingyun carried Beichen to the mountain cave he described. But there was nothing there, just an ordinary slope, exactly as it had been at some point in the past.
“Strange…” Little Beichen frowned, trying to defend itself. “Daddy really saw Father here for the last time!”
“Mm, mm, Daddy believes you. Maybe the cave was hidden by Father,” Feng Qingyun said gently, though he saw nothing. “Can you tell Daddy… what kind of person your father is?”
At this, Beichen’s eyes lit up. “Father is very handsome! When Dandan last saw him, he seemed sick, but he’s very powerful! He could hear what Beichen and Daddy were thinking, and could even speak inside our hearts!”
“Father is just like Daddy, a great hero!”
Feng Qingyun froze, suddenly lifting his gaze toward the sky.
…Able to hear anyone’s thoughts, able to speak within the heart.
Though Beichen didn’t fully understand, Feng Qingyun vaguely grasped something. In the version he remembered, the “manifestation of the Heavenly Dao” was merely a ruse fabricated by his master, Zhong Yulan, to deceive the world. But what if the Heavenly Dao had truly taken form? Not only possessing a body, but also a name.
Long Yin.
The reason he lingered in this world, the reason he was unwilling to ascend. His Dao companion. Yet no one remembered him.
Not even himself.
As if someone had taken an eraser and wiped away every trace of his love and memory, leaving behind only endless regret and emptiness.
Feng Qingyun stood in the mountains holding Beichen, gazing at the moon for a long time. The next morning, he said to Bai Ruolin, “Ruolin, I’m going down the mountain.”
“…Why are you suddenly leaving, Senior Brother?” Bai Ruolin was stunned.
Holding Beichen, Feng Qingyun lowered his eyes and answered, “I’m going to find him.”
Bai Ruolin was even more shocked, staring at him as if suspecting possession. This was Feng Qingyun, who had killed his former husband as easily as slaughtering chickens! And now, because of a child’s words, he wanted to travel thousands of miles to find a lover!
She almost blurted out that there was no Demon Emperor named Long Yin in the world, that he must be mistaken. But when the words reached her lips, she couldn’t say them. Since the great battle ended, her Senior Brother had seemed soulless, often sitting quietly in the mountains, gazing at the moon. Some uninformed disciples had even sighed in secret, saying that Sect Leader Feng was truly sentimental; despite everything Mu Hanyang had done, he still mourned him.
Only Bai Ruolin knew that wasn’t the case.
After returning home, Feng Qingyun seemed shattered. That emotion could not possibly be for Mu Hanyang, but now, though the faint sadness still lingered, he seemed alive again, no longer broken, but filled with a quiet resilience. Perhaps for him, painfully seeking the truth was better than remaining lost and ascending in confusion.
“…But even if what Little Beichen says is true,” Bai Ruolin hesitated, “there are no traces of him left in the world. How could you possibly find him?”
“How can a person simply vanish without reason?” Feng Qingyun said softly. “There will always be traces. If I can’t find him in a year, then ten years. If not ten, then a hundred.”
“Even if it takes thousands or tens of thousands of years, one day, I will find him and bring him back to my side.”
His gentle yet resolute words struck like thunder. Bai Ruolin stood there for a long time before finally saying, “I understand… I’ll take care of the Xiān Gōng Sect. Go without worry, Senior Brother.”
So Feng Qingyun left the Xiān Gōng Sect in the spring of the year after the great battle. Carrying Beichen, he walked alone down the mountain path outside the sect. For some reason, a sudden, indescribable grief welled up in his heart, as if someone had once walked down this path alone.
And he had not followed.
By the time he reached the forest at the foot of the mountain, that grief had peaked. He stood there, as if possessed, holding Beichen in a daze. Something important had happened here… but he couldn’t remember anything.
An overwhelming sorrow flooded his thoughts. By the time Feng Qingyun came back to himself, tears were already streaming down his face. Beichen quickly reached up to wipe his tears, asking, “Why is Daddy crying? Are you sad? Father told Dandan to take good care of Daddy, not to let Daddy be sad.”
Feng Qingyun felt another wave of ache in his heart. Just as he tried to suppress his tears and reassure the child, a breeze suddenly swept through the forest, carrying countless floral scents. He froze, turning to see the mountainside burst into bloom. Peach blossoms, radiant and brilliant, a vast sea of blossoms surged toward him, wrapped in boundless spring.
As if saying…
[Don’t cry, Little Rose.]
But… why peach blossoms?
Feng Qingyun stood there in confusion, staring at the vivid, flourishing blossoms. He wasn’t a peach blossom… so why were peach blossoms blooming? Because their time together had been too short. So short that within days, he forgot everything. So short that even the Heavenly Dao, in the course of months, had forgotten all memories of this life.
At this moment, Long Yin no longer remembered what kind of flower Feng Qingyun was.
His “Little Rose” was only a beautiful illusion. He no longer possessed anything that could be called consciousness. And yet, he still remembered one thing.
He could not let his beloved cry.
He would use every means to comfort him, even if it hastened his own disappearance, but Feng Qingyun knew none of this. He only felt something surging uncontrollably within his chest as he gazed at the endless blossoms.
“Wow…” In his arms, little Beichen caught a petal, looking up at the clear sky with bright eyes. “Daddy, is Father greeting us?”
At those words, everything broke loose.
Tears surged like a breached dam. Feng Qingyun could no longer hold back, standing amid the sea of flowers, holding Beichen as tears streamed down his face.
Wait for me a little longer… just a little longer.
My love, I will do everything in my power.
Even if I must scour heaven and earth, I will bring you back to my side.
T.N: So now Little Beichen has a human form. However, it has been stated multiple times that merfolk do not have a fixed gender, and they’re able to choose what they want to be when they reach adulthood. Therefore, I’m doing my best not to misgender the child. Please excuse me if I’m missing a “he” or “she” here and there; the translation gives me all the pronouns in the world, but it seems to favour “he” for Little Beichen. However, I’ve decided to use “they/them” or simply “it” because it’s a fantastic creature and not human, so maybe “it” is appropriate as well. I don’t know; English is not my first language, and it’s a bit confusing for me as well. Thank you for your understanding!
T.N: This novel is now completed on my Patreon, at chapter 88! There are still 12 extras that I will translate in the following weeks, but for now, let us celebrate 😀
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