Chapter 1: Li Xuanyue Will Never Return

Deep in a mountain forest, a glance revealed only desolation, as if no human being had ever set foot there.

The nearest household was dozens of li away, and the nearest market town was even farther, hundreds of li off. Yet in this barren, borderland place, on a peak buried deep in dense woods, stood three small wooden cottages, and in the courtyard grew a peach tree already in bloom.

Under the peach tree, a gifted scholar and a beautiful woman were playing the qin and dancing; at the far end of the yard, two youths were frolicking in the woods, their silver-bell laughter drifting through the air and blending with the lingering notes of the qin beneath the blossoms.

The man at the qin had sharp brows and bright eyes, a face like carved jade, the picture of a graceful gentleman.

As for the woman dancing lightly, she wore no ornaments, no pearls or glass trinkets, only the simplest, most ordinary white dress. Yet that plain garment outlined a beauty that no words could truly capture. All the world's brilliant splendor and jewelry seemed to fade before her face, so stunning it made heaven and earth lose color, as though she were an illusion from beyond this world.

Her skin was white and smooth as jade, as if wrapped in a layer of sacred light, untouched by dust. Her eyes held misty ripples, carrying a power that could make a person lose their wits. Her lips curved in a faint smile, the soft pink of them gentler than fresh flowers, yet with a charm that no sea of blossoms could ever paint.

As she leaned into a turn, a petal brushed past her cheek, which held the faintest blush of pink, and in that instant it added a breathtaking trace of seduction.

As she shifted with the music, the tilt of her body traced curves as if carved by a devil himself, so full and prominent it was almost shocking. Her breasts strained high against the fabric, as if they might burst free at any moment, and beneath the slender waist like a willow branch, her hips were rounded and high.

No matter where the eye fell, every inch of her was enough to make the soul go soft with wanton allure.

Li Xuanyue. A woman of peerless beauty, flawless in every way, gathering up all the brightest, most dazzling, and most exquisite grace the world had to offer.

Twang!

Just as Li Xuanyue turned in her dance and looked back at the man at the qin, a string suddenly snapped. The music and the seductive dance quietly faded away.

"Husband..." Li Xuanyue called softly, drifting to stand before the man at the qin. Mist filled her eyes and turned to tears as her soft lips trembled with a sob. "After this parting, I don't know how many years it will be... Forget me, and take good care of Jingyu... ngh!"

By the end of the words, she could no longer hold back her emotions and covered her face as she cried.

The man before her was her husband, Lin Qingyun, the love of her life. They even had a healthy child, and they should have had a beautiful future. Instead, fate had forced them apart.

Lin Qingyun looked at that familiar, stunning face, and his heart ached so badly it felt ready to tear apart. He didn't even notice the broken string had cut his palm.

Their affection for each other, after all their years together, had finally broken like a fragile qin string.

"Husband, let me finish the last dance for you... After I leave, I hope you can live well and take good care of Jingyu!"

"From this world... there will be no more Li Xuanyue..."

The music had not yet sounded again, but Li Xuanyue's peerless figure moved once more beneath the peach tree.

Only this time, there was no trace of seduction in her expression. There was no mist in her eyes anymore. What fell from her pretty face were tear after tear of clear sorrow.

By moonlight and the sound of the zither, they had first met; their love had been like two people bound together from a past life.

The qin had broken, and with it came a thousand strands of sorrow, yet her thoughts had sunk into the dark dust without stirring.

Hard to bear the separation, hard to bear the parting love.

Tears ruined her smile, and when she looked back, she was only a faint, gauzy shadow...

Li Xuanyue was gone. She left without a sound, and when she left, she did not even say goodbye to their child.

Watching that beautiful figure in the void gradually turn unreal, Lin Qingyun could no longer suppress his tears, and they poured down in an instant.

Years ago, beneath a full moon, he had first met Li Xuanyue. At that time, she was still the Xuanyue Divine Maiden of the Shenqi Empire, the supreme goddess of the ancient Old God clan.

Lin Qingyun, meanwhile, had been the current sect master of the Xuanji Pavilion in the Tianqi human kingdom, able to calculate the course of all things in the world simply by observing the stars and celestial signs. Even the Tianqi emperor had to treat him with courtesy.

Although Shenqi and Tianqi did not forbid marriage between their peoples, the status of the Xuanyue Divine Maiden was special.

This world was vast. The entire eastern continent belonged to the human Tianqi Empire; the west was the land of barbarian tribes, known as the Western Wastelands; in the north lay the frozen snowfields, with a neutral city called Extreme Snow City; and to the south, in the Purgatory Fire Lake, no living thing ever dared set foot.

The Tianqi human dynasty and the Western Wasteland barbarian tribes had fought year after year, smoke and fire filling the land, each side locked in a struggle neither could easily win.

It was not until the first person of the divine race awakened in an ancient ruin in the southeastern Western Wastelands that the old pattern of east and west dividing the world was finally broken.

Those who awoke from the ruins had once been cultivators from the ancient era, or even ordinary mortals. They founded a new nation and called themselves the Old God clan, naming their country Shenqi.

The people of the Old God clan had a natural advantage in cultivation, but because they had slept for so long, they could not adapt to this world. They could only survive by periodically absorbing the power of the stars and moon.

Li Xuanyue was the Xuanyue Divine Maiden, a woman of transcendent status and indispensable importance among the Old God clan.

Although the Old God clan allowed intermarriage with humans, "star and moon" were said to be one body, destined companions.

Yet during her travels through the world, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden happened to meet Lin Qingyun, whose temperament was refined and who was broad in learning and knowledge. The moment they met, they felt as if they had known each other forever, and they fell in love at once.

When the ruler of the Shenqi Empire, the Star God Emperor, learned that the saint he loved most had betrayed him, he flew into a rage.

But the Xuanyue Divine Maiden used her own life as the price. For the future of the Old God clan, the Star God Emperor had no choice but to swallow his anger and compromise, though he gave the Xuanyue Divine Maiden only ten years.

For those ten years, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden lived in seclusion with Lin Qingyun under the name Li Xuanyue, and gave birth to their healthy son, Lin Jingyu. They were a pair so content they envied neither mandarin ducks nor immortals.

Now, ten years had passed.

The Xuanyue Divine Maiden had no choice but to leave and return to Shenqi.

His wife had departed without a word, but Lin Qingyun did not blame her in the slightest. He knew all of this was his wife's fate, and also the calamity destined for him and their child.

The lovely figure in the sky gradually faded from sight. Tears still wet on his face, Lin Qingyun turned back, ready to lay out his plan to break this doom, only to see Jingyu stumbling toward him.

Jingyu threw himself into his father's arms and asked with innocent concern, "Dad, where did Mom go? I can't find her."

"Mom went down the mountain to buy things for Jingyu..." Lin Qingyun forced back his tears, lifted the grown Lin Jingyu into his arms, and carried him under the peach tree. With great seriousness, he said, "Jingyu, later you go into the tree hollow to cultivate. Without Dad's permission, you are not allowed to come out. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

Lin Jingyu, newly grown and still innocent, did not know that after today he would never see his loving parents again. He obediently crawled into the tree hollow.

After Lin Jingyu went inside, Lin Qingyun could not rest easy. He set seals outside the tree hollow to prevent Jingyu from sneaking out in disobedience, and at the same time he cut off every sound from within.

Now that his wife had returned to Shenqi, the Star God Emperor, who could not tolerate even the tiniest grain of sand in his eyes, would certainly not let father and son off. The only thing Lin Qingyun could do was protect their one and only flesh and blood.

After confirming that the tree hollow could not be opened from the inside, Lin Qingyun turned to look at the other youth who had been playing with Jingyu earlier. His gaze flickered, and his expression turned complicated.

"Heh..." Lin Qingyun shook his head with a bitter laugh. "We're all going to die anyway, so who gives a damn about reputation..."

That youth was about the same age as Jingyu, but sturdier in build. He was an orphan Lin Qingyun had specifically taken in after divining Jingyu's fate, a child no longer young in spirit and already remarkably sensible.

The hesitation in Lin Qingyun's eyes vanished in an instant. He walked over to that youth with a warm smile and said, "Xiao Chen, come down the mountain with your master to buy a few things."

As soon as he spoke, Lin Qingyun's heart filled with bitterness. This was the first time he had ever spoken to Xiao Chen in such a gentle tone.

"Yay!"

The young one named Xiao Chen jumped up excitedly at the mention of going down the mountain to buy things, then quickly realized he had lost his composure and hurriedly collected himself. In a dutiful voice, he asked, "Master, could you buy your disciple a candied hawthorn skewer? I haven't had one in a long time."

Whoosh.

That innocent, childlike smile made Lin Qingyun's tears break loose at last.

"All right... Master will not only buy candied hawthorns for Xiao Chen, I'll buy plenty. As many as you want."

...

At the eastern and western border of Tianqi.

High in the distant sky, a huge shadow suddenly appeared, like a massive black cloud floating far above the heavens and blocking out a great deal of the light shining down below.

Its shape and its floating posture made it clear that this was the flying ship sent by the Star God Emperor to welcome the Xuanyue Divine Maiden.

Inside the flying ship, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden, still wearing a plain white dress, was listening in the main hall to the report brought back by her trusted maid.

After listening in silence, a glimmer moved through the Divine Maiden's moon-bright eyes, and she asked with narrowed eyes, "You mean the Star God Emperor sent people to join forces with Tianqi cultivators to deal with Lin Qingyun?"

"Yes, Your Highness," said the beautifully dressed, pretty-faced maid standing before her. "They will make their move within the next two days."

Hearing this, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden could not help worrying about the safety of her husband and son. But after another thought, her husband had always been skilled in divination and should be able to foresee danger. He ought to be able to break through this crisis without issue.

Still, she could not fully relax, so she asked, "Do you know which force the Star God Emperor sent?"

"This servant does not know."

The Xuanyue Divine Maiden was silent for a moment, then chose to trust that her husband could foresee the danger in advance and turn misfortune aside.

At that moment, another maid came over and said, "Your Highness, the sacred water has been prepared. Please bathe and change your clothes."

The Xuanyue Divine Maiden nodded slightly. This return to Shenqi had almost emptied the Moon Temple's maid attendants, and the scale of the welcome was enormous. It was obvious the Star God Emperor was dead set on keeping her in Shenqi forever.

Crossing the ship's main hall, she arrived at a temporary sacred pool drawn from the Moon Temple's jade spring. She removed her outer robe, and her crystal-clear, sacred body was laid bare within the flying ship.

Her figure was graceful and sinuous, her snow-white skin like fine cream, as if carrying a sacred glow that made the brilliant glazed light of the round chamber dim in comparison.

Below her long, elegant neck lay exquisitely carved collarbones, followed by a pair of dazzling, full snow-white breasts. At the tops of those tender, smooth mounds, two deep-red, jade-like buds shimmered with intoxicating, dreamlike allure.

Her breasts were not only full and round, but also wonderfully resilient. Deep in the secret hollow of her pale cleavage, they were nothing like the breasts of an ordinary woman.

Naturally high and lifted, the white flesh of her breasts curved beautifully and softly, without the slightest hint of heaviness.

Her waist was soft as a willow branch, her skin like the pure, frozen snowfields born in a bitter winter. Beneath that white snow seemed to bloom a small patch of faint grass, outlining the lush, full shape of her pussy and hiding her sex among the blades.

With the support of her trusted maid, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden slowly stepped into the water on her slender jade feet.

A veil of mist rose at once and shrouded the Divine Maiden's magnificent body, leaving only a vague outline visible in the haze. Even so, the maids at the poolside, beautiful as they were, still felt ashamed of themselves.

In the water, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden suddenly called softly to her trusted maid, "Yuexin, is the little princess all right now? Has anyone in the clan been bullying her?"

The "little princess" she referred to was not the child of the Star God Emperor or of herself, but a young girl who had awakened not long ago from the ancient ruins of the Old Gods. Because she possessed the purest and most flawless constitution in the world, she was deeply loved by the clan, who all treated her like Shenqi's treasured jewel. Over time, she had become the little princess of Shenqi.

"Your Highness, the little princess is perfectly well. She talks about you every day," Yuexin replied respectfully.

The Xuanyue Divine Maiden gave a soft mm of acknowledgment and said nothing more. Her tender body sank into the water, her moonlike eyes closed as she silently wondered whether her husband could still break through the crisis and protect their flesh and blood.

Before marrying Lin Qingyun, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden had never let her heart stir, even though the Star God Emperor had pursued her obsessively. She had remained a virgin.

For a woman who had already lived one life in ancient times, male-female affection had long since seemed distant and clear. That changed only when she met the man who made her heart pound with just one glance.

Ten years was neither short nor long.

For the Xuanyue Divine Maiden, those ten years were the warmest in both her lives, and also the happiest.

She knew that once the bathing and changing were done, there would be no more "Li Xuanyue" in this world. She would no longer be a mother or a wife, only the spiritual leader of the Old God clan of Shenqi, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden.

But she was not the kind of woman who would submit willingly to fate's tricks.

After several hours of flight, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden finally arrived in Shenqi aboard the flying ship.

In the central district of the Shenqi imperial capital stood a brilliant and magnificent great hall of imposing presence. That great hall was the state council hall of Shenqi, the Origin Temple.

At that very moment, the ruler of the Shenqi Empire, the Star God Emperor, stood at the highest point of the great hall, waiting for the woman he had long anticipated to step out of the flying ship suspended in the air.

Beneath the giant gates of the Origin Temple, hundreds of thousands of members of the Old God clan had gathered to welcome the Xuanyue Divine Maiden's return.

Indeed, how could the ever-proud Star God Emperor possibly let the scandal of the Xuanyue Divine Maiden giving him a green hat leak out? A retreat into seclusion for cultivation was by far the best excuse to announce.

Behind the Star God Emperor stood twelve council elders in respectful silence, the atmosphere unusually heavy.

The twelve Star Constellation elders each had their own stance on the Xuanyue Divine Maiden's return. The most radical faction hoped that His Highness the Star God Emperor would execute the Divine Maiden who had branded the Old God clan with disgrace.

Another faction, though still nursing resentment over the Xuanyue Divine Maiden betraying the Old God clan, was forced by the need to draw on her moon power to prolong their lives, and so they stood in the middle and tried to mediate.

Although the elders were dissatisfied that the Xuanyue Divine Maiden had given her heart to a human man, none of them dared speak out at this moment. Each wore a dark, grim face, waiting only for the ceremony to end so they could shower the Xuanyue Divine Maiden with condemnation.

As the flying ship's doors opened, a woman with peerless beauty and regal bearing appeared before the crowd.

"Welcome, Xuanyue Divine Maiden!"

In the imperial capital, the Old God clan's devout cheers rose at once!

Even though the twelve Star Constellation elders all harbored grievances against the Xuanyue Divine Maiden, after seeing the moonlight she radiated and that dreamlike face of perfect beauty, they too calmed down.

There was only one Moon Goddess in this world. Her existence concerned the rise and safety of the entire Old God clan. No matter what mistake she had made, she was still the most transcendent existence in the Shenqi Empire!

On the flying ship, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden lightly tapped her slender jade feet and her graceful, alluring body turned into a phantom streak of light. When she appeared again, she was already standing steadily at the highest point of the great hall.

The Star God Emperor stared at the woman before him with greedy fascination. She wore a dazzling, radiant gown that clung tightly to every part of her body, making her so beautiful it was almost suffocating.

A crown shaped like phoenix wings rested on her head, making her appear noble, graceful, and untouchable.

The Xuanyue Divine Maiden parted her pink lips. "Star God Emperor, aren't you going to say something to your people?"

The Star God Emperor woke as if from a dream. The Divine Maiden's calm, indifferent words stabbed deeply into his heart, and his golden eyes swelled with monstrous hatred.

Such a beauty should have been the woman lying beside him, the Star God Emperor, yet she had betrayed him. Such a sacred, flawless body should have been his toy to possess, yet it had been claimed first by a human man!

The Xuanyue Divine Maiden met the Star God Emperor's blazing gaze head-on. "What, does the Star God Emperor plan to kill me?"

"Your Highness, the New Moon Rite is about to begin," said one of the council elders at his side, sensing the air around them had frozen solid, and hurriedly tried to smooth things over.

The Star God Emperor gave the cold woman beside him a deep look, then turned to face the clan members waiting below. His originally dead-ash expression shifted like a page turning, changing into the dignified countenance of one who ruled the world, and he declared to the masses, "The Xuanyue Divine Maiden has come out of seclusion today. From this point on, our divine clan will continue to flourish and prosper!"

"Flourish and prosper!"

"Reforge the glory of the divine clan!"

The Star God Emperor's voice shook heaven and earth, and at once the Old God clan members waiting reverently below burst into cheers.

Very few people besides the high-ranking ministers and generals of the Old God clan knew that the Xuanyue Divine Maiden had betrayed the clan and married a mortal.

Then again, how could news of the supreme Star God Emperor being cuckolded by a mortal ever be made public among the common people?

Over these ten years, rumors had occasionally spread that the Xuanyue Divine Maiden had thrown herself into the arms of a human man. But this clan, which called itself the ancient divine race and grew furious the moment outsiders referred to them as the "Old God clan," how could they so easily believe such gossip about the most transcendent Moon Goddess in their hearts?

The cheers thundered on and on, impossible to settle, until the Star God Emperor announced the beginning of the New Moon cleansing ritual, and only then did things gradually calm.

The New Moon Rite was the ceremony held whenever the Xuanyue moon reached its perfect mirror state, during which the Xuanyue Divine Maiden would pour down the power of the Moon God so the clan members could bathe in moonlight and extend their life force.

The Xuanyue Divine Maiden had been "in seclusion" for ten years, and they had all grown much older in that time. Now that they could finally bathe in moonlight again, their greedy faces looked as if they could swallow every scrap of the Xuanyue Divine Maiden's flesh whole. Human greed knew no race.

"Xuanyue..."

The Star God Emperor turned slightly and called to her, signaling that she could begin the ritual.

That familiar name only cut his throat all the more. If not for the New Moon Rite, he would have wanted nothing more than to tear off the Xuanyue Divine Maiden's clothes right then and there and confirm whether her body was still sacred and untouched.

The Xuanyue Divine Maiden half-narrowed her eyes and gave the Star God Emperor a look whose meaning was impossible to read, then her delicate body rose into the sky. Amid the cries from below, her graceful body, hiding a faint seduction within its beauty, blossomed with silver moonlight!

Brilliant, pure moon radiance drifted down endlessly to the ground. The clan members and the twelve elders, who had long been waiting, all closed their eyes and greedily absorbed the Moon God's power.

As for the Star God Emperor, he gazed with a complicated expression at the dazzling woman high in the sky. In the past, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden had been the woman he, the Star God Emperor, looked up to and adored. If only his strength had been greater than hers ten years ago, how wonderful that would have been. Then every inch of her perfect, sacred body would have belonged to him.

But now, every glance she cast back at him was cold and heartless.

Her peerless face and graceful, delicate sacred body had already been polluted by a human man.

The Star God Emperor called over a guard from afar, but his eyes still fixedly clung to the goddess of his dreams as he sent a covert voice transmission: "Issue the order. Leave no survivors. Not one!"

High in the sky, the Xuanyue Divine Maiden, who was currently pouring out the Moon God's power, seemed to hear the transmission. She suddenly opened her eyes, and her gaze fell instead on the center of the great plaza below the temple, where a man in the crowd was clearly dressed and built unlike anyone of the Old God clan!