Long Feiye's current fear was all too familiar for Han Yunxi. When she told him that she wasn't the real Han Clan daughter, he had been scared too. She didn't know how he dealt with that terror afterwards. Perhaps he had never calmed down, but buried it deep in his heart where she couldn't see. Now it was impossible to hide and expressed in his very voice, expression, and eyes.
Han Yunxi really wanted to tell him, "I don't know."
But his fear already told her that he could guess where this was and what was going on.
"Ye, this is…" Han Yunxi choked before she finally managed, "That's the world 3,000 years later."
Long Feiye looked softly at her without a word, but gradually tightened his grip on her fingers. Seeing him so ashen and covered in blood, Han Yunxi was so pained that tears kept dropping down her face. She couldn't speak but gripped just as tightly back. Unfortunately, the two of them couldn't best the deep pool dragging her down, as insignificant as a mayfly trying to shake a giant tree. Bit by bit, Han Yunxi was pulled down towards the water. She dug in her heels and resisted again and again and again. But of all times she felt a dizzines that was both strange yet familiar. The piece of ice crystal in her poison storage space was running rampant at a rate she couldn't control. Her dizziness grew stronger and she began to lose strength, unable to grasp Long Feiye.
"Feiye…hold me tight…hold on!" she muttered as her consciousness blurred.
Feiye, hold me tight…
Feiye, don't let go…no matter what, you mustn't!
She didn't know what happened. Had she lost consciousness? Or did she enter a dream? She didn't know whether the entire world had darkened or if she'd lost her vision. In any case, everything before her was black. But she could still see her hands. She saw someone holding them in the darkness as they kept walking in the dim world. Her eyes followed the hand upwards, but couldn't see that person's face. This dream scene had appeared countless times, but each time she couldn't see that person's face.
Who…was he?
Was it Long Feiye?
She only felt no strength in her body and that she was gradually sinking. She seemed headed towards a deep abyss and falling into a separate world.
"Feiye, save me!"
"Feiye, don't let go, don't!"
"I'm begging you…don't let go…I don't want to leave you….I don't…"
As she sobbed, the figure stretched out another hand and said, "Come, hold on tight."
This voice…
This was Long Feiye's voice!
It's him!
The continuous dreamscape with the mysterious figure holding her hand had been Long Feiye all along. His other hand grasped hers as she headed towards him. On the back of his hand, near the section of skin between thumb and forefinger, was a deep bite mark!
The mark she'd left for him.
He told her once that birthmarks were left by lovers in a previous life.
This was Long Feiye all right!
But why did this bite mark look stranger the longer she looked?
Was this a bite mark or a birthmark?
"Feiye, is that a bite mark…or a birthmark?" she muttered and looked down. In that moment, the darkness around them was scattered by light, so bright that it stung her eyes. A cacophony of sounds rang by her ears: hurried footsteps, emergency alarms, arguments between patients and doctors, the calls of the queue system, and machines being activated in the operating room.
Such familiar, long-lost noises!
She was alarmed.
Was she back?
No…
She opened her eyes and looked from the bottom up. At last she could see the person holding her hands.
This person…
He was refined and handsome, dressed in shirt and pants with short hair and indescribable features, especially the pair of deep, charming dark eyes. Although they were cold enough to keep people a thousand miles away, it was as alluring as a flame to a moth, drawing one in until you sank in their depths forever. Han Yunxi met the awfully familiar gaze and seemed to return to her first meeting with him. She wept and howled.
She couldn't figure out whether this was their "first meeting" or a "farewell."
What was going on?
A dream?
Were the past ten years in Cloud Realm Continent all a dream?
Or perhaps this current scene was the dream instead?
He wasn't him, but like him, this wasn't a dream, but dreamlike…she couldn't figure it out and didn't want to think, she only wanted to know whether he was still there.
"Feiye, is it you? Long Feiye…is that you? Is it?"
She swept, but he suddenly laughed and said, "Yunxi, I looked for you for 3,000 years. Can't you give you an exception? I…miss you so much."
She was stunned.
Could it be that he was the big director of Soaring Cloud Conglomerate, the Mr. Li who was brought by Department Head Lin[1] for detox treatment? She didn't care about that, she just wanted Long Feiye!
"Who are you? Just who are you?"
"Are you Long Feiye…or not?"
She sobbed so hard her eyes turned blurry so she couldn't see the person in front of her anymore. She hastily wiped them away, but the man had disappeared! All of the light receded, all of the sounds vanished, leaving her back in that dead silent darkness again. She gaped at her hands before realizing…she had let go, and so had he.
"Feiye…Long Feiye, come back!"
"Where are you? Come back!"
"Come back already…don't lose me! Don't…"
As she cried and shouted, she searched endlessly through the darkness.
Suddenly!
She stopped walking and looked down, only to discover that her feet were sealed in ice.
This…
"Yunxi, wake up! Don't cry…I'm here."
"Yunxi, I've always been here, wake up…"
Long Feiye's voice came again, very, very close. It was as if he was right before her. The unconscious, dreaming Han Yunxi was jolted awake as she discovered Long Feiye right in front of her. Both of them were still trapped at the bottom of the ice cavern.
Everything just then had been a dream!
There was no hospital, no Soaring Cloud Conglomerate, no Department Head Lin…nothing!
Only the Long Feiye in front of her.
Long Feiye was still gripped both of her hands, the bite mark on h is hand a true scar and not a birthmark.
"Yunxi, you…what happened? Your legs…" Long Feiye's face was full of fear.
Han Yunxi looked down and saw that her legs were truly encased in ice. More over, the chill was gradually creeping up and threatening to freeze her entire body. But the tugging sensation had vanished with the ice.
"Could it be the power of the ice crystal?" she exclaimed.
"Take out the ice crystal, hurry!" Long Feiye urged.
Han Yunxi wanted to take the crystal out of the poison storage space, but realized that it had already shattered.
That's right, the ice crystal had already shattered when Yan'er released her explosive powers, which also destroyed the Ice Sea. Han Yunxi could only summon the broken fragments of the crystals, which immediately broke the ice on her legs as well and rewakened the force dragging her down.
In that moment, her body slipped and half of it fell into the icy pool. Both her and Long Feiye looked at each other in astonishment. Long Feiye quickly grabbed her, but couldn't hold on at all. Han Yunxi kept slipping down. Moreover, the ice around them all began to melt as well. Soon enough, a massive volume of water seeped out as the ice cavern itself threatened to melt away.
Han Yunxi had no choice but to take the ice crystal shards back into her body. As soon as it entered the poison storage system, half of her body was encased in ice and the sucking sensation vanished instantly.
Everything stilled.
She and Long Feiye met gazes in disbelief.
The secret of the Ice Sea and ice crystal, just what were they? How were they related to the Phoenix power?
"My Phoenix power awakened the ice crystal, while Yan'er's Phoenix power destroyed the Ice Sea and crystal?" Han YJnxi muttered.
"Yan'er's Phoenix energy must be tenth-rank, on par with my Lustbite energy," Long Feiye was certain from judging its force.
Their surroundings were covered in scattered ice, none of which had melted into water. The Ice Sea was destroyed, so this should have turned into a vast ocean. But because the ice crystal was trapped within Han Yunxi's poison storage space, the Ice Sea hadn't completely melted? Thinking back to what happened when she took it out with everything melting away, Han Yunxi more or less understood the situation.
The Phoenix power could destroy the ice crystal, whose erupted power could then destroy the Ice Sea and open the space-time tunnel. She trapped the crystal in the poison storage space along with sealing its powers inside her. The three clan heads had to simply covet the powers of the ice crystal and knew nothing about its true secrets. Now she bore that power within her body, but paid the price by being frozen.
Naturally, Long Feiye understood what she realized too. But it was already too late. The xuan ice had already spread to Han Yunxi's heart and was continuing to spread upwards. Her face and lips were so pale that Long Feiye was afraid.
In the end, he was still going to lose her! Helplessly, right before his own eyes!
Long Feiye looked at his gradually freezing wife as his eyes grew damp at last. He asked, "Han Yunxi, if Beiyue was here, what would he choose? Would he be crueler than me?"
Would one choose to protect Han Yunxi and give up the Ice Sea and 100,000 lives in Northern Li?
Would one choose to give up Han Yunxi to preserve the seal on the Ice Sea?
It was time to make a choice again! Long Feiye didn't need to speak for Han Yunxi to understand his conflicts. Back at Three-Way Black Market, they had hesitated in whether or not to save Ning Jing or be cruel. Gu Beiyue had told them then, "Your Highness, this isn’t cruelty, but a choice. A choice is only concerned with comparisons between right and wrong, not compassion and cruelty.”[2]
What was right and what was wrong?
Was it right to protect the world and its people but abandon your wife and children?
If it was Gu Beiyue, what would he choose?
The xuan ice had already reached Han Yunxi's neck and arms. She looked at Long Feiye while weeping nonstop. "Your Highness…Your Highness…"
It had been so long since she'd called him "Your Highness." There was so much buried in that name and so many memories.
Your Highness, if it's possible, Yunxi would rather call you that forever. I want to be your Qin wangfei forever without East Qin, West Qin, or Great Qin.
Unfortunately, we're all people who can't choose our fates.
"Your Highness, Yunxi…can't bear to lose you."
Long Feiye's current fear was all too familiar for Han Yunxi. When she told him that she wasn't the real Han Clan daughter, he had been scared too. She didn't know how he dealt with that terror afterwards. Perhaps he had never calmed down, but buried it deep in his heart where she couldn't see. Now it was impossible to hide and expressed in his very voice, expression, and eyes.
Han Yunxi really wanted to tell him, "I don't know."
But his fear already told her that he could guess where this was and what was going on.
"Ye, this is…" Han Yunxi choked before she finally managed, "That's the world 3,000 years later."
Long Feiye looked softly at her without a word, but gradually tightened his grip on her fingers. Seeing him so ashen and covered in blood, Han Yunxi was so pained that tears kept dropping down her face. She couldn't speak but gripped just as tightly back. Unfortunately, the two of them couldn't best the deep pool dragging her down, as insignificant as a mayfly trying to shake a giant tree. Bit by bit, Han Yunxi was pulled down towards the water. She dug in her heels and resisted again and again and again. But of all times she felt a dizzines that was both strange yet familiar. The piece of ice crystal in her poison storage space was running rampant at a rate she couldn't control. Her dizziness grew stronger and she began to lose strength, unable to grasp Long Feiye.
"Feiye…hold me tight…hold on!" she muttered as her consciousness blurred.
Feiye, hold me tight…
Feiye, don't let go…no matter what, you mustn't!
She didn't know what happened. Had she lost consciousness? Or did she enter a dream? She didn't know whether the entire world had darkened or if she'd lost her vision. In any case, everything before her was black. But she could still see her hands. She saw someone holding them in the darkness as they kept walking in the dim world. Her eyes followed the hand upwards, but couldn't see that person's face. This dream scene had appeared countless times, but each time she couldn't see that person's face.
Who…was he?
Was it Long Feiye?
She only felt no strength in her body and that she was gradually sinking. She seemed headed towards a deep abyss and falling into a separate world.
"Feiye, save me!"
"Feiye, don't let go, don't!"
"I'm begging you…don't let go…I don't want to leave you….I don't…"
As she sobbed, the figure stretched out another hand and said, "Come, hold on tight."
This voice…
This was Long Feiye's voice!
It's him!
The continuous dreamscape with the mysterious figure holding her hand had been Long Feiye all along. His other hand grasped hers as she headed towards him. On the back of his hand, near the section of skin between thumb and forefinger, was a deep bite mark!
The mark she'd left for him.
He told her once that birthmarks were left by lovers in a previous life.
This was Long Feiye all right!
But why did this bite mark look stranger the longer she looked?
Was this a bite mark or a birthmark?
"Feiye, is that a bite mark…or a birthmark?" she muttered and looked down. In that moment, the darkness around them was scattered by light, so bright that it stung her eyes. A cacophony of sounds rang by her ears: hurried footsteps, emergency alarms, arguments between patients and doctors, the calls of the queue system, and machines being activated in the operating room.
Such familiar, long-lost noises!
She was alarmed.
Was she back?
No…
She opened her eyes and looked from the bottom up. At last she could see the person holding her hands.
This person…
He was refined and handsome, dressed in shirt and pants with short hair and indescribable features, especially the pair of deep, charming dark eyes. Although they were cold enough to keep people a thousand miles away, it was as alluring as a flame to a moth, drawing one in until you sank in their depths forever. Han Yunxi met the awfully familiar gaze and seemed to return to her first meeting with him. She wept and howled.
She couldn't figure out whether this was their "first meeting" or a "farewell."
What was going on?
A dream?
Were the past ten years in Cloud Realm Continent all a dream?
Or perhaps this current scene was the dream instead?
He wasn't him, but like him, this wasn't a dream, but dreamlike…she couldn't figure it out and didn't want to think, she only wanted to know whether he was still there.
"Feiye, is it you? Long Feiye…is that you? Is it?"
She swept, but he suddenly laughed and said, "Yunxi, I looked for you for 3,000 years. Can't you give you an exception? I…miss you so much."
She was stunned.
Could it be that he was the big director of Soaring Cloud Conglomerate, the Mr. Li who was brought by Department Head Lin[1] for detox treatment? She didn't care about that, she just wanted Long Feiye!
"Who are you? Just who are you?"
"Are you Long Feiye…or not?"
She sobbed so hard her eyes turned blurry so she couldn't see the person in front of her anymore. She hastily wiped them away, but the man had disappeared! All of the light receded, all of the sounds vanished, leaving her back in that dead silent darkness again. She gaped at her hands before realizing…she had let go, and so had he.
"Feiye…Long Feiye, come back!"
"Where are you? Come back!"
"Come back already…don't lose me! Don't…"
As she cried and shouted, she searched endlessly through the darkness.
Suddenly!
She stopped walking and looked down, only to discover that her feet were sealed in ice.
This…
"Yunxi, wake up! Don't cry…I'm here."
"Yunxi, I've always been here, wake up…"
Long Feiye's voice came again, very, very close. It was as if he was right before her. The unconscious, dreaming Han Yunxi was jolted awake as she discovered Long Feiye right in front of her. Both of them were still trapped at the bottom of the ice cavern.
Everything just then had been a dream!
There was no hospital, no Soaring Cloud Conglomerate, no Department Head Lin…nothing!
Only the Long Feiye in front of her.
Long Feiye was still gripped both of her hands, the bite mark on h is hand a true scar and not a birthmark.
"Yunxi, you…what happened? Your legs…" Long Feiye's face was full of fear.
Han Yunxi looked down and saw that her legs were truly encased in ice. More over, the chill was gradually creeping up and threatening to freeze her entire body. But the tugging sensation had vanished with the ice.
"Could it be the power of the ice crystal?" she exclaimed.
"Take out the ice crystal, hurry!" Long Feiye urged.
Han Yunxi wanted to take the crystal out of the poison storage space, but realized that it had already shattered.
That's right, the ice crystal had already shattered when Yan'er released her explosive powers, which also destroyed the Ice Sea. Han Yunxi could only summon the broken fragments of the crystals, which immediately broke the ice on her legs as well and rewakened the force dragging her down.
In that moment, her body slipped and half of it fell into the icy pool. Both her and Long Feiye looked at each other in astonishment. Long Feiye quickly grabbed her, but couldn't hold on at all. Han Yunxi kept slipping down. Moreover, the ice around them all began to melt as well. Soon enough, a massive volume of water seeped out as the ice cavern itself threatened to melt away.
Han Yunxi had no choice but to take the ice crystal shards back into her body. As soon as it entered the poison storage system, half of her body was encased in ice and the sucking sensation vanished instantly.
Everything stilled.
She and Long Feiye met gazes in disbelief.
The secret of the Ice Sea and ice crystal, just what were they? How were they related to the Phoenix power?
"My Phoenix power awakened the ice crystal, while Yan'er's Phoenix power destroyed the Ice Sea and crystal?" Han YJnxi muttered.
"Yan'er's Phoenix energy must be tenth-rank, on par with my Lustbite energy," Long Feiye was certain from judging its force.
Their surroundings were covered in scattered ice, none of which had melted into water. The Ice Sea was destroyed, so this should have turned into a vast ocean. But because the ice crystal was trapped within Han Yunxi's poison storage space, the Ice Sea hadn't completely melted? Thinking back to what happened when she took it out with everything melting away, Han Yunxi more or less understood the situation.
The Phoenix power could destroy the ice crystal, whose erupted power could then destroy the Ice Sea and open the space-time tunnel. She trapped the crystal in the poison storage space along with sealing its powers inside her. The three clan heads had to simply covet the powers of the ice crystal and knew nothing about its true secrets. Now she bore that power within her body, but paid the price by being frozen.
Naturally, Long Feiye understood what she realized too. But it was already too late. The xuan ice had already spread to Han Yunxi's heart and was continuing to spread upwards. Her face and lips were so pale that Long Feiye was afraid.
In the end, he was still going to lose her! Helplessly, right before his own eyes!
Long Feiye looked at his gradually freezing wife as his eyes grew damp at last. He asked, "Han Yunxi, if Beiyue was here, what would he choose? Would he be crueler than me?"
Would one choose to protect Han Yunxi and give up the Ice Sea and 100,000 lives in Northern Li?
Would one choose to give up Han Yunxi to preserve the seal on the Ice Sea?
It was time to make a choice again! Long Feiye didn't need to speak for Han Yunxi to understand his conflicts. Back at Three-Way Black Market, they had hesitated in whether or not to save Ning Jing or be cruel. Gu Beiyue had told them then, "Your Highness, this isn’t cruelty, but a choice. A choice is only concerned with comparisons between right and wrong, not compassion and cruelty.”[2]
What was right and what was wrong?
Was it right to protect the world and its people but abandon your wife and children?
If it was Gu Beiyue, what would he choose?
The xuan ice had already reached Han Yunxi's neck and arms. She looked at Long Feiye while weeping nonstop. "Your Highness…Your Highness…"
It had been so long since she'd called him "Your Highness." There was so much buried in that name and so many memories.
Your Highness, if it's possible, Yunxi would rather call you that forever. I want to be your Qin wangfei forever without East Qin, West Qin, or Great Qin.
Unfortunately, we're all people who can't choose our fates.
"Your Highness, Yunxi…can't bear to lose you."
