The seven peak Dao Seeking cultivators from the Northern Reaches fought with increasing ferocity. The hundreds of thousands of Northern Reaches cultivators down below bellowed with rage as they charged in wave after wave of attack.
“Henceforth… Meng Hao and Xu Qing are bonded cultivators. Their hands are bound by destiny for all time. Whether they live or die, that connection will never be broken!” His voice echoed from one end of the battlefield to the other.
Xu Qing, nestled in Meng Hao’s arms, heard the words, and her face flushed. She smiled shyly. A wedding is the most important day in a person’s life, and to a woman, it is a day when dreams come true.
She and Meng Hao were now husband and wife. Heaven and Earth bore witness, as did the hundreds of thousands of cultivators from both the Southern Domain and the Northern Reaches. Pill Demon officiated, and the ceremony was held under the vast canopy of the sky. Discarnate souls were present to bear witness, and the entire scene was as red as blood.
Together, all bore witness to the fact that… they were married!!
“Our hands are bound by destiny for all time,” murmured Xu Qing, gazing at Meng Hao. “Whether we live or die, that connection will never be broken….” Tears poured out of her eyes to disappear in the wrinkles that covered her cheeks.
“Our hands are bound by destiny for all time,” repeated Meng Hao, looking into her eyes. “Whether we live or die, that connection will never be broken….”
The ground shook, and the kowtowing cultivators in the area looked up. Then they joined their voices together in a cry that sent out shocking soundwaves. “Meng Hao and Xu Qing! Their hands are bound by destiny for all time! Whether they live or die, that connection will never be broken!”
The sound echoed across a battlefield that reeked of blood and gore. Amidst the carnage, a Southern Domain cultivator dashed forward, grabbed the severed head of a Northern Reaches cultivator and held it high into the air.
In the blink of an eye, chaotic fighting erupted out as the Southern Domain cultivators let out unprecedented roars of rage and went berserk. They seemed to be trying to outdo each other as they offered up one wedding gift after another.
“Fellow Daoist Meng, this is my wedding gift to you!”
“Exalted Meng Hao, this is my wedding gift!”
“This is mine!”
“Hahaha! Who dares to fight me over this severed head! This is my wedding gift for the Blood Prince!”
The sudden counteroffensive caused the hundreds of thousands of Northern Reaches cultivators to tremble in their hearts. For the first time… they actually fell back under the attack.
“They’ve gone crazy! It’s just some wedding, but it’s pushed them into insanity!”
“Insane! Completely insane! Wedding gifts?!?!”
“Dammit, they’re turning us Northern Reaches cultivators into wedding gifts!!”
As such comments echoed across the battlefield, Meng Hao stood in the temple, holding Xu Qing. He didn’t want the grief he felt to show on his face. However, by this point, the grief had completely inundated his heart. It was reaching the point where suppressing the Devil in his heart was virtually impossible.
He held tight to Xu Qing, unwilling to release his grip on her.
Xu Qing smiled, and to Meng Hao, it was the most beautiful smile to ever exist in the world. When he saw her smile, what he saw was not her age and her white hair. He didn’t care about any of that. All he cared about… was Xu Qing herself.
“Take me… to enter the cycle of reincarnation….” she said softly. “Now that we are husband and wife, I have no regrets…. Let me go…. Let me… leave. Please.”
Meng Hao’s eyes were shot with blood.
Xu Qing’s hand trembled as she reached up to stroke his cheek. As she murmured these things to Meng Hao, her eyes suddenly flashed with a final, brilliant radiance like that of a sunset. She had severed her own arteries!
She did not wish to see Meng Hao continue to deliver his life force to her, to give her a little bit of extra time at the cost of his own vitality. It pained her, and she did not want him to receive injury. She did not want to see any more white hairs on his head because of her.