y 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.
“Qing’er!”
A tremor ran through Meng Hao.
Xu Qing looked at him one final time. A smile appeared on her lips, and it was the same smile that had appeared when she saw him for the first time, leaning out over the cliff on Mount Daqing. Of course, Meng Hao had never seen that smile.
A final tear rolled out of the corner of her eye.
In that exact moment, her body dissipated, transformed into motes of glittering light. There was no body for the teardrop to fall onto, so… it fell down onto the ground.
“You’re my wife….” murmured Meng Hao. “The Heavens. The Earth. None of it matters. No matter how long it takes, let the cycle of reincarnation bear witness. No one will take you away from me. When you are born again, I will find you!” He tried to keep ahold of her, but the only thing that remained was motes of light. Inside of him, the pressure weighing down on his heart transformed into a roar.
The battlefield suddenly went silent. In that moment, all gazes fell upon Meng Hao, whether they were from the Southern Domain or the Northern Reaches. They saw Xu Qing transform into motes of light that turned into a river which flowed up into the sky.
—–