“Don’t cry….” she murmured, using what scant energy she had left to raise a withered hand and try to wipe his face dry. “I’m happy. Happy that I ran into you that day on Mount Daqing….
“I hope that after I’m reincarnated and then regain my memories, it will be on another Mount Daqing… with you….
“Meng Hao, I’ve been dreaming a lot recently. I always dream… that we are back on Mount Daqing, or in the Reliance Sect….” As she spoke, the flame of her life force began to slowly fade away.
By now, she was fully conscious. Clearly, this was the last bit of lucidity she would experience before death, the last burst of life force. Her eyes were not clouded now, but clear, filled with warmth as she recalled past times, and also brimming with an intense reluctance to leave.
She didn’t want to leave the lands of the Southern Domain. She didn’t want to leave Meng Hao. There were too many things keeping her here, too many memories. She didn’t want to part with any of them. She wanted to stay with Meng Hao for the rest of the hundred years. Unfortunately… that was now impossible.
She sighed, and deep in her heart she felt regret. Regret that the wedding ceremony… was only half completed.
“Meng Hao… take care of yourself…. You live, I live… you die, I die…. When the day arrives that I recover my memories after being reincarnated, you need to be there…. If you’re not, then I don’t ever want to wake up from the darkness of being unaware.” The light that flickered in her eyes was gradually fading. The hand she had lifted up moments ago grew so weak that it fell back down.
In the moment that it began to fall, Meng Hao reached out to take hold of it. Deep in his eyes, grief mixed with warmth as he looked at Xu Qing.
He placed his right hand onto her back and poured more of his own life force into her. In that moment, his hair turned completely white.
The simple act bolstered her fading life force just a little bit, allowing her to stay alive in the world just a little bit longer. She could breathe bit more of that air she didn’t wish to part with, and her eyes glowed with just a little bit more light as she looked at Meng Hao.
“Let me go, okay…?” she murmured weakly.
Meng Hao’s eyes glowed with determination. “Our wedding hasn’t been finished,” he said. “So you can’t go yet…. I’m going to give you a complete cultivator bonding ceremony!” With that, he held her tight and flew up into the air.
He dared not loosen his grip on her. It was his flow of life force that was preventing her from fading away.
They were still wearing their red wedding gowns, and both had snow white hair. They were old.
It was as if great rejoicing and great calamity were fused together as Meng Hao flew out of Blood Prince Gorge. Off in the distance, he could see the shocking battle which was underway.
Hundreds of thousands of cultivators fought like mad. The ripples cast off by magical techniques flowed out in all directions. Bright colors flashed in the sky, and the clouds churned chaotically. Booms and explosions accompanied death and destruction…. At any given moment, miserable screams could be heard drifting across the battlefield. They turned into waves of sound that resembled the Yellow Springs of the underworld.
The sky above and the land below seemed to have become the color of blood, filled with endless corpses….
It was evening, but the shattered air and swirling tempests caused the sky to look as dark as night.
When Meng Hao appeared, it instantly attracted quite a bit of attention. The powerful experts of both the Southern Domain and the Northern Reaches saw the old man carrying the white-haired old woman, both of whom were clad in red wedding attire.
They could also sense the profound mixture of calmness and grief that radiated out of the man.
When the Southern Domain cultivators saw him, they couldn’t help but feel bitter and pained.
“Meng Hao…. It’s the exalted Meng Hao!”
“Don’t tell me… is that Xu Qing in his arms…? That… that curse power is….”
“I was there at the wedding ceremony. I’ve never seen a more spectacular sight in my whole life….”
Patriarch Song looked at Meng Hao, and it seemed like he wanted to say something. In the end, he didn’t. He could sense the profound pain in Meng Hao, the kind that was like losing your own heart.
The awoken Patriarch Golden Frost also remained silent.
Sun Tao had nothing left but a Nascent Divinity. He looked at Meng Hao from some distance off, then turned and continued to fight.