Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

Northern Territory.

There is no daytime here, only eternal night.

The wind swept across the wasteland like a knife, whipping up black snowflakes.

Three thousand feet deep underground.

This is a natural cave, with the surrounding rock walls covered with densely packed runes.

The runes shimmered with five-colored light, like chains tightly fastened to a boulder in the center of the cave.

A woman was sitting on the boulder.

She wore a long white dress, the hem of which spread out on the stone, like a blooming white lotus.

Her hair was very long, reaching all the way to her ankles, completely enveloping her.

Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was so light that it was almost inaudible.

It's like a stone statue that's been dead for many years.

Sudden.

The five-colored runes trembled slightly.

A heartbeat was heard in the once silent cave.

thump.

The sound wasn't loud, but it caused pebbles to fall from the rock face.

Then comes the second tone.

Boom!

This time the sound was a bit louder.

The five-colored chains began to shake violently, making a rattling sound.

The woman sitting on the boulder trembled slightly.

Two lines of clear tears flowed down her tightly closed eyes.

It slid down my cheek and dripped onto the back of my hand.

It's cold.

next second.

She opened her eyes.

What kind of eyes were those?

His left eye was a deep black, like the night in the northern region.

His right eye was a fiery golden-red, like the fire on Luofeng Slope.

Su Chang'an woke up.

She was panting heavily, her hands gripping the front of her clothes tightly.

pain.

It hurts so much.

That kind of pain wasn't physical; it was a tearing sensation deep within the soul.

The moment Su Qing's clone dissipated at Luofeng Slope, the despair, the reluctance, the pain of watching her lover cry helplessly.

Everything, following the connection of their souls, rushed into her mind all at once.

It was as if someone was taking a dull knife and sawing at her heart again and again.

"Fool……"

Su Chang'an opened his mouth, his voice extremely hoarse.

She raised her hand and wiped the tears from her face.

It's wet.

"The clone is the original body, and the original body is the clone."

Su Chang'an gave a self-deprecating laugh.

She originally thought that as long as she cut off contact and treated that relationship as an act, she could stay out of it.

You can then watch, like a spectator, as that scholar struggles in the mundane world.

But she was wrong.

That's completely wrong.

The moment Su Qing ripped out her heart, Su Chang'an's heart was also empty.

The moment Su Qing chose to "live" under the paulownia tree, Su Chang'an's life was also given up.

【Ding! 】

A cold, mechanical voice echoed in my mind.

It broke the deathly silence of the cave.

Su Chang'an didn't move, but listened quietly.

[System 2.0 Notification: The SSS-rank target "Gu Xiang" has exceeded the bond value limit.]

[Hidden achievement achieved: Unwavering until death.]

[Comment: You deceived his heart, but gave him your life. In this game, you won against fate, and you won against him.]

[By changing Gu Xiang's inevitable death, the redemption value reaches 80%.]

Won?

Su Chang'an looked at the panel in the void, a mocking smile curving his lips.

He risked his life, driving the scholar insane.

Is this what you call winning?

This system is truly heartless.

[Settlement rewards have begun to be distributed.]

[Obtained: Complete Phoenix Emperor's Inheritance (already fused).]

[Gained: Peak Quasi-Emperor cultivation level.]

[Obtained: Emperor's Enlightenment Fragment *1.]

[Obtained: Special item "Twin Knots of Love".]

As the system's voice faded away.

A tremendous power suddenly appeared within Su Chang'an's body.

That is the origin of the Phoenix Emperor.

Fiery, domineering, and carrying an arrogant air that seemed to want to burn the heavens.

As soon as this force entered, it collided with Su Chang'an's original Heavenly Fox Demon Power.

One is cold, the other is hot.

One yin and one yang.

The two forces that should have been mutually exclusive suddenly merged together like long-lost friends.

boom!

Su Chang'an's aura surged dramatically.

Originally, he was only at the Great Saint Realm, but he broke through the bottleneck in an instant.

Early stage of the Quasi-Emperor.

Mid-stage Quasi-Emperor.

Late stage of the Quasi-Emperor realm.

It only stopped when it reached the peak of Quasi-Emperor.

Her nine tails suddenly spread open.

Clusters of golden-red flames ignited at the tip of its originally snow-white tail.

That is the Phoenix True Fire.

It is also the fire of rebirth.

Click.

The five-colored runes on the rock wall made a crisp sound.

That was a seal left by the Great Emperor.

It was a shackle that had bound Su Chang'an for three thousand years.

At this moment, faced with this terrifying power, the seemingly indestructible seal actually cracked open with a tiny fissure.

Su Chang'an ignored the seals.

He ignored the surge of power within his body.

Her gaze was fixed on her left wrist.

There, a red thread slowly emerged.

The silk threads were very thin, like blood vessels, and disappeared into her skin.

The other end extends into the void, piercing through the rock walls, through the wind and snow of the northern region, and all the way to the distant south.

A knot symbolizing unity and shared destiny.

Su Chang'an stretched out his right hand and gently stroked the red thread.

The moment my fingertips touched it, a piercing pain shot through me.

That was Gu Xiang's pain.

She could sense it.

The foolish scholar was kneeling in the mud, digging at the soil with his hands, his fingernails were broken, and his flesh was a bloody mess.

He was crying.

He was calling her name.

He was begging her to come back.

"Gu Xiang..."

Su Chang'an's fingers trembled slightly.

Tears streamed down her face again.

It couldn't be stopped.

She thought she was a nine-tailed celestial fox, the queen of the demon race, and her heart had long been as hard as stone.

But now, she realizes it.

Her heart is made of flesh and blood too.

It will hurt too.

"Don't cry."

Su Chang'an spoke softly to the void.

It was as if the scholar was right in front of her.

"If you keep crying, you won't be handsome."

"You are the prime minister of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the backbone of scholars."

"How could you cry like this over a vixen?"

No one answered her.

All that could be heard from the other end of the red line was an increasingly intense despair.

Su Chang'an closed his eyes.

She took a deep breath.

She swallowed back all those tears and all that weakness.

When I opened my eyes again.

Those heterochromatic pupils were now filled with nothing but chilling killing intent.

There's also a stubborn streak that refuses to give up.

Su Chang'an stared at the red thread on her wrist. The despair from Gu Xiang's side crept over along the thread, piercing her heart with pain.

At the peak of the Quasi-Emperor realm, if this level of cultivation were outside, he would be an ancestor who could walk sideways with impunity.

Even in this mysterious abyss of the Northern Region, she was still a prisoner.

She tried to harness the Phoenix True Fire she had just acquired. The flames danced merrily on her fingertips, mingling with the essence of the Heavenly Fox and sizzling as they baked the surrounding rock walls.

The five-colored runes lit up; they were the restrictions left by the emperor who sealed her, and they looked so despairing.

Su Chang'an didn't hold back and slapped the weakest gap in the seal.

The seal is trembling.

She was smiling.

Interestingly, this seal even has a counter-shock effect.

Su Chang'an was so shocked that his hands went numb, but the evil fire in his heart burned even more fiercely.

She wanted to simply break free of the shackles that had bound her for three thousand years.

The system's notification sounded at an extremely inopportune time.

[Warning: The host's foundation is currently unstable; forcibly breaking the seal will lead to the collapse of the source.]

Su Chang'an ignored him, and the flames at his fingertips intensified.

The system continued to pour cold water on the idea: [According to calculations, even if the host attacks recklessly, the fastest time to break the seal will be eight hundred years.]

Eight hundred years?

Su Chang'an froze.

Eight hundred years from now, that fool Gu Xiang will probably be gone, even his bones will have rotted away.

"Is your broken system malfunctioning?" Su Chang'an cursed the entire system family in his mind.

The system replied emotionlessly: [This is the optimal solution based on the strength of the Emperor's seal. Please, host, patiently go into seclusion.]

Su Chang'an withdrew his hand and looked at the slightly trembling red thread on his wrist.

Eight hundred years is too long; she can wait, but the scholar who traveled north in the wind and snow cannot.

She originally thought she had won against the heavens and the phoenix, but in the end, she was still stuck by this damned script.

Su Chang'an leaned against the cold rock wall, his heterochromatic eyes filled with irritation.

She had to find a way to shorten those eight hundred years into eight days, or eight hours.

After all, keeping one's own family waiting too long is not the behavior of a proper vixen.

She stared at the crack, plotting how to completely break the seal left by the Great Emperor.

Since the right path is blocked, we can only resort to crooked and unorthodox methods.

Eight hundred years? Dream on.

[Chapter Summary]

A red thread of sorrow stretches for thousands of miles; a scholar lays down his armor and heads to the desolate wilderness.

The abyss's fire is cold, the seal is thick; the fox's shadow is anxious, its path uncertain.

Eight years have passed, yet it still feels like a long time; a hundred years of loneliness, how can one bear to repay it?

Let us dismantle the imperial laws from the beginning, lest my beloved's temples turn white with age.