Eight Lower Realms, Stone Village.
Before a stone house, Shi Hao held Yun Xi tightly in his arms.
His arms were solid and powerful, utterly devoid of the gaunt weakness he had shown before.
His reborn body was crystal-clear, suffused with an undying divine radiance. Within him, blood and vitality as vast and surging as an ocean flowed steadily.
Leaning against Shi Hao's broad chest, Yun Xi listened to his powerful heartbeat. Tears slipped ceaselessly from the corners of her eyes like pearls from a broken string, soaking Shi Hao's robes.
Over these past years, she had watched Shi Hao suffer a fate worse than death under the torment of the Immortal Folding Curse. She had watched him, in the body of a mortal, battle fierce beasts amid the mountains and forests, struggling bitterly on the brink of birth, aging, illness, and death.
Only she herself knew the heart-wrenching pain of it.
Now, seeing Shi Hao finally endure those darkest years and emerge from his cocoon reborn, she naturally wept tears of joy.
Feeling Shi Hao's vitality, Yun Xi finally let go of the stone weighing on her heart.
"These past years, you've suffered because of me." Shi Hao's voice was low and gentle, filled with boundless tenderness.
He raised a broad hand and gently stroked Yun Xi's soft, flowing hair, thanking her for staying by his side through all the years when he had become a mortal.
Without that quiet, sincere warmth, the cruel tempering of the mortal world might have left him with an even more unbearable loneliness.
Yun Xi gently shook her head. She wrapped her jade-like arms around Shi Hao's waist and pressed her cheek even closer to him.
She said nothing, yet that lingering devotion surpassed a thousand words.
After their emotions had calmed somewhat,