"Impossible!"
Gu Yue's voice nearly tore apart, steeped in the venomous hatred she had held for ten thousand years.
"This hatred, this grudge—will it last a thousand years? Ten thousand? No, it will never end!"
"I'll make everyone connected to you fall into eternal damnation, life after life!"
"I'll watch them suffer, one by one, and turn to ashes before your eyes... just as you slaughtered my entire Soul Beast Clan!"
"I'll make sure they all die horribly! Not one will be spared!"
She cursed him with the most venomous words she could muster, as if pouring out all the hatred she had kept bottled up for ten thousand years.
And yet the Dragon Claw piercing Su Ling's chest trembled faintly against her will.
She didn't understand why she was hesitating.
All she had to do was push forward another inch, and she could end her enemy's life once and for all.
But in the young man's gradually unfocused eyes, she saw neither fear nor pleading. Instead, they held a kind of relief, as if he had finally been set free.
It was as if he had been waiting for this moment for far too long.
Su Ling had already braced himself for death.
But Gu Yue's hysterical curses pierced his hazy consciousness like icicles.
He suddenly realized he had underestimated the depth of Gu Yue's hatred.
How could a vengeful spirit, whose Dragon Soul Obsession had haunted the Lake of Life for ten thousand years after she took her own life, give up just because he died?
A warm, coppery sweetness welled up in his throat. He swallowed with difficulty, but his gaze grew clearer.
Suddenly, he smiled—a desolate, resolute smile.
"Then..."
His voice was so hoarse it was barely recognizable, yet it carried a power that sent a chill through the air.
"Kill me."
"But remember—"
His gaze locked onto Gu Yue's cold purple eyes. Each word fell like a curse being carved into stone.
"If you dare lay a hand on anyone in the Su Family, then after I die, even if I become a vengeful spirit, I'll make your entire Soul Beast Clan... join me in death."
Gu Yue had never seen Su Ling look so savage.
Not even on their wedding night in his Previous Life, when he had driven a sword into her heart with his own hands, had he shown such bone-deep hatred.
Heh... So even this coldhearted, ruthless man had someone he would protect with his life.
The Su Family?
What had happened to the Su Family in his Previous Life?
Gu Yue's thoughts churned in a haze, but she couldn't remember the details.
Drifting as a remnant soul for ten thousand years had left her memories blurred beyond recognition.
She had even forgotten why she had taken her own life. All she remembered was the hatred that had sunk into her bones.
"In his Previous Life, the Su Family's Heavenly Blaze Army held Songting Pass to the death, only to be wiped out by Di Tian's Beast Tide."
"Su Ling's father, Su Zhantian, and his grandfather, Su Qingtian, were defeated and hanged from the city wall by Di Tian. Their bodies were left exposed for three days before they fell into the beasts' jaws, leaving no bones behind."
Gu Yuena's voice rang out in her mind, tinged with uncontrollable pain.
"You still don't understand... why he killed you back then..."
"He had already created the Soul Spirit Method. He had already set aside his pride and knelt before you, humbly begging you."
"But you said the hatred between Soul Beasts and humans could only end when one side was dead..."
"And you even separated me, your Humanity Incarnation... cutting off every last bit of hope he had..."
"You're the most selfish one of all. For the sake of your so-called mission, you're willing to sacrifice everything."
"Your love for Shengyan might have been nothing more than a twisted desire to possess him..."
Gu Yuena's voice broke with heart-wrenching sobs, crashing against Gu Yue's consciousness.
At that moment, the blurred memories of her Previous Life came flooding back.
At last, she understood the pain that young man had endured.
No wonder he had chosen the most extreme way to end everything on their wedding night.
He had killed all the Soul Beasts, then willingly died at her hands.
Shengyan... Was this the future you chose?
You knew that after I became a god, I could revive the Soul Beasts. And yet you still didn't kill me outright—you made me live in the most agonizing way possible...
"What do you mean? Are you saying I was wrong?"
"What did I do wrong? I did it for the future of the Soul Beast Clan! Without me, the Soul Beasts would have gone extinct long ago. How else could they have ascended to the Divine Realm?"
Gu Yue screamed hysterically in her mind, but her body trembled even more violently, beyond her control.
The young man's Flame of Life flickered in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.
Yet his eyes were as cold as poisoned blades, fixed on her.
They held a hatred carved into his very bones, mingled with a sorrow and despair she couldn't put into words.
Gu Yue suddenly couldn't bear to meet his gaze. She lowered her head and buried her face against the bloodstained chest.
She heard her own frantic heartbeat intertwining with his weakening pulse, forming a strange, discordant rhythm.
"But he saved you, and you let Di Tian destroy his home and slaughter his entire family... In the end, what were you thinking when you married him?"
Gu Yuena's question was like a sharp sword, piercing the last of her defenses.
"No... It wasn't like that... I only did it for the future of the Soul Beast Clan... I never thought it would turn out this way... If anyone's to blame, it's those greedy humans!"
"They used Soul Beasts as Soul Rings for their cultivation. They were the ones who tried to wipe us out first! I wasn't the one in the wrong... It was this world!"
Gu Yue's voice began to tremble, and tears slid down her cheeks despite her efforts to stop them.
At some point, the scales had disappeared from her Dragon Claw, leaving slender, pale fingers in their place.
Her fingertips rubbed absently against the wound on the young man's chest, smearing the blood into a shocking red stain.
She suddenly realized that she hadn't forgotten. She had deliberately avoided remembering.
Was that why I took my own life in the Lake of Life in my Previous Life...
Was it just to start over and save the young man I had destroyed?
"No. It was my will that made you take your own life."
"I've always wondered... if Shengyan had never met us, could he have lived a happy life?"
"With his talent, becoming a god was only a matter of time. You were the one who pushed him into the abyss."
Gu Yuena's voice rang through Gu Yue's mind, full of cold mockery. She mercilessly shattered Gu Yue's illusions.
"Shengyan... May we not meet again in our next life..."
Gu Yue ignored the mockery of her Split Soul and merely murmured the words she had spoken before dying in her Previous Life.
So... That's what those words meant...
Yes! That young man had been driven to the brink by her.
She remembered him kneeling before the Lake of Life, holding the Soul Spirit Method he had poured his heart and soul into creating, and begging her to stop the war.
She had sneered and torn it to pieces. "What use is something like this?"
"Humanity's sins can never be washed away! Only war, only blood, can atone for them!"
How cruel and condescending she had sounded then.
To prove her resolve, she had even forcibly separated Gu Yuena, her Humanity Incarnation, cutting off the young man's last shred of hope.
The young man's eyes had gone from shock to despair, then to lifelessness, before he finally took things to the extreme.
And now, history was repeating itself.
Once again, she had a sword at his throat. Once again, she watched the light in his eyes slowly fade.
Only this time, she finally saw the pain buried deep in his eyes.
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