The woman in white turned her gaze on Li Qingshan.
Her eyes were calm as water, yet they seemed to hold a vast and mysterious Time River.
Under her gaze, Li Qingshan felt as though the Ancient Female Emperor had seen through everything about him.
But after a single glance, she slowly looked away.
"No need for formalities!"
The Ancient Female Emperor spoke softly.
She walked up to the woman in black, a trace of complex emotion surfacing in her eyes.
"You waited too long. Your obsession grew deeper and deeper, until you nearly forgot who you were."
The woman in black stopped struggling.
She looked at the woman in white, who was identical to her. The anger in her eyes gradually faded, leaving only profound, weary sorrow.
"Why hasn't he come back? Has even he forgotten me?"
"He hasn't."
After a moment of silence, the Ancient Female Emperor said slowly, "He never forgot. He simply couldn't find the way back."
"Where is that road?"
The woman in black murmured the question.
The Ancient Female Emperor did not answer. She merely extended a finger as lustrous as jade and gently touched the woman's brow.
Hum!
The woman in black dissolved into countless specks of black light that slowly merged into the Ancient Female Emperor.
She did not resist.
Before she vanished completely, she looked at Li Qingshan once more.
The madness and killing intent were gone from that gaze. Only an indescribable disappointment remained.
It was as though she had known all along that Li Qingshan was not the one she awaited, but had been unwilling to accept it.
As the woman in black disappeared, a faint black pattern appeared on the Ancient Female Emperor's white robes.
Her once-calm eyes stirred for an instant, then quickly returned to normal.
"A