This was a gloomy world. Everything around it was gray, as though the scenery had been conjured from spiritual power.
There was no vast platform here, no prompts or speech bubbles, and no divine sense looming over the sky.
Everything connected to the gods seemed to have been swept away by the turbulent currents along with the Divine Realm, after it suffered a cataclysm of space and time.
When dazzling purple light, like the setting sun, illuminated this long-desolate secret realm,
the gloomy valley finally revealed its true form.
This was the real Universe Asking-Love Valley.
The Goddess of Love's grave.
At the very bottom of the valley lay a pool of stagnant water, like an ancient mirror coated in dust.
Beside the lake stood a tree stump, long since withered and hollow.
A white-haired woman in red sat in the gloomy shadows, beside the lake filled with dead water.
Her limp lower legs dangled in the water.
She was like a wilted, defeated flower, her youth frozen on the verge of fading.
She simply nestled by the lakeside of the graveyard, nestled against her dead tree.
When the Amethyst Crystal Dragon descended into this secret realm, she merely shifted her eyes, then went still again.
She looked as though she had long since died.
The Amethyst Crystal Dragon looked down at the woman and the lake, then murmured, "The Goddess of Love's soul, and..."
"Your tears, all dried up?"
At the sound of the dragon's murmured words, the Goddess of Love's soul finally stirred.
The dragon language seemed to touch something in her, and she responded, half-dead, "You are without love or feeling, and your cultivation is far beyond mine. I cannot put you through any trial."
"Please, leave my resting place."
The Amethyst Crystal Dragon paid no heed to the Goddess of Love's request.
Its mighty, winding body coiled through the gloomy valley as it intoned in the dragon language, "Universe Asking-Love."
"Heaven and earth reversed: the Goddess of Love fell from the heavens to the earth, brought down by hatred."
"You seek to test true love. You haven't asked... so how can you know whether I have love or not?"
A ripple passed through the Goddess of Love's lifeless eyes.
Her soul sat up beneath the dead tree.
She looked up at the dragon coiled across the sky. Her voice was as lifeless as ever. "What do you want? Just say it."
The Amethyst Crystal Dragon was just as blunt. "I want the foundation stone of the Universe Asking-Love Valley..."
"To reshape myself and be reborn."
At those words, a trace of derision flashed through the Goddess of Love's eyes. Heh.
Still, in keeping with her principle of granting every request, she reached out and casually swept her palm over the lake before her.
In an instant, the entire lake surged upward. All its water gathered in the air, condensing into a colossal, pitch-black stone.
Pointing at the boulder, the Goddess of Love explained, "Before I died, my tears formed a lake. This object is called Crow-Absolute Stone. It contains a divine herb with a million years of cultivation."
"Lovesick Heartbreak Red."
"It can reverse life and death. If you attach your soul to it, you can use the rebirth mechanism of plant-type Soul Beasts and the million years of cultivation it contains to be reborn."
"However..."
"So they were blood tears. No wonder they turned black." The Amethyst Crystal Dragon picked up the enormous Crow-Absolute Stone, though it was only as big as its palm.
It finished the Goddess of Love's sentence for her. "However, I must use the purest, most devoted love to move this hardest creation in the world. Is that right?"
"Exactly." Seeing how knowledgeable the other was, the Goddess of Love said no more.
Disdain showed in her lifeless eyes.
She was certain the Amethyst Crystal Dragon would fail. The Crow-Absolute Stone had arisen as a barrier after she had given up on love.
It was also a trial set by the Goddess of Love.
Only the purest, deepest love could nourish the Lovesick Heartbreak Red into bloom and pass the Goddess of Love's trial.
Otherwise, trying to take the foundation stone of the Universe Asking-Love Valley was no different from a foolish dragon dreaming.
The Goddess of Love could see the dragon's nature at a glance: it was nothing but a dragon's soul, devoid of love and feeling...
"Heh." The Goddess of Love chuckled, and the gloom around her lifted a little.
Suddenly, the dragon spoke from above her. "I have only two questions."
The Amethyst Crystal Dragon examined the Crow-Absolute Stone in its palm and asked, "Is love between family members still love?"
The Goddess of Love's eyes shifted slightly. She answered without hesitation, "Yes."
The Amethyst Crystal Dragon asked again, "Does the bond between siblings count as love?"
The Goddess of Love rested her index finger against her chin. After consulting her heart, she answered firmly, "It does."
"Then I have no more questions." The Amethyst Crystal Dragon's gaze passed over the Crow-Absolute Stone and fell upon the Goddess of Love by the dry lakeshore.
It kindly warned her, "I hope you can bear the obsession I held... in life and after death."
Under the Goddess of Love's puzzled gaze,
the Amethyst Crystal Dragon suddenly looked grief-stricken and clenched the Crow-Absolute Stone in its hand.
In the next instant, the Goddess of Love's expression changed drastically. Her face turned deathly pale!
The pallor hidden beneath the red suddenly surged out from her soul, and she crumpled to the ground in agony.
"No!" The Goddess of Love clutched her head, struggling to suppress her hysteria. "This isn't... this isn't love."
"This is hatred! Hatred!"
The grief in the Amethyst Crystal Dragon's eyes abruptly turned to fury, then to hatred that would destroy everything.
Ignoring the Goddess of Love writhing on the ground below, it poured every last trace of hatred and obsession from its soul into the Crow-Absolute Stone.
In an instant, the Crow-Absolute Stone melted. Vivid blood-red tears poured through its fingers like a torrential downpour.
"No... stop!"
The Goddess of Love fell to her knees by the lakeshore, banging her head against the ground over and over as she screamed hysterically, "I'm begging you, stop! Please, stop it—"
The divine power formed from her emotions shifted from gentle to sharp. The soul she had finally calmed and steadied was thrown into turmoil by hatred.
Pale, the color of hatred, surged out of her soul in wave after wave, stirred up by the torment. It covered the red that symbolized love, swallowing most of the color on her body.
"No!"
The Goddess of Love's eyes turned completely pale. She suddenly raised her head, and two crimson streaks slid from the corners of her eyes.
Gripping her temples with all ten fingers, she let out a shrill cry to the sky. "Qing, Qing!"
"Why did you betray me? Why did you betray me?!"
"Ah—"
A boundless grudge burst from the Goddess of Love's soul, rendering the already gloomy Universe Asking-Love Valley even more desolate.
At last, the reason why opening the Universe Asking-Love Valley required the blood of lovers turned against each other was revealed.
Because the lake at the bottom of the valley had never been clear water. It was the blood and tears the Goddess of Love shed before she died.
The Amethyst Crystal Dragon closed its eyes, leaving only its whisper to linger in the valley sky. "A-Jin..."
"Why did you lure me and the Phoenix to our deaths for that impure-blooded thing?"
"And why did you slaughter your nephews and nieces to the very last?"
"We were your own kin..."
The Goddess of Love's blood and tears poured down from the sky like a torrential rain, filling the dry lakebed once more.
The foremost of Douluo's three great treasure basins, the Universe Asking-Love Valley, where the Sun Moon was turned upside down and love was put to the test, now...
stood watch over only two broken hearts.