The Immortal Herbs' Love for Gossip

But...

Though Ice Empress said she felt embarrassed, a thought rose in her heart.

After all these years, her bond with Snow Empress had always been the closest.

They had passed through countless years together, facing innumerable hardships and challenges side by side.

Could it be...

That it had always been nothing more than sisterly affection?

Ice Empress found it difficult to accept, so she decided to try first.

If she truly succeeded, then the hundred-thousand-year-old Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass could be given to Snow Empress.

Ice Empress's voice was somewhat tense.

"I want to try."

Ling Xiao and Snow Empress both understood Ice Empress's intentions perfectly.

Rather than stopping her, they nodded in support.

Arriving before the Lovesick Heartbreak Red,

Ice Empress slowly crouched down, closed her eyes, and kept thinking of Snow Empress.

She thought of Snow Empress's face, Snow Empress's voice, and the warmth of Snow Empress's embrace.

Countless scenes arose in Ice Empress's heart: the moment they first met.

The times they walked together across the ice plains, and the times they faced powerful enemies together.

Ice Empress's heart grew hotter and hotter.

Then, she bit the tip of her tongue.

A mouthful of heart's blood spilled from her lips and dripped onto the petals of the Lovesick Heartbreak Red.

The blood was crimson and shocking to behold. Everyone stared at the petals of the Lovesick Heartbreak Red.

The heart's blood slowly flowed across the petals, seeping into their veins.

But...

Nothing happened.

The Lovesick Heartbreak Red did not fall. It remained firmly rooted in the soil.

Ice Empress opened her eyes.

She looked at the Lovesick Heartbreak Red, and a trace of dejection flashed through her emerald eyes.

"So it really won't work..."

Ice Empress's voice was soft. She stood and silently stepped aside.

Since the Lovesick Heartbreak Red could not acknowledge her as its master, it meant that what she felt for Snow Empress could only be sisterly affection.

At least...

It was not the kind of undying love that could pluck the Lovesick Heartbreak Red.

Ice Empress lowered her head slightly, her emerald twin ponytails drooping a little.

She was not sad.

She only felt somewhat regretful.

So, in this life, she and Snow Empress could only be a pair of good sisters.

As Snow Empress watched Ice Empress step aside, a trace of heartache flashed through her ice-blue eyes.

Snow Empress walked to Ice Empress's side and gently held her hand.

Ice Empress raised her head slightly.

"Xue'er, I'm fine."

She forced a smile.

"Now it's your turn."

Snow Empress looked into Ice Empress's eyes. Once she confirmed that Ice Empress was truly all right, she nodded slightly and turned toward the Lovesick Heartbreak Red.

Snow Empress came before the Lovesick Heartbreak Red, her long ice-blue hair drifting gently in the breeze.

She slowly closed her eyes.

To be honest...

She did not know what love was.

Over the course of her long life, Snow Empress had experienced countless emotions.

Loneliness, solitude, anger, pity, comfort, pride, indifference...

Yet when it came to the emotion called "love," she seemed never to have truly experienced it.

She did not know what love felt like, nor did she know whether what she felt for Ling Xiao counted as love.

But she had to admit...

Between Ice Empress and Ling Xiao, the one she cared about more was indeed Ling Xiao.

Even she found that somewhat surprising.

Ice Empress was her closest sister and a dear friend she had known for tens of thousands of years. Their bond was incomparably deep, without the slightest impurity.

But Ling Xiao was different.

At his core, Ling Xiao was like her: an innate spirit born between Heaven and Earth.

On that point alone, Ice Empress could never compare to him.

It was a resonance of souls.

Both were beings born between Heaven and Earth, sharing the same essence of life.

That resonance was not something cultivated after birth. It was innate, embedded deep within their bones.

Over tens of thousands of years, only Ling Xiao had allowed her to feel a trace of the warmth of home.

She had picked Ling Xiao up and brought him back.

From a dying infant to a toddling little thing; from a mischievous brat to a dependable, steady youth.

She had raised Ling Xiao with her own hands, and every day Ling Xiao would call her Mother in her arms.

To make sure she was still by his side, Ling Xiao had to clutch her clothes before he would sleep each day.

Whenever she sat deep in thought on her ice bed, Ling Xiao would worry about what was troubling her.

Ling Xiao would climb to her side and ask in his childish voice, "Mother, what's wrong?"

Because of her ten-thousand-year heavenly tribulation, Ling Xiao had taken her directly to find the Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow.

During the three months Ling Xiao remained unconscious, Snow Empress stayed by his side day and night.

She never left him for even a step.

Every day, Snow Empress worried, terrified that Ling Xiao might never wake up again.

When heavenly lightning was about to strike her, Ling Xiao had stood before her without hesitation.

With his still-childish body, he had borne the full force of the Lightning of Karma in her place.

It was also amid that heavenly lightning that their roles began to switch.

She was no longer a child protected by Mother, but a child who could protect Mother.

Ling Xiao held her in his arms in a princess carry and slowly descended while stepping upon the heavenly lightning.

She quietly watched his profile.

That was the first time she realized that she was no longer suited to call him "little thing."

He had grown up.

He could already protect Mother.

Snow Empress did not know what love was.

But she believed...

That what they shared merely needed to go a little deeper before it could become love.

Right now, she was Ling Xiao's mother.

But she hoped that one day in the future, they could become something even closer.

Snow Empress's thoughts gradually drifted away, and a drop of blood slid from the corner of her lips.

It was her heart's blood.

The heart's blood fell onto the petals of the Lovesick Heartbreak Red, slowly seeping into their veins.

The petals trembled slightly.

Soaked in blood, the petals slowly gave off a warm, gentle glow.

Then, the Lovesick Heartbreak Red slowly detached from the soil.

It floated up lightly and landed in Snow Empress's hand like a feather.

The Lovesick Heartbreak Red.

Had officially acknowledged Snow Empress as its master.

Within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, pandemonium instantly broke out. Every sentient Immortal Herb was stunned.

Jiao Jiao's flames shot three feet into the air, its voice filled with disbelief.

Another voice rang out. "She... she actually succeeded?"

"The Lovesick Heartbreak Red acknowledged a master? That woman who looks like an ice-and-snow queen?"

"Heavens..."

None of them had expected Snow Empress to truly succeed.

The Immortal Herbs all understood how harsh the Lovesick Heartbreak Red's conditions for acknowledging a master were.

The picker had to be free of distracting thoughts, think of the person they loved most, and spit out a mouthful of heart's blood to succeed.

If there was even a trace of hesitation or divided affection, then even vomiting blood to death would not be enough.

Yet Snow Empress had succeeded on her first attempt.

There had been no hesitation, no wavering, no distracting thoughts whatsoever.

What did that mean?

It meant that the person Snow Empress had been thinking of had long occupied her entire mind.

No emotion could interfere with her, and no thought could shake her.

That person was Ling Xiao.

The Immortal Herbs' curiosity instantly soared.

Right then, they desperately wanted to know exactly what relationship Snow Empress and Ling Xiao had.

Ling Xiao had just called Snow Empress "Mother," which suggested they might be mother and son.

If that were all there was to it, how could it possibly reach the level of "undying devotion"?

Could it be...

All the Immortal Herbs looked at one another, their eyes gleaming with gossip.

But Snow Empress herself knew perfectly well that Ling Xiao was only someone she had picked up.