The couplet, "Heaven as the chessboard, the stars as the pieces," might be circulated among the inhabitants of the Illusionary Palace, but the phrase, "Let thunder be the war drums and lightning the banner; who dares to challenge?" was actually spoken by Mo Junye during their Heavenly Tribulation. Only the two of them knew it. Yet, Jun Moxie had just uttered it!

How could he possibly know?

Could it be?

...

"Silly girl, you still haven't recognized me?"

Jun Moxie let out a helpless smile. "Is it that hard to recognize me?"

Saying this, he turned to face Miao Xiaomiao and rubbed his face a few times. Slowly, the handsome features receded, and a simple, honest countenance appeared before her...

Mo Jun-chi...

Miao Xiaomiao's eyes widened. She took a step back, sheer panic flooding her gaze. "You... you are Junye?"

Jun Moxie nodded with a bitter smile, whispering softly, "Xiaomiao, it's me."

Miao Xiaomiao's delicate body trembled a few times, and then, without a sound, she collapsed... she had actually fainted...

Jun Moxie moved with lightning speed, stepping forward instantly to catch her in his arms.

Moments later, Miao Xiaomiao slowly woke up, but those eyes that were always so clear were now filled with utter bewilderment, as if she were still dreaming. After staring blankly for a moment, she suddenly saw Jun Moxie’s face directly above her, choked out a sob, and cried, "Junye, did you know? I just had a terrible nightmare. I dreamt that Evil Monarch desired me and spoke words that only you and I knew! That wasn't even the worst of it—he suddenly transformed into your likeness! I was so scared, truly so scared..."

Jun Moxie let out a soft sigh, his voice gentle. "Silly girl... you weren't dreaming. This is all real."

"It's real? It's real? It's real?..."

Miao Xiaomiao stared blankly at the lover before her, suddenly pushing herself up and free from his embrace. She slowly looked around at everything, her face still etched with an indescribable, heavy melancholy...

She abruptly turned her head, looking at Jun Moxie, who still maintained Mo Junye's appearance. Her eyes locked fiercely onto his face. Gritting her teeth, she demanded, "Junye... tell me, tell me this isn't true! Tell me!"

Jun Moxie closed his eyes in pain, saying woodenly, "Xiaomiao, this is the truth. This is real. I have always been Jun Moxie! Mo Junye was merely an incarnation of mine, a person who never existed..."

"No! It’s not! This isn't real, it's impossible! You're lying to me! You're saying this just to have me, I won't believe you—I refuse to believe you..."

Miao Xiaomiao shrieked desperately, her eyes fixed on Jun Moxie, yet her feet were inching backward. She shook her head in extreme agitation. Even so, her beautiful eyes betrayed her; misty tears were already beginning to pool...

The truth might be cruel, but a truth is still a truth!

Suddenly, Miao Xiaomiao's foot accidentally bumped against a chair behind her, causing her to tumble to the ground with a loud thud, chair and all.

Given Miao Xiaomiao's attained Venerable cultivation, let alone a mere chair behind her, even a thousand-foot cliff or deadly trap wouldn't likely cause her to fall like this. The sheer clumsiness of her fall demonstrated that her composure was utterly shattered.

"Xiaomiao..."

Jun Moxie's eyes were filled with pity, and he reached out his hand, intending to pull her up.

"Don't touch me! You wicked man, don't you dare touch me..."

Miao Xiaomiao shouted with all her might, stubbornly scrambling up from the floor, but tears began to fall from her like pearls from a broken string, her delicate body trembling violently.

"You—you are Mo Junye? Is Mo Junye Jun Moxie? Is Jun Moxie my Mo Junye?"

Miao Xiaomiao laughed bitterly, looking at Jun Moxie, a trace of blood already seeping from the corner of her mouth.

That splash of bright crimson utterly shocked Jun Moxie!

"Yes, Xiaomiao, I didn't mean to deceive you—I truly am Mo Junye. This... I..."

Jun Moxie rushed to explain. While he had prepared himself mentally for this confrontation, he had genuinely not anticipated Miao Xiaomiao’s reaction would be this extreme, this violent.

"Stop talking!"

Miao Xiaomiao yelled in fury. "You still... you don't want to lie to me? Hahahaha..."

She let out a mournful, piercing laugh. "You don't want to lie to me? What more lies do you plan to spin? You have already cheated me out of everything! You have fooled me until I have nothing left!"

Miao Xiaomiao's body shook violently, and then, gathering all her remaining strength, she screamed, "You took everything I had—don't you realize that? Do you truly not know? What else is there you can lie about? I have nothing left! But that’s fine, since I have nothing left, I'm no longer afraid of you deceiving me!"

Jun Moxie gazed at the woman he adored, suddenly feeling an agonizing ache in his heart, leaving him speechless.

"Junye—no! Jun Moxie, do you know how happy I was before this?"

Miao Xiaomiao's tears tracked down her alabaster cheeks, flowing past her lips, slowly dripping onto the ground. Soon, the area beneath her was saturated with water.

But she didn't even bother to wipe them away, letting the tears stream down, while the blood from her lip dripped steadily, gradually dyeing those tear stains a deep crimson...

"My Junye didn't possess peerless martial arts, and he looked quite ordinary, but he was the only true husband I, Miao Xiaomiao, ever recognized!"

Miao Xiaomiao spoke with profound sorrow. "He was the man I loved most! Do you know? Do you know? I even naively believed he loved me the most. I was wrong; this was just a ruse, a complete and utter deception!"

"Did you know how proud I was of him? How satisfied? To have Junye meant a lifetime of happiness for me!"

Miao Xiaomiao recounted softly, a desolate sweetness creeping across her face. "Junye told me he already had a wife, but I didn't care. I was willing to be his concubine! As long as I could be with Junye, I cared about nothing else!"

"Junye was gentle; he possessed rich, superhuman knowledge. The moment he appeared in the Illusionary Palace, despite having the most meager cultivation among everyone there, he stirred up the greatest currents of change within the entire Palace. I was proud of him! I... I am Mo Junye's wife! I am his woman! No matter how lowly or destitute his standing, I was willing, even eager!"

"Heaven as our canopy, Earth as our bed; wind for our feast, rain for our wine; clouds for our wedding veil, mist for our tent; thunder as the betrothal gift, lightning as the matchmaker! I, Miao Xiaomiao, pledged my life to Mo Junye!"

Miao Xiaomiao laughed deliriously. "I gave my body, my devotion, my soul, my entire being, to the man I loved most!"

"Without Mo Junye, Miao Xiaomiao is just an empty shell!"

Miao Xiaomiao's expression suddenly grew still, her voice hollow. "And now you tell me that a man named Mo Junye never existed in this world?..."

"Everything was fabricated, never once real! The Ethereal Body is an illusion, Mo Junye is an illusion..."

Miao Xiaomiao grieved, "Jun Moxie, how could you be so cruel... you destroyed my dream! You destroyed everything I had! You are so merciless!"

"Why did you have to do this to me? Since you were already deceiving me, why couldn't you keep lying? I would rather have never known, so that even if Junye never returned, he would remain eternally unextinguished in my heart! Why did you have to be so cruel, insisting on tearing down the pretense and crushing my final hope?"

"You are so cruel, truly so cruel!"

Miao Xiaomiao murmured, her voice growing weak.

"Xiaomiao... in the Illusionary Palace, Mo Junye, apart from his identity being an illusion, his knowledge, his intellect, everything about him was real—that was another version of me, just as real!"

Jun Moxie whispered softly. "Now, here, I give you the truest version of myself. Isn't that better?"

"No! The one I loved was only Mo Junye! There has never been anyone but Mo Junye! Not Jun Moxie!"

Miao Xiaomiao looked at him, her face streaked with tears. "It was you who killed my Junye! It was you! You made my Junye vanish forever..."

The sorrowful look on Miao Xiaomiao's delicate features suddenly twisted into extreme venom. "Jun Moxie, Evil Monarch! Do you find great satisfaction in playing with a woman like this? Watching a woman place her hopes on an illusion, invest her feelings, her love, her chastity, her loyalty, everything, and then shattering it all with your own hands! You twist the heavens and earth at will, keeping a woman completely under your control, doomed for eternity! Doesn't that feeling of absolute mastery give you pleasure? Doesn't it?"

She advanced step by step, tears shining in her eyes, yet she did not blink, her expression utterly desolate.

"Enough!"

Jun Moxie gave a low growl, then said with frustration, "Xiaomiao, please don't misunderstand me. Can you calm down? Can you please listen to my explanation?"

"An explanation? Fine, I am waiting for your explanation! Who dares refuse what the Evil Monarch has to say?"

Miao Xiaomiao glared fiercely at him. "Since you must explain, I will listen to your explanation. But before you do, I beg you, do not defile the face of my Junye anymore! Do not let the face of the one I loved most hang on the visage of a liar like you! Change it! Change it!"

Jun Moxie sighed and dropped the disguise of Mo Junye, reverting to his true appearance.

Miao Xiaomiao watched him, her gaze fixed on the very spot where Mo Junye's features had been, watching the likeness of the man she loved slowly fade from his face. She watched with such focus, such tenacity, such deep affection, such reluctance to let go...

And yet, with such utter despair!

It was the profound hopelessness of watching a lover depart, witnessing a beloved vanish forever, while being utterly helpless to stop it!

A despair that turned the heavens and earth to ash!

As Jun Moxie’s face lost the appearance of Mo Junye, the light in her eyes gradually faded, her gaze becoming vacant and hollow...

"Junye... don't go,"

Miao Xiaomiao cried out mournfully, taking a trembling step forward. Her hand reached out weakly toward Jun Moxie's face. Her voice, now despairing and lingering, sounded like a dying man’s groan, choked with the sound of a broken heart...