After Forgetting Two Exes - Chapter 29

On the third day of the fourth month, the night sky was cloudless. The crescent moon hung like a hook, illuminating the small path leading to Shenyuan.

Shi Yuan had just reached the entrance when he unexpectedly came face-to-face with a cat demon.

“Demon Sovereign! It’s him! He’s the culprit who destroyed the flowers!”

Mo Ze, who had been sitting, widened his eyes the moment he saw the newcomer. He scrambled to his feet and shouted toward the interior. He glared resentfully at the man. “It’s you… you almost made me lose my job!”

Ji Xun Yue’s voice drifted out calmly. “I know. Let him in. I don’t need you to watch over this place for now; go find something else to do.”

Mo Ze shot the man one last indignant glare before leaving.

Shi Yuan watched Mo Ze’s retreating back, wanting to offer an apology, but the moment passed in his hesitation. He walked inside slowly and saw Ji Xun Yue standing by the cliff’s edge with her back to him. She wore a moon-white gauze dress, her silhouette looking as cold and distant as the moon itself.

In the three thousand four hundred years since she broke their engagement, he had seen her fewer than five times.

He took a deep breath, breaking the silence first. “I didn’t expect you to ask to meet me here.”

Did she recover her memories? Did she remember her promise to him?

His anticipation didn’t last long. Ji Xun Yue spoke tonelessly, “I asked to meet here because, for one, I didn’t want to be disturbed. Secondly, I wanted to confirm once and for all exactly who has been targeting me for a thousand years.”

The wind at Shenyuan wasn’t cold, yet Shi Yuan felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He gave a bitter smile. “So that’s how it is. You know everything.”

It didn’t matter anymore. He had intended to confess to her regardless.

“Yes. But I have no intention of pursuing it further. I only wish to… clear the knot between us,” Ji Xun Yue turned around, speaking calmly. “Shi Yuan, our grievances began at Shenyuan a thousand years ago. I hope they can end here today.”

Shi Yuan didn’t know how to respond. Following her lead, he asked, “How did you find out? Did you ask Xuan Huai that day?”

Ji Xun Yue looked away. “No. Seeing that you knew him, I guessed.”

She intentionally hid the truth—hidden was the fact that she had become Xuan Huai’s disciple specifically to seek revenge, and hidden was the fact that she only learned of their past through his drunken ramblings.

Shi Yuan paused. “That’s right. I did all of those things. Starting from a thousand years ago, it was all me… doing them under Xuan Huai’s name.”

A mist suddenly rose over Shenyuan, enveloping them both. Even their voices became slightly muffled.

“Weren’t you afraid I’d settle the score with him?”

“Then the air would have been cleared, and it would have made you… remember me.”

“If you had used your own name, wouldn’t you have achieved your goal faster?”

“Because I was afraid that if you knew, you’d think I was being unreasonable or obsessive. I was afraid that no matter how I tried to get your attention, you would remain indifferent. I was afraid everyone would know I couldn’t forget you and think I was pathetic.”

Ji Xun Yue was stunned for a long time. She asked softly, “Shi Yuan, in this relationship… did I do something terrible? In your heart, am I a cold-blooded and heartless person?”

“Quite the opposite. It was because you were too good to me that I was terrified the version of you without memories would ignore me,” Shi Yuan shook his head. “I do hate you, but I also shouldn’t. Aside from you, no one else ever truly saw me or saved me from the mire.”

He slowed his speech further. His last few words felt like he was finishing a memory of the past.

Ji Xun Yue said hesitantly, “But I have no idea why I chose to seal those memories in the first place.”

The answer to the misunderstanding that created this rift likely lay within those memories. If she wished, she could break the seal at any time, but the unknown consequences kept her from making that final decision.

“I… am not forcing you to recall the past. You must have had an unavoidable reason for doing what you did,” Shi Yuan lowered his eyes. “It was simply my own refusal to let go. I can accept that you don’t love me, but I cannot accept that you forgot me.”

When he looked up again, his eyes were filled with complex emotions. “I don’t understand. Was those four hundred years of history so shameful to you that you couldn’t wait to forget the moment the engagement was broken? Was your affection for me, the things you said—was it all an act? If so, why did you ask if I liked you back then? Why did you choose to be with me?”

Ji Xun Yue felt as if there were a rift in her heart; some emotions were swallowed up as soon as they appeared, leaving her unsure of how to face his string of questions.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Since you’ve forgotten, you naturally can’t answer,” Shi Yuan saw her blank expression and felt more pained than she did. “I no longer hope for you to remember. I only want to know, Ji Xun Yue… do you truly hate me?”

When he received the message from Qi Jian, he had been so full of anticipation. Now, his question was incredibly humble.

“Of course I don’t hate you!” Ji Xun Yue answered quickly and with certainty.

“You should know that during that time, my mother…” Her mood suddenly plummeted. “Perhaps I really did use you to distract myself from the pain.”

Shi Yuan stared at her fixedly. He couldn’t say who had used whom more in this relationship.

The first meeting with Ji Xun Yue was two hundred years after the end of the War of Gods and Demons.

After a long period of living in a daze, Shi Yuan finally resumed his cultivation. Since he had no master, he could only grope his way forward.

That day, he went to Taiwei Isle to watch a competition. Passing by the Hall of Medicine, he saw a woman standing before the palace, repeatedly asking the guards to pass a message.

He assumed she was a cultivator whose sect was being denied herbs. Having seen enough of the “ways of the world” in the Immortal Realm over the years, he felt a surge of sympathy and stepped forward to argue her case. He figured his life was worthless anyway; he wasn’t afraid of offending anyone or facing punishment.

To his surprise, the woman looked at him with a frown, her beautiful face full of suspicion and wariness. He didn’t understand; he had helped her, so why that expression?

However, after listening to his impassioned speech, the woman suddenly laughed. Her laugh made him feel flustered.

Because of his loud commotion, the people inside finally let her in. Since he couldn’t enter, he waited at the entrance. When the woman came out, her mood had clearly improved. Seeing that he hadn’t left, she thanked him.

Upon parting, she gave him a Goldscale Stone. Having never seen a high-grade spiritual stone, he took it as an ordinary pebble. She said he could ask her for help if he needed it, but he declined with a feigned air of cool indifference—after all, she couldn’t even settle her own business.

Later, he learned she had come to the Immortal Realm to seek spirit herbs for her mother, and the people at the Hall of Medicine had intentionally made things difficult for her. She had met too many people who, under the guise of “helping,” actually belittled her or expressed their hatred for the Demon Realm.

He thought he had appeared untamed and free-spirited, but he didn’t realize that in her eyes, he was actually a bit foolish. Yet she said with a smile that she admired his sincerity.

A few years passed, and Shi Yuan did not see the woman again.

The Immortal Realm supported bartering. He went to the Yanming Sect to trade his gathered spirit herbs for some cultivation pills and, while he was there, inquired about the value of the stone she had given him.

Only then did he realize it was an extremely precious Goldscale Stone—one that even Ninth Realm disciples of the Six Great Sects might not possess. He was met with suspicion and misunderstanding; he was even accused of being a thief. With no way to prove his innocence, he could only hand over the stone.

He met her again on his way back from gathering ingredients in the Northern Border. He encountered four Yanming Sect disciples who immediately tried to steal his herb basket, bringing up the old accusation that he was a thief. He was furious but was no match for them.

She happened to pass by and taught those four disciples a lesson on his behalf. Before he could even see what moves she made, the disciples were on the ground, unable to get up. She then took him to face the Elders, an incident that even alerted Imperial Princess Yu Qian Chan.

Only then did he learn of her identity: she was the daughter of the Demon Sovereign Cen Luo, the Young Sovereign of the Demon Realm, Ji Xun Yue. Those disciples had a habit of bullying the weak. She argued on his behalf, and in the end, the four were expelled from the Yanming Sect.

She clarified the truth about the Goldscale Stone for him, forcing the Sect Leader of Yanming to apologize to him for the previous incident.

Suddenly, news of the Young Sovereign of the Demon Realm causing a scene for an ordinary cultivator was everywhere. While many looked down on the Demon Realm, if one could actually climb the ladder to the Young Sovereign, countless people would jump at the chance. But he specifically didn’t want to; he insisted on acting aloof and upright.

Ji Xun Yue learned he had no master and offered to have the Imperial Princess arrange one for him, but he refused. She wanted to teach him cultivation herself, but he refused that too. He instinctively rejected her kindness—perhaps because he had experienced war, or perhaps because he knew that if he continued to associate with her, he would be doomed.

He didn’t see her again for several years. He heard she was in the Yokai Realm purging rebel forces. When they met unexpectedly on Taiwei Isle, she actually still remembered him. Seeing that his cultivation hadn’t progressed at all, she brought many spirit herbs and immortal pills and even taught him how to cultivate. This time, for some inexplicable reason, he didn’t refuse.

This drew the jealousy of many, including a demon youth named Fu Jing Chuan. Fu Jing Chuan tried to duel him several times, but after she found out and scolded him, the youth never troubled him again; he only asked Shi Yuan to treat her well.

But Shi Yuan didn’t think they were that close. Ji Xun Yue rarely talked about herself and always hid her emotions. He only slowly learned that she had lost her sister and many relatives and friends in the war. Now, her mother was gravely injured and unlikely to recover, and the power structures of the Demon and Yokai Realms were not yet stable. She had too much to worry about and rarely smiled from her heart.

Because of this, her visits to the Immortal Realm were irregular. He might only see her once every few months or even longer, yet each time, he wanted to see her more urgently than the last. Before meeting her, he lived a lonely life in the darkness. After meeting her, his world was gradually illuminated.

Two hundred years after meeting her, with her help, he broke through to the Fifth Realm. She celebrated for him and asked if he liked her.

Her eyes didn’t hold much “love” for him; instead, they were full of confusion. But he could feel her dependence on him, and he felt he could become her emotional anchor. He was also very certain that he liked her.

So he said, “I like you.”

She said, “Alright, then we are lovers.”

She treated him well, teaching him cultivation and giving him spirit medicine. Even though he was slow, he gradually found the knack for it, and his cultivation increased. No one in the Immortal Realm looked down on him anymore. And all he could do was accompany her through those agonizing years. She was a beam of light in his life; perhaps it wasn’t that she needed him, but that he couldn’t leave her.

Soon after, the Great God and the Demon Sovereign granted them a marriage. An alliance between immortals and demons to share in peace was hailed as a beautiful tale. The matters in the Yokai Realm were settled, and the Demon Sovereign’s injuries had improved. During that time, she was in a very good mood, taking him to see many sights he had never seen before.

That day at Shenyuan, she asked him what he saw and told him she would bring him back in six hundred years to see the flowers bloom. He saw a vibrant spring with birds chirping—a landscape formed by his own love. He thought he needed to cultivate and ascend quickly so he could always stay by her side.

After understanding his own heart, he couldn’t help but want to be close to her, yet she was always somewhat distant and didn’t like intimate contact. She was so resistant, yet she would always apologize after pushing him away, then stare blankly as if remembering something.

He was often confused, but he confirmed she had no one she liked before. He comforted himself, thinking perhaps she didn’t know how to love someone. It was fine; everything could be taken slowly.

It was actually quite ironic. He lived in the Immortal Realm, and she would only go to find him when she was free. Because he was often in seclusion for cultivation, they didn’t actually spend much time together. He began to feel she was drifting further and further away.

Everything was like a fleeting epiphyllum. Sovereign Cen Luo’s condition grew worse. She became more silent and preferred solitude. He understood completely and remained convinced that when he had the ability to stand by her side, everything would be alright.

When Sovereign Cen Luo passed away, he wanted to be with her, but she saw no one. When she was finally willing to see him, she said she wanted to break the engagement. She apologized, saying she didn’t love him, that she had been the only one taking in this relationship, and that she had failed him.

His heart trembled, yet he knew that beneath her calm exterior, ten thousand kinds of pain were surging. She had barely recovered from the grief of her sister’s death before being struck by her mother’s passing. He looked at her pale face, and no matter how much he couldn’t let go, he still said “Alright.”

They went to the Great God, and she claimed their feelings had faded, breaking the engagement. At their parting, she suggested having Yu Qian Chan find someone to teach him cultivation. He refused again, perhaps wanting to preserve his last bit of dignity.

Suddenly, the Immortal and God Realms were full of gossip and rumors. Everyone speculated why, so the Great God forbade talking about it, but those probing gazes were always like thorns in his back.

He had actually always known the reason. He had just been lying to himself, thinking she would love him one day, but in truth, she no longer needed him. He hid on the uninhabited Wangxing Isle, avoiding the world and seeing no one. He used cultivation to pass the time and used cultivation to forget her.

But this was the first time he had loved someone—perhaps the last. In his life of over one thousand two hundred years, the four hundred years spent with her occupied a third of it. During countless nights of tossing and turning while missing her, Shi Yuan felt he would never be able to forget her.

Ji Xun Yue was an excellent teacher. Although his comprehension was poor, his cultivation steadily improved using her methods, and he eventually passed the divine trials to ascend to immortality. It took him over three thousand four hundred years to become an immortal—even exceeding the average speed. This was an outcome he had never dared to dream of before meeting her.

He returned to Guiyuan Isle. Two thousand two hundred years had passed since their engagement was broken. Few people mentioned their business anymore, and few remembered. He developed the habit of drowning his sorrows in wine and became increasingly picky. Hearing that Immortal Xuan Huai of Cangxing Isle brewed an excellent “Qingfeng Zui,” he had the thick skin to go ask for some. He hadn’t expected that they would become friends.

Over the years, his personality changed, yet in some ways, it hadn’t. Perhaps influenced by her, he also liked to hide his thoughts, often wearing a cheerful, open smile and becoming more talkative. Xuan Huai didn’t find him annoying, but once they became close, he always entertained Shi Yuan with ordinary wine; it was hard to even get a taste of Qingfeng Zui.

Days passed uneventfully. Fu Jing Chuan came to find him once, but he refused to see the youth. He heard she rarely left the Demon Realm in these thousands of years; it would be hard to see her again, as she no longer had any reason to visit the God or Immortal Realms.

Because of a debate over wine, he met God Shang Ji. When invited to the God Realm, he unexpectedly saw her. They were far apart, but his heart beat rapidly. It turned out that even after two thousand years, he still hadn’t moved on from that relationship.

Although she still habitually hid her thoughts, he could see she wasn’t as gloomy as before; she was slowly letting go of the past pain. Imperial Princess Yu Qian Chan stopped him and told him that after breaking the engagement, she had sealed the memories related to him. If possible, he shouldn’t disturb her with the past. Even if they met, it was best to act as strangers who had never met.

He stood frozen, lacking the courage to step forward and say hello. Finally, he chose to leave. He had fantasized about their reunion countless times, but he never expected she would forget that relationship so early on. He didn’t understand—if she didn’t like him, why did she ask for his thoughts back then? Was he so unworthy, so loathsome to her, that she had to forget everything the moment they broke up? Was her affection for him all an act?

He had remembered her for over two thousand years, hiding her in the depths of his heart, yet she had long since forgotten him and no longer knew who Shi Yuan was. He could accept her not loving him or loving someone else—the only thing he couldn’t accept was her forgetting him. He truly did still love her, yet he couldn’t help but hate her.

He proactively asked to meet Fu Jing Chuan and got dead drunk. Afterward, while he said he would forget, he couldn’t stop asking Fu Jing Chuan for news about her. Hearing she was going to Shenyuan to see the flowers, he remembered her old promise. Thinking of how she lied without loving him, how could he let her have her way?

He got dead drunk and woke up to find the flowers of Shenyuan destroyed by his hand, but he wasn’t happy. Everything that happened after that, Ji Xun Yue already knew.