They say gods do not weep. But he did.

In the heart of the Celestial Realm, beneath silver skies and crimson moonlight, he held her broken body in his arms—her white robes stained with blood, her nine golden tails dimming with every breath.

“Who did this?” he had whispered, voice shaking for the first time in centuries.

But her lips trembled with more than pain. Her gaze—those eyes that once held mischief and moonlight—now shimmered only with betrayal.

“I trusted you,” she murmured.
And then... she was gone.

That night, thunder cracked across the heavens. But no justice followed.

The Moon Goddess watched from her palace, veil unshaken.
The Celestial Court declared it fate.

The Fox Clan mourned their Lady in silence, retreating deep into the realm of spirits. They never found her body.

And the War God—once proud heir to the Celestial Throne—locked his heart behind walls no one could breach.

He never stopped searching for the soul who once called him beloved.

A thousand years passed.
The realms forgot. But he never did.

Now, a servant girl enters his palace—eyes like wildfire, voice like a memory.

Something stirs.

And fate, it seems, is not finished with them yet.

The night air held a strange stillness.


From the high terraces of the Celestial Palace, wind chimes rang in haunting tones — not soft and sweet, but sharp, like warnings whispered by ghosts.


Li Hua stood alone beneath the Moon Tree, where silvery petals fell without sound. Her heart beat faster than it should. She shouldn't be here. But something — someone — had called her.


It's not real. I buried that name. Buried it a thousand years ago.


She turned sharply. Nothing. Only shadows and silver leaves.


Jin Xuan Yue stepped from behind a pillar, half in shadow. His robes whispered as he moved, eyes fixed on her as if she might vanish again.


"I remember… someone who used to come here," he said. "She liked the wind chimes."


"She said they sounded like stars laughing."


That was her. That was what she had once said — as Qing Yue — on a spring night long ago, before betrayal, before blood and fire.


"I wonder…" he said quietly. "Do you believe in reincarnation?"


She tried to keep her face calm. "I'm not sure, my lord."


He looked at her closely — too closely. "If a soul returned... do you think it would remember who it once was?"


Li Hua lowered her gaze. "I think… some memories are too painful to survive."


Then he stepped closer, eyes darker now.


"When I look at you," he murmured, "I feel… haunted."


"I'm not accusing you," he said, voice almost gentle. "But I need to know — who are you really?"


Li Hua couldn't answer. She only bowed low, turned, and hurried away — the wind lifting her sleeves like phantom hands.


Behind her, Jin Xuan Yue watched the petals fall.


"Qing Yue… if you are truly gone, why won't my heart let you go?"


Far away in the Moon Shrine, Zeița Lunii moved her fingers over a glowing basin. Inside, the water shimmered with visions.


"She's weakening," the demon said beside her. "That identity won't hold."


"She must not awaken too soon," the goddess murmured. "Let her doubt. Let her crumble slowly."


Chapter 26 - Chapter 25 – Echoes in the Wind