Volume 1
Chapter 1: Teacher and Student
The land was bathed in Holy Light, but the occasional refreshing breeze that drifted from afar was swiftly overwhelmed by the scent of blood rising from the earth.
On the blood-soaked battlefield, not a single living soul stirred, yet cold corpses numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
“Cough, cough, cough, cough—”
Yueshen Guang coughed violently. In his dimming vision, his consciousness began to fade.
Puchi—!
Just as Yueshen Guang’s vision was about to fade to black, a sharp, blood-soaked sword suddenly pierced through his back.
“Cough, cough… Do you hate me this much, my student?”
The pain caused Yueshen Guang’s pupils to constrict sharply.
He, Yueshen Guang—the greatest sovereign of the Yeling Empire, a peerless God of War whose swordsmanship was unmatched—had, during the decisive battle against the Holy Light Kingdom, been struck with the most fatal blow from behind by his own prized student: Yueshen Ji.
The confirmed dead included 300,000 of Yueshen Guang’s most elite soldiers, as well as 100 of his primary commanders, deputies, and personal guards.
“Teacher, you must be in a lot of pain…” Yueshen Ji said, her voice laced with pity. Under the circumstances, this “pity” of hers only made Yueshen Guang want to laugh.
For the young woman’s combat boot was grinding fiercely into his back, right upon a grievous gash that stretched from his left waist to his right abdomen, a wound that had nearly cleaved him in two.
“Heh heh… Cough, cough, cough, cough.”
Although Yueshen Guang couldn’t help but chuckle softly at how absurdly ironic her “concern” was, the sound was immediately followed by another violent fit of coughing as blood bubbled in his throat.
A student’s concern for her teacher… at a time like this, it was truly, laughably ironic.
“Teacher, I’m sorry. But the way I like you… is different from the way you like me.”
“Ji… do you like me?”
“Mm, I like you very much, Teacher.”
That’s how you answered then, with a soft smile.
I smiled too.
Why on earth did I even ask that back then…?
But now, Yueshen Guang understood. The “like” his student, whom he had raised with his own hands, felt for him was not the same as the affection he held for her—the affection one has for a daughter, a student, a family member.
Yueshen Ji’s affection for Yueshen Guang was far too heavy, her love far too deep.
“…How pathetic… I am…”
Even as the boot ground into his wound, a pain so intense it felt as if his very soul were creaking and groaning, Yueshen Guang could only think of how naive his own ideas had been, how shallow his understanding.
The distinct, damp chill of blood, the cold touch of the blade…
In the haze, the physical pain radiating from the depths of the wound in his back transformed into an agonizing anguish born from his own heart—a grief and indignation so profound it bordered on despair.
That pain, as if striking his spirit directly, pierced through his entire being. Paralyzed, Yueshen Guang could only dig his nails deep into the mud, shedding tears of lamentation as a wretched scream escaped him.
Yueshen Guang desperately clawed at the ground, trying to choke back his tears.
“Ugh… AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!”
—The crunching, grinding sound of shattering.
Under the impact of the young woman’s boot, his back emitted the sickening percussion of breaking bones.
The hazy delusion felt like a dream.
Filled with gentle memories he could not forget, Yueshen Guang’s consciousness wavered, and tears slipped unconsciously from his eyes.
A sob caught in his throat.
Hot tears welled up and streamed down his cheeks one after another.
He let the torrential, unstoppable tears flow, his cries turning into a broken, intermittent roar.
“Why—!”
“Why did you all conspire to abandon me…?!”
“What did I do wrong?! Ji, what did you want from me…? Tell me! Why didn’t you tell me?! Why did you have to betray me?!”
He couldn’t control his emotions. He had reached his limit.
His heart, his very soul, could not stop screaming.
Forcing his prostrate body up, he raised his head high. The long-suppressed emotions erupted at once, and Yueshen Guang stared at Yueshen Ji, baring his teeth in a savage roar.
“RAAAAGH—AAAAAAAGHH—AAH—AH—!”
Yueshen Guang’s voice was like the final roar of a caged beast.
His voice mingled with the lightning from the thunderclouds above, and a deafening roar echoed across the heavens, powerful enough to shatter the mind.
Then, an even more astonishing scene unfolded.
Millions upon millions of milky-white pillars of light instantly streaked across the screaming sky and descended upon the earth, a dense shower of light points like a meteor storm.
To lose my power…
To be unforgiven…
None of it matters anymore.
Yueshen Guang broke into a manic laugh, uttering a frantic curse: “Hahahahahaha! Purify me, then!”
“In this Holy Light, I will watch this sinful kingdom of heaven be destroyed!”
“In this Holy Light, I will watch this magnificent cathedral collapse!”
“In this Holy Light, I will watch you all sink into eternal damnation!”
Glimmering teardrops bloomed in the depths of Yueshen Guang’s heart, like countless shattered crystal hearts.
When the final bell tolled, the hour hand pointed to the last Roman numeral, and the minute hand overlapped with it.
Yueshen Guang thus became the incomplete Yier Meng.
Let us begin again, accompanied by the starlight…
At that very moment, in a magnificent and holy cathedral, a young woman with snow-white hair awoke in her room.
