The Heavens of the Spirit Realm were angry.
Su Mei hovered at the altitude of the Ninth Heaven, the absolute ceiling of the realm. Below her,
the clouds roiled in a chaotic storm of gold and blood.
She had reached the limit. Half-Step Immortal Ascension.
One more step, and she would transcend the Spirit Realm. She would become a True Immortal,
a being capable of traversing the multiverse.
But the door was closed.
A massive gate of golden light blocked her path. On the gate, ancient runes burned with
judgment.
" The Dao is Flawless. The Ascendant must be Flawless."
Su Mei struck the gate with her full power. Her ice sword, capable of freezing a sun, shattered
against the gold.
"Why?" Su Mei screamed, her voice shaking the stars. "I have severed my emotions! I have
conquered the realm! I am the strongest! Why do you deny me?"
A voice boomed from the gate. It wasn't a person; it was the collective consciousness of the
Heavenly Dao.
"You have severed the emotions, but you have not severed the root. You carry a mortal tether. A
Karmic anchor drags you down. You cannot ascend while holding a stone."
Su Mei froze.
The image of Li Wei appeared in her mind. Not the annoying husband, not the stain, but the fact
of him. The fact that he was alive. The fact that her blood—the Golden Blood—flowed in her
veins, binding them biologically and spiritually.
"He is hidden!" Su Mei argued. "He is miles away! He does not affect me!"
"He is your origin," the Dao replied. "As long as the origin exists, the destination is tethered. To
become Infinite, you must have no beginning."
The logic was absolute.
Su Mei lowered her hand. The gray fog in her eyes swirled.
"I must kill him."
It wasn't a question anymore. It was the key to the door.
"But..." A tiny, microscopic part of her hesitated. The memory of the wooden duck. The memory
of the rain.
The Heartless Sword Sutra surged. It crushed the hesitation instantly.
"He is in pain," the Sutra whispered, using her own voice. "He is waiting on that island. Waiting
to die. Killing him is not murder. It is release. It is the final act of a wife's duty."
Su Mei's eyes cleared. They became terrifyingly calm.
"Yes," she said. "I will set him free. And I will set myself free."
She turned her back on the Heavenly Gate.
"Wait for me," she commanded the Heavens. "I will return alone."
She tore through the space. She didn't use a flying sword. She folded reality, stepping from the
Ninth Heaven directly to the chaotic void of the Isle of Forgotten Time.
On the island, the air pressure changed.
Li Wei opened his eyes.
The blue dome of the defensive formation flickered. It didn't break; it dissolved. It recognized the Su Mei descended.
She didn't land on the ground. She hovered ten feet in the air, radiant, terrifying, glowing with
the pent-up energy of a failed ascension.
She looked at the ruined shop. She saw the broken mirrors. She saw the dust.
Then she saw Li Wei.
He was sitting in the center of the room, wearing his red wedding robes. He looked small.
Fragile.
He looked up at her. He didn't scream. He didn't beg.
He smiled.
"You're early," Li Wei said, his voice calm. "It hasn't been fifty years."
Su Mei floated into the room. Her feet didn't touch the dusty floor.
"The Heavens rejected me," she stated. Her voice was devoid of anger. It was just reporting a
fact. "They said I carry an anchor."
"I know," Li Wei nodded. "I felt the resonance."
He stood up slowly, smoothing the wrinkles in his red robe.
"You are wearing red," Su Mei noted. "Why?"
"I thought..." Li Wei paused. "I thought we should end it the way we started. Do you remember,
Mei'er? The red candles? The rain?"
Su Mei looked at the red robes. For a split second, the Heartless Sword Sutra wavered. A flash
of a memory—a warm hand, a nervous laugh—tried to surface.
But she suppressed it.
"I remember data," she said. "I do not feel it."
"That's okay," Li Wei said. "I feel enough for both of us."
He walked toward her. He stopped directly under her hovering feet. He looked up, exposing his
neck.
"Do it, Su Mei. The door is waiting."
Su Mei looked down at him. This was the moment. The requirement of the Sutra. Kill the one
you love most.
The fact that the Sutra demanded his death proved that, deep down, under layers of ice and
suppression, he was still the one she loved most. That irony was lost on her.
She raised her hand. She didn't summon a sword. She didn't use a spell. She formed a simple
blade of ice in her hand.
"Does it hurt?" Li Wei asked softly.
"What?"
"Ascension. Does it hurt to leave everything behind?"
Su Mei paused.
"It feels like... weightlessness," she said. "It feels like nothing."
"Then I am happy for you," Li Wei said. He closed his eyes. "I am ready to be weightless too."
Su Mei's hand trembled. Just once. A microscopic spasm.
Then, the Sutra took over.
"Goodbye, Li Wei," she whispered.
She thrust the ice blade downward.
It wasn't a battle. He didn't dodge. He didn't activate the Defensive Token. He didn't use the
System's shield.
The blade entered his chest. It pierced the heart that had beaten for her for twenty years.
Li Wei gasped. His eyes snapped open. He looked at her.
There was no betrayal in his eyes. Only relief.
"Thank... you..." he wheezed. He slumped forward. Su Mei caught him. She held his dying body. She didn't know why. She
should have let him fall.
Li Wei rested his head against her shoulder. His blood—gold and warm—soaked into her
pristine white robes.
"Mei'er," he whispered, his voice fading. "I... built... a... god."
His final breath left him. His body went limp.
Su Mei stood there, holding the corpse of her husband in the dusty ruins of their first home. The
Golden Blood stained her chest, a permanent mark on her perfection.
She waited for the rush of power. She waited for the Heavens to open.
And they did.
The void above the island split open. Golden light poured down, bathing her in the aura of
Ascension. The tether was cut. The anchor was gone.
Su Mei looked up at the light.
Then she looked down at the body in her arms.
She felt lighter. Infinitely lighter.
"It is done," she said to the silence.
She dropped the body.
It hit the floor with a dull thud.
She turned and flew into the golden light, ascending to the Immortal Realm, leaving the
red-robed figure alone in the gray dust, a discarded husk of a love that had served its purpose.