Eresh's appearance was entirely beyond Rovi's expectations.
As he remembered it, Eresh was not the sort who enjoyed wandering around. Even when she had accidentally ended up in the Norse lands, she had simply slept there and waited for Rovi to appear.
Yet now, she had descended from the Primordial Highest Heaven and come all the way to the vast lands of Huaxia and the Nine Provinces. Worse, she had opened with a decisive move—claiming the position of the goddess of Mount Li, the counterpart to Qin's Azure Heaven.
And apparently, rather than rejecting this foreign deity in the slightest, the immortals seemed unusually eager to welcome her.
Rovi strongly suspected that those ancient ancestors had done it deliberately.
Naturally, it also gave him a headache.
Had Eresh arrived slightly earlier or slightly later, the situation would not have been nearly so troublesome.
Had she come earlier, he would not yet have settled Yu Mei-ren's official standing beside him. Had she come later, he would have had time to explain everything to Yu Mei-ren more clearly.
Rovi had never intended to conceal his past from those close to him.
Only sincerity could be exchanged for sincerity.
Perhaps that sounded naive, but when it came to love, Rovi might be greedy, yet he still wanted to preserve a measure of human purity.
Unfortunately, events had not unfolded as he hoped.
Eresh had arrived. After becoming the goddess of Mount Li, she immediately sensed his presence and rapidly drew closer.
In Guanzhong, once the heartland of Qin and now the center of the Qin dynasty that had unified all under heaven, the majestic peaks of Mount Li stretched across the land. A ray of dark starlight rose brilliantly into the sky.
It had been nearly sunset when Rovi reached Penglai.
Now, the final trace of the sun's afterglow had completely vanished.
Nightfall was the hour when a goddess of the Underworld ventured forth.
Eresh had arrived.
A refreshing aura spread across the vast sea. Life and death intertwined within it, sharpening the awareness of all who felt it.
Three feet above one's head, the divine revealed itself.
"Sister Lishan!"
The stone monkey girl was both surprised and delighted.
At the same time, Yu Mei-ren tightened her grip on Rovi's hand. Her red eyes shifted, and she deliberately pressed herself as close to him as possible.
"No matter who she is, you're mine now!"
"..."
Rovi considered how to resolve the situation.
Not because he wanted to run away.
And certainly not because he wished to hide anything.
Running away was shameful, and concealment would solve nothing. Rovi was not afraid of being hacked apart by a jealous lover, but that did not mean he wanted a blade coming down on him.
All he wanted was a brief reprieve.
A little time to prepare.
"Oh? It's you, little monkey!"
Eresh's feet touched the surface of the sea, sending ripples spreading outward. Her delicate bare feet gleamed like pale jade beneath the moonlight as they touched the "ground."
Her red cape swayed behind her, revealing the graceful figure clad in black. Eresh glanced at the stone monkey girl who had called out to her, then smiled and gently stroked her head.
The stone monkey beamed with delight.
Then Eresh looked toward Rovi.
"Sister Lishan, it was these two!" Before Eresh could speak, the stone monkey immediately began complaining. "They refused to believe you existed and even wanted me to take them to see you!"
"Well? Do you still doubt me now? Hehehe..."
The stone monkey planted her hands on her hips, her red skirt swaying as triumph filled her face.
Of course she was pleased.
After being doubted so thoroughly earlier, she had been holding in her irritation all this time.
Wuzhiqi ducked her head, doing her best to make herself inconspicuous.
The stone monkey nevertheless began introducing the two before them to the "goddess of Mount Li."
"Let me tell you, Sister, these two are—"
"Rovi, my beloved. At last, we meet again."
Eresh's gaze swept over the hand Yu Mei-ren held tightly. A smile appeared on her face.
The stone monkey stared blankly.
Eresh's expression, however, remained unchanged.
While they were in the Highest Heaven, Rovi had already told her about his past. Eresh had therefore prepared herself mentally long ago.
The man she loved was simply that outstanding. It was only natural that women and goddesses would be drawn to him.
She could understand it.
But she could not accept it!
Eresh drew a deep breath.
Slowly, she smiled.
Then she calmly walked forward...
Yu Mei-ren tightened her grip on Rovi's hand as though declaring ownership.
"The legendary goddess of Mount Li truly is as remarkable as they say."
As the Heavenly Empress, Yu Mei-ren's smile still possessed a degree of dignity.
She had to display her confidence.
She would intimidate her opponent into retreating...
Take this, goddess of Mount Li!
Yu Mei-ren watched Eresh approach with composed elegance.
She watched Eresh draw near.
She watched her turn toward Rovi, reach out, and then...
Slowly embrace him from the side opposite Yu Mei-ren.
And kiss him.
Without so much as a greeting!?
"Pfft!"
Wuzhiqi's breathing instantly went awry, and she nearly choked.
The stone monkey girl was rendered completely speechless.
As for Rovi, when that soft figure pressed against him and slipped into his arms, he was unsurprised. He merely sighed.
To Eresh, nothing else mattered as much as the Rovi standing before her now.
As long as he was here...
Everything else was unimportant.
"You... insolent! Insolent! Insolent!"
The temper Yu Mei-ren had not shown in days returned in full force. Her long black hair flew upward, and the young woman bared a pair of sharp canines.
All her earlier dignity vanished without a trace.
Why bother with dignity?
She might as well take him by force!
Yu Mei-ren instinctively prepared to act. A faint flush spread across her pale body, and her exposed chest rose and fell.
And what did "acting" mean for her?
Art was an explosion!
At that very moment, Rovi reacted swiftly. He lightly swung the hand Yu Mei-ren still refused to release.
Caught off guard, she stumbled forward and collided directly with Rovi, falling into his embrace from the other side.
"Hm?"
She froze.
Then she abruptly realized that the hand she had been gripping was now free—and resting behind her.
His palm slid downward, warmth trailing in its wake.
Yu Mei-ren's face instantly turned scarlet, and her body instinctively went weak...
The mechanism behind her self-destruction was disabled at once.
She collapsed into Rovi's arms. Her softness pressed against him as her legs, hidden beneath black cloth, shifted restlessly. Her rounded hips arched and rubbed against him without conscious intent.
Rovi glanced sideways.
What did one even call a situation like this?
You came at just the right time?
Even now, he still had the leisure to make jokes to himself.
On the other side, Eresh loosened her embrace and finally parted her lips from Rovi's.
"Rovi... We meet again."
A faint blush colored the goddess's face. Her golden hair spilled around her shoulders, and her eyelashes trembled softly as she spoke.
We meet again.
Not It's been so long.
Rovi had entered the Divine Land less than a year ago, and relatively speaking, even less time would have passed in the Primordial Highest Heaven.
Yet Eresh's longing for the man before her was unmistakable.
She slowly stepped back and tucked the long hair beside her ear into place. Licking her moist red lips, she lifted her chin and gave Yu Mei-ren a victorious smile.
To Eresh, Rovi was the most important person of all.
And immediately after that came her right to take the lead where Rovi was concerned!
The goddess knew how exceptional the man she loved was. She also knew he would inevitably become entangled with many other goddesses.
But among them all, Eresh believed she had to occupy the foremost position.
Yu Mei-ren, who had gone completely limp against Rovi, opened her hazy eyes and shifted slightly.
No matter what, the tension had temporarily eased.
As expected of me.
Rovi slowly helped Yu Mei-ren's light, supple body upright.
"Y-You dare!"
Her face remained flushed, and she was still baring her teeth, but her earlier explosive fury was gone.
She swayed as she stood, gradually recovering from that momentary tremor. Yu Mei-ren took a deep breath.
"I am the Divine Land's Heavenly Empress, consort to the Heavenly Emperor of the Nine Provinces. Who are you to stand before me without bowing?"
She refused to concede.
But after calming down, her approach was comparatively restrained.
She wanted Eresh to bow to her.
"Hm? The Heavenly Empress?"
Eresh's eyes widened. She looked at Rovi, then at Yu Mei-ren, blinking her red eyes.
"I... Mm."
She drew a deep breath and gathered her courage.
"I am the goddess of Mount Li and... the wife of Qin's Azure Heaven."
The Heavenly Empress was Heaven's consort.
Yet the goddess of Mount Li was the legitimate spouse worshiped by Great Qin, a counterpart whose standing was equal to Heaven itself.
One held her position in Heaven.
The other held hers within Human Order.
Strangely enough, their official standing was entirely equal.
And so they stared at each other, neither knowing who should bow to whom...
"I am Rovi's lover."
"So am I."
"No, you aren't! E-Even if you are, you still come after me, because I met Rovi before you did!"
"Hmph. So what? I've lived longer than you, and I'm stronger than you now!"
"H-Huh? How much longer?"
"At least... several tens of thousands of years."
"Then... y-you're an old hag?"
Eresh spoke cautiously. She was still unused to competing with others.
But her words struck Yu Mei-ren with devastating force.
"..."
But words were still only words.
From beginning to end, Eresh never moved far from Rovi, and Yu Mei-ren once again gripped his hand tightly.
Neither had forgotten her objective.
Both wanted to claim the foremost place at Rovi's side.
Which of them would get to form a party with Rovi?
That remained their goal.
But clearly, fighting would accomplish nothing.
And so Eresh tried to kiss Rovi again, only for Yu Mei-ren to beat her to it. The young woman pressed her lips against his and molded her entire body to him, her soft figure swaying slightly.
Eresh made a frustrated little sound.
"..."
Rovi glanced to the side.
Wuzhiqi had already hidden beneath the sea, though her white-furred head had secretly surfaced, one eye darting back and forth.
The stone monkey girl also stood frozen in place, only murmuring in confusion after a long silence.
Yu Mei-ren finally parted her lips from Rovi's, looking unbearably pleased with herself.
Eresh appeared even more troubled.
But at that exact moment, both women sensed the way their divine statuses overlapped.
"I forgot to tell you," Rovi finally said slowly. "At present, I do not require a consort deity."
"I am Taiyi of Chaos. Chaos is nameless, with yin and yang united as one."
"Therefore, I am both the Heavenly Emperor and the Heavenly Empress—both 'Heaven' and its 'Emperor.'"
Had they been fighting for nothing?
"N-No!"
Yu Mei-ren was the first to spot the problem.
"You truly embody both yin and yang, but yin and yang are further divided into Great Yin and Great Yang! You possess only the yin and yang of Great Yang!"
"If I become the yin and yang of Great Yin, there is still a chance!"
She was, of course, correct.
Rovi could govern all yin and yang, but he was ultimately male. Therefore, he would manifest only as Great Yang. That was the choice made by his consciousness.
"In other words, if I claim that position first, I can formally secure the leading role!"
"Even if this is one of your schemes, that opportunity is mine!"
Yu Mei-ren grew excited.
She immediately knew Rovi was telling the truth and understood that he had only said it to stop their argument.
Yet the opportunity hidden within his words was something neither woman could refuse.
This was an overt stratagem.
What did a temporary victory or defeat matter?
What Yu Mei-ren wanted was a lasting place beside Rovi!
And this was unquestionably an opportunity.
She only had to take one more step.
Just one more step...
"I'll soon reach the place where I can truly stand beside you. Just you wait!"
Yu Mei-ren raised her head again and left those words beside Rovi's ear.
Wuzhiqi looked puzzled.
"Hm? Why did she leave?"
"She went into seclusion," Rovi said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Yu Mei-ren had vanished in an instant.
Though she could not fly, as the Golden Mother, she possessed the sharpness of Metal. She had pierced through space itself and departed.
Rovi saw the Qin heartland within the pass, where the doors of Donghua Palace slammed shut. Yu Mei-ren ran excitedly into its depths to "cultivate."
She intended to fully assimilate the White Emperor's Saint Graph she had obtained earlier.
Eresh, having only just entered the Divine Land, did not understand the principles of yin and yang. But driven by her refusal to lose to Yu Mei-ren or surrender Rovi to her, she also walked over to his side.
"Then I'll go assimilate the power of this Saint Graph too... R-Rovi."
This time, she did not kiss him.
Rovi bent down first and captured her lips. Their lips and teeth remained joined, reluctant to part.
After a moment, they separated.
Eresh lowered her head, her face filled with embarrassment.
Rovi stroked her head, his fingers passing through her golden hair.
"I'll explain everything to you clearly."
"You already have. I understand what you mean, Rovi."
Eresh nodded firmly.
"That is why I will not lose."
No—you don't understand.
Rovi still wanted to say something, but Eresh vanished in the next instant, returning to the Underworld of Mount Li she had just established.
She left with a face full of shyness and determination.
No matter how many times she experienced such things, she seemed unable to hide her embarrassment.
Rovi paused but did not stop her.
Next...
He would visit them in turn and explain everything.
No concealment. No evasion. Only complete honesty.
Matters of the heart could never tolerate deception. Though Rovi could manipulate the human heart, he had no desire to dishonor humanity itself.
Rovi flicked his sleeve.
The East Sea remained as vast as ever. He watched the two goddesses depart one after the other while moonlight fell and mist rose from the water.
Wuzhiqi slipped away.
As she was only an offshoot, she instantly returned her consciousness to her true body.
"Huh? Where did everyone go?"
When the stone monkey girl finally came back to herself, she found only Rovi standing before her upon the vast sea.
Rovi smiled.
"You're the stone monkey, correct? Do you have a name?"
"Hm?"
The stone monkey girl blinked.
---
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