Chapter 1910: Purple Radiance

The Cloud Emperor’s arrival was no small matter.

The Ice Phoenix Divine Sect immediately buzzed with excitement. Elders and Palace Masters rushed to greet them, but before they could even kneel in reverence, Yun Che and Yun Wuxin had already vanished. They had entered the Ice Phoenix Sacred Domain directly, leaving everyone to stare at each other in bewilderment.

Upon entering the Ice Phoenix Sacred Domain, the familiar scent of ice and snow greeted them. Before them, a beautiful figure, like an ice immortal, slowly approached.

“Such a stir, it could only be you two,” Mu Bingyun said with a smile, her icy gaze resting on Yun Wuxin.

“Palace Master Bingyun, it’s been a while,” Yun Che said, nodding with a smile. Whenever he saw Mu Bingyun, he felt a sense of peace and comfort, a feeling that persisted even after he became the Cloud Emperor.

Perhaps it was because her eyes, though the color of ice, always held a watery softness.

Yun Wuxin took a small step forward and bowed formally to Mu Bingyun. “Junior disciple Yun Wuxin of the Ice Cloud Immortal Palace greets Great Ancestor Master.”

Mu Bingyun paused, slightly surprised, then shook her head with a faint smile. “There’s no need for that,” she said. “The Mu Bingyun of the Ice Cloud Immortal Palace ‘passed away’ a thousand years ago. The person I am now belongs only to the Snow Song Realm and has no ties to that past. You don’t need to call me Great Ancestor Master.”

“Then…” Yun Wuxin looked up. “Can I call you Little Auntie?”

That single question made Mu Bingyun, who rarely showed much emotion, smile faintly. “Of course. My sister is your father’s Imperial Consort, so naturally, I am your Little Auntie.”

Yun Che silently marveled at her ability to seamlessly switch between the two titles.

Her gaze then turned to Yun Che. “She is indeed the Cloud Emperor’s daughter; quite endearing.”

“Palace Master Bingyun,” Yun Che said, “please just call me as you used to. While I’ve grown accustomed to the title ‘Cloud Emperor,’ hearing it from you feels quite unnatural.”

Yun Wuxin subtly glanced sideways, a question in her eyes.

“...Very well,” Mu Bingyun said, giving a gentle nod.

“Little Auntie,” Yun Wuxin suddenly chirped, “You’re even more beautiful than I imagined! No wonder Father always told me you looked like a fairy.”

Yun Che’s brow twitched in confusion. *When had he ever said that!?*

Mu Bingyun stood frozen, momentarily unsure how to react.

“When we entered the Eastern Divine Region, Father mentioned it had been a year since he saw Little Auntie, and he was really missing… Ouch! That hurts!”

Yun Che slapped a palm onto Yun Wuxin’s head, and with a stern face, he asked, “Palace Master Bingyun, where is Xuanyin? Why isn’t she in the Sacred Domain?”

“She’s in seclusion,” Mu Bingyun replied, her demeanor still serene as a snow lotus, her eyes like a tranquil pool, as if completely unfazed by Yun Wuxin’s earlier remarks.

“Seclusion?”

“She is merely cultivating her soul and calming her mind, not seeking a breakthrough,” Mu Bingyun said softly. “She knew you would be arriving soon, so before she entered seclusion, she asked me to call her when you got here.”

“I will go call her out of seclusion now.”

“No need to trouble yourself,” Yun Che said, raising a hand. “I’ll take Wuxin to see her directly.”

“The cold in the depths of Mist Cloud Valley is too intense for Wuxin to bear,” Mu Bingyun said. “Since Wuxin is new here, perhaps you can show her around the Sacred Domain first.”

“Very well,” Yun Che conceded. “Thank you, Palace Master Bingyun.”

Facing Mu Bingyun, his demeanor still held the same respect and deference as before.

“By the way, how long do you and your daughter plan to stay in the Snow Song Realm this time?” Mu Bingyun asked.

Yun Che glanced at Yun Wuxin. “That will depend on Wuxin’s mood.”

“What I say doesn’t count anyway,” Yun Wuxin mumbled, rubbing her hair that her father had ruffled.

With a faint smile, Mu Bingyun walked away through the snow.

The moment Mu Bingyun’s aura receded, Yun Che’s face immediately hardened into a glare as he snarled, “You little brat! You’re getting utterly out of control!”

“I... wasn’t I helping Father?” Yun Wuxin asked, a look of injustice and timidity on her face.

“Do I need your help!?”

“Oh, that’s right,” Yun Wuxin nodded in profound agreement. “Father’s methods with women are so refined; he truly doesn’t need anyone else’s help.”

“That’s not what I meant! Hmph…” After his outburst, he let out a long sigh, wondering if he had spoiled his daughter along the way and how he would explain this to Chu Yuechan when they returned.

Yun Wuxin’s crescent eyebrows quirked upwards. “You’ve already made a move on my other Little Auntie anyway, so you can’t show favoritism.”

“Is that how ‘favoritism’ is used!?” Yun Che’s voice rose several octaves, and his eyes, glaring at her, widened even more.

Seeing Yun Che’s reaction, Yun Wuxin finally started to feel a bit scared, her voice softening slightly. “Father isn’t really angry, is he?”

She reached out and gently tugged her father’s sleeve. “I didn’t mean to upset you, it’s just... when Father talked about how he might never have another friend in his lifetime, he seemed so disheartened, so I thought, maybe this would make you a little happier... I truly didn’t mean to make you angry on purpose.”

His heart softened, and Yun Che’s stern look vanished instantly. He then threw his head back and burst into laughter. “Hahahaha, so it’s that easy to scare you! It seems I still have a father’s authority after all, hahahaha.”

With a forceful flick of her small hand, Yun Wuxin pulled away from Yun Che’s sleeve, turned her face, and muttered lowly, “How annoying! I knew it... How could Father really be angry over something like that! He’s probably secretly delighted, hmph!”

Just then, the sound of wind and snow in the Sacred Domain softened, and another ethereal, fairy-like female figure emerged from the snow.

Yun Wuxin turned her gaze towards the newcomer, and the moment she recognized the face, her lips parted involuntarily.

She approached Yun Che and Yun Wuxin, and stopped on the pristine snow. Looking at Yun Che, she spoke softly, “Should I call you Cloud Emperor, or Senior Brother Yun?”

The way she looked at him was the same as always. It didn’t matter if he was Yun Che, the Devil Master, or the Cloud Emperor.

Yun Che looked at her. “Fei Xue, of course, I’d still prefer to hear you call me Senior Brother Yun, or simply Yun Che.”

“Fairy Sister,” Yun Wuxin suddenly piped up. “It’s our first time meeting. I am Yun Wuxin.”

Yun Che silently noted: *She used that title too…*

Mu Fei Xue looked at Yun Wuxin, a hint of surprise in her eyes, her icy gaze clearly softening and deepening with a touch of complexity. “Unknowingly, Senior Brother Yun’s daughter has grown so much,” she mused. “Time flows silently, just like this eternal wind and snow—beautiful yet cruel.”

“But it seems only beauty has remained with Fei Xue,” Yun Che said with a faint smile.

Her beautiful eyes rippled slightly, and she seemed to smile. However, the smile on Mu Fei Xue’s flawless face was always faint, like the first snow that melts at a touch.

“I will leave you two father and daughter now.”

With that simple statement, her snowy form shifted gently, and she slowly departed.

Yun Wuxin’s gaze followed her retreating figure, remaining fixed until she was out of sight.

“She’s very much like your mother, isn’t she?” Yun Che said.

“Huh? Is she?” Yun Wuxin countered, surprised.

It was Yun Che’s turn to be surprised. “Then why were you staring at her so intently?”

Yun Wuxin stared at Yun Che for a moment, realizing his surprise seemed genuine. Then she asked, “Father, that Everlasting Image Stone you gave me, she gave it to you, didn’t she?”

“Uh…” Yun Che reached up and touched the tip of his nose. “Did your Auntie Qianying tell you that?”

“I also know that she likes you very much... *that* kind of very much.”

Yun Wuxin spoke these words very seriously, and with a subtle undertone of emotion.

“Your Auntie Qianying definitely didn’t tell you that,” Yun Che said with certainty.

Yun Wuxin’s gaze became a little odd. “Father, before you gave me the Everlasting Image Stone, you didn’t… by any chance… look at the profound image recorded inside, did you?”

Yun Che froze for a moment, then shook his head. “No,” he said. “I explicitly told her that I intended to give this Everlasting Image Stone to my daughter. After I received it from her, all I thought about was giving it to you as quickly as possible; I didn’t think about anything else.”

“Could it be that there’s still a profound image she recorded inside earlier?”

Yun Wuxin stomped her small foot forcefully in the snow. “Father, sometimes... you are a super big idiot!”

Yun Che stammered, “Uh...”

“Being overly romantic and promiscuous is detestable,” she declared, “but... disappointing someone so wonderful and so deeply devoted is even worse!”

Yun Wuxin took out the Everlasting Image Stone and slapped it directly into her father’s hand. “See for yourself... I’m going to go play by myself now!”

With that, Yun Wuxin spun around and darted towards the Sacred Hall, leaving her father alone to “reflect” properly.

“Wuxin, where are you going…?”

Yun Wuxin, however, paid him no mind, and in the blink of an eye, she had flown out of his sight.

Shaking his head, a mixture of exasperation and amusement on his face, Yun Che picked up the Everlasting Image Stone. Yun Wuxin’s reaction had certainly piqued his curiosity.

Profound energy surged within the stone. The Everlasting Image Stone contained numerous profound images: the ones Yun Wuxin recorded for him on her birthdays, which he had already seen; some casual daily recordings she had made; and many more images of Chu Yuechan and Feng Xue’er.

His divine sense quickly swept through the stone, stopping on the oldest profound image. He then projected it.

The image showed pure ice branches and ice crystals, the familiar cold almost spilling out of the projection. Yun Che recognized it instantly: it was a bedchamber within the Ice Phoenix Sacred Domain.

Slowly, the figure that emerged within the image was none other than Mu Fei Xue.

“Yun... Che…”

She gazed ahead, her beautiful eyes hazy as if veiled by icy mist, and whispered his name with her lips.

“Today marks the seven hundredth day since news of your death arrived…”

“Just two short years, yet so hard to endure, so agonizing.”

Her jade-like lips murmured softly, each word like a dream.

“I thought this amount of time would be enough to forget everything.”

“But... the cold wind still whispers your voice; the Heavenly Pond still reflects your silhouette; the vast world still carries your aura; and the snow falling into my palm is still so cold, wounding my soul.”

“When I return to my senses from my daze, it is still your name under my fingertips.”

The image continued to waver... Only then did Yun Che suddenly notice that the ice tables, ice walls, ice coral, and ice branches within the room were densely covered, piece by piece, with the name “Yun Che.”

An unspeakable tremor arose in Yun Che’s heart, accompanied by an even deeper pang of bitterness.

He knew Mu Fei Xue held feelings for him, but he had never imagined her devotion ran so deep.

He recalled every interaction he’d had with Mu Fei Xue, yet he couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment or action that had led to such profound feelings.

“Is this what the books describe as a love tribulation? No wonder they say: ‘A myriad of disasters are easily overcome, but a love tribulation is difficult to cross…’”

She closed her eyes, her luminous, snow-like fingertips gently tracing the name “Yun Che” she had carved. “I only regret that when you were within my sight, I was timid at every step, retreating at every turn.”

“If miracles exist in this world... I would no longer retreat awkwardly. I would look into your eyes and tell you that I am not your ‘little fairy.’ For an entire lifetime, I wish to be your Mu Fei Xue…”

The image faded.

This was the only image Mu Fei Xue had left within the Everlasting Image Stone.

Yun Che stood rooted to the spot, stunned for a very long time.

During his years in the Snow Song Realm, Mu Fei Xue had always gone to great lengths to avoid him. She never willingly appeared anywhere he was. This continued even up to the Profound God Convention.

After his supposed death in the Star God Realm, and his subsequent rebirth and return to the Snow Song Realm three years later, her demeanor towards him had undergone a drastic transformation.

Mu Fei Xue had suggested using the Everlasting Image Stone as a gift for his daughter... and this very stone was a gift from her to him.

By this moment, how could he not understand that, back then, she had intended for him to see her deepest feelings through this Everlasting Image Stone?

But he had never examined the Everlasting Image Stone, giving it directly to Yun Wuxin instead.

When Yun Wuxin saw this image, she had no idea her father was unaware of its contents... even believing he had deliberately left it for her to see, perhaps as a subtle hint about another new “auntie.”

And afterward, Yun Che’s demeanor towards Mu Fei Xue remained exactly as before, completely unchanged… To Mu Fei Xue, this was undoubtedly the most blatant indifference to her heartfelt emotions.

Yun Che reached up and heavily slapped his own head.

How could he have been so foolish as to not even glance at the Everlasting Image Stone after receiving it from Fei Xue back then!?

It was easy to imagine the depth of loneliness and heartache that lay beneath Mu Fei Xue’s serene icy gaze and occasional faint smiles every time she faced him after that.

After a long while, Yun Che finally stopped his self-reproach. As he held the Everlasting Image Stone, his thoughts unintentionally brushed against the next profound image recorded within.

The image displayed Yun Wuxin, on the verge of turning fifteen.

“Hehe, Daddy, this is my first time using the Everlasting Image Stone you gave me, and I don’t know if the recording will look good. But whatever! I’m your own daughter, so even if it turns out really ugly, you’re not allowed to dislike it, hmph hmph.”

Looking at his daughter, who hadn’t quite shed her childish innocence yet, Yun Che involuntarily smiled.

“The three Luminous Sound Stones I gave you, Daddy, took me a very, very long time to make. You absolutely mustn’t damage them. If you accidentally do, your punishment will be to personally help me remake them… So it’s settled! This serves as proof; objections are invalid, hehe!”

“Honestly, how could I ever bring myself to damage them?” Yun Che chuckled to himself. “Your ‘punishment’ will never be realized.”

In the years since, he had overturned the world, endured countless tribulations and fierce battles. His body had suffered innumerable wounds, yet the three-colored Luminous Sound Stones he always wore around his neck had never suffered even the slightest scratch.

His spiritual sense moved again. He was no stranger to the third image; Yun Wuxin had shown it to him on her twentieth birthday.

It was the celestial phenomenon that occurred when disaster struck years ago, during the transfer of the Azure Cloud Continent from the east of the Eastern Divine Region to the south of the Southern Divine Region.

Although the phenomenon was brief, Yun Wuxin had casually recorded it using the Everlasting Image Stone.

Although he had already seen it and clearly remembered the image, Yun Che still projected it forth.

The sky trembled, space quivered, and clouds dispersed. A rich crimson divine light rapidly spread, instantly covering the entire sky as far as the eye could see...

The scene was exactly as he remembered. Yun Che swiped a finger, dismissing it.

But just as the image vanished, Yun Che’s gaze subtly shifted.

Because for a fleeting moment, his eyes indistinctly caught a sudden flash of purple light.

The purple flash was incredibly fast and brief, far too fleeting for an ordinary person’s sight to register. Even Yun Che hadn’t noticed it the first time he watched the projection.

Even with his powerful spiritual perception, even at this moment, he felt it was more likely an illusion, a momentary flicker of misperception.