Shrouding the Heavens: Empress, I am truly not the Desolate Heavenly Emperor!

"Long, long ago, in a small mountain village, there lived a brother and sister who depended on each other for survival."

"My brother has no talent for cultivation and is considered a good-for-nothing in the village. My sister, however, is exceptionally intelligent and was chosen by a passing immortal to take her to a sacred place to cultivate."

The Empress slowly turned around.

Those once empty and indifferent eyes were now focused on Ye Chen's face. Although he remained expressionless, the previously raging void rifts around him had strangely quieted down.

Ye Chen didn't look at her, but stared at a point in the void, his eyes somewhat unfocused, as if he were truly lost in memories.

"The younger sister refused to leave. She clung to her brother's clothes, crying her heart out. She said, 'Wherever my brother is, I will be. I don't need to become an immortal, I just want my brother.'"

"But the brother knew he couldn't protect her. A mortal's lifespan is but a fleeting hundred years, while his sister's future lies in the stars and the sea."

"So, my brother did something."

Ye Chen's voice suddenly became choked up, and he swallowed.

The Empress subconsciously took half a step forward, her red lips slightly parted, as if she wanted to ask: What did you do?

"My brother put on a bronze mask."

Ye Chen raised his hand and gestured to his face as if he were wearing a mask. "That was a cheap toy he bought at the market. It looked like he was crying but not crying, and laughing but not laughing. He wore the mask, held a broom, and chased his sister out of the house."

He called her a burden, said she was delaying his marriage. He used the most vicious language to drive away the person he loved most in the world.

boom!

A terrifying aura erupted from the Empress, instantly engulfing the entire Peach Blossom Spring.

The old peach tree shook violently, and petals fell like rain.

She was angry.

She was grieving.

Because this plot, although written by Ye Chen, surprisingly overlapped with certain fragmented memories deep within her.

Ye Chen felt like a small boat in a storm, about to be shattered at any moment. But he gritted his teeth and didn't retreat a single step. Instead, he faced the oppressive force and raised his voice.

"My sister is gone. She kept turning back to look at me."

"She didn't know that the moment she turned around, her brother took off his mask. His face was already covered in tears."

"The brother called out to her retreating figure: 'Go! Cultivate the strongest magic, become the strongest immortal! Brother will wait for you here! Even if it takes ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years, brother will wait for you to return!'"

The wind stopped.

The Empress's aura vanished instantly. She stared blankly at Ye Chen, her eyes gradually reddening.

The woman, who was known as a "ruthless person," was as fragile as a sheet of paper at this moment.

"And then?"

She spoke. Her voice trembled, carrying a hint of tentative hope, "Brother...have you waited?"

This is the most crucial moment.

Alarm bells rang in Ye Chen's mind.

If this were a fairy tale, the ending would be a reunion of the siblings. But reality is cruel. If given a too-fake happy ending, the Empress, once she regains her senses, will immediately see through the lie.

To make her believe, you must make her suffer.

Pain is what's real.

Ye Chen lowered his head and remained silent for a long time.

As time went on, the hope in the Empress's eyes began to dim and turn into despair.

"My brother didn't wait for me."

Ye Chen's voice was terribly hoarse. "That year, the beast tide broke out. To protect our home and the agreed-upon place, my brother took a rusty iron sword and stood guard at the village entrance."

"He's just a mortal."

"But he didn't back down an inch."

"Because he was afraid that when his sister came back, she wouldn't be able to find her way home."

"In the end, he died under that old tree. He was still clutching the bronze mask tightly in his hand, his eyes fixed on the direction his sister had left, and he didn't close them until his death."

Dead silence.

The world was completely silent.

Ye Chen slowly raised his head, looked at the Empress, and said in an extremely gentle voice that seemed to transcend time and space, "However, his soul did not dissipate. He transformed into a wisp of obsession, drifting between heaven and earth."

"He kept searching and waiting."

"Until one day, he saw a peerless figure in white robes standing at the pinnacle of all paths."

He smiled.

He said, "Little girl, you've finally grown up."

After Ye Chen finished speaking, he quietly looked at the Empress.

He's gambling.

I'm betting that this last sentence will break through the last line of defense in her heart.

The Empress stood there, motionless.

Her gaze passed through Ye Chen, through Peach Blossom Spring, as if she saw the little girl from 200,000 years ago, crying and clutching her brother's clothes in front of the Yuhua Divine Dynasty's spaceship.

It was as if I could see that boy wearing a ghost mask, falling in a pool of blood.

"Not...for...becoming...an...immortal..."

She murmured to herself, her voice broken, "Only...to...wait...for...your...return...in...this...mortal...world..."

Two lines of clear tears slid down her exquisite face.

Those were not the tears of an ordinary person.

Those were the Emperor's tears.

It contains two hundred thousand years of longing, regret, loneliness, and spiritual wounds.

"despair."

The first tear fell into the dust at her feet.

There was no sound.

But the next second, something unexpected happened!

Om-!

The moment that tear fell to the ground, the land within a three-foot radius transformed into a crystal-clear, seven-colored glass.

The soil disappeared, and the rocks melted away.

Instead, there was a spring that was only the size of a washbasin, but its depth was unfathomable.

The spring water possessed a dreamlike amber hue, its surface shrouded in mist and vapor, with faint glimpses of dragons and phoenixes swirling within. A breathtakingly rich life force erupted instantly, instantly stimulating several ancient medicinal herbs nearby to flower and bear fruit!

"This is……"

Ye Chen's pupils contracted sharply.

These aren't tears! They're clearly a liquid nuclear reactor!

The energy contained in this tear is ten times more terrifying than that entire peach! This is a "divine object" born from the interaction between the Dao Fruit and the laws of heaven and earth under the extreme fluctuation of the Great Emperor's emotions!

[High-dimensional energy reaction detected! Emperor's Tears Divine Spring! Contains fragments of ultimate laws! Consuming it can rebuild one's foundation, or... cause instant death!]

The notification sounds in my mind kept flashing.

Ye Chen swallowed.

Can you drink this stuff?

If I drink it, won't I just turn into light?

Just then, the Empress seemed to snap out of her extreme grief.

She reached out and gently wiped away the tears on her cheeks.

The fragile, girlish demeanor vanished. In its place was a deeper, more elusive indifference.

But within this indifference, there seems to be a hint of... gentleness?

She glanced at the pool of divine spring water on the ground, then at Ye Chen, whose face was filled with shock.

"That was a good story."

Her voice returned to its cool tone, revealing no emotion, "Although it's still full of flaws, I like it very much."

Were you seen through?

Ye Chen felt a chill run down his spine. Sure enough, it was impossible to completely deceive an emperor. She simply chose to believe, or rather, chose to immerse herself in that fleeting moment of tenderness.

"Here's a reward for you."

The Empress pointed to the divine spring on the ground, her tone as casual as if she were dismissing a beggar, "In these tears lies my path, and also my wounds. If you can refine them, the spring of life will open on its own, and you may even forge an unparalleled foundation."

"If it cannot be refined..."

She smiled slightly, a smile that was exquisitely beautiful yet carried a chilling coldness.

"Then become a grain of sand at the bottom of this spring, and stay with me forever."

After saying that, she waved her long sleeves and disappeared into thin air, leaving only a faint fragrance of peach blossoms.

Ye Chen stood there, staring at the "Emperor's Tear Divine Spring" that was radiating terrifying energy, his expression slightly stiff.

This is hardly a reward.

This is clearly putting a knife to his neck and asking him how he wants to die!