Gu Junshi was indeed somewhat shocked by what Cheng Hong said.
In her previous world, women often joked that it would be great if men could experience the pain of pregnancy and childbirth, so they wouldn't undervalue the sacrifices women made in the family.
But everyone knew such a thing was impossible, and men would never be willing to do it.
But what if someone was willing to do it... selflessly?
She had never considered these "what ifs" before.
She suddenly felt like the scumbag husbands in those women's stories, who didn't cherish their "devoted wives" for bearing them children, but rather had always treated them coldly and harshly.
The icy air dropped another degree, and time itself seemed to freeze under the chilling current.
It was uninhibited, disregarding the lives of others, indulging in its ruthless cruelty.
Everyone's breathing choked, and they fell from the air, unable to hold on. Their eyebrows, eyelashes, and hair were covered in frost, frozen still. Only their eyeballs stared stiffly and nervously at the figure in the dark night sky.
Like prisoners awaiting judgment.
Gu Er wasn't afraid of the cold; he was a drought demon. As "clear snow" fell, he tilted his head, his eyes fixed on Gu Junshi. Snow covered his face and body.
It didn't melt into his body, only accumulated on his surface.
The sky near the horizon was a crimson, signifying the power of the Demon God. The pitch-black eternal night showed a trace of faint purplish-blue. His robes swayed, and in the wind, his slender jade bones were enveloped by rippling layers of blue flames, seemingly fragile and flying.
That was where Gu Junshi was, the only striking presence in the sky.
"Sister..."
What had she been saying earlier?
What were the Demon God and the Buddha's Son talking about?
"Who exactly are you..."
A soft, bewildered, and fragile murmur, yet it was a silent cry that made Gu Chuhao's entire soul tremble.
Gu Junshi, who had remained still amidst the "clear snow," finally lifted her face.
She first let out a light laugh, then felt she couldn't really laugh.
Her serene eyes, like the sky after snow clearing, with thin white clouds, were filled with the faint light of dawn.
She spoke, "Remarkable. You have indeed changed my mind."
As soon as she finished speaking, she gently waved her hand. The white snow falling from the eternal night all turned to ash, then darkened and transformed into black, shimmering stardust, slowly falling onto the frozen bodies of everyone below.
This time, it wasn't an icy chill, but rather the comfortable and warm feeling of the sun on the skin in winter.
They were overjoyed to have survived.
Many couldn't understand: "Why? Why did she change her mind?"
Although Gu Junshi's decision not to destroy the world made Cheng Hong, Dan Ya, and the others breathe a sigh of relief, they then felt a pang of bittersweet sadness, thinking that if everything was just because Cheng Hong had used Liu Jiang Fusheng as a favor to touch her last trace of softness, it made their hearts ache with bitterness.
She had affection, but not much.
She could be soft-hearted, but only this once.
The Human Emperor leaped up, his black wings unfurled, and stood behind her.
"Although she killed Liu Jiang Fusheng, it doesn't mean she was without affection for him. On the contrary, if she had no affection for him, what difference would killing him be from killing anyone else?"
Killing her husband to achieve enlightenment; the more love, the more killing.
The Human Emperor's words finally cleared their confusion, but it didn't mean they could understand this. In ancient times, there were also cases of killing wives to achieve enlightenment, but most of them were hypocritical individuals deceiving themselves, severing worldly affections for self-satisfaction.
At this moment, compared to the relief and excitement of others who had escaped death, the Demon God's side had completely lost their reason. Seeing everything proceed to their satisfaction, only to fail at the last moment, wasn't this like being toyed with?!
"Sentimentalist! This was your only chance, and you chose to give it up for someone you abandoned. I thought you were exceptionally intelligent, but now you seem utterly foolish!"
The thunderclouds gathered strength, rolling in densely from afar. The black, curtain-like sky appeared unstable, as if it would be torn apart at any second.
Gu Junshi removed the coronet from her head and tossed it backward. Instantly, the bead curtain transformed into a pillar of light, blocking everyone. The coronet covered the sky and earth, enveloping the entire Fengdu City within her protective domain.
She turned back, her lapel-collared, wide-sleeved robes fluttering like clouds and immortals. Air currents from all directions surged around her.
"Everything I do, I do, and I say, is solely according to my heart. Those I owe, I will eventually repay. If my husband wished to protect this world forever, I, his wife, shall inherit that wish. How can I let him die with his eyes open?"
She was ruthless, and her words held no remorse, yet she could also appear deeply affectionate.
These unreserved words of great ambition, spoken for Liu Jiang Fusheng, brought back memories of the past for the disciples of the Dayen Sect.
The Grand Mountain Masters, Fang Rui, and Dan Ya, and others who knew of Gu Junshi, had doted on Liu Jiang Fusheng when Gu Junshi was still just a somewhat special "mortal."
Her affection for him was never the gentle care of a typical wife, but rather an inhuman, self-absorbed partiality.
She was intelligent and could earn considerable spirit stones through her own abilities, but she herself appeared in plain clothes and wooden hairpins every day, while her husband had to be resplendent. What others had, he must have, and even more.
Thinking of this, their feelings were complex and filled with emotion.
If even someone heartless and unrighteous could achieve this, it was no wonder Liu Jiang Fusheng, knowing the path ahead was a dead end, ultimately fell into her hands.
It wasn't that his will was weak; it was that the opponent gave him too much.
The Demon God's patience with Gu Junshi had reached zero. It transformed its rage into thorny tendrils as thick as flood dragons, shooting out abruptly. A gust of wind roared, and a black hole resembling the character "mouth" appeared in the sky.
The heavens and earth seemed to be covered by a giant gauze curtain. Black mist rushed forward, demonic energy mutated, and those who had just started to feel better were now dizzy and their heads were about to explode.
At the same time, the earth's crust was pierced by countless demonic energy blades and began to crack, forming deep, long, narrow ravines. The depths below were red and scorching, with flames spitting fire.
Seeing the cracks widening, almost reaching the earth's core, she immediately brought her index and middle fingers together and pressed them between her eyebrows.
Instantly, a beam of blue and white light shot out.
"Tai Yin ยท Bei Ming โ Ice Seal."
A massive magic formation vibrated outwards, then all converged into a ring around Gu Junshi. It then stirred up the black wind swirling in the sky.
These winds gained a life-like force. As they swept across the land and mountains, they transformed into the graceful forms of snow spirits. Wherever they passed, they froze the cracking mountain ranges and earth's crust, and the erupting magma solidified into rock formations shaped like hills.
Affected by the immortal energy, Gu Junshi was surrounded by a frosty white glow. Her face was as bright as the moon god, and her voice was chillingly cold: "Demon God, do not be too arrogant. You emerged early from your prison, like an infant born prematurely, lacking innate strength. Moreover, having been weakened several times, your divine power is less than half. If you wish to destroy heaven and earth, you may still lack the heat."
"Gu Junshi! You are the one who is too arrogant. I, this Demon God, will make you witness firsthand that the gap between immortal and god is not something you can bridge with careful calculation."