On the day Tianqi Yu wed, the Immortal Realm buzzed like a festival hive, lantern-red joy rising in waves. With the Emperor Immortal’s edict blazing ahead, even strangers gave him face.

He was the one the Emperor Immortal personally matched, a name stamped in gold. For that alone, every cultivator hurried to weave ties with Tianqi Yu, like cranes chasing a tailwind.

To keep Blue Magpie’s luck from spilling and to pour it cleanly into Tianqi Yu, they chose Yuelao’s Tree of Bonds for the wedding. Under that old god’s boughs, even bare hearts sprout feelings someday.

The Yuelao Temple was draped in big red lanterns, each glow like warm peaches in twilight. Pale gold rippled on the walls, and the misty shrine shed its mortal soot, wearing a gilt, extravagant sheen.

“Azure Crow Fairy, please get ready. The ceremony’s about to begin.” A maid in simple robes, Qinghe, urged softly beside Blue Magpie. “It wouldn’t do to keep Young Master Yu waiting.”

Tianqi Yu hadn’t even ascended yet. Still, True Lords and even High Immortals bowed to him today, like pines bending in a storm.

Blue Magpie sat quietly before the dressing mirror. Confusion welled first, heavy as fog at river dawn. Then she looked at her painted reflection. “Why am I marrying Tianqi Yu?” And where had her sister gone?

Three thousand strands of night-black hair fell to her shoulders, gathered by a crystalline lotus pin that tilted like moonlight in reeds. Her pearl teeth parted slightly. With her face perfected to a feast of beauty, even Qinghe’s heart fluttered.

“Because Young Master Yu carries great fortune,” Qinghe said, speaking from a simple heart, “and he can give you a happy life. And you—gentle and rare—you and he are a heaven-matched pair. Everyone will adore you.”

“Is that so...” Sadness pricked like cold rain under an eave. Happiness? What was that? She didn’t understand. She had always been clumsy at such things. In this world, only her sister had truly loved her.

“Then what kind of life counts as happiness?” Blue Magpie asked, drifting like a leaf unsure where to land.

“Uh...” Qinghe stalled, thoughts scattering like startled sparrows. She’d heard the cultivators say the Azure Crow Fairy was odd, but she hadn’t expected this. Still, she found herself liking the girl.

“A happy life is one that keeps a smile blooming on your face every day,” Qinghe said at last, offering a warm spring-breeze smile. “And with a future partner like Young Master Yu, surely it’ll be beautiful.”

“...Young Master Yu?” Blue Magpie echoed softly.

She looked back into the bronze mirror. A scarlet phoenix robe with gilt edges wrapped her like sunset fire. Gold-feathered phoenixes spread their wings across the fabric, so lavish they almost took flight. Even her once-childish charm now held a hush of mature allure.

Could a stranger grant such days, all smiles and sunlight? Shadows flickered behind her eyes, familiar as dreams, then vanished—swift as a startled swan’s white arc against the sky.

“Still thinking about that weak mortal sister of yours?”

The door banged open. In walked Chen Youxian, whom she hadn’t seen in days. Silver ribbons wrapped his arm like frost chains. Since she’d defeated him last time, his arm had stayed broken, unwilling to heal.

“Who let you in?” Qinghe’s willow brows knotted, distaste sharp as a blade. “The ceremony hasn’t started, and you’ve no business here. What are you doing barging in?”

“What’s it to you if I walk in?” Chen Youxian cut her a cold glance, voice like iced steel. “Remember your place. You’re a maid, nothing more. Even demoted by the Emperor Immortal, I’m still far above your scolding.”

“Aren’t you afraid Young Master Yu will hear of this and blame you?” Qinghe bit her lip, gaze steady. “Don’t forget, I’m a maid, yes—but the Azure Crow Fairy is his wife-to-be. Disrespect her, and you disrespect him.”

“Hahaha! He’s just a mortal riding a windfall of fate. So what if I disrespect him?” Chen Youxian laughed, a harsh crow on a winter branch. “And don’t tell me that mortal truly wants to marry a slow-witted woman. He’s only greedy for her luck.”

His eyes went cold. Immortal might burst from him like a mountain wind, slamming into Qinghe until she stumbled back three steps, breath knocked loose.

“Today’s the grand wedding set by the Emperor Immortal,” he said, words like stones. “I don’t like you two, but I’ll give face. Behave outside, or I won’t guarantee your days will sail smooth.”

He stared at Blue Magpie and Qinghe, lips curling in thin sneers. It was a deliberate slap on arrival, a warning nailed into the doorframe. Then he turned on his heel and left the temple. Qinghe worried his words had cut Blue Magpie, and reached to comfort her—only to meet a face as calm as still water.

“What is it?” Blue Magpie asked, the same mild confusion clouding her eyes. It was as if the meaning of his words had drifted past her like smoke.

“Ah... it’s nothing.” Qinghe bowed and mustered a small, unfussy smile. “There’s still time before the ceremony. Please rest here for now, Fairy. I’ll lend a hand outside.”

“Mm.” She watched Qinghe’s shadow slip through the door. Even she didn’t notice her own hands had clenched her phoenix robe tight at her thighs, knuckles pale, silk wrinkling like a strangled flower.

At the same time, at the Ascension Platform of the Immortal Realm.

“Eh... I heard today’s the Emperor Immortal’s gift of marriage... so why are we stuck guarding this cursed platform?” An armored cultivator grumbled to his partner, voice like a kicked bucket. “I wanted one look at the Azure Crow Fairy in her wedding finery...”

“Please. She’s about to be someone’s wife and you’re still pining.” His partner laughed and scolded, good-natured as spring rain. “High Immortal Changkong just ordered us to screen any new arrivals, remember?”

“Of course I remember... I just can’t get how the Demon Realm knew we found the Azure Crow Fairy.” The armored cultivator kept complaining, words clattering like loose mail. “We kept it airtight when we went down to seize her.”

“She is the Azure Crow Fairy—half Demon Realm by blood. It’s not strange they’d track her.” His partner slapped his shoulder, solid as a drumbeat. “If we do our job today and the demons don’t wreck the wedding, drinks are on me tomorrow.”

“Deal. You said it.” The armor rattled as the first man brightened, his gripes fading like mist. “Don’t you dare stick me with the tab.”

“Get outta here. What do you take me for?”

They were still joking when a black shadow whooshed up from the platform and landed before them like a thrown spear.

“Who goes there!” Reflex beat thought. The armored cultivator’s hand flew to his hilt; he spun, ready to draw—then froze at the sight of a cute child lying face-first on the stone.

It felt like someone had tossed her here, careless as dropping a pebble.

“A kid? Why’s there a kid here?” He probed the air and felt no ripple of Spirit Energy. Puzzlement pricked him like nettles.

A razor of black light flashed.

Before he could finish the thought, a jagged line opened across his partner’s throat. Hot blood sprayed his face, iron-scented and steaming.

Thud, thud...

A familiar head rolled to his boots, leaving a red snail-trail. His pupils tightened to needles, terror shooting through him like ice water.

“You—”

“You what? Save the nonsense. I’m here to crash the wedding. Where’s that idiot Tianqi Yu getting married?”

The broad edge of a battle-axe slammed down, cracking the stone like dry riverbed. Nana Toki stood on the platform, face cold as a winter moon, killing intent rising like black smoke.

His throat froze around ice splinters. Seeing her clearly, the armored cultivator’s limbs went numb, as if his strings had been cut.

Pop!

He didn’t even get the rest out. His head burst like an overripe watermelon, brain and blood painting the ground with a choking reek.

“Hey, hey, hey! Host, he hadn’t even spoken yet! What are you doing!” the System yelped, voice spiking several octaves after that up-close gorefest.

“Ah... my bad. I just got the controls back and I’m rusty. Slipped. Sorry.”

Nana Toki rubbed her temples, annoyed, not sparing the corpses a second glance. She wrenched the Black Great Axe free of the stone and stepped over the two headless bodies. “Fine. Let’s play tag like old times. As compensation, I’ll be ‘it.’”

System: “...” This System does not accept that as a sincere apology.