Chapter 80: Thunder Tribulation & True Love

Liao Tingyan bolted upright in the darkness, her heart pounding. The mountain peach blossom branch stood in its vase beside the bed, a silent witness to her sudden clarity. She reached out and shook Sima Jiao awake without mercy.

"You remembered everything and still made me transform into an otter for your amusement?! And pretended to be a snake spirit to tease me?!"

Sima Jiao didn't open his eyes. He merely hushed her with a hoarse murmur, pulling her back down against his chest. His hand moved in soothing circles against her back, his face buried in her hair.

"Go back to sleep," he whispered.

Liao Tingyan shook her head frantically, her hair whipping across his face until he finally stirred fully awake. He had no choice but to release her, lying flat and pinching the bridge of his nose while glancing at her sideways.

Hah, Liao Tingyan thought with satisfaction. It feels wonderful to wake someone in the middle of the night. Revenge may not come immediately, but it arrives at exactly the right moment.

"Why don't you..." Sima Jiao's voice was low and suggestive, "sit on top of me and shake?"

"Ugh—" Liao Tingyan made a disgusted sound. "Who wants to roll around in bed with you!"

In one fluid motion, Sima Jiao sat up. "Fine, then I'll do it." He pounced, pinning her to the mattress, then rolled them over once.

What are you doing?! Liao Tingyan's eyes went wide.

After several more rolls, they came to a stop. Liao Tingyan blew the hair from her face, wondering if Sima Jiao's mind had gone strange again. Rolling around in bed in the middle of the night?

"May I ask what you're doing?" she demanded.

"Naturally," Sima Jiao replied with perfect innocence, "rolling around in bed."

Liao Tingyan recalled the infamous "fish touching" incident from long ago, and her expression turned fierce. With a burst of strength, she rolled back, clutching his waist. "Fine. Let's roll!"

Outside, the palace attendants standing guard heard the commotion and exchanged knowing glances. The Emperor and Noble Consort... tsk tsk tsk, how passionate.

The two tumbled like children at play for several turns, scattering bedsheets and pillows across the floor. Liao Tingyan's head knocked against the bed frame. Sima Jiao's hand shot out to block the wall, ending their childish game. His palm cradled the back of her head as he lowered his face to kiss her cheek.

"Enough. Shall we sleep?"

What was I just doing? Liao Tingyan wondered. Why is it that whenever I get angry now, I'm suddenly infected by his silliness? Is this man poisonous?

Seeing her expression, Sima Jiao smiled. Liao Tingyan felt the vibration in his chest. Her nose tickled, and she nuzzled against him to scratch it.

After that innocent gesture, she noticed Sima Jiao's expression shift into something decidedly less innocent. His fingers moved to open her collar, brushing against the sensitive skin of her neck.

"Fine. We'll sleep later."

Then they rolled around in bed in an entirely different sense. Unlike the earlier chaos of kicked pillows and scattered blankets, this was quiet and tender. During such moments, Liao Tingyan would wonder if Sima Jiao truly had been a snake spirit in some past life—his close, silent entanglement made her tremble and breathless.

"Hiss—" She drew in a sharp breath, clutching his shoulders, hearing his slight panting and soft laughter by her ear.

"Yes, I remembered. But what does that have to do with me wanting to see an otter?"

Pinch his butt! Liao Tingyan thought furiously.

---

Later, when Liao Tingyan asked him again how much he remembered, Sima Jiao only said, "I've remembered everything I should remember."

Liao Tingyan didn't press the matter further, but she followed him like a shadow. Wherever Sima Jiao went, she went too. Occasionally, Sima Jiao would deliberately slip away alone, then watch with leisurely amusement as she came hurrying after him.

"Ancestor! Don't go too far from me!"

Every time she saw that expression on his face—the one that seemed to say I really can't do anything about this clingy little spirit—she would feel irritated, as if she had the worst case of PMS, and couldn't help shouting at him.

"Ancestor! Have some self-awareness, will you?!"

Sima Jiao seemed surprisingly fond of watching her transform into an irritable slacker. Only after he'd had his fill would he ask, "What self-awareness?"

Liao Tingyan was practically infuriated. She walked over quickly, her face stern. Just as she was about to speak, Sima Jiao reached out and scooped her up, lifting her by the thighs in a way that nearly made her fall head-first. She leaned forward against him as he carried her toward the stone steps, still covered with their thick layer of snow.

Liao Tingyan, who returned to normal after just three seconds of irritation, wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Aren't you afraid at all?"

It was the same path as before. Sima Jiao carried her upward, his pace neither fast nor slow. "What is there to fear?"

Liao Tingyan remained silent for a long moment, then spoke as if to herself. "At the beginning, you were trapped in the Gengchen Immortal Mansion. Later, when you managed to escape, you probably paid a considerable price. I didn't understand then, but later I figured it out."

"That time we fled from the Gengchen Immortal Mansion, you nearly died. The pill you took had such a miraculous effect—thinking about it now, completely healing your injuries must have come at a price. What was that price?"

"Afterward, you almost wiped out the entire Shi clan and so many top cultivators at the Gengchen Immortal Mansion. To kill them, what did you sacrifice? Did your spirit fire begin to lose control from that point? During those years in the demon realm, they said you were bloodthirsty, often burning people to ashes for no reason. Was it because you could no longer control it?"

He was the type of person who, even when dying from pain or severe injuries, would never let anyone see the slightest sign of weakness, always maintaining an appearance of having everything under control.

"You told me before that heaven wanted to destroy the Sima clan, and you were the last one, so you were certain to die."

He had struggled, and ultimately chosen to give his life to her. His self-sacrifice was almost out of character.

"You should have died, but I—I forced your divine soul back. Your suffering should have ended seventeen years ago..."

If it had been that way, he wouldn't have become the current Emperor, wouldn't have had this broken country, wouldn't have encountered these endless natural disasters. If it were just that, she could protect him. But when he once again embarked on the path of immortal cultivation, without the spirit fire and the Sima bloodline, could he still defy heaven and earth?

Could she protect him from heaven's punishment? If she couldn't protect him, how could she bear to watch him struggle bitterly in this world?

"Sima Jiao... I'm useless. Even though you went to great lengths to leave the spirit fire to me, I'm not as powerful as you. I'm afraid I can't protect you. If I forcibly kept you here only to make you suffer a painful death again, why would I insist on that?"

Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. So, wouldn't just these few decades of peace and happiness be enough?

Sima Jiao carried her up the stone steps, then suddenly laughed aloud.

Look at this tragic atmosphere, Liao Tingyan thought with exasperation. Can you not break character at this moment? Can you respect my inner pain a little?

"You've misunderstood one thing," Sima Jiao said.

"What?"

"If I had been determined to perish completely, you wouldn't have been able to 'forcibly keep' my divine soul."

After a moment of stunned silence, Liao Tingyan suddenly understood. She leaned back, staring at Sima Jiao's face in disbelief. "You..."

Sima Jiao's face showed a smile she knew well—the same smile he had worn seventeen years ago when he began burning before her. A smile that revealed his understanding of everything, that everything had been within his expectations.

But only now did she truly understand.

"That was a choice I gave you. If you were willing to endure the pain because you wanted me to stay, I would stay. If you didn't love me that much, I would also willingly let my divine soul serve as a guiding light for you." Sima Jiao said it casually, as if discussing the weather. "After all, what I've given to you, you can use however you wish."

"It's the same now."

Liao Tingyan recalled the scene when she separated Sima Jiao's divine soul from the spirit fire. It had indeed been easier than she'd imagined.

She suddenly felt a hateful ache in her teeth and lowered her head to bite Sima Jiao's shoulder hard. It was the first time she had used such force. She quickly tasted blood in her mouth. Sima Jiao didn't even grunt—he burst out laughing.

"You see, if you want me to stay, want me to accompany you longer, I can do that. And actually, I don't need your protection."

As he spoke, he had already reached the wild pavilion in the mountains they had visited before.

Sima Jiao tilted his head slightly, stroking Liao Tingyan's hair. "Alright, let go."

He set Liao Tingyan down beneath that mountain peach tree, holding onto a branch as he bent down to kiss her blood-stained lips. "So fierce. This is the first time I've seen you so fierce."

Liao Tingyan leaned against the trunk of the mountain peach tree, her head tilted back from his kiss. She saw Sima Jiao's pitch-black eyes, seemingly dancing with flames. She saw the tree above them suddenly transform as if a spring breeze had passed through, melting the white snow. Countless pink mountain peach blossoms burst into bloom on the withered branches.

She heard thunder. Her hand gripping Sima Jiao's collar tightened.

Sima Jiao grasped her hand and raised his head, his red lips curving upward. "Stay here and watch me pass through this thunder tribulation."

He was going to pass through a thunder tribulation? Why hadn't she noticed that he had reached a point requiring a thunder tribulation?

Was there something concealing her perception, or even hiding heaven's mechanism?!

Liao Tingyan nearly rushed after him when he stood up and stepped back, but Sima Jiao pressed her back with one hand.

"Watch quietly."

He stood sideways, looking up at the sky. Liao Tingyan's vision blurred for a moment, as if she saw the ancestor who had stood outside the high tower at Three Saints Mountain, facing a group of Gengchen Immortal Mansion cultivators.

Liao Tingyan's pupils suddenly contracted. A ball of fire appeared in Sima Jiao's hand. It wasn't his previous red color, but colorless, with only a hint of blue at the edges. The fire was small, but as soon as it appeared, the surrounding temperature rose instantly. With the collapsed wild pavilion as the center, the snow in this mountain forest rapidly melted, as if in fast-forward motion. Fuzzy green grass grew from the ground, and the surrounding trees began to turn lush.

This was... spirit fire? Why did he still have spirit fire, and why was it this color?

Liao Tingyan was full of questions. Sima Jiao looked at her and said, "This is the fire you lit for me."

This was a newly born spirit fire, cultivated by the Shi clan using the flesh and blood of the Fengshan clan, which had led to his body's rapid collapse after he integrated it. Now, however, after merging with the spirit fire and being refined by the flesh and blood of the last Sima clan member, it had been ignited by the spark of spirit fire in Liao Tingyan, becoming a completely new spirit fire that could continuously grow.

This was what he had envisioned as the best outcome. He had won his gamble.

Thunder fell repeatedly, each time reluctantly dissipating. The spirit fire in Sima Jiao's hand returned to his body. His body, which had been full of spiritual energy just moments ago, became pure in aura again after integrating with the spirit fire, seeming like that of an ordinary mortal. Liao Tingyan couldn't detect anything unusual.

He flicked his sleeve, brushing away the dust on his body, walked to Liao Tingyan, and extended his hand to her. "Let's go. Time to head back."

Liao Tingyan looked at him in bewilderment.

Sima Jiao shook the flowering branch, showering her with blossoms.

Liao Tingyan came back to her senses. "Can you stay with me for a long time?"

"As long as you want."

"Then, I don't need to be afraid?"

"I told you long ago there's nothing to fear."

"So you deliberately explained nothing and watched me panic over you?"

Sima Jiao paused. "...No."

Liao Tingyan understood. "Words are useless! Dog thief, prepare to die! Take this!"

She leaped up. Sima Jiao dodged sideways, caught her wrist, and kissed it. "Why are you angry again?"

Without hesitation, Liao Tingyan grabbed his hair. "I'm going to teach you today that keeping everything from your wife will eventually result in domestic violence! Did you think I wouldn't hit you?! Ah!"

If she didn't beat him while he hadn't yet recovered his peak strength, she wouldn't be able to do so in the future.

"Ouch—" Sima Jiao protested.

The Emperor was pressed against the tree and beaten. The beautiful mountain peach tree lost all its flowers from their shaking.

Sima Jiao was randomly pressed against the tree by her. Just as he was about to turn and grab her hands, he heard her crying loudly while kicking his legs, so he wearily leaned back against the tree.

Never mind. Let her kick until she's satisfied. It doesn't hurt much anyway.

Sima Jiao—an old dog who could die for Liao Tingyan but absolutely couldn't understand why she was crying so hard right now.

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