Ye Xia opened her eyes to a soft, diffused light. The first thing she saw was Mo, asleep in a chair beside her bed, his head resting on his arms. He looked older, the weight of the past month etched into his face.
She tried to speak, but only a dry croak emerged. The sound was enough. Mo's eyes flew open. The shock, the hope, the overwhelming relief that flooded his face was a more potent elixir than anything Liam could concoct.
Her recovery was slow. Her body was weak, and her cultivation base was shattered. The vast ocean of Qi she had painstakingly built was gone, leaving her feeling hollow and fragile. But the spark was there. And the system, though dormant, was still present, a silent observer waiting for its host to be whole again.
As she regained her strength, she learned the full extent of what had happened. The Necro-Soul Sect was a forgotten nightmare. Jin Long, seeing the writing on the wall after the Sigma crisis and Ye Xia's perceived "illness," had entered into a tense but stable détente, focusing his empire on legitimate enterprises. The Mo Matriarch, her power base weakened by Mo's independent actions during the pandemic, had been effectively sidelined by a coalition of younger family members who saw the future in the Yun-Mo alliance.
The world had moved into a new era of cooperation, a reluctant global peace forged in the crucible of a shared crisis. Ye Xia and Mo were hailed as visionary leaders, their past ruthlessness forgiven in light of their salvation of humanity.
But Ye Xia felt disconnected from the accolades. She had faced the void and understood the true cost of power. The desire for revenge, for dominance, had been burned out of her. What remained was a profound gratitude for the simple fact of being alive, and a deep, quiet love for the man who had refused to let her go.
One evening, as they watched the sunset from her sanctuary's terrace, Mo turned to her. "The world thinks we're heroes. They want to give us medals."
"I don't want a medal," Ye Xia said, leaning her head against his shoulder.
"I know," he replied. "So I was thinking… let's give them something else to talk about. Let's give them a wedding."