My Immortal Venerable Went Mad After I Helped Him Through His Love Tribulation

Only as her life and soul faded away did Lianhua vaguely remember that she had once been a red lotus growing in the Jade Dew Pool on the Ninth Heaven. To repay Immortal Venerable Lingyuan for watering her, she had secretly followed him down to the mortal realm to undergo tribulation.

Lianhua was reborn as the youngest prince of the Yong Kingdom. Her parents and elder brothers spoiled her rotten. She had no interest in the stars or the moon, but somehow fell for Song Qin, a hostage prince confined to the cold palace for years.

Song Qin knew poetry and etiquette, riding and archery, and had an exceptionally handsome face that left her utterly smitten. As dusk fell beneath the rising moon, Song Qin stood before her in pale moon-white robes, wearing a half-smile. He held out his left hand, a snow-white pear blossom in his palm.

Young love asks nothing of the consequences or the cost. She truly believed they could love each other like any ordinary young couple, until she saw with her own eyes the Song Qin she had risked her life to help escape leading an army to the gates of her city.

At first, Lianhua could not understand why Song Qin had become someone she no longer recognized, or why he could be so merciless as he forced her father, mother, and brothers to take their own lives, and watched her be pierced by a thousand arrows.

Now she understood. Song Qin was the reincarnation of Immortal Venerable Lingyuan. Everything they had experienced in the mortal world, whether childhood affection, vows of eternal love, or the blood she shed and bitter tears she wept for him, had been nothing more than the love tribulation Immortal Venerable Lingyuan had to endure.

And now, Immortal Venerable Lingyuan had successfully passed his tribulation and remained the supreme sage revered by all immortals, his heart a flawless crystal mirror, never touched by worldly dust. As for the missing red lotus in the pool, how could he notice such a trifling thing?

*

A thousand years later, Chongli, the last surviving ancient god of the age, awoke from a long slumber, and all the immortals rejoiced. Ever since returning from his tribulation, Immortal Venerable Lingyuan had been trapped by inner demons. It was said that Divine Lord Chongli could cleanse all evil and filth. If he and the Immortal Venerable fulfilled their betrothal and their souls became one, the Immortal Venerable would surely recover.

Chongli met his childhood betrothed beside the River of the Dead. He heard that for a thousand years, Lingyuan had been searching desperately for the soul of a red lotus. The river had eaten away at his golden body until it was riddled with holes, his white bones exposed.

“Lotuses are plants. When they die, their souls return to heaven and earth. You won’t find it,” Chongli couldn’t help saying, trying to dissuade him.

Lingyuan looked up. The moment his eyes met Chongli’s, he slowly smiled, mad and obsessed.

“Isn’t this... the one I found?”

Theme: The world stretches as far as the eye can see, yet it is better to cherish the person before you