Wen Huai wakes up as the Demon Lord and is told to help his future lover graduate from the Heartless Path. The assignment specifically requires him to kill his wife to prove his Dao.
He takes care of the affairs of the Demon Realm, then goes to the Immortal Academy to seek a teacher and study.
After becoming fellow disciples with his future lover, he starts dropping hints and pursuing him relentlessly. A long hundred years pass before the other man finally shows the slightest sign of giving in.
Wen Huai is overjoyed. He chooses his moment, takes his sword to the man's door, and pretends to have gone mad from cultivation, planning to "force himself on a man." In the ensuing struggle, he runs himself through the chest with his sword. With his last breath, he manages a bitter smile. Tears and words of love, half true and half false, then he vanishes into a wisp of black mist.
After faking his death, Wen Huai has nowhere to go, so he returns to the turbulent Demon Realm and spreads word that the Demon Lord has been slain by the greatest cultivator of the Immortal Way. Demons rise up everywhere.
He changes his voice, appearance, and name, eagerly preparing to make a comeback, but a man surrounded by immortal aura holds him back.
The man is taciturn. After helping him cut down the demon kings blocking his path, he quietly steps aside to wipe his sword and asks only, "Do you remember the osmanthus tree outside the Disciplinary Court? We once brewed osmanthus wine together."
Later, when Wen Huai is backed into a corner and can do nothing but give up, he claims to have lost his memory and forgotten everything. The other man simply says, quietly, "Then don't worry about remembering. Let's start over."
The graduation rate for the Heartless Path is extremely low. Three years after Wen Huai dies because he fails his mission, Ying Chen achieves enlightenment and ascends.
Inside the Soul-Returning Disk, he looks wistful and reluctant. "After all these years, I've finally completed the mission. So this really is goodbye."
"It's such a pity that the Demon Lord ultimately perished. And the High God became a widower, sitting sadly on the cliff every day."
"Oh, what a poor widower!"
"That's not all. I hear the High God gave up his divine rank and returned to the mortal world in exchange for bringing the Demon Lord back to life."
"And how did it turn out?"
"I doubt it ended well."
"Oh, what a poor widower!"
The widower stands up. The widower gets angry. The widower drags away his "late wife," who was pretending to be a storyteller.
_
Happy ending. The Soul-Returning Disk arc isn't too angsty. Come give it a try!
Theme: Don't lie.
