The Path of Immortality for a Hundred Thousand Years

Emperor Ye Ziyang of the Purple Sun, supreme ruler of the heavens, had upheld the Dao for eons in the silent sea of stars and wandered alone through the dust of countless worlds. Long ago, he had seen through the seven emotions and six desires. Yet within his utterly pure Dao Heart lay a flaw born before the dawn of time. After countless lonely ages, it finally obstructed his path to becoming an Immortal Emperor. For a doomed and sorrowful entanglement in the mortal world, he willingly descended to the mortal realm for a thousand years. Across twelve cycles of reincarnation, he stayed by her side for more than twelve hundred years. She lived through prosperous eras and times of turmoil, through the warmth of daily life and the harshness of the elements. In every life, she was kindhearted, gentle, and good. He concealed his supreme immortal arts and suppressed his everlasting divine powers. In every life, he guarded her in silence, watching from afar as a stranger. But the Heavenly Dao was cruel, and immortals and mortals could never be together. The more he protected her peace, the more he drained her life force and spirit. Every choice was wrong; whether he stayed or let go, he was left with regret. Trapped in an unsolvable dilemma, he ensured she lived a complete and happy life in all twelve of her incarnations. In the Republic era, her mortal soul dispersed, and no trace of her remained in the six paths of reincarnation. The Immortal Emperor's Dao Heart shattered. He sealed himself away on Mount Mang and slept for eighty years. When he awoke, Jiang Yulang was gone from the world, leaving only the mortal youth Ye Qiu. He traveled throughout the land, seeking the lingering warmth of her scattered soul, lost for a thousand years. He found enlightenment in an ancient temple and finally let go of a thousand years of regret. Mu Die spent her life searching, then became a butterfly to stay by his side; her beloved understood at last in a dream, and wrote her a poem; Ye Lan stayed with him for a thousand years, never leaving his side; Bai Su watched from afar through several lifetimes, granting them her gentle blessing... It turned out that the deepest love was never about two people finding their way to each other. It was loving you, regardless of your feelings, asking nothing in return, and harboring no regrets. The seal would eventually break, his memories would eventually return, and the Immortal Emperor would return to the sea of stars. But that wisp of Tang-era warmth and thousand-year devotion would forever slumber in the depths of his divine soul. There will be no reunion in this world, but in the heart, a lifetime remains.