The Immortal Gate now stood atop sacred soil carved by Su Min's own hands.
No longer rooted in the Heavenly Continent, it rose proudly within the hidden continent she forged beyond the Immortal Plane, a place where spiritual aura flowed in such dense currents that even ancient beasts would bow their heads and remain silent. The fallen immortals were long since dust, their darkness scattered into oblivion. The sect was thriving. The world was calm.
All that remained—was her.
Su Min stood alone in the sacred vault. Her presence was radiant, yet restrained. The full breadth of her Chaos Physique slumbered just beneath the surface, sealed beneath countless layers of suppression. Her cultivation, once capable of bending reality, now lay dormant, dulled to the edge of mortal threshold.
She could not risk it. Not now.
Xie Yingying still slept inside the crystal, frozen in time since that fateful day.
A glimmer of moonlight fell through the chamber's opening, casting pale silver across the obsidian pedestal. There she was—unchanged, untouched. Her features as delicate as ever, framed by hair like midnight silk. Her lips were parted slightly, as if caught mid-breath, and her expression was peaceful, serene, as if dreaming.
Su Min's eyes softened.
She had waited so long for this moment. Longer than most beings could fathom. Through endless trials, through pain and rebirth and the unraveling of heavens themselves, she had carried the weight of this promise. A single tether through the chaos—her.
The sealing crystal responded to Su Min's approach, glowing faintly with a pale blue hue. Still, it did not break. It was waiting.
For Su Min, more than thirty millennia had passed. She had walked through ages, carved through blood and tribulation, and watched the heavens shift. But for Xie Yingying...
To her, it would feel as if she had only just closed her eyes.
"Yingying," she murmured, the name slipping from her lips like the first breeze of spring.
Her fingers grazed the crystal surface, cool and smooth like the surface of a still lake. She let out a soft breath, steadying the fierce pull inside her. Even now, even sealed and untouched, the Lunar Sovereign Physique inside Xie Yingying responded to her. A magnetic pull that tugged at the edges of control. That was the nature of their bond—solar and lunar, chaos and stillness. A gravitational ache.
Su Min smiled, just faintly.
"So you still feel me, even now?"
With a thought, the sealing formation that had encased the crystal for ages trembled. Light bled from the rune lines, dissolving into the air. A soft hum rose as threads of frozen time unraveled, stitch by stitch.
Then, the crystal began to dissolve.
Not shatter. Not break.
Like dew beneath morning sun, it simply melted away, leaving behind the woman she had missed every moment of her long, ascendant journey.
Xie Yingying collapsed into Su Min's arms.
Her body was warm, fragile. Mortal. The seal had preserved her perfectly, but also made her vulnerable to even the gentlest ripple of spiritual energy. Su Min cradled her with the utmost care, suppressing even her breath, fearing that even a whisper of her current self might be too much.
Xie Yingying stirred, eyelashes fluttering.
"…Mm… Su Min?"
Her voice was hoarse, like wind brushing over dry leaves. But the sound of it made Su Min's throat tighten. It had been too long.
"I'm here," Su Min said, her tone low, warm. "I've come to wake you."
A pause.
Then Xie Yingying's eyes opened fully, and her gaze locked onto the one before her.
A thousand years passed between them in a single second.
"…You look tired," Xie Yingying murmured, managing the smallest of smiles.
Su Min laughed softly, brushing stray strands of hair from her face. "I suppose I am. It's been… quite the journey."
A silence settled between them. Not awkward, but weighty. Full of all the words they hadn't said, all the years they hadn't shared.
"…How long has it been?" Xie Yingying asked at last.
Su Min looked down at her. The answer was not a simple one.
"Too long. But not a moment wasted."
Their foreheads touched, and Su Min closed her eyes, grounding herself in the warmth of the one person she had missed through every trial.
"Heavenly Continent is safe, I reforged the Immortal Plane," she said softly. "The sect is here. Everything I dreamed of, it's real now. All that's left… is you."
Xie Yingying's breathing steadied, but her cheeks were flushed. The Lunar Sovereign Physique inside her stirred faintly, sensing the suppressed force wrapped beneath Su Min's skin.
"…I can feel it," she whispered.
Her voice was soft, but full of meaning.
"Even with everything sealed," she added, her fingers slowly brushing over Su Min's stomach, right above where her dantian pulsed with boundless, hidden power. "Even if you suppress your physique, I can still feel it. It's… like the world is quietly tilting toward you."
Then she leaned in, pressing her forehead lightly to Su Min's shoulder, nuzzling gently into the curve of her neck. The warmth of her breath fanned across Su Min's skin, bringing with it a deep, aching familiarity.
Su Min didn't move away. She let her rest there, arms tightening just enough to hold her steady.
"Are you alright?" she murmured. "Does it affect you too much?"
Xie Yingying hesitated for a heartbeat, then shook her head, cheek still resting against Su Min's shoulder.
"Not that much," she said. "Just a faint tug. Nothing I can't handle."
But even so, her body betrayed a deeper truth.
Her arms slipped around Su Min's waist and held on tighter, as if grounding herself against the instinctive pull between their physiques. And then, after a moment of stillness, her lips brushed the side of Su Min's neck—a soft, reverent kiss, not rushed or desperate, but deliberate.
It sent a ripple through Su Min's suppressed energy.
She could feel the Lunar Sovereign Physique in Xie Yingying responding—not out of chaos, but resonance. Even when mortal, her body remembered.
"I missed this," Xie Yingying whispered against her skin. "Even the weight of your presence."
Su Min let out a quiet breath, steadying the low stir of heat in her veins.
"I can pull back more if you need," she offered, her tone gentle.
But Xie Yingying shook her head again, more firmly this time.
"No. I want this… just like this." Her voice lowered. "I've been frozen for so long, I need to feel something real."
Su Min tilted her head, lips brushing against Xie Yingying's hair as she closed her eyes.
"Then I'll stay," she murmured. "Just like this. As long as you want."
The moment lingered—quiet, suspended, and intimate. There was no rush. No urgency. Only two souls, once separated by time and tribulation, finally standing in the same world again.
In the distance, high above the clouds, the twin moons began to rise.