Yun Yun knew.
Not because the Gate announced it, nor because her soul marked it. But because her body felt it.
Every moment by his side had grown more intense. Every brush of contact, quieter. Every glance, harder to hold.
That night… the mist was still. The beasts slept. Even the air… seemed to watch.
Zhu Xian had lit the fire with sacred branches. The glow was golden. Different.
And she knew… what that meant.
They didn’t speak. They just sat close.
It was Yun Yun who leaned toward him. Rested her head on his shoulder.
His heartbeat… steady. But there was a tremor hidden in his breath.
She lifted her gaze.
Zhu Xian looked at her. Not with desire. With something deeper.
And then, she kissed him.
There was no rush. No technique.
Just lips that had held too many words. Just hands that already knew each other by instinct.
When their bodies joined, it wasn’t an explosion… but a long, unbroken prayer, whispered in silence.
Their clothes fell without sound. The stone floor had never felt so warm.
Zhu Xian held her as if he had always held her, across lifetimes.
Yun Yun arched beneath every touch, every kiss laid reverently along her neck, her shoulders, her chest.
When they became one… it felt as if the world itself paused to listen to the sigh they had been holding for centuries.
He was careful. Then steady. Then… necessary.
And she didn’t ask for mercy. She simply… surrendered.
Positions shifted. The rhythm changed.
But at the core… it was always the same:
I’m with you until the end.
Yun Yun awoke each morning with her skin marked by the night before. Sore. Trembling. But whole.
Because every night, Zhu Xian held her as if it were the last time.
And perhaps… it was.
On the morning of her departure, Yun Yun walked alone to the edge of a sacred fissure.
Zhu Xian still slept.
She placed a hand gently over her belly.
And smiled.
Not with sadness. Not with euphoria.
But with something deeper: hope.
A small energy pulsed inside her.
A spark. A root. A life.
But she wouldn’t tell him.
Not yet.
That bond… was theirs alone.
And when the moment came… he would know.
Because even if the gates of the world tore them apart…
She carried his promise within her.