Chapter 719 — The Bride in the Cold Coffin
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
But the bride's corpse in the coffin had already woken. She opened her eyes, gently lifted one hand, and raised a finger white as jade and spring onion; on the finger was a most magnificent black ring, set with sharp spikes.
Crack, crack, crack.
One ice dragon after another shattered in an instant, leaving only the last; the ice dragon showed a look of terror and curled itself into a ball.
The Woodcutter Sage stepped forward and took the corpse-woman's hand. The bride in the ice coffin slowly floated up and settled to the ground, her eyes full of weariness.
"Please, Southern Heavenly King, return to your place!" the Woodcutter said in a low voice.
Di Yiyue said bleakly, "What good is returning to my place? I am already dead."
Only then did the others notice that her forehead had a hole pierced through it, the thickness of a finger, wounded by some unknown thing; through the wound they could see the wall behind her.
Though she wore black, the garment was of the cut and style of a bridal robe; on her head was still the phoenix crown, and on her shoulders the rosy mantle; on the crown was a bridal veil of purple gauze and red, already lifted, revealing a lovely face.
She must have been sitting quietly by the marriage bed on the night of her wedding, her heart a little anxious and a little sweet, when in the single instant the purple-and-red veil was lifted, an enemy's blow took her life.
The only one who could come so close to this First Heavenly King of the Kaihuang Heavenly Court was her beloved, her bridegroom.
It was her bridegroom who stabbed her to death as he lifted the veil.
"In those days Kaihuang intended to summon the Heavenly King to stand against the calamity, but no sooner had the Heavenly King married than word of her death came; the calamity erupted, and countless of the common folk died or were wounded."
The Woodcutter Sage said, "In those years the Heavenly King sought mastery in all quarters and studied under the Four Emperors, all for the sake of contending with the heavenly calamity. Now the calamity has come again. The Heavenly King missed it once; she must not miss it a second time. As for the matter of your death — my youngest disciple has already resolved it. You can revive."
Di Yiyue murmured, "I can revive?"
She turned her head and looked at the ice dragon cowering in the corner.
The ice dragon trembled and said in a shaking voice, "Spare me, my lady! We too acted on orders; we had no choice but to freeze my lady's body and primal spirit..."
"My lady?"
Di Yiyue's face turned cold. "You call me my lady? When has Di Yiyue ever leaned upon a man? Even the Heavenly Master would not dare call me my lady; he can only call me Heavenly King. You dare call me my lady? Call me Di Yiyue!"
The ice dragon hesitated, then said cautiously, "Di Yiyue..."
Pop —
He burst apart all at once, becoming a whirl of flying ice shards; his primal spirit too was shattered beyond all shattering.
"To call me by my name is disrespect to me. Death is too light a punishment!"
Di Yiyue turned around and laughed. "Let us go and meet the bridegroom. It has been twenty thousand years since I saw this faithless man; even after my death he never came to see me. How I long to carve a bloody wound like mine into his brow as well..."