Heya folks, 

JL checking in! Hope you guys had a Happy New Year! I wonder how many of you have already broken your resolutions yet? Haha, just kidding. Unlike me, I'm sure all of you are masters of willpower and self-discipline! I mean, how could you not be after reading so much about the dao, right? Anyway, thanks for all the well wishes in the last post. I'm fully recovered and much better now. And in case you were wondering what got me, it was the seafood. The shrimp tasted funky, but it was covered up by the spices. I ignored it, and then subsequently paid the consequences. Never again. 

Below is a short side story I wrote to coincide with the release of today's chapters. Feel free to ignore it! Also, as for my thoughts on the recent development? Honestly, I was pretty upset initially, but I eventually got over it. It wouldn't make sense if everything went along so easily and smoothly. But yeah, Chen Xi is a stone now... That does give me an idea, though. Maybe, every now and then, it'll be fun to imagine Stone Xi's reactions to the events in a chapter. I'll call it Diary of a Stone Girl! 

Chen Xi - Side Story 2

As I sit alone in the stillness of my chamber, a sense of unease cloaks me like a shadow. Lately, I feel as if I am two souls in one body, harboring thoughts that seem foreign, almost as if another self is whispering in the recesses of my mind. 

Pomelo assures me that I am unchanged, but the fear that I might be losing myself to an unknown entity lingers, unsettling and relentless.

Tomorrow, we march into a war of an unimaginable scale. The weight of this impending conflict, the lives that will be lost, rests squarely upon my shoulders. 

As the Divine Dawn Empress, I am the beacon they look to, the symbol of their hope and victory. Yet, how can I bear to live knowing that under my command, countless will fall, never to see the light of another day?

The loss of life in the Martial Realm already haunts me. A million souls, gone. If not for this war that I have waged, would they still be alive? The thought is a relentless echo in my heart, a drumbeat of guilt and sorrow.

I have made my decision, one that seems the only path to redemption. Once this war ends, I will offer my life as atonement. It is the least I can do for those who have sacrificed everything for a cause I have set in motion.

With that, my thoughts inevitably drift to Yun Xiao. The third dual cultivation session looms over us, where I am destined to take his entire cultivation. A necessary act for the battle ahead. Yet, it feels like a betrayal of the deepest kind, a sword to the back of the man I… love. It's a truth I can no longer deny.

I envision a future for him, one of greatness and peace. Once I am gone, he will inherit it all—the throne, the Heavenly Realm, and the glory. He will be the one to rebuild our world, to rise as the greatest Emperor the Divine Continent has ever known. Under his rule, peace and prosperity will surely flourish.

This future, however, is one I will not see nor share with him. As I come to terms with this fact, I cannot help but dream of a different life, a life where I am not the Divine Dawn Empress, but simply Chen Xi. In that life, could we have been together…?

Perhaps. But in this life, I am Divine Dawn. And tomorrow... there will be war.