Love Beyond the Grave

Heaven and earth possess great beauty yet speak no words; the four seasons follow clear laws yet hold no debates; all things have established principles yet offer no explanations. This is the significance of deities to the mortal realm—clear laws and established principles. The order of seasonal changes, the cycles of life and death, the balance of all living things.

She had always believed that deities did not manifest their power in the mortal world, nor did they heed human prayers. The order was already set—all things thrived and perished in mutual restraint. Any favoritism would disrupt this balance.

After becoming the Divine Overseer responsible for maintaining the mortal realm's order for this millennium, one day a reckless and ignorant youth suddenly barged into the celestial court, shouting angrily and pointing fingers at the very order of the mortal world.

She asked her colleague what was happening, and the colleague replied with a smile—"Ah, Overseer of Fate, this is an old policy left by the previous Divine Overseer. It was said to give mortals a chance to correct errors, so a passage to the celestial court was left open. This mortal has the bloodline of Mars, making him the most likely among humans to ascend here."

She thought, so it was the bloodline of Mars. Yet recently, the mortal world had been peaceful without major chaos, the order running smoothly. Even this descendant of Mars had lived peacefully within his destined fate, doing nothing outrageous before coming here.

Why would this mortal stir up trouble for no reason?

She said—"Human nature is inherently insatiable. No matter what they gain, they are never content and always crave more. Why allow them to come up here? This passage should be closed."

Her colleague shook his head, reminding her that if she wished to abolish the policy left by the previous Divine Overseer Xihe, she must have sufficient justification and not act arbitrarily.

Gazing at the youth's furious eyes below the court, she declared—"Very well, then I shall accompany him on a journey to the mortal realm."

When the youth saw her approach, he seemed momentarily stunned. He asked her, "Who are you?"

"I am the Divine Overseer of this millennium. My name is Ziji," she replied.

Ziji was the name she bore ten thousand years ago before her ascension. Of that time, this was all she could remember.

Her initial purpose in descending was to ensure mortals could no longer ascend to the celestial realm without cause.

This youth, Hejia Fengyi, was one of the descendants of the Mars bloodline she had designed. The fate of the Mars bloodline was genius, strength, sincerity, and early death—few lived past forty. Hejia Fengyi was also born frail, perhaps the reason for his resentment toward his destiny.

He said, "Since we're in the mortal realm now, this is my territory. Lady Ziji, I happen to lack a servant. Would you deign to lower yourself?"

He seemed displeased with her, intent on mocking her. She thought, this was indeed just an ordinary mortal nursing grievances.

"Very well."

She agreed readily.

From then on, she accompanied Hejia Fengyi, inseparable as shadow follows form. Though he had claimed she would be his servant, he never actually made her do a servant's work. On the contrary, he often looked after her.

"Why aren't you wearing shoes again?" At a marketplace, he rushed over, placing shoes at her feet, and looked up to ask, "Do you not know how to wear shoes?"

In her moment of hesitation, he pressed his temples, bent down, and helped her put them on. Then he straightened up, took the basket of fruit from her hands, and sighed deeply. "Look at this fruit you bought—only the top layer is good. The ones underneath are all rotten!""Don’t you know there are deceivers in this world? Wait, no—weren’t they also part of your design?" He studied her for a moment before laughing. "You armchair strategists."

With that, he turned and walked away, saying over his shoulder, "Tell me which shop you bought from just now. I’ll go demand justice for you."

She thought to herself that living in this world and designing its order were ultimately different things. But as a deity, she wasn’t wrong. After all, the young man who had grown up under her design was exactly as she needed him to be—kind and sincere.

Only in the hands of someone like him could such immense power remain under control.

Adding the constraint of an early death ensured his heart wouldn’t be corrupted by worldly hardships, making the power even more secure.

She was quite satisfied with her order.

Hejia Fengyi had been frail and sickly since childhood. A gust of wind, a drenching rain, or a mere chill could threaten his life. Only during the mild seasons of spring and autumn did he have the energy to travel far. She accompanied him to vanquish evil spirits, and along their journey, they passed through places where people suffered greatly, some even destitute and desperate. He would often say, "Great Deity, look at the world you’ve arranged."

She would reply that just as there were towering mountains and vast rivers, so too were there valleys and streams. In the mortal realm, people were born with differences in status, physical strength, and fortune—this was simply natural. Besides, wasn’t he here to save the unfortunate?

Hejia Fengyi would grow somewhat angry at this. What if he didn’t save them? What if he harmed them instead?

She would say, "You wouldn’t. That’s not who you are."

At times like these, Hejia Fengyi often fell silent. Later, he told her that the way she looked at him felt like Nuwa admiring the perfect speck of clay she had flicked off her fingers.

"You’re always like this—lofty and detached."

Later, by Hejia Fengyi’s side, she encountered another whose fate she had designed—the Ghost King, He Simu. In the Ghost King’s destiny, she was born an Evil Ghost, the most desireless of her kind, making her the perfect ruler of ghosts born from obsession. Only with such an Evil Ghost presiding over the Ghost Realm could the deities rest easy.

He Simu, as she had intended, proved to be an exceptionally capable Ghost King.

"Our ancestor longs to live as a human. She adores the mortal realm above all else. Isn’t there any way for the Ghost King to become mortal?" Hejia Fengyi once asked her.

"No."

"Could there not be?"

She was puzzled. "Why should there be? The current order operates smoothly without a single flaw. Since there are no flaws, why complicate things?"

Hejia Fengyi stared at her for a long time, and in his eyes, she saw scorn.

"Coward," he said. "Go back."

This was the first time he had ever told her to leave. In the years that followed, he seemed to have given up trying to persuade her, sometimes even dismissing his earlier fervor as youthful recklessness and urging her to return to the heavenly court.

Yet she could still see the deep-seated scorn in his eyes, undiminished by time.

But she didn’t believe she was wrong. Everything she witnessed in the mortal realm, even Hejia Fengyi’s very existence, proved the perfection of her order. Still, whenever she saw that look in his eyes, she felt an inexplicable sadness.

She refused to leave. As a deity, she wasn’t someone to be summoned or dismissed at will. Hejia Fengyi let her be, continuing to take her wherever he went. Over time, she grew familiar with this world. Now, it was the frail Hejia Fengyi who relied on her.Every time he fell ill, tossing and turning in pain on the bed, she always felt deeply saddened. When he mentioned his approaching death, she became even more reluctant to speak with him about it.

He seemed to find it ironic, saying, "Isn't this what you designed?"

Yes, it was her design. She didn't think it was wrong.

She just grew increasingly sorrowful.

The Yinghuo bloodline would continue, and there would be more people like Hejia Fengyi—rebellious, sincere, and kind—who would ultimately perish under fate's decree. He was merely one ordinary soul among the countless in this world.

But now, to her, he was no longer just a number.

His death wasn't the erasure of a statistic but an irreplaceable void in the fabric of life.

As she accompanied Hejia Fengyi into the conflicts of the Ghost Realm and saw He Simu and Duan Xu, she suddenly realized that Duan Xu and He Simu were just like Feng Yi and her.

He Simu was no longer a perfect pawn in her flawless order—He Simu had become her.

The partings, sufferings, and calamities of all under heaven seemed to have befallen her personally. When she began to feel pain within the order she had once prided herself on, everything started to unravel.

She knew Feng Yi's sharpness—he had sensed her turmoil.

Seizing the opportunity, he acted out of character and pressed her relentlessly.

When she took Feng Yi's hand, she saw a triumphant smile on his face. It dawned on her that perhaps all these years, his resignation and apparent surrender had been a facade. He had simply been waiting.

Waiting for her to develop feelings for him.

Waiting for her to be crushed and wounded by the very order she had designed. Waiting for her to waver, to doubt, to compromise.

—Coward.

That was what he had said then, and it was what he repeated later. He asked, "Are you so afraid of imperfection? In this world, from the lowest Evil Ghost to the highest deity, what is truly perfect?"

An order devoid of emotion is nothing but arrogance.

After twenty years away from the celestial court, she returned to the heavenly realm. A colleague, upon seeing her, joked, "What, has the Divine Overseer come to close the gates again?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm here to change the order."

Under the new order, those of the Yinghuo bloodline could choose at thirty to relinquish their power and live out their natural lifespan or retain their power but face an early death. If a Ghost King found a true love willing to exchange their life, they could become mortal, losing their power but gaining reincarnation.

—"It's been too long since we visited the mortal realm. Perhaps we should go down more often."

Her colleague looked surprised at her words and remarked, "The Arbiter of Fate seems much changed after this trip."

Perhaps there was still more to change.

Years later, Hejia Fengyi was walking down the street as autumn's chill set in, the ginkgo leaves turning gold.

Amid the bustling crowd, he abruptly caught sight of a familiar face.

She stood among the throng, watching him quietly.

He approached and asked, "Divine One, what brings you here?"

—"To see if there are any flaws in my new order."

She spoke in the same calm, detached tone as before.

Feng Yi studied her for a moment, then smiled and walked beside her. —"Would you like to visit our ancestor? She often speaks of you. She's quite happy now..."The clamor of street vendors filled the air, and the scent of osmanthus wafted through the streets. She realized that ten thousand years ago, before she had forgotten, she had lived in such a mortal world.

Enticed by the mortal realm, she had come to embrace its allure.