More than 150,000 years ago, Dong Hua had ceremoniously defeated Miao Luo in battle, plunging the Canghe deep into her black heart. The casualties suffered during the battle had been tremendous, and among those who had perished included his favoured general, Meng Hao. In the aftermath of this battle, Dong Hua firmly made his vow and erased his name from the Rock of Three Incarnations, sacrificing his fate for the safety and the peace of the Four Seas and Eight Deserts. And that had been how he had come to become the most powerful god of the Universe.

But today, everything would all change, with Miao Luo's resurrection as the demoness Yao Xi. Though Yao Xi had only ten per cent of Miao Luo's power, it was foreseen that she would grow to eventually overpower Dong Hua and all of the Nine Heavens. Living such a long and eternal life, Dong Hua had been exhausted, and he had washed his hands of the matters of the Nine Heavens. Hao De, the current lord of the Sky Kingdom, was getting on in years, and the Crown Prince Ye Hua had also given up his life for his beloved, in order to vanquish the threat of the Ghost Lord Qing Cang. With the disappearance of Dong Hua himself, the Four Seas and Eight Deserts would be in peril.

If she had been born a human, she would have turned a lot of heads, Yao Xi thought, as she observed her new face in the mirror. 

She was ravishing in her dark red-and-black armour. She undid the buns in her hair, allowing her jet-black hair to swish down behind her in waves. Unlike the textbook demons Feng Jiu had learned about in the academy, Miao Luo had outshone all of them. Instead of pure evil and corruption, her charm and entrancement was otherworldly. One look at her, and nobody would have known that she was the incarnate of the former Queen of the Demons. Yao Xi had been an immediate resemblance of Miao Luo.

The light from the candles around her faltered, and a dark sheath of evil energy filled the room as Yao Xi explored the strength of the dark magic she had been endowed with. 

In time, she would get back what Dong Hua had taken from Miao Luo. At the moment, she had only enough power to send them into the dreamscape created by Miao Luo herself, in a world located far away, so far that it would take so long for the Sky Clan to get to them. But she also understood, that given the intense power of the cold-hearted God, it wouldn't take him long to break out of this little mousetrap.

This almighty god had to have a weakness of some kind. As a dreamwalker, she could walk through his dreams to uncover the mystery of the cold-hearted god's feelings. She discovered how he had been dreaming of her every night long, but also learned how he kept his feelings suppressed all this while.

"Bai Feng Jiu", she whispered. "He has been thinking of her. She has been in his mind always, and she will be his calamity."

And so, the games begun. 

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The white-haired god still refused to get up. Feng Jiu eventually got tired of attempting to wake him, and to her surprise, the god suddenly said, "Have you had enough?"

The coldness in his voice was unmistakeable, and she released her grip on him abruptly, "Send me back now! I will miss the auspicious hour for my coronation!"

She had forgotten her seriousness as the queen-to-be, and she was her usual self, annoying him like how she had been in the Nine Heavens and Taichen Palace. She would never change, he thought. Even if she was Queen and ruled an entire kingdom of people, she would always be his Jiu'er.

"I can't," he said coldly, and looked at the little fox carefully, watching every bit of her antics. "We're trapped in here, Jiu'er." She was struck by his sudden mention of her nickname but remembering the urgency of the matter at hand, she glared at him. "Di Jun, this is not funny! I need to get back to Qing Qiu!"

He ignored her, and pulled a Buddhist sutra from his sleeve, sitting up on the grass and reading it slowly and unbotheredly. He was really testing her patience, she thought furiously.

"We can't."

"What do you mean?" Feng Jiu shouted back, like an innocent and panicked teenager. 

"We can't leave. My magic isn't working."

She scrutinised him doubtfully. Dong Hua Di Jun wasn't the type to lie, or to play a prank on her. He was so heartless, that he wouldn't have cared so much as to create such a big joke. This was so not like him at all!

"You can try if you don't believe."

Every word that came from his mouth had been so chilling and appeared to be true, but she tried anyway, and came face-to-face with the truth that they seemed to be in some unknown place that magic probably didn't work in, and didn't even come close enough to backfiring. If a god with such magnificent powers was rendered powerless in such a realm, then what chance did she have to leave the place?

"What do we do now?"

"We survive," he said, in a cold and aloof tone. "If you want to find a way to leave this place, listen, and do your best to stay alive. Remember what you said at the battle of Ruoshi?"

"I said... I said..."

She was still able to recall vividly, every word she had said to him. She had said, that if Di Jun dies, she dies. If Di Jun lives, she lives. And now, she repeated every word to him again, clearly and accurately. 

He smiled in an extraordinary grin she had never seen before, and said, "I hope you will keep to those words."

She nodded, and gave him a quick peck on the lips. This time, he did not reject her, and kissed her back abruptly. Of course, he had not accepted her in the past, because as he believed, they had no fate, and would have no future together. But now, being trapped in a strange place together with his magic disabled and being no better than a common mortal, meant their life was starting to change from that point onwards.

This time, could he continue suppressing his feelings towards her?

"Di Jun, are you okay?" she responded after the sudden kiss.

"Let's continue moving."