As Feng jiu felt consciousness trickle in, she was bombarded by the different sensations that were running rampant throughout her body. It took her several minutes to understand that she was indeed in an immortal body. Slowly though the pricking sensations all over her body faded away and a calm soothing feeling took over.

Without the need to see and process anything, by instinct she knew that this was donghua's doing. Still in the semi-conscious state, she tried to move her hand to seek him out. Seconds later, she felt his hand clasping hold of hers and squeezing it reassuringly.

"xaio bai... you can wake up now. Don't leave me waiting anymore, my love." She heard him whisper in her ear.

Coaxed by his smooth, relaxing voice, she slowly opened her eyes. As soon as dong hua's face came into view, a wave of relief washed over her. Reaching out towards him, she tried to get up but was stopped by his firm hold.

Without loosening his hold on her, he swiftly shifted towards her side and nestled her into his arms. With her head resting against the opposing shoulder, they were able to see each other without much effort on feng jiu's part.

Leaning against dong hua's shoulder, feng jiu stared at his exceptionally handsome face for a while. She remembered the feeling of grief from when she had thought about not being able to see him ever again. So, for right now, she just wanted to simply stare at his handsome face that was usually devoid of any expression but at that moment, held so much love and concern for her.

After a while, feng jiu finally spoke up, "what happened?"

"how much do you remember?" He asked back.

"I swallowed the fire torrent along with the bell. There had to be some demons in it. I heard their voices coming from inside it. How... how am I still here?"

"because nothing in all of the realms is capable of taking you away from me." Dong hua declared.

Moved by hs words, she had to force her mind to stay focused. "dijun... what happened?"

"it's not easy for you to die xaio bai. Your primordial spirit is the source of all life. Your spirit will always exist. Only your body can be harmed which too, in itself, is not simple. While swallowing demons can kill any immortal, you are the source of demon life too. It might harm your physical form but that can be recovered. And to quote zhe yan, phoenixes are always reborn from their ashes. So, when you collapsed from swallowing those demons, you were in your phoenix form because of which your body turned to ashes. It was just a matter of time to recover your immortal body from those ashes. I had to channel my spirit power through those ashes to speed up the reformation process. You might be feeling weak now because your body is adjusting to the difference in our cultivations."

Oh... feng jiu thought. Then another memory flashed through her mind. She suddenly remembered what she had been contemplating before the war had taken place. Unconsciously her hand rose to protect her womb and a disheartened, worried look overtook her face.

Dong hua gently smoothed out her furrowed eyebrows and softly said, "so you do know about your situation... hm?"

Feng jiu looked up in surprise at him. Taking a few minutes to digest her shock she asked, "is... is it true? How do you know? Did zhe yan confirm it? But... but how?"

Dong hua gently handed her a lock of his silver hair to help her calm down and softly stroked her face from forehead to chin, again and again. After her emotions settled down a little bit, he explained, "yes, it is true, xaio bai. You are pregnant and we are going to be parents very soon. Zhe yan confirmed it after you turned back to your original form."

"as for how it happened, let's just say that sometimes fortune comes in surprising forms. When I went to see zhe yan originally regarding this matter, there was one thing that felt off to the both of us. While my whole body showed high signs of virility, the particular organs were showing opposite signs. To investigate this further, zhe yan went to bihai cangling. Another thing that was off was your body's reaction to my blood."

The confusion that had earlier clouded over feng jiu's face was now clearing out as she started to connect the various dots. But still, the final inference was out of her reach. She looked forward at dong hua as he explained further.

"what zhe yan found there was that since I am the source of nature, my body too follows the laws of nature rather than the laws of the living. Like the living, my body doesn't have a predefined system for reproduction. Just as every drop of water gives life and every breath of air enriches the body, every drop of my blood has the power of life."

"Throughout my existence, my blood has never reacted the way it did towards you. The golden pigment of my blood has always been superior because of the manifestation of the essence of creation magic in it. This has always made me cautious of its use. But the essence of creation is so small in the blood that it has never been triggered before. Except for the moment, our bloods mixed. It was only in combination with your blood that the creation magic was triggered. That's how you became pregnant with our children. And that just might have been the reason, why I was able to return you back to back to your original form so quickly but we are still contemplating on that end."

Feng jiu was digesting all this information when her brain clicked over something he said. With her mouth hanging open, she looked at him, completely bewildered. "children? As in plural?"

"children as in three." Dong hua answered with a wry smile.

"how come there are three from just one drop of your golden blood?" She inquired.

"zhe yan is still looking into it. Though I think, it was because your body was struggling to concentrate all the creation magic into one embryonic segment. So, when your body was reformed with the aid of my spiritual magic, the two magical forces combined and condensed into three different embryonic segments. Don't worry, it won't harm the babies." 

Feng jiu was elated on hearing this. Beaming with happiness, she forgot all about the weakness she was feeling earlier and jumped up in dong hua's arms. Straddling his lap, she rained down kisses all over his face. Dong hua laughed wholeheartedly at this unrestricted, abundant affection from her and continued to pamper her.

A while later, feng jiu had finally gotten control of her emotions and was again settled down in dong hua's arms, happily playing with his hair.

Lightly pinching her face, he asked, "little fox, aren't you missing something?"

Feng jiu pondered over his words for a moment before resolutely shaking her head in a no. "no, dijun. You already answered all my questions."

Dong hua, patient as ever, just arched one of his brows, waiting for her to get to the point he was making. And not one to disappoint, feng jiu understood the situation he was referring to, albeit a little slowly.

Realizing the colossal mistake, she had made, feng jiu scrunched up her face to look cuter and earn his forgiveness. Slowly and coaxingly, she said, "sorry my love. Forgive me please."

"What exactly are you sorry for?" Dong hua commanded with an impassive face. Though his face was devoid of any expression, he always felt her endearments directly in his heart. These endearing and coaxing words never failed to make his icy heart feel warm.

"I shouldn't have tricked the bell and the ring. I'm sorry. I won't do this again, next time." She said sweetly. If it would have been possible, her eyes would have dripped with honey.

"there's still a next time?" Dong hua asked incredulously.

Shaking her head with vigor, she corrected herself. "no, no, no next time. Never again."

What they were referring to here was the fact that before feng jiu had left for the war with demons, she had placed a time recycling spell on the bell and the ring that dong hua had given her. These magical articles were made from part of dong hua's heart and were specifically manipulated by him to monitor feng jiu's health and safety. There was no undoing of the spells dong hua had put on them. So, instead,feng jiu had simply put them in a time warp using the time recycling spell she had designed herself. Within the scope of this spell, there is no effect of time. This meant that the ring and the bells kept reporting the same situation of feng jiu as of the time when the spell was put in place. Consequently, the bells and the ring hadn't been activated when feng jiu's body had disintegrated after the war.

Dong hua had found the bells and the ring beside her prone form after the golden orb around her had dissolved and her immortal body had materialized. It had taken him all of a minute to realize the nature of the spell that feng jiu had placed on those two items. While he had been infuriated at first, he had also understood the reason why she had done this. And for that,he could not hold her at fault. From his viewpoint, it was the same as what he had done all his life; sacrifices had to be made for ensuring the safety of the realms. So, he couldn't hold her accountable for something he had always been guilty of.

When feng jiu heard no response from dong hua for a few minutes, she got nervous and coaxingly stroked his chin as she said, "Husband, I'm sorry. Please forgive me, I would never do this ever again."

Every time she had called him husband had been ingrained in his heart. This moment too wasn't any different. The word 'husband' and the meaning behind it resounded with something intrinsic inside him. He pressed his forehead against hers and heaved out a deep breath.

"I will place my heart in your hands again but promise me you will take care of it this time. I cannot bear to see you like that ever again. I'm afraid I won't be able to bear it again." He murmured softly as he gazed directly into her eyes.

Feng jiu caressed the side of his face gently and murmured back her promise.

Sitting back, he pulled out the ring and the bells from his sleeves and replaced them at their rightful position.

Dong hua pressed a soft kiss against feng jiu's forehead and rested his face on top of her head which was snuggled comfortably in the crook of his neck.

With his heart full and at ease now, dong hua thought back to how they had started and how after going through so many trials, they were still here, together and stronger. Thinking about everything that had happened within the past few thousands of years, he smiled a little as a thought popped into his mind, 'life with xaio bai is never going to be boring but no matter what happens, I know my little fox would always be by my side." With that thought in his mind, he hugged feng jiu tighter and went to sleep.

THE END.

A/N

With this, the story is officially completed. I still plan on writing a few epilogues but those may take some time. 

I really hope you all liked this story. thank you for reading this little piece of my imagination. 
let me know what you think about it.
Thank you!