After Transmigrating, I Died of Depression Without My Phone - Chapter 100.1
She had actually painted him into reality.
Long Xiang’s eyes widened in disbelief as she traced her fingers over his features. The cold touch of his skin was so real, far beyond anything she could have imagined or conjured up on her own.
To ensure that this wasn’t some elaborate dream within a dream, Long Xiang instinctively raised her arm, intending to pinch herself. But before she could, Beiting Xue gently caught her hand.
His stunning eyes, filled with an ethereal mist, held a trace of the same cold indifference she had seen in the pair of eyes from the clouds.
That extreme coldness seemed to suit his flawless features perfectly, making Long Xiang hesitant to touch him, as if there was now a distance between them that hadn’t been there before.
She hesitated for a moment, but before she could process it fully, Beiting Xue gently pulled her closer, and the two of them were drawn into the glowing canvas, swallowed by the light.
It felt as if the soul within the painting had pulled her into its world, bringing Long Xiang back to the place she had once desperately tried to escape.
Her whole body shuddered with fear, terrified that she might never return home again. She quickly turned to look behind her, only to see a swirling vortex in the sky, the very portal she had just passed through.
Any living creature that approached the vortex, aside from her and Beiting Xue, would be instantly annihilated.
The desperate Golden Crow made a last-ditch effort to escape through the vortex, thinking it might be better to try its luck in another world. After all, staying here meant certain death, while venturing into Long Xiang’s world might give it a fighting chance—surely Beiting Xue wouldn’t wreak havoc in Long Xiang’s world.
But before it could reach the vortex, a golden light wrapped around it, binding it in place and stripping away its strength to resist.
“I’ve been so focused on dealing with your master, I almost forgot you were still alive.”
The Golden Crow let out a shrill scream, the sound so familiar that it made Long Xiang’s skin crawl.
“Host, save me!!”
…Oh, you 4897, thought Long Xiang.
She had been lost in a daze, her mind hazy, but now everything was suddenly clear.
She tightened her grip on Beiting Xue’s cold hand and spoke calmly, “If you keep calling me ‘host,’ you’ll only hasten your own death.”
The Golden Crow was quick to change its tone, “Miss Long, please save me! I know I was wrong. I was forced into this! If I didn’t follow the Heavenly Dao’s orders, I would’ve been devoured long ago!”
Long Xiang ignored it completely, her gaze focused solely on Beiting Xue, who stood slightly turned to the side.
It had been some time since she last saw him, and somehow, he looked even more breathtaking now. The divine robe hugged his slim yet strong waist, and she found herself tempted to reach out and touch him.
But she held herself back, worried that if she acted rashly, Beiting Xue might remember the way she had behaved so shamelessly in her dreams.
“Miss Long, I swear I’ll never do anything wrong again! The sky is still dark—without me, there will be no light. If you let me live, I’ll obey you both, and never cause trouble again!”
The Golden Crow, being the sun in the heavens, was indeed necessary to bring daylight back to the human realm.
Long Xiang hesitated for a moment, but Beiting Xue turned to her and said softly, “Your paintbrush.”
She blinked, looking down at her other hand, surprised to find that she had somehow brought her paintbrush with her into this world.
The handle and her hand were smudged with paint, looking dirty and messy. After a brief pause, she asked, “What do you mean?”
Beiting Xue extended his hand, and with a light grip, he crushed the Golden Crow, reducing it to a shower of golden sparks that illuminated the devastated battlefield with a grim but sacred beauty.
Long Xiang surveyed the area carefully. The Divine Pillar, which had once been a place of grandeur, was now in complete ruins.
After the Golden Crow was destroyed, the light within the Divine Pillar began to fade quickly. Before Long Xiang could understand what Beiting Xue intended to do, he pulled her into his arms.
“I thought I’d never see you again.”
As the surrounding darkness closed in, the space where Long Xiang and Beiting Xue stood remained the only spot bathed in light.
Her hands trembled slightly, and for some reason, she felt a surge of anxiety, as if she were nearing her homeland but too afraid to face it. She didn’t dare meet Beiting Xue’s eyes or speak to him.
Lowering her head in haste, she tried to focus on anything else, staring intently at her paintbrush. To her surprise, it was glowing.
“Why… why is it glowing?”
She was grasping for a distraction, but Beiting Xue didn’t care about that at all.
He gently cupped her chin, lifting her head so she would look at him, so she could see every part of him clearly.
That face was too overwhelming. Long Xiang found herself almost dizzy as she gazed at him closely.
“I held on to the obsession of seeing you one last time,” Beiting Xue said softly, his voice filled with a deep sense of longing. “Even if I had to die, I wanted to gather enough power to make a prophecy, just to see even a fake version of you one more time.”
His fingers, soft yet cold, gently caressed her cheek as he leaned down, his nose brushing against hers. Yet, he didn’t kiss her lips.
Instead, they shared their breath, their warmth, lingering in this intimate moment without fully touching.
Long Xiang always doubted whether everything was real, but wasn’t Beiting Xue the same?
No one knew that after he had finally defeated the eyes of the Heavenly Dao, he believed he was going to die as well. He thought he would become the new Golden Crow, continuing to protect the world in a different form, bringing light to others. He never imagined that a vortex would appear on the horizon.
At first, he thought it was yet another formidable enemy, and he was ready to give in and let go of life. His only regret was not being able to dream of Long Xiang one last time, to bid her farewell.
But just seeing her once had been enough. To say goodbye might only make her sad. If he disappeared forever, perhaps it would be easier for her to move on.
When the vortex pulled him in, he didn’t resist at all. He didn’t have the strength left for that.
Then, in the swirling chaos, he sensed a familiar spiritual energy, and the heart that had turned to ash within him began to beat again. Trembling, his hand reached out, and in the white void, he touched her face and heard her voice.
It was Long Xiang.
The sudden surge of power in the Heavenly Dao had been caused by her, and it was she who later weakened it again, giving Beiting Xue the strength to fight. Her brush, imbued with the power of life, could control the direction of all things.
That was why Beiting Xue hadn’t cared at all when the Golden Crow was destroyed.
As the darkness began to close in around them, he took her hand and, with a simple stroke, painted a streak of light across the sky.
But because it wasn’t his brush, even with all his strength, the light didn’t last long. It flickered and then disappeared.
Still, it was enough. The demonstration had made Long Xiang understand what she needed to do.
With newfound determination, she parted from Beiting Xue and flew to the highest point in the sky. As she moved, the light followed her. When she finally stopped and looked back, she saw the darkness had swallowed Beiting Xue completely.
He wasn’t in good shape. The battle had ended, and the old Heavenly Dao had disappeared. The world no longer had its previous ruler, and everything was in turmoil. Whether this was a good or bad thing would depend on what happened next.
Skillfully, Long Xiang waved her paintbrush, treating the sky as her canvas, and painted a new sun.
Painting a sun on paper was simple—just a circle would do. But creating a real sun, one that would shine eternally on the world, wasn’t something a simple circle could achieve.
Long Xiang casually drew a ring, pouring all her spiritual energy into it.
Even the paint she used was special. Ordinary pigments wouldn’t leave a trace. She needed to cut her palm, using her own blood to fill the center of the sun.
Each stroke, each drop of blood and energy, drained her further.
What seemed like a quick process took every last bit of her strength. When it was over, Long Xiang, as light as a falling leaf, began to plummet from the sky, drifting down in the blinding light.
Someone caught her. She had expected that.
The cold, familiar arms that held her began to warm as the sunlight illuminated every corner of the Divine Pillar, spreading from the pillar to the entire world.
The eternal night that had shrouded humanity finally disappeared. A new sun hung high in the sky, and the Celestial Ladder’s Divine Pillar beneath the Hall of Souls in the Northern Court Royal City gradually dissolved in the sunlight, as if it had never existed.
Inside the now-fading pillar, Beiting Xue held Long Xiang close. She had no strength left and let him carry her wherever he wished.
She thought he would take her to rest somewhere—perhaps their old home. She had fond memories of that place.
But he didn’t.