A/N: For this chapter, I'll be borrowing heavily from the dialogue from the drama. This is episode 28.
"Release… Ye Bingchang."
Tantai Jin regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. At the edge of life and death, he couldn't get himself to truly say what he really wanted to say, even to save the life of the one he loved.
As he said the words, his eyes looked not at Ye Bingchang, but at Ye Xiwu… who simply smiled. Not in anger at him, not in pity for herself, and not in defiance of his words, but in relief. She smiled and closed her eyes.
Tantai Jin suddenly had an ominous feeling that sent shivers down his spine.
Up on the tower ledge, Tantai Minglang, the one who held Ye Bingchang and Ye Xiwu hostage, sneered. "It seems, he doesn't even value your life," he said to Ye Xiwu. He pushed Ye Bingchang back to safety with the flat of the blade of the sword he held in his hands, then raised the sharp end to Ye Xiwu's neck. "Let me help you end your misery." He pulled the sword back, and swung it forcefully towards Ye Xiwu.
Before the sword connected with Ye Xiwu's neck, Tantai Jin's fireball hit Tantai Minglang squarely on the chest, throwing him back hard on the walls behind him, killing him instantly, while a flock of crows swooped in and pecked Tantai Minglang's soldiers to death.
Ye Xiwu stood still, serene amidst the chaos around her.
A crack of lightning suddenly split the afternoon sky. Tantai Jin looked up, and saw a swirl of dark clouds over their heads, above the tower where Ye Xiwu was. The lightning streaks on the clouds reminded Tantai Jin of something…
"You cannot pay me back…"
"No." Tantai Jin's eyes widened in horror as he realized what was happening. "It… it can't be…"
Ye Xiwu opened her eyes at the sound of the thunder and looked up directly at the swirling clouds above her.
A bolt of lightning struck Sang Jiu, and she dissipated into nothingness, leaving behind a translucent orb containing her thoughts and feelings.
"Ye Xiwu!" Tantai Jin shouted in alarm. "Whatever it is you're doing, stop it right now!"
But Ye Xiwu couldn't hear him, and stayed silent as she continued to look up at the darkening skies. Understanding that she couldn't hear him, Tantai Jin activated his powers and flew up towards Ye Xiwu.
Ye Xiwu, don't leave me just like Sang Jiu did!
Before Tantai Jin could reach Ye Xiwu, a lightning bolt came down from the sky and hit her, burning through the ropes that wrapped around her.
"No!" he shouted, pulling Ye Xiwu in his arms as she spat a mouthful of blood on his shoulder.
"Let go, Tantai Jin," Ye Xiwu gurgled amidst the blood in her mouth.
"No!" Tantai Jin stubbornly said, holding Ye Xiwu tightly to him as both of them were pulled up into the vortex of the lightning punishment. Nian Baiyu's cries of alarm were lost amidst the thunderstorm surrounding them, and they were soon closed off from the people below the tower in dark clouds and lightning streaks.
Powerful forces sought to separate them, but Tantai Jin held Ye Xiwu tight. The forces spun them around, until little by little, he felt her slip from his arms.
"No!" Tantai Jin cried out as he held on tightly to Ye Xiwu's hand, holding on desperately, intending to never let go...
"Tantai Jin!" Ye Xiwu shouted, looking earnestly at him. "Let me go! The Lightning Punishment comes for me, not for you!"
Tantai Jin raised an arm and cast a barrier around them. He cursed as the barrier weakened amidst an onslaught of lightning bolts, but he threw every single particle of power that he could muster to strengthen the barrier. "Your life is mine, Ye Xiwu, and I won't allow you to die!"
"You overestimate your strength, Tantai Jin," Ye Xiwu said. "With your mortal body, you won't survive the lightning strikes… I drew the Lightning Punishment here, and it comes only for me."
"How…?" Tantai Jin looked closely at Ye Xiwu, whose left eye was glowing with an unnatural purple color, and emitting an unnatural energy. Within her pupil, an outline could be seen… "The World-Overturning Jade…"
"Don't you even dare use this," Ye Xiwu said as she took the purple orb from him. "The World-Overturning Jade was formed by a witch long ago… if you use its powers, it will curse you into a violent death."
But I took it from her when I fought against Minglang's demon cultivator…
"Why is the World-Overturning Jade with you?" Tantai Jin demanded, the anger in his tone masking the fear creeping in at the sight of her purple eye.
Ye Xiwu smiled bitterly. "Because I exchanged it from you with one of my eyes."
Tantai Jin froze. Understanding slowly dawned on him as he raised an eye to cover his left eye. "You..." he said disbelievingly. "This is your eye?"
Ye Xiwu didn't speak, but her calm, steady gaze showed him the truth. Her face made Tantai Jin angry. "Ye Xiwu! Why did you do that?"
"Because… that day in the forest… you looked pitiful and you were going to die," Ye Xiwu replied. A tear shimmered in her eye. "I thought then that you shouldn't bear the jade's curse… so I took it for you."
Tantai Jin's hand tightened around Ye Xiwu's wrist, shaking with anger. "Why did you do that?" he shouted. "Why did you have to take matters into your own hands and do those things for me?"
Ye Xiwu looked pained. "Because… you're the Devil God."
A lightning bolt passed through Tantai Jin's barrier, shattering it and hitting Ye Xiwu and Tantai Jin's entwined hands. They separated, but Tantai Jin quickly threw another barrier that enclosed them both again.
"Devil God… What Devil God?" Tantai Jin asked in confusion. "Ye Xiwu, what are you talking about?"
"Didn't you wonder why you were born to suffer loneliness, with weak family ties, without the capability to love? Didn't you wonder why misfortune seems to follow everyone and anyone you interact with? Why demons fear your blood?" Ye Xiwu asked him, every word cutting through Tantai Jin. "It's because you were born with an evil bone, and you are destined to become a new Devil God. You were born with the karma of all creatures in all the realms, and is destined to be the greatest curse to fall on humanity."
The lightning streaks cut through Tantai Jin's barrier again, and it disintegrated once more, leaving them exposed to the lightning strikes. Seeing that, Tantai Jin quickly flew to Ye Xiwu and enclosed her in his arms, blocking most of the lightning strikes that came her way. But he couldn't protect her from all of it, and he felt her warm blood soak his shoulder again.
"You're lying… I am not the Devil God," Tantai Jin said through gritted teeth from the pain radiating through his body… and her words. "You're lying…"
"Am I?" Ye Xiwu's quiet voice stilled Tantai Jin. "I don't mind telling you this. I am not even Ye Xiwu."
Tantai Jin froze. Not… Ye Xiwu?
"I was born in an immortal sect, and was sent here through time to be your wife Ye Xiwu," Ye Xiwu, or whoever she was, said.
None of what she said makes sense…
"Why I became Ye Xiwu… is to reverse the destiny of the world that you destroyed," Ye Xiwu continued, tears now scalding Tantai Jin's shoulders. He felt her raising her hand, and felt the power of the World Overturning Jade.
"Ye Xiwu, don't –" Tantai Jin started to say, but the World Overturning Jade flashed images before him—
Under a dark sky, a dark-clad image stepped down from a chariot drawn by dragons.
The dim sunlight cast its feeble light on –
Tantai Jin froze. My face…
The Devil God watched on coldly as his right eye glowed red, and a sinister looking crossbow appeared in the sky, sending blazing red arrows raining down on a mountain, piercing the bodies of white-clad people…
"No…" Tantai Jin whispered.
The Devil God sneered and grabbed an immortal by the throat –
Tantai Jin's eyes widened. "That's you…"
─raising her up and starting to choke her. "I thought you were someone powerful, Lady Immortal," he said in a cold, emotionless voice. "Turns out, you are nothing…"
…an elderly Immortal was pierced through by a blazing arrow through his heart.
"Father!" she cried out.
…the black armored Devil God strode through dead bodies of immortals, all the while with a cold emotionless expression on his face.
Tantai Jin shivered.
It turns out, your nightmares… is me all along.