Chapter 1

On the day Father brought Lady Helena into Radiant Hall, Mother danced along the bank of Cloudveil River.

Everyone said Mother was fortunate. She was merely a mortal woman, yet the supreme God of War had promised to spend his entire eternity with her.

Still, Mother once told me: “A woman should never demean herself. No matter who your father is, if he ever betrays me, I will return to my mortal realm and never see him again.”

Guided by her teachings, I married High Sovereign Lysander. We carved our names side by side on the Eternity Stone, vowing to love each other until our hair turned white.

Yet in the end, Father still betrayed her and moved Helena into Radiant Hall.

Lysander betrayed me as well, bringing back a delicate Moon Rabbit spirit.

On the day Father remarried, Mother leaped into Cloudveil River, vanishing completely from the High Heavens.

Watching Lysander holding the Moon Rabbit’s hand, I knew it was time for me to leave too.

1.

Mother used to be the most breathtaking woman in the High Heavens, but recently, she had changed.

When we met, she looked frail and exhausted, her eyes weighed down by an undeniable weariness.

“Kaia, your father is in love with someone else.”

My face paled in shock. “Mother, you and Father are the immortal couple everyone admires. How could this happen? He has always cherished you. Could you be overthinking things?”

Mother smiled with deep sorrow. “I was a fool. How could a mortal face ever compete with the eternal youth of an immortal goddess?”

Mother had married Father as a mortal. Though Father’s spiritual energy protected her body, extending her lifespan and slowing her aging, she was not of celestial blood.

Over the centuries, fine lines had quietly crept across her face.

Only now did I learn that after Mother gave birth to me, her body was severely weakened. During that time, Father resided in the Frostpeaks and met Lady Helena.

No one knew that he had fallen in love with Helena at first sight. They spent a hundred passionate years together in the mountains and secretly had a child.

Though I carried Father’s blood, half of my veins flowed with mortal blood, preventing me from mastering high celestial arts.

Father was the supreme God of War. How could he accept having only one child whose spiritual root was flawed?

He treated Mother and me with utmost care, but beneath it all lay stubborn pride. He desperately wanted a pure-blooded, noble heir who could inherit his mantle of War God.

“I truly believed he was meditating in quiet seclusion,” Mother wept, her heart shattering. “Back then, I endured countless insults behind my back from the celestial court. They mocked me for being a mortal who didn't deserve to be the War God’s wife.”

“As a mortal, I raised my child alone while suffering the Empress’s torment, who claimed I had seduced the upright War God!”

“After so many years of hardship, I finally earned their respect. Yet now, your father brings back a child and announces that he and Helena pledged their lives to each other long ago in the Frostpeaks!”

“Kaia, I told you before: if he ever betrays me, I will return to my mortal world. The time has come, and I hope you will not stop me.”

I gripped Mother’s trembling hand and comforted her softly. “Mother, I am your flesh and blood, raised on your wisdom. Whatever decision you make, I will always stand by you.”

A relieved smile touched her lips, and she asked gently, “What about you? How are things between you and Lysander?”

I let out a long sigh and knelt before her. “Your daughter has failed you. I ruined the marriage you so carefully chose for me. Lysander brought back a Moon Rabbit spirit and dotes on her completely. I have already decided to part ways with him.”

Mother’s eyes filled with pain. Sovereign Lysander was the fine husband she had painstakingly selected for me.

After all, I was the daughter of the War God. When I came of age, noble suitors from across the realms competed fiercely for my hand.

Faced with the Dragon Prince of the Eastern Seas, the Empress’s nephew, and various High Lords, Mother set only one condition: “Whoever marries my daughter must never take another woman for the rest of his life.”

Mother explained that during her time as a mortal princess, she had witnessed too many unfaithful men who abandoned their devoted wives for concubines.

“When a woman’s life is bound to a man, his change of heart brings nothing but misery to both women.”

I was Mother’s most precious daughter, and she wished for me to live a peaceful and joyful life.

The Dragon Prince was strikingly handsome, but he was a notorious playboy.

The Empress’s nephew had secretly hidden a mortal mistress in his palace after returning from his mortal trial.

The High Lords of the Heavens were carefree and wild, refusing to be shackled by a strict marital vow.

Only Sovereign Lysander, who had slumbered on Mount Ruin for a century, asked for my hand the moment he opened his eyes.

“Kaia, for a thousand years, my dreams were filled with nothing but you.”

He told me that ever since catching a single glimpse of me outside Radiant Hall a hundred years prior, he had fallen hopelessly in love.

Lysander treated me with boundless devotion. Though he was cold and distant to others, he was always gentle with me. Over time, I fell deeply in love with him, and on our wedding day, crimson silks illuminated the entire sky.

He swore to love me for all eternity, and together, we carved our names into the Eternity Stone.

Yet merely a hundred years had passed, and he had already found someone new.