CH 103

Vanish in a Puff of Ashes

"No... I don't promise... I don't promise, do you hear me, I don't promise..." Yan Yuan's voice trembled beyond recognition, and in an instant, tears were streaming down his face. "You are not allowed to die, you are not allowed to die..."

"I forbid you from dying..."

The voice in his ears was distant yet close, and the rain that pelted his face was increasing. This winter day was really strange, it was snowing and raining at the same time, and it was cold right down to his bones.

Xuan Long lay in Yan Yuan's arms, and those arms hugged him so tightly, yet he still felt cold, so cold that he couldn't even speak smoothly: "I did all that I promised you... I did..."

"You should also... do it."

He had promised to spend the rest of his life with Yan Yuan, and he had done so.

He said that when the child was born, he would give him the inner elixir, and he did that too. The inner elixir is no better than the dragon heart, and when Ning Zhiyu uses the dragon heart as a medicinal primer, he will be able to live a long life and accompany Yan Yuan until he is old.

He has given him everything he wanted, but why has Yan Yuan not even agreed to such a small request from him so far...

Could it be that he really loathed him so much... to the point where he could not even tolerate their child.

Yan Yuan: "Don't lie to me! You said you would accompany me hand in hand until old age, but how long has it been?"

Xuan Long quietly closed his eyes, tears of blood welling up in the corners.

"You were the one who lied to me first..."

Yan Yuan raised his hand to caress the cold face of the man in his arms, his trembling fingertips wiping away the bloody tears at the corners of his eyes: "I do want your inner elixir, but I don't want you to die, I still want you to stay by my side for the rest of your life… A'Po, you are not allowed to die... you are not allowed to die..."

“A'Po... look at me, look at me."

Xuan Long did not open his eyes. He did not know whether it was because he didn't have the strength to open his eyes, or because he no longer wanted to look at him: "Yan Yuan... I am tired."

"I don't want to go on."

"We... finally, it's over..."

Yan Yuan tightened his arms, squeezing the man to the point of near pain, his jaw pressed against the corner of his forehead, "No... no... no... "

"I have not said it is over, how dare you say it is over! I won't allow it, I won't allow it!!!"

Xuan Long's time was up, and with each word, there was a lot of blood gushing out of his mouth: "You always... force me..."

"This time... I can finally, not comply with you..."

Yan Yuan lifted his hand to wipe his blood, which was hot and flowing like water. He softened his voice and coaxed him, "Then I won't force you in the future, okay?"

"Not okay..."

"Not okay..."

"There is no, future..."

There is no more future.

"There is... there is..." Yan Yuan was like a panicked child making futile struggles as he spoke tenderly in a hoarse voice to the man in his arms.

“A'Po... there is."

"If you don't sleep, then there is..."

Xuan Long lay silently in his arms and never spoke again.

The charcoal in the braziers burned all night, it was already dawn outside and the cell was warm, but Xuan Long's body was so cold that ten brazier could not stop his body from getting colder.

Yan Yuan had a splitting headache, he hugged Xuan Long blankly and whispered, “A'Po..."

“A'Po... don't you scare me, I know I'm wrong..."

"Look at me… look at me, okay?..."

Hua Niang fell to her knees and cried out in pain, “A'Long… A'Long… wu wu wu wu wu wu..."

He was dead.

Dead beings, how could they still speak?

At the same time, the baby in Hua Niang's arms cried along with her, crying out with a heartbreaking sob.

The mournful cries rose and fell in the gloomy prison. Yan Yuan found it noisy, he frowned and held Xuan Long's hand, calling him in a whisper, “A'Po..."

“Wake up..."

“Wake up..."

The man's face was blue and white, his blood-colored prison clothes were wet against his body, his long hair was scattered in all directions, his towering abdomen had deflated after he had given birth to a baby, and the whole man looked even thinner.

Yan Yuan untied the basalt cloak he was wearing and carefully wrapped him up: "Aren't you too cold here... then I will take you away and take you back to Qiankun Palace, where the underground dragon burns warm, you will surely like it..."

"You sleep well, then wake up a little earlier, okay?"

He stood up with Xuan Long in his arms and was ready to go when he noticed that the shackles on Xuan Long's hands were still on, the long chains attached to brass rings on the walls, signalling the torture Xuan Long had been forced to suffer here.

He called the jailer in to unlock Xuan Long's shackles, but the jailer trembled in fear at the sight of Yan Yuan, as if he were terrifying. Impatient, Yan Yuan took the key from the jailer and unlocked Xuan Long himself.

The shackles came off and Xuan Long's wrists were worn down to a rather deep layer of skin, revealing pink flesh. Yan Yuan held his hand and kissed him on the corner of his forehead, "I know you are in pain..."

"When we return to Qiankun Palace, I will ask Hua Niang to treat your wounds..."

"Now that I know that you are no different from a mortal, I will treat you better and will not be angry with you for no reason..."

In the past, although Xuan Long was angry with him and always deliberately avoided looking at him, he was at least awake, but now he didn’t even open his eyes.

How could he ignore him?

Yan Yuan had been spoiled by him, so much so that he could not stand it anymore when Xuan Long ignored him for such a short while. Yan Yuan's lips pressed against Xuan Long's face and his teary eyes blurred as he said:

“A'Po... I seem... seem to be sick."

"My head hurts... you always cared for me the most in the past, do you really refuse to care for me anymore?..."

"I know I have a bad temper, you have a big heart and have been giving in to me, so in the future, I can also give in to you some, I don't want the inner elixir, and I don't want your heart, look at me... look at me..."

Xuan Long kept ignoring him. Yan Yuan could only pick the man up again: "Then I will take you back to the palace first... I will wait until you have slept enough and then make a proper apology to you."

"No matter how you want me to make up for it, I can give it to you..."

Xuan Long has such a good temper, no matter how ruthless his heart is, he will not be able to be ruthless. When the time comes, he will make amends properly, treat him well from now on and not bully him, and after a long time, this dragon will surely forgive him.

However, as soon as he picked the man up in his arms, the already thin weight suddenly became lighter. He looked down and saw that Xuan Long's face, limbs, and hair had all begun to gradually become transparent.

“A'Po..."

Xuan Long's body turned into flying ashes at a speed visible to the naked eye, gradually disappearing into Yan Yuan's arms as the cold wind poured in through the openings on the four corners of his head and scattered as soon as it blew.

Yan Yuan instinctively stretched out his hand to grab it but failed to do so, he was at a loss for words and froze in place, not understanding how the man he had just held in his arms had disappeared.

“A'Po..."

“A'Long…" Hua Niang cried in a trembling voice.

The pale blue iris blossomed in Yan Yuan's palm, and an intense flash of blue light was followed by a sharp pain like the deliberate burning of flesh and skin. He looked down at his palm, and the iris withered instantly, leaving a grey scar, as if signalling the disappearance of a certain life.

The intense headache reached its peak and Yan Yuan's headache felt like it was going to explode. His eyes were red and almost dripping blood as he turned around in place, not seeing the person he was looking for. He eventually walked over towards Hua Niang who was sitting paralyzed on the ground holding the child.

"Where is A'Po?"

"Did you hide him?"

Hua Niang cried and shook her head.

Yan Yuan bent down and clutched her lapel with both hands, "You give him back to me, you give him back to me!!!"

"Did you use invisibility to hide him?! You want to take him away behind my back, don't you?!"

"I am telling you, don't you ever think about it!!! He's mine, he's mine!!!"

Hua Niang condensed her meagre spiritual energy into her palm and pushed Yan Yuan's hand clenched on her lapel away as she cried hysterically, "He's dead!!!"

Yan Yuan was caught off guard for a moment and was really pushed back two steps by her. After stabilising himself, he looked at her with bloodshot eyes that did not move, as if he did not understand what she was saying.

The child was coaxed by Hua Niang and was no longer crying. Hua Niang's hand gently patted the child's back and she whispered:

"He's dead."

"Ashes to ashes."

"From now on, in this world, there is no more Han Po."

"Isn't this what you wanted... you finally got your way, you should be happy."

Yan Yuan chewed these words in his mouth in a daze: "Ashes to ashes..."

Hua Niang shed tears silently: "After death, living beings in the six realms can fall into reincarnation and be reincarnated again. When ashes fly away, it means that the soul turns into dust and scatters in this world, there is no reincarnation, no more rebirth, there is nothing left..."

"You forced him... you forced him to his doom..."

"You have been forcing him..."

Yan Yuan had seen similar remarks before in books, and he knew what ashes to ashes meant. But how could Xuan Long fall into ashes?

"Impossible, I don't believe it... I don't believe he's gone like that, it's impossible..."

"No way, no way... " Yan Yuan walked towards Hua Niang, flung himself down on his knees and sat in front of her, raising his hand to clutch her sleeve. "Aren't you very powerful, if you bring him back, I will give you whatever reward you want..."

"You save him..."

Hua Niang choked back a sob and shook her head, "I can't bring him back."

"He was originally able to use the spiritual energy in his inner elixir to nourish the child in his womb, but who knew that you had suddenly lost your life. In order to save you, he had to give up his inner elixir and dissipate ten thousand years of Tao. You kept pushing him, forcing him to give you the inner elixir, when in fact he had already given it to you..."

“A'Long gave you everything... When you said you wanted to be husband and wife, he left the thousand year old pond to follow you back to the palace and spend time with you. You said you wanted dragon scales to save your friend, he plucked them for you despite his own pain, and he gave you as many as you wanted. Little did he know that it was all a conspiracy and a trick, all an act you put on to save your empress!"

"But even so, when he knew you were going to die, he saved you without a second thought. What did you want that A'Long didn't give you? It's just that there were some things that you wanted that he couldn't afford to give you..."

"Now he's finally given it to you, he's given you his life, what do you have to be dissatisfied with?"

"Ashes to ashes, there is nothing left. If you have a conscience, then for the sake of A'Long who tried to protect the child even to his death, let your child go. I will take him out of the palace, find a place where no one lives and raise him, and I will never get in your way."

The pain in his head felt as if a drill was twisting into it, and Yan Yuan stared into her crimson eyes as a certain memory that had been deliberately ignored reappeared in his mind. On that day, he had left the palace in search of Xuan Long. On his way back he had been stabbed and hit by a poisoned arrow, and thought he was going to die. When he woke up, he found himself lying in Qiankun Palace safe and sound, with Xuan Long guarding him by his side.

He knew that Xuan Long had cast a spell to save him, but he did not know that Xuan Long had dispersed his ten thousand years of Tao and used his inner elixir to save him. That dragon had never mentioned a single word about it to him.

Yan Yuan's throat ached, and large tears fell from his eyes, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Hua Niang cried, her pretty face scrunched up into a frown: “A'Long would rather die than keep the child in his womb. If I told you, if you knew he had lost his inner elixir, wouldn't you have immediately ripped out his heart?"

"He has only survived so far because of the child in his belly. Although he has a good nature and is not as complicated as the human race, he is still someone with blood and bones, you humiliated him like that, tortured him and treated him worse than a dog. If it were not for the fact that he was pregnant and wanted to save his child, he would have died."

"You held him captive and refused to let him go in order to use him to save your empress. Now that the dragon heart has finally been obtained, you should be overjoyed, what is the use of pursuing this..."

"No... I didn't, I didn't want his heart, I didn't want him to die..." Yan Yuan murmured and shook his head, covering his head in pain and bending down, his expression twisted and hideous as he fell to the ground and curled up in pain, the veins on the backs of his hands bulging.

"I didn't... I didn't..."