CH 104

Past Life – Part One

Even a kind-hearted person like Hua Niang would not feel any pity for such an evil human being. If this human emperor hadn't cheated A'Long's body and mind, why would A'Long have ended up in this state?

His ten thousand years of Tao had been scattered so easily, and he had spent his last days living in a place where no one could live, suffering from torture, and never recovering from his wounds.

Now that A'Long was dead, he was crying. What was he crying for?

"You obviously did!" Hua Niang was trembling, shedding tears and complaining vocally.

"You were the one who plucked out A'Long's heart."

"It was you who plucked A'Long's scales, it was you who locked A'Long in this cold cell, told the men to whip him, used a clamp to break his hand bones, it was you who embedded a hook into A'Long's shoulder and left him covered in wounds."

"He was pregnant with a child and you wouldn't even let him go, you wouldn't even be slightly kinder to him. Even if you were a little kinder to him, he wouldn't have spontaneously combusted his soul and gone up in ashes..."

"What are you crying about now?"

"You're the least qualified to cry."

Anyone was qualified to cry for Xuan Long.

The only one who wasn't was Yan Yuan.

The questioning voice was not strong, but it was like a sword piercing into Yan Yuan's head and heart, causing him even more pain, all over his body.

Why did it hurt so much?

Xuan Long died, and the person he loved was A’Yu. When he died, why did he cry? Why was it so painful... Why was the pain so bad that he wanted to die immediately...

Yan Yuan covered his head with both hands in severe pain and rolled over on the ground, his silver white robe stained with ash, his hair scattered out from his silver crown, and tears kept pouring out of the corners of his eyes, "Uh..."

"I didn't know... I didn't know he was going to die..."

"I didn't know..."

"I thought... I thought..."

Seeing that he was still making excuses, Hua Niang broke down and cried, "What did you think?"

"You thought that a demon is invulnerable to swords and spears, water and fire, right? Didn't you see him drenched in blood and in so much pain every day that he couldn't even speak?"

"It is the greatest misfortune in A'Long's life that he met you..."

"I knew his tribulation was near... but only now did I realise that you were his tribulation and that you were the most difficult one in his life!"

The nine heavenly thunder tribulations, the flying sands of hell, and the sword spirit piercing his body... were all tribulations that even those great demons with profound Tao might not have survived, but Xuan Long had survived them all, except for this love tribulation, which he had not been able to overcome.

Yan Yuan was so numbed by the pain that he knocked his forehead against the ground. He was so numb that he couldn't even feel the bleeding from his forehead, but the blood dripped from his forehead across his nose bone and into his eyes. He got up, climbed over to Hua Niang and grabbed her robe, speaking hoarsely, “It’s my fault, it’s my fault…"

"You save him..."

Hua Niang did not want to be touched by him at all, waving away his hand and crying, "I said I can't save him!"

"Dead is dead!!!"

"Ashes to ashes means there is nothing left!!!"

"Take the dragon's heart and save your empress. The dragon's heart will be preserved for one day at most, and when the time is up, it will turn into ashes like A'Long."

Yan Yuan stubbornly grabbed Hua Niang's pink sleeve and crouched on his knees, refusing to let go, his not very lucid mind more or less knowing that no one other than Hua Niang could help him get Xuan Long back.

"Please..."

"Please..."

But now even Hua Niang couldn't help him.

He always did what he wanted, and when he got angry, he would yell at Xuan Long, but Hua Niang could save him and Xuan Long was so powerful that he would always recover from his wounds.

He just wanted to force him to give up his inner elixir, he didn't want to kill him.

How come Xuan Long couldn't survive after giving birth to a child? How could he die? How could he disappear into ashes...

Yan Yuan still couldn't figure out how that man had left him like that...

He was clearly holding him just a moment ago.

In the blink of an eye, he disappeared.

Yan Yuan could not accept it, he desperately begged Hua Niang, even forgetting what dignity was. All he knew was that he was in pain, as if Xuan Long had taken his heart out with him when he ripped his out, leaving a hollow wound, every inch of his breath mixed with the pain of a knife cut.

Hua Niang waved Yan Yuan's hand away from her sleeve, stood up with the child in her arms and looked out into the dimness of the tunnel, "I'm leaving."

“A'Long left cleanly, leaving nothing behind, you can pretend that he never came and never gave birth to this child for you. You got a dragon's heart for nothing, you can grow old with your empress in the future, congratulations."

She had just opened the iron gate when she was stopped by two sword-wielding guards, who refused to let her go without Yan Yuan's order.

Hua Niang turned her back to Yan Yuan and said in a mute voice, "Let us go."

"I know you don't like him, and I promise that the boy will never be in your sight in the future, and no one will ever know of your connection."

Yan Yuan crouched on his knees and raised his head from the ground, his vision a blur as he barely met the delicate pink back: "Leave the child..."

Propping himself up on the ground, he wobbled to his feet and walked over towards Hua Niang.

As the sound of footsteps approached, Hua Niang turned around warily, tightened her grip on the sleeping child into her arms, and stepped back: "What do you want?"

"This child is mixed with your bloodline, his flesh and blood have no healing power, it's useless for you to keep him..." Hua Niang said. Seeing Yan Yuan reaching out towards the child, her eyes instantly filled with tears, "It's not enough that you killed A’Long, but now you won't even spare the child?"

"Please... don't..."

"Don't hurt him..."

Yan Yuan's fingertips fell on the swaddle by the child's white face, his scarlet eyes were filled with creepy obstinacy, and that cloaked look was set against the blood on his miserable white face, like a ghost.

"This is my child... he gave birth to for me..."

"No one... can take him away..."

As the words fell, Yan Yuan's body took an unbalanced step backwards and collapsed straight into the pile of damp straw as Hua Niang watched in surprise.

Xuan Long was dead, his body gone, and along with it the rich, cold fragrance in the air had dispersed, and the large puddle of blood left behind was nowhere to be seen.

"Your Majesty!!!"

"Your Majesty!!!"

The jailer at the cell door immediately noticed Yan Yuan's condition and opened the cell door to help him. Yan Yuan's eyes were tightly closed, the blood dripping wet half of his face, and he was already unconscious.

......

Above the Nine Heavens, in a palace of immortal aura and jade buildings, a man in black clothes sat behind a jade table, holding a blue book in his hand and reading it. Yan Yuan saw that his eyebrows were slightly furrowed. He was so focused on what he was reading that he didn’t even notice that he was back. He walked over, bent down and wrapped the man's slim body into his arms from behind, “A’Po… what are you looking at? Did you miss me today?"

Only then did the man in black return to his senses and close the book up, “Hmm... nothing."

He didn't have much expression on his face, but Yan Yuan could immediately detect his shortness of breath, and raised his hand to clasp his wrist: "Hm?"

The man in black frowned slightly and said in a low voice, "It's the 'Nei Jing? Su Wen', which contains contents related to pregnancy, which was sent to me by Mother."

"Oh." Yan Yuan let go, his hands slowly moving down to land on his still-flat waist and stomach, his large palms caressing it lovingly through the clothing. "Can you learn anything from that?

Xuan Long was once wounded in battle, wounding his abdomen. They had been together for ten thousand years and had finally gotten such a precious baby, which had to be loved and cared for properly, and it was normal for the mother to be concerned.

The man in black was silent for a moment: "It says here that it is not feasible to have sex for 300 years after conception."

Yan Yuan's hand stalled as he touched his stomach, his pretty eyebrows wrinkling as he stared at the man's cold profile, "Tch, there's still such a statement?"

The knot in the man's throat twitched slightly: “En."

Yan Yuan wilfully buried his face into his neck, sniffing the nice cold fragrance, "Fine, then I'll just put up with it for another 100 years, the little thing in your belly is important."

Because of the pregnancy effect, Xuan Long had not been feeling well since he found out he was pregnant, he could not even eat his favourite sashimi, and the two of them had not been close to each other for 100 years.

It would take at least 900 years for the baby in his belly to be born.

Perhaps sensing Yan Yuan's low mood, the man in black put down his book and spoke with downcast eyes, "If you really want to, be careful... it should be fine."

His voice was low and gentle, a gentleness that did not match his cold appearance. Yan Yuan's heart was as soft as water as he listened, and he said against his ear, "No, what if it hurts you and the child?”

"Don't worry... I can hold it back, at night, you can touch me like you did before... and it will be fine..." The end of his speech became more and more ambiguous, hot air entered the man's ears, and his body gradually stiffened. Yan Yuan took advantage of his unpreparedness to grab the man's legs and pick him up, successfully catching the blush that had not receded under the man's icy turquoise eyes.

"... For what?"

Yan Yuan's smile was like a painting, and in the blink of an eye, he had already appeared above the clouds in the Nine Heavens with the man in black clothes in his arms: "Counting the hours, it should be dark on earth at this time. Today is the Qixi Festival on earth, it must be very lively to go there at this time."

“Qixi Festival?"

“En. I want to spend it with you." Yan Yuan's kiss fell on the corner of the man's forehead. "And buy some trinkets for the child to play with."

"... The baby isn't due for another 700 years. Buy it then."

Yan Yuan took him to the earth without saying a word, and a cool breeze passed by his ears. The man in black wanted to come down, but Yan Yuan held him and refused to let him go, so he couldn't argue. In the end, he had to give up and eventually fell asleep on his chest.

A loud noise woke the man up and he opened his turquoise eyes to see that the place was brightly lit and crowded with people, and that they had already arrived in the mortal world.

Yan Yuan unapologetically held the man's hand as they walked through the crowd. They stopped in front of a small stall, and Yan Yuan picked up a red rattle and shook it, asking the man with a smile, "How about this?"

"Very good." The man had always gone along with him.

"Then this is it."

After paying the merchant, Yan Yuan used his spiritual power to put the rattle away, and the two of them stopped in front of another stall, which was filled with all kinds of brocade pouches, red, yellow, green and blue. Yan Yuan picked up a red gold silk brocade pouch and looked at it, and the stall owner greeted him warmly.

"My lord, this is a brocade pouch of blessings."

"Make a wish on a brocade pouch and then give it to your beloved, you will be able to have a long and loving relationship with each other for a hundred lifetimes..."

Yan Yuan smiled as his peach blossom eyes curved up, "Really?"

The stall owner: "Naturally."

"Then I'll take everything you have at this stall."

The man in black clothes was stunned: “A'Yuan..."

When they went back, the two of them brought a sack of brocade pouches, which were stored with spiritual power without hindrance, and Yan Yuan hugged the man in his arms as he had done when he arrived, whispering, "Love for a hundred lifetimes is not enough, we want eternity... eternity."

“… En."

Mortals worship the heavenly gods, burning incense and praying for shelter, which is understandable.

As a celestial god, one is not supposed to believe in mortal superstitions, but Yan Yuan just wanted to believe. He prayed to the heavens to let their love and affection live forever and ever, making wishes with the most devout faith, and the various coloured brocade pouches were eventually hung in various corners of the bedchamber.

A hundred years later, the demons came rampantly, intending to break through the divine South Ridge, the junction between the gods and the demons, and invade the Nine Heavens. The gods sent there were defeated one after another, and as the Heavenly Emperor, he could no longer sit quietly in the Heavenly Court. As Yan Yuan was about to go on his own expedition, the man in black took off his black robe and appeared before him in a silver and white battle robe.

"I'll go."

Yan Yuan immediately objected: "No, you are pregnant now, you must not go to battle."

“A'Yuan... trust me."

"I can protect you."