CH 105

Past Life – Part Two

The battle was so monstrous that fire was everywhere... Karma fire burned half the sky red and scorched the air hot. Yan Yuan was walking among the dense smoke when he heard miserable cries coming from the distance.

He suddenly became a little panicky and moved through the pungent fog, looking for the sound of the cries, and saw a group of celestial soldiers dressed in silver armour kneeling on the ground, gathered around a man and crying.

The man's long hair was spread out beneath him, and he was lying quietly and soundlessly on the charred ground. His face was so blurred by blood that he could not see his original appearance, a hole was pierced in his heart, and a steady stream of blood was staining his silver and white battle robe red.

Although he couldn't see his face, Yan Yuan knew that this was the man he was looking for. He stiffly walked over to him, and the celestial soldiers surrounding the man made way for him.

Yan Yuan knelt down at the man's side, lifted his upper body up and gently held him in his arms, covering the wound on his heart where the magic blade had stabbed him, and called out hoarsely, “A'Po…"

The man ignored him.

Yan Yuan's voice grew even more shaky as tears poured down uncontrollably, “A'Po… don't scare me."

The man was always reluctant to make him wait too long, and this time it should be the same. After a moment, he slowly lifted his blood-stained dark red eyelashes, his out-of-focus turquoise eyes met Yan Yuan's face and only half recognized him, as if he were someone else.

"... You're here."

Yan Yuan spoke to the man in the softest of tones, tightening his arms, “En, I'm here... I'm here..."

"I've come to take you home..."

The man's turquoise eyes were half-dark, and he said, “A'Yuan, the child... should be gone."

In addition to the large and small wounds on his body and the wound on his heart, the man had also shed a lot of blood under his body and his trousers were soaked through. Yan Yuan knew that he was sad and must be blaming himself.

Yan Yuan pressed his lips to the corner of the man's forehead and closed his eyes in pain, tears rolling down his cheeks: "If it's gone, it's gone, we can have another one later. Don’t think too much about it... there's still a long time ahead."

The man looked at the fiery red sky: "The demons... have been defeated..."

Yan Yuan whispered back: “En, I know you are powerful, General Xuan Long has always been victorious in battle, you are the most heroic in my heart."

The man's thin lips pursed, and he smiled as he spoke dyingly: “A'Yuan... I will not go back with you this time..."

Yan Yuan suppressed his sobs and asked, "Then where are you going?"

The man spoke with difficulty, "Perhaps... to walk on earth."

"You're leaving me?" Yan Yuan could not hold back a choked sob. "I won't allow it... We agreed to spend ten thousand lifetimes together, you can't go back on your word."

"Don't go back on your word... If you go back on your word, I will be angry with you."

The man consoled him, "Don't cry... I'm not going to disappear in ashes, you'll come and find me when I fall into reincarnation..."

Yan Yuan cried harder and harder, as if his heart had been hollowed out. He raised his hand to wipe away the blood gushing from the man's mouth: "The four seas and eight deserts are so big, how can I find... you are not allowed to die, if you die and leave me alone, how can I bear it?"

"See the wound on my face... the marks left by the karmic fire will be engraved on my soul and will be carried with me in my reincarnation... The next time you see me, you will be able to recognize me at a glance..."

If you enter reincarnation, you will inevitably have to drink Mengpo soup, even the heavenly emperor is not spared, this is the rule set by the Heavenly Path. As a heavenly deity, one could not go down to earth to find a mortal to be a couple, for anything that went against the Heavenly Path would be condemned by Heaven.

Yan Yuan knew that Xuan Long was trying to cheer him up, so he was reluctant, crying and shaking: "I don't want... I don't want another life, I just want the present, I want you to stay with me forever..."

The man's heart was pierced by a magic blade, the most powerful healer in the Nine Heavens could not save him, and it was certain that he would leave, which they all knew.

But Yan Yuan was unwilling to accept it. He picked up the man and rushed to the Heavenly Palace, telling him to wait a little longer, there must be a way to save him.

But before he got halfway home, the man died. His breath growing weaker and weaker, and the man who was not good at smiling, in his last moments, was smiling as he died in Yan Yuan's arms.

He said:

"Foolish A'Yuan, I am willing to be your general."

"I would cut through the thorns for you... to protect you for all eternity."

He was gone.

Taking their child with him, he disappeared from Yan Yuan's world.

......

Inside Qiankun Palace, the sleeping man on the dragon couch seemed to be caught in a nightmare. His forehead wrapped in gauze, faintly seeping with blood, his handsome young face stained with tears, even the pillow beneath him was soaked.

He murmured, almost pleadingly.

"Don't… A'Po... don't go..."

"Look at me... please, look at me..."

"We said we... would cross the ten thousand lifetimes..."

"We said we would..."

"Don't you go..."

"Don't go..."

Chen Yan, who had entered the inner hall carrying the soup and medicine, saw this and hurriedly put the wooden tray on the table and ran to the bedside to call him lowly, "Your Majesty..."

"Your Majesty..."

After calling out a dozen times, the man on the bed quieted down and slowly opened his reddish peach blossom eyes.

Yan Yuan propped himself up on the bed and sat up, as if he had not yet recovered from his nightmare. The candle flame reflected on his tense face, looking rather terrifying.

Chen Yan turned to bring the medicine from the table and whispered, "Your Majesty, you are finally awake, you have been unconscious for three whole days. This is medicine for your wounds, you..."

Yan Yuan didn't listen to what Chen Yan was saying at all and asked in a hoarse voice, "Where is Xuan Long?"

Chen Yan froze and looked at Yan Yuan without squeaking.

When Yan Yuan saw that he did not speak, he lifted the covers and was about to get out of bed, "I am going to go to the prison to see him."

Bring him back.

"Your Majesty..." Chen Yan called out to him sharply.

Yan Yuan's feet landed right on his boots and he lifted his scarlet eyes to look at the eunuch's increasingly aged face.

"Have you forgotten, Master Han disappeared three days ago."

"The flower essence said that his heart could only be preserved for one day, so this old servant personally delivered the dragon heart to Luanfeng Hall, and by late afternoon today, the Empress had awakened." Chen Yan's voice had taken on a sobbing tone when he reached the end of his sentence.

Yan Yuan murmured, "Gone?"

Chen Yan: "Yes."

The pain in Yan Yuan's head was so bad and he remembered then that Xuan Long had died.

He had died in his arms.

He had dug his own dragon heart out for him before he died, leaving nothing behind when he left.

Nothing was left behind.

Exactly the same as in the dream...

"Your Majesty, you, what is wrong with you?..."

"Don't you scare this old servant..."

Tears fell from Yan Yuan's eyes, he sat dully on the edge of the bed, looking at the empty hall, and said softly, "I had a long, long dream... In the dream, I was in love with Xuan Long, and he had my child... I was very happy with him, and before the child was born, we prepared many, many things for him to wear, use, and play with..."

Chen Yan asked, "And then what happened..."

"Later... later the child was not born, he fought for me and died in battle on a sacred mountain... he died in my arms, and after his death his body turned into ashes... just like that day..." Large drops of tears rolled down one after another, Yan Yuan covered his head in pain and bowed up his body.

"Just like that day..."

Chen Yan looked at him worriedly, his eyes mournful: "Your Majesty, that was just a dream..."

"Since Master Han is dead, you should not think too much about it... Go and see the Empress."

"Uh... he... he..." A gasp of suppressed pain escaped Yan Yuan's throat as he covered his head and struggled, hoarsely saying, "He's dead... "

"He's dead... I don't want him to die..."

"Chen Yan, I'm in so much pain..."

"I am in pain..."

Chen Yan went over to support him, and his old tears flowed: "Your Majesty, why are you in such pain? The deceased has passed away, you did not care about him when he was alive, now that he is no longer here, you need not think much about him."

"Since Master Han has left so decisively... he must not want you to think of him."

When Xuan Long was alive, he suffered a lot, but he did not get any good from Yan Yuan, so his late regret was extremely cheap and useless. Even if it was because Xuan Long had saved Yan Yuan's life, Yan Yuan should not have done that to him in the first place. Chen Yan, as a servant, was soft spoken and that was all he could say.

"Your Majesty, you should drink the medicine, it will be unpalatable if it gets cold."

Chen Yan handed the bowl of medicine to Yan Yuan, but Yan Yuan raised his hand and brushed away the bowl, splashing the medicine in all directions and shattering it.

"I don't want to drink it! You go and invite Taoist Master Shi here, I have something to ask him, now."

Since that Taoist Master Shi could subdue demons, he must have a way to save them.

Just because Hua Niang doesn't have a solution doesn't mean that the other people don't...

It was late at night, and even if someone was to be summoned to the palace, it would have to wait until tomorrow. Yan Yuan decided to summon him overnight, so Chen Yan had to send someone to invite him.

When Taoist Master Shi arrived at the palace, Yan Yuan asked him how he could bring back a demon that had gone up in ashes. Humans can’t come back to life after death, not to mention a demon that has vanished into ashes. Even the most illiterate of men knew this common sense, and the answer Yan Yuan received was predictable.

He knew that he was crazy, but he couldn't stop, so he had Taoist Master Shi arrested and tortured him to force him to find a way to bring Xuan Long back. It was only after a night of questioning that he found out that this Taoist Master Shi was just a simple journeyman who could drive away a kid, but not a demon with ten thousand years of experience. 

The demon chain that Taoist Master Shi had left in the palace was in fact a chain made of ordinary material, but it was much thicker and heavier. Therefore, Hua Niang's words were true, Xuan Long's Tao had long been gone, and a chain made by a human could take away half of his life.

But Xuan Long had suffered so much pain and had never told him that his Tao was gone... his inner elixir was gone...

No... It seems that it had been said, only he didn't believe it, he thought it was all an excuse for Xuan Long to pass the blame and refuse to offer his inner elixir to save Ning Zhiyu...

He didn't believe it, so he used all kinds of vicious torture on him to force him to hand over what he had given him long ago.

He also said that Xuan Long was stingy and could not give up his Tao to grow old with him.

In fact, he was not stingy, the dragon treated him most generously...

The demon chain was offered by Taoist Master Shi, but he was the one who ordered the torture.

Damn, it was only right that he should die too.

He had seen Xuan Long's injuries and knew that someone had tortured him, so he made the jailer ask questions and had the man arrested the next day.

When Yan Yuan went to the prison, the lean jailer was already beaten to death and covered in blood. Suddenly Yan Yuan remembered that Xuan Long had also been tied to this wooden cross that day, beaten to the point of dripping blood.

Yan Yuan did not quite understand how he could have done that to Xuan Long. Since he woke up, he felt as if he was in a dream and was in a daze all day, dreaming when he fell asleep that Xuan Long was lying in his arms, telling him not to cry.

The face that was once hidden in a mist became clear. It turned out that the man in the dream was not Ning Zhiyu, but Xuan Long. The pupils of his eyes were the same icy turquoise colour as Xuan Long's, and his voice was the same low and gentle tone.

He didn't know whether he had mistaken the man or whether it was because he missed Xuan Long so much that he dreamed of him all night long and always woke up in tears.

A bucket of water was poured on him and the jailer barely opened his beady eyes.

"Who gave you permission to bully him like that?" Yan Yuan asked in a hoarse voice, his fingertips embedded in his palm. It was as if he was asking him, but also as if he was asking himself.

"Your Majesty, you said... as long as he is left alive, it will be fine..."