CH 109

Restoration of the Heavenly Emperor

Although A'Zhi was young and born early, he vaguely knew that his father was coaxing him. If his mother could really come back so easily, he would not have asked him and his father to wait so long.

His father was just leaving him behind and didn't want him anymore.

"Don't… A’Zhi will be good, Father, don't leave A'Zhi behind..."

The young child, who had always been good and quiet, cried so hard that he couldn't catch his breath, and bean-sized teardrops slammed down his face, smashing into Yan Yuan's heart and causing it to hurt.

He raised his thin, meatless hand from the bed and touched A’Zhi's little face with difficulty, smiling.

"Father knows... that A'Zhi is the best behaved."

“A'Zhi's nature follows that of his mother, not making any noise… it's a pleasing nature."

A’Zhi’s nose was red from crying, and his hands grasped Yan Yuan's wrist: "Then why does Father still have to leave..."

The pale fingertips wiped away the tears on the young child's face and withdrew feebly. Yan Yuan turned his eyes and looked upwards, murmuring softly, "Because Father is tired… I need to go and see your mother to get better."

A'Zhi did not understand why he had to be left behind in order to see his mother and why he couldn't take him with him. He begged his father desperately not to leave him behind, but all he said was that he should listen to Aunt Hua.

As he spoke, his father's voice became softer and softer to the point where he could not be heard, and no matter how much he begged, his father ignored him.

"Father... Father..."

A'Zhi held Yan Yuan's cold hand and gently shook it, expecting that his father would roll over and lift him up high to make him laugh, as he had done before, but the man in the bed lay quietly and silently, sleeping heavily.

Three years ago, Yan Huo Heng was relegated to a commoner and exiled to the border for the crime of pretending to be the emperor and breaking into the palace. Somehow, he managed to get his hands on the royal family of a bordering country and borrowed an army to invade Darong.

In the past few years, Yan Yuan had been suffering from illness and was not interested in state affairs. His power in the court had been gradually eroded, and when the ministers saw that he had been overcome by the lust for wine and was dwindling, they were tempted to embrace a new emperor.

The year after Ning Zhiyu was sent to the cold palace, he disappeared inexplicably. To the Prime Minister, he would not have been upset if his son, who had been deposed for adultery, had died, but he would have been upset if Yan Yuan, as an emperor, who sat on ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains and was supposed to be the protector of the people, had fallen to this state because of love.

Even though the story of the emperor and the dragon was a beautiful one, he still felt that Yan Yuan had been possessed by a demon.

The Prime Minister, who was originally loyal to the Emperor, became disillusioned as Yan Yuan fell from grace day after day, so nearly a hundred officials, led by the Prime Minister, secretly began to campaign to support a new Emperor. Yan Huo Heng took this opportunity to befriend the Prime Minister, collaborating with him from both inside and outside, and fighting his way through the border with borrowed troops, taking half a year to reach the foot of the Imperial City.

It looked as though they were about to fight their way into the palace.

The servants in Qiankun Palace were dismissed a few days ago. Since the death of Chen Yan last winter, Yan Yuan had no one to talk to, so he had to swallow all his bitterness in his belly, and when he was drunk, he could only hug A'Zhi and reveal a few things.

The palace was empty and desolate, except for A'Zhi on his side of the bed, and only Hua Niang, who was not far away, kept Yan Yuan company.

A'Zhi's physique is different from that of the human race, so when he is ill, he needs to be treated with demon medicine. Over the years, when A'Zhi occasionally suffered from minor pains and wind chills, Hua Niang would come into the palace to see A'Zhi, and often brought in some trinkets from outside the palace to give to him, so A'Zhi was no stranger to Hua Niang and knew that she was a good friend of his mother.

But even if she was a good friend, she was no match for his own father, so when A'Zhi saw that his father was not paying attention to him, he used his small arms and legs to climb up on the bed and threw himself on Yan Yuan's chest to call out to him.

The child had lost his mother at such a young age, and now he was losing his father too, which was pitiful to see. Hearing him cry, Hua Niang followed suit and went up to take A'Zhi's hand.

“A'Zhi… let’s go, Aunt Hua will take you to eat delicious food outside the palace."

"Don't you like the beef buns on Guilan Street the most? Aunt Hua will take you to buy them, the freshly baked buns are much better than the ones brought into the palace."

A’Zhi clung to Yan Yuan's body, refusing to let go, and his tears drenched Yan Yuan's profane clothes: "A'Zhi doesn't want baked buns, A'Zhi wants Father... Aunt Hua, tell Father to pay attention to me, A'Zhi is afraid... "

“A'Zhi is so scared..."

“Wu wu wu wu wu wu wu wu..."

He cried for a long time, but when he was tired of crying, he stopped crying and quietly lay on Yan Yuan's chest, talking to him, saying that he had recited the poems in the morning, and that he had recited them all correctly, so should Father kiss him as he had done before.

Why didn't Father kiss him?

Hua Niang could not bear to tell A'Zhi the meaning of death, he was too young.

When A'Zhi was not paying attention, Hua Niang quietly approached him and used a sleeping spell that she had just recently learned. A pink beam of light penetrated A'Zhi's body from the back of his neck and his long eyelashes drooped uncontrollably as he fell asleep.

Hua Niang gently picked the young child up and wiped away the remaining tear stains on his cheeks.

"Don't be afraid... Auntie Hua is here."

Half an incense stick later, a small, inconspicuous carriage drove out of the Lunar Gate, taking A'Zhi away from the place where he was born. The carriage broke into the bustling market, moving further and further away from the imperial city behind it.

As night fell, fire danced around the entire imperial palace as Yan Huo Heng led hundreds of thousands of troops to the gates, and before they could fight, the imperial troops stationed at the palace surrendered their weapons.

The victory was already decided.

Yan Huo Heng took the largest group of soldiers to Qiankun Palace, where he kicked open the door to the main hall. The candles were unlit and there was no one inside, but he finally found Yan Yuan in the side hall.

Half of the nine candles on the dark gold Nine Dragons Candelabra had been extinguished by the cold wind as Yan Huo Heng barged in.

Dressed in basalt iron battle armour and holding a cold heavenly sword, Yan Huo Heng approached the person on the bed with every step.

The person on the bed was dressed in a white robe, covered with a brocade blue silk quilt that had been washed to the point of being torn, his face was pale and thin, with a deadly aura, as if he had already died.

As Yan Huo Heng tightened his grip on the sword in his hand and stopped at the edge of the bed, the person on the couch slowly opened his eyes.

"You're here..."

The long sword abruptly cut through the air, the tip of the sword against Yan Yuan's throat. The end of Yan Huo Heng's eyes were red and bloodthirsty, and he asked in a deep voice: "Where is A'Po?"

Yan Yuan looked at Yan Huo Heng for a moment, then calmly looked back upwards and smiled, "Don't you know all about it..."

"Did you really kill him? You cut his heart out..." Yan Huo Heng's eyes were wide open, his body full of hostility that nearly broke through the roof of the hall. The tip of his sword trembling out of control, it cut through Yan Yuan's skin, causing a stream of fresh blood to seep out.

"You came too late." Yan Yuan sighed softly, "If only you could have taken him away in the first place... it would have been good."

"Unfortunately, you came too late..."

The wrist of the hand that Yan Huo Heng held the sword with could not stop trembling. Just one more minute of force and the person on the bed would completely disappear from this world. But he was unwilling, unwilling to let this person die so easily.

"You prevented me from taking him away in any possible way and tortured him to death, Yan Yuan, have you ever regretted coming to this point?"

Yan Yuan's out-of-focus eyes misted with water: "Regret... I regret it."

"But what's the use... regrets are most useless." He said, slowly twisting his head to look at Yan Huo Heng, and smiled. "On the contrary, you, once upon a time, coveted this throne, and now that you have finally obtained it, you can live happily in the future, right?"

Yan Huo Heng gritted his teeth: "I never coveted your throne, you forced me to."

"I gained power so that I could protect the people I wanted to protect."

"Is that so?" In fact, he had already known about Yan Huo Heng's collusion with the Prime Minister. Although most of the officials in the court had turned against him, there were still a few loyal subjects who remained loyal to him, such as General Chen, who held military power.

If General Chen had been informed in time and troops were brought in from the northwest, Yan Huo Heng might not have won.

Yet he did not.

Knowing that his days were numbered and that there was no point in occupying the throne, and that it was too cold in the palace and that he did not want A'Zhi to live alone, facing the world from the high walls, he decided to send him to be raised by Hua Niang.

At the age of two, A'Zhi was able to transform into a dragon like Xuan Long. The palace should not hold him captive, instead, the vast world outside should be his home.

Looking at the royal sons, the princes who were stationed in their own fiefdoms were either brave or weak and did not have the ability to control the world. Although Yan Huo Heng was ambitious, it must be said that he was capable of sitting on the throne.

So Yan Yuan released him into the Imperial City.

"Yes." Yan Huo Heng's dark eyes gazed at Yan Yuan without averting.

There might be a misunderstanding, but it didn't matter anymore. What mattered was that soon, he would be able to go in search of his A'Po.

Yan Yuan's hand feebly grasped the tip of Yan Huo Heng's sword and grabbed it.

"You can have the throne, but not A'Po."

"Yan Huo Heng... you'll never beat me in that respect."

"He can only be mine..."

Yan Yuan smiled leisurely, and before Yan Huo Heng could react, he grabbed the sword and pressed it downwards, raising his upper body slightly as his neck was slashed fiercely against the sharp blade, and blood splattered in an instant.

Yan Yuan's body fell back onto the bed, blood gushing out rapidly from the several inch long wound on his neck, drenching his profane clothes and the bedding beneath him, making his face whiter than the walls.

He closed his eyes and lost his breath.

A few drops of blood splashed on Yan Huo Heng's face, and he froze. When he reacted, he threw away his sword, clutched Yan Yuan's collar with both hands and dragged it to his eyes, his eyes scarlet, and said, word by word: "How could you die so easily?"

"You should have suffered all the humiliation he suffered before you died..."

After finally avenging Xuan Long, Yan Huo Heng was not as happy as he thought he would be, he just felt an endless void and loneliness. The condition for borrowing troops from the enemy was to marry the Emperor's favourite young prince as his empress. After ascending to the throne, Yan Huo Heng got married and had an empress, but he never forgot for a moment about the dragon that had entered his dreams night after night.

......

Above the Nine Heavens, immortals in various colours of robes passed by at the edge of the Jade Pond, some carrying immortal peaches, some cakes, some fish and meat.

By a jade pillar at the edge of the pond, an immortal in a pink gown smiled cheerfully and waved at the immortals carrying food.

"Hurry up, the Heavenly Emperor is returning from the mortal world today and will soon be resuming his duties, everybody, be quick in your work and get everything ready before he returns."