CH 126

"General Xuan Long said that he will be waiting for you tomorrow morning in front of the Hall of the Gods and by the Three Lives Stone."

"Waiting for you to dissolve the contract."

The contract is the love contract.

A god can only make a contract with one person in his or her lifetime. When the contract is made, a drop of blood from the other person's heart is added to his or her palm in front of the Three Lives Stone, with Si Shen as the witness and the blood from his or her heart as the guide. After the contract is successfully formed, when the other party encounters danger or is extremely sad, their palm will produce a burning pain in the appearance of a love flower.

They will feel the other's joy and the other's pain.

Once the contract is dissolved, even that meagre connection between them will be lost.

Yan Yuan knew that this day would come, but he did not expect it to come so soon.

Before returning to Heaven, in those last years on earth, he always thought that if there was another life, he would definitely do everything he could to make amends and ask for Xuan Long's forgiveness.

In reality, he was not even in a position to do so.

What was the point of asking for forgiveness? His fate was incompatible with that of Xuan Long, and to continue to pester the stupid dragon would only cause him to fall into the abyss once more.

Mother was right, Heaven would not make it easy for them...

He could have a hard time, but he could not let Xuan Long suffer any more.

The next morning, Yan Yuan went to the meeting on time. He went early and Xuan Long was not yet there when he arrived. In front of the majestic Hall of Gods stood a warm egg-shaped jade taller than a man, warm and pure white; that was the Three Lives Stone.

Next to the Three Lives Stone stood a huge tree with many silver and white divine tablets hanging from its top, at different heights.

For tens of thousands of years, each of the immortal couples who made a love contract here would each carve a divine tablet and hang it on the tree in pairs, tied up with red string. The content could be a vow or a wish related to their lover, and they would hang it in plain sight without fear of being seen by others, as only the lovers who had made a love contract with each other could see what was written on the other's tablet.

It is said that the sacred tree has stood here since the beginning of time and is protected by the Heavenly Way, so if you tie a marriage tablet to the tree, you will also be blessed by the Heavenly Way.

When Yan Yuan and Xuan Long made a contract that year, they also carved such a divine tablet... His wish was simple: he wanted his beloved to be safe and happy, to love him forever, and not to leave him.

The loss of a loved one is like having your bones ripped from your flesh and blood. Yan Yuan never felt he could afford that kind of pain, but in fact, he could bear it far better than he thought he could. After losing Xuan Long and getting him back with much difficulty, he still had the strength to stand here, waiting for the person to come to their appointment, waiting for the person to come and dissolve the contract with him and separate.

It was just after the hour when Yan Yuan's eyes retracted from the trees, turning inadvertently to look, and his gaze stopped.

He saw a man in black clothes walking up the white jade-paved stairs, the first rays of gold in the morning falling on the corners of his eyes and eyebrows, so indifferent and handsome.

The night before the contract was made, he was so excited that he couldn't sleep, so he went to General Xuan Hall and tossed Xuan Long around too much, so Xuan Long got up late and asked Yan Yuan to wait for him for two hours, and he nearly ran to his bed to capture him.

The man had come late that day and had walked towards him in the same unhurried manner, probably because they had a long life to waste and there was no harm in delaying an hour or two.

But now they had no more time to waste.

Everything in front of him was the same as it had been fifty thousand years ago. The man's face hadn't changed a bit, save for the dark golden mask, and he seemed to be the same Xuan Long, the Xuan Long who loved himself without a care in the world.

Yan Yuan smiled, pretending he was having a nightmare that was hard to wake up from: "You're here."

Xuan Long stopped not far from Yan Yuan and raised his eyes to look at him, “En."

The two looked at each other.

Yan Yuan remembered the day they had formed their contract. In front of the Hall of Gods, they had smiled at each other, confided in each other, and made an eternal vow, but now, after only fifty thousand years, they had come to the point of going their separate ways.

Yan Yuan's heart twisted in pain. He tried his best to maintain his composure, yet he still blinked back tears and said in a trembling voice, “A'Po..."

"You must hate me."

Xuan Long lowered his eyes.

"Hate."

I hate that you are so shallow in your love for me, that I lost out because I loved you too much.

I hate the fact that you are so deeply in love with Ning Zhiyu that you can put me in an unforgiving and unjust place in order to save his life.

I hate you for being too cruel, for giving all your cruelty to me alone, and for not caring whether I could bear it...

If you want to count the bad things about Yan Yuan, Xuan Long could stand here and name many of them, perhaps it would take a day and a night to finish. In fact, he did not hate him as much as he said he did, there was some resentment, but more sadness and grief.

It was sad that they had worked so hard, but still lost to fate.

He could barely distinguish the shape of Xuan Long's mouth when he spoke, and with just one word, Yan Yuan's heart was torn into countless pieces.

The feeling of being severely wounded by his lover was so painful, but what about the lonely Xuan Long on earth? How reckless Yan Yuan was at that time, every word he spat out was able to shoot Xuan Long's heart into a sieve, but had he ever cried out in pain?

So how could he be qualified to cry out in pain now? The pain should be endured, and he should not go begging for forgiveness ignorantly.

"It's better if you hate me… if you hate me, at least you will still remember me."

"You must always, always hate me..."

Trembling and hoarse words were spat out, each word dripping with droplets of blood.

Yan Yuan smiled with his peach blossom eyes slightly curved. He approached Xuan Long with his teary eyes and lifted his hand to touch his face, wanting to touch his face as he did before.

Xuan Long tilted his head in silence and avoided it.

Yan Yuan's hand froze in mid-air, and after a moment it slowly descended.

It was as if the world without the sense of hearing had also cut out things other than sound, and apart from the excessive silence, there was an endless loneliness and coldness.

That loneliness was most vivid when he was alone, and most intense when he stood in front of his lover and was coldly rejected. Because he cannot hear a sound, the only way to experience the world is with his eyes.

His A’Po really hated him...

He desperately wanted to take the man in front of him into his arms and hug him with all his strength, but he could not. If they cannot be husband and wife again in the future, they should withdraw to a proper position and say suitable words.

Yan Yuan used the greatest amount of willpower in his life to restrain his actions, hoping that when the two parted, his presence in Xuan Long's mind would be less awful.

"I'm sorry... It was because my heart was not strong enough to resist the Heavenly Way… It was me who betrayed you and caused you to suffer all that for nothing."

"From now on, I will not bother you anymore, you can be the general again in peace. If you want anything, tell me, whatever it is, I will try to help you to do it."

Yan Yuan had been laughing and crying. It was as if his tears would never stop flowing.

Xuan Long did not understand why he was sad and why he was crying.

Soon he would be marrying his destined Immortal Empress as the Heavenly Empress, and at last he would be able to make peace with the person he loathed from the past, which should be something for him to rejoice about.

Why was he crying?

Apart from his guilt, Xuan Long could think of no other reason. After all, they had truly loved each other for forty thousand years, though those forty thousand years were worth no more than a few years on Earth.

Yan Yuan and Ning Zhiyu met, got to know each other on Earth and fell in love in just a few years, but they had spent more than 14.6 million days and nights together.

It is impossible not to feel sad if your heart is not made of stone...

Xuan Long did not want to think back to the cruel past on Earth, and spoke in a low voice:

"I want to see A'Zhi."

In the realm of soul consciousness, he saw a baby in swaddling clothes. Five years have passed, he should be able to run and jump now...

Yan Yuan was not able to distinguish what Xuan Long had said for a moment. Only after Xuan Long repeated his words did he catch the word ‘A'Zhi' from his mouth shape, and with a little thought he knew the general content of his words.

"Okay."

“A'Zhi is at Mother's, so I will ask someone to send him to General Xuan Hall to see you later."

Xuan Long: “En."

The two lovers, who once shared the same heart, had gone through a journey on Earth, but they had nothing to say to each other when they met face to face.

The sky was filled with clouds and mist, and in front of the Hall of Gods, next to the Three Lives Stone, the two of them looked at each other, but only sadness remained.

Yan Yuan actually had a thousand words to say; he wanted to tell Xuan Long how much he regretted and how much he hated his inability to do anything, he wanted to tell him how much he had missed and suffered for the past five years, he wanted to beg for Xuan Long's forgiveness. He did not want to make up, he did not want to break the contract, he did not want to let go of his hand.

But he couldn't.

His greed would kill his A'Po.

He had had him for forty thousand years, had the lovely child he had conceived with him, and he should be content.

So Yan Yuan smiled and spoke:

"It's time to dissolve the contract."

“En."

Xuan Long looked calm throughout the whole process, he didn't seem the least bit sad or distressed.

That was a good thing, Yan Yuan thought.

This way his A'Po wouldn't have to be sad or upset anymore.

He could be completely free of him and live a calm and peaceful life.

While the presence of the gods was needed as a witness when the contract was made, there was no need when the contract was dissolved; all that was needed was for both parties to go to the Three Lives Stone.

The reason why two immortals are able to bond is that when they form a contract, they plant the blood from each other's hearts into their palms. As time goes by, the drops of blood from the heart will gradually enter their own hearts through the veins.

When the other person is happy or sad, there is no need to guess, they will sense each other.

The bond between Yan Yuan and Xuan Long, who were not each other's destined lovers, had long since faded in the flow of time, to the point where they could no longer feel each other's happiness, anger or sadness.

Even so, as Xuan Long slashed the sharp dagger against his palm, Yan Yuan's eyes became wet and he called out in a voice, “A'Po..."

Xuan Long paused his movement for a moment, and didn't turn his head to look at him. The blade cut through his palm and before the blood flowed out, he pressed his palm to the Three Lives Stone.

He waited quietly for a moment, and after feeling Yan Yuan press his hand to it, he opened his lips and chanted in a low voice.

"Heaven's Way is above... Today, Han Po and Yan Yuan are here to dissolve their contract, henceforth, they will part and live happily apart..."

"Heaven's Way is above... Today Yan Yuan and Han Po are here to dissolve their contract, and from now on, they will say goodbye to each other... and be happy." Yan Yuan closed his eyes, and a tear rolled down his cheek.

Gradually, crisscrossing veins of blood spread within the warm egg-shaped white jade – the Three Lives Stone would remove the blood that did not belong to them from their bodies, taking their past with it.

A few breaths passed and the Three Lives Stone returned to its original form, the dissolving of the contract complete.

Xuan Long withdrew his hand, leaving an inch-long wound on his palm.

They had nothing more to say. Xuan Long stayed where he was for a moment before turning around in silence. Yan Yuan looked at his distant, thin back, his vision blurred and could not help but speak in a mute voice:

“A'Po... leaving me, can you really be happy?"

Xuan Long paused in his steps and did not turn around.

“En, I'm happy."