CH 143

The rain that day almost flooded the entire Heavenly Realm.

Sitting up from his bed, Xuan Long thought he was in a dream, the wind and rain outside giving him the illusion that he was still in the mortal world.

But when he saw the silver and white bedding, it was obvious that he was in the Heavenly Realm. His heart tightened and he felt a twinge of pain for no apparent reason.

"... Lian Bi."

When Lian Bi heard his call, she appeared in the hall in an instant. Seeing Xuan Long's right hand pressed against his heart and his sword brows knitted slightly, she tensed up nervously and stepped forward: "General, what is wrong with you? Is your soul hurting again?"

Xuan Long shook his head and hoarsely asked, "What time is it now?"

Lian Bi: "General, it's eight o'clock."

"You had only been asleep for a short time before you woke up."

Xuan Long was in an awkward position, and it was inappropriate for him to go to Yan Yuan's wedding; he had not received an invitation and was not prepared to go. Last night, Yan Yuan had spent the night chattering outside his hall, and as his soul was still healing, he had fallen asleep not long after Yan Yuan had left.

The time had come for the wedding ceremony to take place.

A thunderclap pulled Xuan Long back from his thoughts and he turned his head to look out the door, "What is happening outside... how can it be raining in the Heavenly Realm."

Lian Bi pursed her lips, wanting to speak but stopping.

Xuan Long did not hear a reply and turned his icy turquoise eyes to look at him.

Lian Bi laughed dryly in an attempt to muddle through: "General, what's so strange about rain in the Heavenly Realm? Didn't Yan Luo Hall flood ten thousand years ago..."

Xuan Long sensed that she was not acting right and interrupted with a slight frown, "Lian Bi."

Lian Bi stubbornly bit her lips, but refused to say.

Xuan Long waited for a moment and did not force the issue, lifting the blanket and getting out of bed.

Lian Bi opened her arms indignantly to stop him, but she spoke with little force: "It's the Heavenly… the Heavenly Emperor has disappeared."

Xuan Long raised his eyes to look at her: "What do you mean by disappeared."

Lian Bi squirmed: "... Perhaps he thinks that Immortal Monarch Zhiyu is not as good looking as General, so he is not happy to marry him! If he's not happy to marry him, he'll run away from the marriage."

This was something Xuan Long never expected.

Thinking about the violent storm outside, it didn't take Xuan Long a moment to understand what was going on. His eyebrows knitted deeply and he disappeared from the hall in a white light.

Lian Bi took a few steps to stop him and made Xuan Long take his real form: "General! Where are you going?

"He has committed such an unforgivable transgression, and today's punishment from Heaven is his retribution! Do you still want to be soft on him now?!"

Xuan Long spoke in a low voice: "Get out of the way."

Lian Bi spoke with red eyes, "All the gods of the Heavenly Realm have gone down to look for him, you are the only one missing!"

"Your soul is not yet healed, and he kept you up all night last night, so you couldn't even get a good night's sleep. He's a plague! Only when he's dead will we be happy!"

"Lian Bi!" The words were so treacherous that if anyone else had heard them, Lian Bi would have been executed, and Xuan Long showed a rare moment of anger.

Lian Bi was so frightened that she forgot to shed a tear.

Xuan Long quickly regained his composure: "He is A'Zhi's father."

It was not clear whether he was talking to Lian Bi or to himself.

The mortal world was so vast that finding a god who had deliberately concealed his spirit was like looking for a needle in a haystack, and no one knew where Yan Yuan might be hiding. Xuan Long, in his true form, weaved through the rain and clouds, as if he had been pulled by a mysterious force. When he saw a thunderbolt descending in the direction of Chang'an, he flew in that direction.

As the heavy rain fell, Chang'an was reduced to an empty city. The sky, as dark as night, was lit up by lightning as nine heavenly thunderbolts descended and were about to fall on the man in red who had passed out on the street before Xuan Long suddenly spiralled down from the sky and transformed into his human form to block the thunderbolts for him.

The twelve heavenly punishments fell on him and he was sure to die, but Xuan Long arrived just in time to block two of them for Yan Yuan. The clouds cleared, the sky became brighter and the storm subsided.

Xuan Long dropped to his knees and coughed out a mouthful of blood. He pressed his palm against Yan Yuan's chest and gave him most of his divine energy. Yan Yuan's originally weak divine breath gradually regained some life and the wounds on his body stopped bleeding.

His handsome face was so stained with blood that he could not see his original face, and his silver hair was scattered messily on his side, as white as the cold river snow, never to return to its former state. Xuan Long raised his hand in a daze and touched Yan Yuan's face, wanting to wipe away the blood, but the more he rubbed, the more muddled it became, so he had to withdraw his hand.

His divine power was only half-holding Yan Yuan's breath, and the injuries caused by the Heavenly Punishment had to be healed by the Healing Immortal as soon as possible.

Xuan Long could not carry Yan Yuan, so he dragged Yan Yuan's upper body up from the ground and placed it on his back. He slowly stood up with him on his back, and a series of droplets of blood fell from his mouth as he took a few difficult steps forward and transformed into his true body, carrying Yan Yuan to the sky.

He had never felt that the mortal world was so far from the Heavenly Realm. The long road ahead seemed to have no end, just like the relationship between them that had a beginning but no end. No matter how hard they tried to walk, they could not walk into the future.