Not Coming Back
After tens of thousands of years of entanglement with Xuan Long, Yan Yuan finally left him behind and departed.
No matter what Xuan Long said or how he coaxed him, he never opened his eyes to look at him again.
Forbidden Land.
In the eternal night.
The bruised and battered Purple Heavenly Star burst into pieces, turning to dust the moment the purple light faded away and drifted away into the world...
In life, he was the most noble Emperor of the Nine Heavens, but after his death, his soul was reduced to ashes, no different from the most insignificant dust in the mortal world.
The Heavenly Way had not been gracious.
Yan Yuan died and will never return.
His physical body perished in Xuan Long's arms, without leaving even a single strand of hair behind.
Cries echoed in Dongji Hall as A'Zhi approached the bed and called out in disbelief for his father, while Yan Jing held the weeping Ye Ling Shenjun tightly in his arms and wept silently.
Several immortal eunuchs and healers who were kneeling on the floor were also crying.
Everyone was crying.
Only Xuan Long felt numb, with no tears left in his eyes.
He looked at his empty arms, where Yan Yuan had just been resting on him and talking to him, yet only a few moments later there was nothing left.
He had witnessed how Yan Yuan left.
When Yan Yuan was alive, he was always making a fuss, always doing something inappropriate to make him worry, but when he left, he was quiet, not making any noise or fussing, and it hurt even more.
He thought of the way Yan Yuan had snuck in to see him fifty thousand years ago on the night before the wedding, as excited as a child; he thought of the way Yan Yuan had held his hand on the day of the wedding, saying that he wanted to share his life with him; he thought of the way Yan Yuan had been so happy when he was pregnant with their first child that he didn't know what to do, picking him up and spinning him around.
He thought of the way he was badly injured in the War of Gods and Demons, and how Yan Yuan panicked and cried and begged him not to die...
They have been entangled for tens of thousands of years, going back and forth, and eventually reached the situation they were in today.
Yin and yang are separated, and they will never see each other again.
When Yan Yuan said he wanted to be with him for the rest of his life, he didn't break his promise. When he died in the War of Gods and Demons and fell into reincarnation, Yan Yuan said that the four seas and eight deserts were too big for him to search, but after his death, he left his divine throne and willingly followed him into the mortal world.
Yan Yuan had tried to do all the things he had promised him, but for the things he had not been able to do, he had been hindered by Heaven and could not resist.
Although he was not able to grow old, Yan Yuan was not yet old, yet he had grown white hair for him during his prime years.
Naturally, he could not blame Yan Yuan for anything.
He, on the other hand, said he would go to see the sea with Yan Yuan, but he has not yet been able to do so to this day.
If he had known earlier, he should have softened his heart when Yan Yuan was waiting outside his hall and promised to go to the East Sea with him to see how bright the light from the nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine floating lanterns was.
He had promised Yan Yuan that they would grow old together, but he was far less determined than the other man. He became a deserter in the face of life and death, which was not a kind of heartlessness.
He and Yan Yuan should be indebted to each other.
They can't be entangled any more...
"Mother, where is Father...? A'Zhi wants Father..." The tiny person flung himself onto Xuan Long's lap and grabbed his sleeve, crying as he trembled.
Xuan Long's thoughts were interrupted as he slowly lifted the tiny human in his arms.
"Mother, has Father gone up in ashes?... Never coming back?" " A'Zhi lay on Xuan Long's shoulder and sobbed.
A'Zhi had heard from Ye Ling Shenjun that all gods and humans had to follow the Heavenly Way, and if they disobeyed the Heavenly Way, they would not be allowed to live a good life, or worse, they would be extinguished.
To fade into ashes is to die and never return.
A'Zhi was intelligent; as he watched his father turn into ashes in front of him, he understood immediately.
Xuan Long: "Father he... will come back."
A'Zhi straightened up to look at Xuan Long and asked in a small voice, "Then Mother, let Father come back now, okay?..."
Xuan Long's eyes were bloodshot and he did not say anything.
A'Zhi cried out and hugged Xuan Long's neck.
He knew that his mother had lied to him.
Father would not come back.