Binding the Dragon for the Empress Chapter 4

Healing Medicine

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Xuan Long had been cultivating for nearly ten thousand years and should not have been so weak. As his great tribulation approached and his magic power weakened, the pain in his body became vivid, and even the wounds left by plucked scales were slow to heal.

As the tribulation drew nearer, he became more and more like an ordinary mortal, and it was natural that he would suffer from this torment.

The man on the stone bed, who had just experienced the so-called marital intercourse, was naked and had not even had time to cover himself with a quilt before falling asleep, trusting Yan Yuan too much to think of defending himself.

Yan Yuan quietly stopped at the edge of the bed, his eyes falling on the wound on the left side of Xuan Long’s chest. The wound was right over his heart, as long as the dagger was stabbed in, he would die…

It wouldn't be too painful.

Then his heart could be cut out and he could go back to save A'Yu.

As an emperor, Yan Yuan has a compassionate heart, but he knows that he is not an indecisive person. When he killed the ministers at the Golden Palace and spilled blood on the ground, he did not have the slightest weakness, but now he can't do it.

The dagger in his hand was raised high, his fingers squeezing the handle so hard that his bones turned white, and he was unable to bring it down.

A kind of deep pain almost drowned Yan Yuan, as if he and Xuan Long had not met for the first time in January, but rather in a previous life. They must have known each other in a previous life, otherwise he would not be so soft-hearted.

To be soft-hearted to others is to be cruel to Ning Zhiyu…

He can lose anyone, but he cannot lose his A'Yu.

Yan Yuan closed his eyes, his breath trembling as he gritted his teeth and raised the dagger in his hand, stabbing it fiercely at Xuan Long's chest–

The man on the stone bed suddenly gave a low whimper. Frowning in pain, he rolled over and curled up slightly, looking like some kind of wounded beast, too fragile to be concealed.

Yan Yuan's movements halted, and Xuan Long's pale face was reflected in his eyes.

The tip of the knife was stained with a few drops of blood; he had only stabbed it in a fraction of an inch earlier, and a tiny stream of blood trickled from Xuan Long's chest onto the snow-white blanket.

It looked dreadfully shocking.

After a moment of daze, Xuan Long half-opened his turquoise eyes without warning. His hazy gaze fell on Yan Yuan beside the bed, and it took him a moment to react, as if he didn't understand, "…Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Yan Yuan swiftly hid the dagger in the sleeve of his robe. He pursed his lips and whispered, "Looking at you, you look good."

Xuan Long didn't notice anything unusual. He had already gotten used to the pain in his chest and it wasn't obvious that it had increased a bit, besides, he wasn't in his right mind at the moment.

Yan Yuan always says mushy things to him, and Xuan Long is shy but doesn't show it on the surface, "Go to sleep."

Then, overwhelmed, he closed his eyes again and drifted off to sleep.

Yan Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and dared not make any more rash moves.

He felt faintly annoyed and inexplicably relieved to have missed this opportunity.

Just wait… a little longer…

Pressing down his jumbled thoughts, Yan Yuan went and fetched a clean white cloth and carefully cleaned the blood from Xuan Long's body before he got into bed and hugged him from behind.

When Xuan Long woke up the next day, his body felt so strange that he couldn't walk easily. He had heard that it was pleasurable to have intercourse with one's beloved, but he did not know exactly how. It was probably just like how he was now, his heart was happy but his body had to suffer, otherwise why would it hurt so much?

Yan Yuan loves the buns and lotus leaf congee at Jingyu Palace, so Xuan Long got up and went to Chang'an City to buy breakfast food. In the past hundreds of years, he did not have to go out once, living off of fish and shrimp, but now he has to travel to the mortal world three times a day.

When he returned, Yan Yuan was still sleeping. Xuan Long put the food box on the stone table, his bony fingers pulled open his lapel to reveal his heart, and he picked up the dagger on the table.

It was the same dagger that Yan Yuan had used last night when he wanted to kill the dragon and cut out his heart.

Xuan Long's palm gently stroked his heart, and that patch of skin was instantly covered with black scales that glowed beautifully.

The dragon scales over his heart were the best medicine for his wounds. Now that they had almost all been pulled out, Xuan Long casually aimed at a dragon scale at the edge of his heart and pried it off with the tip of his blade.

He swallowed a muffled grunt in his throat without uttering a word, but his face turned a little whiter and the blood stained his clothes. Fortunately he was wearing his xuanyi, so it was not easy to see. (Angel: Xuanyi is a red and black dress worn by ancient sacrifices.)

"What are you doing?" Soon after, Yan Yuan's voice came from behind him.

Xuan Long calmly straightened his clothes, covered up the blood on the dagger and put it back in its place, before turning to look at Yan Yuan, who was already sitting up on the bed, "Get up and eat your breakfast."

"What were you doing just now?" Yan Yuan stared suspiciously at the man's cold face, feeling that something was wrong with him.

"Nothing." Xuan Long said.

"Why did you get hurt like that?" Thinking of the wound on his heart, Yan Yuan frowned.

Xuan Long was silent for a moment, avoiding his gaze, "I didn't intend to get hurt."

Yan Yuan knew Xuan Long's temperament well. If he was unwilling to talk about something, even he could not pry it out, so he had to give up.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: January 7, 2022