Binding the Dragon for the Empress Chapter 62

A Small Witch in the Presence of a Big Witch 

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The robe he had draped over his shoulders slipped to the ground, and Xuan Long, using his own strength, stood up with difficulty and walked towards the bed.

He did not want to show his weakness in front of Yan Yuan, and although he walked slowly, his pace was quite steady.

Yan Yuan picked up the basalt robe from the floor and went after him.

Xuan Long bent down and fished out a white porcelain bottle from a hidden compartment beside the bed. He had been suffering from abdominal pains recently, and there were no more than a few capsules of the medicine newly given to him by the healer last time. He poured two capsules into his palm and clumsily put the extra one carefully back into the narrow mouth of the bottle.

"What are you taking?"

Xuan Long had already swallowed the medicine by the time Yan Yuan went over, and was lying on the bed with his back to Yan Yuan.

"......"

Xuan Long looked like he was unwilling to pay him any attention, curled up slightly and unmoving.

Yan Yuan threw away the basalt robe in his arms, opened the secret compartment and felt out the small white porcelain vase, frowning, "What is this? I'll throw it away if you don't tell me."

He didn't know whether the pain in his abdomen had not diminished at all because the medicine had been taken too often and he had developed resistance to it, but Xuan Long turned around in a blur of consciousness, braced himself to grab it and said in a low, mute voice, "Give it back to me."

Yan Yuan raised the pill bottle and made the gesture of dropping it.

Xuan Long frowned slightly, his demonic turquoise eyes looked at him and did not move. It was like he was looking at a child who was fooling around.

Feeling weak from the look, Yan Yuan lowered his hand and said in a stiff voice, "I told you, I hate it when you hide something from me."

Xuan Long sighed in relief and laid back down, "You haven't been honest with me either."

"So you're rehashing old scores with me now?" Yan Yuan raised an eyebrow.

"I know I am not qualified." Xuan Long closed his eyes, and all emotions were covered up.

When he said that, Yan Yuan had no way to continue picking fights with him. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he looked at the man's heroic face and said, "It's not that you're not qualified, you are one of my people at least."

"......"

Yan Yuan had the intention to please him, so he grabbed the sleeve that Xuan Long had stained with yellow paint and pulled out the small wooden figure inside that was larger than a palm. He casually held it in his hand and looked at it for a few moments, then said, "Since this is the gift you were going to give me for my birthday, I will accept it reluctantly."

Xuan Long opened his eyes to look at the person beside him who was as handsome as the moon: "... It's not ready yet."

"That's okay, I'll like it this way." Yan Yuan lifted the wooden man and smiled warmly.

It seemed like it had been a long time since he had smiled at him like that.

Xuan Long was naturally pleased and looked away uncomfortably. In fact, every time Yan Yuan asked him for something, he would be extra gentle, and he had known that for a long time.

He told himself not to care, he didn't have much time left to live anyway, so why should he care about things that made him sad.

As long as Yan Yuan was willing to accept their child... that was enough.

The rest of it didn't matter much.

"What would you like me to do?" Xuan Long heard his low voice, ringing out in the hall.

Yan Yuan obviously froze, and looked as though he knew that he knew he had something to say.

After a moment of relative speechlessness, Yan Yuan spoke, "I want... you to kill someone for me."

Xuan Long looked at him sideways and moved his lips, "Who is it?"

"My elder brother, Yan Huo Hang." Yan Yuan's gaze gradually clouded over. "He is not satisfied with holding millions of troops in his hands and has repeatedly sent people to assassinate me, wanting to take my place."

"Even if Yan Huo Hang's martial arts skills are strong, he is only a mere mortal. You have ten thousand years of Taoism, so I think that if you cast an invisibility spell, you will be able to kill him while he is unprepared."

He did not know that Xuan Long had lost ten thousand years of Taoism, so he could not even fly in the form of his incarnation and could no longer use the invisibility technique.

Xuan Long was silent for a long time before speaking out, "... Okay, I'll help you."

"The figure... is your first birthday present."

Yan Yuan was in a good mood, and went over to him and asked, "Just how many gifts do you have for me?"

"Only two." Xuan Long knew that Yan Yuan did not like that wooden man, so he did not count it.

"There is one more..."

Yan Yuan was not interested at all and interrupted Xuan Long, "Then leave it in suspense and tell me when you return."

"He will arrive in Chang'an tomorrow, so you should go to the outskirts of the city in the morning to ambush him and take advantage of the opportunity."

"Mhmm." Xuan Long responded.

"There is some use in you keeping the inner elixir, at least you can remove the thorn in my side."

Yan Yuan had Ning Zhiyu on his mind and left when he had achieved his goal.

Xuan Long had long since become accustomed to Yan Yuan's intermittent warmth and coldness; he was not in good spirits and always wanted to sleep, so he had no time to think wildly.

In the middle of the night, a thunderstorm raged outside his window, and Xuan Long woke up in a cold sweat. His calves cramped so badly that he woke up in pain and stayed awake, picking up the unfinished wooden figure at the foot of his bed and rubbing it in his hands.

Yan Yuan said he liked his birthday present, but in fact he hadn't taken it with him when he left. When he was in his presence, he didn't even know how to act properly, so he could tell at a glance that something was wrong.

There was a raised wooden button in the secret compartment at the head of the bed, and when it was pressed, there was a smaller secret compartment inside.

This was a side hall, so Yan Yuan's things were not usually kept here, so Xuan Long had always used it.

Yan Yuan wasn't interested in him, so he wouldn't know how many things he was hiding in secret.

As the day dawned outside the window, Xuan Long took out the blood-coloured jade bottle from the hidden secret compartment, poured out the only blood-coloured pill inside, and swallowed it with his head tilted.

It was a Ling Xuan pill, which could restore the spiritual power of a demon who had lost all his Taoism for a short period of time. Although it was very small, it was enough to allow him to perform the invisibility technique and eliminate a mortal.

The side effect is that after the medicine wears off, his spiritual power will weaken at an exponential rate within a day, his life expectancy will be shortened, and the pain in his body will be doubled when he has an attack.

This was originally given to him by the medical sage for his protection.

If he found out that Yan Yuan was trying to harm him, he would take this Ling Xuan pill and fly away from the palace in his original form.

In fact, the day Xuan Long decided to return to the palace with Yan Yuan, he was not prepared to leave. In his heart, he hoped that his last days would be spent with Yan Yuan and their child.

Even if that person did not love him at all.

Xuan Long closed the drawer of the hidden compartment, and, dressed in his basalt robe and black veil hat, he stealthily passed through the closed doors of the palace.

The sky was grey, and the rain had been intermittent for days, hardly stopping. Xuan Long shuttled through the rain and fog and flew out of the city.

From the palace to the outskirts of the city, it only took a few breaths.

Xuan Long took his human form and landed on a huge tree, holding on to a thick branch and panting lowly. The foetus in his belly was moving around unsteadily, banging against him and causing him pain, obviously feeling his nutrients depleting rapidly and was not happy about it.

Xuan Long's icy turquoise eyes were soft, and he raised his hand to caress the slightly bulging belly under his robe with ease, and said in a warm voice: "Be good..."

In the future, if your father is not with you, you must be good and listen to that man.

He is very impatient, if you make him angry, he may not want you anymore...

The little thing was so mischievous in his womb that Xuan Long was worried, but he would not understand these words even if he said them now, perhaps when he was older he would be able to listen to them.

He didn't know if it was because he was tired or something else, but after a while, the little thing quieted down, curled up in a ball in his belly, and didn't move.

There was no one on the muddy road, so Xuan Long looked at the hazy mountains in the distance and whispered to the little thing in his belly.

"When we return to the palace this evening, I will tell him that we have you."

"Do you think... he will be happy?"

Originally talking to himself, he didn't expect the little thing to bump his hand against his belly as if it was conscious. Xuan Long froze slightly and lowered his head, the corners of his lips curving up naturally.

"Though he dislikes me, you are his child... he should not hate you."

"It shouldn't be..."

There was a sudden murmur of footsteps from the back of the woods.

"Catch that fox!"

"Quick! Whoever catches him will be granted a chant by the abbot of the Confessional Temple and will ascend to the ranks of the immortals after death!"

Xuan Long looked down and saw a white fox scurrying from the bushes. The fox's originally snow-white, soft, beautiful fur was stained with blood and mud, and the flesh was torn up in several places, which kept trembling as it ran away, revealing the bright red flesh underneath.

The rain washed over his body, making him look even more disfigured.

Xuan Long froze, “Hu Le..."

The fox seemed to hear the whisper from the tree and stopped as an afterthought, lifting those icy blue eyes to look upwards.

Xuan Long's mind went blank and he flew down the tree.

The fox took human form and fell helplessly to the ground, his blue robe torn and tattered, covered in splotches of blood, his snow-white skin scattered with ambiguous marks of bruises, and his sanity didn't seem too clear anymore. He looked at Xuan Long in fear, shivering constantly.

"Don't come... don't come..."

"Don't hit me..."

Xuan Long walked over and pulled his hands away from protecting his head, his heart feeling a thousand times worse: “Hu Le… it's me..."

"It's me, Han Po..."

It was hard to imagine what kind of abuse Hu Le had endured. His stunning face was no longer as beautiful as it once was, his face had a few light red marks from the knife, the corners of his mouth were bruised and swollen, and his beautiful eyes were only filled with horror.

"Han Po...” Hu Le looked at Xuan Long in a daze. It took a long time to recognize him, and tears fell from his eyes. “A'Po..."

"It's me." Xuan Long crouched down in front of him and touched his face. "Don't be afraid... it will be okay, I'll take you away."

"Where have you been?" Large tears slid down Hu Le's face, his eyes not quite able to focus as he looked at Xuan Long and his speech was slurred. Xuan Long noticed that a small part of his tongue had been cut out, the wound was new and his teeth were stained with blood, "I made dinner the other day and I noticed you weren't there... then I went out to look for you and couldn’t find... "

"It's all right..." Xuan Long lifted his hand to wipe his tears and took Hu Le into his arms, patting his constantly trembling body. "It's all right..."

Hearing the footsteps getting closer, Xuan Long picked up Hu Le and flew away.

Halfway back to the palace, Hu Le couldn't hold on and fainted, his hair clinging messily to the side of his face, his breath weak. Xuan Long sensed that his spiritual energy was completely gone and his inner elixir was no longer there.

Xuan Long took him back to Qiankun Palace, laid Hu Le on the bed, and ordered someone to bring in warm water.

He was soaked to the bone and his clothes were too torn to be seen, so Xuan Long took them off for him. When he wiped his body, he found that the wounds on Hu Le's face were nothing compared to his body.

‿︵‿︵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: July 25, 2022