Binding the Dragon for the Empress Chapter 123

Not a Dream

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The reason why the last wisp of soul consciousness was not pulled by the soul gathering box was because of the deep obsession it had during its life.

The memory of this shattered wisp of soul consciousness was so badly mutilated that it only had a vague outline of what had happened in the past. Xuan Long only clearly remembered that he and Yan Yuan had a child, but the child disappeared before he could hug him.

He did not know that it was not the child who disappeared, but that he had died, so naturally he could not see the child.

When Yan Yuan entered his soul consciousness and showed him the child, Xuan Long's wish was fulfilled and he was willing to listen to Yan Yuan and go home with him.

The soul consciousness was obediently turned into ashes and burrowed into the small dark gold box with a dragon carving, and the realm of soul consciousness disappeared in a flash. The world was plunged back into darkness, the wind was blowing hard all around, and it was about to rain. When the soul gathering box in Yan Yuan's hand shone with an indestructible green light in the cherry blossom forest, it reflected the red at the end of his eyes and his flying black hair. 

The soul gathering has succeeded...

His A'Po, soon, will be back...

The hem of his robe was tugged by the small child at his side, and A'Zhi's childish voice came from the ground.

"Father..."

"Why is it dark again? Where is Mother?"

Yan Yuan looked down at him and bent down to pick A'Zhi up, smiling, "Mother is sleeping in the soul gathering box."

A’Zhi followed Yan Yuan's line of sight to look at the small dark gold box with a dragon carving in his hand, and stretched out his little hand to touch it reverently.

"Come on, let's go home." Yan Yuan smiled at A'Zhi's tender white face, then raised his sleeve and waved it into the air. White light flashed, and father and son disappeared in an instant.

One day in Heaven, one year on Earth.

Yan Yuan had been walking on Earth for a month, but it was only an hour after he had spied his mother's aura in the Nine Heavens, so he led A'Zhi back to the Dongji Palace.

Behind the white gold bookcase, Ye Ling Shenjun was sitting on the ground, twirling a tea bowl in his hand, slowly sipping tea and reading a book, it looked like he hadn't left Dongji Hall since Yan Yuan had left.

"Moth... Father."

"Back?"

Two people, one large and one small, appeared out of nowhere in front of him. Ye Ling did not raise his head, finishing the page of the book before he looked up with a sense of satisfaction, "Where did you find this book of words, it is so intentional..." His smiling gaze touched the tender young person in Yan Yuan's arms, and his breath paused, “This is..."

“A'Zhi, my child with A'Po." Yan Yuan answered.

Ye Ling put down his tea bowl and his book and stood up, walked to Yan Yuan, looked at the little boy for a moment, then smiled and concluded:

"Like you."

A'Zhi's pupils and horns were like those of Xuan Long, but his face was more like Yan Yuan's. His face was white and tender, his eyebrows were almost carved in Yan Yuan's likeness, and his peach blossom eyes evoked a feeling of pity.

Yan Yuan did not refute, A'Zhi did look like him.

“A'Zhi, this is Ye Ling Shenjun, who is your grandmother."

A'Zhi was brought up as a crown prince, he understood the etiquette and greeted Ye Ling at once: "A'Zhi has met Shenjun..."

"Good boy." Ye Ling happily stroked A'Zhi's dragon horn, thinking that this little boy was more intelligent than Yan Yuan, and knew to call him Shenjun, if he called him grandmother, wouldn't he be calling him old and... clearly telling everyone that he could give birth.

Yan Yuan opened his palm and the soul gathering box suddenly appeared: "Father, I have brought A'Po back."

Ye Ling Shenjun looked down and smiled happily: "I knew you would be able to do it."

"Please help me, Father, and cast a spell to bring him back to life as soon as possible." During the past month, Yan Yuan had been travelling around the world with little rest, and his spirit had been tense for a long time, so it was inevitable that his eyes showed fatigue and his voice was hoarse.

Looking at his appearance, Ye Ling Shenjun's long eyebrows wrinkled slightly: "We still need one more thing before we can cast the spell."

"What is it?" Yan Yuan was already impatient, no matter what it was, he was determined to get it. "Father, please tell me."

Ye Ling hesitated to speak and sighed, "This journey will be more difficult and dangerous than the road to collecting the soul, you are not in the right state now, so go and rest for a day. I will lock up the soul gathering box to ensure that Xuan Long's soul remains for a while longer, and we will discuss it after you have rested."

“Otherwise, if anything goes wrong along the way.. both you and Xuan Long will be broken."

Ye Ling stepped forward to leave, but Yan Yuan grabbed his wrist as he passed him and whispered, "For his sake, I will go through mountains of sword and seas of fire, I will go through them all."

"As long as A'Po doesn't come back, I won't be able to rest in peace."

"Father, tell me."

"I can do it."

After a moment of silence, Ye Ling spoke with difficulty, "The heavenly fruits... are needed to reshape Xuan Long's divine body, six heavenly fruits are needed."

"Heavenly fruits?..." Yan Yuan murmured and repeated, vaguely thinking that it sounded familiar.

“En."

"Mei Meng Mountain, also known as Nuwa's Realm. Ten thousand thousand years ago, Nuwa's immortal body was transformed into the six immortal trees on the Mei Meng Mountain after her death, and the fruit borne from those trees can make the dead souls who have transcended the six realms reshape their physical bodies. Regardless of whether they are human, demon, immortal or divine, as long as their hearts are sincere, one can enter Nuwa's Realm to pick the immortal fruit, but after ten thousand thousand years, almost no one has ever succeeded."

Yan Yuan instantly understood where Ye Ling's heaviness came from: "... Why?"

"Because regardless of the gods and demons, once they enter Nuwa's Realm, they will lose all their spiritual power. Moreover, each immortal tree is surrounded by ancient divine beasts, which must be defeated in order to pick the immortal fruit."

"For tens of thousands of years, how many living beings have been gnawed to death by those divine beasts... Only one person has ever succeeded."

"Who is it?" Yan Yuan spoke with difficulty.

The trailing spirit's eyes were filled with regret: "Immortal Monarch Youran."

"A thousand years ago, in order to save his immortal wife who had died in childbirth, Immortal Monarch Youran broke into Nuwa's Realm alone and obtained six immortal fruits despite losing all his spiritual power, saving his wife's life."

Yan Yuan smiled with joy when he heard those words; since the other man could do it, he could do it too.

"Later, although his wife survived, his spiritual body was too heavily damaged, and he died not long afterwards. In the end, his soul was separated from his body, leaving a pair of orphans and widows... eh."

A pot of cold water poured down upon his head, extinguishing Yan Yuan's elation. After a long silence, he smiled, pretending to be relaxed and said, "To be able to keep his wife and son alive... must have been a relief to that immortal monarch when he left."

"Anyway, A'Po will never forgive me... if I die, he and A'Zhi will be able to have some peace of mind."

Just now, A’Zhi was arranged to follow the fairy eunuchs outside to go out and play. Fortunately, the child was not allowed to hear these words, and Ye Ling Shenjun slapped Yan Yuan's head and spoke with a cold face:

"Brat, what nonsense are you talking about."

"If you die, won't your father and I feel sad?"

"I am saying this because I am telling you that you must not take things lightly when you enter Nuwa's Realm, not that you should go with the intention of certain death. If you dare to die, as soon as Xuan Long returns to life, I will immediately arrange for the rest of the immortal gods to arrange a second marriage for him."

"Father..." Yan Yuan frowned, his eyes reddening a little.

In the end, Ye Ling was not angry with his son and soon softened his tone, raising his hand to his arm and squeezing it: "You live well, although you are not destined to be together, you can still look at him from afar when you want to see him."

"You still have A'Zhi... can you bear to leave A’Zhi without a mother and a father?"

Yan Yuan couldn't bear it.

A'Zhi was obedient and was intentionally excused by the adults. He was willing to follow the immortal sister out to play, but after all, he had just returned to Yan Yuan's side. He lacked security, and not long after he went out, he said he missed his father, and the immortal had to bring the little boy back.

The conversation in the hall had already ended, and outside the door came the sound of the immortal's announcement. Yan Yuan himself went over to open the door and picked up the little boy on the floor. A’Zhi leaned over and wrapped his arms around Yan Yuan’s neck, and spoke in a muffled voice, “Father…"

Yan Yuan's big palm caressed A'Zhi's young back, and he asked with a smile, "Why are you back so soon? Wasn't it fun outside?"

"It was fun, but A'Zhi wanted to be with Father more.” A'Zhi's face was pressed against Yan Yuan's neck and his arms were hugging tightly.

Yan Yuan's hand on A'Zhi's back stopped, and he exchanged a glance with Ye Ling before speaking with difficulty, "... A'Zhi, Father will be away for a few days, so you can follow Ye Ling Shenjun for a few days, okay?"

A'Zhi froze at his words and slowly loosened his arms, the ends of his eyes reddened at a speed visible to the naked eye: "Where is Father going?..."

"Father is going to do some important things." Yan Yuan smiled, even though he had a million things in his heart, he would not cry in front of the child in his sober state.

A'Zhi's lips stammered and there was a faint cry in his childish voice: "Do you not want me again?"

When Yan Yuan explained it, A'Zhi was finally willing to follow Ye Ling Shenjun for the time being. When Yan Yuan went out, he did not look back, the door of the hall was closed by the fairy eunuchs guarding him, and the sound of A'Zhi's crying was heard from inside the hall, which he was trying to restrain.

He was crying out for his father.

Yan Yuan paused in his steps, his hands hanging at his side tightened little by little, and he tilted his head and took a deep breath.

The only thing he could do was go forward, go forward, and not look back...

Mei Meng Mountain is an existence that transcends the six realms, so if one is sincere, one can find it. Yan Yuan found the entrance un less than half a day following the information from Ye Ling Shenjun.

When Yan Yuan was about to go up the mountain, he heard a dragon roar in the distance, and an ancient dragon with a black body came hovering through the clouds, stopping in mid-air and looking at Yan Yuan arrogantly.

"Who is coming?"

His voice was thick and low, echoing ethereally through the mountains.

Unexpectedly, he encountered a divine beast just after entering Mei Meng Mountain. Yan Yuan could clearly feel his divine power fading at an extremely rapid pace, and he slowly pulled out the divine sword he wore at his waist, his face expressionless: "Purple Heavenly Monarch."

The great black dragon was slightly surprised, "The Emperor of the Nine Heavens?" He soon regained his arrogance from earlier. "What is your purpose for entering Nuwa's Realm."

Yan Yuan gripped the sword in his hand: "To find the heavenly fruit and save my wife."

"You don't know your own strength." The giant dragon scoffed.

"To get to the mountain, you need to sacrifice two of the seven emotions and six desires."

"To obtain the six heavenly fruits, you also have to defeat the six divine beasts. For tens of thousands of years there have been countless dead bodies in this Nuwa's Realm, so think before you make your decision..."

The seven emotions are joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred and desire, and the six desires are hearing, sight, taste, smell, touch and intention.

Losing any one of them would mean that one would no longer be complete.

"I've made up my mind."

......

One month later.

The man on the couch slowly opened his icy turquoise pupils to the silvery white tent above him, and the air was filled with the familiar scent of iris flowers. He woke up and lay still for a long time, in a trance, convinced that he had had a long nightmare in which the man who said he would spend a million lifetimes with him had deceived him, lied to him and humiliated him...

Sitting up slowly from the couch, Xuan Long raised his hand to the right side of his face and felt a hideous scar.

It was not a dream.

‿︵‿︵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: November 1, 2022