Binding the Dragon for the Empress Chapter 161

Exactly 120,000 Years Apart

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The taste of that bowl of fish soup was exactly the same as the one made by Yan Yuan.

The same dish could be made by ten thousand people with ten thousand different flavours, hardly ever identical. Xuan Long had eaten the fish soup made by Yan Yuan countless times, so there was no way he could be mistaken.

When he tasted the first bite, he thought he was dreaming and froze at the moment, then immediately proceeded to take a second and third bite, and something hot dripped down his cheeks and landed in the bowl. Halfway through the meal, Xuan Long put the bowl down and stood up as if waking up from a dream, searching the house, inside and out, up and down. The house was obviously so big, the yard was so big, and he searched it several times over and over like a wandering soul.

He thought Yan Yuan had come back.

But if Yan Yuan had returned, how could there be no trace of him in the house? And who had made this bowl of fish soup?

Xuan Long went back to the Heavenly Realm. A'Zhi was busy with his studies, and Lian Bi had been with A'Zhi since Xuan Long left the Nine Heavens more than a hundred thousand years ago to serve him, and neither master nor servant had left the Heavenly Realm recently.

As the general guarding the Heavenly Realm, Yan Huo Heng was not allowed to leave the Heavenly Realm at will. Ever since Xuan Long had explicitly rejected him, the two of them had rarely met, both because they were far apart and because it was worse to see each other than not to see each other.

Apart from them, no one cared about Xuan Long's preferences, let alone spend any thought on him, but if the fish soup was not made by them, then who could it be?

That absurd thought took root and sprouted in Xuan Long's mind. He knew it was impossible, but he still had a strong intuition in his heart that Yan Yuan had returned but was just unable to appear in front of him at the moment due to some force majeure factor.

Xuan Long travelled over and over again through the places he and Yan Yuan had been together, the Heavenly Court, the Earth, all four seas and eight deserts including those they had agreed to see together, tirelessly walking, walking and searching.

Everyone thought that Xuan Long had gone mad, that he had been alone for too long, that he had hallucinated from overwhelming longing. How could someone who had fallen into ashes for over a hundred thousand years suddenly return?

The reason why Xuan Long came back from the dead was because of the soul gathering box forged by Ye Ling Shenjun and Yan Jing over thousands of years and the fact that Xuan Long's soul had just been scattered, so he could narrowly be retrieved.

There was only one box, and it could only be used once.

After Yan Yuan left, Ye Ling Shenjun and Yan Jing spent ten thousand years forging another one, but Yan Yuan's soul ash has long since completely dissipated in the mortal world, and it was simply impossible to find it.

So it was impossible for him to return.

Xuan Long travelled through Heaven and Earth, returning home after every month, and staying for three or two months before leaving home again. He did not know why Yan Yuan did not come looking for him if he had returned, or why he was not allowed to find him if he had returned.

Originally, he was just living in a muddle, ready to live until A'Zhi grew up, and when A'Zhi married and had children, he would pick an ordinary afternoon and leave this boring world.

Now that he had expectations in his heart, he did not think about leaving, and he did not dare to think about what kind of future he would have with Yan Yuan. He knew that he was separated from Yan Yuan by a divine fate that was difficult to disobey, he just wanted Yan Yuan to return safely, even if he only saw him once.

Another hundred years passed in a flash.

Time seemed to pass as slowly as the gravel between his fingers, but in fact it passed quickly. Xuan Long's anticipation gradually deteriorated into numbness, and he even began to wonder if that bowl of warm and delicious fish soup was just a beautiful dream he had after he had been seriously injured.

After another ten thousand years, Xuan Long stopped searching and waiting.

His days returned to their former dullness, like a pool of stagnant water.

On the day of Xuan Long's birthday, a crack appeared at the border between the mortal world and the Demon Clan, and tens of thousands of evil spirits poured out, causing chaos on earth. Xuan Long went to the Heavenly Realm to receive his orders, and together with Yan Huo Heng, led the Heavenly Soldiers down to suppress the crack. When he was repairing the crack in the sky, he was attacked by an evil spirit that had escaped from the crack, injuring his abdomen.

After he returned to the Heavenly Realm to report on his orders, he went back to his small bamboo courtyard in the East Sea alone, forgetting to even look for a healer, just wanting to go home and get a good night's sleep.

This was what he did most of the time when he was injured; he curled up alone. Since the wound would eventually heal anyway, he didn't take it seriously.

Because he had lost blood and was a little thirsty, Xuan Long did not go to his bedroom on the second floor first, but pushed open the bamboo fence to walk towards the kitchen on the ground floor. When he looked up and saw the open kitchen door, he stopped in his tracks and did not withdraw his hand from the bamboo fence.

If he remembered correctly, he should have closed the door when he left.

As he stared, the sound of boiling water inside the house reached his ears. Xuan Long closed the bamboo fence and walked slowly towards the dining room, his steps becoming slower the closer he got.

When Xuan Long stopped at the door, the person in front of the stove raised his head at the sound and looked at him.

This look was separated by a full hundred and twenty thousand years.

‿︵‿︵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: February 27, 2023