Xiang Yu watched An Rong’s expression and felt that what he was saying seemed indeed to be the truth. But then again, he also knew that demons couldn’t be trusted. Torn between believing him or not, he finally reached up to touch the mark of wisdom after all, inquiring whether it was indeed the case that people had been able to escape the curse by simply being in the mortal realm at that time.

To his surprise, the response that he got was precisely the same that An Rong had given him: There were three ways to evade the curse back then. Conceived but not yet born, away from the place where the curse was laid, or using extraneous means like the soul-engraving dagger on yourself in the grace period before the curse struck.

These were the only ways and it seemed that An Rong had coincidentally been among those who managed to evade the curse, even though he hadn’t intended to do so. It had simply been a lucky coincidence.

Xiang Yu didn’t know how to feel about this for a moment. He couldn’t really fault the demon, and finally, he could only decide that he had been extremely lucky. He wasn’t sure if he was satisfied with that but, right now, there were more important things to consider. “You help me find Xiao Li again.”

An Rong looked at him and shrugged his shoulders while nodding before motioning toward his palace. “Sure, I can do that. Although … do you still need to find him? You’ve already become like this. Surely, you already know what you want to know, don’t you?”

Xiang Yu blinked his eyes. “I do.”

An Rong quietly walked toward his palace, not sure if he was catching Xiang Yu’s drift. “Since you know, then why are you still looking for him?”

“He killed me!” Xiang Yu felt that it was more than obvious. The perfect life he could have had, Xiao Li had taken it from him. How could he let him get away with this?

An Rong felt that he somewhat understood what was going on and finally just nodded. Anyway, that half-demon had it coming. He didn’t know if he had originally known about who that youth had been but, either way, he had indeed killed him.

Surely, at that moment, he hadn’t taken into consideration that there was a master alchemist next to him to bring him back from the brink of death. No, he had attacked that youth because he had thought that if he did that, then An Rong wouldn’t try to intercept him any longer.

He had taken the chance to eradicate another life just for the chance of not needing to say the truth. After all, if he gave him the potion he had prepared and found out that Xiao Li didn’t know anything, then he would have let him go. Nobody would have tried to do anything to him. And yet, he had been willing to kill the person he claimed to love.

An Rong gave a dark chuckle and shook his head. “That Xiao Li really shows just how the demon race works nowadays. I am afraid there has never been a person he truly loved. It’s all just about benefits. But then, that is the mark of a demon born under the curse. The fact that half his blood came from another race didn’t factor into that at all, I’m afraid.”

Xiang Yu didn’t say anything to that and simply followed An Rong back to the palace, hoping that they could find Xiao Li fast.

While that person needed to be killed for what he had done, there were more important things waiting for him. For example, Xin Lan was still around. Right now, was he still in the meadow next to the lake? He didn’t know but he wanted to see him again.

In fact, if not because he was afraid that Xiao Hui would manage to get even further away, the first thing he would’ve done would’ve been to check on Xin Lan. Anyway, he might not be Hua Lin Yu anymore, but he was still the same person, right? They could just … pick up where they had left off.

Even though Xin Lan wasn’t the good kind of dragon, he would be willing to believe in him even if it was only for a bit. And anyway, he knew Tian personally. If he went to him and asked him to curse Xin Lan as well so he wouldn’t randomly fall in love again in the future, surely, that could be done. Yes, there was definitely a chance for the two of them to be happy!

Just thinking of being with a person that was actually worth it, Xiang Yu’s lips curved gently. In all these years, nobody had been as good to him as Xin Lan when he was Hua Lin Yu. No matter what was wrong with him, he was clearly a good person. Yes, he had misunderstood him before.

Even though he might randomly change who he was interested in, he at least loved those people deeply. Most likely, back then, when he had been going after Jinde, he had also been like this. Actually, it was a wonder that Jinde’s heart hadn’t softened at all. If it had been him, he wouldn’t have been able to resist.

An Rong glanced at the fallen god walking next to him and felt as if his heart would leap out of his chest in fear when he saw him smile like that. Originally, it shouldn’t have been so scary. Even in this form, Xiang Yu was simply a cute youth who barely looked as if he had come of age. But then, with the mark of the fallen gods between his brows, the feeling he gave off was that of someone who was about to go on a killing rampage. So how come he was gently smiling like this?

An Rong’s mind simply couldn’t keep up with him, just like he hadn’t been able to when Hua Lin Yu was telling him about his private life before. Well, in a sense, this fallen god and that little mortal weren’t all that different.

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