On the side of the dragons, whether it was the dragon king currently residing in the Nine Heavens or his advisers left in the dragon realm, things seemed to proceed orderly. Qiu Ling listened to more stories about Jing He’s early life experiences in the morning before the Heavenly Emperor showed his face, then dealt with the matters of his kingdom or wrote more letters to his beloved. Meanwhile, progress was slow for the person currently in the High Heavens.

Jing He still stood in that palace where Xing’s body lay in state, intently watching the scenes on the water mirror Tian had conjured up.

There were really too many things he and Qiu Ling had experienced. The ten years spent in the Nine Heavens from their first encounter at his father’s birthday banquet to that moment at the Da He Festival when his opinion of Qiu Ling started to be swayed to when he couldn’t deny any longer what he felt for Qiu Ling and finally to that time on the bridge when he promised to marry him.

After that followed the beginning of his trial, their re-encounter, and the constant ups and downs of the relationship they had led while he had that awkward identity of being a reincarnation born for a trial. He watched himself become a mortal, start to cultivate, and finally ascend, his whole existence turning into one forbidden by the laws of the Nine Heavens. He watched as Qiu Ling quietly protected him at any stage of the way even if his feelings about their personal relationship weren’t clear.

Time seemed to pass by fast but, actually, entire days elapsed as he watched his whole life unfold in front of his eyes again. Tian left out everything that didn’t show at least a trace of Qiu Ling’s involvement and their regular daily life was only shown briefly. Despite that, almost a week went by until Jing He saw his reincarnation’s death play out on the surface of the water mirror and watched as Qiu Ling broke down in turn.

He blinked his eyes, startled at Qiu Ling’s appearance. His heart squeezed painfully when he saw the man he loved this way and he wanted nothing more than to go and see him, to comfort him and reassure him that he was still there and that Qiu Ling didn’t have to grieve.

The thought was so overwhelming that Jing He turned to the side as if he intended to leave the palace and go to find Qiu Ling immediately. Before he could take a single step though, his shoulder was grabbed and he was pulled back. Slender fingers grasped his chin and made him look up at the water mirror again.

Tian could only sigh faintly. Truth be told, Jing He was slowly getting better. Unfortunately, this could only be taken as a general trend. Contrary to redirecting his attention to the projection of his life up to now every few minutes, he would now watch quietly for a few hours before something outrageous made him react more strongly. Still, this stage of essentially babysitting a newly fallen god was anything but pleasant.

He quietly glanced at the water mirror himself, catching the moment when Qiu Ling and Jing He finally reunited. In the Nine Heavens. These two … they were making things so difficult when really, it could have been so easy. To a degree, Tian felt annoyed. Being able to be with your lover, that should be enough to brave everything and this kind of back and forth that the two of them had done was hard to watch. But he could hardly condemn them either when part of the reason for their situation was the curse he had put on their people.

Tian turned back to watch Xing’s face which hadn’t moved in hundreds of thousands of years. At that time, he had wanted to vent his own frustration and he had never regretted having done so. No, if Xing had to suffer and he had to suffer, then why shouldn’t they? It was a lesson long overdue, one he maybe should have taught them before their behavior could have such dire consequences. Well, it was too late now, no matter which way would have been the right one.

Glancing at the water mirror again, Tian simply lowered his gaze again. The time between their reunion after the end of the trial and Jing He’s fall wasn’t long. With the time not spent with anything important being accelerated, it would only take another day or so to finish this. By then, the crown prince of the Nine Heavens should be calm enough to hold a conversation without constantly being distracted. At the very least, he hoped so.

Tian moved his gaze to the person standing beside him and wasn’t sure what to think. He had seen a lot of fallen gods throughout the years. The duration it took each of them to somewhat regain their senses was different but usually, it didn’t take more than a few days. A few weeks should be the limit.

Jing He was already at the point where more than a week had gone by so it really shouldn’t take much longer. He had to admit that this person had already been very emotional before though and chances were that that made it even more difficult to extricate himself. Basically, the difference between now and the time before his fall should simply lie in the intensity of his feelings and reactions.

In general, this was good. It meant he was unlikely to become violent like many others would. This kind of fallen god was usually easy to deal with. If what he wanted was a calm discussion though … well, he might have to work a lot harder to get to where he wanted to have Jing He. After all, chances were that he would overthink every single word he said and also fail to mention even half those things. With such a situation, what could he do to ensure this reached the outcome he wanted?