Speaking of the beautiful love story between the dragon king and the crown prince of the Nine Heavens, the latter was currently pondering whether shattering your soul and becoming a fallen god could also impact your hearing. Usually, he wouldn’t ever consider such a reckless idea but … there simply was no way the supreme sovereign had actually said what he believed to have heard. He couldn’t come up with alternative words that made any sense though.

In the end, Jing He simply blinked his eyes and pretended to have spaced out again. “I’m sorry, I am afraid I didn’t listen closely enough just now. What were you saying?”

Tian didn’t think too much about Jing He’s odd expression. “My child.”

He took a step forward and Jing He immediately retreated, suddenly afraid. His intuition had indeed always been good and it had given him such a direct warning before. He had discounted it because he figured that Tian was above doing anything to him and would at most have something he required him to do in return for his help. But … he suddenly wasn’t so sure anymore.

Jing He’s wild thoughts naturally didn’t become a reality though. Instead of bothering about him, Tian turned to the side, reaching out to gently caress the top of the jade coffin.

“Yuan. That was the name we had chosen for him.” His expression which usually stayed the same no matter what happened finally changed for a bit, a hint of desolation mixed in. “Xing could take everything, no matter what anyone did to him. His suffering … it had long become something to simply bear because it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. But Yuan’s death … he couldn’t take that.”

Tian sighed deeply, his expression returning to what it had been before. He couldn’t allow himself to think too much about this or he would have an even harder time to hold on. He turned back to Jing He, once again looking like the supreme sovereign who could not be shaken by anything. “Xing fell and even though I found him, the relationship we had before could not be continued. The loss … had simply been too great for him.”

Jing He didn’t speak and didn’t dare to move either. He knew about this story but … he had no idea how he fit into this and currently, he was afraid to ask.

Tian stood where he was, looking at Jing He’s face which still bore a faint resemblance to Xing. “At that time, I begged him not to leave me because I could not take the thought. But Xing answered that unless I could bring back his child, this life of his held no longer any meaning to him.”

“So you … want your child back.” Jing He felt that he slowly grasped what this was about but he was still afraid of what implications lay behind this. He had mutilated his own soul to ensure that he wouldn’t betray Qiu Ling during his trial. Having a child with another man was completely out of the question. Even if it was simply a ceremony in the way it was done between two men of the gods or dragons, he still couldn’t bring himself to say yes.

He’d rather stay a fallen god than allow himself to commit such a betrayal. Especially since he could only have one child in this life and Qiu Ling yearned to have a family of his own. How could he take his one chance from him? It was simply impossible.

Tian didn’t seem to see how tangled Jing He’s mood was or maybe he did but simply didn’t care. He turned to look at Xing again, sighing faintly. “Our Yuan is gone but at that time, his soul had already formed. I believe … it is time for him to be reincarnated and you …” He looked at Jing He and finally reached out again, grasping his chin and tilting his head up. “You are a suitable vessel to carry him.”

Jing He’s gaze flickered and he had to clench his hands to make sure he didn’t tremble. At this moment, he was truly scared. Tian was the supreme sovereign and there was nobody in the world who could contend against him. If he really wanted something, who could stop him from getting it? Even trying to run away would not help him and reasoning … something told him that Tian also wouldn’t be all that open to that.

How long had it been since the curse was placed on the three immortal races? It seemed to be … almost three hundred thousand years? Even for the immortal races, such an amount of time was difficult to imagine. Among all three races, how many people were there who had actually been alive at that time? It could at most be a handful. In fact, he only knew of one for sure which was that ancestor of the dragon race Scholar An Bai had once told him about when he wanted to learn more about the dragon race.

Tian was likely the only one who was even older than that and he had spent these three hundred thousand years waiting. Now, for whatever reason, he saw an opportunity for this wait to end so that he could regain the child he had lost and the lover he missed.

Even a regular person wouldn’t easily be discouraged from doing whatever it took to achieve this goal. Whatmore the supreme sovereign of all realms who had the ability to do whatever he pleased. Could anybody really say ‘no’ to what he demanded and get away with it?

Honestly, Jing He doubted it. Rather than that, it was much more likely for Tian to punish them harshly or force them to do as he asked. In his case … Tian was well aware of what he cherished the most in his life so as long as he threatened Qiu Ling, Jing He didn’t believe that he had the slightest margin to refuse his demand.

Author’s Note: I should probably mention at this time that “Yuan”, in this case, means hope. In the older generations of the immortal races, one character names were the norm. That is why Tian (literally “Heaven”) and Xing (“Star”) have shorter names than everyone else. Xing was born at a time when that tradition was slowly falling out of favor though which is why Xin Lan, for example, already has a two-character name even though he isn’t that much younger compared to Xing.