Ch 16
Bai Qian
Bai Qian heard her father’s footsteps coming towards her. Even without her sight, Bai Qian knew her father was visually examining her, and she heard the anger in his voice.
“Bai Qian, this is not Kunlun Mountain. What are you doing here and why are you unable to see again?”
Bai Qian felt her father’s warm hands held her face tenderly as he carefully studied her face. She moved and released a small moan from the pain of her recent miscarriage.
The Fox King placed his hand lightly on his daughter’s stomach, closed his eyes and used his spiritual aura. He sighed deeply, held his daughter and said, overcome with deep sorrow, “You’ve lost a child. Please tell me it was Mo Yuan’s, not Ye Hua’s.” The Fox King sighed heartbrokenly and asked, “My precious child, what have you done to yourself?”
Bai Qian’s lips trembled as she, for the first time, revealed every detail of her horrific ordeal, starting from her mortal life to her current situation. Bai Qian told her father everything that she’d kept hidden and buried deep inside herself for over three hundred years. She told him of her once unconditional love for Ye Hua, his betrayal, the humiliation she’d endured, and her current plan for vengeance. Bai Qian heard her father cry as he held her tightly, rocking her back and forth.
The Fox King was devastated. He had known very little of his daughter’s heavenly trial since Bai Qian had remained secretive and never told anyone.
“Father, SuSu won’t leave me alone,” Bai Qian cried. “I hear her whispers in my ears. I have only one more thing to do, and then I will be done. SuSu promised to leave me in peace. Father, I’m so close to the end. Help me,” Bai Qian pleaded to her father.
The Fox King had failed to recognize the level of his daughter’s diseased mind from her horrible ordeal. He had hoped Mo Yuan could reverse the damage inside her heart, but he had been wrong. Bai Qian had been silently suffering alone for over three hundred years, still haunted by her terrifying memories from her heavenly trial.
The Fox King decided he would do whatever he needed to do to save what was left of his precious, only daughter, even if it meant declaring war on the Celestials.
When Ye Hua tried to enter Bai Qian’s room, the Fox King demanded Ye Hua leave. He explicitly told Ye Hua that the marriage Ye Hua desired would never happen while he, Bai Qian’s father, was still alive. The Fox King blamed Ye Hua and told Ye Hua that he was still undeserving of his daughter as he’d said three hundred years ago.
Ye Hua’s inability to control his side consort had caused Bai Qian not only to lose her sight again but miscarry a child that had barely begun to grow inside her body.
Ye Hua dropped to his knees and explained to the Fox King that he couldn’t live without Bai Qian and that she was his reason for living. Ye Hua pleaded in earnest, but the Fox King was unconvinced. The Fox King informed Ye Hua that he would be taking Bai Qian home after her eyes were returned.
The Fox King stated that he would force feed her amnesia potion if he had to so she would forget Ye Hua forever. He also warned Ye Hua never to step foot in Qing Qiu and that he would handsomely reward the one who killed Ye Hua if he appeared in any of his realms.
The Fox King also suggested Ye Hua drink from the River of Oblivion if he couldn’t live without Bai Qian because the Fox King would never allow them to be together again. The Fox King said that he would rather take Bai Qian’s life with his own hands than allow her to stay with Ye Hua.
Ye Hua’s mother then came to appeal for her son. Consort Le Xu welcomed the Fox King and showed concern for Bai Qian’s injured eyes as well as her loss of Ye Hua’s child. Bai Zhi, the Fox King, reminded Ye Hua’s mother that he was the King of Qing Qiu and Bai Qian was a Queen. The Nine-Tailed Fox Tribe was one of the oldest immortal clans, which had not only survived but continued to thrive to become the wealthiest and most powerful of all the immortal clans. He demanded she follows protocol and greets both himself and Bai Qian appropriately.
Consort Le Xu was shocked and dumbfounded as she reminded the Fox King that they would soon be in-laws. Ye Hua’s mother told the Fox King that Ye Hua had endured three years of lightning strike punishment for his daughter, but the Fox King scoffed and replied that Ye Hua deserved his punishment for marrying Bai Qian in the mortal realm under pretenses.
He blamed Ye Hua for his inability to protect his vulnerable wife from calamity.
He instructed Consort Le Xu to greet himself and Bai Qian properly and stand on ceremony, as per the customs of Qing Qiu. The Fox King reprimanded Consort Le Xu until she kowtowed three times to both the Fox King and Bai Qian since she held the lowest status in the room. The Fox King watched Ye Hua’s mother bow on her knees before his daughter, Bai Qian and felt some of his resentment diminish.
When he’d heard that Consort Le Xu had forced Bai Qian to sit at her feet during her heavenly trial, he’d barely been able to contain himself from rushing into her chamber and killing her instantly.
The Fox King then went to Heavenly Lord to settle the debt owed to his daughter.
This meeting was the first time they’d met since the Fox King’s threat to start a war with the Celestials when he had canceled Bai Qian’s engagement to Ye Hua. The Fox King blamed Heavenly Lord personally for Bai Qian’s undeserved sufferings. He informed a mortified Heavenly Lord that Bai Qian had been the mortal SuSu during her heavenly trial and demanded restitution for her unjust treatment. Since Ye Hua’s side consort Su Jin had stolen Bai Qian’s eyes, attempted to kill Bai Qian and caused the death of her unborn child, the Fox King demanded Su Jin return Bai Qian’s eyes and repay the loss of Bai Qian’s dead child with her life.
The Fox King suggested strongly under a lightly veiled threat that Heavenly Lord should abdicate to Ye Hua and step down from his position as Heavenly Lord. He stated that Heavenly Lord was unfit to hold such a position of power if he was using it for corruption and evil deeds. The Fox King said he would call a meeting of all the realms to discuss Heavenly Lord’s past deeds and his involvement in the Fox King’s daughter, High Goddess, Bai Qian, losing her sight.
High God, Bai Zhi, the Fox King, would bring up Bai Qian’s attempt to jump from Zhuxian Terrace due to Su Jin’s falsities which were supported by Heavenly Lord himself. Bai Zhi, the Fox King, didn’t mask his discontent when he stated that he would declare war on the Celestials, with the support of the other realms that were indebted to him for past favors or financial help.
The Fox King promised to collect all his debts to form an army to annihilate the Celestial Clan and wipe out their existence.
Heavenly Lord abdicated the following day and Ye Hua the Crown Prince became the new Heavenly Lord.
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Ye Hua
Since the arrival of Qian Qian’s father, the Fox King, Ye Hua hadn’t been able to see Qian Qian. High God Bai Zhi, the Fox King, told Ye Hua that he would never allow Qian Qian to stay with him and that he would personally force feed her amnesia potion to forget Ye Hua and their son A-Li.
Ye Hua recalled the feel of Qian Qian’s warm embrace, the scent of her sweet fragrance, and cried himself to sleep nightly. He had regained Qian Qian’s love briefly enough to feel the profound absence of it after losing her again. Ye Hua’s beautiful, blissful love had been a short dream that had come to a tragic end again.
Ye Hua pleaded with the Fox King. Ye Hua told him that Qian Qian was his life and that he would die without her. The Fox King said to Ye Hua that he should drink from the River of Oblivion and forget Qian Qian because he would never allow them to be together again.
Losing Qian Qian for the second time was unbearable. Ye Hua couldn’t endure the pain of Qian Qian’s void again. Ye Hua’s pain was overwhelming, and he was unable to do anything due to his consuming grief. A-Li was still unaware that he would be losing his mother again and asked to visit her daily.
Ye Hua wondered if it would have been easier if he hadn’t found Qian Qian again because his new fresh memories of his Qian Qian and her tender love replayed painfully in his mind always.
The day the Fox King retrieved Qian Qian’s eyes in her stead, he requested a dull spoon instead of a sharp dagger. Su Jin’s screams echoed throughout Celestial Heaven as the Fox King slowly dug out his daughter’s eyes that should have never in Su Jin’s sockets from the start.
Afterward, Su Jin was banished from Celestial Heaven and reincarnated into the form of a cow for her crimes. Su Jin was reborn as a beast of burden before she slaughtered and eaten in the mortal realm. Su Jin’s sentence was that she would have to repeat this vicious cycle for eternity.
Ye Hua was still not allowed to see Qian Qian since the day of the incident at Zhuxian Terrace. The Fox King had his guards standing outside the Hall of Beautiful Youth. Ye Hua heard from Nai Nai that High God Zhe Yan, the Medicine God, had come to Celestial Heaven personally to remove the foul aura from Qian Qian’s eyes before returning them to her. Qian Qian had finally recovered her eyes that Ye Hua’s had taken with his own hands.
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Bai Qian
The day she was due to leave Celestial Heaven, Bai Qian pleaded with her father that she wanted to see her son A- Li one last time before her departure. With a convincing smile on her face, Bai Qian promised her father that she would be following him shortly. After the Fox King and his guards left her alone in the Hall of Beautiful Youth, she wrote Ye Hua a letter, requested Nai Nai deliver it to Ye Hua and went to fulfill SuSu’s last request.
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Ye Hua
Ye Hua knew Qian Qian was leaving Celestial Heaven. He was unable to see her one last time, so when Nai Nai brought him a letter from Qian Qian, he was impatient to read its content. But what he read shattered his soul into a million pieces.
Ye Hua,
We are finally debt free and able to release each other truly. Forgive me as I will forgive you for our past mistakes. Please take care of A-Li, forget me and know my love for you was true even until this very moment. I’ve come to realize that I still loved you. I’m sorry for my bad deeds but SuSu demanded it of me, and I’m finally going to be free of her. I am going to finish what she began.
Ye Hua felt the forewarning feeling that he’d experienced before and instinctively knew where Qian Qian was—she was at Zhuxian Terrace. Ye Hua rushed to her in a panic, but he was too late. Ye Hua saw Qian Qian standing on the punishment platform. She turned back, looked at Ye Hua, smiled at him lovingly, mouthed that she loved him, and closed her eyes before she successfully jumped off the place SuSu had failed to three hundred years ago.
to be continued……….