Reborn To Be The Imperial Consort [BL]-Chapter 85: Zopyra — XIX

Hu Lijing had been sentenced to death. On the day of summer solstice, when the day was the longest, his execution would take place publicly in what remain of the clans—

—Which was next to nothing.

Both the tiger clan, their collateral families; all of them had been slaughtered brutally by the ten-tailed fox who had taken over Hu Lijing’s body. The monkey clan was met with the same bloody and dismal fate, death at the hands of a ten thousand years old fallen fox deity who had been sealed for good.

Only to be awakened by the nine-tailed fox of flames—who had been blinded by the rage and hatred plaguing his heart, thus was tempted by the demonic creature.

In the end of this war, while the other major clans had been able to carry the will of oracle and exterminated every fox spirit — bar Hu Lijing — hence, emerging victorious; their victory was too costly.

It was nothing if not a pyrrhic victory through and through. Their losses were greater than anything they could ever have hoped to gain from killing the foxes.

And as if the cold-blooded rampage heralded by the ten-tailed fox had not been enough, Hu Lijing had gone ahead and burnt down everything his clan owned down to the last grain of dust.

Unfortunately, by the time he was finally captured, the wealth of knowledge stored for thousands of years had long since turned to dust. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

So, really, Hu Lijing’s execution sentence was... Fair enough, if not light in comparison to the crimes he had committed.

After wiping out every spirit fox, Hu Lijing’s public execution was meant to be a spectacle so large that it would be witnessed by everyone that were alive after the war, his execution was not just a punishment for his crimes but also a ritualistic sacrifice presented to the oracle and heaven itself.

The sacrifice of the nine-tailed fox for the gods that observed the world below them with unfeeling and perhaps even detached amusement.

Not to mention it was yet another cover so that they could kill him before he had the chance to become a ten-tailed fox and ascend to godhood, hence out of their reach.

If there was something that the people of the spirit realm learned, then it was that ten-tailed foxes were a league of their own in terms of power—it mattered little whether they were gods or fallen ones.

Thus to prevent history from repeating itself, their only chance of preventing the rise of another ten-tailed fox was executing the nine-tailed one, hence nipping the flower in its bud.

Hu Lijing, too, was well aware of their seemingly covert schemes. He was not blind, much less a dumb idiot. Their plans were clear as day to him and to Long ZhenHai as well.

It was just... He was beyond caring about all that at this point.

He was slated for execution, imprisoned in the dungeon under the dragon clan’s territory, bound by golden chains that negated his powers and basically rendered them useless, he had no strength left in himself to even try and break those chains wrapped around his arms, body and legs.

His body had taken a heavy blow from forcibly hosting the ten-tailed fox by function as the fallen fox deity’s vessel. The war had left him in severe condition.

... Not to mention the loss of his child. Hu Lijing ended up miscarrying right after he was dragged and thrown into the dungeon where even the sun did not shine.

The blood was still warm as it flowed down between his legs, staining the less than pristine robes he had already been donning on his frail person.

As the effects of having the ten-tailed fox leave his body slowly wore off, Hu Lijing had started feeling his body again.

It was an unpleasant feeling to say that least.

His body hurt, his bones screamed in agony as much as his soul did, every bit of strength had been drained off his person as the toll of the possession crushed down on him, like a cold deluge of water that crashed into him without any warning.

His skin crawled, his muscles tore themselves apart, his joints ached, the blood flowing in his veins burned hotter than it ever had in the past.

Yet, as he lay motionless and wholly defenseless in Long ZhenHai’s arms, his heart was colder than ashes, freezing as the ice adorning the towering tips of mountains.

The last bit of life force of his child, their child, disappeared from within his body, and he was forced to feel it all go down within his useless body.

His fingers had twitched as the warm gush of blood flowed down from between his legs, the residual signs of his child leaving his body. For a moment, for a brief moment, Hu Lijing felt relief trickle in his heart as he lay powerless in Long ZhenHai’s embrace.

And then, the reality set in. He hated himself when it did. As he lay in his beloved’s arms — in the arms of the child’s sire — he dared to feel relief when the child lost its life, unable to even take a single breath of the world.

And it was his fault.

Solely his fault.

He had decided to — selfishly so — trade the life of his unborn child for a chance at revenge. Sure, he got his revenge, rightfully so were the people who destroyed his life were destroyed under the wrath of a bloodthirsty fallen fox deity.

But why did he feel so empty? Why did his heart ache? Why did his accursed womb feel so empty now that the remains of his child, their child, were leaving it?

Hu Lijing’s breathed, with great difficulty as his heart beat a slow rhythm against his aching chest, tired and hollow as his powerless body refused to move.

Only his fingers seemed to twitch, almost imperceptibly so.

The amber-haired male laid on the water-borne dragon’s lap, held securely in his arms as the blood flowing in his veins burned him alive, stinging like venom.

His heart was hollow, so incredibly empty that it ached and the divine fox spirit knew not the reason for it. Or perhaps he did. Perhaps his vision was merely clouded by his own unwillingness to see clearly, or perhaps it was the exhaustion crushing his body until he could no longer breathe.

He didn’t know. He had no way of knowing.

It hurt. It hurt his body, it hurt his soul, it hurt his treacherous hurt and most of all, it hurt him to be able to do nothing but watch in complete silence and stillness as his beloved dragon looked down at him, his face contorted into something that could only be described as utter anguish.

Had he broken his body so much?

Was it beyond repairable now?

Was it merely his body that was broken or was it he who was completely broken. Shattered to pieces like a glass thrown to the ground, unsalvageable?

Hu Lijing didn’t know.

Long ZhenHai’s expression hurt. He couldn’t begin to imagine the pain that was filling his beloved’s heart upon seeing his state.

In this moment where Hu Lijing could barely move, when his body refused to co-operate, much less obey his command, when his voice was dead in his throat and his tongue as heavy as iron—

—How could he dare to tell Long ZhenHai of their child?

How could he have the heart to tell the dragon about the child he never knew the existence of, nor was even once able to so much as feel it’s existence in Hu Lijing’s poisonous womb?

How could he dare to tell Long ZhenHai that the child he had unknowingly sired, his own flesh and blood along with Hu Lijing’s; how could he dare to tell him that the child had become a pivotal instrument in Hu Lijing’s twisted revenge?

Hu Lijing’s fingers twitched, the hand held in Long ZhenHai’s comforting grasp trembling as the other that lay splaying on his belly shook tremendously; before he knew it, a wounded noise bubbled out of the fox’s throat, followed immediately by a flood of viscous blood that trickled down his chapped and torn lips.

At the sound from the once divine, now damned, fox’s throat, Long ZhenHai clenched his teeth, his beautiful icy blue eyes filled with tears as he bowed his head to look at the other half of his soul.

In a thick voice, he whispered quietly in the midst of encroaching chaos.

"Jing’ge..." He sobbed, warm tears rolling down his pallid cheeks, Hu Lijing ached to reach up and wipe them away for him. "I wish I could I could wisk you away from this all."

But he dared not.

Hu Lijing’s hands were stained in blood of thousands, indiscriminate massacre with his body as the medium that took place was his own doing. He felt no regret for his actions.

But towards Long ZhenHai, he felt nothing but an amalgamation of love, sorrow, regret and boundless guilt. He dared not touch the dragon more than he already was, he dared not be the one to wipe his tears away, for he was the cause of them.

He was the sinner that had damned their fate and he was the liar that even now had no courage to confess of his deception towards the half of his own soul.

He was nothing but the most disgusting criminal to Long ZhenHai.

For even as he laid in the dragon’s arms, he dared not tell the man of their child that he had so selfishly killed for his own gain.

He felt no regret, no remorse of the destruction he caused, but as he looked up at Long ZhenHai, his breathing increasingly faint, he felt guilt.

He wished he could just tell Long ZhenHai of their child he was ignorant of.

But he didn’t dare to.

Hu Lijing was Long ZhenHai’s sinner.