Chapter 79 Chapter 79 "You still want to go, right?"...

Zhu Yan still shook his head.

He replied, "I don't want to."

Not "I", not "subordinates", but "ministers".

The despair when he knew that his life was coming to an end, the sadness when he asked Xingyao not to tell him the truth, and the panic when he was caught off guard by Jiuzhao...all kinds of complicated emotions disappeared bit by bit from those eyes that were more beautiful than emerald.

Zhu Yan folded his hands, raised them above his head, and respectfully performed the ritual of a subject bowing to his monarch, facing Jiu Zhao.

Raising his eyes again, he, who had always resolutely chosen to move forward, softly uttered, "I was wrong."

Jiu Zhao had not expected that the young man would react like this after being rejected, and the edges of his pupils subconsciously dilated.

Then I heard Zhu Yan say, "My fault was that I shouldn't have been dissatisfied with my status as a concubine's son, constantly thinking of competing with Brother Meng Chu. My fault was that I shouldn't have coveted the peaches hanging high in the treetops at the Spring Feast that year."

"My fault lies in my greed, my inability to control it. Having felt the unrequited kindness emanating from Your Highness, I became like a rat that has lived in a cold, dark ditch for years, yearning for the sun to shine upon me."

After saying this, Zhu Yan seemed to be in a state of emotional turmoil. He covered his chest and took two sharp breaths.

He took a few breaths, half-closed his eyes, and turned to look at Jiu Zhao. "In my life, I have always made choices and mistakes at every step..."

"I wanted to listen to my heart for once, to let go of my status before I died, to be a plaything or a servant, to accompany His Highness and fulfill his final wish. However, I was unable to conceal the secret that I wanted to keep hidden the most, and thus, His Highness fell into this dilemma."

He pressed his chest with increasing force, and his bamboo-like figure gradually shrank. It was as if he could not bear to say anything more, but had to say, "If Your Highness were to take risks for me, my broken body would not be enough even if I died a million times.

“So, I no longer have any wishful thinking.

"Your Highness, please let me go... before you invest too much affection in me."

Zhu Yan was actually suggesting severing ties.

He chased her all the way through the forest, unwilling to let go when his feet were pierced by sharp stones.

When he was about to die from the pain of having his tail cut off, he was unwilling to stop.

Now, she was willing to save him and wanted him to live well, but he planned to break off the relationship.

Jiu Zhao laughed out loud in anger, his laughter light and airy: "Zhu Yan, who do you think you are? How dare you tell me to let you go?"

Zhu Yan did not answer.

His body trembled a few times and he kowtowed again.

Boom, boom, boom.

His forehead kept hitting the hard wooden floor, like a dull drumbeat beating against Jiu Zhao's heart again and again.

Even Yingluo couldn't bear it and tried to persuade him: "Your Highness, I wish Master Yan—"

What interrupted him was Jiu Zhao's voice, which was as he overturned the low table beside him, crawled over on his knees, and grabbed Zhu Yan's chin. "I said it before, with the lessons learned from Lan Qi and Fu Xu, if there is a third person who betrays me, I will make him suffer untold tortures and then grind his bones into ashes!"

Zhu Yan was forced to stop begging verbally. The severe pain from his jaw made his long eyelashes that half covered his pupils tremble uncontrollably.

At this moment, he actually raised the corners of his lips. His face, forced to endure the pain, and the smile on his lips formed a strange and poignant picture: "Well, I will die one day anyway. If I can die at the hands of Your Highness... it will be considered a wish come true."

"you!"

Even though he knew that the other party was provoking him, Jiu Zhao was still so angry that the corners of his eyes turned red.

Winding bloodshot rushed into the bright eyes, and Jiu Zhao's gaze moved down to the slender neck of the young man in his palm.

Anyway, every relationship she has been through is painful, so why not end this one by herself?

The thought of losing control suddenly appeared in his mind. Before Jiu Zhao could take the next step, Zhu Yan's expression changed again and he groaned uncomfortably again.

This reaction seems familiar.

Jiu Zhao subconsciously reduced her strength, but the usually obedient young man suddenly ignored her wishes and insisted on lowering his head.

Because of the obstruction of fingers, this attempt was unsuccessful.

With a soft "puff" sound, Zhu Yan grabbed her back with his backhand, his cheek muscles twitched, and bright red blood was coughed out violently.

Half of the splattered blood fell on the two people's folded hands, and the other half stained Jiu Zhao's lapel.

Jiu Zhao was so frightened that he dared not move.

Seeing Zhu Yan coughing hard a few times, blood gushing out intermittently, and his whole body going limp, he quickly supported his arms and held him in his arms, while asking Ying Luo with a blurry look in his eyes: "What day is it today?"

Ying Luo counted on his fingers and said, "Thirteen, fourteen...it won't be more than fifteen."

Hearing this answer, Xingyao, who was standing by the window, changed her expression.

She quickly rushed to Jiu Zhao and Zhu Yan, placed her finger on Zhu Yan's pulse, and a strand of immortal power like a thread entered his body.

Soon, her eyes were serious: "Not good, due to the injury from the severed tail, his weakness has come on earlier!"

The weak symptoms will only appear on the fifteenth night of the full moon, and the symptoms will progress from mild to severe.

It was only midnight on the 14th, and Zhu Yan had already shown the most serious symptoms of vomiting blood.

Jiu Zhao calmed his flustered mind as the young man's indistinct mumbling entered his ears. He untied the white tail from his waist and asked, "Zhu Yan's natal tail is with me. I used my immortal power to seal the wound the moment it was cut off. Is there any possibility of reattaching it for him now?"

Xingyao unleashed her highest-level healing technique to stabilize Zhu Yan's condition. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of the fluffy white tail curled in Jiuzhao's palm, her expression growing increasingly complex. "Once its tail is severed, there's no way it can be reattached. We can only carefully protect it from external forces... Your Highness Jiuzhao, I don't want to say anything, but Immortal Zhu Yan truly loves you. He's placed his life and heart in your hands."

Jiu Zhao had a wooden face and patted Zhu Yan's back with his left hand to prevent him from breathing blocked by the blood that kept flowing out of his throat.

After saying a few words of nonsense that were unclear but could cause the most trouble for others, Xingyao's speech speed suddenly increased: "How about sending him back to Sanqing Heaven? Yunshengshi's immortal energy is too thin, which is not conducive to his recovery. Cultivating Nirvana Phoenix Fire is secondary. The most urgent thing is to find a place with rich immortal energy to nourish his body. Otherwise, he won't be able to wait for decades for your skills to be fully developed-"

Sending him back to Sanqingtian, not to mention how inconvenient it would be for Zhu Yan to live under the supervision of Meng Chu and the Northern God King again - just to mention that Jiuzhao's work as a supervisor was still mostly not finished, and it would be too late to think about practicing Nirvana Phoenix Fire after half a year.

Over there, Zhu Yan, whose hysteria had lessened, held her hand again and began to plead bitterly, "Your Highness, please give me up... I am already satisfied with being with you for a while. Please don't send me back to Sanqingtian. In my final days, I, I just want to stay by your side..."

Being attacked from both sides, they were urged to make a decision immediately.

Jiu Zhao was burning with anger.

In a moment, thousands of thoughts gradually faded and resurfaced in my mind.

For a moment she felt filled with pain and hopelessness, but then a flash of inspiration struck her and she suddenly saw clarity.

Caught in a dilemma, she bit the tip of her tongue, and the intense pain forced her body to turn her fingers into a knife, and she was the first to knock out the obsessed Zhu Yan.

The world is quiet.

Xingyao, a doctor, was shocked by her rude treatment of a patient. Her mouth dropped open, unable to speak. Yingluo, kneeling beside her, understood and asked, "Your Highness, Immortal Zhu Yan has lost his mind. Do you need me to send him back first?"

Jiu Zhao shook his head.

She temporarily pushed the unconscious young man into Yingluo's arms, put her hands behind his neck, and took off the Changle life plate that had been with him since birth.

Jiu Zhao wiped off the restrictions with his bare hands, and cast a spell to make Zhu Yan's figure ethereal and lead him into the life plate.

Ying Luo was stunned: "Your Highness, this is the thought that Her Highness the Queen Mother left for you..."

"I know."

Jiu Zhao absorbed the power that originated from his mother, modified the restrictions of the life card, and handed it to Xing Yao, "Take it."

She instructed, "Divine power is different from immortal power and is not bound by the laws of heaven. I will leave him in the realm given to me by the Mother Goddess to recuperate. I have modified the restrictions so that you can enter at any time to check on his condition. The life plate will remain with you for the next few days."

Xingyao was forced to accept it, her tone rather helpless: "Your Highness, do you really want to drag an old man like me into this quagmire?"

Jiu Zhao whispered, "Who told you that you couldn't cure him tens of thousands of years ago!"

Xingyao was rebuked by her, but rarely did she open her mouth to retort.

She rubbed the phoenix pattern on the life plate with her fingertips twice, and received a pleading look from her disciple Yingluo.

After hesitating for a moment, he murmured as if to comfort himself, "You are the crown prince of Sanqingtian and the only beloved daughter left by the Queen of Gods. Even if someone were to discover your attempt to enter the Sunless Abyss and take the Zhulong Submandibular Pearl, I don't think the Emperor would demote you for this..."

"Well, now that I'm on this pirate ship, there's no reason for me to refuse."

…

After solving Zhu Yan's problem, Xingyao said that it was late at night, and Jiuzhao and Yingluo could go back to the bamboo forest to rest for a night and make further plans tomorrow.

The two of them were silent as the little boy led them back.

Occasionally, Jiu Zhao would catch a glimpse of Ying Luoman's eyes that were about to overflow with emotion, but his mind was filled with many things, and he found it difficult to speak.

About a quarter of an hour later, the familiar bamboo house appeared in front of us.

Jiu Zhao entered the house without lighting the oil lamp, and quietly changed clothes and cleaned himself in the dark.

There was no long-term plan. She had made the decision and didn't want to involve others. Midnight was the best time to leave.

Having made up his mind, Jiu Zhao deliberately stayed for a while longer. Guessing that Ying Luo had gone back to the house to rest, he used the teleportation spell and wanted to leave.

Who knew that as soon as the magical power started to work, someone knocked on the door.

Jiu Zhao's whole body stiffened.

The person outside the door said, "Your Highness, please open the door."

…

The slightly chilly night wind blew on my face, and even the moonlight hanging high in the sky was a bit chilly.

Jiu Zhao held the door frame with both hands without moving, looking at the young man who was standing silently outside the door, blocking his entire view.

"You're still going, aren't you? Without a second thought."

Yingluo's words seemed to be questions, but the ending tone revealed a sigh of resignation.

"yes."

Jiu Zhao responded in a low voice, "Don't stop me. Just pretend you don't know what happened today. You haven't even been to Xingyao's bamboo forest. What I've done won't implicate you. Return to heaven, and you'll continue to be the prince of the Western God King."

Perhaps Jiu Zhao's nod was too decisive, or perhaps he was irritated by her attitude of distancing herself from the matter, Ying Luo took a half step forward without saying a word, pinched her shoulders with an impolite force, and forced her to let go of her hands that were supporting the door frame.

Examining her from head to toe, Ying Luo asked word by word, "Do you know who you are, and what Zhu Yan's status is? His death won't have any impact on Sanqingtian, but if something goes wrong with you, the Emperor will be the first to be heartbroken."

Jiu Zhao was silent.

Feeling Yingluo's fingers tightening around her flesh, she whispered, "I know, of course I know everything... But I also know that if I continue to owe someone their affection and then let them die, I'm afraid I'll never feel at peace again."