Chapter 99 The Wise Man Wins Hearts
The old ancestor was determined to die.
Di Jiang remained silent for a long time, knowing full well the immense pain Jiu You had to endure behind those eight words.
Liu Jiyun knelt at Di Jiang's feet, knowing that Di Jiang was not satisfied with the answer, but he really had no way to relieve the pain of the Ao Zong Ancestor.
"I beg Your Majesty's forgiveness!"
"The sin lies with me; what sin have you committed?"
Emperor Jiang waved his hand, signaling Liu Jiyun to step down.
On Dragon's Breath Mountain, the power to shatter the heavens caused her injuries. Her internal organs were damaged, and the bones in her hands were shattered. These pains were magnified a hundredfold, like the torture of having her bones cut off and the pain of having her heart ripped out!
She sacrificed her power of painlessness to save his life, and this is all he gave her in return?
She should hate him, she should curse him! He sat by Jiuyou's bedside amidst the disgusted gazes of Aozong's disciples, his heart aching as he watched Jiuyou, who was still muttering "it hurts so much" even in his unconscious state.
He gathered magical light in his palm, intending to use his cultivation to help her heal. However, when the magical light struck her, it only remained on the surface and could not penetrate her body.
His supposedly extraordinary magical skills could not alleviate her pain, the celestial physicians were helpless, and even divine pills and elixirs were useless. He rarely felt so lost in his life, not even when his primordial spirit was severely damaged and Zhanlu entered his heart.
He could only watch her suffer, watch her—awaken from her coma, struggle to open her eyes, and when she saw that it was him in front of her, she bared her teeth viciously.
"Why are you staring at me like that? Are you going to pay respects at my grave? I'm not going to die! Do you think I don't want to die?"
At first, Di Jiang did not retaliate, because Duan Jiuyou was too weak; he would faint after uttering a single curse.
He was able to stay by her side, wiping her sweat and tucking her in.
He didn't know what he could do or what he should do. Liantang and the others were too hostile towards him, so he cast a spell on them to immobilize them. Otherwise, they would have kicked him out before Jiuyou could even chase him away.
Ao Zong's self-healing power was extraordinary; the pain was a hundred times greater, and so was the recovery. Later, Jiu You regained some strength and was gradually able to utter five or six curses. Seeing that she was slowly regaining her spirits, he began to gently comfort her.
"I'll stay for a while and then leave."
"You think I'll be cured just by sitting here? You think you're some kind of miracle cure? Lotus Pond!!"
She ordered her men to drive him away, but when she found that her disciples were unable to move, she threw a huge tantrum, leaving him no choice but to release the immobilization spell.
Later on, he could no longer stay in the bedchamber under any circumstances. Duan Jiuyou's eyes widened like copper bells, and he gritted his teeth to fight back. The fiercest time, he directly used his divine power to grab his arm and throw him out of the bedchamber.
The straight-lattice window shattered, and Di Jiang flew out, crashing into a rockery before barely managing to stand.
"If you dare come in again, I'll tear your limbs off!"
Duan Jiuyou's angry rebuke echoed from inside the bedchamber. Di Jiang rubbed his chest, forcibly suppressing the rising blood and sweet taste in his mouth. His gaze fell in the direction of the bedchamber, his eyes filled with helplessness.
He was extremely worried. Before, he had been able to strategize and control the situation because Jiuyou couldn't bear to hurt him. He often had the upper hand verbally, and Jiuyou would always coax him when he threw a tantrum. Now the roles were reversed, and he couldn't even get into her house.
Bai Yanxing slowly sipped his tea. He didn't leave, but watched the commotion from outside the palace the whole time, his eyes filled with curiosity and amusement.
The Lord of the Great Wilderness was arrogant to outsiders, but internally he was like someone who couldn't get what he wanted. The two looked at each other, and Bai Yanxing made a "please" gesture to Di Jiang, indicating that he should sit on the stone bench and rest.
Di Jiang dusted off the dust from his clothes, showing no sign of embarrassment despite his disheveled appearance, as if being lectured by Jiu You was commonplace. In fact, Di Jiang had foreseen the future; if the two ever argued or bickered, he knew he couldn't afford to offend her.
He poured himself a cup of tea, not forgetting to taunt Bai Yanxing: "The Hall of Diligent Governance can't afford tea anymore?"
Has he been sitting here for two days now? Doesn't he find the stone bench too hard or the tea too cold?
“I occasionally go outside for a walk, rest for a while, and then come back to watch you being tortured.” After Bai Yanxing finished speaking, he asked Di Jiang, “The entire army of the Desolate Clan is stationed in the Ten Realms. Are they planning to wait there for their Desolate Queen to change her mind and return to the Ten Realms to get married?”
"Mind your own business first." Di Jiang looked into the distance with a sour expression.
Jiuyou now hates him to the bone, and the way he looks at him is as if he wants to stab him twice. He's definitely not going to get married, and even he finds the wedding dress he's wearing an eyesore.
He asked Bai Yanxing, "When did you find out that Jiuyou had lost the Bone of Painlessness?"
"I only knew a few hours earlier than you," Bai Yanxing said. "You sent Feng Chen and Xue Ciyi to capture Feng Nanyu? I advise you not to kill him. The Bone of Painlessness is not in his body. Even if you split that old bastard in two, it won't do you any good."
When Jiuyou first fell into a coma, Bai Yanxing saw Feng Chen and Xue Ciyi leave Dixi Mountain. Bai Yanxing knew that the imperial court would not let Feng Nanyu off easily.
“Of course I know it’s not on him. A mere pill, if no one instructed him, would he dare ask the Ao Zong Ancestor for divine bones? Zong Huang—” Di Jiang sighed, “In this world, only Zong Huang dares to ask Jiu You for divine bones. It’s hateful that I was so foolish, only today did I realize that she took bones to exchange for my life. I owe her too much, even being a cow or a horse wouldn’t be enough to repay her, I just don’t know how to coax her back.”
As she spoke, she glanced at Bai Yanxing, seemingly wanting to get some advice from him, but quickly showed her disdain. What advice could he possibly give her? All he knew was to "guard" things.
Bai Yanxing looked bewildered: "You're still thinking about being with Jiuyou?"
"Why wouldn't you want to?" Di Jiang was even more bewildered than Bai Yanxing. "The so-called 'Heavenly Chosen One' wasn't a setup by me. My feelings for Jiu You were genuine, and Jiu You felt the same way about me. She was angry at Dragon Breath Mountain because she thought I had been using her from beginning to end, and she also thought I hadn't changed my cruel nature and was indiscriminately killing innocent people. But in fact, I only knew about this two months before her, and I didn't order anyone to harm your Dragon Clan people."
The fact that she didn't harm the people proves she wasn't wrong about me. The claim of being a divinely ordained ruler wasn't premeditated, showing that her sincerity was reciprocated with sincerity in return.
“But you never thought of telling her the truth.” Bai Yanxing’s words hit the nail on the head.
Di Jiang remained silent. He was still regretting why he hadn't gone to silence Little Master Huang himself. If he had gone, things wouldn't have come to this!
A fierce glint flashed in his eyes, followed by a conflict.
He was determined to silence others, but what Jiuyou truly cared about was never that others had set her up to deceive her, but that he had deceived her.
She never expressed hatred when the emperor set her up to serve as a priest for nine terms, but now she harbors nothing but hatred for him, which shows how different he is to her.
Love breeds affection, and affection breeds hatred. He was always afraid that she didn't understand love, but it turned out that he was the one who understood love the least.
The wind swept across the paulownia leaves, leaving behind a rustling sound. Di Jiang tightened his robe, and his already pale face showed signs of illness.
Bai Yanxing said knowingly, "Your cold symptoms have flared up, haven't they? Xue Ciyi used all his divine power on the Battle Sky Halberd. Your primordial spirit has just recovered and you've suffered a backlash. Even the strongest body can't withstand that."
Di Jiang smiled wryly: "I think this injury is too minor."
"Trying to gain sympathy from Jiuyou with these injuries?"
"What do I have to sympathize with? In the end, it's all my own fault. If I could suffer in her place, I would be willing to bear it a thousand times over. Unfortunately, I can't help Jiuyou. The Emperor has returned to the Thirty-Third Heaven, and no one has the power to retrieve the Bone of Painlessness from him."
"Since you know the divine bone is in the hands of the Emperor, why did you still send people to capture Feng Nanyu?" Bai Yanxing asked, puzzled.
“His body isn’t useless; it can cure all poisons and heal all pains. If we catch him, we can burn him into pills and give them to Jiuyou to eat. It would be better than him suffering like this now.”
"But his constitution is special, and only if he is willing to sacrifice himself to be the medicine can it be effective. Moreover, Yan Kuo and the great physician of the Wilderness Clan have both said that there is no cure for Jiuyou's pain."
"Whether it can be solved or not, we'll only know after trying. If it really doesn't work, we'll wait until Jiuyou is in a better mood and have him kneel up 999 steps every day to cheer her up."
Didn't Feng Nanyu make Duan Jiuyou kneel over Wanshan Ridge? So he made him kneel once a day, kneeling up and down, just for fun!
"Only you could come up with such a torturous method," Bai Yanxing sighed. "But what if Feng Nanyu is arrogant and proud, and refuses to comply even at the cost of his life?"
Di Jiang spoke leisurely.
"No one in this world is truly unafraid of death, except for Jiuyou."
She wasn't afraid of death, but she was afraid of pain and a bad reputation. He ruined her achievements across nine dynasties and made her a traitor.
Di Jiang said, "This is all Xue Ciyi's fault. You should know my temperament. Not to mention that I don't care about getting help from others, even if I need it, I will threaten them openly or invite them with benefits. There's no need to use such underhanded methods."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Bai Yanxing asked.
“The people from Aozong are ignoring me, so I have to find someone to talk to about my feelings.”
What's on my mind? Should I tell him?
Bai Yanxing smiled without saying a word, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the dragon soldiers standing not far away, seemingly with their backs to them, but actually eavesdropping.
When Di Jiang talked to him about Duan Jiuyou, he did not ask him to dismiss his attendants. That was because he wanted them to hear and know that Duan Jiuyou did not intend to rebel against him.
Yet he also stated that the two were in love and that he had never considered giving up on their relationship. If the two races were to go to war again in the future, and the Dragon Clan were to send Jiuyou into battle, they would have to be constantly on guard against her turning against them. If they didn't use her, what were their chances of winning?
A wise man wins hearts and minds. This seemingly casual conversation is full of witty remarks. What the Emperor Jiang wants is for the Dragon Clan to want to use Duan Jiuyou but dare not!
As for Bai Yanxing, did he really not know Di Jiang's intentions? Perhaps he didn't realize it at first, but when he understood later, he didn't stop it because, like Di Jiang, he didn't want Duan Jiuyou to be involved in the conflict between the two races again.
Because Jiuyou will feel pain, and because Bai Yanxing also has his own pride. The Tiansheng Jiangshan should be protected by Tiansheng. The withered bones of Longquanling are the enmity between them and the Huangzu. They should not use others to take revenge.
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