CH 89.2

Translated by yuki

Edited by xiaowu

As he was about to reach his breaking point, he finally found a method to reduce corruption – which was by splitting his soul in half and forcing all the corruption to the other half of his soul. This would be the red-haired Ao Run Lu Qingjiu had previously seen.

For a member of the dragon race, splitting one’s soul was not an easy feat, even Ao Run would sometimes lose control of his body. However when he was clear-headed, he could secretly sneak to the human world to spy on the love of his life without fear that he would hurt her.

Ao Run was able to witness his daughter’s birth, her growing up and finally under the urging of her mother left Shuifu village. Although he felt a little uneasy in his heart, he could understand her thinking – rather than being a protector, a normal human being would be safer. Her mother didn’t want her daughter to repeat history and so, she never revealed Bai Yuehu’s existence, keeping it a secret to her grave.

Writing up to this point, Ao Run paused. Lu Qingjiu didn’t pressure him and instead kept waiting in silence. He didn’t have the chance to before, but under careful scrutiny, he realised that Ao Run’s eyes and brows were similar to his mother’s. However, that pair of eyes which should have been extremely beautiful, were instead just two empty cavities on his head.

Taking advantage of this pause, Lu Qingjiu observed his surroundings. He took notice of the fact that there were always a few butterflies landing on Ao Run’s shoulders and back. One of these uniquely beautiful butterflies was the blue butterfly that had brought him to Ao Run.

“Are you tired?” Lu Qingjiu asked softly, “If you are, we can continue next time.”

Ao Run smiled while shaking his head, indicating that he was not at all tired.

“But I am really worried about you…” He could still smell the metallic blood stench wafting off Ao Run’s body.

Ao Run gently sighed, using his only remaining left hand to caress the top of Lu Qingjiu’s head, before continuing to write.

“This kind of life continued until one summer day. At that time, you had grown up quite a bit. I had only seen you while you were really small, but never had the chance to give you even a hug.”

Lu Qingjiu felt a wave of sadness, reaching out a hand to hug Ao Run. He hugged Ao Run tightly, like he had once hugged his grandmother. Since he had already lost his parents and grandmother, Ao Run was currently his only blood-related elder.

“The weather that summer day was very hot. I heard that your mother was thinking of returning to Shuifu village, so I planned to cross into the human world to take a look at her,” Ao Run slowly wrote, “I could not have imagined… that an accident outside of my control would happen.”

His mother’s identity was somewhat unique. She wasn’t human but also wasn’t a dragon; she was actually a mixed-blood. If a regular human were to be corrupted, normally their souls would be suppressed in Shuifu village and they would never be able to leave the village. The altars in Yin Xun’s house were for this exact purpose.

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“There was someone controlling it all from the shadows,” Ao Run continued writing. “It affected me and also your mother.”

Hearing this, Lu Qingjiu started paying more attention.

“Your mother wasn’t able to escape by the skin of one’s teeth and therefore was corrupted. However, probably due to her dragon ancestry, she wasn’t trapped in Shuifu village and was able to leave.”

He continued tracing out, “Your grandmother didn’t want your mother to repeat the mistakes she had. Therefore she didn’t tell this matter to other members of the dragon race. Apart from Bai Yuehu, no other dragons knew about this…”

So, Bai Yuehu did have knowledge about this matter concerning Lu Qingjiu’s mother. Perhaps the reason he didn’t tell Lu Qingjiu was due to a promise between him and the grandmother.

“After that, it was finally that summer day.” Ao Run’s hand started trembling slightly. Although there was not much change in his expressions, his overall demeanour thick with grief.

“Your mother was coming home for a visit… I wanted to see her, since it had been a while…”

Hearing these words, Lu Qingjiu’s eyes started tearing up. He rubbed his face with one hand while suppressing the rolling emotions in his heart, using the other hand to pat the back of Ao Run’s hand, giving him some comfort, “Grandfather…”

Ao Run just silently patted his hand, writing more, “But, there was an accident.”

Lu Qingjiu’s mother dragon genes suddenly flared up and she devoured her beloved – Lu Qingjiu’s father.

When Ao Run wrote out this part of the story, Lu Qingjiu felt chills from the tip of his toes to the top of his head. He had thought of many possibilities, but would never have imagined this was the truth. Thinking back, it was true that, in the period before the event occurred, his mother was a lot more irritated. At that time, he didn’t think too much of it, assuming that there were  cracks forming in his parent’s relationship. It was only at this moment that he understood what that irritation actually was.

Humans didn’t have the habit of devouring their beloved, so even if they were corrupted, they wouldn’t cause too many injuries to the ones they loved. At the most, they would just constantly be in a bad mood.

Dragons were different, they were originally greedy creatures that had to hold back the urge to hide away all the objects they loved within their stomachs, so that no one else could cast their greedy gazes on their beloved objects.

Lu Qingjiu’s mother, who suddenly regained her dragon genes, changed into a dragon and didn’t hesitate to swallow her beloved in one mouthful.

Ao Run, who had wanted to see his daughter and just arrived in the Human world, bore witness to this very scene.

Lu Qingjiu couldn’t say anything. He was drowning in this huge sea of grief, unable to imagine the situation at that time. It was even harder to imagine what Ao Run, who had to watch all this with his own eyes, felt at that time.

“After that, she headed to the old house.” Ao Run wrote. “I knew what she wanted to do, she wanted to eat her beloved mother, my beloved.”

Writing up to this point, a sad but benevolent smile appeared on his face, “I couldn’t allow such a thing to happen, my beloved could only be devoured by myself.”

Lu Qingjiu asked with a trembling voice, “So… so you ate my mother.”

Ao Run nodded, looking a little worried that Lu Qingjiu would develop hatred towards him, holding onto Lu Qingjiu’s hand a little uncertainty,  he continued his story.

“At first I had only wanted to stop her, but when I used some force, the corrupted part of my soul took over my body. Once I regained control of my body, she was gone…” The only things left were a floor full of eye-catching fresh blood and numerous broken scales, which was enough to tell Ao Run what he had done.

What came after that, Lu Qingjiu was already aware.

Ao Run, who had eaten his daughter, received a serious punishment from the dragon race. He didn’t protest since he had indeed done such a thing. It was just that he didn’t bother explaining the reason, or perhaps he thought that there was no need to do so. After all, letting Lu Qingjiu’s grandmother know the fact that her daughter had also eaten her beloved, would only be another blow and not provide any comfort.

At this moment, Lu Qingjiu completely understood what “ignorance is bliss” meant. He had now gotten to the bottom of his parents’ cause of death, but was not able to get any trace of comfort. Looking at his grandfather whose body bore innumerable injuries, he couldn’t help reaching out to hold his wrist. Ao Run’s wrist was icy cold, as if he had lost all his body warmth.

“Grandfather, why don’t you go back and clarify the matter with them?”

Lu Qingjiu couldn’t stand seeing him continue as he had so far, he couldn’t bear leaving his only living relative to bear such suffering, “Don’t continue like this anymore, I am your grandson, I can vouch for you…”

Ao Run gave a gentle smile while shaking his head, continuing to trace, “I have an aim for escaping this time. Before reaching my aim, I won’t go back.”

“What is your aim?” Lu Qingjiu eagerly asked.

Ao Run wrote, “I’ve told you before, the reason I had been corrupted was due to accidentally falling into a trap, afterwards your mother’s corruption was also due to an accident…”

Lu Qingjiu immediately understood, “You are planning to look for the culprit behind these matters?!”

Ao Run nodded his head.

“Who is this person, why would he do such a thing?” Lu Qingjiu recalled the short history Bai Yuehu had told him before and hurriedly added, “Is it connected to someone from the Zhulong race… Grandfather…”

His sentence was cut off by Ao Run’s low coughs. His coughs seemed to take a lot of effort, in the end becoming dry coughs, as if his internal organs would also be coughed out.

Lu Qingjiu immediately helped pat his back, wanting to make him feel better. But as he was patting, he felt something was not right. On a second look, he realised that the icy blue butterflies that were attached to Ao Run’s back were multiplying. Lu Qingjiu had assumed all along that these butterflies were being ordered around by Ao Run. However, looking more carefully, he found out these butterflies were actually feeding on the fresh blood on Ao Run’s clothes. They couldn’t be chased away while their numbers kept increasing.

“Grandfather, grandfather! Are you ok?” Lu Qingjiu started panicking, clearly feeling something was amiss, “Why do these butterflies keep increasing?”

Ao Run was still heavily dry coughing. When he heard Lu Qingjiu’s words, his face revealed some suspicion, looking as if he was going to say something, but was then cut off by violent vomiting.

Lu Qingjiu who was standing beside Ao Run, could only watch as Ao Run kept dry-coughing. As he watched, Ao Run’s hair started becoming red, his originally gentle demeanour was slowly replaced by a wild air – the corrupted part of his soul was coming out.

Even though Lu Qingjiu knew he was dangerous, he couldn’t bring himself to leave Ao Run’s side. When Ao Run raised his head after finishing his dry coughs, a wild grin was split across his face. He opened his mouth, and out popped that hoarse voice Lu Qingjiu had heard previously, “Long time no see, my dear grandson.”

Lu Qingjiu knitted his brows as he looked at him, “You…”

“I am also your grandfather,” He stretched his back, walking closer to Lu Qingjiu, “What, do you not recognise me?”

Lu Qingjiu wanted to stand up, but his shoulders were held down by him, who said, “So he has told you everything?”

“What does everything refer to?” Lu Qingjiu asked, “What do you want to know?”

The redhead Ao Run let out a snort, as if unsatisfied with Lu Qingjiu’s reactions. He waved around his empty sleeve, unhappily saying, “Tell him to stop torturing this body, if it continues being tortured he’ll really die, then he’ll never find out what he wants to find out.”

Lu Qingjiu asked alertly, “You know who’s the culprit behind all these?”

“Of course I know, “ Ao Run burst out laughing. He stretched out a hand, a blue butterfly landed on it, “If there is no him, there is no me. I am created by him, of course I know him.”

He waved his hand, catching the butterfly within his palm. Within his grip, that butterfly turned into a ball of water that was radiating an icy air.

Lu Qingjiu still had things he wanted to say, but Ao Run reached out to pat his head. At this, Lu Qingjiu felt a chill seep deep into his skull, following that the skies and earth started spinning around, then his vision faded to black and he passed out.