Chapter 61

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

When he enters, Bai Lianhua sees Yang Chongyin leaning on his wooden bed unmoving with an exhausted expression.

He hurriedly approaches him to check on his condition, though Yang Chongyin who is surprised at Bai Lianhua breaking down the door tells him again and again he’s fine.

He gently lets Bai Lianhua examine him from top to bottom and back, then he puts his hands around him and says lightly, “I’m just a bit tired and want to take a short rest… Shidi, could you help carry me into the suite? I’ll be fine with a nap.”

The system is excitedly yowling as if it’s on steroids, “OMG, the antagonist is definitely asking you for a princess carry!”

Bai Lianhua ignores the system whose attention has drifted somewhere else as usual. He is certain this is not how the antagonist should look normally… Yang Chongyin is someone who is good at masking himself, so it is obvious this situation is intentional.

Bai Lianhua thus suspects that something must be up here which makes Yang Chongyin want to quickly leave and not allow him to discover anything off.

So he can’t help but look around, and then he notices that in the middle of the room, there is a multi-layered spell circle already well-formed with the many divination tools placed properly around them, linked together to perform their respective functions with each layer of the spell circle contributing to it. The outermost layer… He might not have been a good student, but he does remember this quite vividly even now, because back in the sect, the teachers would repeatedly tell them never ever to use this one unless the situation absolutely calls for exactly this.

——This circle Yang Chongyin has set up, is actually one that expends one’s own life force to maximise the effect of casting divination techniques.

Before now, while he’s come and gone many times, he never saw the complete setup in the room, or he would have noticed… No wonder every time he came the antagonist’s divination tools would always be scattered about. It must have been so that he wouldn’t discover anything wrong.

But then, wouldn’t this imply that Yang Chongyin has set up and activated this circle every single day? Even with Yang Chongyin’s exceptional talents and abilities, this type of damage piled up daily will still quickly cause him to collapse.

Bai Lianhua doesn’t even know what to say, “shixiong, you’ve been expending your lifeforce all along? To save the national fortune?” His voice is trembling uncontrollably.

Seeing how it’s still discovered, Yang Chongyin smiles bitterly, “this is the only way… If I had started the intervention from the very beginning, it wouldn’t have been this difficult. Due to my inaction, to only want to drag it back after all these years means it is no longer a trivial thing.”

If in the original timeline without Bai Lianhua’s warmth, his planned elimination of the fortune required his own life as price, then it is the same as dragging the fate backwards at this late stage, since they’re both greatly altering the fate of the world.

“I didn’t want to let you know, but my calculations of the time were off today…” Yang Chongyin stops speaking halfway with a complicated expression.

Bai Lianhua feels extremely bitter himself.

Yang Chongyin had always acted so indifferent that he never noticed anything… He has taken this for granted, thinking that Yang Chongyin is the omnipotent antagonist so there’s nothing he can’t do. He ignored the price he would have had to pay.

“I’m sorry.”

Yang Chongyin who sees Bai Lianhua like this smiles a bit as he recovers somewhat from his extreme fatigue, “no need… You might not have thought about this but I knew it all along. Since the moment we made the promise to each other despite me knowing what would happen, I’ve been prepared.”

“I didn’t want to make you feel any guilt… Sadly, I seem to have failed.” Yang Chongyin sighs lightly, and gently caresses Bai Lianhua’s eyes, “I really do like it more when shidi is smiling at me instead.”

——When the beautiful round eyes curl up, it would etch its joyful curvature directly into others’ hearts.

He tries to cheer him up, “shidi, you should be happy too. Now it’s already halfway done.”

“What I promise you will come true. I will give you a golden age, a prosperous realm… Like I’ve said, with me here, there’s nothing to fear.”

Bai Lianhua doesn’t want to listen anymore, “no… That’s enough.”

“Shixiong. Stop using this self-harming technique. The rest, we’ll pull through with man’s will.”

He would never accept that even if this is a xuanhuan world where the dynasty’s wellbeing is deeply linked with the national fortune, if he really used all his effort to perfectly finish every single thing, the fate of the dynasty would still be sealed when Yang Chongyin himself has already walked halfway there for him.

“I may regard the people’s wellbeing as my duty, but this is not something I will achieve by sacrificing shixiong,”

“If I knew that you had to sacrifice yourself…” Bai Lianhua lowers his head, “I would never ever have been able to make the request I did.”

“Shixiong, for me… You’re worth more than the world and its people.”

Yang Chongyin is moved.

Since Bai Lianhua has entered the room, he has personally witnessed that masque of kindness Bai Lianhua always wears unintentionally crack and shatter bit by bit, until finally, he can see Bai Lianhua expressing his emotions for him directly.

Yang Chongyin embraces him, patting him on the back lightly, “ok.”

The system which has decided to spectate quietly for the latter half of this drama has a bit of the sniffles with how touched it was, yet it still felt a bit proud with a kind of ‘as expected’ feeling to this development… It really can’t help but question, with how meticulous Yang Chongyin does things every day, if the host really did discover this by accident or if Yang Chongyin had let him discover it.

——Emm… If this white lotus refuses to bloom then heating it up so that it finally opens up its awkwardly shut bulb is also one way, right? Since the antagonist never lacks in fresh hot emotions usable for this.

Ah well, these, the host needs not to know, needs not to know.

…

Despite Bai Lianhua putting a stop to it and Yang Chongyin acquiescing, his life expectancy is still significantly affected.

Ten years later, Yang Chongyin who should have been barely past his prime is already weakening.

His smile on his deathbed is without a shred of darkness, saying, “it’s fine that I’m passing away now.”

Before, it was Bai Lianhua who unintentionally made his way into his heart, and after, it was him doing his best to intentionally make his way into Bai Lianhua’s. He thought this would have been a simple process, but then he realised that he was merely part of the entire populace. He overestimated how much he meant to Bai Lianhua. Opening his heart took strenuous effort.

Yet…

“This time, perhaps it would be shidi that would recall me every now and then?”

Could it be that it is always the person who leaves first that would become an incurable scar chiselled into the toughest, most unforgettable corner of the heart? Like you, back then; like me, right now?

Bai Lianhua pauses. He closes his eyes forcefully, trying to suppress the bitterness and softness in his chest. He lightly responds to Yang Chongyin’s expectant expression, “yes.”

“This time, it’s my turn,”

“From now on, it will be me who can never forget shixiong.”

Yang Chongyin smiles with a satisfied face. His thoughts drift away looking at Bai Lianhua, and seemingly, the person in front of him is no longer wearing his luxurious gowns, and is back to being that young man who would smile and happily tell him “but I still want to speak with you” when he was being punished.

He always thought he was only moved the second time Bai Lianhua was punished, but, if he recalls it without the lenses of that self-indulgent pride of his back then, perhaps, it was this sentence that has tugged at his heartstrings for the first time in his life.

——I also want to speak with you. Speak with you lots and lots.

——I’m glad that the last words I hear are words from you.

——Are words that promise so.

…

After Yang Chongyin passed away, Bai Lianhua watched over him overnight without sleep. Nobody dared interrupt him.

Early morning, Bai Chongyuan, now a young adult, carefully steps into the palace, to soothe Bai Lianhua.

He has long since noticed that little red string of romance tied between his fuhuang and the State Oracle, and he has since understood why the State Oracle would only smile gently at his fuhuang.

Does that really matter, though? They weren’t standing in anyone’s way; in fact, they’ve given up so much for this whole world.

…

Fifteen years later, when the tolling bells signifying the passing of the emperor rings throughout the capital, in a household of a hamlet near the capital, a middle-aged man who’s happily chatting with his wife and son raises his head. He can’t help but feel sad when he realises what the tolling meant.

The last time he felt like this was back when the State Oracle passed away.

He couldn’t explain where this odd feeling of sadness came from, so he thought… It was because of his gratitude to this prosperous age. The emperor is capable, the State Oracle is wise. It would of course be saddening to learn these people have passed away, wouldn’t it?

Even the Heavens should really grant them the blessing of a long life.

He would never have thought, that it was these people who he thought were at the very top, the most distant from him in his entire life, had once personally divined for him.

…

Eras pass, dynasties fall and dynasties rise. Bai Lianhua and Yang Chongyin’s names, however, have passed down through the generations.

They were repeatedly mentioned in official history. The fact is, high achievers who were as capable in divination have worked out in later eras that the Bai dynasty should have met with great calamities from Bai Yanze’s ascension, with countless disasters, both natural and human, and a hundred years of chaos to follow. The then State Oracle, Yang Chongyin, however, completely rewrote the lines of fate for the dynasty with his own power, and there was the sagacious emperor Bai Lianhua who spent his life governing his realm with utmost skill and diligence, firmly securing the national fortune and stopping its deterioration. They also recognised talent and the crown prince that was selected early continued the reign with the same vigour, allowing the peace and prosperity to continue for centuries to come.

This deep cooperation between a ruler and his subject actually allowing them to stand against the Heavens’ fate has become a peak yet to be surpassed in the sects dealing with the supernatural in the future, and they could all only look up to it.

Since then, the Bai dynasty never had another State Oracle.

According to the records, they were shixiong and shidi with a brotherly relationship. Yang Chongyin even broke with tradition to move into the imperial palace until he passed away. In his short life, he always spent it alongside Bai Lianhua… A rather suggestive historic fact indeed.

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