Chapter 19 - More Revelations


Sky Kingdom

Jie Lu looked out of her window and sighed. She thought back to the gala they had attended in the Demon Realm. Amidst all the hustle-bustle, Cheng Yu and Feng Jiu had pointed out the 'good guys' to her. She had giggled and gone ahead with the fun. But she knew deep down none of them had caught her attention. Now that she was alone in her room in the Sky Kingdom, she found herself asking, "What do I truly want for myself?" Before she had the time to react, a face showed up in front of her eyes - the face of the demon lord Xiao Yan.

"What? He is a married man! He loves someone else. He has loved her his whole life. I attended their wedding. I congratulated them on their wedding..." she felt betrayed by her own heart. 

No. She surely did not want that. Her mind had conjured up Xiao Yan's image only because he had been at the forefront of everything in the last few days. Yes, that's what it was. It had to be that.

Somehow, she wished she had someone who cared for her as Xiao Yan cared for Ji Heng. Will she ever have someone like that? Growing up, she had led a somewhat sheltered life not uncommon for a princess. Her mom, brother, and friends from her tribe had always cared for her. She had lost all of that when they had relocated to the Sky kingdom. Now she was forced to become their leader. Although she kept busy with her duties as leader of her clan, her heart felt empty, cold. 

"Princess, the elders are waiting..." her maid announced, bringing her out of her reverie. She gathered her thoughts and walked out of her room.

----

Demon Realm

"What is the matter, my dear queen? I heard you were not feeling well," a very worried-looking Demon Lord rushed to the queen's chambers. 

"My Lord," Ji Heng tried to get up, but he stopped her. "I am alright, my lord. Just a little bit tired. I need to rest for a few days, and I will be alright," she exclaimed, sounding weak.

"Sure. Of course. Please take as much rest as you need, my love," Xiao Yan assured her. He helped her lay down again and left after giving strict instructions to her maids to take excellent care of their queen.

"Shiyi, please ask everyone to leave us alone. For the next few days, I want only you to serve me. You will come only when I call for you. I want to be in seclusion to recuperate," Ji Heng ordered. She watched as her maids scurried away, and Du Shiyi closed the door to her chambers. 

"At last, I am alone. It's time to execute my plan," Ji Heng thought and summoned one of her puppets. Handing over a knife with an ornate jade handle, she gave him instructions on what to do and sent him to the mortal realm. He was to use it to kill mortals and trap their resentful souls in the weapon. She ordered him to target places like prisons, liquor houses, and brothels - places where sinners would be abundant and corrupted souls easy to gather. As per her calculations, it would take him at least a couple of immortal weeks to gather enough negative energy.  

----

Sky kingdom

Dong Hua and his family were invited to Ye Hua's palace for lunch. Feng Jiu was excited. 

"Let me prepare some sorrowless cakes and take them with us. I know Gu Gu loves them, and so does Ah-Li," she told Dijun. Dijun made a face. "I like them too, you know...," he pouted. "Dijun, I will save the first batch here for you. You can have all those for yourself. Are you happy now?" she asked. Dijun hummed and smiled as Feng Jiu hurriedly left towards the kitchen.

Since Dijun and Feng Jiu had been busy with Zhe Yan and Bai Zhen the previous day, Gun Gun had spent his time with Ah-Li at Ye Hua's palace. Dijun missed his son. So he decided to go to Gun Gun's room and check on him. He found Gun Gun reading a book and smiled. Gun Gun had taken the love of reading from his father.

Gun Gun greeted his father with a smile "Father, I am so happy you could stop by," he said excitedly.

"Did you have a good time yesterday, Gun Gun?" Dijun asked and caressed the boy's hair. "Hmm... I did," Gun Gun replied and then his smile disappeared. Even when he had played with his little uncle Ah-Li, Gun Gun had worried about his Mother. He wanted to talk to his Father because he knew that his Father was the only one who would protect his Mother from the evil Demon Queen.

"Father, there's something I want to ask you...", Gun Gun said solemnly. "Sure, son. What happened? Did you quarrel with Ah Li?", Dong Hua asked, almost amused. It was hard for him to imagine someone as sweet natured as Gun Gun to quarrel.

"No, No. Little Uncle Ah Li is very kind. We had a lot of fun, but I am still worried about my mother. What happened to her? Did the evil Demon Queen do something to her?", the little boy asked with sincere eyes. Dong Hua could tell he was worried about his mother a lot.

But wait, how did he remember what happened? Did Zhe Yan's tea not work on this boy? Dong Hua wondered.

Keeping a calm face that showed none of this confusion, Dong Hua sat down and pulled his son closer. "Tell me why you think that way, Gun Gun? Did something happen yesterday?", he asked sounding casual.

"Father, Not yesterday. On the day we were leaving from the Demon Realm. You did not drink Zhe Yan Ye Ye's tea so how is it that you could forget? Don't you recall how Mother's whole body completely lit up and she flew with wings of fire?", Gun Gun was confused.

This time Dong Hua was really perplexed. "How do you still remember that? What do you know about Zhe Yan's tea? And how?", he asked. A small forehead line was beginning to form on Dong Hua's normally emotionless face.

Gun Gun lowered his face slightly and said, "I heard your thoughts about using Ye Ye's tea to make everyone forget it. When they offered the tea to me, I looked at it and wished really hard it would turn into normal water. I don't know how it happened, but it really turned into normal water. So I haven't forgotten anything."

"Wait. Back up. You 'heard my thoughts'? You can hear thoughts, read minds? Since when?", asked Dong Hua.

"Since as long as I can remember. When I was little, I could only sense the feelings in others' thoughts. Joy, sadness, pain, grief, happiness, even jealousy, and other things. Some things I could not understand at that time. For instance, I could sense when someone would look at Mother in a weird way, I did not fully understand the meaning of it, but I could sense that I did not like what they were feeling. As I grew older, I became able to read everyone's thoughts. I don't turn this on or anything, it's just like I hear spoken voices, I hear thoughts when someone thinks them.", Gun Gun replied simply.

"Oh? And what happened to the tea? What did you do? How did you change it?", Dong Hua continued with more questions. He felt like a lot of mysteries were being uncovered these days in Tai Chen Palace.

"I don't really know if I did it myself. I was looking at the tea wishing it would be normal water, really imagining it to be normal water and before I knew it, I realized the color of the liquid had changed. It had become completely clear and when I drank it, it was in fact, normal water.", Gun Gun said.

Dong Hua conjured a cup with milk in it. He brought it in front of Gun Gun and asked him, "Could you try doing it again? I just want to see."

"Will you be mad at me, Father? I did not want to disrespect your wish or anything, I just.... I just.. ", Gun Gun almost stammered. He was worried his father would be unhappy with him.

"Oh no no, Gun Gun. I am not mad. And I most certainly am not thinking that you would want to disrespect me at all. I know you, my son. You love your parents. I trust you. Don't worry. It is unusual for immortal kids as young as you to be able to do something like that. I just want to check if your powers are growing. If they are, we would have to start training you.", Dong Hua said with a smile and caressed his son's face.

Gun Gun smiled and took the cup of milk. In the next moment, it had turned to normal water. Dong Hua was impressed. "Could you also do the same thing and create a cake or pastry for yourself? Give it a try, come on.", he encouraged Gun Gun.

Gun Gun extended his tiny hand and looked at it intently. Nothing happened. "Try closing your eyes and really visualizing the exact color, size, taste, and texture of your favorite cake.", Dong Hua hinted. Gun Gun did that and voila! This time he was holding a decadent sorrowless cake, just like the ones his mother made. He giggled in delight.

Dong Hua hugged him closer and said, "Son, for now, let's keep this between you and me. I will tell your mother myself tonight. But please don't let anyone else know about your mind-reading ability or your powers just yet. Considering the episode at the Demon Realm, I just want to be extra cautious with you and your mother."

"Sure, Father. I will do as you say.", Gun Gun said wrapping his arms around his father's neck.

"Alright, one last question - what made you think that the Demon Queen had done something bad to your mother? What did you hear in her thoughts?", Dong Hua asked pulling back.

"I heard her thoughts. She thinks my mother did a bad thing by marrying you. She thinks she would make a much better Dihou and wants to show you that you made a mistake by marrying my mother. I don't like her thoughts. When we were in the Mortal realm, mother's smiles seldom reached her eyes. Even when she smiled, I could feel the sadness in her heart. I often found her turning her face away to wipe a tear. But now that she is with you, she just giggles freely, she is so happy. And you father, I know you don't smile often at other people but the way you smile at Mother, it's different. It's special. For Mother and me, you are different. You really care for us, dote on us. You worry about Mother when she gets sick. I feel we both are safe being with you. If the Demon Queen gets her way, I am sure she would want to hurt Mother and possibly also me. At the very least she will try to force you and Mother to be apart from each other. I cannot begin to imagine how incredibly sad Mother would be if that happens again. I just want to protect Mother from the Demon Queen. You will do that, won't you? You won't let any trouble come to Mother. Right, Father?" Gun Gun asked with pleading eyes. 

Dong Hua was speechless. His heart was becoming aware of so many different emotions all at once. This was happening quite often these days and he was not used to being overwhelmed like that. He was in awe of this little boy. Gun Gun was so loving, so mature for his age. "I promise, Gun Gun. I will protect you and your Mother with everything I have. Thank you for sharing all this with me. Please don't talk about it to anyone else. I will discuss it with your Mother and other elders, but only as needed. Do you understand?" Dijun looked at the boy intently and asked. Gun Gun hummed his agreement and brought out his pinky. 

"So mature, but so innocent. Just like his mother. I love you, my son," Dijun thought. He was reminded of his son's powers when Gun Gun replied, "I love you too, Father. And I am like you, too. Am I not?" 

Dijun chuckled and patted Gun Gun's hair nodding. When he left the boy's room his mind began to form a plan.


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