Chapter 242 - The Son Of Heaven (1/2)
”A fallen god?” Qiu Ling furrowed his brow even more. ”I've never heard of them.”
Jing He seemed surprised. ”Not? Well, there aren't many of them. They are even too few to call them a race of their own. Moreover … fallen gods aren't like us. They were gods in the beginning but then something happened that …” He paused and silently rubbed the cup in his hands. ”I guess it's not wrong to say they lost their minds. The reason for that can be anything. In Xing's case, it was probably his loneliness. He had no family or friends just his husband and then it seemed like he would lose him, too. He couldn't take it any longer and these thoughts, this fear of his …”
”Mn. I understand.” This time, Qiu Ling reached indeed over and grabbed his hand. Jing He retracted his own, though. He really was too proper to accept that so soon. Qiu Ling leaned back, too. ”He must have felt really lonely. It might have been alright had he never known Tian but after finding out how his life could be with somebody else at his side he probably feared losing that support.”
Jing He lowered the cup in his hands and just looked at him. Qiu Ling wasn't sure if he saw it right but … it seemed as if something had changed between them just then? Before he could be sure, Jing He had already looked down.
”I think so, too. Unfortunately, Xing was too weak to fight for this love of his. It wasn't that bad, though. Some gods descend into a killing frenzy after they are fallen and slaughter whoever stands in their way. Xing … he just vanished. He fled immediately after he had fallen.”
”He probably didn't want his husband to know … Mn, then how did the gods know that he fell? Did Tian search for him and still find him in the end?”
”He did search for him but it isn't known whether he found him or not. It's rather that there is a phenomenon that shows when someone falls. The gods just needed to look at those of them that were still there to know that it was Xing.”
”I see.” Qiu Ling frowned. ”But if Tian didn't find him … then why is this story so important to the gods?” He had thought that maybe Tian had become even more important in the future or that maybe those two had a child that later on became the new Heavenly Emperor. After all, this story had something to do with Jing He's title as the Son of Heaven. It couldn't be over yet.
”Well, the day Tian left the gods found out that he was someone they shouldn't have provoked. Tian. His name alone might have been enough of a clue. He was Heaven himself, the one who had established the Nine Havens and all those other realms and judged the different races since the beginning of time.”
Even Qiu Ling didn't know what to say to this revelation. The gods had managed to drive the one Heaven had fallen in love with to insanity. Someone of his status … would he just let it go?
”What happened?”
”He slew the Heavenly Empress and all children of the Heavenly Emperor except for one. Then, he cursed the gods. After that, he left and couldn't be found anymore.” Jing He sighed. ”It is said that … he traveled through all the immortal and mortal realms in search of Xing but nobody knows if those two ever reunited.”
”So, in remembrance of this story, the gods started to take the children of the Heavenly Emperor more seriously?”
Jing He smiled lightly. ”There were many changes. First of all, the gods stopped to take more than one wife. And yes, they did pay special attention to the children of the Heavenly Emperor after that. Well, 'children' might be the wrong word. Since that day the Heavenly Emperor never managed to have more than one and even that one child … often died.”
”So they became even more important to the gods. Just like Xing should have been.”
Jing He nodded. ”Yes, just like that.”
”So, the gods aren't thrilled that a dragon would dare to set his sights on their Son of Heaven.”
Jing He didn't dare to nod but Qiu Ling took his silence as acquiescence.