CHAPTER 469: CHAPTER 469 : XIE JIANYU’S DARK PAST (14)

The First Demon King’s lips curled up into a wicked smile.

"This is it," he whispered. "I finally found it. Your most painful memory."

Xie Jianyu was abruptly pulled away from the sea of his memories and sucked into a vortex.

Inside the vortex, ghosts of his past kept flying past him, taunting him with words of mockery.

"Who are you that I have to share my mother with you? You are just a worthless omega," Jiang Muchen sneered.

"You will never be as good as my Wenyuan. Xie Jianyu, you disgust me," Zhang Fengxi’s haughty and cold voice spoke.

"How dare you differentiate into an omega? Xie Jianyu, you are a disappointment. Go back and reflect on yourself," the Heavenly Emperor chastised him.

"Little Yu, I have done everything for you, but you chose a tiger baby over your family. There is no need to call me your elder brother anymore," Xie Jianshen cruelly remarked.

"No!"

Xie Jianyu’s chest hurt immensely from the pain and rejection. He pressed both hands against his ears and shook his head repeatedly.

"No! Please! I have done my best! Please don’t leave me! I am sorry! I am sorry!" He cried out in anguish.

The four people materialized in front of him one by one, followed by other palace masters and his own subordinates at Fuxi Palace.

"Crown Prince, you have deceived the entire realm," Liu Yichen glared at him. "You also killed my son mercilessly out of jealousy. The befitting punishment for this horrible crime is death!"

Zhang Zhiyuan shook his head in disbelief.

"To think that I died to protect you and the realm. I am deeply regretful."

"Crown Prince, what do you have to say to defend yourself?"

"Crown Prince, how dare you hold on to the Dragon Throne shamelessly???"

"Master..."

Mingyu cried tears of blood as she extended the bloody bundle in her arms toward Xie Jianyu.

"Master, I am so sorry..."

"AH... AHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Xie Jianyu’s screams echoed, a relentless barrage as self-control crumbled. Escape was the only thought fueling his frantic mind. When the last, raw cry tore from his throat, the specters were gone, vanished like a nightmare. Only a single, horrifying tableau remained -- a small, bloodstained bundle crumpled on the ground.

A tremor ran through Xie Jianyu as his gaze fell upon his child once more. The vibrant pink of his baby’s lips had morphed into a chilling purple, his skin a canvas of an unnatural blue. Bitter tears traced a path down his cheek as he picked up the cold tiny body and pressed it against his chest.

"I am sorry," his body shook from violent sobs. "My baby, I am so sorry... Please forgive me... It’s all my fault..."

"Do you feel pain, Crown Prince?" A voice, both wickedly seductive and strangely compassionate, wove its way through the silence. It transcended gender, existing as a chorus of whispers coalesced into a single, captivating entity.

"... Yes," Xie Jianyu choked back with sobs. "It hurts. It hurts so much."

"Poor you," the voice spoke again with a soft sigh.

"Everything you worked so hard for crumbled in the end. Was the pain and suffering worth it?"

Xie Jianyu responded with more sobs.

"Please," he begged. "No more. I don’t want to do anything anymore. Please make it stop."

"Ah, Crown Prince. You should be glad that your son died so quickly."

Xie Jianyu raised his tear-streaked face and looked around in bewilderment.

"How can you say that?" He trembled. "My son is innocent."

"He is, and you are too. And look at what you have become."

"..."

"You spent your entire life posing as someone you are not, loving someone who doesn’t love you back, and protecting disloyal people who know no gratitude.

If your son had grown up and differentiated into an omega, he would go through the same ordeal you did."

"N-no, he..."

Xie Jianyu tightened his grip around the bloody bundle.

He clenched his jaw, refusing to accept it. But the unknown voice, insidious as a creeping poison, seeped into his mind and spread through his thoughts.

"Not that it was your fault," the voice soothed him. "You were forced to live such a life."

Xie Jianyu slowly nodded.

"I had to."

"And you couldn’t help falling for the ungrateful Supreme General. He was a cruel man who did not blink before killing you a moment after giving birth to his child."

"..."

"And although you know that your subjects are ungrateful creatures, you still had to do your best to maintain peace across the realm. Even if it means that you have to sacrifice your life, right?"

More tears fell across Xie Jianyu’s cheeks, followed by a torrent of sobs.

"I... I..."

He didn’t want to die.

Why must he die?

Why must he suffer so much?

He didn’t understand.

What wrong did he do to earn such a miserable ending?

"It’s alright to be selfish for once, Crown Prince..."

Xie Jianyu shook his head repeatedly.

"No..."

He wanted to shake the unknown voice off, but it coiled around him like a vicious serpent, refusing to let go.

"If you don’t want to do it for yourself, then do it for your departed son."

Xie Jianyu’s lips parted, a hesitant pause stretching before he finally managed a meek question, "What can I do?"

The child was gone.

There was nothing he could do for him, was there?

"You need to uphold justice and demand retribution for your innocent son’s horrific and untimely demise. Eye for an eye, blood for blood. The Heavenly Emperor must pay for his atrocious deed."

"... Liu Yichen?"

"Correct."

"Liu Yichen was the one who killed your son. He is a ruthless man who will stop at nothing to keep the Dragon Throne within his claws. For as long as he is the Emperor of the Heavenly Realm, the realm will never find peace."

"Liu Yichen..."

Gripping the bloodied sheet in his arms, Xie Jianyu’s eyes, once filled with despair, hardened with a simmering hatred. With each rasping repetition of the name, his loathing intensified.

"Liu Yichen...!"

"Yes, that’s it," the malicious voice chuckled. "Let the flames of hatred consume you, Crown Prince. Stew in the bitter embers of their betrayal. Never forget the Emperor’s greed, the sting of his treachery."

Inside the dungeon, Qiao Wei murmured something incoherent against the First Demon King’s palm.

Gently, The First Demon King took off his hand from Qiao Wei’s face.

With a self-satisfied smile on his lips, he tipped Qiao Wei’s chin upward and asked, "Crown Prince, are you finally awake?"

Qiao Wei’s eyelids fluttered open slowly. He raised his head, meeting the First Demon King’s gaze with a hollow look. It was the vacant stare of a dead man, devoid of any spark of life.

"Very good, Crown Prince. You have met my expectations in every aspect."

The First Demon King extended his hand toward the Three-Eyed Realm Wanderer. With a slight bow, she presented the King with a custom-made iron mask, its surface etched with a menacing demon face.

The First Demon King put it on Qiao Wei’s face and whispered into his ear, "Now you know what to do."