Return of the Immortal Emperor Daddy-Chapter 290 - 292: How Can One Have It All in the World (3/7)
The reporters were shocked, yet they still took photos. They believed that if this matter were publicized, it would surely stun the whole nation into disbelief.
A child becoming the president of the Chinese Medicine Association? This child was far younger than Gan Luo had ever been.
Wu Tian was aware of the reporters’ presence through his Spiritual Sense, but he didn’t mind them promoting the little guy, or even himself. He wanted everyone in the South to know that he was the king.
Ignoring everyone’s astonishment, Wu Tian stared directly at Wu Fa and Wang Cai. "Come with me," he said.
Family affairs?
Xiao Tianzan and the others thought it best not to intrude, so they stayed behind to manage the situation. Murong Yezi, Qin Yuhan, the little one, Wu Fa, and Wang Cai all followed Wu Tian.
They soon arrived at the Heavenly River area, next to the Great River of Pearls. It was daytime, and the place was deserted. In the evening, many people would gather here to dance, skateboard, sell barbecue, sing, and more. This was something only the residents of Yang City’s Heavenly River district knew.
"Now, let’s sort out some family matters," Wu Tian said. His voice was as ethereal as a cloud and as amiable as the wind, yet his words weighed heavily on the hearts of Murong Yezi, Wu Fa, and Wang Cai.
"So, how do you wish to settle this?" Wu Fa asked. This matter had troubled him for many years, and he often berated himself for what he had done.
But how can one have it all in life?
If he hadn’t left the pregnant Murong Yezi back then, Ghost Valley would have eventually found him. At that point, neither Murong Yezi nor the child in her womb could have been spared. And returning to Ghost Valley meant he could never walk away unscathed.
How can one have it all, to be true to Ghost Valley and true to one’s beloved?
"No one can hear or see us here. Say whatever you want, speak freely," Wu Tian said, looking at the conflicted Wu Fa and shaking his head. He then pointed a finger into the Void.
Instantly, a cloud of Blood Mist billowed out and enveloped the area, shrouding Wu Tian and the others within. The entire region was blanketed by the Blood Mist. No one dared to approach; to do so was a path to certain death.
For example, one man—a member of Ghost Valley’s Horizontal Sect and a guardian at Wu Dao’s side—wanted to find out what they were doing inside. Gritting his teeth, he risked entering the Blood Mist and was immediately turned to ash, leaving behind nothing but a wretched scream.
Wu Tian’s methods were, as always, astonishingly beyond the means of the so-called Mundane World.
Wu Fa sighed. This iron-willed man now exuded an air of desolation. "I’m tired," he said, "truly tired."
"Yezi, all these years, I’ve been thinking of you, missing you, and worrying about you and our child. I worried that you, a mother alone with her child, were not living well. Do you believe me?"
Before Murong Yezi could answer, Wu Fa gave a bitter chuckle. "Actually, it doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me. Women always think men’s words are false, that only actions are true. But there’s another side to it that you women don’t know. I wanted to act, I really did, but I didn’t have the freedom to..."
This stoic man’s eyes welled with hot tears, which streamed down his cheeks, landing on the ground with audible sounds.
DRIP. DRIP.
Murong Yezi’s face filled with sorrow. She remembered with perfect clarity that Wu Fa had been a War God who never cried. In the past, no matter how great the difficulties he faced, even when on the brink of life and death, she had never once seen him weep from sadness or pain.
Wu Fa looked up at the sky, his vision obscured by the Blood Mist, yet his voice was filled with melancholy. "Ghost Valley has shown great kindness to the Wu Family. For over seven hundred years, from the Wei-Jin to the Sui-Tang dynasties, my family saw significant development. In the Song Dynasty, we were the eighth most common surname. And when my family faced complete annihilation, it was the people of Ghost Valley who saved us. At the end of the Qing era, when the Wu Family was starving and cold, it was Ghost Valley that helped us. We were in decline then, and without them, everything would have ended. It was Ghost Valley who taught everything they knew to my grandfather—the man who would become the Founding Prime Minister of the Dragon Country—and allowed the Wu Family to shine once more.
"Ghost Valley gave my family a second life.
"When I was a child, I had a fever that wouldn’t break. Famous doctors couldn’t cure me, and I would have died young if the contemporary Master of Ghost Valley hadn’t sacrificed his own life. He gave me his only Life-Extending Pill, which is why I survived.
"Ghost Valley also gave me my life."
As Wu Fa slowly recounted the debt he owed, hot tears streamed down his face. With such a profound debt of gratitude, how could he not repay it?
If he didn’t repay it, could he even call himself human?
He lowered his head, then turned, his gaze full of deep gratitude and affection as he looked at Murong Yezi. "Before I was fifteen, I was a tool. I thought of myself as one, and I swore to spend my life repaying Ghost Valley. I truly believed I would be a heartless tool... until I met you.
"If life were only like our first meeting, why do autumn winds sadden a discarded fan?
"Honestly, at first, I didn’t want to fall for you. I didn’t want to fall for anyone.
"But feelings... they are something I can’t control..."
As Wu Fa recalled the past, his eyes welled up with tears of blood. He stared at the sky and roared, "What could I do? What could I possibly do? Such is my fate.
"Love has always been a luxury. If I pick up the bricks, I can’t hug you. If I put down the bricks, I can’t provide for you... and my hands have always held an invisible brick.
"I knew I shouldn’t fall in love with anyone. It’s hard to imagine a good ending. But I still fell hopelessly in love with you.
"All I can say is, I’m sorry!"
Wu Fa clenched his fists. The next moment, his Inner Strength surged wildly, turning his face crimson like a furnace.
Wang Cai saw what was happening and cried out anxiously, "How can you do this? Don’t do this! I don’t mind! You can be with them! You don’t have to seal your meridians and self-destruct. If you die... I’ll go with you."
Murong Yezi froze. How had it come to this? She finally understood why Wu Fa couldn’t ’hold’ her; he had a ’brick’ in his hands. For most people, that brick is called ’life’—when two people get together, they have to consider their livelihood. But the brick in Wu Fa’s hands was called ’Ghost Valley’!
Watching Wu Fa’s face turn a deeper crimson, his meridians looking as if they might burst at any moment, Murong Yezi’s own eyes welled with tears. "You don’t have to do this. You don’t need to. Our hardship, my son’s and mine, is the hardship of life. But your suffering... is the agony of the heart."
Blood was already trickling from the corners of Wu Fa’s mouth. He forced himself to speak, but it came out with a bloody cough. "Perhaps... perhaps my death is for the best. This is an unsolvable game. Ghost Valley, the House of Wang in Taiyuan... they will never allow me to have a second wife.
"I can only... fail you... It is... It is I who deserves to die!"
