In the celestial realm, at the pinnacle of the firmament, within the Moon Splendor Palace.
All around stood racks made of ancient parasol wood, laden with a variety of precious gems and magical artifacts.
In the center of the grand hall stood four parasol trees. Their trunks served as pillars, and their intertwined branches formed a platform suspended in midair, atop which rested a massive bed draped in crimson gauze.
On the mattress, Chenyuan tossed and turned, his back bumping against a round, hard object.
Annoyed, he got up to check. To his utter shock, an egg the size of a pomelo was lying squarely in his bedding.
“Baishi!” Chenyuan called out toward the entrance.
Baishi hurried into the hall from outside, bowing deeply. “Emperor, what is the matter?”
Chenyuan pointed at the pitch-black egg, his face a mask of bewilderment. “What is this?”
Baishi chuckled. “Emperor, this was sent over by the Dragon Clan. It is Princess Long Ye of the Dragon Clan.”
Seeing the Emperor’s furrowed brows and utter disdain, Baishi continued, “Could the Emperor have forgotten? The Three-Life Stone bound your name and Princess Long Ye’s together.”
Chenyuan clenched his fists, seething with frustration. “Even so, which family starts raising a daughter-in-law straight from the egg? Am I taking a wife or raising a child here?”
Baishi placated him, saying, “The Heavenly Lord sent word that the Dragon Queen suffered a shock to her vital energy during the Great War of Gods and Demons, causing Princess Long Ye to be afflicted by demonic qi.
The Dragon Clan exhausted every method to purge the demonic qi to no avail, which is why they begged the Heavenly Lord to send the princess here. They figured the abundant spiritual energy of the Heavenly Realm would surely clear the demonic qi from her body.”
The more Chenyuan thought about it, the more aggrieved he felt. “That little brat Xuanyu! He sold me out again!”
With a flash of his form, he appeared fully and impeccably dressed within Heavenly Lord Xuanyu’s Xuantian Palace.
Chenyuan was clad in crimson robes, slender-waisted and long-legged. An exquisite crown gathered half of his silver hair at the crown of his head, while the remaining silver strands cascaded loosely over his shoulders.
At that moment, a trace of anger flickered across his picturesque brows, though his pair of alluring peach-blossom eyes softened the irritation, making him look entirely harmless.
“Xuanyu!” Chenyuan rebuked.
Xuanyu immediately stood up from behind his desk, stepping down to bow. “Emperor, why did you come in person? You only needed to send someone to summon me.”
Chenyuan narrowed his eyes and glared at him. “Are you getting too comfortable selling me out?”
Xuanyu lowered his head. “I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare.” He then looked up, asking tentatively, “Emperor, are you speaking of the Dragon Clan’s princess?”
Chenyuan rolled his eyes. “What else?”
Xuanyu bowed apologetically. “Emperor, I had no choice in this matter. Wasn’t it you yourself who verbally agreed to the marriage alliance with the Dragon Clan? The Dragon Clan contributed a tremendous amount during the subjugation of the Demon Clan, and we cannot break our word.”
Chenyuan’s brows knit together slightly. “I originally intended for a few of your sons to form a match with the Dragon Clan’s princess. I never anticipated that the Three-Life Stone would pair her with me.”
Xuanyu couldn’t help laughing. “Indeed, I didn’t expect it either. After all, the Emperor is already two hundred and fifty thousand years old, whereas that child is still just an egg.”
Chenyuan glanced sideways at him. “Are you mocking me for an old cow eating tender grass?”
Xuanyu shook his head repeatedly. “I wouldn’t dare. Yesterday, the Dragon King and Dragon Queen came to the Heavenly Realm together to beg me to save the princess. They were weeping tears of snot and sorrow; as parents themselves, I found it truly heartbreaking.
Furthermore, back then, the Dragon Queen went into battle while pregnant, sustaining injuries to slay the Demon Lord, which unfortunately implicated the unborn child in her womb.
How could we in the Heavenly Realm simply sit by and do nothing? The princess is still just an egg and is extremely weak due to the demonic qi’s affliction. Nourishing her slowly with spiritual energy is the safest and most reliable method.
I figured that the Pinnacle of the Firmament is the place with the densest spiritual energy in the Heavenly Realm. Moreover, since the princess is your future Empress, sending her to your domain is the most appropriate arrangement. What do you think?”
Xuanyu rambled on and on.
Convinced by this airtight reasoning, Chenyuan waved a hand dismissively. “Fine, fine. Let’s just leave it at that for now.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Chenyuan’s figure vanished from the spot, melting into the void without a single trace.
Xuanyu bowed. “Respectfully sending off the Emperor!”
Five hundred years later.
One morning in the Moon Splendor Palace.
Chenyuan woke up, pulled back the blanket, and stared at the dark egg which was still very much an egg lost in furrowed contemplation.
He muttered to himself, “Why hasn’t it hatched yet? The temperature in my bedding is quite suitable. I’ve been incubating it for five hundred years; could it have gone rotten?”
With that, he reached out a finger and poked the dark egg. “Stinky egg! Stinky egg! Are you actually rotten?”
Crack. A fissure split across the shell.
Chenyuan tactically retreated a step and called out, “Baishi! Baishi!”
Baishi rushed in, hunching over. “Emperor, what is it?”
Chenyuan pointed at the egg. “It’s hatching. It’s hatching.”
Baishi hurriedly stepped forward to inspect it, narrowing his eyes as he stared intently at the movement of the dragon egg.
Half an hour later, a small black dragon crawled out of the shell and nimbly scrambled onto Chenyuan’s hand.
Chenyuan scooped it up, gave it a serious look, and then promptly tossed it over to Baishi.
He bellowed, “What is the meaning of this?! Wasn’t it supposed to be a princess? How did it turn into a prince?!”
Baishi caught the creature in a panic, gave it an equally thorough examination, and felt his world shatter.
Ah! What happened to the promised princess?
Did the Three-Life Stone seriously match the wrong couple?!
That evening, having calmed down and while pondering how to reasonably return the Dragon Clan’s ‘princess’, Chenyuan received a message from Fairy Yuanji.
He proceeded to the Yuanji Pavilion.
“Yuanji, what is it?” Chenyuan asked.
“Emperor, regarding the mortal tribulation we discussed previously, tonight happens to be the opportune moment to descend to the mortal realm,” Yuanji replied.
Being an immortal was not a permanent, effortless state; every immortal had to follow the guidance of the Heavenly Book to undergo trials in the mortal world, experiencing all of human suffering, in order to better govern the mortal realm.
As she spoke, Fairy Yuanji began activating the Samsara Wheel.
A day in heaven is a year on earth. Reincarnating as a human for a mortal trial usually allowed one to return to the heavenly realm in less than a hundred days. Even if someone stubbornly chose to cultivate within a mortal aristocratic sect, they would live at most for a few hundred years.
A few hundred years in the lower realm amounted to mere hundreds of days in heaven a fleeting, momentary blink for an immortal’s long lifespan.
Chenyuan had been meaning to calm his mind anyway; escaping to the lower realm for a while sounded like a good idea. “Yuanji, may I jump in now?”
Yuanji flipped through the Heavenly Book and calculated the hour with her fingers. “Emperor, the time is not yet right.”
Meanwhile, back in the Moon Splendor Palace, because Long Ye had slept in Chenyuan’s bedding for five hundred years, he had grown deeply reliant on Chenyuan, treating him almost like a comfort item.
At that moment, drowsiness overtook Long Ye, and finding that his familiar scent was gone, he anxiously scurried out to search for him.
A divine beast’s sense of smell is exceptionally sharp. He quickly tracked him to the Yuanji Pavilion. The moment he caught sight of Chenyuan, he bolted toward him and launched into a fierce tackle.
Although the little black dragon had only just hatched, Chenyuan had channeled spiritual energy into him every single day, and he had spent five hundred years steeped in the spiritual abundance of the Pinnacle of the Firmament. Consequently, the moment he hatched, he possessed five centuries’ worth of cultivation.
Caught completely off guard, Chenyuan was sent tumbling headfirst into the Samsara Wheel alongside Long Ye.
Fairy Yuanji pinched her fingers in calculation and smiled. “The timing is just right.”
“Baishi, tell that bastard of a Heavenly Lord to cancel my marriage!” After roaring those words of absolute exasperation, the figures of both deity and dragon vanished entirely within the Samsara Wheel.
He had originally wanted to hide away from this dragon, so why on earth was he still bound together with him on a trip to the lower realm?
Entering the Samsara Wheel together meant their destinies would now be inextricably intertwined, forcing them to undergo the tribulation side by side.
And to make matters worse, the tribulation they had to face this time was none other than a trial of love…