Love Travels through Time (My father who traveled through time and space to cultivate immortality came back to pick me up) - Chapter 80
Chapter 80: Loving Father, Filial Son
As Yin Changli was walking toward her, he froze in his tracks after being scolded so fiercely.
“I didn’t do it because I’m sensitive to the cold.”
Xiang Haikui sneered in her heart: Then it’s just because you’re cheap, huh?
Though she didn’t utter the words aloud, with her rolling her eyes and twisting her mouth, it was hardly difficult for Yin Changli to divine her inner thoughts.
No matter, take it slow.
During the few days she spent nursing her health, Yin Changli had regretted his past actions and repented for them.
The past was beyond retrieval, but fortunately, there was still an opportunity to make amends.
He continued walking forward, a folding fan slipping out from his sleeve.
Unfurling the fan, the fan surface was covered in soft down; as he fanned it, the fluff drifted around like dandelion seeds taking flight.
When it drifted over to Xiang Haikui’s side, she swatted it away with her hand.
Yet as Yin Changli passed by her, he fanned it with extra force while keeping his eyes fixed on hers, his gaze brimming with a faint glint of expectation.
However, he failed to receive the desired response from Xiang Haikui’s expression, leaving him no choice but to knit his brows and keep walking.
Rounding the desk, he sat down cross-legged behind it.
The hairless lump of a hamster, clutching its brush, was preparing to jump off the cleanly swept desk.
Yin Changli grabbed its naked tail and asked via divine transmission: Little Bai, do you smell any kind of scent?
Bai Xingxian turned his head, replying without a second’s hesitation: There’s a fragrance on you, Uncle—a refreshing scent of vegetation.
It wasn’t incense; this aroma belonged to nature itself. You must have gone to meditate in a place rich with plant essence qi to absorb the spiritual energy of nature, right, Uncle?
It seems there’s no issue then.
Yin Changli didn’t answer, letting go of its little tail.
He felt immensely puzzled inside: if even Little Bai could smell it, why on earth didn’t she react at all?
Bai Xingxian was baffled: What issue?
Yin Changli shook his head.
“It’s nothing.”
“Oh.”
Bai Xingxian jumped off the desk.
Knowing that Xiang Haikui was here to ask for food, he felt it wasn’t quite clean to spit it out from his mouth, so he transformed into his human form to fetch food for her from the pouch that had turned into a storage bracelet.
The moment he transformed, Xiang Haikui broke out in a nervous sweat, terrified of laying eyes on a bald head.
Fortunately, that flowing mane of white hair was still there.
Thinking about it, it made sense—a demon’s hair shouldn’t be transformed from its fur; otherwise, wouldn’t all hairless demons be bald?
Xiang Haikui took a bag of dried venison from his hands and sat on her side of the desk, eating away happily.
Fearing she might choke, Yin Changli poured a cup of tea.
Originally intending to slide it toward her, he remembered she disliked drinking tea, so he reached out a hand toward Bai Xingxian.
“Oranges.”
Bai Xingxian produced a cloth bag packed to the brim with plump, yellow oranges.
Selecting a fine specimen, Yin Changli skillfully poked a slit into it with a small knife, then gripped the orange tightly in his hand and squeezed hard. The orange instantly shriveled up as its juice flowed into the cup from the slit, after which he pushed the cup in front of her.
This was something he used to do often during those ten years when he lost his memory.
Wanting to rekindle her sense of familiarity and draw closer to her, Yin Changli naturally leaned toward his habits from those ten years first.
Xiang Haikui was smacking her lips, happily gnawing on a venison leg, casting a side-glance at the freshly hand-squeezed orange juice in front of her.
This was something she had once taught her young-puppy boss to make step-by-step—it really was identical.
However, after squeezing the juice, the young-puppy boss would lick the fingers that held the orange, whereas the gentleman in front of her produced a handkerchief, preparing to clean his hands.
Seeing her cast a brief glance at his fingers, Yin Changli’s expression stiffened as he remembered as well.
When it came to licking his fingers, though… that was something he truly couldn’t bring himself to do right now.
“Little Bai,” he shifted the topic, drawing Xiang Haikui’s attention away as well.
“Do you have no questions you wish to ask me?”
While watching him squeeze the orange juice by hand, Bai Xingxian had also been waiting to see if he would lick his fingers.
Suddenly being called out, he snapped back to his senses in startlement.
“What is it, Uncle?”
Yin Changli: “Regarding your true identity. I previously told the Emperor that you are Shuluoye’s son…”
Bai Xingxian remembered.
“No rush. When Uncle deems it time to tell me, you will surely do so.”
Xiang Haikui’s attention was indeed drawn away from his fingers. Yin Changli asked, “You aren’t curious in the slightest?”
Bai Xingxian shook his head.
“What the Emperor mistook was the golden fire. That golden fire was given to me by Uncle, not something that originally belonged to me…”
Yin Changli interrupted, “That fire seed belonged to you all along.”
Only then did Bai Xingxian display a hint of surprise.
“Huh?”
Yin Changli was not merely changing the topic; it truly was time to let him know the truth.
“I did not deceive the Emperor. Your father was indeed Shuluoye. That is why when you called me ‘master’ in your youth, I strictly ordered you to change it to ‘Uncle’.”
The speed at which Xiang Haikui gnawed her venison leg slowed down considerably as she pricked up her ears to listen closely.
She hadn’t been curious about any of this initially, but since it concerned Little Bai, she naturally wanted to understand a bit more.
Bai Xingxian tilted his head, not quite understanding.
“So, the former Underworld Lord…”
Yin Changli cast him a side-glance.
“He is your father.”
Bai Xingxian hurriedly changed his words, “My father used to constantly help the Shanhai Clan because he fell in love with a woman of the Shanhai Clan, not hesitating to destroy his own race for her sake.”
He sighed with emotion, “How truly devoted!”
Yin Changli’s fingers quivered slightly, and he scolded him with gravity.
“Where on earth did you pick up such logic? How can you drag a matter of such monumental scale down to petty romance?”
Bai Xingxian didn’t lower his head to take the scolding; he merely cast a quiet glance at the cup of orange juice sitting on the desk.
Xiang Haikui picked it up and took a sip.
Yin Changli’s expression remained unchanged, but he refrained from lecturing Bai Xingxian any further, returning to his original point.
“Your father never once thought of destroying the Celestial Clan. In fact, his goal all along was to save them.”
As the Royal Clan member with the strongest Inspiration in all of Celestial Clan history, Shuluoye had always been deeply perplexed by his own existence.
If he took a blade and stabbed himself, he felt absolutely no pain whatsoever.
His younger brother, who possessed slightly weaker Inspiration than him, would only begin to slowly knit his brows after roughly a quarter of an hour.
Faced with fine cuisine, breathtaking scenery, or exquisite beauties, his heart remained utterly devoid of ripples—he was practically a walking statue of stone.
He shared his perplexity with his royal father, yet his father displayed an immensely proud demeanor, claiming that he had drawn infinitely close to the divine.
“Shuluoye did not think so.”
Yin Changli looked at Bai Xingxian.
“He felt that he was becoming less and less like a living organism, so he began to research what on earth ‘Inspiration’ actually was.”
Xiang Haikui glanced at Bai Xingxian.
The power of Inspiration resided within his body, making him appear remarkably slow and not particularly bright most of the time.
Yet he possessed full human desires and emotions, rich with feeling, often reddening his eyes and shedding tears.
A realization suddenly struck her.
“Shuluoye severed his Inspiration?”
Yin Changli nodded.
“He expended immense effort to sever Inspiration from his body, and instantly, he became capable of feeling pain. Because both his body and soul showed signs of collapsing, he could hold out for a quarter of an hour at most before needing to draw the Inspiration back in. He understood then: Inspiration is the flame of life for the Celestial Clan.”
When even a supreme powerhouse like Shuluoye could only sever it for a quarter of an hour, Xiang Haikui couldn’t help but furrow her brows.
Bai Xingxian finally grasped the key point.
“Uncle, then why was I able to have it severed for so long?”
Yin Changli lowered his eyelashes.
“First, your father conducted several thousand years of research afterward and refined his method. Second, you had it severed the moment you left your mother’s womb, so the degree of fusion between Inspiration and your soul was low, resulting in little damage to your soul. As for your physical body, it was ruined after the severance, which is why you were swapped into a demon body—a human body couldn’t withstand your soul.”
“However, the severed Inspiration still couldn’t stray too far from you, so it transformed into a fire seed to be nurtured inside your body; otherwise, your soul would wither. Furthermore, it could only be severed for five hundred years at most, which is why a demon body that happened to reach adulthood at five hundred years was chosen…”
Xiang Haikui’s brow furrowed even deeper.
Finding it inappropriate to say it right in front of Bai Xingxian, she transmitted her voice: So… Little Bai was an experimental subject?
So he really is a white lab rat.
“He’s not an experimental subject,” Yin Changli spoke aloud rather than using divine transmission, letting Bai Xingxian hear it as well.
“Little Bai, your father only did this because he was fully confident it would succeed. He hoped that before you came of age, you would remain carefree and experience the joy of existing in this world like a normal person.”
Seeing the bewildered look in Bai Xingxian’s eyes, Yin Changli pointed at the venison leg in Xiang Haikui’s hand.
“Did that taste delicious to you?”
Grasping his meaning, Bai Xingxian nodded repeatedly.
“Right now, that fire seed… rather, your Inspiration, has already re-integrated into your soul.”
Yin Changli fell silent for a long moment.
“I don’t know what you will become after this. Your father’s intent was that if you can draw upon everything you have felt and understood over these five hundred years, using humanity to conquer the ‘nature’ that Inspiration brings to you, then I will expend all my strength to push you onto the throne of the Emperor.”
Bai Xingxian froze for a second, the calm expression on his face slowly shattering into pieces as he pointed at himself in utter astonishment.
“Me? The Emperor?!”
Yin Changli: “Once your Inspiration returns, you will grow wiser and wiser.”
Xiang Haikui cast a worried glance at Bai Xingxian.
That meant he would soon undergo a battle of strength between “humanity” and “divine nature.”
“This is the best possible outcome, Little Bai.”
Yin Changli took a sip of tea, speaking with quiet composure, “Exchanging the smallest casualties for the most precious peace.”
“Is this the ultimate weapon?” Xiang Haikui asked him in a low voice.
“No, this is merely the primary preparation.” Y
in Changli shook his head.
“If this path proves impassable, there is still a backup plan.”
He gave her a meaningful look, “An ancient divine artifact truly does exist.”
Bai Xingxian instantly felt a pressure heavy as Mount Tai crushing down on him, his face twisting in distress.
“Uncle, when you put it like that, Little Bai feels extremely uneasy in his heart…”
“I am also deeply uneasy.”
Yin Changli interrupted him, letting out a long sigh.
“Should this fail, part of the responsibility lies with me. When your father entrusted you to me on his deathbed, he repeatedly emphasized that my education of you would form a crucial component. You have no idea how much painstaking effort and energy I expended over these five hundred years just to raise you properly…”
Xiang Haikui nearly spat out a mouthful of orange juice.
“By… educating him to pull carriages?!”
Yin Changli stated calmly, “That was to make it convenient for him to appreciate the world’s scenery. Sitting inside a mobile palace, one sees nothing.”
Xiang Haikui narrowed her eyes.
“Pouring tea and serving water?”
Yin Changli explained, “That was to let him experience the ‘hardships’ of those in lower positions, so he would understand that survival is no easy feat.”
Xiang Haikui let out an “Oh”: “Embroidery, cooking, and tending to flowers and plants?”
Yin Changli sighed with emotion.
“That was to let him experience all walks of life and understand people from every stratum of society.”
Hearing this, Bai Xingxian’s eyes welled up with tears.
With a thud, he fell to his knees, burying his face against his uncle’s lap.
“Uncle, your intentions were truly so painstaking and noble! Little Bai will remember this for the rest of his life!”
Yin Changli patted his back, his expression solemn.
“I only seek not to fail your father’s trust…”
Bai Xingxian broke into a stream of bitter, emotional tears.
Watching this display of “filial devotion between father and son” from the side, the corners of Xiang Haikui’s mouth twitched uncontrollably.
She finally understood how Little Bai had been bamboozled out of his entire coat of fur.
She had to admit, Yin Changli’s education really was remarkably effective.
She wasn’t worried in the slightest anymore that Little Bai would be defeated by his divine nature later on; after all, besides his humanity, a servile nature was practically ingrained into the very marrow of his bones.
