Xiong Xiaobao shouted while wiping away his tears, and even the most iron-willed heart couldn’t help but soften at the sight of them.
Jun Beiyue rose to his feet, his tall figure elegant, his white robes flowing, not a speck of dust upon him—and indeed, not a single trace of blood in sight.
He smiled, rare and warm, tender and affectionate, walking over to Xiong Xiaobao.
Through his tear-blurred eyes, Xiong Xiaobao froze slightly, hastily wiping at his tears again and again, looking his father up and down thoroughly, even sniffing at him from every angle—and indeed, he found no trace of blood on him at all, nor any scent of blood on his person.
What was going on here?
Faced with such undeniable evidence, Xiong Xiaobao began to waver.
“Where exactly am I bleeding?” Jun Beiyue asked, raising an eyebrow.
Xiong Xiaobao still didn’t believe it, his small hands patting all over his father, and after a good while, he finally looked up at Jun Beiyue helplessly, saying nothing.
“Answer my question.” Jun Beiyue said, growing serious now.
“There’s no blood.” Xiong Xiaobao answered obediently.
Only then did Jun Beiyue scoop him up into his arms, wiping his little nose, saying helplessly, “You really don’t trust your father, do you?”
“Mommy said, bonding with the blood zheng requires paying a price, and besides, Xuanyuan Lige sealed the blood zheng with a blood Gu—there’s no way anyone could possibly bond with it successfully.” Xiong Xiaobao said earnestly. The day he’d learned his father had set his sights on the blood zheng, he’d gone around asking everyone he could about it.
“So you don’t believe your father, then?” Jun Beiyue said with a laugh.
“But… but…” Xiong Xiaobao was no match for Jun Beiyue in an argument. After several rounds of “but,” all he could do was ask timidly, “So how is Father planning to bond with the blood zheng?”
Jun Beiyue smiled, carrying Xiong Xiaobao over toward the blood zheng.
He sat down cross-legged, holding Xiong Xiaobao in his arms, reaching around him to gently pluck the strings.
Xiong Xiaobao watched closely—his father’s fingers showed no sign of bleeding at all, though he could faintly sense a deep, powerful internal energy flowing through his father’s fingertips.
Yet even with such profound internal energy, it seemed unable to draw much sound from the blood zheng at all.
Xiong Xiaobao grew suspicious, his tear-washed eyes especially clear and bright now. He turned to look up at his father, confused. “What’s going on here?”
“I’m using internal energy to disperse the blood essence within it. Why don’t you give it a try?” Jun Beiyue said, casually, as though it were nothing at all.
Xiong Xiaobao would have loved to try, but unfortunately, he had no internal energy of his own to speak of.
“Then where’s that smell of blood coming from?” Xiong Xiaobao pressed further. Without a clear, satisfying answer, how could he possibly trust his father so easily?
Jun Beiyue said nothing, a faint, warm smile still lingering at the corners of his mouth. Even doing absolutely nothing, that gentle smile alone seemed to radiate a strange sense of steady reassurance.
Letting Xiong Xiaobao stare up at him however long he pleased, Jun Beiyue remained perfectly composed, his eyes narrowing slightly in concentration as he channeled his energy through the strings once more.
As the music rose, the scent of blood suddenly grew stronger.
Xiong Xiaobao whipped his head around at once, eyes widening in disbelief, looking at the strings, then at his father, thoroughly astonished.
Jun Beiyue still said nothing, and Xiong Xiaobao found himself murmuring to himself instead, “This scent… it’s coming from the strings? Father, can you disperse the blood zheng’s blood essence?”
The truth of the matter lay entirely hidden within that faint, helpless warmth of Jun Beiyue’s smile—unfortunately, Xiong Xiaobao was still too young to see through his father’s ability to conceal things. Jun Beiyue still said nothing, simply nodding.
Only then did Xiong Xiaobao finally let out a huge sigh of relief—but the moment the relief hit him, he found himself choking up all over again. “Why didn’t you say so earlier, you scared me half to death! Wretched Father!”
Jun Beiyue laughed helplessly, gently pulling Xiong Xiaobao into his arms, but soon released him again. “A real man, crying over what? If your mother finds out about any of this, you’ll be the first one I come after!”
“Why can’t Mommy know about this?” Xiong Xiaobao asked innocently.
Since Father could disperse the blood zheng’s blood essence with his internal energy, there shouldn’t be any real danger at all—everyone knew his father’s internal energy was unmatched under heaven!
“I want to surprise your mother. I don’t want her worrying, understand?” Jun Beiyue said, feigning seriousness.
Xiong Xiaobao remained half-convinced. “Really?”
That reason didn’t sound particularly solid to him.
“Silly boy.” Jun Beiyue let out a soft sigh, then smiled. “Even I don’t know how long it’ll take me to bond with this instrument, how long before I can play ‘Parting Sorrow’ for her. Waiting is a long, exhausting business.”
Seeing his father sigh, seeing that helpless look on his face, Xiong Xiaobao immediately felt a pang of sympathy.
He was still young, and didn’t understand that this was simply how a man doted on the woman he loved—all he knew was that his father was extraordinarily, extraordinarily good to his mother.
After thinking it over for a moment, and looking his father over once more to confirm he was perfectly unharmed, Xiong Xiaobao finally nodded. “All right. I sleepwalked tonight and saw nothing at all.”
That line amused Jun Beiyue greatly.
He laughed heartily, planted a firm kiss on Xiong Xiaobao’s forehead, and released him. “Go back and get some more sleep.”
Xiong Xiaobao was already leaving, but turned back, wrapping both arms around his father’s neck, pulling him close, and planted an equally firm kiss on his father’s forehead in return, saying softly, “Father, you’ve worked so hard.”
With that, seemingly a little embarrassed, not daring to look at Jun Beiyue, he quickly turned and dashed off.
Jun Beiyue froze for a moment, the faint smile at his lips gradually widening. And yet… as Xiong Xiaobao’s figure receded into the distance, great swaths of fresh blood slowly began to spread beneath his white robes—heaven only knew what kind of bloody devastation lay concealed beneath that pristine white!
The scene looked like a white lotus blooming in the darkness of night, gradually being dyed red by spreading blood.
The blood zheng’s blood essence, sealed with a blood Gu—how could internal energy possibly disperse something like that? The only real method was to drive out blood with blood!
What he’d just done had been nothing more than forcibly suppressing all that blood essence with sheer internal energy, holding back the wild, surging tide of blood by force alone.
Great sheets of blood continued to spread, quickly soaking through his sleeves, his chest, his back.
In stark contrast to that vivid crimson was the deathly pallor of his face, drained of every trace of color, and yet he remained perfectly silent!
He watched, from a distance, as his son’s small figure disappeared into the trees, his smile growing pale, and yet carrying within it an endless, boundless indulgence—the very same indulgence he held for that woman, with no end in sight, ever.
“Silly son…”
He smiled faintly, and then, his warm, gentle gaze suddenly darkening, in an instant a surge of blood essence burst forth from within his body, shattering his blood-soaked white robes into pieces, revealing the black combat attire beneath, already soaked through as well.
He closed his fierce, sharp eyes, and in an instant, all the blood transformed entirely into blood essence, converging into a single crimson stream of light that poured directly into the blood zheng.
Off to the side, Jue Mingzi couldn’t help but turn his face away. This method of dissolving the blood Gu, of dispersing the blood essence, was something he himself had taught Jun Beiyue.
But now, he found himself regretting it, because no one knew exactly how much blood essence it would take to successfully bond with the blood zheng.
Even he himself had no idea, no confidence in the outcome at all!
However much it pained him to watch, however uneasy he felt, Jue Mingzi turned back to look again, and from a distance, saw Jun Beiyue sitting perfectly upright, his face utterly silent, and felt his whole chest twist with anguish.
If Ziqing could see this, how much would it break her heart?
Everyone said Xuanyuan Lige had been a fool for love. But the truly devoted fool here was Jun Beiyue!
The one who always appeared so calm, so composed—Jun Beiyue!
All for the sake of one dream of Ziqing’s, one single wish of hers—all just to earn a smile from his wife—he was staking his very life on it, forcing hope out of despair for her sake, with his bare hands!
There was no other reason. Simply because he loved that person, that was all.