Badass Celestial Emperor Returns!

(100) Detestable Son

In a blink, the place changed. Zi Yingjun found himself in a void. There was a faint light ahead where a lantern was. Beneath the lantern is a familiar girl with the same attire as his. They both favor purple and black, they also have the same earring on their ears. Zi Xian blinked as if confused.

"Who are you?" she narrowed her eyes on Zi Yingjun. However, Zi Xian came to recall that face. "Ye Huai? Since when was your eyes purple? Why are you here?"

Zi Yingjun paused his steps. He looked at himself and to his surprise, it was his appearance in his past life. No wonder Zi Xian cant recognize her own son.

"Surnamed Zi, given name Yingjun." he shortly introduced himself. Zi Xian stopped fiddling with the black token tied on her waistband. She raised her head and her face turned cold.

"Oh. So, you really did become a bastard." Zi Xian stood up and straightened her skirt. She approached him as the white lantern followed her. Her eyes assessed him well before raising a brow and pinching her chin. "En, you do look like your father. This is so unfair. Aiya, you and your father doesn't know how difficult it is to give birth. Yet, you don't even resemble me more than him! How can you be so biased, son?"

Zi Yingjun was taken aback. He didn't expect her personality is like this. Now he knows where his eccentric behaviour came from.

"Anyway, you probably saw how I tried to, you know... Hehe, Im sorry." Zi Xian scratched the back of her head. She smiled faintly and sighed deeply. "How old are you now? I cant tell how many years had passed. I am but a soul fragment trapped in the Xing Stone and there are no sun or moon here, just a void. I cant even guess if days or centuries passed."

"Im...seven hundred and sixty, probably." Zi Yingjun had never payed attention to his age either. Upon saying this, Zi Xian's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Are you sure? Then does that mean Im also that old?!" she placed her hand on her forehead. "Sigh, you must have driven the world mad since you lived for seven hundred years. People like you and your father are enough to give me eternal headache! What more if its the outside world?"

"... Why am I here?" Zi Yingjun asked to interrupt her loathing. Zi Xian looked at him and snapped her fingers. Without his consent, his appearance changed to that of his ten-year-old self.

"There. Much better." Zi Xian clapped her hands in happiness before sitting down and pulling the boy in her embrace. "Oh, my detestable son! You don't know how worried I am whenever I keep thinking of those premonitions! You suffered a lot and your father didn't even bother to help you!"

"Please, don't do this..." Zi Yingjun was never used being hugged by someone related to him. Specially his mother. He can feel their connection, something he was unable to feel for the rest of seven centuries. So, this is how comfortable a child felt when being held by its parent.

"Son, you can hate me because I tried to kill you. I just thought, you're very heartless. I saw how you betrayed a lot of people, how you manipulated them for your own gain and how you killed innocent lives for your own success." Zi Xian dazedly said. She loosened her embrace and gently stroked his hair. Back then, she was happy giving birth to Zi Yingjun while thinking she can keep him away from his father's influence. However, she was still unable to stop him. Fortunately, she can hold him like this for the final time. "But I now understood. You were tortured by this world, more severely than me, than anyone else. They deserve it."

Zi Yingjun was silent. His mother thinks alike like him. It was unreasonable for others but for them, it is reasonable.

"Son, I don't think its necessary to revive me. If you do that, I might kill you. You know why? Because I grew up in a righteous force. Because I cant stand how you struggled to reach your goal. You have to die countless times and be betrayed as well. I don't want to know your sufferings anymore. That is why, I gave you your first lesson. You saved Zi Yan Yue and you completely alternated her fate."

"You mean you saw her fall off he stage and I only saved the necklace?" Zi Yingjun looked up with indifference.

"Mhmm. I believe there is still a chance you will not surpass Ye Huai. He's a demon, son. No one can be compared to him. If the legend of the child of fate's nemesis was true, then your father might be equal to that nemesis." Zi Xian let go of Zi Yingjun and made him stand. She lightly touched his round childish face. "Son, do not be like him. Or else, you will suffer over and over again. Will you be good while Im gone?"

"Alright." Zi Yingjun nodded. Zi Xian was elated and embraced him. She sighed in relief.

"Be good. You have proven that you are not completely heartless. Zi Yan Yue loves you, son. She had accessed the Xing Stone and today was her death as an exchange for using its power. However, you didn't kill her and saved her. Well then, farewell. Do not revive me if one day, you find Ye Huai's tomb." her body flicked and everything went black.

"Ehm?" Zi Yingjun blinked. He is now standing on the stage with Zi Yan Yue crying on his chest. The Xing Stone remained on his palm. Zi Yingjun closed his hand and stopped comforting Zi Yan Yue. "Its fine now."

"Yingjun, I- I saw myself dying here." she suddenly said. Zi Yingjun took a pause. They both saw the future but he prevented it.

"Me too." he raised the Xing Stone behind her and looked at it. Zi Yingjun smiled in his heart. Be good? Since when was he good? Zi Xian is too naive to believe he will change. Seven hundred years of living in this cruel world turned his heart monolith. There is no way he will change the premonition Zi Xian saw.