For not a single moment did she separate her eyes from the man who carried her, studying every detail of his face as if trying to memorize features that seemed both foreign and strangely familiar.

The sharp jawline that spoke of strength and determination, the crimson eyes that seemed to pierce straight through to her soul, the way those same eyes kept meeting hers throughout their journey at enormous speed.

He moved like liquid lightning through the air, his qi carrying them both with effortless grace as landscapes blurred beneath them.

Yet despite the velocity, she felt completely secure in his arms, as if nothing in the world could harm her while she remained in his embrace.

Those red-gold eyes... they kept looking back at her, not with the clinical assessment she'd grown accustomed to from others, but with something that made her chest tighten with emotions she couldn't name.

There was warmth there, and something deeper—a recognition that went beyond the physical shell she now inhabited.

The wind whipped through his long black hair as they soared through the sky, but his attention never fully left her.

Even as he navigated their path with supernatural precision, part of his focus remained fixed on her face, watching her reactions with an intensity that both unnerved and oddly comforted her.

Suddenly, he halted mid-flight, his movement so smooth that she barely felt the change in momentum.

They hovered in the air above what appeared to be a massive palace complex, its architecture a blend of imperial grandeur and cultivation sect magnificence.

"We have finally arrived home," he said, his voice carrying a note of satisfaction as he gazed down at the sprawling compound below.

The word 'home' struck her like a physical blow, and without thinking, she found herself speaking, the words emerging from some deep reservoir of memory that belonged to this body rather than her divine consciousness.

"Father-in-law—Emperor Tian Long," she said, blinking in surprise at her own words. The title had rolled off her tongue as naturally as breathing, as if she'd spoken it countless times before.

He chuckled, the sound rumbling through his chest where her head rested. "That would also work," he agreed, but then his lips curved into a wicked grin that transformed his entire expression. "But don't you think I'm much too handsome to be called father-in-law?"

She blinked, not replying as confusion washed over her. It was strange—these odd jokes he kept making. She couldn't understand his meaning, couldn't grasp why he would say such things to someone in her condition.

Didn't she look utterly repulsive? Her body reeked of decay and neglect, her flesh was rotting, her appearance that of a walking corpse.

Why was he teasing her as if she were... as if she were still beautiful? As if she were worthy of flirtation rather than revulsion?

Before she could puzzle out his meaning, his voice came again, proving her suspicions about his strange humor.

"Though of course, you could always call me daddy instead."

Her eyes widened slightly at the suggestion, but before she could process the implications, they began their final descent toward the palace grounds.

As they landed gracefully on polished stone, she found herself still looking up into those mesmerizing eyes, trying to read the secrets hidden in their crimson depths.

But then her own eyes widened in shock as she watched those same eyes soften—not for her, but as his gaze shifted to look forward at something beyond her field of vision.

Following his line of sight, she turned her head to see a woman approaching them.

Brown hair caught the sunlight in auburn highlights, and sharp green eyes blazed with barely contained emotion.

The woman moved with the fluid grace of a warrior, her hands holding a bow with casual expertise that spoke of years of training.

Servants who had been approaching immediately gave the newcomer a respectful distance, stepping back as she strode forward with obvious purpose.

Ying Jia felt her chest tighten as she realized the truth—those tender expressions she'd witnessed, the warmth in his gaze that had made her feel special for those brief moments, weren't exclusive to her.

This was simply how he looked at the women he cared about.

Though, she noted with growing confusion, he hadn't shown that same expression to any of the guards or servants who had followed them. Only to her... and now to this woman.

"I must say," Tianlong's voice carried that same warm, appreciative tone he'd used with her, "you look rather ravishing in those sweaty clothes, Yue."

The woman—Yue, Ying Jia realized from context—arrived with her arms folded across her chest, a blush staining her cheeks even as she glared at him with obvious irritation.

"You need to give me answers, bastard, for forgetting about me," Yue snapped, though the heat in her voice was tempered by something that sounded almost like relief. "You know how much Mei has been bragging?"

Ying Jia observed the exchange with growing understanding. This woman's name was Yue, and her attention was completely focused on Tianlong, just as Ying Jia's own had been during their flight.

Those green eyes held the same captivated intensity, the same unconscious devotion that Ying Jia was beginning to recognize in herself.

She looked back toward Tianlong, studying his expression as he dealt with this other woman's complaints, and felt something twist in her chest that she refused to acknowledge as jealousy.

Suddenly, Tianlong's voice cut through the air with imperial authority as he gestured toward the assembled servants.

"Announce to the palace," he commanded, his tone carrying the weight of absolute command. "Tell them that Zhao Meilian has arrived." His crimson eyes gleamed with something that might have been anticipation—or cruelty. "Send word to my grandson that his grandfather has found his mother."

The words hit Ying Jia like a physical blow, her eyes widening in shock as memories came flooding back—not of this life, but of what had been done to her.

The systematic draining, the parasitic connection, the way her divine essence had been siphoned away to feed that arrogant boy's supposed destiny.

"What are you doing?" she whispered, her voice trembling with a mixture of fear and rage.

Her eyes shook as she recalled exactly what she had become because of that child—how he had unknowingly but relentlessly consumed everything that made her who she was, leaving her as nothing more than a broken shell.

The thought of him seeing her like this, of witnessing the ruin that his very existence had wrought upon her, filled her with a shame so profound it threatened to crush what little strength the vitality infusion had given her.

Tianlong looked down at her, and there was something in his expression that made her breath catch.

Not pity, not mockery, but a cold satisfaction that sent chills down her spine.

"Don't you want to see that guy suffer?" he asked quietly, his voice carrying undertones that spoke of deeper knowledge than any mortal should possess.

She blinked, and suddenly realization dawned on her like the first rays of sunlight piercing a long night.

His words about finding beauty within her mortal shell hadn't been mere flattery or cruel jest.

He knew. Somehow, impossibly, this man knew about the birth of the Son of Heaven.

He understood the parasitic relationship, the divine essence that had been stolen, the cosmic injustice that had been perpetrated upon her.

But how could a mortal emperor, no matter how powerful, know such secrets?

Her lips parted, and yet she couldn't tell anything, and asked, "Who are you?"

Even though she asked the same question before and got a strange answer, she expected him to tell her something else this time. And he did, he told something else but that else just made her even more confused.

"You can call me..." He muttered, leaning down, as though there was no reason to do that, given anyone can hear due to their enhanced body. So what he was trying to do, she doesn't understand and he just told "...daddy."

"Pfffhh—" Yue's soul nearly skipped out of her body as she heard what he was doing with that woman wrapped in dirt.

She could clearly sense how devastated her state was. But she didn't care since Tian Long was helping her. And knowing that she was the mother of Zhao Chen, she thought maybe he was being gentle.

But this pervert was flirting with his own daughter-in-law.

"Don't bully her! Y-you kinky pervert!"

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