"Xiao Nian!" Luo Xuan looked at her with pain.
Fu Tu Gao Li sighed. Xiao Nian had always been obedient since she was young and had never been so stubborn.
It was true, the Seventh Prince possessed an immortal demeanor. It was no wonder Xiao Nian was smitten. Moreover, she was also blessed with ethereal beauty and was indeed out of place in the village.
Judging by appearance alone, the two were a perfect match.
But in terms of status...
"Xiao Nian, he won't marry you. At most, he'll take you as a concubine."
This was the daughter he had raised with his own hands. How could he bear to see her suffer? Better to be a poor man's wife than a noble's concubine. The filth within those grand mansions was too much!
Xiao Nian had a simple nature. If she went to that dragon's den, what good end could she expect?
"He said he would marry me."
Marry her as his wife? Had the Seventh Prince truly said those words? Fu Tu Gao Li wasn't entirely convinced, yet he knew the Seventh Prince was not a man who went back on his word.
"Even if he wanted to, the Emperor wouldn't allow it. I also heard he is betrothed to the Prime Minister's legitimate daughter. Xiao Nian, he is a prince. Having three wives and four concubines is normal. That place is not suitable for you."
"He wouldn't lie to me. I'll go ask him." Xiao Nian ran out.
Luo Xuan hurried to follow.
At the village entrance, he saw the so-called Seventh Prince. With just one glance, he knew it was real.
A true scion of heaven.
Someone he could never reach.
The Seventh Prince's gaze swept over Luo Xuan behind her, as cold as winter snow, yet it warmed when he looked at the woman beside him.
He took a shining silver hairpin from his怀 and inserted it into Xiao Nian's hair.
"I just got it from the market. There's nothing good to buy here. Wear this for now. When we get to the capital, I'll get you the best."
Xiao Nian didn't care about such things. She anxiously asked, "My father said you wouldn't marry me, that you'd only make me a concubine and marry many other women. Is that true?"
Her clear, beautiful eyes were full of unease. Feng Cheng Ye shook his head and said firmly, "When I return to the capital and settle everything, I will come back to marry you."
Xiao Nian was happy.
Feng Cheng Ye personally met with Fu Tu Gao Li, and then returned to the capital.
Fu Tu Gao Li also tacitly agreed to the matter. The only one in pain was Luo Xuan.
He was greatly disheartened, wandering aimlessly, drowning his sorrows in alcohol every day.
That night, Xiao Nian's red lotus began to manifest, and she tossed and turned in bed in discomfort. Luo Xuan, who had just returned home, heard her. Worried, he barged in and saw the alluring red lotus.
"Xiao Nian, won't you marry him? Brother will listen to whatever you say. Won't you stay with me?"
He went mad, lunged at her, and kissed her back.
Xiao Nian's eyes turned crimson again. A powerful energy surged from her body, throwing Luo Xuan aside.
"Get out! Get out!"
Luo Xuan spat out a mouthful of blood. He sobered up and only then realized what he had done.
"Xiao Nian, brother was wrong. Xiao Nian, I'm sorry..."
A deep sigh came from the next room.
Feng Cheng Ye truly kept his promise and married Fu Tu Nian with the specifications of a royal consort. The small mountain village was adorned with red bridal decorations, and rows of soldiers lined the path from one end of the village to the other.
The Seventh Prince's Consort, a true royal, Fu Tu Nian had become a golden phoenix flying out of the mountain ravine.
For Fu Tu Nian, all of this was superficial. No matter how magnificent or imposing the buildings were, they couldn't compare to Hai Ling Tian. She only liked the man named Feng Cheng Ye.
However, he was a noble prince, and she was a peasant girl. In everyone's eyes, she was not worthy of him, especially Emperor Ding Kang, who was high and mighty.
His most outstanding and beloved youngest son had broken off his engagement with the Prime Minister's legitimate daughter to marry a peasant girl. His stubborn attitude was unyielding, infuriating everyone.
Therefore, he instructed the Empress to summon the Seventh Prince's Consort to the palace daily to teach her etiquette.
Xiao Nian slowly became unhappy, her smiles fewer.
The Prime Minister's legitimate daughter and nearly half the noble ladies in the capital all harbored jealousy towards her.
Xiao Nian felt that a man being too handsome wasn't a good thing.
Having too high a status wasn't a good thing either.
Feng Cheng Ye was very busy, often returning to his residence only late at night.
He finally noticed her change.
He thought it was due to his neglect.
"Xiao Nian, we haven't consummated our marriage yet. How about tonight?" He looked at her apologetically and leaned down to kiss her cherishly.
Xiao Nian was ignorant and innocent about this, like a blank sheet of paper.
But her mother had said that mortals could not withstand her spiritual energy; they would die.
If she found a guardian deity she liked, she would infuse the Fire Spirit Pearl into his body. If they could merge, they could become husband and wife; if not, they were fated to be apart.
But she liked Feng Cheng Ye too much. She hadn't thought of this before and had run away with him to the capital.
She forced out the Fire Spirit Pearl from her body and spent days and nights helping him dissolve it.
After that, she was weak for a long time and suffered from the cold. For the first time, she realized that this land was not suitable for people from Hai Ling Tian to survive.
Feng Cheng Ye took care of her day and night. He stopped going out, even neglecting court. His bright, star-like eyes were filled with worry.
But she was happy. She began to cling to him, to be near him.
Her body slowly recovered through their repeated intimacies.
Because of the Fire Spirit Pearl, Feng Cheng Ye also underwent some changes. The cold aura around him disappeared, his body became fiery, and his temper increased significantly, though that was towards outsiders.
Many ministers went to the Emperor to lodge complaints.
In a fit of rage, the Emperor dispatched him to suppress bandits in various regions for a year.
The day he left, the Empress sent people to bring her into the palace.
Later, she was locked in a cage.
They said she was a demon.
And then, she miscarried.
Her thick, dark hair was almost gone, her skin was not intact, her ankles were worn to the bone by iron chains, she bled profusely, and insects and ants crawled all over her.
She missed her father and brother.
She disliked the imperial palace and wanted to go home.
She was probably dying. Just before death, she saw the man she loved charging in with a ball of fire.
He killed everyone, but he couldn't break the cage made of Xuan iron.
He held his sword to the Emperor's throat.
Silly, he would be punished again.
"Xiao Nian!"
The man's ragged voice was not pleasant, but it reassured her.
"A Ye, in the next life, can you please not be born into an imperial family."
People from Hai Ling Tian, without Nirvana, would reincarnate endlessly. He had the Fire Spirit Pearl in his body and would also reincarnate.
They would have another life.
But in this life, she wanted to leave.
He had his country and his responsibilities, but she was unwilling to accompany him any longer.
She did not die; she lived again, and her divine power began to awaken.
She could predict natural disasters and wield spiritual energy. Behind the imperial palace lay the spirit-locking formation her mother had set up for her. No one could approach it, and it was designated as a forbidden area.
When she walked in unharmed, activated the spirit formation, and summoned auspicious clouds and the spirit bird phoenix, everyone knelt.
No one treated her as a demoness anymore; they called her a goddess.
How ironic.
They respected her, and they feared her.
The Emperor believed this was a favor from heaven for the Jing Kingdom. Based on her drawings, he built an altar.
The past mistreatment was so easily erased.
Only Feng Cheng Ye, with his picturesque brows often furrowed, would check her temperature. Like how she used to cling to him, he began to cling to her.
He didn't know she had lost a child, and she didn't tell him. But in her heart, she would occasionally recall it with a pang of grief.
It must have been an impossibly beautiful child, as its parents were both rare beauties in the mortal world.