Once Little You died, Tianming would no longer have a way to stop Bodhi. Let’s hope you still have a shred of humanity aside from all the hate in you.
Little You was Bodhi’s only warmth in this world. Would he choose to go on a rampage or would he prioritize saving his daughter? Tianming didn’t have any hatred like that, so he would definitely choose to save his loved ones, but the same couldn’t necessarily be said for Bodhi. Tianming had already learned that lesson the hard way from Sovereign Xi.
He, Sovereign Xi, and Bodhi walked on similar paths and faced similar choices, and so far he and the sovereign had chosen in opposite manners. Now, it was Bodhi’s turn.
……
The mooncore was a world of bright colors, surrounded by the fusion and astralguard formations. There, Bodhi was manipulating the fall of the moon using both hands. His eyes seemed to brighten as his face contorted from the knowledge of the terror of the people of both worlds as their worlds approached each other. He made sure the Divine Moon Realm was moving as fast as it could, completely not factoring in the gravity of the Welkin plane, which only accelerated the collision further.
He couldn’t help but laugh maniacally. Little You smiled like a porcelain doll next to him, but all of a sudden she shrieked and hunched over, foaming at the mouth and twitching. Her fingers shook as she clutched her chest and groaned in pain. The pain spread from her heart throughout her entire body, and now she looked like she was suffering even more than Huiye Shi had back then. Her screams were heartbreaking, to say the least. Bodhi was initially laughing so hard that he didn’t hear her, only for him to turn around and freeze at the sight.
“Daddy, save me… waaaah…” She used whatever energy she could muster to crawl toward him, her snow-white hair standing up all over. Blood leaked out of her eyes, ears, mouth, and nose in ghastly fashion. The Bloodrose and Latticeheart Curses were terrifying parts of the arsenal belonging to the city lord of Perpetia.
“Wha—” Bodhi felt like his entire body was being torn apart. “Little You!”
He dropped everything and went to hug her, completely torn by the sight of her suffering. There was no way this wasn’t related to Tianming or Feiling. Perhaps it was even the same curse! Bodhi had personally seen Feiling remove the curse, but had forgotten that his daughter had two hearts. What should have been removed was causing his daughter endless suffering once more.
“Shameless! Lowly!” he roared, veins forming on his smooth, bald face. “Li Tianming!”
His lungs burned from the sheer force with which he yelled the name; he couldn’t bear to see his daughter like this. What was worse was that, as the Latticeheart Curse ran its course, Little You didn’t die outright. Countless hair-thin blades of grass grew on her body, intersecting countless times within it and causing her endless pain.
“Daddy, I’m scared… It hurts…” She didn’t pass out, but held Bodhi as tightly as she could.
“Don’t worry, I’m here…” He hugged her back. Without him controlling the formation core, the Divine Moon Realm’s descent was temporarily halted.
“I’ve already stopped, so why is this still going on?!” He was already crying tears of blood, but there was nothing he could do other than hug his daughter to comfort her. “He’ll surely come here to stop me!”
The thought of that sent his emotions into chaos. They had worked together last time to ensure Little You’s safety, yet Tianming had kept a trick hidden up his sleeve, one that he could use to completely destroy Bodhi’s carefully crafted plans. “The only person who can attack the astralguard formation down there is him.”
Bodhi closed his eyes as the savagery faded from his person. Now, nothing was on his mind but his precious daughter’s suffering. He forgot about the blood boiling within him and slapped himself twice.
“Hurry up!” He opened up a path for Tianming to come to him.
“Daddy, what’re you doing?” Little You asked, still crying.
“It’ll be fine soon. Just wait a little while longer,” he consoled. He was completely different from how he was before. His mad hatred had been replaced by regret, anger, pain, and submission. He was just as tortured as his daughter, and the hatred of his kin was completely frozen away. He could only wait for Tianming to come, knowing that he was making his way to him as fast as possible. As expected, the white-haired youth rushed in, his different-colored eyes immediately spotting the crying Bodhi.
“You—”
Before Tianming could finish, Bodhi wiped his tears away and kowtowed, even prostrating himself. “You need to say nothing. It’s my fault. As long as you undo the curse, I’ll set the Divine Moon Realm back to where it was. Please, just don’t let her suffer!”
This was a complete shock to Tianming. He had been worried that Bodhi would make the same choice as Sovereign Xi and choose revenge over love. Yet the reality was the complete opposite.
“I’ve lost far too much. I can’t lose Little You. Without her, it’ll be pointless to have a home. I beg you, please spare her.” He was the epitome of sincerity.
It went completely against what Tianming had learned from Sovereign Xi. Fortunately, the Divine Moon Realm had stopped moving, so he could still calmly think about it.
“You’ve only temporarily stopped the crash, so forget undoing the curse for the rest of your life. Before we talk about anything else, move the Divine Moon Realm back to its former place,” he said.
“Yes, I’ll do that!”
Feiling had probably heard their conversation, as the curse’s effects were subsiding. Little You was covered in blood, but her shrieks and twitches had stopped. Her face was now completely pale after going through the nightmare. Bodhi couldn’t help but audibly sob as he hugged her tightly.
“Daddy, don’t cry…” she weakly croaked, wiping his tears off with all the energy she could muster.
Bodhi had known that there was no way Tianming would ever undo that curse. It was the only thing stopping him from destroying the entire human race, so he would never let it go. As long as Bodhi cared for his daughter, there was no way he would be able to escape Tianming’s control, and his actions today had proven just that.
