Oh. My. Fate?! (BL, Volume 12, Part 2)

278 Too Much Left Unanswered

Jing He opened his eyes but instead of his lover, he found himself looking at emptiness. He stared in a daze for a moment and finally lowered his head, seeing the golden surface of the Spring of Fate to his feet.

His lips parted but he couldn't even exhale. The breath was stuck in his chest, the feeling almost as uncomfortable as he had felt in those moments during the vision when he imagined not to be with Qiu Ling in the future. He closed his eyes and forced himself to silently go through what he had seen before he finally managed to breathe normally again.

While the vision lasted, he hadn't even realized what it was. Everything seemed real as if it was truly happening and he was indeed living that life he was being shown. This ... was probably good. It was a lot more impactful than being a quiet bystander, watching his own life from the outside. To truly experience everything that would happen if he made this choice, including the emotions it would evoke and even the thoughts he would have as a result ... it gave him a deep insight that he hadn't expected.

What wasn't a surprise was that he was unhappy with the choice he had made in the vision. But it seemed that the consequences of choosing Qiu Ling would indeed be bad enough to warrant making that choice. While that vision hadn't been included in his actual vision, he had thought about it more than once, and apparently, what awaited them after he chose Qiu Ling would be his parents' divorce, his uncle's fall from grace, the collapse of the alliance between the dragons and the gods, and maybe even the subjugation of his people after the demons rose to prominence again.

Jing He opened his eyes again and stared at the Spring of Fate in a daze. Those consequences were even more drastic than what he had imagined. To not pay them any heed when he knew of them just because he himself would be unhappy didn't seem right. No, as the crown prince of the Nine Heavens, it was his duty to take all the trueborn gods, ascended deities, and half-bloods living in the Nine Heavens into consideration. It was ... unfortunate.

Jing He stooped down and picked up An Xin. The little flame heart had still been squatting next to him but it looked incredibly bored in this place which had nothing for it to do. The soft tail swished from side to side, seeming a bit vexed.

As soon as Jing He picked it up, An Xin happily rubbed against him, purring faintly.

Jing He smiled in turn but it looked a little forced. "I saw the future, An Xin. But ... it's a bad one. What should I do now, hm?" He rubbed the fuzzy head, his brows furrowing. He knew what he ought to choose but it was difficult to actually do. He just ... was that weak-willed. But that was no surprise, was it? If he wasn't, he'd not be in his current predicament in the first place.

He sighed and thought of what had happened at the end of his vision. Ignoring his preposterous thoughts of trying to seduce Qiu Ling into being intimate with him before he returned to the Nine Heavens, it gave him a little hope that the two of them had talked again and that not all seemed lost between them.

Yes, even though there had been no actual solution just yet, choosing his father hadn't meant completely giving up on Qiu Ling. Rather than that ... maybe he should say that in the vision, he had chosen to appease his father temporarily while looking for a way forward that would allow everyone happiness. It ... might not be bad to make that a reality.

Of course, he couldn't deny that he felt a little anxious about this as well. The vision had stopped too suddenly. He hadn't seen whether Qiu Ling would be tempted by his daring actions so they would wed according to the dragons' wedding customs. He hadn't seen how or even if he returned to the Nine Heavens and what everyone's reaction would be to that. He hadn't actually witnessed how he explained his absence and Tian's request for his child to be reincarnated through his blood and whether his father would believe any of it. He hadn't been able to find out whether he would be forced to get married to someone else despite his best attempt at salvaging what he could from those circumstances and he certainly hadn't had the chance to see the final outcome of his decision and whether it would mean forever being separated from Qiu Ling or if they could indeed turn everything around. In short, it seemed like he knew very little and he didn't like that feeling.

Jing He took a shaky breath and looked at the shimmering surface of the Spring of Fate again. It made sense for the vision to end there. He had only given up those abilities which were unique to the fallen gods. Even though he wasn't very familiar with them since he hadn't wanted to use them much, there shouldn't be too many. After all, the fallen gods shared many of their abilities with the trueborn gods. Not to mention that he had actually seen a lot.

It might not seem like it because he hadn't found the answers to many of his questions but the vision was continuous. It was due to his own inexperience and, frankly, stupidity that he lost many days on experiencing himself stumbling through the High Heavens first and the immortal realms right afterward. If he had been smart enough to ask Tian to directly send him down the mountain and then thought of contacting Qiu Ling to get him, instead of trying to find his way back on his own ... he could have seen his return to the Nine Heavens for sure and wouldn't be distraught over his lack of knowledge again.

Now, the question seemed to be: Could he make his decision just based on the little he knew for sure or should he try and give up something else to see more of his future to make certain that he wasn't doing the wrong thing?