He could feel the heat burning up in both of them. Mixing his blood into the broth for the dragon vow ritual was a good idea after all. Being able to control his dragon’s blood in Ruo Han’s body, he easily suppressed the chaotic energy in Ruo Han’s golden core.

Their meridians reached out to reach each other and Ruo Han’s weakening energy was nourished by Shen Long’s powerful soul. Shen Long was about to give his vow when something terrible happened.

As if recognising the original owner, the chaotic energy in Ruo Han’s golden core struck out and attacked Shen Long’s mind when he was at his most vulnerable state. The dragon god spirit wasn’t expecting that and couldn’t guard against it. Shen Long slumped in the bathtub with the sudden attack but his grip on Ruo Han never loosened even after he fell unconscious as if still wanting to protect the cultivator stubbornly.

Sucked into his inner world, Shen Long was now confronted by someone that looked very similar to Ruo Han. He almost mistook them as the cultivator because of the way they dressed and behaved but Shen Long knew better. This wasn’t him. In fact, he didn’t know who they were but the dragon spirit god had a feeling they were.

“Who are you?”

The apparition smiled coldly and with a wave of his long robed sleeve, broke the chains sealing Shen Long’s memories and feelings. The dragon god spirit wasn’t ready for the flood of memories and emotions. Everything happened so suddenly that Shen Long fell onto his knees, clutching at his head in pain with tears flowing from his eyes as he recalled everything.

“It’s you?”

The ghostly man sneered. “How does it feel like to be reminded of the face you grew to hate so much? Was it fun falling for my replacement all over again?”

No, this wasn’t right. Shen Long shook his head and glared at the illusion. This chaotic energy was a curse that had been suppressed by Amanda with the seal. If he hadn’t prepared to go through the dragon vow ritual and opened the pathway for it back, this wouldn’t be here.

Back then, Shen Long wasn’t strong enough to undo the curse. His heart was too weak and his feelings too deep to see what was real and what wasn’t. The man before him was his previous lover, the bride that Ruo Han sent to him and the one who gave him that scar over his eye.

“No, he’s not your replacement. You’ve always been his replacement. It was why you resent me. It was why you placed this curse on me and gave me this scar. You’re nothing like Ruo Han.”

The illusion became threatening and there it was, the ghost of the last dragon god’s bride. The man truly looked nothing like Ruo Han now that Shen Long looked closely. Sure, he had blue eyes and long white hair but those weren’t the right shade of blue. His nose was too narrow and his lips too wide. His face was contorted with many emotions but the most obvious was hatred.

Shen Long remembered everything now how he came to become a fallen god. He came to remember why Ruo Han was such a familiar name and why the cultivator was someone he thought he felt comfortable with. His intense dislike from omegas originated from this bride.

“You won’t ever be like him,” Shen Long told the ghost and the chaotic mass of energy from the curse tried to bind Shen Long but the dragon god wasn’t having it. He no longer felt any guilt for his actions nor any attachments to this unfortunate bride. Since the very start, he’d been very clear about his duties as a dragon god but along the way, he lost sight of himself, allowing the poisonous bride to twist his mind.

Shen Long remembered the child he picked up on his travels. He remembered giving Ruo Han his name and in jest, joked about wanting a dragon bride that looked exactly like the cultivator every ten years. He didn’t think that child would become so loyal and establish a sect in his name to teach his teachings. Ruo Han also picked up orphans and groomed them into becoming dragon brides, not that Shen Long was interested in any of them. However, the stories that these brides told Shen Long about Ruo Han made the dragon god eventually grow interested in the mortal he once saved. He found out that the dragon beard candies that were offered regularly were also a creation by Ruo Han and Shen Long grew to like them.

Then, this bride who was offered to him eighty years ago started to develop feelings for him. It wouldn’t be the first time a bride grew to love Shen Long romantically. Over many years, Shen Long had his fair share. Each time the ten years were up, Shen Long would erase their memories and send them back into the cycle of reincarnation with the blessing of a dragon god. That way, nobody would be sad about it. However, this bride was different.

Many of Shen Long’s previous brides looked and behaved like Ruo Han through the cultivator’s strict education but they had their individual quirks and personalities that showed over time. The bride that cursed him and wanted him dead was different. Shen Long was stunned when he first saw his latest bride. He almost mistook him for Ruo Han and it was very difficult to remember that they were different people.

Shen Long always thought that something was off about his bride but he never questioned it, enjoying every moment of their bliss together. He couldn’t tell that he was slowly poisoned with mind-confusion magic and the fake Ruo Han used very powerful illusion magic to confuse him. He wanted the dragon’s vow but no matter what happened, Shen Long refused to give it to him. Something told him that his bride wasn’t sincere and he was right.

Unlike the real Ruo Han who was kind beyond measure, noble and dignified, the fake Ruo Han bride wanted more. He was hungry for the dragon god’s love and would do anything to bind a powerful immortal husband to him. He started cultivating in dark arts and his obsession over Shen Long became worse.

Back then, Shen Long was too enamoured by his bride to notice anything amiss but after a while, he fell sick. His temper became worse, he started distancing himself from everyone else and only being with his bride could ease the pain. He stopped giving blessings and no longer accepted offerings.

When he realised that his bride wasn’t Ruo Han and was using dark arts to control him, he tried to break their engagement off. Shen Long didn’t know how long he had been under the influence of the dark arts but he wasn’t completely at its mercy even if he was weakened.

For the dragon’s vow to happen, all he needed was the blood and oath of the dragon. The oath could easily be accomplished by messing with Shen Long’s mind using the dark arts. However, the blood, Shen Long refused to give. That was when the bride lost his cool and tried to slash Shen Long with a sword. The dragon god dodged it and fought back, taking a slash to his eye. Thankfully, he wasn’t blinded. The greedy bride was killed by him but on his dying breath, the bride cursed Shen Long to be driven to eternal solitude. Without his divinity, severely weakened and his mind poisoned by the dark arts, Shen Long dragged himself over to the mortal realm to recover. However, the curse of solitude made Shen Long unable to interact with anyone or hear the prayers for decades. It drove him mad until Amanda reached out to him and suppressed the curse along with everything else.

Now that the seal was undone and the curse still strong, Shen Long had another reason to fight back. Back then, he felt too guilty for using the bride as a replacement for Ruo Han but now, he was over it. He’d done too many awful things to too many people but the one thing that gave him a reason to move forward was the promise that Ruo Han made to him. The cultivator couldn’t just die yet, he still had to take care of him to make sure Shen Long doesn’t get into any other trouble!

“It must have been painful for you,” he told the ghost of his deceased bride. “However, I’m not going to apologise. If you want revenge, you already have it. You wanted me to suffer eternal solitude and you succeeded. The one person I really want, I can’t have. He’s dying right now.”

The bride looked over to Ruo Han who was no longer suffering from fever. Instead, his lips were blue from cold and his breath so still that he could pass off as dead. Behind him, Shen Long was not in better condition. They were squeezed in a tiny bathtub and with the curse interfering with the dragon’s vow, they were both getting weaker.

The bride of the ghost and the curse faltered when he saw it. True, the curse was strong because of hatred and jealousy. However, seeing the two people he loved dying together made him think twice. It didn’t matter how much he hated Ruo Han, the ghost couldn’t deny that Ruo Han was the one who raised him and gave him that chance to meet Shen Long. It was nobody’s fault that he couldn’t get Shen Long’s heart, he was simply being selfish.

Thinking twice, the curse slowly weakened and dissolved. The ghost of Shen Long’s previous bride cried tears of blood. “I hate you.”

The dragon god spirit didn’t say anything but watched as the shackles of the curse broke. He was slowly recovering his spiritual powers as the ghost became more transparent.

“You’re a cold-hearted bastard, you don’t deserve my shifu! I hope he makes you pay for all the hearts you’ve broken so please… save him. All I wanted was for you to remember my name correctly...”

Shen Long felt bad. Now that he thought about it, he’d always been calling his brides Ruo Han regardless of their names. It took him a while but just before the ghost faded completely, he remembered the name of his twentieth bride.

“Ruo Yan! Thank you.”

Ruo Yan couldn’t believe his ears. Shen Long actually knew and remembered his name! However, it was all too late. Yet, in the last moments of his life, Ruo Yan smiled the brightest just like how he did on the night when Ruo Han picked him up from the streets and fed him warm chicken soup.

“Your name will be Ruo Yan,” Ruo Han said back then and the name that had caused so much unhappiness finally meant something more. With a last glance at his unconscious shifu, Ruo Yan used the power of his words to offer them a blessing to find eternal happiness this time.

Shen Long didn’t have much time to grieve or feel sorry for Ruo Yan’s passing. Instead, he quickly gave Ruo Han his vow and started to circulate energy through both their bodies in hopes of saving his mate on time.

Ruo Han’s golden core was very weak and Shen Long didn’t want to think what would happen if he didn’t make it one time. He wasn’t used to all his spiritual power now that the curse was lifted. Some of his meridians felt blocked but he did his best and activated his blood in Ruo Han’s body to merge with his golden core.

The process took a few hours and by the time Ruo Han’s condition stabilised, the sun was rising and other people were beginning to come to the bathrooms. Shen Long opened his eyes and wondered if he should get out of the tub or continue sitting in it. Ruo Han was still unconscious and Shen Long decided to risk it.

If people saw them together and tongues started to wag, Shen Long would take full responsibility.