When Chief Warden Wan got the news that his son had been captured, he immediately fled as quickly as he could from Tarot.
The father-son duo's initial plan had been to first join forces with the Sarna Orcs to help them take back the mining planet Vodapei, then attack and snatch Huaxia from Xu Yao, and finally, he would personally lead an attack on Tarot to distract Emperor Kunta.
However, it was evident that their preparations were not enough. They were unable to successfully capture Le Yao, and even the ambush on Vodapei hadn't borne a good result.
Who would have thought that the undead had the ability to possess the Orc soldiers and incite fighting within their own ranks?
The failure of the Vodapei operation was detrimental, to the extent that it made the battle near impossible to win. In the end, when the Orcs soldiers witnessed their disadvantageous situation, they retreated hastily to safeguard their own lives.
The Sarna Orcs had suffered a heavy loss this time. As for this Chief Warden Wan, needless to say, he had already invested everything he had into this operation, exchanging the remainder of his lifetime to pursue this glory; but the final result was that he was gifted a warrant.
Chief Warden Wan had been in charge of guarding prisoners for more than ten years, but in the end, he had ironically become a target for arrest.
Xu Yao said to Yan Jie, "We must guard Wan Deqing carefully. Wan Chengze, that old man, still values his son."
"Yes. But Brother Xu, I don't understand. Why do you want to put Wan Deqing in our custody? Wouldn't it be better to send him to Tarot or hand him over to the Star Police?"
"No. I would say that the best way to deal with him is with my own hands. Additionally, the Emperor and Empress will travel to Huaxia within the next two days. The Emperor may want to personally interrogate Wan Deqing. Furthermore, the reason we've kept him in our hands is also to see if Wan Chengze will come here for him. If possible, it's better to clean them up together."
"But if he still has a brain, he won't come here right?"
"I might also have thought that way before my three little guys were born. However, I've changed my mind. After all, Wan Deqing is the only son of the Wan Family."
"That's really excessive. They're the ones causing trouble, but we're the ones who have to clean up the mess." Yan Jie felt distressed just thinking about it.
In recent years, Chief Warden Wan had secretly killed many of the original prison guards and smuggled prisoners out by using the faces of those guards. In light of this startling discovery, Emperor Kunta could only order a thorough investigation to begin the process of rectification.
One by one, the remaining prisoners, guards and wardens of Blood Prison were being subjected to an investigation of DNA re-verification, and if any problems were uncovered, a death sentence was inevitable for that particular offender.
The undead Flying Wolf soldiers were put in-charge of searching for the souls of the guards who had died unjustly under Wan Chengze's leadership. This way, it would become impossible for anything to be falsified.
Additionally, the situation had changed, as the Tianyan talismans could now be considered to be at a 'mass production' level. Xu Yao didn't even have to use paper to draw them. Whenever someone needed their sight to be opened, he would just have to draw the required rune onto that person's forehead.
And so, arrangements were made in a way that half of the Heavy Mecha Regiment and half of the Light Mecha Regiment would handle the aftermath in tandem. This team, which also had some undead as additional support in it, was led by Zhang Xuwei and Liu Yi.
As the deaths of the prison guards were unjust, their grievances might be heavy. Due to this, Xu Yao deliberately requested Rong Gui and Bei Hongli to accompany them.
"You mean to say, we will be adding a new prison building to our plans for the secondary home construction project?" Le Yao asked Xu Yao in surprise when Xu Yao mentioned the new work plans.
"That's right. In the future, the Flying Wolf Division will also participate in the management of Blood Prison. We also need to create a division where dead souls will be able to apply for a redress of their grievances. Those who died unjustly should also be allowed to apply for a tribunal for their case."
"Ah, that really would be so good!" Le Yao agreed that this idea was quite thoughtful and humanitarian. Else, people who had died unjustly… they would be too pitiful.
"If you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to speak them aloud." Xu Yao added, "Also, when I arrived at the hospital, President Liu told me that you can now be discharged at any time, but it seems that you don't seem to want to leave the hospital?"
"Ah~~" Le Yao was a little embarrassed.
As a matter of fact, it wasn't wrong to say that he didn't really want to be discharged. The truth was that the medicines administered to him were so effective that he was able to walk normally on the third day after he gave birth.
However, if he was discharged and left the hospital, he would end up being far away from the children. Their children were really too small, so they still needed to be under the doctors' intensive care and thus, couldn't be taken home yet.
Guessing Le Yao's intentions, Xu Yao said, "It's also fine for you to continue staying at the hospital and wait for the children to grow enough before returning home together. But during this time, try not to walk around the hospital too much, because many injured soldiers are also being treated here."
Hearing this, Le Yao pondered on the current situation; there were still a lot of seriously injured soldiers, who had not yet recovered. He ended up asking in a sheepish tone, "Am I taking up too much bed-space here?"
Xu Yao made a distressed expression and replied, "Yes, a lot of soldiers had to be treated on the floor."
Le Yao: "…"
Le Yao silently got up, packed his things, and resolutely decided to be discharged today. Since his back was facing his husband, Le Yao didn't see the flash that passed in Xu Yao's smiling eyes.
It was impossible for the hospital's conditions to be so poor that injured soldiers had to be treated on the floor. In reality, there were many uninhabited mobile homes available, and also, if the current hospital area wasn't enough for patient intake, then the ward space could be easily extended.
Le Yao didn't know about these mechanisms and naturally his simple mind wouldn't even think about the possibility of Xu Yao tricking him.
Before leaving the room, Xu Yao asked, "Would you like to see the children?"
Le Yao thought about it for a moment before replying, "It's okay, we can go. I saw them just a while ago before you came back. If I see them now, I'll be even more reluctant to leave."
When the children had yet to be born, he didn't really have a very strong desire to protect. However, after 'officially' meeting them, they now occupied his mind and thoughts at all times of the day.
He knew that, even if he returned home, he would still end up frequently visiting the hospital with his hover car. But, the difference of being separated by a wall and a long road was really large.
After all, the little ones were so small that if something were really to happen, they wouldn't be able to protect themselves.
It was fine during the night because there were many people who would keep them company; their grandparents, the undead soldiers, and the medical staff would all be keeping watch, so the possibility of any mishap occurring during that time period was close to zero.
But then, what about during the daytime? Only the medical staff would accompany them during the day, and in the event that they moved their sight away from them—in fact, that should also be unlikely. President Liu had reassured them that he would be 'staying' on-guard right next to the incubator.
Le Yao knew he was being blindly worried. But he just couldn't help it!
His buttocks were so heated, he couldn't even sit at home because of the anxiety!
A sudden knock came from the door. He subconsciously looked towards Xu Yao. "You invited someone?"
Xu Yao replied, "No. Why don't you go and see who it is?"
Le Yao scratched his head suspiciously and walked to the door. "Who is it?"
There was no reply.
Le Yao carefully opened the door, only half-showing his body, before the box floating outside caught his attention. The box was quite a bit larger than a traditional cradle and was shaped like a capsule. The lower half was silver in colour while the upper half was transparent.
And, most importantly, his children were lying inside!!!
"Are you relieved now?" Xu Yao looped his arm around Le Yao's waist from behind and whispered this question softly into his ear.
"This… Is this alright?" Le Yao slowly reached out to touch the large incubator capsule.
"How did you think up this idea?" The incubator they had used in the hospital was larger and had quite a different shape compared to this one.
"Not long after the children were born, President Liu asked Leslie to order it, and it finally arrived today. This one is even better than the current incubators we have at the hospital. This means that from now on, you will be able to always stay with the kids."
"What about their nutrient solutions?"
"We can feed them ourselves. I've bought everything, so rest assured, as long as we are careful, there will be no problems. Don't forget who their parents are."
Le Yao: "…"
Indeed, if they were ordinary children, them being born prematurely, when they had not even spent six months in the womb, would definitely be a problem.
However, every single day since their birth, the three of them had maintained a stable condition. Moreover, they kept growing at a rate that was visible to the naked eye.
That had been one of few the reasons as to why he had been willing to leave the children at the hospital.
So now, Le Yao seriously examined the instruction manual to learn how to use the new intelligent incubator, and also focused his attention on the ingredients for the nutrient solutions, their production date and various other pieces of information.
He could only try his best to become a qualified dad!
Thus, this night ended up being a bit busy, and Le Yao didn't manage to get much sleep. Previously, in the hospital, he was embarrassed to go back and forth from his ward to the children's ward just to see them, but now that they were at home, he no longer held back his desire to look at them all the time.
This was how Le Yao discovered that this particular intelligent incubator was especially designed for premature children and even had a 'poop' notification! It would give a timely notification whenever the children urinated, so Le Yao could rush over and change their mini diapers immediately.
In the beginning, he was really quite afraid of hurting the children, but later realized that he just needed to be careful. This might be because the children already had a special physical relationship with him but it wasn't that difficult for him to take care of them.
"Do you think they will also have spiritual power?" Le Yao asked as he returned to the bedroom.
Things were a lot more relaxed now as their grandparents had taken over the 'children-watching' duty at night in the second bedroom. He wouldn't need to head over except to feed them nutrient solutions or when it was time to change their diapers.
"Certainly, they won't be the same as ordinary children."
Xu Yao continued, "But, it's hard to say whether they will have spiritual power or not for the time being. I told you before, that although I have the seal of Yan Wang, I am not the real King of the Underworld."
"But the Ghost King is also very powerful, right?" Although he had been studying metapsychics for more than ten years, his time on Earth and the situation now in Huaxia was fundamentally different.
During his time on Earth, the Underworld was in order because Yan Wang still existed. He couldn't see the undead everywhere everytime, so he had never seen powerful spirits like the Ghost King.
Only… when he heard the name being said, it felt like it should be very powerful.
"Do you know how we met in our previous life?"
"… By means of a fight?"
"A fight?" Xu Yao laughed. "Why would you think that we met due to a fight? Maybe I fell in love with you at first sight."
"It's you who said that you had a loose nature, whereas I was the benchmark for appropriate behaviour in the Underworld. Such sort of personalities are the exact opposites, so how can you say that it was love at the first sight? It's highly probable that you silently despised me in your heart."
Xu Yao stared at Le Yao for a long time and didn't say a word.
Because Le Yao really had guessed right.
They really hadn't fallen in love at first sight.
In the beginning, he had even held feelings of hatred towards Le Yao. It was really very similar to their manner of meeting in this life; a not-so-small misunderstanding and quite a bit of resistance at first.
One was the Ghost King, the fighter of more than ten thousand ghosts—the other was the Prince of Fengdu, the embodiment of justice in the Underworld.
Such polar opposites, it would have been strange if they could live in harmony.
"Why are you not talking anymore?" Le Yao waited for a long time, but Xu Yao still didn't open his mouth in reply to his earlier guess.
"It's nothing. Let's just sleep."
"But you haven't given me the answer yet. In the end, how did we meet?"
"Your father asked you to change me."
"Ah?" What a wonderful way to meet!
"Did I succeed?" Le Yao asked.
"… Yes, you succeeded." Xu Yao paused and said, "Else, would we still have been able to meet again in this life like we have now?"
"That's also true." Le Yao subconsciously agreed as he listened carefully and tried to remember the scene of their very first encounter, but still, there was no sign of recalling those memories. There was nothing at all, it was almost as if all of these things had never happened, and Xu Yao was just telling him a bedtime story.
He kept trying and trying to remember, and, in the midst of this remembering, gradually fell asleep.
Xu Yao watched his precious sleeping wife for a long while. Then, he sat up with a very light movement. He angled his left palm and gently touched Le Yao's left leg. With this action, a burst of black mist suddenly exuded from the region between Le Yao's calf and his ankle.
…