Inside a dark stone room, the originally very quiet scene was ushered in by a sound of footsteps.
The Dragon Emperor, wearing a dazzling golden robe that showed off his majesty, slowly walked into this stone room. Afterwards, Fang Han similarly followed.
The stone room was incomparably simple, with nothing else but a square table and two stone stools.
"Boom!" The huge stone door was closed, and the Dragon Emperor and Fang Han landed on the two stone stools respectively.
"Elder Fang, do you think this Emperor has done wrong?" The Dragon Emperor said softly.
Not long ago, he had refused to embrace his own child and left ruthlessly, and naturally, he had heard Fang Xue's angry words. In the room at that time, the door was open, and what Fang Xue said fell into his ears word for word, causing his heart to be incredibly heavy.
He asked himself if he was really wrong. Having lived in a majestic environment for his entire life, the Dragon Emperor indeed had no understanding of the human condition, and what he valued more was still this foundation of the Dragon Domain.
Fang Han smiled bitterly and shook his head, "I can't ask about His Majesty's affairs."
The Dragon Emperor also shook his head and said, "This is a family matter, and you, Elder Fang, as Xue'er's father, are qualified to say a few words."
Having said that, Fang Han still didn't open his mouth immediately, and in his mind, he naturally recalled that infant child with a pair of blood-red dragon horns on his forehead, and his heart felt some pity.
"Your Majesty." After a long period of silence, Fang Han finally spoke, "With your bloodline and Xue'er's bloodline, the child that was born shouldn't have been a lower ranked divine beast. Perhaps it was the will of the heavens that the child you gave birth to was a red dragon. This is indeed hard to accept. However, Fan'er, no matter what, is still your child, Your Majesty, so Your Majesty, you must not be too heartless in your treatment of him."
After Fang Han finished his speech, he looked up at the Dragon Emperor, but found that the Dragon Emperor was in a trance, seemingly thinking of something, and his face changed again and again.
"Alas." A moment later, the Dragon Emperor let out a sigh and said, "Perhaps it is really like what you said, Elder Fang, that this Emperor has been too undutiful to him. It's just that in the last hundred years, the 'Southern Domain Three Sects', who have been our Dragon Domain's mortal enemies for several lifetimes, have grown stronger and stronger. Once upon a time, their three major cultivation sects didn't dare to compete with our Dragon Domain at all, but in the last hundred years or so, they've been able to separate themselves from us. And with my 'Nine Turns Dao Realm' cultivation, despite having the help of the Dragon Clan's inherited treasures, I still feel increasingly overwhelmed."
The Dragon Emperor exhaled a breath and continued, "Three years ago when Xue'er gave birth to a child, this Emperor originally harboured great hopes, after all, with this Emperor and Xue'er's bloodline, the child born should be heavenly gifted in any case. But in fact, Fang Lao, you also know that with Ao Fan's lower divine beast Red Dragon's natural ability, in the future, it will not be able to help this Emperor at all, and may even drag down the Dragon Clan as a result, how can this Emperor let go of the stigma in his heart?"
After Fang Han heard this, he said, "The three southern domain gates are bringing a lot of pressure to Your Majesty, but these things should not be confused with family matters. The child, Fan'er, has already been born, Your Majesty, you should always treat him better. Moreover, with the birth of Little Ling'er today, she will definitely be able to help you a lot in the future, she has inherited Xue'er's white dragon bloodline."
The Dragon Emperor nodded, his heart remembered the newborn Ao Ling and felt much better. Thinking of Ao Fan again, he continued, "This Emperor will try to try to be nicer to Ao Fan in the future."
Fang Han did not speak again, but inwardly he said, "If you really intend to try to be nicer to him, why did you still call him Ao Fan instead of Fan Er?"
Time always flowed invisibly, not stopping for anyone.
In the days that followed, the Dragon Emperor indeed honoured what he had said, visiting Ao Fan three or four times. For this reason, Fang Xue, who cared the most about Ao Fan, had shed tears of excitement.
Ao Fan was also very happy about this matter. In his world, there were only his parents and grandfather, as well as his adorable kissing sister, Xiao Ling'er.
His favourite thing was to hear Little Ling'er affectionately call out to him as his brother, and whenever he heard those two words, he would always feel so excited that he could laugh even in his sleep.
This period of time was perhaps the happiest time for him.
However, as time kept passing, Ao Fan he finally realised that Father Emperor was treating him differently.
Every time he treated Little Ling'er, Father Emperor's smile was from his heart, it was so kind, so merciful. However, when treating him, he found that his father's smile was somewhat forced, as if he was hiding something, so unreal.
For this reason, he wondered if it was because Little Spirit shared his father's love for him that made him not care about him. So he planned to alienate Little Spirit Child and hog Father Emperor's love alone. What's more, on a certain day, he threw Little Ling'er on an uninhabited deserted mountain.
On that day, it was pouring rain, hitting the ground and wetting everything. Ao Fan also did not go far, just in the mountain hidden bamboo forest between watching the little spirit child.
He wanted to leave with a heart of gold, but under the tears of Little Spirit's eyes and the desolate call of "brother", he was unable to take action in the end. In the end, he went back to the barren mountain, carrying Little Spirit back.
As he grew up, he finally realised that his father really didn't love him, and he had no one else to blame. Since he was five years old, the Dragon Emperor no longer came to see him, he once heard his handmaidens discussing in private, it seems that after the last time the Dragon Emperor saw him, he roared with anger and said, "I really don't want to see him".
At that time, Ao Fan did not put these words in his heart, but after gradually growing up, he already had some understanding and knew that the person his father was referring to was him.
While he was sad, he remembered what he had done to Xiao Ling'er, and his heart was filled with self-blame, feeling that his behaviour was really undeserved. Similarly, he also wondered why after returning from the barren mountain that day, Xiao Ling'er seemed to be more attached to him, almost unwilling to leave him for too long, and no matter what, she would share with him.
From Little Spirit Child, Ao Fan knew many things. Especially about cultivation, it made him yearn for it.
In this world, there existed all sorts of mysteries. Whether it's a human or a beast, they can absorb the naturally occurring vital energy in the sky and the earth into their bodies and cultivate it, thus sublimating themselves to the point of prolonging their lifespans and increasing their strengths.
Dragon born beast, even if not to cultivate, can also survive for hundreds of years, cultivation after life is even greater. Unlike human beings, life is very short, the only cultivation is higher and higher, can not be destroyed by time.
Therefore, the dragon race is more important, or strength. The Dragon Emperor can sit on that position, undoubtedly is the strongest strong man in the dragon domain. Ao Fan had thought about whether as long as his own strength became stronger, his father would be able to treat himself like Xiao Ling'er.
The more he thought about it in this way, the more he felt that it was possible. He desperately wished to be able to cultivate, but then he learnt from Little Ling'er that the only way for people of the Dragon Clan to cultivate was to reach the age of ten.
However, even though he was unable to cultivate immediately, he was able to hear some things about cultivation from Little Spirit Child, which were all told by others to Little Spirit Child. To an upper-ranked Divine Beast like Little Spirit, the other dragons would naturally teach him everything and would not hide anything from him.
From Xiao Ling'er, Ao Fan understood that the first realm of cultivation was the "Mortal Realm", which was further subdivided into three sub-realms. The next realm is the "Dao Realm". Cultivating from the Mortal Realm to the Dao Realm is known as the "Three Steps to the Dao".
As for the deeper realms, Little Spirit Child did not know. She hadn't started cultivating yet, and even if others talked to her about cultivation, they would only talk about the beginning of the realm, and wouldn't take the initiative to tell her about the deeper realms.
Knowing the first realm of cultivation, Ao Fan immensely hoped that he could quickly grow up to be ten years old, day and night, in the ever-flowing time finally looked forward to this day.