Chapter 2 — The Abyssal King Returns

Before collapsing at the gate of Vân Khê Trấn, Bách Uyên had spent nearly seven years learning how to be a mortal, and that time was more arduous than any battle he had ever experienced as Venerable Lord.

In the first year after leaving Netherworld, he still retained a little bit of residual magic power in his meridians, enough to keep father and daughter from having to endure hunger and cold during the first days of their wandering. But that magic power, no longer nourished by the Seal of Heaven's Mandate, gradually dwindled over the years like a lamp running out of oil, until one cold winter day, when Tiểu Yên had just turned three years old, it turned off completely, leaving him completely a mere mortal.

That night, he remembered sitting by a small fire in the middle of a wild forest, looking at his hands that once made the sky and earth shake, now he could only tremble from the cold, and wondering if he would be able to feed his young child.

He learned how to hold a hoe from a kind old farmer in a small village, and was laughed at countless times for not hoeing properly, for sowing seeds at the wrong season, and for not being able to distinguish between weeds and young rice sprouts. He learned how to carry water from the village well, his shirt shoulders were torn due to the rubbing of the pole, his hands and feet were blistered and bleeding after each session of labor, calluses gradually formed on the hands that used to only hold pens to approve edicts.

One time, at a district market, he brought some wild vegetables picked from the forest to sell. Not knowing how to bargain, a greedy merchant forced the price down to only one-tenth of the real value, and then even made fun of it in front of many passersby. In the past, if Bách Uyên only frowned, that person would have to kneel down and beg for his life. But at this moment, he could only bow his head, silently accept the small amount of money, then turn and walk away, with a feeling of resentment and helplessness he had never experienced before.

"Dad, why do people say you're so stupid?" Tiểu Yên, who was only four years old at the time, asked him that after witnessing that scene, her eyes wide and full of wonder.

Bách Uyên smiled, the first smile in many days, and patted his daughter's head. "Because I'm learning new things, daughter. Everyone who learns new things has to go through times of clumsiness like that."

He did not explain further that the person who was once respected by an entire world as the supreme being, was now looked down upon by a common merchant right in the middle of the market, which was a humiliation that if he still kept the Heavenly Mandate Seal within him, he would never have to endure. But he also doesn't regret it. That humiliation, compared to the daughter's life, is not worth much.

In the years that followed, he gradually learned more. He learned how to cook a pot of porridge without burning, even though the first time he tried to cook it, he burned down a pot he borrowed from someone else. He learned how to mend a torn piece of clothing. The first needles were so clumsy that his fingers bled endlessly. He learned to recognize the weather through the clouds, learned to talk to people in simple sentences instead of the dictating tone he had been accustomed to using for hundreds of years.

There were nights, when Tiểu Yên was fast asleep, he sat alone by the dead fire, looking up at the starry sky, wondering how his old gods, those who had followed him to life and death, were now living under the rule of the one who had assumed the power of Regent in his name. He had no way of getting news from the Underworld, because all magical connections between him and that world had been completely severed since the night he gave up the Heavenly Mandate Seal.

His biggest worry had always been the contract that was silently gnawing away at his daughter's life. Every year, he sought out Taoist monks and famous physicians throughout the world, hoping to find some clue on how to resolve U Minh Tuyệt Mệnh Khế. But most of them just shook their heads, saying that it was black magic that was beyond their understanding. Others took advantage of his miserable situation to deceive him, demanding large sums of money and then selling him useless talismans.

Once, in a coastal town, a man claiming to be an enlightened Taoist tricked him into taking all the little money he had saved after half a year of hard work, promising to help lift his daughter's curse, then disappeared without a trace the next night. Bách Uyên stood silently in front of that empty house for a long time, clenching his fists until they bled, but in the end he still had to return, hug his waiting daughter, swallowing his bitterness so as not to scare her.

Through all these years, he has learned something that he never understood when he was sitting on the throne: that ultimate power is sometimes nothing in the face of the helplessness of a father watching his daughter gradually weaken without being able to do anything.

But he also learned something else, more gentle. That among the most simple people, there always exists selfless kindness. The old farmer who taught him how to use a hoe, even though he was poor, always saved a bowl of rice for father and daughter whenever possible. An old woman selling cakes at the district market, seeing that Tiểu Yên was skinny, secretly gave her another cake without taking any extra money. Those small things, during the darkest years of his life, became a small fire that warmed his remaining faith.

Seven years passed like that, father and daughter kept wandering from one area to another, not daring to stay too long in one place. Partly because he was afraid of leaving a trace for those who might still hunt him down from the Underworld, partly because the pain of losing his kind wife was still too great every time he planned to stop somewhere for a long time, building a stable life.

It wasn't until this fall, when Tiểu Yên turned seven years old, that her health began to show unusual signs of weakness that no physician they visited could explain. The headaches suddenly came and went, the times when she suddenly turned pale and cold, then returned to normal as if nothing had ever happened. Bách Uyên had a hunch that it could be a warning sign of an upcoming Black Moon Eclipse, a cycle that would tighten the contract a bit.

He still clearly remembered that there had been two other times the Black Moon Eclipse had passed through the sky since the night his daughter was born, but both times the slowing effect from giving up the Heavenly Mandate Seal was still strong enough, the contract only slightly stirred, leaving Tiểu Yên with a mild fever for a few nights that a folk medicine was enough to soothe, and by the next morning she was running around again as if nothing had happened. But this time, looking at the headaches that came more intensely, Tiểu Yên's skin turning paler and paler than the previous two times, Bách Uyên clearly understood something that he had secretly feared for a long time: that slowing effect was gradually drying up over the years, like a dike that had begun to crack after too many high water seasons, no longer able to retain the blocking power it had in the beginning.

He had heard rumors about a small town called Vân Khê, hidden in a remote valley of Lam Vũ Quốc, where it was said that there were physicians who were good at traditional medicine and had been able to cure many strange diseases that other places could not handle. Even though he didn't have too much hope in his heart, after many disappointments, Bách Uyên still decided to take his daughter there, seeing it as the last chance before the next Black Moon Eclipse struck.

The journey to Vân Khê Trấn took longer than expected, passing through dangerous roads and dense old forests. Food ran out three days before they arrived, and both the father's and daughter's health was seriously depleted. Bách Uyên tried to give the little remaining food to his daughter, only drinking spring water to calm his breath, but when he reached the town gate, his body could no longer bear it.

Little did he know, that seemingly ultimate exhaustion was the door that would lead him to the person who would change the rest of his life - a young female knight in this small town, who was about to enter his life in a way that no prophet in the Underworld had ever predicted.

During seven years of learning how to be a mortal, Bách Uyên lost many things - power, fame, even the pride of a supreme being. But there is one thing he has never lost, no matter how much suffering he has had to go through: the belief that, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, no matter how small, he will never stop walking for his daughter.

And that ray of hope, on the night he collapsed at the gate of Vân Khê Trấn, finally appeared, in the form of a strange woman with steadfast eyes and a heart that did not hesitate to help the needy.

Not long ago, on the way to town, Bách Uyên stopped by a dry stream, sat with his back against a large rock to regain strength, and watched his daughter fall asleep in his arms from exhaustion. He quietly placed his hand on his daughter's chest, feeling the weak but steady heartbeat, then told himself that as long as he could still hear that heartbeat, all the suffering he had to endure was worth it. He remembered the last advice of the old Taoist who showed him the way in the past, that the Black Moon Eclipse cycle waited for no one, and the time he had left to find a way to completely resolve it was running out.

He also remembered Chu Bách Thành, the loyal general who helped him stage his fake death last year. Before saying goodbye at the border, he held his hand tightly, his eyes were red but his voice was still steady: "Your Majesty, please rest assured to take care of the little princess. As for the court, no matter how humiliated I am, I will find a way to keep the loyal bloodline from being completely extinguished." During the past seven years, Bách Uyên had not once received any news from him, but in his heart he still believes that, somewhere in the distant Underworld, there were still people silently waiting for the day he returned.

It was that fragile faith, along with boundless love for her daughter, that kept Bách Uyên from collapsing during the darkest years, and finally led the exhausted footsteps of father and daughter to the exact gate of Vân Khê Trấn, at the exact moment when fate was about to turn a completely different page.