On My Way: The Demon King Made Me His

"You look tired your highness," The Empress said. She tired her best to be good to him.

"Can you drop the formality with me atleast now?" He asked her. He looked at her irritated. 

"I have got used to respecting you," she replied. He put the cup down in force and and it broke into pieces. 

"Respect?" He asked. "Do you think am a fool? Do you think I cannot identify and differentiate which is respect and which is hatred that makes you stay away from me?" For that Lihua smirked and looked away. "It's been years and years, and why do you still hate me? What did I do? What is that i did so wrong?"

"What is that you did right? Tell me one?" Sje asked him back.  "I kept my promise, but did you? What good thing did you do for like you claim you do always?"

"I gave you what all the women want in the universe, " he shouted.

"And am not like other women in your harem, I did not want any of this, but you out me through me it, forcefully," she shouted back just like he did. 

"Lihua," he got up.

"I have kept quiet for too long and put up with all your shits, Tai," she got up too. "I am tired of this, I so am. Yes I hated you for so long that I cannot tell what it is like to feel love,"

"I loved you till you emptied my feelings for you, i always tried," he said.

"It was not love your highness, you were obsessed to have me, you just wanted me physically, you loved my body, not my soul, you always ignored my feelings, my decisions, my view in life, you just wanted my dragon blood in the child you will make with me, what else did you want? Didn't you only want to reign over the world with the dragon beside you to be powerful ? Can you deny that? She asked him. 

This time, she shut Tai's mouth and did not have a word to say to her. He took a deep breath and let go of the matter coming back to the topic why he has called her to his chamber. He wanted to know if the cancer he saw was real and wanted to confirm it with his Empress using her powers. 

"I wanted to ask you something that has been bothering me for few days," he began. He looked tensed and looked at Empress Lihua. She remained cool and say down again. She served the tea for her again and sipped them slowly. 

"What?" She asked him.

"Err.. I heard a rumour before," he hesitated to say the matters to her. He was not sure about if he was doing the right thing. 

"What? Say it," she said calmly. .

"I heard that Huo'er is back," he said suddenly. Empress Lihua smirked and looked at him again. 

"Don't you know what rumours mean?" She asked him. But deep inside her heart, she was trembling with shock wondering how he knew about it. She couldn't handle what she just heard and tired to divert the topic.  "Did you meet with your cousin?" She asked him. But he ignored her. 

"I know, I was reported that nobody has seen anything new or abnormal regarding him. But cancer is slowly connecting and coming back to the original state. Only the dragon can make such a change," he said thinking a lot. He was watching Lihua very carefully.  But she remained super cool on the outside. 

She got up from her place and walked around the place looking at the artifacts and painting hung on the wall finding the trace of dust in everything. "Your maids are slacking, ask to clean it twice a week. Or else you will fall sick, we can't afford that can we?" She spoke lightly. 

"Am serious, " he said. "Say something will you?"

'You want me to search for my blood through the star reading my empire uses ?" She asked him.  He was expecting her positive response. "No," she said it. "Nobody has the right to do so," she said and denied. 

"We do, all the kings do, why can't you?" 

"Becuase you cut all the tied my Clan remember, why should you depend on them now?" She asked him back. Emperor Tai looked at the Empress for sometime before he spoke again. 

"Your son is coming back and it doesnt bother you?"

"What difference would it make? As if you woukd let him live If he does," she snapped at him. 

"You're running your mouth a lot today since am asking you a favour aren't you?"

"Did you get that only now?" She asked him back.

"Find him," he ordered her.

"I won't tell you even if I do," 

"I won't touch him," he promised the same thing again.

"You think that would work on me again?" 

"I mean it this time," he said strongly. 

"I won't believe a word that comes from your moth don't worry," she said. 

"You have to do it," he started pleading. "I really really will listen to you," 

"What kind of Emperor are you? Not keeping his words and giving out fake promises,"  she asked him smiling. "Listen your highness, whether he comes back or not, you will collapse without my power source, we ha e already lost our only son, feeding him with the same kind of hatred you had in you  asking him to man up all the time, this time I won't forgive you again, if you do move against me, I will kill myself so that I get to end this misery and living with and see you die along," she said fearlessly. It took the Emperor by surprise to hear such strong words coming out with Empress Lihua's mouth. 

It was indeed was true, a fake phoenix cannot survive long without a dragon's support at his age. Probably the only reason he was so obsessed with her was also for this, not letting anybody else have her even for a minute. That's how the star empire have upon the only princess after they were wrongly accused for crimes they did not commit and banished them for couple of year until they disowned Lihua from their clan and cleared the crimes. That was the price they paid, she paid. That's how jealous, egoistic and possessive Tai has been on her. All for power disguised in the name of love. 

"I understand, " he said. "I will agree this time for sure," he gave his final words, he had to give in and give up on his plans for sometime. He didn't expect the Empress to be strong on her stand. 

Empress Lihua smiled and walked out of the room, feeling victorious finally. She successfully passed the test and rushed back into her chamber.  She sent away the maids and asked her two very trusted personal guards to stay outside her chamber and not let a soul in no matter what their ranks are and locked the doors behind her. She quickly changed her gown and relaxed for sometime. She sent away the chamber maids after her meal and asked then to not return back for the day and skip her dinner meal. 

"An going to meditate, I don't want anyone to disturb me during my personal time,  remember," she warned the maids and send the two out quickly.

Empress Lihua has been waiting for this moment of her life, to feel free and fresh that she has not been able to feel for hundreds of years. She picked all the fruits, sweets, the chicken soup she arranged and herbal medicines she prepared herself using her blood as if she was preparing for a picnic. She packed them well and hid them under her hands. 

Empress waited until it was twilight for the Emperor to return back to his room after the smallest gathering at his court with his ministers to discuss about restructuring of the lotus pond in the palace. She changed her clothes again and put on a black hanfu. She put her hair up and covered her face with a mask and then a hat to not be caught by anyone. 

The moment the Emperor entered his chamber and shut the doors to spend his lone time in the treasure chamber, Empress Lihua apparated out of the Celestial Palace without alerting anyone. She reached the border and spent some time in the woods, meditating. She then used the trick to read the stars and tried to identify the position. It was too dim and vague that Lihua struggled to locate the place and kept failing. She forced herself to travel and find it. A few minutes later she felt something shocking and stopped meditating. 

"What is going on?" She thought aloud. Lihua got up from the ground feeling tensed and apparated straight to the destination she had discovered.  Her heart trembled and she couldn't control it. She got scared and wondered what was going. "What in the universe is going on?"