Of course, his son would jump straight to the worst possible part in the discussion.

"It was a misunderstanding, like I said…"

After hearing his father mumbling, Bai Qingyue's almond-shaped fox eyes narrowed dangerously, he grazed his claws against the chair.

"Speak now or you can forget about mending your ties with the clan."

Bai Zhang sighed, there was no right way of explaining how he almost killed his daughter-in-law.

"Before I tell you of my misdeeds, I would like to inform you both formally as the Sovereign Lord and as my son of my discoveries."

Bai Qingyue levelled his golden eyes with his father's charcoal black irises. Bai Zhang shed his mask, showing a nearly identical shade of pale hair as Bai Qingyue. Without his human disguise, his otherworldly appearance was now visible once more, a white pair of fox ears sprouted from his head and nine, large and fluffy tails swished around, nearly overtaking the entire space inside the chamber.

Bai Qingyue is the Sovereign Lord. He has a lot of weight on his shoulders and carried his trouble-filled clan with pride, but he was still considered very young in terms of immortal deities, having only recently passed ten thousand years or so.

Bai Zhang, however, had lived for over sixty thousand years. His sheer presence was already nearly too much for his own barrier to contain and the force field cracked from his suppressed internal energy.

Bai Qingyue's eyes lit like lantern lights as he stared at Bai Zhang's true form. How convenient it was for him to stumble upon his guilt-ridden father who's brimming with far too much vitality for his old bones to handle. He would have no choice but to be a filial son and unburden his father from the gushing internal force that almost couldn't be contained inside of him.

Bai Zheng spoke as he began clarifying his position. He told Bai Qingyue of the drugging on the eve of the wedding, that much all of the Bai clan members were aware of.

Had Bai Qingyue not found his fated person so early, the clan elders would have subjected him to the same fate, with their fear of losing the only Bai lineage capable of becoming the Sovereign Lord, having an heir was a necessity.

In fact, Bai Zhang was both happy and slightly envious of his fortunate son. Not only did Bai Qingyue find his soulmate at such a young age but she was a female too, capable of continuing the lineage.

As for him? He came to this low ranked world after working on a tracking device which could assist the clan with finding their fated partners. The tracker led him to this realm and after sixty thousand years of solitude, his fated person ended up walking up to his very doorstep.

However, the god of luck did not smile upon him for when he finally met his fated person, it turned out to be a young boy named Liu Wei.

The curse does not choose a specific vessel. Throughout the cycle of reincarnation, the souls' compatibility would remain constant, but the vessels changed with each lifetime. The soulmate bond did not only defy the pattern of Ying and Yang, but it also defied species and status.

For example, a Bai Fox's partner could be of the same sex, or a simple animal, and even a random tree. The possibilities were endless.

Despite his gender and age, Bai Zhang's immediate attraction to the boy was instantaneous, not in a sexual sense, but in an overprotective manner. He nurtured Liu Wei as he waited for his growth.

Originally, he planned on going back with his lover and reclaim leadership over the clan, but when he found out that his fated person was a male, he knew that his time as the patriarch of the Bai Clan had come to an end.

For the cursed foxes, their fated partner meant everything to them, he wouldn't dare to do anything to harm his person for the sake of the clan, he would have rather killed himself.

If he would have gone back with his fated person, the elders might have tried to assassinate him in hopes of his reincarnation turning into a female, or force Bai Zhang again into copulation with his wife. He changed his original plan and decided to live his life peacefully with his lover.

They remained together on the earthly plane and eventually, Liu Wei matured enough for them to join as a real couple.

Those were the best years of Bai Zhang's entire life.

Unfortunately, all good things were never meant to last.

Tragedy struck all too soon. Perhaps he was too engrossed in happiness that karma had to balance his life.

On that dreadful day on which he heard of Liu Wei's passing, he nearly killed himself right then and there.

Only revenge drove him to persevere.

In a fit of insanity, he nearly exterminated all the demonic cultivation sects and every inhabitant. Only a few remained and survived the slaughter. His body was filled with malevolent energy and it took him years in closed cultivation to purify his body.

A god would not always be struck with punishment everytime they acted immorally. Gods were not mortal, their lives were handled by a different set of virtues as guidelines and their fates are not preordained.

The punishment decided upon gods who have gone rogue are placed on them by the same cosmic energy which created all living beings. The lightning bolts a god receives upon a higher ascension were given by that same source of energy.

For Bai Zhang to be so contaminated with evil energy meant he had strayed so far that he was nearly utterly altered into a fallen god.

After Bai Zhang purified his dantian, he concentrated on finding ways to undo the terrible curse. His research barely bore fruit and his bitterness and loneliness consumed him even more so.

When you don't know what you're missing, you won't feel as sorrowful, but once you lose your source of happiness, it would be nearly impossible to continue living with the heartbreak…

Just like what happened to his own parents. His noble father died and his grief-stricken mother soon joined his resting soul.

He had never even entertained the thought of him ever having a son of his own during the time he escaped his position, much less a son who has already found his destined partner.

At first, Bai Qingyue snorted, sensing his father's attempt to redeem himself but as he proceeded to speak, all that was left was solemn understanding.

How did Bai Qingyue feel when he thought that Li Meirong had died? It felt as though someone grabbed his beating heart and ripped his organ out of his chest.

In a rare act of sympathy, Bai Qingyue jumped onto the wooden desk, high enough to reach his father and patted his mournful back in silent understanding.

The intimate air in the room instantly changed and turned sour the moment Bai Zhang finished his explanation.

"...So when I met Li Meirong, thinking her a thief, I condensed my energy to pressure her into a confession."

The shrewd old fox explained himself so nicely, but Bai Qingyue knew better as to believe he was anything close to gentle!

The little fox snarled threateningly, his bright eyes seething with rage. Condensing energy to pressure a person? Was it not just a sugar-coated way of explaining a person being tortured?!

A pair of senior outer sect disciples walked through the long, narrow inner halls, sweeping and polishing as they passed by.

"Argh!"

When they were sweeping the marble floor near Grandmaster Zhu Zhang's study room, they could discern the unmistakable sound of a pain-filled grunt belonging to an adult man getting beaten while a squeaky canine growl barked from the cracked barrier,

"Father or not, see if I don't bite you to death!"

"..." Said the disciples, unable to comprehend what was happening!

Was their all-powerful Grandmaster getting bitten by a rabid dog?!