Zhan's pov:-

"Are you serious?" Roland spoke, the emperor had told him everything and he was baffled as well. "You are going to let the Wang family go?"

The emperor sighed and looked at me, currently, the emperor, Duke Ashvald, my brother and I were sitting in a meeting and I had told everyone about what had happened to Yibo in my absence.

Duke Ashvald spoke, "General Roland, after hearing everything it is clear that the Wang family's case is not that simple, it is much more complicated, that family is more like slaves with no free will.

And they were just following orders and after listening to what happened with Yibo, we all know what would happen to the Wang family if they go against the crown, it's a horrible curse, and even now they are not free. Just their ownership has changed."

Roland huffed and Cheng spoke, "Roland, Yibo did try to resist the order, he tried to resign, he got himself beaten and branded as a traitor, just to leave the evil side, but in the end to protect the people he loved he had to do something he didn't want to, he was blackmailed."

Roland leaned back in his chair and rolled his eyes, "Alright then but the Wang family is nothing but a burden, sure they are geniuses and prodigies, but we all saw what happens if their command goes in the wrong hands, right now it's Emperor Simon, what if tomorrow another tyrant emperor came?

How long will the Wang family escape their ruin by giving the excuse of the curse? That family is doomed to be annihilated sooner or later."

The emperor spoke, "General Xiao Zhan is working towards breaking the curse."

Roland scoffed, "It's a centuries old curse, how are we so sure that Zhan will be able to break it."

"I will break it." I said, "I have to break it, it's a necessity at this point."

Roland scoffed, "Of course, how is Yibo doing by the way? I hope that the curse hurts him good. I wish I could see him suffer."

I glared at Roland and wanted nothing more than to kill him right then and there for wishing pain on my Yibo. However I controlled myself and let it go.

The emperor spoke, "Well, we are going to perform the ceremony tomorrow, make sure that everything is ready by then."

I nodded as I looked at the emperor and then left.

~~

"Is it really going to work?" Yibo asked me as I helped him dress up, he was weaker than before and his voice came out as a whisper, rashes on his body were becoming bad and I could see small abscesses forming on his body. And his wounds were not healing.

My heart sank as I observed his deteriorating state and my hands started to tremble as I felt cold, the curse was slowly taking over and my only hope was this ceremony, if this failed then I would hit a dead end.

Yibo was losing control over his body and mind, even standing was getting harder for him.

"Yes it will." I said as I tied his buttons and straightened his uniform before I moved to fix his hair, I looked at his face and nearly cried when I saw the red eyes and pale dry lips, small pimples were forming on his face, he looked like someone who was slowly withering away.

"Do I look that bad?" he asked as he stared at me and I forced a smile, "you look amazing... handsome as always." I said as I kissed him on the lips.

He smiled and said, "You are lying, I can see it on your face, why don't you let me see the mirror."

"No need." I said, I didn't want him to look at himself like this. "Just trust me when I say that you look beautiful, you always look beautiful."

Yibo smiled and I grabbed his hand gently, as we started to move, it was hard for Yibo to walk, and I could not carry him around even if I wanted to, after all Yibo was a highly dignified man, commander or ex-commander of the royal knights, he was a high-ranking noble and to be carried like that would be embarrassing for him.

Yibo asked, "Will my family be there as well."

"Yes, I am sorry... I should have told you before."

"It's alright, I don't know how they will react when they see me."

"They will be glad to see you."

"I doubt they will be glad to see someone who brought shame to the family."

"You didn't."

"According to them I did."

"Yibo..."

"Zhan..." Yibo spoke, "I don't think I will ever be fully accepted by my family and after what I went through I don't know if I can see them the same way again, and what hurts me is that if in my place it was my brother maybe I would have done the same thing to him, what was done to me."

I sighed and said nothing, he was right.

We soon reached the ceremony hall, where the priest, the emperor and the rest of the Wang family were already present. My brother, Duke Ashvald, Roland, Ziyi, Haoxuan were also there along with Azrael, Kairos and Ayla.

Yibo's parents and brother looked at him and were shocked to see him and they looked pained when they saw Yibo, and not just them everyone also looked shocked to see Yibo in that condition.

"Commander." Adrian called out to Yibo.

Yibo stopped and looked at him and gave him a nod. Adrian had become the new commander of the royal knights and now he was someone the emperor closely trusted.

Soon Yibo was standing with the rest of his family in front of the emperor and the priest.

The ceremony began.

The Wang family kneeled before the emperor and the priest started to chant something, soon the priest brought forward a bowl of water and asked the emperor to drop his blood into the bowl filled with holy water and then the priest asked Yibo's mother, brother and Yibo to drink from the bowl. Since Yibo's father was not from the Wang family originally he didn't have to drink it.

One by one everyone drank from the bowl including Yibo, and after they were finished drinking they bowed before the emperor and swore their loyalty before the ceremony finally ended.

"So is it done now?" Roland asked and the priest nodded, Adam and Yibo's mother looked well and good now, the color had returned to their faces.

And we all looked at Yibo, who was quietly standing at his place like a statue.

I quickly walked towards him and gently kept my hand over his shoulder. "Yibo."

Everyone was looking at him, Yibo slowly started to shiver and kept his hand over his chest and another hand over his head as he looked at me and I was shocked to see that his eyes were bleeding, as he trembled. "It hurts... Zhan... it hurts... ah..." a painful whimper escaped his mouth before he vomited blood... so much blood and collapsed on the ground, his body started to shake and it looked bad, he was having a seizure.

"YIBO! OH GOD YIBO!" I screamed his name completely losing my composure, my brother and Ziyi quickly came to my side and Yibo's mother rushed to her son as well.

The emperor saw that and summoned the doctor, I raised my hand and cut it but then I remembered that my blood would only hurt Yibo more, it wouldn't heal him, it would only give him more pain.

I felt so helpless and so defeated as I saw Yibo suffer like that.

"Yibo..."