1788 Lies

The Emperor's declaration immediately caused the many cultivators gathered to switch their opinions immediately. Seeing as that the heavens had in fact no come down proved to them that the Emperor had in fact not killed the Azure Dragon.

"No, that's not true," Long Huan quickly said. "He wasn't the one who made the kill, but it was his actions that led to the death of the Azure Dragon. He was involved in that kill."

"I had no hands in the Azure Dragon's death," the Emperor said. "I swear to the heavens on that."

Both Yan Yating and Long Huan turned to look at the Emperor who had just spoken another oath. Only this time, he had spoken a false one.

"Why would you… why would you lie?" Long Huan slowly asked. Even as he did, confusion filled his mind.

How was this possible? Why was his father still alive?

The gathered cultivators looked toward him with a surprised look as well. They turned around toward Long Huan and Yan Yating. "This is not what you told us."

"No, no that's not true," Long Huan said. But beyond that, he couldn't say anything. It did not make sense to him why his father wasn't hurt by speaking a clearly fake oath.

Had he somehow not spoken an oath? Had he created an illusion or a clone and made it say that oath? No, that would still hurt the original person speaking the oath.

Questions filled Long Huan's head, and not a single answer came.

Yan Yating was in a similar situation, but he had a feeling that he understood just what had happened. If what he thought was true, then that would make the Emperor a much more despicable person than he had ever imagined.

"Senior Yan, what is happening?" Long Huan asked. "How is my father lying?"

Long Huan hadn't been present for the Azure Dragon's death, so every information he knew had been secondhand. Given that his father had successfully spoken an oath regarding the Azure Dragon's situation, he was starting to have doubts spring up inside his own heart.

"Your father is speaking the truth, so the oath isn't hurting him," Yan Yating said.

"But… isn't that a lie?" Long Huan asked.

"What is truth and what is lie, it all depends on your father," Yan Yating said as a look of anger appeared on his face. "Therefore, whatever he is saying right now, he believes with all of his heart to be the truth."

"Oh my god!" Long Huan could only utter these few words.

"This is a command from your Emperor," the Dragon Emperor shouted. "Attack those rebels and opposing army. Save your Empire."

"Stop!"

Someone rushed just as soon as the Dragon Emperor finished ordering.

"He's lying," Long Fangyu flew up toward the group. "The Emperor is lying."

The group of cultivators were surprised to see the Crown Price there.

"Crown Prince, what are you doing here?" Long Huogang asked. He was the Crown Prince's bodyguard regularly, and it was only today that he had been forced away from the young prince.

He had assumed that the prince was safely at the back of the army. He hadn't realized at what point the prince had left the safety and had come here.

The Crown Prince ignored the man and looked toward the cultivators. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Long Fangyu!" the Dragon Emperor suddenly shouted his name. The world reverberated with his words and the Crown Prince felt himself shaken to his core upon hearing his father call for him.

He turned around, his heart beating a million times a second, as he looked at his father far away.

A look of anger and disappointment filled the Dragon Emperor's eyes. "What are you doing there, Fangyu? Return here right away."

Fangyu made a tight fist, trying to hold on to what little sense of self he still had while trying not to be scared by his father. But that was harder than he thought.

The fear he felt from his father's words was not something he had ever expected to feel.

"Fangyu!" the Dragon Emperor shouted.

"Crown Prince, come to me," Long Huogang said as he gestured for Long Fangyu to move.

Long Fangyu looked at him, and then at his father in the distance. Almost subconsciously, his body started to move.

"Brother!" Long Huan grabbed his brother by the arm. "What are you doing? Don't listen to him."

Long Fangyu paused and looked at his brother. His eyes then moved to the hand that grabbed him.

It wasn't a tough grab, but a simple one. There was no force in that grab at all. He could tell that his brother did not want to hurt him at all.

"No…" Long Fangyu said softly. The feeling of loneliness, as if he was alone in this world with no one beside him was slowly melting away.

"What?" Long Huan asked.

Long Fangyu's head snapped back toward his father. "NO!" he shouted.

Both the Dragon Emperor and Long Huogang looked at Long Fangyu in surprise.

"Crown Prince," Long Huogang said softly.

Long Fangyu pointed at his father. "You killed the Azure Dragon, Father," he shouted. "Even though your hands were not the ones that took his life, you are responsible for his death."

"Crown Prince—"

Yan Yating's sword flashed, the blade pointing toward Long Huogang. "Let him speak."

Long Fangyu lifted his chest to speak. "You tried to kill his child. All that the Azure Dragon did was try and protect his child. It was a tragedy that he died in return for trying to protect what was his."

"That is nonsense, Crown Prince," Long Huogang said quickly. "His Majesty already swore an oath to prove his side of the story."

"Then he is a fool who cannot see what wrong he's done," Yan Yating said.

"If my Father has spoken an oath, then so shall I," Long Fangyu said. "My Father and Mother were responsible for attacking the Azure Dragon and his family, subsequently forcing the Azure Dragon to fight back, at which point he died to Heavenly Judgment. This was information I learned directly from my Father's mouth. I swear this by the heavens."

The Crown Prince's sudden proclamation sent ripples throughout the gathered cultivators as well as the new ones that continued arriving.

At this point, even the soldiers that were staying on the sidelines of the war were focusing on this.

After hearing the two sides of the battle, the gathered group did not know who to trust at all. Both sides had spoken the oaths and that was all they could force them to find the truth. And yet the truths clashed.

Skimming through the words, the people started finding some flaws in them. They especially doubted the Crown Prince now as what he promised had been what he learned from his father.

There was a big chance that the Emperor had lied to him, which he took for truth.

"Have you people still not decided on the truth when you have so many clear indications?"

Alex suddenly appeared before them and asked.

"We simply need to be certain is all," one of the older men in the group said. "As of yet, we aren't even certain that the Azure Dragon is dead or not. There is no clear information."

"Is that so?" Alex asked. "Then here is your answer."

Alex raised his hand forward and brought out the corpse of the Azure Dragon.