37. Red Grove City
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"The one you met in Red Grove City, was me!" The demon's voice reverberated around the cave, as Weiyan went through several layers of shock.
She had always thought Immortal Pei's aura had been strange, and she now know why.
He had been a demon!
And that little girl had most likely been him as well!
"I don't want to talk much..." The demon was saying. "Last year, I only showed you a small, 'specific' part of the story, so why don't I show you the entire thing now?!"
He held a hand towards Weiyan, and she felt an unbelievable pain, as strange images played out in her head.
She saw the eye-eating demon stealthily hovering around a much older Red Grove City, and watched him descend on a frightened family, a man, a woman, and a young boy, all huddled in an alley.
"Eating a person's eyes feeds me and fills me with strength, letting me take on their appearance, since I have no face of my own." The demon's voice filled her head, explaining what her eyes were seeing.
The family was dead, their eye sockets hollow, and the eye-eater left the alley with the appearance of the now dead young boy.
"Before I can eat a person's eyes, they have to be filled with immense fear, and Red Grove City was perfect for that!"
In those days, the Black Dragon's attacks on the neighbouring regions filled the Red Grove citizens with fear, making them easy targets for the eye-eater, and after years and years of feeding on them, he rose to a level Weiyan couldn't even identify.
"Everyone in Red Grove City assumed I was an evil spirit," The voice explained, "...and that helped me avoid Sky Realm's detection, as evil spirits are largely human business.
"But then your parents arrived! They were traveling cultivators, and instantly recognized my aura..."
Weiyan watched as the same couple who had run with their children, first arrived in Red Grove. They saved another little boy from the Eye-eater's attack, but were not strong enough to face him, only managing to escape with the child.
"Unfortunately, they had ties to a powerful Sect, and before I knew it, Immortal Pei arrived to destroy me!"
Immortal Pei and the eye-eater fought in a powerful battle which awed Weiyan, but the eye-eater was soon defeated.
"I was forced to flee, hiding in the shadows, near dead for almost ten years!"
He sighed. "But they didn't know my mistress's power... Eighteen years ago, she appeared!"
A smallish cloaked figure held a hand over the weakened eye-eater, and he was suddenly filled with strength, though not as strong as before.
"A demon never forgets his enemies..." The eye-eater said, and the scene changed to show him and the cloaked figure attacking Immortal Pei. The cloaked figure sprinkled some sort of powder on Immortal Pei, which made him grasp his head and scream in sheer terror.
And in that state, the eye-eater struck, killing him and eating his eyes.
"After that, I could easily go after your family!" The demon explained with another mad cackle.
But he didn't simply go after her family... He and the cloaked figure set up a mighty red formation surrounding Red Grove City, and to Weiyan's astonishment, the black dragon appeared!
With every swing of the cloaked figure's arms, the dragon moved in a new direction, destroying everything in its path.
Meanwhile, the Eye-eater in Immortal Pei's form, had approached Weiyan's parents, who had settled in Red Grove to help the fledgling citizens.
They had grown prominent and now had three children, including Weiyan.
To minimize the damage on Red Grove City, her parents had rallied the people with an escape strategy which would at least protect most of the citizens from the black dragons destruction...
This was done by placing the strongest of the citizens in charge of city blocks, organizing them into groups which could secretly evacuate the citizens into underground tunnels they had built for this purpose.
But the fake immortal Pei had entered their ranks, and he easily found out the locations of the tunnels. Then the black dragon was sent after them, destroying as many entry ways as possible, finally reducing the city to the ruined state Weiyan had met it in.
The eye-eater himself had killed all the core players, finally going after Weiyan's family.
It was him they had been fleeing from in the vision he had shown Weiyan the previous year, and the black dragon's hit on the building which crushed her father and siblings, had been deliberate...
The visions ended, and Weiyan lay panting on the cave floor, a flood of tears running down her face. "It was you!" She had spent almost twenty years keeping her emotions in check, but there was no stopping the ache in her heart, and she struggled against the ropes, but to no avail.
The Eye-eater's smile was now macabre, twisting Immortal Pei's face.
"How do you like it? The full story." He swivelled and began pacing. "Back then my Mistress knew your father would protect you at least, and she let your mother escape with you.
"But I couldn't simply let her go... What was I to do with my grudge? My Mistress needed you alive, but she said nothing about your mother!"
He suddenly swirled to face Weiyan, and he waved a hand. "So I followed her to Yueyan mountain!"
Weiyan watched in horror as Immortal Pei's floor-length brown hair turned black and shortened, he turned slimmer and more petite, and the bearded face smoothened, changing to a woman's...
Weiyan was staring at her mother!
"Hmph. The real reason she left you on that river, was because she knew I was coming for her." He finished coldly, though his voice was now female.
"I waited eighteen years..." The demon continued. "I don't know why my Mistress wanted you to challenge Caoyang, but I gave you the necklace and dagger as she instructed, the necklace to fuel your hatred, and the dagger which would let you kill Yin Xiaolong...
"And you succeeded! So I came back to Yueyan mountain and waited for you to return! But I couldn't act within Yue City, so I used that foolish woman's greed to bring you to me!
"To sate my eighteen years of hunger, I was going to destroy all those disciples, so I controlled the beasts to come after you, but you didn't follow the plan...
"You kept to your route, which was too far for my wraiths to do any serious damage."
It had been his wraiths which possessed the beasts, and then the disciples in Weiyan's group.
"Brings me to another matter." The Eye-eater continued. "That fellow behind you destroyed so many of my pets! I'll kill you first, and then I'll kill him in a special way! I'll take his body apart slowly, to discover what secrets he's hidin-!"
His speech was cut off by a sudden charge of aura.
A blazing white aura surrounded Weiyan, who felt an unbelievable anger rise within her. But rather than lose control, she harnessed it, shutting her eyes in concentration.
This wasn't just about the loss of her birth family... It was about the countless lives lost in Red Grove City, and any other city the black dragon had struck.
The true enemy, the woman in the cloak, was still hidden, and Weiyan knew she must get that new information to the Wulin.
Also, this demon had nearly killed the disciples... and was threatening to kill Luoyin!
The Eye-eater changed back to his faceless form. "What are you trying to do?! Is this a final pointless struggle before death?!"
"No." Weiyan calmly replied, and as she cracked her eyes open, white flames seeped from her eyelids. "I'm going to kill you."
Flames suddenly surrounded her, and the Spirit-binding ropes disintegrated to ashes.
But these weren't just regular flames. The flames had five colours of red, blue, yellow, green, and white, with the four colours fanning out around the central white flames, making them resemble large burning Petals.
'Five-Colour Flames?!' The Eye-eater flinched. 'Impossible! How can a mortal have 'Five-Colour Flames'?!'
The eye-eater took a startled step back, as Weiyan floated to her feet. "How did your internal qi break through the ropes?! Who are you?!"
But Weiyan blankly stared back at him.
He swiftly shot a black powerful wave of qi at her, but her sword appeared, and she countered it easily.
With swift hand seals, her sword multiplied into six swords, all shooting at the eye-eater with blinding speed, their fiery trails cutting through the darkness like comets.
But the Eye-eater was no ordinary demon.
With a ghastly screech, his faceless head twisted unnaturally, limbs snapped awkwardly, and he bent backwards to the floor, crawling away like a giant black spider. The swords followed at lightning speed, cuffing off his escape, and they stabbed into him, repelling his shadowy essence.
He screeched, but his body contorted and morphed into a mass of writhing shadows, which suddenly pulsed outward, pushing the blades back.
"You think your flames can burn me?!" The Eye-eater's voice was amused, as his shadowy mass morphed back to the faceless form. "I have lived for centuries. A mere mortal cannot-!"
His words were cut off as Weiyan dashed forward, the brilliant flames roaring around her. She reappeared before him in a blink, her hand pressed against his chest.
"Burn."
And White flames exploded, swallowing the demon whole...
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