38. Shadow And Fear
.
"Burn." Weiyan uttered, with her palm to the demon's chest, and white flames exploded, swallowing the demon whole.
The cave shook as the fire surged, scorching the Eye-eater. His agonized shrieks filled the air, his body twisting in pain, and he thrashed violently, his limbs elongating into grotesque forms as he tried to escape.
But Weiyan did not spare him, and with her free hand, she directed the swords with two fingers, sending them to stab through the demon, with one stabbing right into the demon's head.
"You-!" The demon staggered back, his form flickering between his true faceless self and several other appearances.
Weiyan leapt away, calling the sword back as the demon fell to its knees. "This was not... how it was supposed to go!" He rasped, his voice cracking. "I was supposed to devour you...!"
But he fell to the ground, crumpling into a dark, tattered mass, and his aura vanished.
Weiyan blew out a breath, getting her flames back under control, and they died away, sending the cave back into the dim moonlit darkness.
But as she turned to release the others, the cave suddenly pulsed, and a deep, heavy presence suddenly filled the air.
A cold chuckle echoed around, and the eye-eater's tattered form surged with dark energy, his wounds sealing as his body swelled with unnatural power.
"You forgot one thing, little girl," He hissed, his voice filled with malevolence. "I don't have a form!"
Black tendrils instantly darted across the walls and floors like shadows, and they latched onto Weiyan, wrapping around her.
Weiyan's body froze, her limbs locking up. The pressure was immense, far worse than anything she had experienced before, and she felt like her bones might snap at any moment.
"I should have killed you once you returned!" The Eye-eater hissed. "You just destroyed my original form!"
Weiyan tried to move, but her body refused to obey.
The dark tendrils around her were now squeezing tight, crushing the life out of her, and her eyes were fluttering shut, as she began to lose consciousness...
Just then, something fell on her shoulder, and her eyes snapped open as a powerful surge of qi rushed into her body, cutting through the shadowy tendrils. Their suffocating hold shattered, and Weiyan drew in a deep, reviving breathe.
She turned sharply, and her heart raced at the sight.
Luoyin stood behind her, his palm resting on her shoulder. His robes blew about him, and the front clumps of his hair had turned pure white.
A cold smirk sat on his face. "I was hoping for a little more time, but I can't exactly let anything happen to you."
Earlier, he had deliberately fallen over, because Weiyan's shadow could partially hide him from sight. Then with the little qi he had managed to release, he cast an aura seal, so no one would sense anything.
And he finally summoned the Starlight furnace to begin his most daring technique yet...
But a suddenly desperate tug on his heart had pulled him from his concentration.
Meanwhile, Weiyan's own heart raced even faster, threatening to burst out of her chest as Luoyin stepped in front of her.
He seemed calm, but the air around him was anything but calm, as he faced the eye-eater, who had assumed a shapeless, shadowy mass.
"Yo... I should thank you for running your mouth so much. How else would I have had enough time to prepare?"
The cave suddenly trembled, and the air seemed to warp around Luoyin, drawing in qi with a terrifying force.
Weiyan stared in utter shock. Her flames had been overwhelming, but this...
This was something else!
Luoyin's robes billowed around him, and his irises flashed golden, as the space around him was charged with an overwhelming energy, which sent the Eye-eater reeling back.
"No- ! How is this possible?!" He wondered for the second time that night. "This is -!
"Immortal energy?!"
Luoyin smirked... His current energy level should indeed feel like immortal energy, and he lifted a hand, forming several complex seals, too fast for the eyes to follow.
'I can't let him finish!!' The Eye-eater suddenly lunged at Luoyin with everything he had, and his shadowy form expanded as dark tendrils twisted into claws, all reaching for Luoyin, but...
"Nonsense." Luoyin said, and with a single flick of his hand, multiple light streaks shot at the tendrils, disintegrating them into dust.
For the first time in centuries, the demon felt something foreign... Fear!
"Yo. You told us what happens when others fear you..." Luoyin took steady steps forward, as the eye-eater backed away. "But never said what happens when you're the one afraid?"
"NO-! STAY AWAY - !! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" The Eye-eater turned to flee, his shadows creeping away, but Luoyin fisted his hand and yanked backwards.
All the Eye-eater's shadows clumped back into a singular solid black mass, which zapped to the ground before Luoyin.
Luoyin stepped on him. "Now, now, no point trying to run." He said with what one might consider a friendly smile. "Don't you think it's only fair to pay for your misdeeds? Hmm?"
Luoyin held a palm over him. "Purge."
A wave of energy surrounded the dark mass, and the eye-eater screamed a shrill hair-raising shriek, as his form cracked.
Various wispy forms seeped out of the cracks and faded away - different people of different sizes and faces- till finally, all that was left was a limp black rag-like figure, which completely disintegrated into ashes...
The darkness vanished, and dawn light now bathed the slowly stirring disciples.
Silence.
Weiyan stood still, her heart still pounding as Luoyin lowered his hand, exhaling quietly.
"It's over..." He said, his voice shaky, and then he began to crumple to the ground.
Weiyan was by his side in an instant, catching him before he fell, and she softly gasped at the contact.
His skin was burning hot!
She gently lowered him to the floor, but froze when his hand suddenly caressed her face.
"Weiwei... It's fortunate that you're okay..." He choked out in a shaky whisper.
'Wei...wei?' Weiyan briefly thought, but then Luoyin's hand dropped as he fell unconscious.
"Zhang Luoyin! Zhang Luoyin!!" She gently slapped his face as fear and panic filled her heart.
Her hand flew to his forehead, then reached for his wrist and examined him, her brows knit with worry.
She could find nothing wrong, yet he was unresponsive, and his temperature was unnatural- hotter than the worst of fevers!
His qi flared suddenly, and his brows furrowed in obvious pain and discomfort, making Weiyan instinctively infuse him with her qi, but this only worsened the situation, and he was suddenly on fire!
She drew the flames away at once and began to siphon the excess heat from his body, but he suddenly convulsed and blood spattered from his lips, soaking his face mask further!
'Oh no! What do I do?! What do I do?!!' Weiyan wondered, drenched in more fear than she had ever felt, but a thin layer of frost suddenly crept across Luoyin's skin, and she heard a voice say,
"Don't worry, someone so stubborn won't die from something like this."
The voice was calm, soothing even, and Weiyan looked up to see an immaculate young man approaching.
He was dressed all in pristine white robes, with glistening silver hair clips at his temples, and a jade pendant swinging from his belt.
His delicate handsome features somewhat reminded Weiyan of Yin Xiaolong, but after what they had just faced, she wouldn't easily trust any appearance.
As if he could read her mind, he smiled, "I'm Immortal Yin Xing. The Night Immort-. Ei?!" He swiftly side-stepped to avoid a wave of flames Weiyan had shot at him, as she stood protectively before Luoyin.
"That's not the greeting Immortals usually get!" Yin Xing protested, his calm features turning incredulous. "Have we offended you in any way?!"
Weiyan's brows only deepened their furrow. The Eye-eater and his fake 'Immortal Pei' had reminded her that there were two great powers in this world.
Technically, demons were also immortal, and mortals had little to no knowledge of them.
What if this was another demon pretending?!
"Ahem!" Yin Xing understood her worries, and he straightened his features. "How can I prove my identity?"
"Release your aura." She said without hesitation. After the ordeal, she could now distinguish the auras, and she gave a small sigh of relief when Yin Xin obliged, and his aura filled the cave.
The aura matched High Immortal Sun Liang's and High Immortal Fei Yun's, so this was clearly a real immortal.
Still, she held up her sword. "What do you want?"
"You're not very trusting, are you?" He raised an amused brow. "Then again, you haven't met any 'decent' immortals... The Fate Immortal was sour-faced on the ride to Caoyang." Yin Xing said.
Fate Immortal Fei Yun's mount was a giant eagle which he used to ferry mortals to Caoyang each year. Not only had he been sour-faced throughout the ride, but he had kept sending Weiyan cold glares, and at the base of Caoyang, after dropping them at the frozen chains, he said through telepathy,
~"I genuinely hope you succeed, or die!"~ And then he vanished so quickly, that Weiyan wondered whether she had imagined the entire thing.
"And Sun Liang... That fellow was even worse!" Yin Xing was saying. "The idiot would have cheated you, if my clever broth-!" He caught himself. "Ahem! Ehehe, I mean, thank heavens you weren't cheated!
"But you must know, if I wanted to harm you, I'd have done so already. You don't really believe you can stop me, do you?"
With a dismissive wave, Weiyan's sword fell to the ground, suddenly incredibly heavy.
It was the same 'Thousand Ton' spell Yin Xiaolong had used at the Lava Sea, and the more Weiyan thought about it, the more she found the two similar!
"I was in the area looking for that demon." Yin Xing lied, and in a blink, he was already behind her and beside Luoyin. "Right now I just want to help your friend, since he used such a dangerous technique to destroy the demon."
Yin Xing lifted Luoyin's wrist. "You don't want to lose him, this is good... But how can you infuse your fire-based qi into a water-based person without refining it? Are you planning to cook him?"
Weiyan flushed in embarrassment. This was something she knew, but had been too panicked to consider.
Meanwhile, hidden from her sight, a tear dropped from Yin Xing's face, onto Luoyin's robes.
'I'm sorry I'm late, older brother!'
.