151. Demon King Incarnate
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Zhurong Tianlong, Sky Emperor and ruler of two realms, had appeared on Caoyang, and Liwei swivelled in shock as he appeared beside Fei Yun.
Liwei slightly staggered as Tianlong leaned down and gently helped Fei Yun to his feet.
She somewhat recognized Tianlong's voice from the first loud command, but with the chaos, she hadn't registered it.
"You as well...?" She asked, her eyes narrowing in confusion.
"Kneel!" His command suddenly rang out now, and the full force of the Royal Family's aura forced Yan Liwei to her knees, along with Chu Cui and all the remaining Caoyang warriors.
Things had gotten far too dangerous now, and despair was clearly etched on the faces around her.
Liwei thought of Bailong in that moment and his talisman briefly appeared between her fingers.
She couldn't help it...
The temptation to simply follow his orders and disappear, returning to his side...
But she looked around and saw Chu Cui and the other brave Caoyang Immortals on their knees, all resolved to die here if need be, their defiance slowly replacing the despair on their faces.
How could she abandon these people and escape alone?!
And though she knew...
Though she knew it would hurt Bailong to no end, the talisman vanished and she glared at Tianlong.
"Why?!" She demanded, angry tears welling in her eyes and running down her face. "Even if... Even if A-Bai offended you...
"Even if he wasn't your friend! What has he-?! No. What has anyone on Caoyang done to deserve the Sky Emperor slaying so many innocents?!!"
But Tianlong's lips curved into a cold smile and he raised a hand, his gold aura pooling in his palm.
"Insolent... I didn't come here to answer your questions!"
Liwei's eyes widened as Tianlong yelled, "Sea of Tribulation!" And dense bolts of golden lightning spread from his palm, shooting right at the remaining Caoyang Immortals present.
One hit Liwei and she coughed up a flood of blood, her hand grasping her chest which rose and fell in ragged rasps.
"Nooo!!" Bailong shouted, but the memories stopped abruptly, darkness suddenly replacing the light of day.
There was a sudden stillness as Bailong was once more surrounded by the grim remains, his vision shrouded by the shadow of evening and the thick dark smoke.
His mind automatically completed what happened.
The lightning had killed everyone present, except Liwei whom Tianlong had deliberately taken alive.
The lightning bolt that hit her had been what Bailong felt in the caves, but Tianlong must have realized that harming Liwei would draw Bailong here, so Tianlong, Fei Yun, and the Sky Armies had swiftly teleported away.
And Bailong had arrived too late...
Chu Cui had clung to this last thread of life merely to pass his memories on, so Bailong would know what happened, and where to look for Liwei...
'Why.....?' Bailong repeated in silence as Chu Cui's lifeless body began dissipating into bright sea blue particles.
The sadness in Bailong's heart was too heavy, the bitterness on his tongue, too great to bear.
All his earlier rage remained, but was now shrouded amidst the pain of such heavy betrayal...
...and the sad realization that even if he retaliated now, he might not be able to harm his friends.
He would just be harming the innocent soldiers - those only guilty of obeying Tianlong's orders.
And even if he could harm Tianlong and Fei Yun, they now held Liwei hostage.
Wasn't this why they had taken her alone?
How...
How was a person ever to overcome such levels of sorrow, heartbreak and devastation?!
With all his strength, wisdom, and knowledge, Bailong felt the weakest, most useless, most helpless, and most confused he had ever been since his birth...
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After some time, Bailong summoned the starlight furnace, gathering the drifting bits of essence into it.
Caoyang had never seen this level of bloodshed, and with the air full of their endless states of confusion, sorrow, and resentment, Bailong was worried his friends would not rest in peace.
So into the furnace, he firmly gathered every bit of essence he could find.
"May you all be reborn into brilliant and shining lives!" He said as he shut the furnace, sealing it.
For the rest of the evening, Bailong cleaned up Caoyang as much as he could, using his powers to fix the Palace to some semblance of normalcy.
He made sure the snake forest was untouched, thanking the heavens that it had its own shield.
Most of the snakes were safe within the forest, except for the thousands of Snake soldiers who had fallen with Heiyuan.
But of the near thousand Mermen and regular immortals working or living on Caoyang, less than three hundred remained, all safely sealed within the Southern Formation.
Bailong let them all out and brought them back to the Palace, treating the wounded as best he could.
There wasn't much one could do after such a tragedy, and everyone simply milled around, mourning their losses, helping out where they could, or comforting the bereaved.
Lady Xia, Heiyuan's daughter and Princess of the snakes was little more than a thousand years old at this point, still resembling an eleven year old child.
But she stepped up and assumed leadership, instantly leading the few strong snakes she could rally to the Palace, helping wherever they could as well.
Sometime during that long night, Bailong summoned Yinying and handed him the Starlight furnace.
"Laoying, Please find the part of the Fate Sea in the Mortal Realm. Then throw the Furnace in... I would go myself, but Sky Realm has been sealed and I want them in the Mortal realm sea.
"Mortal lives are short and fleeting, so their souls are usually ranked first for reincarnation... The Starlight furnace will guide these ones and protect them till rebirth.
"Sky Realm's seal won't affect a Soul Beast on your level, so I can only entrust this task to you!"
Yinying hesitated.
He had sensed and felt everything through Bailong and could not imagine the depths of Bailong's sorrow.
An innate feeling warned him not to leave Bailong's side.
Bailong would never say, but Yinying could sense that he was beyond shattered by his friends' betrayal and by all the lives lost...
Still with everything that had happened, Yinying simply bowed and vanished with the furnace.
In his absence, Bailong sighed.
'Farewell, Laoying...' He thought. 'I won't drag you down with me!'
He hadn't told Yinying, but though the Beast Clan might be able to slip out of a sealed Sky Realm, no being under the heavens would be able to slip back in.
Once Yinying left the Fate Sea, Bailong would sense it...
And then he intended to sever their soul bond!
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The next day, news of the grim tragedy which happened in the Floral realm was only just beginning to spread, followed swiftly by news of the attack on Caoyang.
"What is happening?!" Immortals wondered.
"First the Floral Realm, and then Caoyang?!"
"But this Floral tragedy happened several days ago... Why are we only learning about the death of the Sky Empress and her unborn child now?!"
"And the Floral Deity?!"
"Or even the thousands of Floral Immortals!"
It had all been an elaborate plan...
On the day of the Sky Empress's death, multiple witnesses had explained what happened, several offering their memories for viewing.
These memories clearly showed a black dragon kill the Sky Empress and Zhurong Fen, before going on a rampage.
In addition to that, the entire tragedy could not be seen in the stars at all, no matter how much the Night Deity searched for it.
Immortal Jin's followers were quick to point out that Yin Xiaolong was the only known Immortal with both the strenth, wisdom, and cunning to cheat even the stars.
Also, even one black dragon was farfetched, so there was no reason to assume this was a different black dragon, and Yin Xiaolong was the most powerful dragon in their times, which would explain why the black dragon defeated Zhurong Fen so easily.
All this, combined with the gruesome memories and their own pain and grief, convinced Tianlong and Fei Yun that Bailong was guilty.
...especially since both couldn't think of anyone else who hated the Empress enough to kill her in such a brutal manner!
And as for Zhurong Fen, she had died trying to protect the Empress...
After all the deliberations and conclusions, came the plot.
Tianlong and Fei Yun decided to capture Bailong.
However, they knew that if Bailong heard anything and went into hiding with Yan Liwei, no being under the heavens would ever find them.
So Tianlong locked down the Floral realm to suppress the news, then swore every single person who knew about it to silence.
The Night Immortal was instructed to send Yin Xing to the mortal realm for a while so he wouldn't hear anything and warn Bailong.
A few other Immortals including Immortal Kai Zhen, whom everyone knew to be Bailong's Master, and the War Deity who would most likely have been on Bailong's side, received urgent news drawing each of them to the mortal realm.
In just a day, all Bailong's known supporters went to the Mortal Realm for some urgent reason or the another, and by the time they realized they had been lured away, it was too late.
Fei Yun had already sealed off Sky Realm, preventing them from sensing anything, or returning to Sky Realm to intervene!
The plan had worked.
The residents of Caoyang were indeed deaf and blind to the impending danger, making the final step easy.
For this so-called final step, Fei Yun himself had come to Caoyang, knowing they wouldn't be guarded against him.
He and Tianlong knew they couldn't defeat Bailong in a direct confrontation, so Fei Yun first confirmed Bailong was absent, and then breached Caoyang, using Bailong's own formation to summon the Sky Army...
The aim had been to capture Yan Liwei, but their hate and fury had risen past reasonability, leading to the Caoyang massacre, especially since Tianlong believed Bailong had gone after the Sky Empress to protect the 'Caoyang Rebels'.
In the end, it didn't matter what led to what.
Sky Realm was suddenly in mourning over the death of the Sky Empress, her unborn child, the Floral Deity, and thousands of Flower Immortals.
The multiple tragedies, including the known Mermen and other immortals who had died on Caoyang, made it easy for everyone to conclude that Yin Xiaolong, their bright and shining medicine genius, was now the monster who had cast Sky Realm and his own friends into grief.
Between the Floral Realm and Caoyang, the relatives of the lost lives stretched from one end of Sky Realm to the other, and all flocked to the Sky Palace, demanding an answer for their loved ones.
And before evening of that day, Sky Palace had released a Resounding Edict which flew to every region of the Sky and Mortal Realms, and the edict proclaimed Yin Xiaolong guilty, accusing him of being the Demon King Incarnate...
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