3. Enemy And Hero
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Back at the Cave, this confused young man was oblivious to whatever his past misdeeds were causing in Sky Realm!
Instead, he was wondering if he was a ghost or evil spirit...
Ghosts were spirits of the dead who hadn't returned to the Sea of Fate for some reason, and Evil Spirits were ghosts who had been corrupted by demon energy.
But both Ghosts and Evil Spirits were dead humans.
He had never been a human.
He was one and the same Yin Xiaolong, the last dragon of the Eastern Seas, who was still unsettling Sky Realm, even after his death.
Everyone knew him as Yin Xiaolong, but his mother had intended his name to be Bailong, so he privately preferred that.
He eventually grew into the widely respected 'Herb Master', 'Healing Sage', and 'Lord Medicine'.
Impressive accomplishments, no doubt, and he had once been respected in both Sky Realm and the Mortal Realm....
But all that was eclipsed once he became the 'Black Dragon'...
Bailong shook his head, refusing to dwell on past events.
None would help him in this current situation, so he sighed and sniffed the air around him.
The air was fresh and crisp, though a bit stale because of the cave. But it was missing something distinct...
A dense and constant flow of pure qi in the air.
'So I'm in the Mortal Realm.' He concluded.
The Mortal realm had qi in the air, but it was nowhere close to the amount of qi in Sky Realm or Shadow Realm.
Only a few places on the mortal plains could boast such powerful qi flow...
After identifying his surroundings a bit, he raised his arms, bent his elbows, and flexed his fingers.
Then his knees, ankles, and toes.
He blinked a few times and rotated his head and neck a few times.
The simple motions hurt so much!
But they hurt in a way which assured him there was no lasting damage.
He sat in the lotus position and began to read his body, and he gasped when he realized it wasn't his body at all...
He was in the body of a human!
'Am I still dreaming?!' he wondered, lifting his hand to touch his face.
But his face was bruised even worse than his body, and after touching it, the pain was sufficient proof that he was wide awake!
"Is this a divine punishment?!!" He thundered aloud, and then covered his mouth.
'But my voice is the same! Is it really a divine punishment?!'
Sometimes, an immortal was sentenced to spend eternity living life as a human who would suffer, die, and then reincarnate into suffering again, all in an endless cycle.
But he shook his head.
His so-called crimes against heaven and earth would not let the immortals take such a risk... Those gold lightning bolts were designed to fry his entire existence!
"Then what happened?!" He had no answer.
So he yawned and began a few stretches. 'If I'm stuck in this body, I might as well get it to work!'
By the next morning, Bailong was finally able to stand without support, and by noon he could walk and run.
The cave was quite dark, and he tried to cast a light spell, but it flickered and died.
Bailong sighed in annoyance.
In addition to being beaten black and blue, his new body had a damaged core, damaged meridians, and his blood was choked with poison.
'Why such a body. Why???!!!'
He raged, but then suddenly gasped.
'Wh- What about my little dragon?!'
His hands quickly darted to the place between his legs and he sagged in relief!
'Haaaa! At least I'm still a man!' He thought, and then noted that he and the human shared quite a lot of similarities, specifically in height and physique, though the human was slimmer to the point of being gaunt.
A sudden overwhelming feeling of thirst made him realize he had subconsciously been hearing the sound of running water, and he quickly followed the sound to a small spring.
Sunlight filtered in through a few cracks, giving the small cove a dim light.
Bailong ran to the Spring and drank water like a crazed man.
'I must want to live!' He realized.
A part of him had simply accepted death...
'Isn't it ironic? I'm dying on the same day as you...' He had thought back then.
Thirty thousand years of agony... of questioning why the fates had been so cruel.
When the first few gold lightnings had hit, that part of him had welcomed them. But then he remembered how that same person had bought him those thirty thousand years, so he had fought to the bitter end.
And now?
Now he could simply kill himself, but he wouldn't for the same reason, so he relished this fresh, cold water which tasted like the best thing ever! And he splashed some of it on his face, enjoying the coolness of it.
Soon he stripped and jumped into the spring, deciding to wash up and bask in the cool water, and he was still playing in the water when he suddenly heard,
"Pay respect to the Hero of Twelve Sects!"
It was a loud booming voice, and it was followed by an equally loud gong.
Bailong ignored it at first, but the commotion only drew closer, so he decided to see what it was.
He hurried out of the water and quickly dressed, but he halted at the entrance of the cave.
'What if this human is a criminal supposed to be dead?!'
Thinking quickly, he tore a small piece of his inner robes and covered the lower half of his face.
He followed the noise, and soon found an impressive procession approaching.
It comprised numerous people, including fairies and humans, but Bailong focused on two individuals he instantly recognized.
One was an immortal named Sun Liang, who sat on a golden stallion. He was one of the Sky Emperor's closest advisors.
The second was a giant white tiger, which carried a veiled sedan chair.
Bailong could not see the 'hero' behind the Veil, but he knew the tiger quite well.
She was YiGuang, a rare divine beast who had been the Sky Emperor's Mount for thousands of years.
Bailong raised an eyebrow at the tiger. 'She's Pregnant! This 'hero' must be highly important, if she's carrying him in that state!'
Bailong kept himself hidden from their sights and observed the procession, but when his eyes fell on the leader, a fleeting thought rushed through him.
'Lord Huo. Leader of Huofeng Mountain Sect, Strongest on Mid Realm...'
He paused. 'What was that? Am I seeing this body's memories?!'
But before he could dwell on it, Lord Huo spoke again.
"Pay respect to Xu Weiyan! She has won honour for Mid Realm, for the whole of Xing Dalu, and for the Yueyan Mountain Sect!" Lord Huo repeated, and the crowd began to mutter.
"It's her!"
"The 'White Swallow' of Yueyan Sect!" A few were saying.
"She's the human who killed the Black Dragon!"
Bailong froze.
'An honour parade for the woman who killed me?!'
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Meanwhile, at the gates of Yue City, a group of gentlemen sat drinking tea.
A makeshift tent had been constructed to keep them from the sun, and there were several such tents shielding a large crowd which waited at the gates.
In the foremost and biggest tent, sat Lord Xu Fengyan, Sect Leader of the Yueyan Sect, and sharing the tent with him were most of the Xu Clan elders and family heads.
This tent bore the core political powerhouse of the Yueyan sect, as the Xu family were the founders and head family of the sect.
They were all dressed similarly in elegant white robes, with silvery-blue lining, each with the Yueyan sect's emblem of a spread-winged swallow across a full moon, embroidered somewhere on their robes.
They each had a silver pendant dangling from their belts which read: 'Xu Elder', except for Xu Fengyan's which read: 'Sect Leader'.
Xu Fengyan also wore a curly silver crown which went round his head, and an ornate hair accessory with the moon symbol.
He poured himself a cup of tea and broke the spell of silence.
"Xu Weiyan has earned a great honour. If she decides to stay in the Mortal Realm, I'm considering naming her 'Head Disciple'." He drank from his tea.
A light crash made everyone turn, and they realized that outrage had made the oldest Xu elder infuse his teacup with too much qi, and it had shattered.
"Xiao Feng!" The eldest, 1st Elder Xu raged. "Is it not bad enough that you brought that nameless thing into our clan?!"
"That's right!" Another added. "You picked an unknown child from the Yan river, and you want to make it rule our disciples?!
"Your biological son is currently 'Head Disciple'! Will you demote him and give the title to an unknown orphan?!"
Xu Fengyan scowled. "Oh? 'Spitting out the sugarcane, after enjoying its sweetness'? Tell me how you can refer to Weiyan 'unknown'? So I can weigh your consciences?!" He fisted his hands.
"Nineteen years... For nineteen years she has lived under your maltreatment and scrutiny, yet she has flourished and become one of the best!
"In recent years, not one of you hesitated to claim her accomplishments for the Xu clan, yet you say she's 'unknown'?
"After her recent accomplishment, Yueyan Sect is now most recognized by Sky Realm, yet you still write her off as an unknown orphan?!"
A few of them looked a bit guilty, but their expressions remained stubborn, and one dared to say.
"About her so called 'recent accomplishment's. Is it a blessing, or a curse?" He gingerly sipped from his tea. "Cultivators who were older and more powerful than her, including all of us present, also went to Caoyang as youths, but we all failed.
"So how did that rootless thing succeed?"
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星大陆 - Xīng Dàlù = Star Continent
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