7. Evil Spirits
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A golden whip appeared in Sun Liang's hand, and there was a collective gasp from the crowd.
Bailong clutched his chest and staggered from the pressure, but he straightened when the wave had passed, and stepped out from behind Lord Xu.
Lord Xu shook his head.
"2nd Young Master Zhang, if you're stepping out from behind me, don't think of returning to that position." Lord Xu said simply.
"Ehehe." Bailong shamelessly stepped behind him again. "I'll speak from here then."
He turned back to Sun Liang, who raised a brow in waiting.
"High Immortal Sun." Bailong raised his hands and nearly linked his thumbs and curled his fingers inwards.
The salute of respect in Sky Realm!
Thankfully he caught himself and quickly cupped his hands, imitating what Lord Xu and Lord Huo had done earlier.
He bowed. "Ehehe, I apologize, please put the scary whip away. As a weak human, won't I die after only one or two lashes?"
People instantly began muttering again, and Lords Huo and Xu shook their heads.
"Would such an apology work?!" The fairy demanded. "Were you deliberately trying to annoy the High Immort-?!"
"Ah, but I wasn't finished." Bailong cut in, and there was instant silence.
"I was apologizing since I don't want to die, and since I 'jumped to conclusions'. I assumed High Immortal Sun knew what I was speaking about, but he appears to be... 'innocent'."
Bailong turned to address everyone. "These days I've been studying, which is why I know what I'm about to say." He pointed at the Light tiger.
"If the Divine Light Tiger births her cub in Sky Realm, the cub would become impossible to train in the Mortal Realm.
"Even worse. If the tiger births her cub before her master, the Sky Emperor, it will inherit its mother's soul bond to the Sky Emperor."
There were meaningful gasps here and there, as people realized what that would mean.
"They won't be able to give the cub to disciple Xu!" Someone clarified.
"Even if they give it to her, wouldn't they be able to call it back at any time? She will never be its true master!" Another put in.
"Is this true?" Someone else asked aloud.
"How underhanded!"
"It's true!" Lord Huo's voice boomed over the rest. "I recall reading about this in my youth. In the beast clan, children inherit their mother's soul bonds as long as the mother's master is present at their birth!"
Weiyan glanced at Yiguang, realizing she had been trying to save her cub from forceful soul-bonding.
Lord Xu gave Sun Liang an angry glare, and so did everyone present.
Even the Xu Elders who disliked Xu Weiyan, had banded against the outside enemy.
"High Immortal Sun, first you intimidated my child, and now you want to take her prize away." Lord Xu calmly spoke. "Forgive us, we didn't realize the Sky Emperor's promise was so watery.
"We can't challenge you. If Sky Realm insists on being underhanded, please go ahead."
"Yes, do as you please with us mere mortals. Go ahead and cheat us." Lord Huo added, but none of them bothered to cup their hands or bow.
Sun Liang was beyond furious.
He knew he could indeed leave, as even Lord Huo wouldn't be able to handle all the fairies present.
But Sun Liang also knew that there would be trouble if he left with Yiguang, especially if he took her away in the presence of Lord Huo and Lord Xu.
The Wulin would learn of what had happened, and it would spread through all of the Mortal Realm!
He shuddered to think of what would happen, if humans no longer held immortals, or worse, deities, in reverence.
'I should just let this go since the Sky Emperor doesn't even know Yiguang is pregnant!! I'll tell him there's another Divine Tiger, and hunt it as compensation!' Sun Liang ground his teeth in annoyance, but forced a small smile.
"Apparently, there are some things even I don't know. Since I've been 'educated', I will allow the Divine Light Tiger to give birth here."
Sun Liang turned to glare at the disheveled fellow who had dared to educate him, but Zhang Luoyin had vanished as quickly as he had appeared...
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After stirring up trouble, Bailong didn't hesitate to run off into Yue City.
'Haaa! I have to be more careful from now on!' He berated himself, and lightly slapped his mouth as he strolled through the scanty marketplace.
He walked absent-mindedly, mulling over all he had learned today, and what worried him most was the 'Black Dragon' issue.
If a dragon indeed wreaked havoc in the Mortal Realm, then it was someone else, not him. But there were only a handful of dragons left.
The Sky Emperor was a red dragon. Old man Bao by the lake was White. The remaining two were Earth Dragons, one green and one brown.
And it couldn't be a new dragon. Each time a dragon was born, Golden Rain fell amidst sunshine, so Bailong would have known even on Caoyang.
'So who has been attacking the Mortal Realm for a thousand years?!'
Bailong stopped suddenly when he felt a strange presence, and he realized he had wandered into a deserted alley.
The night was suddenly colder and darker, and as the darkness grew heavier, wispy shadows gathered around, and someone stood right ahead in his path.
The person had hollowed-out black eyes, and thick blackened veins creeping from his eye-sockets to the rest of his face.
'Evil Spirit!' Bailong realized.
The spirit was dressed like a medicine man, complete with a herb basket on his back, and a straw hat.
It smiled slowly, revealing blackened teeth, then with a sickening snap, its neck broke and its head bent to one side.
With outstretched arms, it suddenly rushed at Bailong, but Bailong hastily backed away, knowing that Zhang Luoyin couldn't even handle such an evil spirit.
Unfortunately, he tripped and fell, sprawling to the ground.
The evil spirit was too close by now, and Bailong raised an arm to shield himself from the impending attack--
But a flash of gold light appeared and lashed at the spirit. This tore it apart and it shrieked, before dissipating into black smoke.
"Xiaobai, you've not been alive for three days, and you nearly died again?" An amused voice said, making Bailong freeze.
Bailong turned to see what looked like an old beggar holding a golden whip, but where humans saw a beggar, Bailong saw a beautiful immortal, dressed in gold and white.
"Immortal Kai Zhen!"
Bailong stared in shock at the Immortal, who gave him a mischievous but happy smile.
*Kai Zhen was the deity of wealth, popular for disguising as a human beggar who went around, helping orphans when he could, and he was the same 'Old Man Kai' who had told tales to the children, after Bailong had died.
(*'Borrowed' from 'CaiShen' [￣? ? ￣? ] god of wealth. I simply changed the pronunciations and meaning!)
Bailong fell to his knees at once and bowed, letting his forehead touch the ground.
"Shifu! Please forgive this foolish disciple!" Bailong said.
"Silly disciple indeed! It's too late to be regretful." He bent and helped Bailong up, as more evil spirits appeared around them.
"I can't say too much, but I will warn you. Your presence here is-." But before Kai Zhen could complete his words, he sensed a human and vanished, leaving Bailong alone.
One of the evil spirits rushed at Bailong, wielding a curved black blade that was merged with its arm. Bailong barely dodged the attack, but another evil spirit was already swinging a sword at him.
Bailong suddenly felt someone's arm go around his waist, and the person swiveled with him, pulling him from harm's way.
A pure white sword blocked the evil spirit's attack, and then the same sword slashed at it, causing it to disintegrate into black smoke and fade away.
The person shoved Bailong behind, and then promptly defeated three more of the evil spirits, all in a blur of flowing hair and robes.
A familiar scent teased Bailong's nose, as he looked up to find Xu Weiyan...
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