9. Night Immortal Xing
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A searing pain flared on Bailong's arm, and he drew back his sleeve to find a small circular formations burned on his wrist.
'Spirit-binding oath!' He gasped aloud.
'Is this really not a punishment?!!!' Bailong internally raged.
The spirit-binding oath was a forbidden technique, which involved a human summoning the spirit of a more powerful being into their own body.
After that, the human would die and never reincarnate, while the summoned being would be forced to fulfil his or her grievances and live out a mortal life in their body.
There was no escape.
If Bailong didn't fulfil Zhang Luoyin's grievances, it would be counted as a broken oath. His body would rot from the inside out, and his spirit would be dragged to the sea of fate, where he would be reborn as a lowly life-form as punishment.
Even if he chose to end his life at this moment, his spirit would still be dragged to the sea of fate, where he would be reborn as a lowly life-form as punishment!
It was essentially slavery, and Bailong had to deal with this knowledge as Zhang Luoyin's most terrible memories rushed into him, and while the Spirit-binding oath burned his wrist!
Bailong covered the seal and staggered to his feet, heading toward the furthest region in the household, where there was a small and desolate courtyard.
Zhang Luoyin's home for many years.
On the way there, he noticed the insides of the residence were intricately beautiful, created and decorated with the finest of materials.
But everything...
Everything his gaze fell on was tainted by an awful memory.
There was a magnificent fountain at the center of a beautiful courtyard, carved from marble in the form of a hawk, but during a past feast, a large number of guests had gasped aloud when they found Zhang Luoyin, stripped to his underclothes and tied to the base of the fountain.
Next was a magnificent garden wearing the lush and vibrant reds, greens, golds, and browns of Autumn, with white Chrysanthemums adding to the beauty of the place...
But beneath its beautiful shades, Luoyin's brother, Zhang Cheng, had force-fed him a poisonous grass which caused diarrhea. Then Zhang Cheng and his friends had prevented Luoyin from leaving and had all laughed as they watched him soil himself in front of them.
Further down from there was a breathtaking statue of the Night Immortal, or rather the 'Night Deity', as humans called him.
The symbol of the Yueyan Sect was the Moon and Swallow, so the Deity of Night was quite popular here, and this particular statue had been carved out of a beautiful luminescent crystal.
But beneath that same magnificent statue, Zhang LuoYin had been forced to dip his head into a pail full of human excrement.
At present, Bailong staggered to the statue and fell to his knees, as rain began to pour, accompanied by blue lightening.
"What is this sudden rain?!!" He heard a servant call from afar.
"Quick! to the kitchens! Pack up the drying herbs!" Another servant ordered a few younger maids, and they hurried away.
But Bailong only got angrier and angrier, as the servants ran here and there, with a few even passing right by him.
According to his memories, Zhang Luoyin was the second son of this household, but the servants completely ignored him as he knelt in the rain.
Zhang Luoyin had died in the cave four months ago, yet the guards at the gates, and even the servants he passed on his way here, never bothered greeting him, nor did they react to the fact that he had been missing for four whole months.
Bailong felt Zhang Luoyin's life was far too pitiful, and he looked up at the statue.
It was a statue of someone he knew quite well, so he couldn't control his fury as he asked.
'Brother... Were you watching all this?!'
At that moment, somewhere in Sky Realm, Yin Xing, the Night Immortal, opened his eyes...
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High Immortal Yin Xing was the Night Deity, ranked just three steps down from the Sky Emperor.
His father had been a powerful dragon, ruler of the Eastern Seas, but Yin Xing and his twin sister had inherited their mother's primordial form of a Carp, so he had been disregarded at first,
especially since he was considered a 'Land Fairy' which was a term for an immortal born and raised in the Mortal Realm.
But once he achieved High Immortal status, he became the revered Night Deity, and was considered one of the most prominent in Sky Realm.
And that, added to a handsome face, tall and lithe physique, and a calm, mild-mannered nature, made Yin Xing one of the most eligible bachelors in Central Sky Realm, and he was often chased by a horde of female fairies, determined to become his mate.
They all fought to serve in Starry Pavillion, his home, and they plagued the matchmaking deity for red strings they could secretly tie to Yin Xing.
But Yin Xing remained the ever calm, ever amiable Immortal, while keeping the ladies at arm's length.
"An immortal should always carry himself with grace. Maintain righteous ways. Avoid improper conduct." Yin Xing often told his assistant, a hot-headed merman training to succeed him as the next Night Immortal.
"Tai Yue, if you're to be a Core Deity, you mustn't hide your emotions... No, no, no. You must completely throw them away." Yin Xing often said.
'Wo-Peh!' The Merman, Tai Yue often thought.
Tai Yue was the same Merman who had been summoned by the Sky Emperor, and he knew more than anyone that his Master's 'Calm' exterior was nothing but a facade!
In fact, his Master had just jerked awake, and he looked anything BUT calm.
'What a dream!' Yin Xing thought, then stared at his assistant in confusion. "Why are you here?" He asked calmly.
Tai Yue shook his head. "Master, you should stop drinking Fox Wine and Berry King's Wine!" He said. "You got drunk and passed out in the Astronomy dome again!"
Fox Wine was made by nine-tailed foxes, and the 'Berry Wine' was made by a land Immortal nicknamed 'Berry king', because he owned the biggest Berry Field in all three realms.
Either of the wines could get even the Sky Emperor drunk, and Yin Xing had drunk several urns of both!
"The saying, 'drinks like a fish' was certainly made for you! The Astronomy disciples are beginning to wonder if wine is a conduit for reading the stars! They wanted to ask you personally, but you've been sleeping for forty straight days!"
Tai Yue shook his head again. "A- also..."
He pointed at Yin Xing and turned his face away.
Yin Xing raised a hand to his face to find it wet with tears.
"Ei?" It had been a while since he cried in his sleep, and he quickly wiped the tears. "Am I crying because I drank too much?"
'Just say you're mourning your brother!!!' Tai Yue thought, but didn't dare speak out!
Four thousand years ago, Tai Yue once dared to accuse Yin Xing of having an ' Older Brother Complex', but Yin Xing had calmly cast a spell on him which transformed him into his full Merman form, and trapped him that way for almost twenty years!
"Ha! Dare say it again!" Yin Xing had pettily taunted. "Don't worry! Years go by in a blink for us immortals!"
Tai Yue had been stuck in that form with the Junior Mermans, some of whom could transform at least a little.
He shuddered. He won't forget that shame in a hurry!
Tai Yue blinked in shock when Yin Xing sat up suddenly.
"Master, is anything wron-?"
"That was no dream!" Yin Xing blurted.
An unknown mortal knelt before one of his statues and called him 'brother', but the voice he had heard was...
"El- Elder brother!" Yin Xing flew off his bed in shock and floated to the round window in his room, making Tai Yue eye him curiously.
The window was so large that it took up an entire wall and opened up to the vast night sky, and Yin Xing stood there, looking at the stars.
'Brother Bai is alive?!'
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