11. The Black Dragon
.
"Xiaobai! What are you doing?!" Yinying was aghast.
He had turned to find Bailong bowing to him, his forehead on the ground.
As Yinying was immortal, and older than Bailong's father who had tamed him, this shouldn't be too strange,
But not every 'immortal' being was called an immortal.
In Sky Realm there were four major types of 'Immortals'...
The revered Divine tribe was considered the strongest, consisting of the Mythical creatures, like Phoenixes, Dragons, Qilin, Ancient Turtles, Nine-tailed foxes, Merfolk, Kunpeng, and the like.
The Fairies included common birds, flowers, plants or creatures, who had either cultivated for thousands of years to achieve enlightenment and take on a human form, or were born to such parents.
There were the humans who also cultivated to attain immortality.
And finally, there was the Beast Clan, usually Spirit animals of rare or divine strength, tamed as mounts or pets.
But the Beast Clan was looked down on in Sky Realm.
This was because it took Beast clan members a rather long time to achieve enlightenment, and other Immortals often tamed them before they could.
These tamed Beasts doubled as warriors, mounts and pets, who obeyed their Masters' every command, like Yiguang the Sky Emperor's Light tiger, or Sun Liang's Golden Steed.
But once a beast was tamed, it could never take on human form unless its master permitted it.
And that made them low-status in the eyes of most immortals.
Which was why Yinying couldn't accept Bailong's bow to him.
No immortal would ever bow to a mount, much less kowtow!
"Did your death make you lose your mind?" Yinying asked weakly.
"Laoying, let me kowtow to you once! All my selfish decisions led us through hell and back. And yet -." He paused, not finding adequate words. "You never once left my side, and now you're stuck here like this."
"Hao! Ha-ha-hao!" There was a catch in Yinying's voice as he nudged Bailong.
Mounts were to do anything to protect their masters.
It was to be expected, so there was never any need for such a wholesome display of gratitude.
"Lift your head now! You're making me uncomfortable!"
Bailong raised his head and grinned at him. "Heh! Aren't you the one who says he's older than my father? Are you the same Laoying?!"
"Enough, enough!" Yinying held up a paw. "Don't tease me anymore! Show me your wrist!" He quickly said, changing the subject.
Yinying shifted his attention to the seal on Bailong's wrist.
"What's the deal here? You're the type to be angry at this human for trapping you here... And besides, haven't humans made themselves your enemy?
"Why are you vowing to help this one?"
"Laoying, even a stranger on the street will pity Zhang Luoyin." Bailong said, and then filled him in on the bits of Luoyin's memory he could remember.
"Still, it's not your issue." Yinying said, after he was done. "As a human with barely any cultivation, you can't afford to endanger yourself for the sake of others. Especially a human. They're not trustworthy!"
Bailong nodded and they both sighed.
They still had to solve all Luoyin's grievances.
.
Meanwhile, Weiyan silently watched the sunrise.
It was her favourite time of the day, and as she basked in the early sunlight, she let her thoughts carry her wherever they would.
She had met her father, mother, three siblings, and Tong in good health, but everyone seemed occupied with the increase of ghosts and evil spirits in the area, over the last few months.
Which redirected her thoughts to the evil spirits from the previous evening.
Which then redirected her thoughts to Zhang Luoyin.
And which then redirected her thoughts to Mount Caoyang...
Specifically to the Lava Sea.
Everyone praised her for crossing the Lava Sea, but no one knew she had nearly lost her life that day.
Even now, she didn't understand what had happened.
Once she stepped into the dark cave which led to the Lava sea, indiscernible whispers filled her ears, fueling her hatred at the Black Dragon, and putting her in a trance-like state, guiding her feet to a bright cove where the lava began.
The heat was sweltering, but Weiyan barely noticed, and she leapt onto a small rocky island without realizing it.
Once her feet made contact with the floating rock, there was a huge shockwave which shook the entire cave, and a large fiery serpent rose out of the Lava.
This snapped Weiyan out of the trance, and she froze as fear filled her heart.
But she shook it off.
Everyone, including the immortals, said that Heifeng, the fiery serpent never crossed the middle region of the Lava Sea, so it would be fine if she ran back at this point.
'But will I really run back now?!' She berated herself.
The Black Dragon had killed her entire family! And she couldn't count the many others who had suffered such grief!
She may have no hope against this serpent, after all, even Lord Huo, the strongest Sect Leader, had been stopped here, but she had to try!
'For Immortal Pei...' She recalled an immortal with long curly brown hair.
'For that little girl...' She recalled a little beggar who had clutched her robes, asking her to avenge her parents.
"And for my family!" Weiyan said this bit aloud, as the vision of a family of five filled her mind.
The father, mother, and two children ran from the black dragon's rampage, the third child, a new born baby, clutched in the mother's arms. But they had all died, the mother surviving long enough to save the child...
At the Lava Sea, Weiyan gritted her teeth in fury and charged at the snake.
The snake's eyes narrowed at her, and it chased after her with sudden fury, making her quickly duck as it shot a stream of fire at her.
'It crossed the halfway point!' Weiyan realized, as a new uncertainty clashed with her own fury.
She dodged it's second attack, and a pure white sword appeared in her hand, surrounded by white aura. She ran two fingers across the blade, charging it with energy, and with a wide criss-crossed swing, she shot two deadly arcs of energy at the serpent.
But the serpent's tail swished out of the sea, blocking the attack and sending a wave of Lava at her.
Weiyan leapt back towards the cave's solid ground, but she was met with an invisible barrier that hadn't been there before, trapping her on the Lava.
She quickly leapt away, and the lava crashed into the barrier.
"Hahahahaha!" A cruel laughter filled the large space, echoing off the walls. "You hateful woman! I waited centuries for you! Even your bones won't be left today!"
'It's enlightened!' Weiyan realized, hastily scribbling an air talisman, with the characters for 'Shield' and 'Repel' boldly written in golden strokes, but though it held off the first few attacks, Heifeng was on another level entirely.
The talisman shattered into pieces, fading away in the hazy heat, and Weiyan leapt away, sending three consecutive spells at Heifeng.
The spells all hit him, but it was like hurling eggs at a rock, and Heifeng came after her, slithering through the lava.
He swished his tail in the lava, splashing the burning hot fluid at her, or smashed whatever little rock she found to stand on, leaving Weiyan leaping away from him, while narrowly escaping showers of hot lava which seared her skin if it even came close.
Weiyan fought with all her might, sending spell after spell at the giant snake, and blocking with her sword whenever it attacked.
When it came to skill, she was considered one of the best of her generation, but all that skill was useless before Heifeng, and no matter how many shields she created, he broke through them easily.
Before long, she was exhausted and it came to a point where the snake swung its sharp-ridged tail at her with enough force to kill a regular person.
She managed to block most of the blow, but it flung her a great distance, and she barely caught herself as she landed on a small rock, nearly falling into the lava.
Her upper arm was slashed, and all her strength was gone.
The serpent unfurled the large frill around its neck and roared, but Weiyan simply shut her eyes...
'Perhaps it's for the best.' She thought. 'I've failed my family and so many people... I might as well die here.'
And she fell to her knees, prepared for the worst.
But the blow never came.
There was an explosive noise, followed by a screech, and Weiyan opened her eyes to see the serpent being flung around like a fly.
The black dragon, had come in his dragon form, with gleaming black scales, deer-like horns, sharp, wicked-looking claws like an eagle's, and a massive long winding body of stark black, which was double the size of the Serpent.
The black dragon used his own tail to swing the serpent around, and the serpent fell unconscious, sinking back beneath the fiery depths of the lava sea.
Weiyan was a bit surprised.
The black dragon she came here to kill had just saved her life?
But she was even more shocked when the dragon slithered up into a magnificent spiral, then transformed into a human and floated down to land a short distance from her.
Yin Xiaolong's human form was not popular among humans, and the few paintings of his human form Weiyan had seen were hideous and ugly, highlighting his identity as a monster.
The paintings always depicted a stocky man with a shaggy head and rough beards which nearly covered his face, and he had large round eyes and pointy carved teeth.
But all that was a sharp contrast to the tall and spectacularly beautiful immortal before her...!
.