28. The Mission
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"In all my time here, one particular incident has always weighed heavy on my mind..." Immortal Pei sighed and waved a hand.
A vision appeared before Weiyan.
"This was from eighteen years ago."
Weiyan's eyes widened at the sight, and stumbled back in horror...
It was a night scene, showing an older and more beautiful Red Grove City, but the people were screaming and running for their lives as a massive black dragon darted through the city, destroying everything in its path. Houses were burning, and children were wailing.
Weiyan's back hit the room wall, and she slid down to the wooden floors. It was so bloody and awful that she tore her eyes away, but,
"Pay attention!" Immortal Pei instructed, and Weiyan's eyes snapped back to the vision, somehow centering on a group of individuals.
It was a family of five, with a father, mother, and three children. The youngest was a newborn baby, cradled in the mother's arms, and they all ran for their lives.
But with one swish of the dragon's tail, a large three-tiered building toppled and fell atop them, and in the last instant, the father shoved his wife and baby away from the destruction.
The mother was flung backwards, and she used her own body to shield the baby, but though she was bloodied and bruised, she ran back to the collapsed ruin at once, wailing over her dead husband and children...
The vision changed to a daylight scene.
The mother and child were in a place Weiyan recognized. It was a cliff on Yueyan mountain.
The mother grew sickly, and it was clear she didn't have long, and Weiyan watched as she wrapped the baby in a warm blanket, and placed her on a bamboo raft on the Yan river. "Live." She said, caressing the child's cheek.
"Live on and be successful! May fate lead you to better parents, my child!" She said and then pushed the raft away, crying as the current carried it out of her sight.
Back at the inn, Weiyan had tears running down her face, and the vision faded.
"That was the most painful loss in my memory... Your family was originally a large family. Warm and caring, with more than forty people who shared *weal and woe. They loved the people, and were quite popular here in Red Grove City.
(*good and bad times)
"But in one single night, the entire clan was wiped out!" Immortal Pei said. "Your mother was gone by the time I arrived, and was dead by the time I found her on that mountain.
"And it wasn't a good death! After she sent you off, she was attacked by a vengeful eye-eating ghost which followed her from Red Grove City!"
He came and crouched before Weiyan. "Child. I rarely do this, but I can help you, if you want to kill the Black Dragon..."
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..
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At present, Weiyan stared into the darkness.
'That couldn't have been Immortal Pei's aura, right?' She asked herself.
Back then, she had been so filled with hate and anger that she had questioned nothing, and she accepted Immortal Pei's necklace.
"This will keep you safe." He had told her. "Never take it off!"
But that necklace had led to everything. That necklace had fed her hatred and led her to challenge the lava serpent without thinking...
She sighed.
There was no point dwelling on the past.
And yet she couldn't shake an uneasy feeling.
The feeling that her encounter with that little girl and Immortal Pei had been too coincidental.
Also, she had overlooked it back then, but that little girl's aura had borne a similarity to Immortal Pei, and Weiyan didn't even know what had made her latch unto that aura.
All she knew was his aura was unique... Different from Immortal Fei Yun, the Fate Immortal who had led them to Caoyang, and different from Immortal Sun Liang, who had led her back...
So why had she just sensed that unique aura here?
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The next morning, Lord Xu received a letter from the 3rd Xu Elder, who was in charge of receiving requests from the Yueyuan Cities and Settlements.
The letter was a desperate request from the County Head of a settlement lower on the mountain.
"Why did he send this one to me?" Xu Fengyan asked. "He and the 4th Elder usually create the missions directly."
His aide, a younger cultivator named Liu Yao, bowed. "The 3rd Elder said he wasn't sure how you wanted to handle it."
Xu Fengyan read through.
"It appears evil spirits are haunting the Western Forests, close to that settlement. A few bodies were found at dawn, all with their eyes missing..." He dropped the letter. "A rank three eye-eating evil spirit, and several other rank three or two spirits."
Liu Yao picked the letter. "It says there's another evil spirit to the west of there which can summon dangerous level three beasts in the area...
"Sect Leader. Do I send this back to the elders?" Liu Yao asked, but Xu Fengyan shook his head.
"They are in a mood, after learning of Zhang Cheng's humiliation the day before..." The elders had come the previous morning to give him an earful, demanding why he hadn't punished Luoyin.
"There were no sect laws broken." Xu Fengyan's shoulders had raised in a mild shrug. "Zhang Luoyin won fair and square."
"Zhang Luoyin intervened in Xiao Cheng's fight with that rootless child!" 1st Elder Xu declared. "He needs to be punished!"
Xu Fengyan's brows were knit in annoyance. "Xiaoyin interfered because Yanyan was in danger."
"'Xiaoyin'? You're indeed biased because that garbage is now your son-in-law! You discarded the golden egg and took in a stone! But you can't ignore morals! Zhang Luoyin must be punished!"
"Morals?" Xu Fengyan raised a brow. "Why not speak of Zhang Cheng's morals, and how he went behind my back to challenge Yanyan, someone a whole level beneath him! Just so he could force her to marry!"
His eyes narrowed at them. "And why not speak of your own morals? Will you open your mouths and say you're not biased towards Zhang Cheng? Or the Zhang family?
"That family is even powerful enough to rally the internal clan elders against the Sect leader... Soon they will become the Head family!"
The elders had fallen silent after that, and they had left one by one, each flinging their sleeves and stalking off.
Back at present, Xu Fengyan let out a sigh.
"The Elders likely sent this request to be petty. They want to remind me I can't run the sect on my own. There's nothing in this request that needs my precise decision...
"But I'll humour them. Since it's only rank three, we'll use this as a test of abilities." He rose and walked to a window, hands behind his back.
"Compile a list of two sets of disciples. The disciples must be Profound Martial three and above. Have Yanyan and *Xiao Yuan lead a group each."
(*Xu Haoyuan, his son)
Liu Yao cocked his head. "What about 1st young Master Zhang?"
Before now, there was never a decent disciple mission that Zhang Cheng wasn't involved in, unless he was unavailable.
But Lord Xu simply shook his head. "Aiya, isn't he busy with this, er... 'back-end' issue? Don't you think he needs some rest? Even the most powerful cultivators can be slaves to their own bowels..."
Liu Yao was severely struggling not to laugh!
"Send Yanyan's group to handle the evil spirits," Lord Xu continued, "...and have Xiao Yuan's group go after the beasts. Both groups depart for the Western Forests tomorrow."
"Understood, Sect Leader!"
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Meanwhile, Zhang Cheng was ready to swallow his shame and leave the Zhang Mansion.
He had finally cleared out the 'evil aura' from his mid region, and though a mild lasting heat on his backside still served as an annoying reminder, it didn't stop him from gathering his cronies for a 'visit' to the Yan House.
By late afternoon, they were outside Luoyin's gates.
"Zhang Luoyin!! You trashy coward!! Come out here now!!" Zhang Cheng's usual horde of bullies were thundering outside.
Luoyin was going to ignore them, but came out when their noise didn't stop.
He yawned as he approached. "Uaaarh... So many barking dogs gathered here.." He mentally counted twelve of them, including Zhang Cheng. "Ah, it's my brother and the loyal face-lickers."
"Who are you calling a barking dog?!" Zhang Cheng demanded, but Luoyin smirked, stopping just outside his gate.
"Ei? Isn't the one who responded, the backing dog?!" He shrugged.
"You -!" Zhang Cheng turned a severe angry red. "Seize him and beat him!"
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