60. The Hidden Enemy
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Back at present, a heavy sadness clung to the air as Luoyin broke the 'Soul-searching' technique, and Duan Xiu remained there, calmer than ever, except for a lone tear which ran down her cheek.
'She's too pitiful.' Luoyin thought, recalling all he had seen.
Duan Xiu had left Yunchi Sect on an adventure of love and happiness, but had been cast into suffering, endless grief and rage, dying by the hands of the wicked, and then helplessly watching her own son suffer by the same hands.
And there had been more- much more that she had seen through the years.
As to why she was haunting Luoyin, it was a simple... She had been 'haunting' him from the start!
But Luoyin never saw her because after she killed Huang Su in Tian Yue temple, she became invisible again, watching her 'Son' from afar, though she knew it was someone else's spirit within him.
At Luoyin's wedding, he had touched Zhang Furen, their common enemy, which triggered the grievance on Luoyin's wrist, and Duan Xiu could suddenly appear to him.
Luoyin didn't notice her till the tournament day, but after he shattered Zhang Furen's reputation at the tournament, Duan Xiu could also move closer, and that led to the present...
Luoyin took her deathly pale hands and addressed her in a way he had never really had a chance to do, even as Yin Bailong.
"Mother..." He said, and her black eyes locked onto his face.
"Mother, you've suffered enough. Why not leave things here to me? You can go to the Sea of Fate without worry... Your Son, 'Zhang Luoyin', married the girl he loved, and is a disciple again!
"He will be fine from now on! I'll make sure I eliminate every single one of his enemies, and make sure that woman knows who led to her downfall! So please go in peace now..."
There was a moment of silence, where Luoyin wondered whether Duan Xiu even understood his words.
But then she squeezed his hand slightly. Her eyes turned normal and she beamed at him- a glorious smile which brought back her beauty.
Then she emitted a soft glow and faded away into brilliant red particles...
The golden glow of Yinying's bell faded as well, and he came over to sit beside Luoyin.
"Why are beings so wicked and greedy?" Luoyin asked into the silence.
"Of all the mysteries in this world, the hearts of mortals are the most difficult to understand." Yinying replied, but Luoyin shook his head.
"It used to be just mortals... Demons were evil, Immortals were righteous, and the mortal heart could sway in either direction. But now?"
He scoffed. "Now it's impossible to tell what's in anyone's heart. Aren't some Immortals performing worse acts than demons? The only ones true to their nature are the demons themselves!"
'He would know.' Yinying concluded.
In his master's lengthy life, all his misfortunes had stemmed from fellow immortals, right from his birth.
Literally!
During her pregnancy, Yin Xiaolong's mother had faced the same thing Zhang Luoyin's mother had faced... The East Sea King's first wife had poisoned her, leading her to die after birthing her son.
She had left him with the name 'Bailong', and this was why he favoured the name.
Shortly after, the same First wife had kidnapped the newborn Bailong, and had him thrown into a den of sharks, far from the reaches of his father's palace.
Fortunately, his father had found him, just as a great shark approached, thanking the heavens for free food!
And not to mention the events around thirty thousand years ago...
At present, Yinying simply sighed. 'He would certainly know...'
Meanwhile, Luoyin's annoyed aura filled the room, as a sudden urgency filled his heart.
Far from fulfilling these grievances simply to survive, he now felt as hateful as the real Luoyin probably felt, and as if Duan Xiu were indeed his mother.
He held up his wrist, scowling at the Spirit-binding oath.
Zhang Cheng's arrow was now half-diminished, but Zhang Furen's arrow had shortened only a little, barely even noticeable.
"Xiaobai, you must be careful!" Yinying warned. "You gave her a mighty hit, yet her arrow is still like this... It means she's still powerful and will come after you!"
But Luoyin gave a small smirk.
"That might be for the best..."
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Sky Palace, Sky Realm...
At that same moment, Zhurong Tianlong currently stood in a vast beautiful hall, empty except for a large central dais, surrounded by constant swirls of red and black smoke, spiralling from the marble floors to the extremely high ceiling.
Tianlong sighed. Since he sensed Bailong's pearl, he had searched for it. He had even asked Fei Yun to look through the mortal mirrors, but that had only pissed off Fei Yun.
"Don't you think I sensed it?! I began searching at once, but there's no trace of it again!"
That had been that...
But the pearl's presence only heightened Tianlong's suspicion that someone - or something - had been pulling delicate and hidden strings in Sky Realm for thousands of years, and that suspicion brought him here.
There was a sudden gust of wind, out of place in the sealed chamber, and Tianlong's irises darted to the side.
"Immortal Xiu Qing, you just might be one of the scariest Immortals in Sky Realm." Tianlong said.
Behind him, Immortal Xiu Qing knelt, his thumbs linked in salute.
Xiu Qing merely smiled. "Sky Emperor, wasn't it you who elevated my wind powers to Grand Immortal level? And further permitted me to use it within Sky Palace?"
Tianlong waved a hand. "What have you found out?"
At first, Xiu Qing reported past events that Tianlong already suspected, but then...
"There's something wrong with the Floral realm. Before her death, I discovered that the Sky Empress frequently visited a place in the Floral Kingdom, apart from the Floral palace. And it's the same place she was later found dead.
"But now, no living thing approaches that place and survives... even my wind can no longer penetrate. Also, the Floral deity confronted me and warned me not to snoop in the Floral Kingdom's affairs. She came with the floral elders and soldiers, all with chilling and threatening demeanors."
Usually, the floral immortals were beautiful, calm, and mild mannered, and were the only Clan without a force to guard their borders, usually letting anyone simply visit.
So Tianlong was a bit surprised to hear about 'soldiers', and especially of the Floral deity herself, a Double-tiered White Lotus who was almost a million years old, far older than his own father...
The Floral deity had always been the picture of an old, wise and benevolent deity. A symbol of beauty and serenity, blessing her people, or really anyone else who needed blessings within her powers.
"Isn't she the late Floral deity's grandaunt?" Tianlong asked.
"Yes, your Majesty. Back then we found it odd that the Empress and Floral deity died in the Floral Kingdom, but such a powerful being in the Kingdom knew nothing about it!
"Also..." Once more, Xiu Qing was hesitant.
"Speak!" Tianlong ordered.
"I found the two missing heavenly relics." Xiu Qing began. "Their fading auras are what drew me to the Floral realm in the first place."
"Impossible!" Tianlong swivelled to face him. "No one in the Floral realm should be able to handle those two relics!"
Recently, two relics had been stolen from Sky Palace... relics so powerful that only a handful of people in the entire sky realm should be able to handle them!
Xiu Qing replied, "I wondered as well, so I took a gamble and directly asked the Floral deity about them..."
But she had sneered at him, saying:
"The sky Emperor sent you? Didn't he want Yin Xiaolong dead? Does it matter how he died?"
She turned to leave then. "Tell Sky Emperor, no one, including himself, is allowed to interfere here. If we feel threatened, we will seal off the Kingdom. Flowers might be irrelevant to him, but if we seal off the Floral Kingdom, there won't be a single flower in all three realms,
and the ecosystem will be destroyed!"
At present, Xiu Qing's features disclosed his confusion. "I still don't understand her words. What do those relics have to do with Yin Xiaolong's death? Didn't the mortal girl cause his death? And didn't you finish him with the ten-fold tribulation?"
Tianlong turned back to the pillar of spiralling red and black smoke.
"I didn't kill Yin Bailong... Not really." He said, and then waved Xiu Qing away.
Xiu Qing seemed like he wanted to ask so much more, but the Sky Emperor clearly wanted to be alone, so he bowed and left him.
Meanwhile, Tianlong's thoughts had centered on the two missing relics.
The first relic to be stolen was an ancient necklace which increased the hatred in one's heart, and could even control a person, sending them into a trance-like state.
The second missing relic was...
Tianlong's intent stare, settled on the pillar.
Hovering within the smoke was a small heart-shaped red gem with large cracks across its middle.
According to the Sky Accords, the gem was the heart of a previous and powerful Sky Emperor of a long-passed era, long before Tianlong's father was even born...
Upon his death, the Sky Emperor felt guilty for not slaying the demon king, so he had cut out his own heart and sealed all his power within it... enough power to kill a deity. And with it, he had sealed his dagger.
Once the dagger stabbed through anything, it would draw the power from the heart, manifesting as a ten-fold lightning tribulation to destroy whatever the dagger had stabbed.
That dagger was the Zhan Yin dagger, and it had been sealed in this pillar with the heart which still floated within, now damaged.
If Tianlong's guess was correct, the Zhan Yin dagger had surely been used to stab Bailong on Caoyang, which had triggered the lightning from the ruby heart.
But how?
How had the dagger been stolen, when only a royal could break this seal?
And how did the dagger get into Xu Weiyan's hand?
Also, why did the lightning target Xu Weiyan, instead of Bailong, who had been stabbed by the dagger?
The events were getting more and more disturbing.
Whoever stole the dagger had given it to Xu Weiyan, somehow knowing she could get close enough to stab Bailong.
And they had known that Bailong could easily evade Lightning tribulation, so they had calculated around that, and made the dagger target the wielder instead.
Which meant this person or persons knew Bailong would certainly protect Xu Weiyan.
Which meant they definitely knew a whole lot of what happened thirty thousand years ago!
It certainly wasn't an ordinary person.
'Who are you?' Tianlong wondered. 'Who is this hidden enemy...?'
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