95. Fates Will 2
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"Certain individuals around 'Zhang Luoyin' in Yue City are tied to your Immortal past." Immortal Kai said, and there were a few seconds of silence.
"Ei? Impossible!" Luoyin finally shook his head. "Apart from Yan Liwei, won't I remember their face?!"
"Oh?" Immortal Kai smirked. "What if they are wearing different faces as part of Fate's will? Friends and Foes alike?" He turned to Yin Xing.
"You've noticed one of them, haven't you? Your other half..."
"Immortal Kai! My chosen mate is Yan Linfeng!" Yin Xing protested. "Who is this 'other half'?!"
"Aaah?! You have a mate now?!" Luoyin had turned to him, and he flushed, looking away with a shy smile.
"Ehehe, elder brother, I've not said anything to her yet..."
"Idiot! He's speaking about the half you were born with!" Old man Bao put in shaking his head at Yin Xing, who looked even more confused than Luoyin.
"You're saying A-Yue is somewhere in Yue City?!" Yin Xingasked.
Yin Yue had been Yin Xing's *twin, and as Luoyin was already about two thousand years old before they were born, the two had been more like his children, than siblings!
(*Yue and Xing= Moon and Star)
So he leaned forward now. "Why won't I recognize A-Yue?!"
"Because no one is supposed to." Immortal Kai shrugged, still fanning himself. "But Xiaoxing is her twin. He should sense her no matter what or who she's reborn as."
"But I haven't sensed any-." Yin Xing stopped himself. "The mortal girl, Xu Lian?!!"
"Xu Lian?!" Luoyin also seemed surprised. "How is that possible?!"
"Did you forget?" Old man Bao was speaking again. "Yin Zhi tried to destroy their mother's pregnancy, and a single core was split, leading to twins born with incomplete cores, dependent on each other.
"So when Xiaoyue died, Xiaoxing nearly followed, and you struggled to preserve his life."
Luoyin remembered...
Nearly mad over Yin Yue's death, Bailong had fed his own qi into Yin Xing for almost five years, while he scoured the three realms for a solution.
Bailong had first sought out the previous Medicine Deity, but when the older immortal failed, it had pushed his own desire to create tonics and refine pills to the max, forcing him to carry out endless experiments with healing herbs and flowers from all three realms.
This of course led him to create the techniques which could take him almost anywhere in the three realms, including the Shadow Realm, and then also create the reverse summoning talismans to pull him back to the Eastern Sea Palace whenever he fell into danger.
But while a few successes gave Yin Xing a breath of life, none were the permanent answer.
Finally, Bailong found a solution- a pill which could reform one's core, but no known furnace could refine that pill, and this led him to scour every known or ancient record about furnaces, till he found Starlight Furnace, an ancient relic buried deep beneath Sky Palace.
He snuck in to steal the furnace, and that had led to meeting Zhurong Tianlong...
Luoyin grinned at present. "Fate is indeed a neatly interwoven mess.. I'm guessing Xu Lian was born as a twin again because of her incomplete core. The Sea of Fate latched her onto someone else so she could finally be reborn."
He and Yin Xing wore immensely happy smiles, knowing their dear one was living a full and happy mortal life, and being a mortal would grant her a clean start, as long as she wasn't evil.
"Her core should be fixed once she dies as a mortal!" Luoyin concluded, and Yin Xing nodded.
"Hopefully not too soon!" They chorused, but a confused look crossed Luoyin's face.
"Since she latched onto Xu Wen, she acquired the bloodline and appearance of his family, which explains the change in her original appearance..." Luoyin mused. "But what about the rest? Why don't we recognize them?!"
"I will only mention two others." Immortal Kai said. "Your mortal stepmother, Zhang Furen. Does she not remind you of someone?"
Luoyin thought for a while. "Sky Empress?" He wondered aloud, going through persons he had hated in Sky Realm, and Yin Xing nearly fell out of his seat.
"Ei?!"
"Exactly!" Immortal Kai shut his fan with a *Ka-chak*. "Because Immortals are born with immensely long lives, most forget what Karma is, and how it connects to the most ruthless entity all beings must eventually answer to."
"The Sea of Fate!" Luoyin realized.
"After she died, she has been reborn in numerous cycles, each time dying in her youth because of her cruel nature. It's her punishment till she lives a good life, and she only lived so long in this lifetime because her cruelty had a purpose.
"Everything Luoyin went through was always meant to lead to you and test you. Besides, she once succeeded in her plans to destroy your friendship with Xiaotian (Tianlong), and even her death led to your downfall.
"This life was also a small form of revenge for you, and as for her appearance, the face everyone knew in Sky Realm was fake. She was born naturally beautiful, but not beautiful enough for her mother, so her mother made deal with Qin Yuelian."
"Floral deity?"
"Yes. And with the blood of thousands of flowers, Sky Empress became one of the most beautiful in Sky Realm. Even after growing up, she was never satisfied and kept going back to enhance her beauty, but as a mortal, she is born with her natural face."
"Tch!" Luoyin scowled. "If I had known her identity sooner, wouldn't I have written her a few more fake damning letters?!" He leaned forward, eyes wide and looking more cheerful than he had been in days. "So who is the second person?!"
Immortal Kai smiled. "That's Xu Min."
"X- Xu Min?!"
"He was the young Merman who once assisted you at Four-Petal garden, and then followed you Caoyang back then."
"Ei? Chu Cui?!" Luoyin could certainly understand why he hadn't recognised Xu Min...
At the time Chu Cui hadn't been fully transformed so he had fin-like ears and beautiful aquamarine scales on parts of his face.
His personality was the same though, and he had been more 'friend' than 'Aide'... one who trusted Bailong to the point of doing whatever he ordered, no matter how ridiculous!
But when tragedy struck, he had been killed, along with thousands of innocents on Caoyang...
"Chu Cui returned as Xu Min to symbolize new friendships after your fallout with Xiaotian and Xiaoyun (Fei Yun). He was the first person you called 'friend' since then, and this was why he was the doorway to everyone else in your present friend circle."
Luoyin felt a warm feeling in his heart.
'To think all along I was around those two!' And he was happier than ever that he had cured Xu Min's qi deviation!
"Fate's Will is indeed powerful." Luoyin pondered. "But I still worry...
"Meeting Xu Lian and Xu Min again feels like a blessing, so I wonder if staying away is still not the best way..."
Wasn't that more reason to stay away from them?
In the past, Yin Zhi had killed Yin Yue to get at him, and Chu Cui had ultimately died because of him.
Could he pull them into danger again?
And given Yin Xing's expression, he was considering something similar because of his twin...
A brief silence passed before Luoyin suddenly shot to his feet. "Let's go!"
"Are you going back?!" Immortal Kai asked, he and old man Bao with expectant faces.
"No!" Luoyin clarified. "We made a mistake! Haven't we stayed here too long?!"
Immortal Kai and old man Bao could only slap their foreheads.
~"This dumb fellow is your disciple!"~ Old man Bao mentally said.
~"Isn't he your great grand nephew? You can have him!"~
Luoyin's foot was out the door, when he suddenly froze.
"No way... right...?" He cocked his head at a circular bright, slowly widening seal which had appeared a few feet away.
There were numerous familiar auras emanating from it, and he took a subconscious step back. "It's impossible... right?!"
But his suspicions were proven true when several familiar individuals suddenly appeared around the Tea House!
"Y- You guys!" He exclaimed in shock.
Surrounding him were Xu Weiyan, Xu Min, Xu Lian, and Xu Wen, along with Elder Zhou, the Head Alchemist, and a disappointed looking Lord Xu!
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