120. Fur And Feather, Crystal And Scale
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Qin Yuelian's irises lit a bright pink as she raged, "I hate you inexplicable geniuses the most! I'm going to kill you and shatter your soul...!!"
Then she unleashed her full powers which would surely have leveled the entire city, if the cloaked woman wasn't containing all damage with her aura.
Qin Yuelian directed a massive wave of pink aura towards Weiyan, but it was met with Weiyan's white-flame shield, which somehow withstood the impossibly powerful aura. Then Weiyan blurred suddenly, appearing before Qin Yuelian and slashing at her.
The white sword, surrounded by angry white flames, met the pink sword amidst a shower of petals, and the clash sent a furious shockwave outward, leveling the ground for miles as the petals danced in the fierce wind surrounding them.
Qin Yuelian held up two fingers and the swirling petals froze, vibrating in place, before all shooting towards Weiyan, but Weiyan swiped with a hand seal and they were all burned to ashes.
In the distraction, Qin Yuelian swiftly swung her sword, and an arc of immense aura sped at Weiyan, hitting her backwards and flinging her through several buildings till she crashed into a large dead pine tree which creaked and snapped from the impact.
Weiyan floated up to her feet, unfazed by the disastrous crash, and more than ready to attack Qin Yuelian again.
But then...
*thump*
A sudden heartbeat filtered into one of her ears, louder than her own heart which was racing, and her eyes slowly returned to normal, taking in her surroundings.
It was a blackened courtyard, as dead as everywhere else in the city, and yet...
She blinked once, and suddenly the courtyard began to transform into a beautiful place- not the perfect beauty of the gatekeeper's paintings, but a natural one, though much older in appearance.
The courtyard was designed in a way she had only seen in ancient drawings, with barely legible characters carved into rustic stone pillows, and almost all ornaments made out of wood or clay...
Yet it was simple and lovely, with a brightly shining moon, and trees and shrubs decked with the most beautiful flowers.
Grasses dusted the edges, some boldly growing through the cracks of the stone courtyard, and petals littered the floor.
But Weiyan's eyes were drawn to the large central pine she had just crashed into.
Restored to its former glory, it was a magnificent pine, wide and generous with shade, its ever-green leaves appearing blue in the moonlight.
And beneath its shade were a couple, the woman resting her head on the man's chest.
"Weiwei, can you hear my heartbeat?" The man asked, a lock of the woman's hair around his finger.
"Umh." She simply replied, her content smile adding to the air of warmth around the two.
But the sight made Weiyan draw in a breath.
The couple beneath the tree looked exactly like she and Luoyin, yet she had no such memory!
'What... is going on...?!'
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Meanwhile, the salty rain had twisted Fei Yun's features, and he sniffed. "How do you as a mortal, still have powers over the weather and the East Sea's waters?!" He demanded as the citizens began running away in fear.
"Why should I tell you...?" Luoyin placed a hand to his chest and threw up stale blood, right before collapsing and disintegrating into water.
Fei Yun took an involuntary step back. "A water clone?! No way -!"
"Did you think I would sit around and wait for death without doing anything?" Luoyin's voice came from behind, and Fei Yun turned to see another Luoyin raise a sleeve to wipe blood off his lips.
"I should thank you... Rain for such a large city takes a bit of time to cast, but your first lightning bolt gave me the perfect chance to slip away." A wave of water swirled around him, reforming his crystal blue sword. "Now then...
"How about we continue?"
"You're too cocky!" Fei Yun's dark green sword appeared in his hand. "Do you really think you can defeat me?!"
"'Do you really think you can defeat me?'!" Luoyin mimicked with a sneer, his head bobbing side to side, and he smiled wickedly. "The Deity of Wealth is my master... He'll disown me if I don't pluck a few of your crystal feathers for sale!"
Fei Yun gave a sharp enraged cry, spreading his wings wide, and a storm of emerald feathers scattered like blades, each one glowing with lethal qi and tearing towards Luoyin.
"Hmph." Luoyin flicked two fingers, and his qi needles appeared, deflecting the crystal feathers with ease, while he himself leapt at Fei Yun who was ready for him.
The two clashed and a massive aura surrounded them, raising their hairs in the wind, their cloaks, black and light blue, billowing fiercely.
"I will never forgive you!" Fei Yun growled as they clashed.
"Only the guilty fear the absence of forgiveness!" Luoyin roared right back, swords dancing back and forth in blue and green light.
At some point, Fei Yun summoned his mount- a giant brown eagle into the fray, and the eagle's cry could easily level several mortal cities, but instead of panic, Luoyin's eyes gleamed.
"Are you the only one with a mount?" He jeered as Yinying appeared in his human form.
"Xiaobai! In all my thousands of years... How dare you seal me away?!"
Luoyin had locked him in his sea of consciousness so he wouldn't be endangered, simply saying, "I'll let you out if it's important... Don't forget you're a father now!"
At the moment, Yinying glared at him. "Do you know I nearly chewed my paws with worry?!" He complained. "The little one is important, but how many times do I have to remind you, I'd die if you die?!"
"Not necessarily! I found a way to sever our ties at the point of my death!"
"That makes me feel even worse! You want to go off and die on your own- ?!" His eyes had noticed Fei Yun and the eagle. "Ah."
"'Ah'?!" Luoyin eyed him incredulously. "What kind of reaction is that?!"
Yinying stepped forward, transforming into a black tiger as he did so. But not just a regular black tiger...
As Luoyin's strength grew in recent months, so had Yinying's, and he was now back to his original size, larger than a small house!
"Xiaobai, have you forgotten that I've defeated that plump brown chicken more than once? How do you want me to react?" He asked, and the eagle gave a shrill, offended cry at being referred to as a chicken!
"Hao!" Luoyin's expression was squished from holding back a severe urge to laugh. "Don't let her loose!"
Yinying hit a paw to the ground, and gold rings flared from around him, fanning out wider and wider for more than a mile, and a massive golden bell appeared, locking them all in.
"She's not going anywhere." He said, his eyes locked on the enraged eagle, who swooped at him, her shrill cries echoing against the walls of the giant bell.
Yinying leapt towards her, golden disks appearing beneath his paws as he rose to meet her, and the two clashed, fur meeting feathers, sharp claws meeting sharp claws.
Fei Yun glared at Luoyin. "Hao. Since you're fighting me as an equal, then I'll hold nothing back!" He leapt at Luoyin again, but Luoyin met him head on, their sword arcs shooting out and bouncing off the golden bell.
They split apart after some clashes, and Fei Yun directed even more lethal feathers at Luoyin, so fast that one cut him in the cheek, slicing off a few strands of his hair.
But he adapted quickly, using his needles and hardened jets of water to counter the feathers.
His water surged, coiling into a large dragon that leapt into the sky to attack Fei Yun, but Fei Yun sneered, his body blurring, and with a beat of his wings he vanished into the wind, reappearing behind Luoyin in the blink of an eye.
His palm struck forward, and behind it was a giant palm of green aura, but Luoyin spun in a dazzling arc, his sword deflecting the strike.
However, the sheer force still drove him several paces back, and the ground cracked beneath his feet as his mortal body quivered under the pressure, blood rising to his chest.
"You are no longer an immortal," Fei Yun said coldly. "Your body cannot withstand my power."
Luoyin directed his qi and spat a thread of blood, but his lips curled into a smirk. "My dear Fate Immortal, shouldn't you know better than anyone...?" His hand flashed, flinging out talismans drawn in golden ink, all floating up to the sky.
"I do not need to be immortal to crush you!"
The talisman ignited mid-air, raining down a storm of hardened ice onto Fei Yun, but Fei Yun spread his wings wide, and crystal light exploded from his feathers, easily shattering the little ice shards.
However, before he could smirk in victory, he began to notice a pattern... Each little exploded ice shard was weakening him as a strange fluid poured onto his crystal feathers from within the ice.
'Poison!'
"You sneaky bastard!" He raged, opting to evade the ice shards, rather than face them.
Luoyin gave chase with his sword, and the two collided mid-air, each strike reminiscent of their past - the countless duels they once fought as friends, now twisted into a death battle.
Fei Yun lunged, his crystal sword splitting the air. "I think you forgot!" He yelled. "My sword was crafted with the hardest crystal in all three realms!" His sword grew larger as he approached, expanding in Luoyin's irises.
Luoyin's brows furrowed.
He could feel it...
Fei Yun had poured his aura and will into this strike, their swords, simply a metaphor for who bore the strongest will.
So Luoyin responded in kind.
"I think you forgot as well!" He countered, darting to meet Fei Yun's swing. "My sword is crafted from the eldest dragon scales!"
BOOM!
The swords met, a clash of crystal and scale, their lights blinding the night and tearing the clouds apart....
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