155. Beneath Caoyang
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For a thousand years, Bailong had lain in endless pain and agony.
In the constant darkness, he was chained in place, the golden cuffs around his wrist and ankles stretching him in all four directions.
Beneath him was a smooth and hard surface, harder than anything he had ever felt.
But harder still was the pressure from above...
It was the weight of an entire mountain after all, and it painfully bore down on him with enough pressure to grind him into fine dust.
But Immortal Jin wouldn't let him die so easily.
The golden chains drained his powers just enough to keep him from transforming or breaking free, but he remained immortal, so though the weight felt unbearably painful, he would remain alive to suffer it, till he ran mad from the pain and lost all sense of self!
And that wasn't all...
They had chosen Mount Caoyang- a place he had cherished.
There was no end to his bitterness in these thousand years... no end to the darkness in his heart, and he often feared that he might break free somehow and indeed become the demon he was accused of being!
It was only memories of Weiwei that calmed him, anchoring him to sanity, and he consoled himself with the thought that she was well. Surely her father would protect her until things settled in Sky Realm.
As long as Weiwei was okay, then it was worth it... even if he spent an eternity in the maddening pain and oppressive darkness.
But one day, light suddenly returned...
Tendrils of golden light reached him in the darkness, slowly weaving themselves around him, numbing him to the pain.
'Weiwei!' Of course he would recognise this aura... this presence he had yearned for- ached for through the years!
His heart lightened for a bit, as the sheer delight of her presence filled him in and out.
But his joy was short-lived as he realized what she was doing.
'No!'
Liwei was trying to free him!
'Yuan Jing!' He activated his far-seeing technique, then quickly cast around, using his meagre energy to locate her.
He gasped.
Yan Liwei sat somewhere in the sky above Mount Caoyang, a golden formation beneath her, as she cast hand seal after hand seal, directing streams of golden light downwards toward an even larger golden formation which covered the entire mountain.
But more importantly,
'She's alone!' Bailong thought with dismay, and it became clear what she intended to do.
The formation holding Bailong in place was ancient and powerful, resurrected for the singular purpose of punishing him, and it had taken Immortal Jin and more than twenty other powerful Immortals to seal him here.
Weiwei was attempting to use her phoenix essence to free him, but there would be no turning back once she did.
Even two sky Emperors wouldn't survive breaking such a formation on their own, so Bailong knew it would certainly claim her life!
~"Weiwei! Stop it at once!"~ He yelled into her mind. ~"Do you realize what you are doing?!"~
At first no reply came, and he thought he had failed to reach her. But then he could almost feel her smirk when he heard,
~"Hmph. I wasn't going to say anything, because our first words to each other shouldn't be so loud!"~
~"Weiwei! This is no joke!"~ Bailong had never felt more helpless, as the golden tendrils of her aura began to fill him with divine power, lessening the weight above him.
~"No!"~ He would rather spend an eternity here, than lose the one he cared about the most. ~"Weiwei! Stop! Please! I forbid you from throwing away your life!"~
~"Oh? You should have seen this coming when you took all the blame on yourself, leaving me behind to grieve!"~
Bailong's panic rose, as the gold cuffs around his ankles and wrists began to loosen.
~"Weiwei! Just leave me here in peace! Please! Don't do this! I'll- I'll only end my life if you proceed!"~
There was a brief silence.
Then,
~"I dare you! A-bai... I dare you to make light of my sacrifice..."~
And with that, she ended the mind link, deafening her ears as Bailong screamed in a different kind of anguish.
Light flooded his eyes suddenly, and he found himself rising into the air, briefly taking in the large full moon and the twinkling stars... a sight he hadn't seen in thousands of years...
Well, he hadn't seen anything in thousands of years...
In the skies above him, tears filled Liwei's eyes as Bailong finally appeared.
He was barely recognizable, with his skin covered by dirt, his silvery hair a dull, knotted mess, and his clothes damaged beyond repair, but she would recognize him anywhere, and an unspoken joy filled her heart!
Meanwhile, Bailong suddenly began descending at an alarming speed, and he caught himself just before he crashed into the ground.
He landed on all fours, and drew in a breath of air.
But he choked on the unfamiliar freshness of the night air, and he staggered as waves of golden light whirled and swirled around him, healing his external wounds, wiping the dirt off him, and restoring his skin and clothes to their original appearance.
However, his attention had already shifted upwards, and his head raised sharply to see Liwei, now standing on the golden formation.
"My Love!" She spoke on a sob, smiling despite her tears. "These eyes get to see you one last ti-." She choked and sputtered out a spray of blood.
"Weiwei!" Bailong had already leapt into action, but she slumped and began to freefall. He caught her in midair, and descended with her to the floor. "Weiwei! No!"
He gently shook her and began transferring qi to her, but it was no use! Her core had been destroyed, her essence had been shattered.
He could feel her life slipping fast and there was no way he could stop it!
Thousands of years of medical knowledge, and Bailong was floored for the first time in his life...
Uncontrollable tears ran down his face, as he grasped her hands, willing her to live, and she weakly opened her eyes.
She lifted a hand to caress his face. "A-Bai, won't you watch the moon with me?" She asked, her breath coming in slow gasps. "I want to watch the moon in your arms."
"Uhm." Bailong's reply was simple, as tears ran down his face. He lifted her into his arms and flew with her to a beautiful field of flowers. There, he settled with her in a sitting position, nestling her in his arms.
"I once planted this field, intending to bring you here... Do you like it?"
"Uhm." She replied against his chest.
They watched the moon for a while, and he planted a kiss on her head. "Why did you do this to me? I can't exist without you!"
She merely smiled, snuggling against his chest. "I barely existed without you, and weren't sly...? You knew I wouldn't end my life because of your dragon pearl. Every single one of those days were a type of hell, yet I resisted the urge to follow after you!" She weakly rasped.
"But then I found out you were alive... And I could no longer breathe after I learned what they did to you..."
A few silent moments passed, the bright moon shining down on them.
"A-Bai, don't kill anyone for my sake." Liwei said, breaking the silence, but a wicked scowl settled on Bailong's brows.
There was no way he would let the perpetrators get away with th-!
His thoughts were cut short when Liwei simply took his hand. "I prefer these hands when they save lives... When they protect...
"Do not let an insignificant thing like me turn the brightest light in the heavens into darkness!" She implored, then raised his hand, gently kissed it, and placed his palm against her cheek.
"Yin Bailong, you have to live well...."
Her hand suddenly went still, and then fell limply to his lap.
Bailong remained still, afraid to move as hot tears flooded his face, running off his chin and falling onto her.
He eventually lifted her hand to his lips for a kiss of his own, clutching her lifeless body to himself as sobs wracked his own body.
He would have liked nothing more than to remain there with her for endless days, but she was an immortal after all...
His powers kept her body intact for a few hours, but at dawn, she began fading away in a swirl of golden particles which wove around him tenderly, before ascending to the sky...
Bailong himself was running out of time.
The formation he had given to Tianlong had activated the instant Liwei let him out, and had been trying to pull him in ever since.
Bailong had fought against its force all through the night as he held on to Liwei...
But now that she was gone, he simply surrendered to it, letting it drag him back to the heart of Caoyang.
It was for the best.
If he roamed free, he didn't think he could stop himself from claiming several lives, especially if those individuals crossed his line of sight.
But Liwei didn't want blood on his hands.
It was much better to let himself be sealed for an eternity.
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