169. War Again
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"This time, I'll ensure you stay dead!" Zhurong Fen declared, her voice resounding through the loud and windy frost as her seals sent jagged icy spikes towards Luoyin.
Luoyin narrowly leapt away each time, while still enduring the deathly sharp snowflakes, but his movements were slowing as he burned his qi...
"After I kill you, I'll immediately seek out and destroy that little Swallow of yours!!" Zhurong Fen finished, and at her words, a large frost lotus appeared above Luoyin, making his limbs suddenly freeze in place.
'Poison!' He realized in dismay as the giant lotus spun above.
Soon the sharp snowflakes were upon him, brutally slicing at him. This sent endless pain flaring across his flesh, and a shower of blood spraying across the stark white snow.
And then came the cruel and bitter frost which mercilessly crawled into his wounds, along his clothes, hair, and skin.
Soon he was encased in a solid block of ice, and his aura began to fade.
"I'll commend you... A mere mortal rattled me to this extent and even got me to use so much power!" Zhurong Fen laughed lightly.
"Hmph. I see your right hand is held in a seal... Were you trying to summon help?" she scoffed. "Too late! Your own arrogance led you to challenge me on your own, and now your fingers are frozen.
"And besides, this place is full of Yu Wang's aura... Your friends can't possibly find you!"
Within the large block of ice, Luoyin's hand was indeed held in a seal, but his aura was fading fast, and bloody tendrils were creeping along the tiny cracks as icicles bloomed beneath his skin, causing his blood vessels and meridians to freeze and rupture.
His heart began to slow, and his eyes drifted shut as Zhurong Fen's lips settled in a satisfied smile.
"Hmph! The great Yin Xiaolong!!" She practically spat the name. "With you gone, I can finally awaken my Master! And don't count on Sky Realm to intervene either...
"By my calculations, Sky Realm should already be fallen!"
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..
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Sky Realm...
Within Floral realm, Zhurong Fen had hidden an identical summoning seal...
And at the same time she activated the seal in Yu Shui City, the one in Sky Realm was activated as well.
But this was much worse...
To combat the Immortals and conquer Sky Realm, Zhurong Fen had summoned almost a thousand *Eternal and Universal Tier demons, far outnumbering the higher leveled Immortals still in Sky Realm!
(*High Grand Immortal and Grand Immortal levels)
In no time, the demons had broken through the blockade surrounding the floral realm, and now they charged in every direction of Sky Realm, most heading right for Central Sky Realm...
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Meanwhile, after witnessing the star Edict, a strange calm had descended on Sky Realm...
All businesses and pavilions were closed, and the beautiful gold-lined streets of Central Sky Realm were empty as most of the immortals, high and low, had retired early for the day, returning home to ponder quietly behind closed doors.
In the magaficent and spectacular palace, an immortal above all immortals sat silently, utterly lost in his thoughts.
This was Zhurong Tianlong, Sky Emperor and Ruler of Two Realms.
After watching the full truth behind his wife's and child's death, his heart felt too heavy for his body and he hadn't moved from his position since.
This was the same position where he had fallen after witnessing everything, vomitting blood several times from a confused pool of disbelief, guilt, sadness, grief, anger, hate, and endless regret.....
Guilt had certainly filled him after he met Bailong by that waterfall, especially since Bailong had refused to meet with him since then.
But this...
This was much worse!
Now he realized how absolutely he and Fei Yun had been played by Zhurong Fen, and even the Empress before her death.
His own sister, his own wife... both had plotted out all the rifts between him and Bailong back then, and both eventually led he and Fei Yun to make the ultimate mistake!
Tianlong had wailed in open agony after Yin Xing left for the Mortal Realm, and now he sat, utterly spent and miserable in the silence of the Throne room.
His irises moved, settling on the grand and ornate golden throne.
He had spent so many years clinging to that cold throne...
He never even realised he was doing it, but he had certainly clung to it, his own sense of inferiority guiding his actions!
After all, being 'Sky Emperor' and owning that throne meant he was good enough to fill his father's shoes.
Being 'Sky Emperor' meant he outranked or surpassed Bailong in some ways at least...!
So it had been easy...
In hanging on to the heartless throne, it had been easy for outsiders to twist his mind, inflating his ego and raising his pride till he stopped listening to his dear friend...
Tears rolled down his face now, but tears wouldn't do anything...
Bailong would never forgive him!
In fact, he couldn't even forgive himself!
As the Lord of both Sky and Mortal Realms, he had flippantly considered eradicating an entire Clan, based on the Empress's manipulations...
As the Lord of both Sky and Mortal Realms, he had let himself be blinded by grief and claimed the lives of countless innocents on Caoyang!
He could indeed never forgive himself!
So how would Bailong ever forgive him.....?
"A-Tian!" A familiar voice cried out, just before Fei Yun arrived in a more ragged state than Tianlong was in.
In fact Fei Yun looked like one leg was already out of death's door...
For thirty thousand years, Fei Yun had never come to Sky Palace unless duty required it, or unless Tianlong himself summoned him. In fact, he rarely even brought his Fate reports in person.
So to come here like this now meant...
'Ah... He has realized it as well...' Tianlong numbly concluded, and true enough, Fei Yun rushed over to him and knelt down.
"We were wrong! We were so wrong!" Fei Yun's words were accompanied by tears.
He had pooled his last strength and vanished after Zhurong Fen left him for dead, reverse-summoning himself here.
"A-Tian! You know him the most-! What can we do to atone?! How can we earn his forgiveness?!"
Tianlong simply sighed. "'Knowing him the most' is what makes it hopeless... We... crossed his bottomline... We even crossed the lines of being human..."
A silent moment passed, but Tianlong's eyes widened slightly.
"Weren't you grounded for a thousand years?" He asked, brows furrowing. "How are you here? And why do you look like this?!"
Fei Yun opened his mouth and confessed everything about how he had joined hands with the black butterfly and had manipulated fate so the Baishan Pillars would all go to Yu Shui City...
"But I didn't kill anyone!" He quickly added. "I sent the Acting Fate Deity (the Baize) into a Sealed Space within Fate Villa, and the Fate Disciples and staff are safely locked away as well!"
"You fool... I tried to warn you after the Yue City incident, you didn't listen...!" Tianlong shot to his feet. "This means A-Bai is in danger! Why come here instead of helping him escape?!"
Fei Yun hung his head in shame. "I- I lost to him. I can't muster my strength in any helpful way." He rose to his feet. "I'll return to Fate Villa and make amends... I can only leave him to you for now."
Fei Yun vanished, and Tianlong held his hand up in a seal. "A-Bai, wait for me...!
"I must go to this Yu Shui City at once!"
But before he could vanish...
"You cannot leave Sky Realm!"
A paper crane flew over, bringing Old man Bao's voice to him.
"Do you think I couldn't have alerted you long ago? I didn't because I knew you might do something foolish!
"I warned you years ago that you would regret your actions... Now it's too late to be regretful!
Instead stay and defend Sky Realm! After everything you've witnessed, you should know that little sister of yours will make a move here!
"An unguarded Throne is easy to seize...!"
The paper crane burst into flames suddenly, and almost at once, the throne room doors swung open.
"Your Majesty!" A Sky Soldier ran forward to kneel before Tianlong.
He linked his thumbs in a full bow. "A horde of Universal and Eternal Tier demons appeared in the Floral realm! They broke out of Floral realm, killing one of the Sky Generals!
"Almost three hundred of them are now approaching Central Sky Realm!"
"What...?!!"
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In a few minutes, Tianlong had sent Fei Yun orders to Seal off both Sky Realm and the Mortal Realm, ensuring enemies could go neither in nor out.
Then the War Deity instantly summoned the Sky Army, burning whatever talismans or formations they needed for transporting or reverse-summoning soldiers across vast distances.
In less than half an hour, the full force of Sky Realms Massive Army had been assembled in full gold armour, with almost a thousand lower Commandants to lead the hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
The two remaining Sky Generals stood up front, flanking the War Deity.
There was a grim air surrounding them all as by now those who had been present thirty thousand years ago understood their mistakes and the weight of their actions.
But the age old Fox sighed. "Once fine jade shatters, there is no putting it together again..." He began, hands behind his back.
"In the same way, some things can never be undone." He shook his head. "Some of us present have innocent blood on our hands from Caoyang back then... We can't hope to bring a single one of those souls back.
"But we can make amends!" He began pacing. "We can ensure that Sky Realm, their home and the home of their families, is not destroyed or desecrated.
"We can ensure that their ultimate killer, Zhurong Fen, is brought to justice along with her followers." He stopped.
"And we can ensure that the Demon King doesn't draw a single breath!" He held out a hand and his weapon, a majestic orange and black flaming spear, appeared in his hand.
"We can ensure all of these, or die trying!" He finished, slamming the base of his spear onto the ground.
His words filled their burdened hearts with new courage and determination, and there was a deafening cheer as they each raised their own weapons, filling the space with a myriad of unending colours.
"Go after the Enemy at once!!" The War Deity continued. "The demons are powerful, but we outnumber them, and can outmaneuver them! Stick to the plan and decimate the enemy!"
There was thunderous cheer from the soldiers and he waved a hand.
"Disperse." He said simply and they swiftly vanished, leaving him and the two Sky Generals behind.
One of the Sky Generals seemed a bit confused as to what this plan was, but the War Deity simply turned.
"We're moving as well! Go to the planned locations!"
"Yes Master!" Both bowed and vanished.
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