Dark clouds surrounded the battlefield as the wind howls above the skies of ChuanXi. Two men quelled against each other overpowered by might and great resentment. Zhuge Liang opened his fan and sent destructive fireballs and incantations at ShaoTian. ShaoTian evaded most of his attacks however, with him, still clinging upon the curse of evil tree in calming the Shangguan Longyan's effect, it seems like his stamina was already running out. ShaoTian gnashed his teeth in anger. The more that he is empowered by resentment, the more does the curse suppress the effects of the divine weapon. As their blades touched each other, the skies shook making it bleed in crimson color. Great amount of anxieties were visible among the people of the Dragon Blade's Kingdom. Although they are situated faraway from the battle, it would happen that their kingdom would sometimes shake in tremors due to the fight against Zhuge Liang and ShaoTian.
"As I have expected, you are running out of time ShaoTian. You're like a fly that had landed over a water buffalo's head (arrogant) yet your mouth chose to spew poison rather than flowers."
"I never told you that I would give up on battling you. Even if I'll die, I will always strive on killing you!"
"You're digging your own grave.(asking for death)"
"I do not dig my own grave. I'm making a coffin for you to lay in when you die!"
Clanks of swords resounded the skies. YingLuo and MoXiao looked terribly worried as they saw their father battling the monstrous Zhuge Liang. Their mother hasn't awakened yet and they got their ayí XuanZheng to take care of her.
"Ayí, I fear that father might not last for too long..."
"YingLuo... What do you mean?"
"I said I would respect his wishes but... I wouldn't want him to die either."
"YingLuo you should not—"
"Ayí. I have decided."
"Luo'mei... You should not step up there! Your father has been infected by the evil tree's curse. Right now, he can never tell who are his enemies or his friends."
"It's a risk I know. But I could not let father die. Not this time ayí."
"Luo'mei!"
YingLuo flew up the sky without saying a word and casted an incantation making his father fall unconscious. She knocked him down using her fan and carefully delivered him to MoXiao.
"Sis!"
"I know Xiao'er. I will teach this bastard a lesson."
"But sis..."
"No more buts. Blossoms are falling as we speak.(Time is running out)"
"Alright sis. Go and take down that monster."
"Hao."
Stepping up the clouds and levitated in the air, YingLuo held the white fan adorned with lotus in her hand. Zhuge Liang gave a hellish smile at her and then spoke with a smirk on his face.
"I never thought you'd pick a fan as a divine weapon. Copycat."
"Silence. You're blurring out my concentration."
"Tch. Arrogant mosquito. Join your ancestors then!(You can die then)"
Zhuge Liang prepared a spell using his fan and a blazing ball suddenly descended from the sky. YingLuo managed to avoid the Immolating hellfire and swished her fan towards the blaze. Zephyr immediately put off the fire. Seeing that YingLuo quenched away the fire, Zhuge Liang became infuriated.
"How dare you! You pesky mortal!"
"I'm either mortal or immortal sissy. If you mention something about my birth (origin) you could've just mentioned the full details!"
"Silence! Eghhh. Since you have impressed me with your skills, I shall go all-out."
"Fine by me."
Having second thoughts, Zhuge Liang looked at his divine weapon. He thought that if he would let his divine weapon be corrupted by the evil resentment aura from the ancient evil tree, he fear that he would lose control of his consciousness but... By doing so... He'll be more overpowered.
"I WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED BY ANYONE! NOT IN THIS LIFETIME NOT ON ANOTHER!"
"No!!!"
It was too late. YingLuo could not penetrate the aura on Zhuge Liang. The ancient evil tree started devouring his spirit by corrupting his divine weapon. His purple pupils turned to red. The black rashes of curse climbed all the way up to his face. His horns that were visibly shown grew humongous like that of a full-grown male ram and his short-trimmed silver hair grew long up to his back. Screams of the pained Zhuge Liang filled the night sky. Lightning streaked across the crimson painted clouds.
XuanWu awakened after a while of sleeping. She looked up at the dark sky and saw a horrific scene that brings tears in her eyes. She got up and yelled loudly from where she stood.
"Zhuge Yuan! What have you done?!"
Looking at his sister, XuanZheng put her hands on her shoulders. She calmed her sister who is crying hysterically.
"XuanWu... Why do you mourn for him?"
"Zhuge Yuan was just a misunderstood man. I never thought that he'd jump over the wall.(get desperate)"
"He's a monster sister. Right now your daughter YingLuo is fighting him."
"Yes. YingLuo is strong I know he can defeat Liang but his weapon... His weapon has been corrupted by the ancient evil tree's resentful aura. Once his weapon breaks... He'll never..."
"But I thought Immortals reincarnate into infants after their weapon breaks."
"No sister. You thought wrong. Once a corrupted weapon breaks... An immortal will die along with his corrupted soul so he could not return. The divine weapon is the soul of the immortal itself."
"This is bad. YingLuo!!!"
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Shaking his head, Wei Yue flipped every book that he selected from the Jade phoenix's library. His relationship with King Fu will be severed if he die and people might suspect that they killed the king by moving in to ChuanXi city on such a short notice. He never left any book's pages unflipped. Until he could find the source of the poison that the culprit used for King Fu's poisoning, then he might soon find an antidote for him.
Sweat ran down from his head as he flipped through the pages. He wiped it off using the sleeve of his robe. Footsteps closed in on his front and a hand extended a handkerchief. It was Zhao Min.
"Your highness Fenghuang Wang. Forgive me for my intrusion but you shouldn't wipe your sweat with your own royal robe's sleeve. It's like putting mud over your face. (discourtesy)"
"Thank you Zhao Min. What are you doing here?"
"I was just walking by and saw you read some books. You wiped your sweat with your sleeve so I give you this handkerchief. Now, if you may excuse me your highness, I have matters to attend to."
"Hao. You may go."
After bowing to each other, Zhao Min quietly exited the room. Wei Yue was bothered about the thought of Zhao Min being in WenXi rather than going on ChuanXi Dragon Blade's Kingdom. The thought lingered at his mind so he decided to stalk her and see what she is up to.
At the corner of the palace, Zhao Min looked left and right and afterwards blew a whistling tune. A dark fog appeared out of nowhere and from it, a woman with pale skin, silver hair and pitch black eyes stepped out.
When Wei Yue saw this, he held his breath and hid himself behind the palace's outer walls.
He heard her exchanged words with the woman.
"Zhao ZuQian. Have you poisoned King Fu successfully?"
"Yes I have senior sister."
"Good. Make sure that the Dragon Blade's leader dies and I reward you when you return."
"Yes senior sister."
Wei Yue heard enough. Even with a short breath, he ran up inside the palace looking for General Hua. Luckily, he saw him lying down beside a lotus pond underneath a plum tree.
He ran up to him and hysterically gestured him something. With his breath still catching up, he could not speak well...
"*panth panth* Gene...ral... Hua... *panth panth* *gesture* *gesture*"
"What is it your highness and why are you out of breath?"
He kept gesturing but General Hua could not decipher any of those gestures that he made.
"Uhh... Sire? You're uuh... Single? Uhh... Two? Double? You're looking for a wife?" Uhh Drink? Drink what? You want to drink? It's late you don't want to drink liquor this late!"
"ERRR! HUA FEIXIAN!!! I NEED YOU IN MY ROOM RIGHT NOW!"
"And you're becoming man-eater now? Please don't cross the line sire. I will marry YingLuo please don't do anything mischievous to me!"
"*panth* *panth* Idiot! Carry me in my room!"
"Uh... Alright alright sire!"
"I— I know who poisoned King Fu and she's here."
General Hua's eyes shook. He hurriedly carried Wei Yue in his back.
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Droplets of blood fell from YingLuo's nose. Never had she expected that Zhuge Liang's strength would increase in such a short time. She reached for a pill from her pocket but she already had ran out of it.
With bloodshot eyes, Zhuge Liang moved hastily baring his claws and swinging his fan to attack YingLuo.
YingLuo would return every attack that he would make but her spiritual energy is now on it's limit.
'Nothing would stop this monster unless I'll call the Sage Sun Wukong. But... I have to sacrifice my life in return.'
She was almost giving up. Her robe was full of blood from her wounds. YingLuo gripped her fan forcefully as Zhuge Liang was about to unleash a full scale attack.
'There's no other choice.'
Raising her fan up to the sky YingLuo uttered the incantation that kept the monkey king sealed. Drawing a lotus in the air, she called upon Buddha beckoning him to unseal Sun Wukong.
" Oh, Ye! Wukong the mighty king of thousand gold spears, break youself free from the lotus contraption!"
The sky opened up and down descended the Jade Palace's Immortal, Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.
He caught the unconscious YingLuo and caressed her hair then spoke.
"I have fell in love with a human once XuanWu. It did not turn out well. But for this once, I was called by a half-immortal half-mundane and it delights me to help you vanquish evil. I will not let Buddha take her life force from unsealing me. She should keep her life and cherish the one she loves. Her lover, Her family, and most of all, her friends..."
Sun Wukong pulled out a hair from his head and duplicated himself. He instructed the puppet to take YingLuo down to XuanZheng.
"YOU! SUN WUKONG! YOU PESKY MONKEY! I WILL TEAR YOU TO SHREDS!"
Wukong flicked his hand and a staff then came hurling across the horizon. He caught the staff beating Zhuge Liang. He was precisely aiming at his divine weapon. With every hit that their weapon touched each other, the small crack grew larger.
Finally, Zhuge Liang's weapon was about to break. Sun Wukong gave him a choice.
"I will leave you with two choices. You will come and face Buddha or break hour weapon right now. If you come with me, Buddha might spare your life by purifying you to the immortal butterfly's cocoon. But if you choose to believe the false philosophy that you believe in, you might as well break your weapon right now before I will break it myself."
Zhuge Liang froze. Like a cornered dog, he knelt in front of Wukong and surrendered his weapon. Tears fell from his eyes as he saw Wukong take him away by a cloud.
He woke up once again and found himself inside a great temple of clouds.
Pristine waters ran down upon each cloud. The residence of Buddha is quite an exquisite view to behold. He raised his head and saw Buddha.
Buddha's grace sparked inside of him that brought him to his knees and cry. All this time Zhuge Liang felt anger, jealousy, and hatred but now it was different.
He smiled as tears ran down from his eyes. Buddha raised his palm and a bright light showered upon Zhuge Liang.