Once, there were only four Shuras that ruled the dark realm until all of them were captured and imprisoned by the High immortals for their threat against the human realm. The humans were feeble creatures and they always seek protection to the ones who are beyond powerful than them. Because of this, they abused the kindness that the immortals give. The Shuras that had survived the siege hid within the mortals hiding their true identities in their mundane shell.
"W-Who are you?" Jin Ren's eyes shook as he saw the woman standing in front of him. The aura that she emits is very different than those of other immortals but she gives the same scent as QingHai.
"I am Lan Luo Wei, the Blood Orchid's Shura and the woman that devout herself to protect you not just in this lifetime but also on other lifetimes."
The stranger was as surprised as Jin Ren. Sweat ran down on his brows and fear painted on his face as the Shura stood in front of them all.
Mo Xiao was astounded and afterwards came back to his senses. He suddenly thought about the way the Magic-Releasing Horn works and never thought that he had summoned such powerful being. Now, all that it takes is that ask her if she's on their side or on the enemies'.
Mo Xiao cleared his throat before speaking and calmed himself.
"Blood Orchid Shura... I am Na Mo Xiao, a half-immortal. I was the one who released you from you mortal shell and assumed your original form. May I ask if you are on our side or his?" Mo Xiao pointed at the stranger while staring cold daggers.
There was a brief moment of silence after he asked the question. All of them were staring intently at each other. Luo Wei wanted to break the ice. She first looked at the stranger and afterwards looked again at Mo Xiao and Jin Ren.
'Based on my judgement, before I shed my mortal shell, that man (Jin Ren) was protecting this little girl and that lad (Mo Xiao) is protecting this girl.'
She paused briefly and afterwards walked a few steps towards the stranger. She looked him eye to eye and afterwards sighed inwardly and turned her back.
"This one's one fraud immortal."
Luo Wei flicked her hand that sent the stranger hurling across the ground until he hit his head on a tree. The stranger could see galaxies floating above his eyes as he was knocked unconscious by Luo Wei.
Mo Xiao and Jin Ren were speechless at what they have witnessed. Apparently, Luo Wei realized what had happened before she was awakened and thought of the initiative of knocking down the bad guy as soon as possible.
Luo Wei helped Jin Ren up along with Mo Xiao and walked gradually towards the opening of the forest.
"Do you have a hut? I can heal him but don't let other mortals see me." Luo Wei asked Mo Xiao.
"Let's carry him inside the kingdom." He replied.
"Kingdom? I thought Old Jianghu had no Emperors or Empresses?"
"No... Actually, we have two kingdoms, the other was ruled by the benevolent leader, Emperor Xiaoxing Fu of the kingdom of the Dragon Blade."
"So I have been sleeping for thousands of years, so much has changed."
"Enn. But that doesn't change the fact that you're a Shura. Either you are considered as a threat or a curse."
"It is as what I had expected. Immortals led humans to believe a lie that they create. Fools."
"Except us. We had connived with the sixth Shura."
"Sixth Shura? I thought I was the last one."
"You're wrong. This time, with his help, we are able to prove that some immortals colluded on the last destruction of Old Jianghu and some of them were high immortals."
"And where is this Sixth Shura now?"
"In the Dark Realm."
"I am going to talk to him."
"Yes, but first help me heal Jin Ren."
"Alright."
LanRong begged at the chamberlains to use the divine healing fountain below the fortress of the Jade Phoenix's kingdom. Nobody knew of the existence of the fountain except LanRong, Wei Yue and FeiXian but to LanRong's suprise, the woman knew the way to the fountain very well.
Doubt filled LanRong's insides as she walked side by side holding the injured Jin Ren with the white-haired woman. She took turns glancing at the woman for several times until the woman stopped walking and stared at her.
"You, young lady… What's your name?"
"Z—Zhuge... LanRong…"
"You are Zhuge Liang's daughter?"
"Y—yes."
"No wonder… You have your father's eyes."
"T—Thank you."
"Don't thank me. Your father's eyes were pretty ugly."
LanRong just paused there with eyes full of fénnú as the white-haired witch took steps descending to the lower most part of the palace. When she snapped back to her senses, LanRong found them both soaked in a pool filled with pristine blue waters coming from a Phoenix-carved golden fountain. Two tigers were guarding the pool angrily staring at LanRong.
She was about to pull her divine weapon when the white-haired woman shouted… "STOP! Don't move an inch or the spirit guardians will kill you."
LanRong could only do as she says. She nodded and sat in a comfortable position in front of the pool.
"LanRong… You can do spirit reconnaissance am I right?"
"Yes, shura."
"Don't call me like that. I have a name. I am Lan Luo Wei fourth generation leader of the Lan clan."
"Alright, now… Could you tell me why you became a Shura? Lan Clan is one of the formidable clans in Old Jianghu. The Seventh generation leader is outstanding and—"
"I can only tell you this LanRong, I became a shura after being betrayed by my clan."
"B—Betrayed?"
Their conversation halted as walls began shaking and the golden phoenix statue moved erratically. The tiger spirit guardians became twice in size baring their fangs against LanRong. The water coming from the statue stopped running.
"Hurry LanRong… Run! Get out of here, I'll take care of this."
"Thank you, ayí."
Running as fast as she can, LanRong wanted to escape the tigers as fast possible. Luo Wei grabbed one of the tigers but the other one managed to get to LanRong and nibbed on her left leg.
LanRong shouted in anguish as the tiger's fangs sank on her delicate skin.
Luo Wei have no other choice but to use her ability as a Shura.
'Zhuge Liang, I will now return the favor.'
Luo Wei closed her eyes. For a minute, nothing seems to be happening except for blood red petals showing gradually out of nothingness. As Luo Wei opened her eyes, the petals exploded and turned into huge crimson-scaled snakes. The snakes obeyed her and coiled themselves on the erratically behaving golden phoenix statue.
"Blood Orchid's Demise…"
Luo Wei whispered in her breath and the snakes coiled themselves tightly causing the statue to crack and afterwards shatter into pieces. The spirit guardians in the form of tigers stopped attacking and turned back into stone.
Luo Wei concentrated and dissipated the snakes back into blood red petals. The petals fell on the fountain making it glow in sheer crimson.
LanRong was still rooted in her position. The pain was too great that she could only scream and cry seeing her leg being injured badly.
Luo Wei could not leave both of them to ask help from above the palace but then, an idea spurted out of her head.
She took a petal and turned it into a small crimson serpent.
"Find Mo Xiao tell him that LanRong is injured. Lure him here."
The snake hissed in reply and Luo Wei put it on the ground.
Luo Wei rushed up to LanRong and mended the wound by her power. The power of the blood orchid does not only conjure crimson-scale serpents but has also the ability to seal the meridian of one person or immortal to prevent the leakage of divine prowess from coming out of their body.
LanRong was then put to sleep by Luo Wei. Although her wounds are very bad, the bleeding had already stopped and also as an effect of her closed meridian, she is now in a state of temporal sleep.
Few more moments passed and Luo Wei heard footsteps coming from above descending rapidly below.
It was Mo Xiao. As soon as Mo Xiao got her message, he immediately followed the snake. Pulling his divine weapon, Mo Xiao tried to heal LanRong with his divine prowess but Luo Wei stopped him.
"She was bitten by a spirit guardian. I sealed her meridian to prevent the leakage of her divine prowess. If you heal her using yours, you might as well consider her dead."
"The wounds… They're too great."
"Did you bring a needle with you?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Give me the needle."
Mo Xiao pulled a long needle from his pouch. Although Tangmen needles are poisonous, Luo Wei worked it's ways of diminishing the poison using her snakes to absorb it out of the needle.
Finally, the needle is now poison-free. Mo Xiao looked around and looked back at his pouch.
"I think I may have forgotten to bring a thread."
"Don't worry. I have an idea."
Luo Wei conjured some petals from her hands and made them into a fine thread. She then sewed LanRong's wound shut and cut the thread with her hands afterwards.
"How…"
"Before I became the clan leader's wife, I remembered that I was doctor."
"A doctor? You heal the sick?"
"Only physically but soon I had to practice deep magic to cure serious health problems."
"Deep magic is prohibited long ago, I've read it on Tangmen books. Once you get caught you get punished."
"That's why I only entrusted my clan about my secret… But unfortunately… They all betrayed me."
"Why would they do that?"
"Boy, you should know… In this world, may it be you're good or you're bad… The fact still remains the same… If people wants to betray you, they'll eventually betray you."