บท 69: The Wrath of the Crystal-veined Stream Lord

Hana was busily flurrying around finding her best cutlery and cleaning up the cave; an anticipation of welcoming important guests! She was immune to all the hubbub outside. After all, she knew the kids were always quite loud when they started to show off in front of each other. She had sent Ara away to receive her great grandpa in after telling him to be more polite and apologize. She knew they needed some alone time to straight things up between them before they could all sit together in harmony.

This abrupt visit was like welcoming the guardians of her sons' friends to get to know each other. She must leave a good impression! With that, the elders would be at ease leaving their kid in her protection from today onward. Another thing was, Ara's guardians would've been stinking rich! Being in their good graces wouldn't do her wrong at all!

"The plates are over here, and the bowls is here. Hmm... Do they need a glass of water when they can conjure up water by themselves? No need, no need." The aunty was talking to herself animatedly as a yellow bird observed her from the side.

When she cleaned up the mess left behind by the kids, she came across the left over 'shrimp' skewer made from the marinated crawfish meat Ara had eaten before. There're about three bites left. Should she toss it away? It's not nice to let others ate leftover from someone else.

She gulped her saliva after a whiff. [Damn. Can't I just have a very tiny bite? Just for a taste? She was very much tempted by the notion!]

[Just a tiny bite! Then, I'll ask Ara to finish it up! I'm sure she won't mind. Huhuhu..] After hesitating, Hana bit a tiny portion of the skewer. A tiny bite won't be detrimental, she thought; just like when u eat a very tiny bit of chilli as oppose to a big bite.

Immediately, a sweet-savory taste tinged with a slight saltiness mixed with spiciness invaded her olfactory. She slowly savored the taste while chewing a few moments longer before swallowing. [This is so good! I'm such a great cook! Pity, I only dare to taste this much.] She praised herself incessantly with pride. She actually loved this mystical place where she can get fresh premium-grade food ingredients for cooking. It's the silver lining that made her stay positive. Somehow, deep inside, she longed to stay a little longer so that she could sampled out many more wonderous things.

That tiny bite had suddenly made Hana felt extremely bloated! She felt pain crawling her entire body, like being bitten by thousands of ants as she passed out!

...

Lord Tittua followed Kuro and Shiro's back while the elder moved a step behind him. As they were getting closer, Ara was waiting tens of meters outside the cave. She was trembling like a little leaf being blown in all directions. Lord Tittua observed his great granddaughter while chuckling in his heart with happiness. He was glad she wasn't chained or anything. It might be a show of goodwill from the opposing party. Ara's previous breakthrough just now had wiped away all the worry and anger he felt towards her.

[She was so afraid! So cute!] He peered into his great granddaughter's consciousness to observe the aquamarine spiritual core she had just manifested.

Suddenly he noticed a faint foreign rune written in an unknown language swimming inside the core! Although he didn't know what was written on them, he was extremely familiar with them! He immediately observed her soul and noticed half of it was missing!

The stunned expression of her great grandpa had frightened Ara greatly. She swallowed her saliva and whispered slowly, "So sorry for running away, Great Grandpa. As I said, I was looking for this spiritual herb.."

"AUDACIOUS!" An angry shout reverberated in the forest. It was so loud and overbearing, the resounding echo had made the critters, ferocious animals, and reptiles went into hiding, and the numerous panicked birds dispersed simultaneously from their nests in a fifty kilometer radius! A number of high-leveled spiritual beasts, namely the Silver-banded Eagle Monarch, the Queens and Kings of the Elemental Fiends, and a few more hidden experts around the area could feel the sudden burst of hostile spiritual sense!

The wrath of the Crystal-veined stream Lord had badly shaken a kilometer radius of rainforest around them, as if a 7.0 richter scale earthquake! The grounds were displaced while the large chunks of rocks, trees and debris floated into the air. Ara was so scared with her great grandfather's sudden outburst, she quickly floated to the back of the two brothers.

At the exact moment the two boys had detected Lord Tittua's might laced with extreme rage, they had instantly worked together to make a spiritual barrier and covered the whole cave where their mistress and a bird were staying. Shiro had been spurting mouthful over mouthful of blood in the process as he was already badly injured from the previous standoff with the Crystal-veined stream Lord. After all, Lord Tittua was much stronger than them.

Lord Tittua was in an extreme rage! How dare the existence inside the cave enslaved his one and only pure-blooded genius descendant! He wished to tear the creature and sunder it into smithereens right here, right now! The worst of the worse was it was the life-and-death kind! Once that spiritual beast dies, it will bring along all of its contractual beasts with it, either to heaven or to the pits of hell!

The shout portrayed the extreme unwillingness from the Crystal-veined stream Lord's side, as he knew he couldn't do anything to release Ara from enslavement. If he killed the creature inside the cave, it was effectively killing his own poor little great granddaughter too. Their lives were already tied at the soul-level!

Watershade was trying his best to calm his agitated Lord, "Stay your hand, Lord. Please calm yourself! Aranyella will be injured if you continue like this! Let's discuss this first!" He exhorted a few times while glancing worriedly at the little pink fish, hiding behind the two spiritual beasts' back. He felt a pang of bitterness from how she behaved, as it was obvious, she had stood by the outsiders instead of her own family members! Was the princess of their clan a lost cause? He had placed such high hopes and expectation on her.

A shivering little yellow bird flew out of the cave when she realized the mighty pink fish had calm down and judged he wouldn't have any episodes of outbursts again anytime soon. She chirped nervously at the brothers, "Guys, something happen to your mistress! She is unconscious!"

...

Author's Notes:

(1) seven orifices = namely the two ears, two eyes, two nostrils and one mouth. Basically, internal injuries depicted in xianxia novels always had blood gushing out from these seven orifices (laughing)