Flame dark red sky surrounded TaoYan city as Lu XueCao played a grisly tune using his GuZheng. Two corpses of a man and a woman laid in front of him with a piece of parchment written with inscriptions placed on their foreheads. As he played more, two dark spirits appeared from his GuZheng. The spirits descended to the bodies and immediately, the man and the woman opened their eyes. XueCao was delighted seeing the two finally reincarnated.
He managed to let go of his GuZheng and examined the recreated corpses that he made.
The man was named QiuShan Li, a General that defended Suzhou from the great invasion of Mongolian army hundreds of years ago and the woman was named Qing Luan, a traitor from the Water palace that has been sentenced to death by Shui Yuhan, after she found out about her hidden motives.
"Arise."
The two corpses stood up straight.
"Hao. Hao... You two have not been fully incarnated. Now, I want you to strike fear into the hearts of mundanes. Go to Siyu and feed off souls from everyone including women and unborn children. Do not leave any stone unturned until you can recover enough spiritual energy."
The two of the corpses nodded and afterwards disappeared into nothingness leaving only the two talismans that were used before. XueCao laughed sinisterly. Finally, the demonic era starts with his hands.
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With Zhao Min missing on the scene, she was labeled as the culprit in all that had happened but deep in YingLuo's heart, she still considered Zhao Min as one of her partners. After hearing the news, Yin E'laa parted ways with them to personally tell the Grandmaster of Emei about Zhao Min's crimes and her involvement with demonic cultivators.
Meanwhile, inside the Dragon Palace's library, MoXiao flipped pages of every book that involved demonic cults looking for any clue about the ancient evil tree and his father's condition. His eyes almost swelled as morning time turned to afternoon.
It also happened that LanRong decided to descend upon the mortal realm to check upon XuanWu and the progress of her mission in dissecting the box out of ShaoTian's body to heal High Goddess Chang 'E.
"XuanZheng how is XuanWu doing?"
"She is fine now. She just needs to rest her body."
"About Goddess Chang 'e. She's in real trouble. I need your help to extract the box from ShaoTian."
"I will think about it. Currently, ShaoTian's condition wasn't very stable. If you want to see, I can show you."
"Hao. Lead the way."
XuanZheng led LanRong inside ShaoTian's room. She placed a spell upon ShaoTian to check the condition of the box inside his soul.
"As you can see LanRong, ShaoTian's soul has been wrapped with a thick amount of resentment. Extracting it right now might break his soul in return."
"But Goddess Chang 'e... She's dying."
"I know. I will find another way to heal her without using the power of the box."
"What do you mean?"
XuanZheng held out her hands and a black flute appeared on it. LanRong's eyes grew big.
"It couldn't be. It's..."
"I know. I should have thrown this instrument of chaos long ago but I chose to keep it."
"How... How will you save the High Goddess?"
"I can manipulate any form of miasma caused by resentment from the ancient evil. Thus, by playing this flute, I will transfer the miasma from Chang 'e's wound into my body in order for the Goddess of healing to close her wounds."
"But XuanZheng... That would mean..."
"Yes. I'm used to the ancient evil tree's miasma so, it's for the best for me to take the sacrifice."
"Enn. We will do our best to purify you."
"No. They have knew me as a lost cause. A fallen Goddess thrown into the abyss so it might as well be good for me to embrace my destiny."
"XuanZheng..."
"Before we depart, you can have a short moment with MoXiao. You miss him right?"
LanRong turned red peppers and averted her sight from XuanZheng. XuanZheng laughed softly and directed LanRong outside the room.
"Go and talk with him."
Nodding her head, LanRong soon then walked towards MoXiao who is now sleeping soundly inside the library with books scattered wide open on the floor and on the table.
She walked towards him and caressed her long hair. Her hands traced his forehead up to his nose. LanRong thought that MoXiao was sleeping heavily but a firm and gentle hand caught her and their lips intertwined with each other while on top of the table.
Piping hot steamy moment occurred a while later. Their hands traced each other like they have missed each other for years. Their longing intensified but...
*drop*
Someone was standing at the door.
Wei Yue gulped a saliva and afterwards ran out of the room screaming like a girl.
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A white owl squealed and swooped down up to YingLuo. She let the bird perch on her hand and removed a letter from it's claws. As she removed the letter, she let go of the owl and it flew back high up the sky.
She carefully unrolled the scroll and read the letter inside.
Dear Na YingLuo,
We need you as an asset for us in Siyu. The Ming Grandmaster Jiu Gong wanted to declare war upon Emei because of the injustice done to his people in Siyu. He said that he had found an evidence in Siyu that his people had been murdered by a magic that Emei practices. Please Qingqing... Go to Siyu and prove him wrong. Investigate around the area that had been ravaged by the culprit.
We have also heard about Zhao Min's dishonesty and unfair use of
her siphoning soul by switching to demonic cultivation. We will not let go of this matter and never tolerate those who led astray of Emei's teachings.
-Emei Grandmaster
Jue Chen
With hands shaking, YingLuo rolled back the paper and afterwards went inside her room. FeiXian have been already waiting for her inside but she doesn't seem to pay any attention to him as she packed the things that she would be needing for her journey to Siyu.
"Not so fast YingLuo... Why are you like this? You're ignoring me?"
"I'm not ignoring you it's just.. Augh.."
She sat at the bedside at put her palms on her face. She had been dealing through a lot. Everytime one problem has been resolved, another problem arises.
"What's the matter YingLuo. Can't you tell me what are the contents of the letter that you just received?"
"It's none of your business."
"Here we go again. None of my business, go away, blah blah blah. I'm your future husband so you better tell me what on earth is going on."
"The grandmaster of Emei just wrote a letter for me telling me to go to Siyu and investigate."
"Investigate? I'm coming with you."
"The mission said about 'ONLY EMEI DISCIPLES' why are you tagging along?"
"Of course I'm tagging along. Anywhere you go, I'll go."
"Jeez! There's no helping it then."
Hua FeiXian prepared the horses and secretly set off a journey with YingLuo heading for the desert of Siyu.
The city of Siyu has village at it's opening and a Ming's Guard base at it's side. They stopped to check at the houses but there was no one there. As they looked more, they saw dead corpses at Siyu's guard base.
The dead guard corpses had their eyes bleed to death and their mouths filled with a cicadas larva.
"This is horrible who did you think did this to them?"
"Jiu Gong the Grandmaster of Ming accuses us of using Cicada's repentance on these victims however, there was one problem. Cicada's repentance wasn't taught to us."
"So who do you think framed Emei for this crime?"
"Someone who would want the great schools to exhibit powers and destroy each other..."
YingLuo removed the cicada's larvae from the dead man's corpse. She slit a little wound on her finger and poured it on the cicada. The cicada turned into a horrendous animal with many teeth. YingLuo swished her fan and the animal was suddenly cut into bits.
"If I'm not wrong, only demonic cultists can do this."
"This is no pressing matter YingLuo. Let's send a letter to his highness Wei Yue."
"No... We need more proof."
YingLuo continued to examine the corpses. She managed to cut the robes and looked for the chest. Her eyes grew wide at the horrid thing that she witnessed.
"FeiXian... We should hurry back and report to Emei's Grandmaster."