Some unimaginable distance away from the silently fuming An Fei, a certain Immortal youth sat in a grassy plain with his back against a large tree. His azure irises gleaming as they pierced through the illusion of the pale skies above his head, Bai Xing unconsciously rubbed his fingers.
Sometimes, he couldn’t help but allow his mind to wander around, recalling the vivid memory of his encounter with a young mortal girl…
…well, her head was surprisingly soft to the touch, and rather comforting when he stroked it.
And when he had chanced upon the opportunity to calm and nourish the unusually chaotic soul – or what was left of it – the feedback from the mortal girl with its sincerity and gentleness warmed his heart…
“Ah, Bai Xing, Bai Xing,” the youth shook his head to console himself with a dash of mockery.
“Pining over women at your age? She’s a mortal girl who’s essentially in her teenage years – as a mortal! Think of the age gap, ah…”
Considering the difference between the designation of an Immortal’s age and a mortal’s age… he was bound to be a monster when compared to the mortal girl.
An undying monster who was probably born before her ancestors’ ancestors had yet to be conceived. His age surpassed even that of Dongfang Yu and the other youths, and the young Immortal found himself brooding over the slightly disappointing fact.
After all… the mortal girl, however the old man surnamed An pronounced her as a granddaughter, she was essentially a mortal spawn he had conceived while visiting a mortal world…
Bai Xing chuckled, while his mind silently flickered through the ever-expanding lexicons of descriptions and terminologies utilized in the mortal worlds.
Selecting a few that seemed to appeal to his characteristics whilst skirting the line of being labeled as a “cradle robber”, the young Immortal plucked a delicate flower from the ground, and brushed his fingers over the petals glistening with the morning dew.
“Elderly, ancestral, decayed, withered… which shall you choose, little one?”
Bai Xing softly crooned, his fingers plucking a petal with each description he landed upon himself. When he had arrived at the last few petals, the Immortal youth paused for a few moments, his lips gently drew into a warming smile.
“Handsome, caring, husba –“
There was a soft quiver within the void, and a soft chill spread down Bai Xing’s back. Without further ado, the young immortal’s azure irises flashed with divine intent, and his figure vanished from the mortal world.
PENG!
The smallest increment of time possible had passed, and the merciless point of a handle-less sword buried itself into the submissive earth. As it passed through space, the tree that Bai Xing had once rested his back upon, as well as the ground that he sat, were completely eradicated and reduced to dust.
“Please… at least have the sense to inform someone of a surprise attack, no?”
Bai Xing’s lazy voice echoed through the panicking plains as his figure returned to the mortal world. The Immortal youth released a soft sigh as he stared at the flower gently clasped in his hands, completely ignoring that upon the handle-less steel sword, a certain set of inscriptions began shimmering with a baleful aura…
“The last word was husband… I suppose that would be the most fitting conclusion for you, should it not, mortal girl?”
Bai Xing murmured as he reached out to pluck the remaining petal of the flower. The moment his fingertips clamped onto the white lobe of cellulose, the handle-less sword triggered a small explosion in the earth.
ROAR!!
With a combination of azure and scarlet light erupting from the inscriptions intricately inlaid on the blade, the steel blade aimed the lethal point towards the heart of the young immortal.
As an endless torrent of profanities and malevolence dripped from the blood grooves, the handle-less sword gently quivered in the air.
Its gentle and retrained motion was rather inconspicuous and indiscernable amongst the chaotic spatial fog generated by the divine essence entrapped in polar states of vaporizing and depositing, but Bai Xing’s eyes instinctively narrowed. A faint hint of danger sparked in his heart, and his hands shot towards the expansive pockets in his robe.
Of course, he couldn’t forget to stow away the flower with a single remaining petal in his chest pocket, where it rested directly above his heart. Just as soon as the fingertips of his left hand removed themselves from the azure robe, the handle-less sword vanished from the mortal world.
It merely disappeared without sound or discernable trace. The abruptness at which the sword dripping in malevolence declared its presence and exit caused the young Immortal to furrow his brows in confusion and wariness.
He knew that the troubles had just started to begin, and he wasn’t proven wrong.
Bang!
The molecules of the world shrieked in pain, frustration, and anger as a foreign object began to brusquely take their place without fulfilling any of the requisite conditions. Surrounding Bai Xing on all sides, an large quantity of golden chains smashed into the world to declare their presence.
The chains were constructed from an unusual metal that was without color, but a powerful radiance of golden light erupted from its surface.
Though it wasn’t entirely transparent or invisible, Bai Xing’s heart pounded as he gradually realized that should the golden radiance not be present in declaring the chains’ presence, he would never have noticed their manifested form – even with divine perception.
But that wasn’t the end of his troubles. Far from it.
The golden chains triggered an unusual phenomenon onto the world. Whatever the golden chains touched, they transformed it into elements from the Realm.
The earth below Bai Xing’s feet was replaced by the cruel and unfeeling void. The skies, on the other hand, were replaced with the archaic silhouette of a broken sanctuary.
The major temple halls, the side wings and corridors, as well as the primary sanctorium at the center were all clear indicators of what the silhouette indicated. What Bai Xing could not comprehend, was why below his feet was the void, but above his head was a broken sanctuary.
However, matters of confusion aside, the unbounded aggression radiating from the golden chains were sufficient to alter Bai Xing’s expressions. The gentle demeanor and kind countenance of a handsome youth gradually disappeared, revealing an unfeeling and brutal coldness.
“Whoever you are, attacking someone without professing your reason isn’t necessarily a wise idea… particularly with this much malice…”
The voice was soft and gentle as ever, but the viciousness that was naturally integrated within couldn’t be ignored. Bai Xing slowly raised his right arm, revealing an unsheathed dirk held in a reverse grip.
The handle of the dirk was smooth and constructed of an unknown origin indeterminate of either metal nor nonmetal composition, and the blade was adorned with a series of intelligible inscriptions of blood-colored ink. When Bai Xing raised the dirk to be level with the golden chain closest to his body, the dagger began to howl with a thirst for blood.
The young Immortal prepared his body for a swift attack intended to sever the chains in two via infusion of divine essence, but the golden chains abruptly vibrated. A subtle communication sauntered over to relay its contents to Bai Xing’s soul, causing his expression to shift rapidly.
“Wait! You’re the mortal girl’s – Hold on!!!!”
The golden chains paid the stumbling youth any attention no longer, and the sanctuary above Bai Xing’s head began crashing down towards the infinite void.
Soon after, the horrified cries of a youth echoed through the plains.
–
“See? I told you – the sword would come back on its own volition.”
A young girl mumbled to an invisible scarlet dragon as she walked through the streets of a bustling city. An Fei swung her arms at her side in a cheerful mood as she waded through the sea of innumerable, busy civilians and cultivators, and her fingers occasionally drifted towards her bangs to toy with a white lotus petal.
Xilong released a quiet snort of disapproval, and immediately sighed afterwards.
“So you’ve even lost control of your own self?”
“Lose control over my own self?” the young girl repeated in a confused tone.
“What do you mean – I lost control over my own self? When did that happen?”
“…nothing.”
The heavenly dragon merely sighed for a second time, brushing away the nuisance of a conversational topic with a wave of its claws. No matter how many times An Fei attempted to wheedle information from it, the aged scarlet dragon stayed stalwart to its morals.
“Fine, fine, you can keep your secrets!” the young girl huffed in disappointment.
“But at the least, you’ve got to tell me why I need to be here, in this city within Bei Tang.”
