Chapter 37

Feng jiu had felt something crash against her shields as a deafening bang came from the sky.


From what everyone could see, some kind of huge flying creatures had hurtled towards the celestial palace but instead crashed against a huge blue circle of light that had seemed to appear out of nowhere. As they stepped back and collided with the blue light again, the light expanded forming a dome around the sky kingdom which then swiftly turned golden. This golden shield was very familiar to every celestial. They had been living under it for weeks by that time.


It was lian song though that asked donghua about it. "the blue light?"


Donghua was busy observing the creatures, still, he replied, "xaio bai didn't think it wise to remove the shields, given how the situation was at that time. So, she changed their configuration to allow everyone free passage except those who might or wish to harm the people of the sky kingdom. And from the looks of it, she did well."


Lian song wanted to ask more but the time wasn't right for it as the speed and strength of the collisions had grown rapidly. In a few minutes, the vibration from the collisions had started to seep through the air inside the shield. With no reprieve in sight, ye hua finally called for a battalion of a thousand celestial soldiers and sprang for the shields towards the creatures. Behind ye hua followed bai qian and behind bai qian followed her overprotective brother, bai zhen.


As they went, the spectators felt reassured of their safety having full trust in the high gods' powers and turned their attention towards analyzing the creatures at hand. The best way they could have described these creatures would have been as a mangled and gruesome huge black bird of some sort. This description had sprouted from the fact that these creatures had two wings and a beak but that was where the similarities to a bird had seemed to have ended. The creatures had a black leathery-looking body with its wings all mangled and twisted up, the beak was so long and flat that it resembled an alligator's snout. Still, that wasn't the most gruesome facet of all, this recognition went to the fact that these birdlike creatures possessed no legs. the place where birds usually have legs on their bodies, these creatures had two dark black holes. And from what the crowd could see, these horrendous looking creatures also seemed to possess great strength.


For what had originally been a dozen of these creatures and a thousand strong celestial army, there now remained a fraction of the original army and still a dozen of the creatures. They fought fiercely and with assured strokes and retreats. no movement on their part had been that of a wild mindless creature. No matter what spell or magic was thrown at them by the high gods, they out maneuvered it with ease. at the same time, they continued to make swift and sure attacks at the celestial army dwindling down their numbers to a few hundred. What everybody failed to notice here was the fact that these creatures never attacked the high gods, they only attacked the celestials. Though, as the prospect of taming these creatures had become bleak after a while, the bai siblings had started to conjure up a sealing spell. But before they could have completed the seal, an attack came from behind.


The same black birdlike creature had appeared behind the bai siblings but this time it was more of a humongous beast. This beast was five times the size of its kin, twice as ghastly and had thrice the number of mangled wings. It had zoomed towards the bai siblings out of nowhere and on its way, it had hit the crown prince with one of its back wings which had sent him flying across the sky from the impact. Though before anyone could understand what had happened, the creature opened its beak and rained down hellfire on the high gods and the celestial army.


Under the shield had stood a white-haired god that had recognized the gigantic beast when it had appeared, the one word that had come from his mouth was "yingzi". But by the time he had recognized the beast and reacted, the hellfire had already escaped its mouth. Though the reaction had been a little late, it was still evidence of the power and strength of the great god. He had summoned his majestic sword and sent it careening towards the beast. Slicing through the air, canghe had cut through the flow of hellfire, expanded in size, and multiplied in number. The outcome was such that a moment later, the beast and its fellow creatures were trapped inside a cage made purely out of the multiplied forms of canghe.


And still, that was not the only astounding visual of divine power to have appeared at that moment. After the burst of hellfire had died out from the power of the sword, where nothing should have been left behind, stood the two bai siblings with two huge red symbols of an unfurled phoenix flower rotating around each of them. The symbols were as big as each of the two siblings and made entirely from raw red power. as bai qian and bai zhen opened their eyes, they found themselves encircled in the red symbol of their niece with no celestial soldiers around them. It wasn't hard for them to deduce that this red symbol that their niece had gifted them had saved their lives from hellfire when all others had perished with it.


At the same time, outside the celestial palace, after donghua had locked up the creatures inside the cage made from his sword, he had been about to go behind it when a voice had stopped him. the only person in this whole universe who could make donghua pause even in such a catastrophic situation was bai feng jiu and at that exact time she had called out to him from the end of the staircase where she stood.


"donghua" she had exclaimed. It was the urgency in her voice that had made him turn towards her. The moment their eyes had met, feng jiu had faded from the end of the stairs and appeared right beside him at the top.


Looking right into his eyes, she had placed a hand on his upper arm, urging him to stop and listen.


"they are here for me, donghua."


At this, a tornado had started to appear in his eyes when feng jiu pressed harder on his arm and continued, "listen to me, donghua. I heard the leader calling for me when you caged him in. they came for me, donghua, they came here for their queen."


On hearing this, donghua cut in with a vehement shake of his head, "no, absolutely not."


Placing her other hand on his face, she cupped his cheek and made him look her in the eyes as she continued, "I understand, donghua. I know why you don't want me to go but you can't interrupt in the natural cycle of things, donghua. You of all should understand that. They cannot touch me, you know that. Their hellfire can do me no damage. I am made of fire, I control fire, hellfire will just warm up my cold body at this point." Feng jiu's poor attempt at humor had failed so badly as she could still see the hesitation in his eyes, so she said the only thing that would make him concede on this, "donghua, they are my rightful subjects. As their queen, it is my duty to hear what they have to say. It was the word I gave to all living. Do not make me go back on my word, donghua." Even though her words were a little harsh, she could see he understood the truth behind them and was unable to refute it. with a heavy heart, donghua nodded his acceptance.


Feng jiu caressed his cheek and stepped back before she jumped. Gliding through the air, she stopped in front of bai qian and bai zhen. She waved her hand in front of them and the rotating symbols of her power disappeared. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw ye hua ambling back towards them as she addressed her aunt and fourth uncle, "take ye hua and get back to zhe yan, now." the cold hard voice she had used resembled that of donghua's so much that it left them no option but to follow the command they had been given.


As the trio entered the shield, she turned back towards the cage. Extending her hand, she called canghe to retreat. As the sword began to consolidate into its original form, she let loose half of her red aura which then occupied all the space behind her as far as the eye could see. With canghe now in her grasp and the beast free with its kin behind him, she spoke in its mind, "what brought you here?"


The birdlike beast dropped its head a little in what looked like a bow as it said, "We received the signal of your birth, my queen. We came to meet our queen."


Enraged, she bellowed, "and this is how you grace your queen? By killing off a thousand lives? Tell me why should I spare yours when you didn't spare theirs."


"mercy, my queen, mercy. We intended no harm, my queen. We just wanted to meet you. When my children tried to reach you, they couldn't get to you and were instead attacked. It is the demonic side of ours that makes us want to kill. We cannot control these urges when under attack. but we saw your mark on three of the immortals and none of my children touched them. though I am ashamed to say that when I felt a seal closing in on my children, my maternal and demonic side merged, and in the protection of my children, I let loose hellfire. I apologize, my queen. Please have mercy on your lowly subjects."


Though feng jiu's heart was moved, she kept up the stance of a queen as she spoke, "I do not have mercy for liars. You hide the truth from me and ask for mercy? The desperation of your children to reach me tells a different story from yours. This is your last chance. Tell the entire and complete truth or die at the blade of my mate's sword. Now, tell me, which one will it be?"


Terrified, the beast spoke, "mercy, my queen, mercy. We came for salvation, my queen. The salvation that only you can give us. this is not our original form. When I was young, I got trapped inside the black sea for thousands of years. The demonic powers of the black sea took over my primordial spirit and trapped me inside a demon body. After my transformation to the demon was complete, the black sea threw me out on an island. I couldn't control the demon body and wreaked havoc all over. as my punishment donghua dijun imprisoned me on that island. Since I had no control over my demonic form, I was unable to tell him of my woes and ask for help. for 100,000 years I had been imprisoned on that island under the seal his majesty placed. My children were born there in imprisonment and had never felt the pure air of the heavens before so they lost control to their demonic side earlier, my queen. Please forgive them, my queen, they are nothing but naïve kits who have lived their whole life under imprisonment. It was a couple of days back when a huge burst of power swept through the islands and we felt your presence, my queen. I called forth every stitch of power in my body to split open that seal. I spent the last one percent of my power on that hellfire. Now, I stand powerless and helpless in front of you, my queen, with all my truth out in the open. I will heartily accept your decision for my actions. If it is death, then I request you to kill me with your own sword for that is the way this lowly subject of yours wishes to go and if it is salvation, then my queen, I pledge eternal loyalty to you and serve you till my dying breath."


The beast then closed its eyes and hung his head lower, waiting for the edict of its' queen.

Comment