Laying down dijun's body on his bed, Zhong lin started hyperventilating. Si ming grabbed hold of his shoulders and shook him hard.
"you need to calm down right now. Take control of yourself. You are Zhong lin, the mind reader, who fulfills dijun's every wish before he even realizes it. Think about what he would need you to do in a situation like this."
A few deep breaths and Zhong lin got a shaky control over himself. He looked at si ming pensively as he said, " you need to check his vitals and essence."
Si ming had been about to do just that if Zhong lin hadn't gone into an anxiety attack at that moment. But before he could proceed, they felt someone coming.
"Zhong lin, go out and see who is it. Say it's dijuns orders and send them back. No one will dare to argue with his orders. Under no circumstance, anyone is to step inside this room."
As Zhong lin left, si ming started examining donghua's body. His vitals were there albeit a little weak, so that meant he is certainly not dead. Then checking his essence proved a little difficult, only mere traces were left of it but the huge shock came when si ming couldn't find his primordial spirit. No primordial spirit could mean bad bad news. Now, he felt an anxiety attack coming over him. Just before he was about to submit to a full-blown panic attack, the gates to the chamber burst open and lian song barged in.
Lian song knew something was wrong when he couldn't feel donghua's presence in tai chen palace. It wasn't that easily discernible to others, only the ones in the inner circle, the ones that dong hua trusted could have felt that change. So he had rushed over and his doubts had only gotten stronger by the minute. He had never seen Zhong lin so scatterbrained before, it was like the man didn't know up from down anymore. The steward was trying to hide something and it sure as hell was related to dong hua. So taking a risk on his life (in case donghua was all fine and dandy), lian song pushed right into his private chambers.
Well, he was right to trust his instincts after all, lian song thought to himself, outwardly he spoke, " well, what do we have here? A guilty-looking star lord, hmmm."
Si ming had to explain this scene otherwise the situation could very easily go from bad to worst.
"you misunderstand me, your third highness. You know dijun's health has not been great these past few years. He had been draining his cultivation daily combing through the mortal worlds one by one. When I got here a few minutes before you, Zhong lin found dijun comatose on the floor. I am just trying to figure out what happened, your third highness."
"and why should I believe you?" lian song asked.
" you know I will never betray dijun and if that were to happen, I would not be standing alive in front of you right now." Si ming said reminding him of their blood oath.
"fair enough. Now, tell me exactly what happened."
Si ming explained the entire sequence of events stopping at dijuns lost primordial spirit. Wavering, lian song began checking it himself and sure enough, his primordial spirit was missing. He tried to make sense of it but anyway he looked at it the puzzle still remained the same.
Going through the facts again, he thought to himself. His vitals mean he is alive. a barely-there essence could mean either life-threatening danger or cultivation drained to zero. primordial spirit leaves the body only when someone dies or it is taken out for recovery or a part leaves when going for a mortal trial. Out of these he surely wasn't dead. That leaves life-threatening danger, zero cultivation, spirit recovery, and mortal trial. Again with donghua if there was a life-threatening danger then the stubborn rock would fight to his last breath not leave his body completely, so that's out. This leaves zero cultivation, spirit recovery and mortal trial. While the first one seemed very possible, for the second one, however, Si ming had not had enough time to take out his spirit and place it inside someone else for recovery. leaving for a mortal trial required only a part of the primordial spirit not the whole of it and also he was not scheduled for one. But what if ... what if his spirit had gone to the mortal realm to recover his cultivation on its own.
"si ming, go check your scrolls for a weird or different birth in the last few months of the mortal realm. Go now."
It took si ming a few minutes to catch up on his line of thought but he got it and disappeared. Lian song secured donghua's body, left directions for Zhong lin and vanished after si ming.
Both of them looked for weeks before si ming found a 15 year old boy whose fate was empty and that wasn't the part that made him all googly eyed. The fate was writing itself as the life of the boy happened. it was like the scroll was just keeping record of what the boy was doing.
He showed it to lian song. There occured a silent agreement between them then. This was definitely dong hua.