"Just to get to you? No! Dream on. Since you are with no regrets, I'll prey open your friends deepest wounds and use them against each other. That way, you will be with lots of regrets for me to feed on." The voice said. Surprisingly, this voice showed herself. She was the Fog Demon and of Regret Miao Xia Cai.
Jiang Yunxian had read about her before. No one has actually seen her, not to talk about knowing what she really looks like.
She was a slender woman, with foggy eyes. One couldn't tell if she has any pupils. Anyone who saw her right now, might think that this lady was blind: thus making her look more pitiful and less terrifying. She somewhat has a physique of an adolescent child., to begin with. At least that was what Jiang Yunxian observed.
He couldn't understand what she meant by he had no regrets. And why these beauties were being used as a bait to drag him down. But he still sighed after words.
Jiang Yunxian: "What's so special about me that you can't just take it away?"
Miao Xia Cai: "Are you really dumb, or are you playing dumb?"
Jiang Yunxian raided his two hands. "I don't know, you tell me. Am I really dumb. Or am I acting dumb?"
Miao Xia Cai "..."
Sewing the expression on her face, Jiang Yunxian used this opportunity to flirt. "Aiya! Why does your face look like a handsome guy like me has really mistreated you. You are a beauty, it's against my conduct to mistreat beauties."
"Shut up!"
The sudden yell did little to stop that cheeky smile that appeared on his face. Of course, both of them were serious. Jiang Yunxian didn't know what she meant when she said that he has no regrets. And this fog demon-whatever was just getting on his nerves.
Miao Xia Cai: "If it weren't for the Heart of Yanshi, flowing in your veins, I wouldn't bother using them as baits."
Jiang Yunxian: "Oh? You mean it has something to do with my Spirit Core? What's so special about it? Young lady, let me tell you, back in my sect, I'm a good for nothing. I made good for nothing friends and I have never known anything except for casting spells, which till now, I'm still surprised how I am a master at it. But, that didn't matter. I used it at my own free will anyway. But let me ask you, how much of an importance am I that you are willing to go to this extent just to get me out? Don't you think that's outdated?"
"Hah? Maybe you are actually stupid!" Miao Xia Cai began, walking: No, cat walking seductively towards him. "Your power carries the boundless energy of good and evil. It spars from millennium, till this present generation. How dare you call my plan worthless?"
Jiang Yunxian was speechless for a moment that he began laughing. In a way that he held his stomach and let out the laughter he didn't know whether it was funny, or he could call it 'just acting funny'. Either way, it was funny.
"Wow! That was a great poem. Who taught you?"
Miao Xia Cai, for the third time: "..."
"Seriously, you need to tell me. In fact where's your king? Since there's the Heavenly emperor, I'm sure there has to be the Demon Emperor. Besides wherever there is positivity, there's also negativity. Tell me, where is he? I have....we have a meeting. Wow! He's a good poet. Boundless energy of good and evil? Spars from ages? Wow! If the heavenly emperor heard this, he would be seething with anger right now. Or would he feel threatened?"
"You..."
"Young lady. I don't know who sent you. Whether the Demon King or whoever, but if that person is smart, they should have known that it's useless trying to take whatever energy is in me."
"Why's that?"
"If you know the poison called Death is Better, you will understand."
Miao Xia Cai thought for a while. "Death is Better is an infamous poison. Known to mankind. It's easier to obtain, but harder to find the cure. It is a poison that slowly eats you away, it's adds your age, never let you grow old and die. It in facts prevents major accidents in one's life so that it could continue tormenting their lives. Even a flame might not consume whoever was poisoned. It's as if one is living the life of 'immortals' while actually dying. Like death, has no will over them, as long as you are poisoned. Are you trying to tell me that you have the ability of poisoning me with that poison?" She asked, roaming around him like a snake afraid of letting its prey out of their sight.
"And I'm sure you already know that if one must prevent it, one has to completely shut off all of his spiritual energy lest it manifest in the heart?" Jiang Yunxian asked.
"Who doesn't know that? It is a famous poison afterall. Cultivators call that cure the Fool's decision. Who would be stupid enough to block of their years of hardwork just to prevent a poison?... Anyone who doesn't know of this, what does that person know..." Then, she suddenly stopped. She turned to look at him, finally understanding where he was hinting at. "Are you telling me that you are really poisoned? By that deadly poison?"
"Not just was I poisoned, I also sealed off all of the Spiritual Energy. Nothing goes out. So, even without the Heart of Yanshi flowing inside me, it would be useless. Would you like a poisoned Energy? Whst good would it be other than disaster?" Jiang Yunxian asked.
He was right! What use is a poisoned Energy. If it were any other kind of poison, it's easier to get rid of. But Death is Better? That's a whole new story. But regardless, according to what she was informed, it was certain that he is either fooling around. Or, is actually being serious.
"So? What if your Spiritual Energy has been messed up. You have your dark energy within you." Miao Xia Cai said.
"Dark energy? Who told you that?"
Wonderful! This woman has everything in her power to amaze me. He thought. Dark energy? Does he really have one? Who would believe that? Even if one said to his master. "Elder Wong, I have just discovered that your disciple, Jiang Yunxian: the drunkard. The fool that knows of nothing but only wine and sleep, is special. Who knows that he actually has two cores. The Spiritual core and the Dark core. And they had coexist within him harmoniously, for a very long time." Then, Elder Wong would stroke his beard and scorn in disdain. "That brat? Two harmonious core reside in him? Two powerful cores? Then, I've suddenly grown too old for my magnificent eyes not to notice." Let alone him the protagonist.
"You don't believe me? Fine, let me prove to you. Let's say your core is asleep. The dark one I mean, is asleep. Perhaps when you you couldn't chanel your spiritual energy, the dark one had to wake up from slumber. I'm sure, you must have experienced that before, have you?"
Jiang Yunxian thought about it. Now the more he thought about it, the more it became clearer. During that time, Ru Wuning... What did she say at that time? He tried to remember.
Ru Wuning: "Master, let's go back. Your first and second disciples are waiting for you."
Jiang Yunxian: "I have disciples?"
Ru Wuning nodding: "Yes! You have many disciples. But they were all lost during the time of the Great War. Only Ma Hua, Lu'an and I remained."
Ma Hua? Lu'an?
Now he remembered. Ru Wuning had said something about having multiple disciples. And she also called him 'master' Jiang Yunxian was speechless. Was there really a dark energy living within him?
"Judging from your face, it's obvious that you understood just exactly what I am saying." Miao Xia Cai said walking towards him In that alluring manner. "Not just that, you should also remember the incident that happened at the Infatuation Town."
Infatuation Town? Right the town of beauties. There, someone had passed him, handing him an Energy blocking sachet.
An Energy blocking sachet is a kind of perfume worn by demons, mostly to hide their identity. For high ranking people like Emperor Tian Zhao, and Lu Shen... All those high and mighty, the sachet means nothing to them. But it was important, for example: if a demon was sent to a land, to either cause chaos, this sachet would help them hide their true identity, making them look normal. For one to give him the sachet meant that the person saw the Dark energy emitting from him. Thinking about it now, he still cannot remember who that person was. But why there of all places.
*Aiyo! I'm guessing I'm not wrong."
Jiang Yunxian shook is head: now it was becoming clearer. And Xing Yue seems to know how it was. Because the first time they had met, she said. "You haven't changed a bit." Who would say that to someone they just met? No matter how illogical it might sound, for her to stare at him for a very long time and repeatedly say, you haven't changed a bit. It proved that their familiarity with each other didn't start at Cloud Peak Sect. It was longer than where he thought it began.
"You are right, I might have overlooked some obvious points in this theory, but you bet, who's going to win?" Jiang Yunxian said.
"In what? There's no need betting. It's obvious that their souls would be consumed. Not to talk about that fading immortal the heavens have been wanting to cage." Miao Xia Cai said looking at her mirrors that were high up in the sky like a surveillance. Each representing all with their regrets. Like a stick play behind the curtains.
"I'm not just betting. On the Goddess of knowledge and her apprentice alone."
"Oh? Then, who are you betting on?.... Don't tell me, her?" Miao Xia Cai asked, her slender hands, caressing her jaw, in that seductive manner.
Jiang Yunxian smirked: "Not just them alone. But together."
"That's impossible! No matter how much they try, they can't break free on their own not to talk about together. This is why it is called; the Fog of Regret. Even if they are just as close as the two of us are, they won't know. Thus, can't break free." Miao Xia Cai said.
"That's why I'm betting. I bet that if they didn't make out alive, both my Spiritual and Dark energy, belongs to you."
".... And if they do?" She asked.
"Then, I guess you just have to explain to your master, how much of a failure you are."
"You..." She pointed her index finger at him. "Fine. You better get ready to eat your words. Because they are never going to make it out alive..." She scoffed then, starting the conversation, again, "... I've been meaning to see what regret the Star Goddess has. Aren't you?"
Jiang Yunxian only sighed.
Yup! He was curious. In fact, there were a lot of things he was curious about like: why the heavens wanted to erase her. Why Cui Wulei wanted her dead. Why Guo N'Yang said something about her, that's related to being self-centered. And most importantly, who the fuck he really was!. There were a lot of things. And he could start by helping them survive, so, he could figure out the truth.
He stared at the mirrors, watching everyone, especially Chufeng who was still drowning in the regret of being greedy. He has no regret, the Fog Demon of Regret had said so. That was why they were baits to capture him. He was the main target. But they feed on regrets. Just as wild beasts of the demon realm, feads on Spirit Cores, gods feeds on the praises and worships of worshippers. This demon feeds on regrets. But just as he was pondering this, he looked closely and noticed that the hem of this person's clothes were glitching. Like a machinery losing gear.
This... Was an illusion. The person here was fake. That was when he realized.
"Those people who saw what the Fog Demon looks like, gets either swallowed by it. But if eventually they encounter a stronger opponent, they either change appearance in order to disappear or they come as illustrations. Illusions were mostly when they face impossible opponents. So that, they can retain their life, even when their Dark Core is impaired." That was what he learnt from the chronicles.
Elder Wong is really formidable, even without the master-disciple bonding, he still made him read boring scrolls that's now making sense.
"Interesting! So, I'm one of the impossible opponents? That's great . I will use that to my advantage." He thought. Already smiling, looking with all pleasure as he watched Xing Yue's regret display on the mirror.
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NB: Wherever I use Spirit Core, and not spirit energy, they are both the same thing. If I use Spirit energy, I also meant spirit core. But here's the slight difference. Core is where the energy is stored. Before one could be able to be called a cultivator, one must have to cultivate a core. So, a core is just like the heart of a cultivator. And energy is what is being used. But if I call it energy or core, just take it as if they are the same thing.
Thanks and pleased to see you again in the next chapter.
Love you all.