Phoenix's Requiem

“What’s the matter?” the silver dragon elder asked coldly. A ball of white light glowed on his palm—if the guard captain’s urgent news wasn’t, in fact, urgent enough, then what awaited him would be death,

“The castle guards just received a message stating that Young Master Yin has been kidnapped. The message specifically requested that you rescue him yourself, and the sender’s apparently the demonic spirit!” Knowing how important the matter was, the guard captain reported the issue quickly and concisely.

“The demonic spirit? Hasn’t he been imprisoned?” The silver dragon elder frowned. He had been busy with far too much to care about the demonic spirit at the moment.

“Elder, I’ve sent my men to check on his cell. He somehow managed to escape, and we didn’t discover it until now!”

“What useless fools!” The silver dragon elder waved a hand. The white ball of spiritual energy that he had been coalescing on his palm struck the wall, boring a hole in it. That hole was directly on top of the guard captain’s head.

“E-Elder, what are your instructions?” The guard captain’s face turned pale.

The silver dragon elder glanced at Li Yan, still crying in his lap. “If they want to die so desperately, I’ll fulfill their wishes.” He patted Li Yan’s cheeks. “Your parents are something, aren’t they? To think they’ve been here for so long without my realizing—but with you around, they’ll certainly show up. I’ll have your family reunite before sending you all to the underworld.”

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo stared unblinkingly at the front entrance to the temple, the source of their uneasy premonition. After what seemed like forever, the doors finally opened. The silver dragon elder walked out of the temple, a crying baby in his arms.

“Li Mo, that’s…” Yun Ruoyan’s heart leapt.

“Stop, Yan’er!” Li Mo clutched Yun Ruoyan’s arm, preventing her from stepping forward. Both of them had clearly seen that the boy in his arms was none other than Li Yan, crying so miserably that Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo wanted to drop everything to save him.

“Mistress, let me save the young master,” Qiuqiu volunteered.

“Yan’er, don’t! There’s no way we can win,” Li Mo murmured. He was unable to command Qiuqiu, so he could only try to persuade Yun Ruoyan. “Li Yan currently isn’t in any danger. If we step forward and show our hand, that would make his situation even more dangerous.”

Yun Ruoyan clenched her fists tightly, trying to marshal the strength to stop herself. She thought she would have a far harder time restraining herself, but she felt so miserable, her heart and head both so clouded, that she easily slipped into inaction.

There were no less than fifty silver dragon guards all around her, each with the cultivation of a second-rank sword saint. If she were to rush out and initiate a fight, even more guards would rush to the scene. The silver dragon elder could defeat them even without any of the guards, and even Qiuqiu’s participation wouldn’t make much of a difference. Even she had to admit that there was no way of rescuing Li Yan from the silver dragon elder at the moment.

Her body stiff, Yun Ruoyan watched on as the silver dragon elder left with Li Yan.

“Li Mo, we need to inform the demonic spirit about this immediately. We’ll trade Yin Xiao for Li Yan,” Yun Ruoyan said.

“Alright. Return to the holy maiden’s chambers for now. I’m going to ask the guard captain for a pass to the city,” Li Mo replied. “We’ll leave for the city tonight.”

“What’s the matter, Yun’er?” When the holy maiden saw Yun Ruoyan’s forlorn expression, she was immediately shocked. This was the first time she had seen Yun Ruoyan so distraught since she had known her.

“Holy Maiden, I have very important news to announce.” Yun Ruoyan inhaled deeply and stabilized herself. “There’s been a big change to our plans. We had originally intended to have others deal with the silver dragon elder after he was lured out of the castle, while I would remain in the castle with you to carry out our part of the plans. Now, however, I need to face the elder myself, so I can only leave the developments in the castle to you.”

“What exactly happened, Yun’er?”

“The silver dragon elder captured my baby. He’s the child bearing both the silver and demonic dragon bloodlines, the one the silver dragon elder spoke of at length. He’s been scheming to get my baby, and now that Li Yan’s in his hands, he’ll definitely make Li Yan the eye of the formation. Luckily, the demonic spirit’s message arrived today. We’re intending to swap Yin Xiao for Li Yan, and Li Mo and I have to handle this matter personally.”

The holy maiden also took a deep breath. She knew just how frightening the blood formation was, and the silver dragon elder was planning on placing a baby at the center of the array? She trembled at the thought.

“Alright, Yun’er. If nothing else, I’m the holy maiden of the silver dragon palace, and I possess the most authority after the silver dragon elder. I’ll do my best to finish the tasks that need to be done.”

Not long afterwards, Li Mo arrived. “Yan’er, I’ve gotten the passes. Let’s go.” Li Mo brought Yun Ruoyan out of the holy maiden’s quarters. Outside the walls of the castle, they saw two new posters—still portraits of Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo, but now with a message: for the two of them to surrender at the castle within three days, or have their son be sacrificed to the heavens.

Allegedly, Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo were two malicious leaders of the demonic bandits, ones who had committed all sorts of grave evils. Sacrificing their child was therefore made out to be an impressively benevolent affair.

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo headed straight for the demonic bandit enclave.

“There’s been a change of plans. Send another message to the silver dragon elder, telling him that we’ll swap our hostages,” Li Mo said.

“What’s the matter? What happened?”

“An exchange of hostages? What hostages?”

The demonic bandits were quite confused at what was going on.

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo told them about how their son, Li Yan, had been captured.𝐟re𝐞w𝐞𝒃𝓃𝒐𝐯𝚎𝒍.c૦𝚖

“I understand how you feel,” Huang Chuan began, “but we don’t have the authority to send the silver dragon elder another message. The demonic spirit has to be the one to do so.”

“There’s no time,” Li Mo roared. He had unknowingly infused spiritual energy into his voice, and draconic power thrummed in its wake.

The demonic bandits all stilled. Huang Chuan replied in exasperation, “It’s not that we don’t want to, but the demonic spirit wrote the message to the silver dragon elder himself! The silver dragon is surely able to identify the demonic spirit’s handwriting, so he’s the only one who can write the message.”

“Where is he?” Yun Ruoyan asked.

“I don’t know.” Huang Chuan shook his head. “The head’s been going on a few trips these last few days, and he only returns every other day. All we can do now is wait.”

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo had no other choice but to wait for his return—luckily, he returned that very day.

“What are the two of you doing here?”

“Where did you go?”

The demonic spirit, Li Mo, and Yun Ruoyan all asked at the same time.

“I went to acquire this.” The demonic spirit produced a bottle of holy water, which he held high up in the air.

“How?” Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo both asked immediately.

Over this period of time, the demonic spirit had been sneaking into the silver dragon castle and loitering around the silver dragon temple, waiting for an opportunity during which he could sneak in. That night, he found such an opportunity.

“I was caught the first time right outside the chamber containing the holy water, but this time, I found a method to break that formation,” the demonic spirit replied. “Because the two of you had already done so beforehand and the new formation was constructed in a hurry, it was straightforward to break it a second time.”

The demonic spirit held the palm-sized bottle up in his hands, his eyes gleaming. “It’s a pity that there wasn’t more holy water. This is all that was in that chamber, and I’m guessing the silver dragon elder must be storing the rest of his supply somewhere else.”

“Is this enough for you to reforge your body?” Yun Ruoyan asked.

“It should be.”

“How long will that take?” Li Mo continued.

“About three days.” It was then that the demonic spirit noticed something amiss. He looked at both Yun Ruoyan. “Why are both of you here? According to plan, the only one who should have come is Li Mo.”

“There’s been a change to the plan.”

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo explained what had happened with Li Mo.

“To me and Yan’er, there’s nothing more important than saving Li Yan,” Li Mo explained. “I hope you’ll be able to help us, or we’ll have to end our cooperation with you here.”

“I’ll agree to an exchange of hostages,” the demonic spirit replied. “But I have my own conditions. First, the exchange must be pushed back by three days.” Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo had wanted the exchange tomorrow. “In three days, I’ll be able to get revenge against the silver dragon elder using my own body.”

Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo thought for a moment before nodding. As long as this message was sent out, Li Yan wouldn’t be hurt for the time being.

“Second, after we kill the silver dragon elder, I want us to take down the silver dragon clan together. We demonic practitioners used to have enclaves on both the Jiyuan and Mingyuan continents, but they’ve both been destroyed now. I would like you to help us rebuild these enclaves so that the demonic dragons, silver dragons, and demonic practitioners will serve as checks and balances on each other’s power.”

Yun Ruoyan was the head of the demonic dragon clan, and Li Mo’s mother was the previous holy maiden of the silver dragon clan. Once the silver dragon elder was defeated, it was only a matter of time before they took power. The demonic spirit was taking precautions against having Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo ganging up on him.