And They Said I Was Mad

Half of the Feather Temple was lit up in scorching flames as cries of anger and pride echoed through the entire sky, loud enough for the people who lived below to hear.

Even though the temple was floating above the clouds and they said it to be the sect that was closest to heaven, it seemed as if it was the embodiment of living hell right now.

Wu Zhitian seized his outer robes and ran out to the courtyard where Yu Mingling stood in the middle of the orange-lit garden as the lotus pad leaves rapidly burned into dust.

"Yu Mingling!" He seethed in a muted tone, but it was loud enough to trigger her radar.

"Wu Zhitian? Why have you left your room?!" Feng Yi yelled from across the yard which made Mingling immediately turned in his direction with a smile beamed across her face, lifting both her cheeks high up causing it to compress her eyes.

She muttered his name repeatedly seductively, hoping Wu Zhitian would walk towards her.

"Wu Zhitian! Go back inside!" Feng Yi demanded.

Wu Zhitian shook his head as he walked towards the woman, who was cloaked in thick layers of clothes.

Feng Yi was the man closest to Wu Zhitian. He was considered being his right-hand man, but they had been friends since childhood and he has never left his side ever since, except for those three years when Wu Zhitian had disappeared. But even after he came back, Feng Yi still behaved the same and didn't shed an ounce of awkwardness.

Feng Yi stared at his friend with concern, afraid that the wound would open and blood might gush out. However, the cultivators from HaiShen Yu prevented him from worrying about his dear friend as he was interrupted by a sudden attack.

"It's dangerous here!" Feng Yi grunted while pushing away the sword with his.

Wu Zhitian looked at his friend. His eyes were colder than ever, as if he had pulled them out and buried them under the frozen ocean, gradually sinking and sinking. It pierced through the heat of the flames and forced everyone to look away.

"Wu Zhitian, don't look at him and focus on me! My wrist still throbs in pain. It hurts like hell!" Yu Mingling whined as she waved her arm around with the hand that he had cut off still attached.

Even though she was prancing around the temple with a healed wrist, Wu Zhitian knew that this was not her actual body, but a mirage created with illusionary mist.

Yells and screams continued to rise as the fire spread to the western area, almost covering over three-quarters of the temple.

Suddenly, he reached for his sword handle and prepared to unsheathe it.

Everyone gasped and their hearts thumped against their ribcage, knocking in horror.

"Is he really going to unsheathe Fu Shi De?" the cultivators murmured in fear.

Ever since Wu Zhitian was given that white tinted sword, he had only ever used it two times in his life, but every time he did, it always ended with mass destruction.

Not allowing a single living and non-living being unharmed.

It was possible that if he struck with that sword right now, the entire temple may just sink to the ground. But every time he used it, there was a strange implication that came along after.

"Wait!" Yu Mingling stuttered as she raised her palm against him.

"Let's talk!" She said in fear as sweat dripped down her forehead.

She wasn't afraid that she would die if he used his sword, since she could not die, anyway. After all, her current self was only a mirage. She was afraid that if the Feather Temple was to end up in ruins, Yu Yang might really kill her instead since he needed the temple to still be alive.

Sadly, Yu Mingling's words were deflected from Wu Zhitian's head as he continued to unsheathe his sword halfway. She panicked, but a thought popped up in her head and a smirk smeared across her face.

"Yu. Xue. Lan's. Head."

He flinched upon hearing her name which paused him from fully unsheathing Fu Shi De. Yu Mingling watched him hesitate in drawing his sword out, which made her heartache.

The fact that he still cared about a dead person even after three years made her sickened to the core.

She hid her disappointment with a laugh. "If you stop resisting and hand this temple over to me, I will make sure my father won't do anything to Xuelan's head. I heard that lately he was sick of that trophy and was going to feed it back down to the demonic realm."

Wu Zhitian blinked in anxiousness, though maybe the heat contributed to some factors of his nervous reaction.

"What's with Wu Zhitian? Why does he look so taken aback?" Another senior cultivator asked Feng Yi.

"I don't know! I don't know! I don't know!"

"I'll give you some time to think about it!" Yu Mingling smiled as she walked towards the white-robed boy and waved out the documents in front of him.

He lowered the hand that gripped the hilt of Fu Si De and stared at the loose sheets.

"If you don't accept it, then this temple will burn into ashes completely." She grinned and, to her surprise, he reached out his hands and took the papers from her.

"What did that dog just give Sect Master Wu?!" the senior cultivator exclaimed as he tried to put out the fire while preventing the incoming attacks.

"If you agree, just stamp your fingerprint with your blood on the corner and I'll be notified straight away!" She said as she fidgeted with her fingers, looking away shyly like a young maiden who had just given her crush of fifteen years a love letter.

Wu Zhitian, "....."

"To think I would have the most powerful Sect Master under me! Besides my father, of course!" She screamed in delight and had totally forgotten that he sliced her hand off two days ago.

"Alright!" Yu Mingling immediately straightened her back and turned to the cultivators who were bearing teeth at each other.

She instantly replaced her innocent, childlike expression with an aggressive demeanour.

"EVERYONE. COME. BACK. NOW," she yelled out in an extremely deep tone as her voice resounded across the temple, causing all the cultivators from HaiShen Yu to return.

"Liu Bu," she pointed to him and then towards the sky.

"Yes, Second Young Madam!" He nodded and gave a salute before raising both his arms up slowly with his fingers clawed out.

The grey clouds that formed above the temple soon polluted the empty sky. The people of the Feather Temple began murmuring amongst each other, questioning what kind of tricks Yu Mingling was up to now.

The clouds became ominous and dull, as if it was a sign from the heavens, attempting to wash away the impurities of the mortal world.

"They're, they're creating rain." Feng Yi muttered and clicked his tongue, "To think they're using a technique Yu Xuelan created even though they detested her so much."

Droplets of water fell down onto the burning temple, which gradually formed into the pouring rain, distinguishing the rising flames that engulfed the temple.

The downpour was extremely heavy, yet faded after a while. After all, controlling the weather was basically defying the natural order of the world, which was another reason people deemed Yu Xuelan as a threat to humanity. But she couldn't care less.

Mumbles of confusion filled the area as they gazed at their sect leader, who stood still in the pouring rain, holding the papers that were soaked from the rain.

Not saying a thing.