The Devil Lotus 5

The celestial winds that had once danced lovingly around the Lord of Storms now echoed through the battered sky with mournful wails. Zi Feng stood in the dusty desert that had once been teeming with life, now reduced to rubble, as a lone king surveying a desolate empire. The victory, the bitter taste in his mouth, felt like ashes.

His once boisterous and playful brothers were now whispering quietly through the crumbling jade palace. Their laughter was hidden in the broken emerald shards and billowing smoke that once invaded the heavenly court. Zi Feng's eyes were like a storm-tossed ocean, once as bright as the moonlight. Rivers of tears were falling from his scratched cheeks.

He reached forward with one blood-stained hand, seeking comfort in the empty air. Every drop of wind that blew through his fingers was the last gasp of his brothers, once fighting together. His heart, once a lake full of boundless affection, became a cave of painful emptiness.

His foot tripped. His heavenly robes were billowing around him like wind-blown clouds. Next to him was a golden rod planted in the ground, and a half-burnt flag was waving.

"Li Jiu," he muttered, ignoring the roar of the wind. "Where are you? I can't hear my voice, I can't see. Li Jiu! Can't you hear my heart screaming?" But only the echo of his own grief answered him as if mocking his unbearable loneliness. Zi Feng, the wind god's tears, fell onto the jade earth covered in dust like diamond grains. The wind, his faithful companion, swirled around him like a whirlwind of mourning.

But among the wreckage, like a burning star in the emptiness of his soul, the person he remembered remained beside him, bright as the burning sun. Li Jiu, his closest friend, the one who has been with him through storms and sunshine. Although only an illusion, Li Jiu's warm smile echoed in Zi Feng. "Li Jiu," he frantically grabbed his own illusions.

"Li Jiu," he shouted through the stormy wind in unbearable pain. "Li Jiu, why....?"

But at the same time, like a heavenly blade, a sharp cold spread through the air, slowing the speed of the wind. The roar of the previous storm was replaced by a suffocating silence. In the fading light, clad in black as darkness and red as blood, the Lord of Darkness stepped out of the shadows. Night-Devouring Celestial, Yue Ling!

"Ah, the Mighty Wind Lord has become a crying child." Yue Ling's voice was as vicious as a snake and burst out with joy. "Ha ha, you lost your brothers, lost your soul, sacrificed everything for your victory, but why is it still like this? How ironic, dear Feng!"

Zi Feng's face was flushed with hatred. Stumbling up, he directly grabbed Yue Ling's shoulders, sinking his eyes into his eternally dark eyes. "Yue Ling!" he shouted. "You have won, heaven is already bathed from the blood of my brothers. Please get out of here now," he cried in his heart-rending grief.

The devil's lips curled into a cruel smile. "Victory is most beautiful with the vanquisher's fury. My wind Lord, where is your anger? Where is your vengeance?"

Closing his eyes tightly, Zi Feng let the tears flow down his cheeks. "My anger is drowned in a deep ocean, Yue Ling. An ocean of sorrow and blood. So please leave. do not....force me.....anymore."

"Oh, my lord," Yue Ling said, running his fingers to wipe away the tears on Zi Feng's cheeks. "If you're like this, it's no fun. How about we go to my palace together? And give a toast to your dead comrades. Oh, for your Li Jiu too."

Yue Ling's right hand wrapped around Zi Feng's waist and pressed him against his body. His left hand was tugging at Zi Feng's silky hair. "But you know, making yourself the prize of my triumph isn't so bad." He whispered into Si Feng's ear. Suffering from both physical and mental pain, Zi Feng was unable to escape from Yue Ling's grasp.

"Why? Why did you do that? Your revenge was to be taken from me. If you said so, I would gladly hand myself over to you. After all, I had to do it, because I was responsible. But why? Why did they all have to die? Why did Li Jiu have to die? Answer me!"

"Shhh! My lord, killing you won't solve my problem. I want you to suffer all the pain in this world and watch everything you love slowly dissolve into darkness...I want you to," Zi Feng's jaws held. Yue Ling lifted Feng's face, forcing him to look into his eyes.

"I want you to melt away, fall on your knees beside me, and beg for all of this to stop. But I won't stop until all your loved ones are dead. Li Jiu is only the beginning...the sun, and the moon will all be destroyed. Oh, and also your dear brother too...Wei Yunhe!"

"Yue Ling! Don't!" Yu Lingyu woke up screaming as he was drenched in sweat. His heart was beating fast. Teardrops wet his chest. What kind of terrible dream? "Li Jiu," he whispered unconsciously. "Li Jiu.....Hu Mao, Hu Mao where are you?" Searching for his pet, Yu Lingyu screamed as he tried to get up, but fell to the ground with his legs tangled. His palm scraped from the edge of a half-finished wooden carving on the ground. Blood was spilling on the wooden floor. Yu Lingyu stumbled and knelt towards the wall, trying to avoid the blood as if in a panic.

His injured right hand and lips, which had drained of blood and turned white, were trembling violently. "Yue Ling," he muttered to himself.

"Never, never will I let you," Yu Lingyu snapped, hiding his face on his knees. Isn't everything over? What's with these endless dreams?

"I've been punished, three hundred years, but still- still why..."

He did not need to recreate the previous tragedy again. That tragedy took everything from him.

"Yu Shixiong?" Hearing San Jie's worried tone, Yu Lingyu raised his head. He was unfamiliar with the sound of the cabin door opening or the sound of San Jie's footsteps. When he saw Yu Lingyu, he was suddenly startled, but when he saw the blood on the wooden ground, San Jie turned pale as if he had seen a ghost. Kneeling in front of Yu Lingyu, he gently examined Lingyu's hand.

"Li Jiu," Yu Lingyu muttered to the figure who stepped forward and worriedly examined his wound. "Li Jiu," Yu Lingyu suddenly stepped forward, wrapped his arms around San Jie, and hugged him tightly.

"Li Jiu," he called out unceasingly.

At first, San Jie was a little startled, but he didn't push Yu Lingyu away. "What Li Jiu?" He asked his innocent Shixiong, who wet his shoulder with tears. "Don't leave me, Jiu Er"

San Jie was silent, not knowing what to say. His heart was filled with compassion for Yu Lingyu. "You are not wearing your mask, Yu Shixiong." San Jie whispered softly. But Yu Lingyu didn't hear those words. The blood flowing from his right hand was staining San Jie's clothes.

"Well, I'm not leaving. Let go me now."

"Promise?" Yu Lingyu asked in a broken voice.

"Yes, I promise." San Jie said. He had never seen Yu Lingyu so helpless. As the grip on his shoulder slowly loosened, he held Yu Lingyu in his arms as if he were holding something fragile. San Jie, who had bent one of his knees, stood up, carrying Yu Lingyu in his arms.

Staring at the fiery red demon mark on Lingyu's forehead for a moment, he carefully placed Lingyu on the couch. Taking out the bottle of ointment he always carried with him from his qiankun wallet, he gently applied it to the wound. "Yu Shixiong," he said as he bandaged Lingyu's wound with a piece of cloth torn from his cloak. After all, only Lingyu could find where the medicine was in Lingyu's messy room.

"That bastard did something to you, didn't he? I'm going to kill him." Throwing Wu Xuan off the cliff inside in his head a thousand times, San Jie snarled, placing Lingyu's mask back on his face. San Jie let out a sigh that he had come to check on Yu Lingyu, not anyone else. San Jie could predict what would happen if anyone else saw the mark on his forehead.

"But Yu Shixiong," San Jie sat beside the couch and stared at the room blankly.

"Do you miss Li Jiu that much?"

************************************************************

A brisk wind blew around the Jun Peak disciples who were making various things out of bamboo, showering them with dust from their heads. Yu Lingyu, who was in perfect condition, surveyed the chaos, flapping his robes in the wind.

"Pay attention. This is not a festival of frogs, you, black hair over there, hold the knife from the right side. Are you cutting or peeling bamboo?" Third Shixiong's angry voice came out.

"Oh," If Third Shixiong is here, shouldn't Wei Yunhe be here as well? But Lingyu, who looked around curiously, was disappointed. Only the third Shixiong had returned.

His younger disciple Lan Mei raised her voice as she gazed up at the sky and was diligently weaving the thread in her hand. "Murong Shixiong," she said, raising her voice.

"Do you think the brothers of Mount Juyao will bring back their famous mooncakes?"

Murong Meng, the Third Shixiong, was enraged at these words. "Those sugar bombs? That nonsense is rotting our teeth faster than we can control."

"Oh, I guess our mooncakes are going to waste." Suddenly, with a loud voice, Murong Meng also was a little nervous. Wu Xuan, along with some of his Juyao disciples, announced his arrival at Juyao Peak. He seemed more excited than ever.

"Hello there Yu Lingyu!" Ignoring Murong Meng, Xuan turned to Lingyu and smiled slightly.

Thank God! Murong Meng is short-tempered but not hateful. If Wu Xuan ignored the Second Shixiong like this, Lingyu would have to fill his ears with his words for many more years.

"Huh. Jun Peak will be blown away by the wind at any moment," scolded Yuan Yu Yi, who was beside Wu Xuan, trying to tidy her hair in the face of the strong winds.

"And Mount Juyao is full of the evil smell of sugar." Murong also cursed. He had never opposed Wu Xuan, but that didn't mean he had to tolerate Yuan Yu Yi either.

The disciples at Jun Peak stopped what they were doing for a moment and smiled. Although not to the same extent as Chuangzhou, Jun Peak also had a hereditary rivalry with Juyao Peak.

"Oh, come on," Yuan Yu Yi smiled, "don't tell me you guys don't dream of living on Juyao Peak, while you wield your swords."

"They dream of practicing swordsmanship, not living in a rat hole." Murong Meng replied.

Yu Lingyu could only wait. Murong Meng was his Shixiong after all.

Suddenly, behind him came a small shrill voice.

"Honestly Shixiong, I dream about both of those things."

Murong Meng gasped. Even the wind seemed to hold back its laughter. Everyone looked at Lan Mei, who was as red as a ripe chili.

Wu Xuan smiled contemptuously. His eyes were shining. "See? Even your own disciples appreciate such subtleties." Yuan Yu Yi sneered.

Murong Meng was silent for a while, then nodded his head in surrender. "Well, well you're the winner this round Miss Pastry. Wait at the event, if your 'delicious' pastries give my disciples a toothache, I'll personally make a clay paste of your ole sugar mountain."

They spent the rest of the day together. From time to time there were some arguments, but they did not last long.

Then Yu Lingyu was quietly lying down next to a large plant, pondering something. The dream he had, was truly terrifying. But inside that dream was San Jie. Otherwise, was San Jie really in his room?

"Yu Shidi!" Hearing Wu Xuan's voice, Yu Lingyu came to his senses. Since morning he was engaged in the work of the festival along with his other brothers. Since Yu Lingyu was in charge of the students of the Lingxiao Sect, they hardly ever met each other.

"Where is your father?"

Yu Lingyu smiled. "They have gone to town, or why am I so desolate." The rays of the setting sun were casting shadows on Wu Xuan.

"Oh is that so?" He said, sitting down next to Lingyu.

"You left without telling me," Lingyu muttered reproachfully. When he woke up in the morning, Wu Xuan had already left.

"I didn't mean to wake you up." was Wu Xuan's reply. Reaching into his Qiankun wallet, he took out a small bag and placed it in Yu Lingyu's hand.

"What are these?" Yu Lingyu asked as he checked the contents of the bag. Taking out a small, round, intricately carved white mooncake, he stared at it, torn between whether to eat it or not.

"What?"

"It's too pretty to eat." Wu Xuan laughed loudly at Yu Lingyu's words.

"Not that, how did you know?" Lingyu slowly muttered as he continued to stare at the mooncakes. "About my identity."

"Oh that," Wu Xuan stretched out on the grass bundle with his hands tied behind his head. "I know it from the beginning." He said quietly following the setting sun.

"What?"

"Did you think it was just by chance that that little boy, Yu Lingyu, met the little rabbit?"

Lingyu's heart raced. Even the mooncake still hanging over his eyes felt heavy.

"Rabbit?" He let out a whimper.