Chapter 66: Remember Me

After a night of restless love-making, RuoMin woke up in the morning and stretched her back. She wanted to make something special for Asuro since he hasn't awoken yet. Yang-Yang and Yin-Yin transformed into their original forms and bowed at RuoMin.

"Master, have you slept well?"

"Yes Yang-Yang. I did."

'Buuh liar.'

"Master are you telling the truth?"

"I am telling the truth, Yin-Yin."

'LIES!'

The guardian beasts put their palms on their faces. After all of the things that they have witnessed overnight, it's hard to believe RuoMin with words over actions. Dark circles below her eyes are visibly shown and it's one of the proof that she hasn't slept.

"Master! Why do you allow such foul creature to take advantage of you?!"

"Yang-Yang! Watch your words! He's not a foul creature... He was just—misunderstood."

"But Master! Your body... It has a lot of—"

"Shhh shhh. Spare your comments right now. Last night, he told me about an instrument called Dark Dragon Incense and I have decided to use it..."

"WHAT?! No master! It's a dangerous instrument! You might die if your soul will get stuck inside the incense!"

"I know I know... But since I'm stuck in the Dark Realm with lots of questions in my head, I need to find some answers and the answers lie beyond that instrument."

"Whatever you say Master. We, your loyal guardian beasts, understands."

RuoMin nodded and bowed at them. She didn't want them to worry. Then, she decided to cook the breakfast herself to appease Asuro and make him activate the incense.

As she was finished, she personally delivered the food into his chamber and put it on the bed. The aroma of the food captured his sense of smell that made him woke up from his slumber.

RuoMin was very desperate. While Asuro chowed down the food that she made, she batted an eye at him as if asking for something in return. Asuro was confused about the way she looked at him.

'This girl... When she came here, she had a fiesty look on her face but now, what on earth happened? Did I tame her too much last night?'

He finished all of the food and thanked RuoMin.

"Thank you for the food."

"Uh well... You see... Umm... It's not that kind of praise that I want."

"Want me to kiss you instead?"

"Huh? No! No! What I mean is... Umm... Can you—"

"Can you... What? Take your clothes off?"

"No you dumb pervert! Uhh... Okay let me get this straight... I want you to activate the Dark Dragon Incense."

"No."

"Pffft. So stingy. Asuro pleaseeee activate the incense. I want answers to my questions..."

"No. The incense only works for the Demon Lord himself... And that is... Me... Only I can use the incense. No one else."

"Then... You could guide me?"

"It would be dangerous for half-immortals to use the incense. It holds adverse effects after your soul travels inside. If you can make it back, your soul siphon will be drained half-empty. If you won't make it back, not only your soul will break, but also the body that it possesses."

"That's... No... I have decided. I will take the risk of getting inside. My mind is tired of having such many questions... And one of those questions was... Why does my heart ache when I see you so far away..."

Asuro's eyes grew wide. He felt pain in his chest. The pain was agonizing where he had remembered all of the things that had happened 300 years ago. His body became numb of the pain but his heart was torn apart.

He may have became the Demon Lord because of his fated doom but his heart was always... Always wanting to put it's pieces back again.

"Hao. I will take you. If you wanted the answers, I wanted the questions."

"Thank you."

RuoMin bowed her head touching the floor. Her kowtow was a sign of her trust in him.

"Rise. I will prepare the incense. Ready yourself in my room. I will have the servants bring it inside."

"Alright."

An hour of preparation was then lent on the incense. Asuro used prepped the incense by using his own blood. He conjured a black dagger out of nothingness and slit a wound in his palm. Squeezing his wound, he let the blood drip inside the incense it then caused the incense to give off a bright crimson color. Two dark dragons encircled the incense's zhìbyao (incense holder) opening both of it's mouth facing upwards.

The preparation was completed and Asuro let the servants carry in the heavy incense inside his room. He arrived a minute early before the incense was taken in, and told RuoMin to put a hat with a veil covering her face before they enter the incense's trial.

As the incense arrived, both of them light up each incense stick and placed it on the zhìbyao shaped as the dragon's mouth. They kowtowed two and three times until the room became devoid of light. Asuro's room became pitch black. RuoMin around. It was as if they are transported into another world.

"The astral demon will come after a while, keep your head low and don't make a fuss while I deal with him."

"Understood."

After a minute, a sliver of light was shown at the corner of darkness. A spectre-like visage with a red demon mask hovered in the air and stopped in front of them. RuoMin was afraid. Her hands and feet were shaking but Asuro held her hand that made her lose her anxiety.

Asuro faced the astral demon with head held high. He was prepared of what might happen. Although it's his first time entering the Dark Dragon's Incense, the astral demon's presence hasn't even scared him a bit.

The demon had no arms and feet and had only a head and ghostly body floating suspended in the air. It made a disturbing noise as it approaches and leaned it's face close to Asuro.

"What does thy heart desire?"

"To see the past."

"I sense a mortal presence nearby. Hasth thou seen a mortal?"

"No. I haven't. Please guide us to the past."

"Very well..."

The spectral form slowly removed it's mask and inside, a horrid sight revealed. A man's face grimaced into a horrific monster with his eyes dug out and his mouth sewn shut. Asuro fanned out his sleeve to protect RuoMin. A blinding light followed after and both of them are transported into another time and another place. Blue skies greeted both of them and in front of them, stood a tiny village called 'Xiang village'.

"RuoMin... Whatever you see now is just a fragment of your past and how you came to be. Restrain yourself from intense emotions so that the astral demon might not awaken and trap your soul."

"Understood. Where are we now?"

"Look."

RuoMin looked at a familiar scene. From inside a tiny hut, a woman was caressing her ever-growing child inside her womb while the husband was doing all of the chores. As RuoMin looked deeper and wandered inside the hut, she gasped at what she saw.

"Asuro... How come it's me?"

"It was you... 300 years ago."

"But... How? W—What happened?"

"Just continue looking."

Afterwards, the husband bade goodbye from the woman and disappeared into the clouds. The woman was left inside the hut preparing for dinner when, the skies from above were swarmed with cicadas. The villagers were trying to ward off the cicadas but it was of no use. The cicadas lingered on their flesh until it reached their throats and choked on it. The woman took countermeasures sealing herself inside the hut with talisman barred into the door. The cicadas cannot enter inside. When the cicadas recognized the talisman, the swarms formed into a shape of a woman with bright red eyes and golden hair ornament.

Asuro fliched at what he had witnessed. The one who had murdered his wife was none other than....

Wan MianSu... A member of the High Council of Elders in the Ninth Heaven.

MianSu broke down the door and shackled the woman with a lightning rope.

"LianHua... So you are the one that LiuFang Asuro picked rather than me."

"Yes. Why did you came here?"

"Easy. To take revenge. You took away Asuro's immortality, then I take your life. That's a win-win situation for me."

"You—"

"This is enough. Because of your imprudent actions of forcing your love on Asuro, I now sentence you to death mortal..."

Asuro could not bare to see the next thing that had happened.

"So it was her..." Few words escaped from his lips yet he held out the anger and tears inside him. The ancestral demon appeared once again and led them back.

"Have you found what you've been looking for?"

"Yes." Asuro sighed.

"Very well. Time to go back where you came from and do not pester me again."

With a snap, the ghostly apparition disappeared and both of them are transported back into the Dark Realm. Asuro could not hold back his anger anymore. The moment when they came back, Asuro's anger flowed inside him which awakened the beast of the Nether.

Yang-Yang and Yin-Yin acknowledged the presence even as if they are disguised as a hair ornament.

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Back in the mortal realm, Wei Yue went back to the royal library in search for the answers to his questions. His worries dissipated when MoXiao entered the room. MoXiao's eyes grew as he saw his highness' visage. Filled with confusion, Wei Yue looked at him in a befuddled manner and sat at a nearby chair.

"What's the matter MoXiao?"

"Uh your highness. Your head seems to be..."

"What? You've grown tired seeing a bird head like this?"

"No... No... Please touch your head."

Wei Yue slowly raised his hands towards his head. He expected to stroke feathers but when he touched his face, he couldn't feel any beak instead, his soft lips were already there. Long black hair fell from his head up to his back. He was ecstatic to see what was happening to him until he saw himself at the mirror.

"Your highness. Could it be that your immortality curse was already broken?"

"Hmm... I don't know. I can give it a try. MoXiao will you lend me one of your poisoned darts?"

"Haaah? Are you crazy?"

"Just give it to me. That's an order."

MoXiao shook his head as he gave the poisoned dart carefully at him.

'This bird guy really does weird things.'

Cutting his hand, Wei Yue saw jade blood drip from his wound yet, after a while, the wound healed back and sealed shut. He doesn't feel any effect of the poison inside his body too.

"No. The immortality was there yet my appearance just reverted back to the way it is."

"Oh I see."

Their conversation had been halted after a while when a blue spirit bird arrived at the library and landed at Wei Yue's hand.

The spirit bird nodded an transformed into a small mirror. The mirror glowed and afterwards displayed RuoMin who's inside the Dark Realm.

"Your highness. If you have received this... Please I want you to do something for me... Can you find the one named... LiuFang BeiYin? She's the key to all of this... Please... Find her..."

The message disappeared after a moment and Wei Yue was rooted in his seat with his eyes fixed on the distance.

"Your highness. YOUR HIGHNESS!"

"Oh... Yes?"

"Let's find that LiuFang BeiYin now."

"That LiuFang BeiYin... She's...

She's my Grandmother. An Empress Dowager from another country far from Old Jianghu."