The Endless Promise

89. Regret

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A little later, Tianlong dismissed the Sky Generals, who took Jin Lan with them, and he stood at the cliff in silence with the War deity.

"You can say what you want freely." Tianlong eventually broke the silence. "I was indeed 'young and unwise'."

Not many knew it, but Tianlong had once trained under the War deity, and the much older fox often advised him

The words 'young and unwise' had been the War deity's words to him in the past, warning him that not all seen in the heavens were as they seemed, and to be careful of being manipulated as a young emperor...

Back then, the War deity hadn't personally known Yin Xiaolong outside his many  titles and accomplishments, but it had been suspicious how quickly and easily sky realm, its deities, and sky officials had latched on to Yin Xiaolong as the criminal, so the War deity had warned the emperor.

"The brightest lights breed the darkest shadows, but the eyes follow only the light..." He had said. "Should we not look more into this? He's your friend after all, and from what I hear, he's more likely to go against heaven to heal and protect, than do something like this..."

But Tianlong had simply replied...

"War deity, pardon me for not taking your words seriously, but if Yin Xiaolong is the Demon King's incarnate, then wouldn't he be controlled by the Demon King's evil? Is he still the Yin Xiaolong I know?!"

The War deity had simply shaken his head, recognizing his young emperor was locked behind layers of grief, worsened by the recent breaks in he and Yin Xiaolong's friendship, and the fact that Yin Xiaolong indeed hated the now dead Sky Empress....

At present, the War deity merely sighed. "No being under the vast skies can claim a life with no missteps."

"I regret not listening to you then!" Tianlong admitted, a sad note in his voice, but the war deity calmly sighed again.

"Unfortunately, there's more to regret..."

"What do you mean?" Tianlong turned to him, his crisp icy irises glistening with unshed tears.

"Lightning warns of approaching thunder, but we get so accustomed to lightning that we sometimes find ourselves surprised by thunder." The War deity stated. "It's the same way we take the mortal realm for granted, forgetting they are the easiest ways to tie our own hands- the most powerful tools enemies could use against us, or grow their strengths.

"Yet most immortals look down on them and dismiss their words and worries easily, and this unfortunately included the immortals we have in their Wulin.

"But much like thunder, I suspected this enemy didn't simply appear, so last night, I scoured as many mortal reports as possible, and this cloaked woman has indeed appeared in past..."

"What?! When was this?!" Tianlong demanded, his eyes widened in shock. "And why has no one brought this to my attention?!"

"She's usually mentioned in passing, by random mortals, especially around the black dragon attacks, but rather than place these mentions within the black dragon reports themselves, they are filed away among mundane mortal reports, and passed off as drunken or fearful ramblings, or dismissed as a mortal simply seeking attention.

"But then I came across a recent report which surprised me... One which involved the entire Wulin, yet most of them, including the two immortals in the Wulin, dismissed it as yet another mortal seeking attention.

"It was several months ago, in the late autumn. The mortal, Xu Weiyan, encountered an eye-eating demon..."

Tianlong slightly staggered at the mention of Weiyan's name, but the War deity resolutely continued, telling him about the eye-eater incident which the Wulin had dismissed.