The Endless Promise

145. Bitter Disappointment

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By nightfall, Bailong had taken Liwei back to Four Petal Garden and began a desperate attempt to force the black aura from her.

Herb after herb, pill after pill, and tonic after tonic... Liwei responded to none, and even the Pill which usually slowed the Black Aura's spread, was decimated with no effect.

All new attempts with Bailong's qi needles, or even his own aura were blocked by her natural phoenix defense.

Of course he couldn't use the Sunfire technique, because the owner of those flames was now the victim before him, and even if he could draw out her flames, they were now blacker than night.

The only way to control Liwei at all was to use his seal on her, shooting a jet of his own aura through her, but all that did was render her unconscious.

Too many eyes had witnessed Liwei's possession however, and with the fear over the Demon King's return, it wasn't long before Tianlong was pressured into summoning Yan Liwei to Sky Palace for observation.

In a desperate move, Bailong remembered how the War deity had drawn in and trapped the aura within himself...

This idea led Bailong to invent the Tri-Moon Formation... A powerful seal which could trap and hide anything from aura, to a being, or any item, erasing its trace completely.

...the same seal the Light Tiger would eventually use to hide her cub in a game of fate...

Bailong used this seal to trap and hide the Black Aura within Liwei, making it impossible for anyone to find. But powerful as the seal was, it was unstable, and the Black aura kept revealing the seal in its attempt to burst free.

And this is what made Bailong implant his own dragon pearl within Liwei to stabilize and reinforce the seal, erasing its trace completely.

Liwei awakened back to normal, and after Bailong explained the situation to her, she walked boldly into the Sky Throne Room, where all the deities and multiple Immortals waited to study her for any signs of the Black Aura.

But no sign could be found and she was released.

However, the peace did last out a single day.

It was clear that Yan Liwei had certainly been possessed by the Black Aura the previous day.

A full day had not passed, and yet the Black Aura was simply gone...?

More than a few Immortals believed Yan Liwei was still possessed, and were convinced that Bailong had hidden it in some way.

"Don't forget, he is the master of seals and formations!"

"First the snake clan, and now this -?! He's breeding demons!"

To worsen the situation, several others were seeing this as proof that Bailong had orchestrated the entire plague.

"Oh, now he suddenly remembers how to cure the Black Aura?!"

"He cured it in under a day!"

"I'm telling you, all this was deliberate from the start!"

Tianlong, though still a bit annoyed with Bailong, wasn't willing to take any serious action against him.

But with fear running rampant over the Demon King, most of the deities and immortals could no longer simply ignore these strings of rumours, and for once, even some circle members weren't sure whether to trust Bailong or Liwei.

Simply put, no one was willing to take chances, and it was being asked,

"Isn't it better to wrong one person, than to cast the entire world into darkness...?"