The Endless Promise {COMPLETED}

149. Tragedy 2

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The next day brought a bleak sunrise, almost as if the heavens could tell that dangerous tides were rising within their favourite realm.

On Caoyang, however, the residents remained oblivious to what had happened, as the news had not reached there.

Infact, they had their own concerns, and most of those within the palace milled around, worried for their master who had taken a turn for the worse.

Yin Xianlong, the shining and powerful Lord Medicine and greatest Healing sage for millennia, was facing an ailment he couldn't cure.

"Demonization?!" Liwei and Yinying exclaimed, horror on their faces.

"Umh." Bailong nodded. "The black aura is beginning to corrupt my meridians, making it almost impossible for me to perform any advanced technique without losing my mind.

"The longer I leave it be, the more it would grow..."

Liwei had tried purging the dark aura with Sunfire for most of the night, but it had absolutely no effect him.

He had tried sealing the aura, same as he had done with Liwei, but he suffered an instant backlash... an icy cold had crept through his meridians, his hair and clothes began to turn a stark black, and dreadful whispers flooding his ears.

He had swiftly ended the seal technique, managing to suppress the dark aura, but try as he might, he couldn't force it out completely.

It had latched on in a strange way... completely matching and merging with his core.

...almost as if this were originally his aura, and this frightened Bailong more than the dark aura itself!

He could have used his Pearl to wear down the curse from within and dispel it, but drawing his pearl out of Liwei would unbalance her own seal again.

So instead he went into seclusion, intending to use the Starlight Furnace as an external core to eliminate the aura, but before leaving, he left instructions for Liwei...

"I was careful not to seriously harm any sky soldier, so I don't think Sky Realm will chase after me for some time. They will likely spend time regrouping, while trying to understand why I suddenly became a black dragon..."

He sighed. "But just in case, I've strengthened the arrays around Caoyang. No one can teleport in, and the shields are no joke! Even old man Bao can't break in here for almost ten days!"

After that he left Liwei with another silver talisman. "If all else fails, ask HeiYuan to use the South Formation." HeiYuan was the new Snake King, and brother to HeiShe, the snake beneath the lava. "The South Formation will take everyone to Lotus lake, and seal lotus lake off, so no one can come back here.

"But if anything goes wrong, burn this talisman and it will bring you to my side..."

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Two days later...

Bailong had chosen a secluded cave on Caoyang to cultivate.

The cave was rich in pure Yin energy, and at present, he sat in the lotus position, his eyes shut in deep concentration.

At first, moving his qi out of his body and into the Starlight Furnace had been easy, but as it neared completion, it became excruciatingly painful, more painful than removing one's bones one by one and rearranging them!

And with the sheer amount of qi he possessed, the process had taken more than a day...

Still Bailong bit his lip against the pain, pushing through on sheer determination until the he drew out every last bit of qi from his core.