Remembering You For Eternity

2.43 Qing Lian and Zuo JinLong

The White Tiger mauled a Daemon away from the latter's original path towards Ao Xiang. The summoner's Fire Phoenix was at a distance away, one amongst more than dozens fire spirit-beasts that could still be summoned by the beast-masters currently standing.

Ao Xiang had also broken-through to be a Sage, barely six full moons ago. His ability had increased by leaps and bound, finally able to summon multiple beasts at the same time without depleting his qi in mere minutes. The White Tiger had also joined their fight, leaving Hui Lin sect practically empty, except for the more junior disciples and normal humans they had taken temporarily to their sect for protection. It was the same with other sects, everyone concentrated their power at the current place - the Imperial City.

In fact, a number of cultivators of his generations were able to break-through during the crisis they had been exposed to for more than the past decade. Martial-Artists became Enlighteneds, Enlighteneds became Sages or tethering close to it. The cultivation world had never experienced such phenomenon, but for everyone, it was barely any consolation.

For the past years, quite a lot of lesser-abled cultivators and a small number of Enlighteneds from their rank had succumbed to death, or malice. Plenty lost loved ones, and the situation forced the remaining to grow faster than the norm.

For instance, Yu Mei, once a bubbly young woman that was simply happy to just live, was now one of the Enlightened squad leaders. She had lost her spouse - Ding Shun - though not in the literal way. Ding Shun had gotten too close to a Daemon carrier a few years back, effectively turning him into one. Apparently it was too easy to turn lesser cultivators into a Daemon - at the time both of them were only Martial-Artists. Still 'green' in his state of mind, along with his desire to not lose to his martial brothers and companions, Ding Shun turned into Daemon pretty quickly. No amount of crying and pleading on Yu Mei's part, once an effective method to coax the young man, could bring Ding Shun to his old self.

If there was one thing for comfort, Shen Wei and Sage Shen Zheng managed to restrain Ding Shun before he ran amok hurting other people. Lu Bing and Ao Xiang managed to purify the malice inside; as usual, rendering Ding Shun's Dantians empty and his mental state incapacitated. Along with many others of the same fate, they were sent back to the sects, sheltered from the ongoing battle at the Imperial City.

The cultivators had also sent majority of normal humans to their sects, especially those that used to live in the Imperial City and the surrounding settlements.

At the moment, Imperial City and the Palace were places inhabited by Daemons, Carrier Daemons, and the cultivators battling them. However, it was if the Daemons were hardier than cockroaches; one day without losing any of their friends to join the Daemon rank was considered one day winning, and that was already the best everyone could hope for. Beast-masters became the most precious profession, and renowned cultivator-alchemists such as Sage Hu Lan from Ping sect, and Sage Meng Ting from Wu Shan Sect were indispensable. The alchemists almost were never seen at battles, they holed themselves up in protected abodes, treating the injured and concocting pills and making talismans.

Xiao Zi intercepted a Daemon making its path towards Ao Xiang. Not far from her, Zhen Zhu intercepted another merely a claw reach away from harming Lu Bing. The Daemons wore a garb normally worn by royal eunuches, part of the Emperor's royal guards. They used to be Martial-Artists, whose strength had been multiplied ten-folds after turning. However, being seasoned fighters and themselves being upper ranked Enlighteneds, both women could hold their grounds and were finally able to dispose of the Daemons after a few strikes of their swords. The two beast-masters concentrated their minds to sustain their respective Fire Phoenixes, merely glancing towards their partners in an appreciative gesture for their help.