The Guardian Demon (The Guardians of Nine Heavens #3)

Chapter 27: The History of Dragon Spirits

Time passed. Cedric indeed fell ill. He had already named Joan his successor and had informed the Head Monks. Soon, he even issued a decree with his signature about assigning Joan the next High Priest, thus, his decision was made public. Since that day, everyone bowed to Joan when she passed by, and respected her as the High Priest's heir. She, on her part, never left Cedric's side whilst he was bedridden and tried to amuse him as she could as well as calm her desperate self. Cedric would always give her warm smiles, caress her with his weakened hands, and laugh together with her, reminiscing upon their common past as siblings.

Soon, Cedric's time came - the blackness in his chest broke loose, giving birth to a black demon girl with long purple hair, whom he had harboured in his heart. He coughed out blood.

"Cedric!"

Joan clutched his shoulders. Cedric faintly beamed and weakly rubbed her hand:

"Jo... an..."

His eyelids fell and his hand dropped down. He was no more.

"Cedric! No... Cedric!"

Joan shook him. Once she realised his soul had already left, she let out an agonized shriek and fell upon his lifeless chest, crying hot tears.

The tiny demon girl watched them with pity. She sighed and vanished in the darkness, lurking away to hell - the dwelling of demons.

Learning about the High Priest's departure, the Head Monks took Joan out to the crowd of monks, while some others began with the preparations for High Priest Cedric's burial. The Head Monks announced His Holiness High Priest Cedric Ivory's decease, and when all the monks paid their respects, they shouted:

"His Holiness has named a successor before his departure. Hail the new High Priest - His Holiness Joan Mardyr!"

"Hail High Priest Joan!"

The monks fell to their knees and bowed down to the floor. Joan watched them with sorrowful eyes as she still hadn't gotten over her only friend's and brother's loss. However, she still accepted the heavy burden of a High Priest title, as it was the only way to reach her goal.

Days passed. Cedric Ivory's funeral was held with all due respects, conducted by the new High Priest, Joan, as was the custom. After the life grew more or less tranquil again and Joan began finding some free time from her daily High Priest toils, she immediately accessed the forbidden archives, for she knew the secret to her happiness should be lying there. This time, since she was the High Priest, no one would prevent her from reading forbidden scrolls.

She unfolded many scrolls and books and ran through them impatiently, searching for the information she wanted to obtain. Soon, she stumbled across the Dragon Spirit History book amidst the Eastern Art bookshelves. Heavy sadness embraced her heart:

Cedric always dreamed to find the jade dragon, yet never had a chance.

She gently took the golden hardback book off the shelf and unfolded it. Her eyes were caught by a depiction of a large white dragon with sparkling golden eyes, purple mane, white claws, fangs, and strange white fur sticking out of his chest.

Wow, it looks so like... Tsukishiro.

Indeed, this fur sticking out of his chest resembled Tsukishiro's fur shawl a lot - that one too was mysteriously attached to the divine being's right chest every time he appeared before her. Amused by such a coincidence, she heartily began reading:

"In a distant past that humanity cannot well remember and even spirits have a hard time recollecting, lived the two spirits born right out of the core of nature: a golden fox able to transform into any shape, and its twin brother - a dragon whose many different and magnificent features shaped him into a perfect being. These two symbolized two main characteristics of nature - its ability of constant transformation and its quality of ultimate perfection. These two spirits later helped natural energy give shape to its creations. The fox founded a tailed fox spirit clan after his primal image - the mighty clan of the Huli, while the dragon gave a basis to another powerful clan after his own image - the clan of divine dragons, the Long. Later on, the natural energy gave shape to other nature spirits, and they created their own hierarchy. The two primal clans stood on the top of all - the Huli and the Long.

"The society of ancient spirits gave the two nature guardians their names according to the colours of the moon: while creating the Huli Clan, the moon shone bloody red in the sky, hence, they named the nine-tailed fox Yuehong; and when the Long Clan was created, the night sky was lit up by the full moon, hence, the dragon was called Yuebai. From then on, the spirit brothers received the respective names they'd be called forever - Huli Yuehong, and Long Yuebai. Thence begins the history of these creatures that symbolize absolute perfection - the dragons."

So, the eastern people consider dragons perfect beings, and the Blood Moon Fox has actually had a twin brother?! Why is it that these forbidden books often reveal that primal guardians actually had twin brothers whose stories are hidden on purpose? I must delve into this more...

She remembered how in the black forbidden book that she had read long ago, it was revealed that Archangel Michael too had a twin brother, who happened to be none other than the devil, and who, in fact, still remained an important archangel and a primal guardian in heavenly ranks - Samael, the only infernal angel that existed. So, now, it was quite intriguing for her to find out that yet another primal guardian - this time the one of Transformation - had a twin brother too, purposefully omitted from common history books. Why did it happen? Did this Long Yuebai too do something evil against his creator, so that they had to erase his records? What was more, the frequent usage of the word "perfection" in this book had already aroused her interest enough, so she heartily went on reading, and soon, stumbled upon a quite exciting passage:

"Long Yuebai's first two creations whom he gave shape by mixing the natural and his own dragon energy, were the first two dragon spirits: Celestial Dragon Emperor Long Hong - a red fire dragon, and Celestial Dragon Empress Long Yu - a green jade dragon. These two married and the generations of the Long Clan followed. 

"However, unlike Lord Yuehong who personally supervised the growth and development of the Huli Clan and used his descendants to aid him in his daily toils of primal guardianship, Lord Yuebai instead preferred to perform his duties alone, and left the guidance of the Long Clan completely onto Long Hong's and Long Yu's shoulders, never to be seen again. If Huli Yuehong was the lord of Transformation and found his place in the constantly-transforming world, Long Yuebai was the lord of Perfection, and the imperfect world soon shunned him away, or so he felt - that he was rejected by the imperfections of this world. So, he left, never to return until the world would become worthy of him. His descendant dragons were able to adapt since they contained the natural energy too, but as they were Yuebai's creations, they also counted themselves as too perfect for this world, so they kept their distance. They built a castle in high heavens, and seldom engaged in worldly toils."

So, the jade dragon was actually one of the two very first dragons? And, who exactly is this Yuebai? Why do they call him 'the lord of Perfection'? What does this mean? 

The intrigued Joan stuck her nose into the book and read for days and nights until she finished it. However, she did not find any more interesting details about the mysterious Long Yuebai. The only thing that she was able to learn was that Dragon Empress Long Yu hadn't reached the so-called "celestial immortality level", hence, had died long ago, leaving her old husband and her many children alone in this world. Consequently, a new jade dragon was born who was quite young for a spirit's age even now: Dragon Princess Long Luhua - that exact one whom Cedric longed to see.

I'll find her for him, and when we meet in next life, I'll make sure he sees her. 

This was her final decision - she should fulfill both her and her brother's wishes, whatever it took.