A Tear Frozen in Time

A Smile To Kill

Qing Qiu

It had been a very long time since Mo Yuan had ever allowed himself to lose his temper to that extreme and for a while, he merely rode his horse over the vast plains of Qing Qiu to calm himself down.  The profanities that had come out of her mouth were still ringing in his ears and for one wild moment, he almost turned his horse around to wash her mouth out like he'd done when she was much younger.  In fact, she had arrived on his Mountain with a whole lot of attitude, a foul mouth and a temper to match it.  In fact, he spent the first few years knocking it out of her until she learned to control her rages.

And having completely lost himself to the same unruliness, he was not feeling all that pleased with himself.  But rather than turn his horse around and leave, he instead gave it his head and forced it into gallop while his mind tried to undo what he had just left behind.  He was so angry, but in among the fury was also a savage satisfaction that he had managed to not only unnerve Guotin who was his own personal enemy, but he had also broken away a piece of that ice she was hell bent on keeping up around herself.

And so for a while, Mo Yuan let his mind run wild until he eventually brought it to a stage where he could think more clearly, especially on why she had chosen to invite that man to a private meeting when she had turned down everyone else.   And the only explanation he could come up with, was she knew it would piss him off and possibly his brother.  

But why would she go that far? he wondered as his mind went back to Ye Hua.  His brother had flatly refused to talk about what had happened and though Mo Yuan could see that he was seeing her as his Mortal wife, he wasn't entirely sure if he had somehow found something about her to give him the impression that she actually was.

Mo Yuan only had what Zhe Yan had told him to go on, but having played out the scenario in his mind, he was still at a loss as to how she could have survived a fall into Zhutian Terrace if she had been rendered Mortal.  If anything, she should have died, only her Ascension to High Goddess was possibly the clue as to why she hadn't.  If she had really been that Mortal who according to Zhe Yan had been sealed by Qing Cang, then Zhutian Terrace was possibly one of the only things powerful enough in their world that could have broken it other than himself and perhaps Di Jun.

And suddenly he brought the horse to a halt as his mind once again went over what Zhe Yan had told him.  The Mortal had lost her eyes in an incident that saw Haode changing out the maids and not only did the Mortal Jump into Zhutian Tearrace, but Bai Qian suddenly returned after being missing for centuries on the same day.  Not only was she eyeless, but she returned heavily wounded and emotionally damaged.

So if she really was that Mortal and the reason why his brother was taking such an avid interest in her, then Mo Yuan knew he was going to have to find out exactly what happened in the Celestial Heavens if he was to prevent a war with Qing Qiu and his own Disciple, because it was exactly where he could see things heading.

Turning his horse around, now that he had an idea of where to start, he then fled for the Celestial Palace.  There was bound to be someone there who still knew exactly what had happened and he knew exactly who to go to first.

_____

The Demon Realm.

Taking his time to inspect the intake of new soldiers, Guotin said nothing as his advisors filled him in the progress the men had made, who was best suited to a new secret contigent he was creating and who would be best suited to foot soldiers .  So few of the recruits made it to any of the other infantries that included beast raising and training as well as weapons experts and going by the look of most of them, he wasn't holding out much hope that any of them would either.