Warring Kingdoms: The Tale of the Jade Phoenix and the Dragon Blade

Chapter 58: Single Melody (我不怕)

The mourning lasted for a night. XuanWu approached his highness Wei Yue who was tending to a blind woman at his care. As she approached the Emperor, she gasped when she saw the blind woman. Immediately, she conjured a knife on her hand and kept it hidden from sight. Wei Yue noticed this  but he kept calm as usual. 

"You're highness, what are you doing with that woman?"

"XuanWu, I know you have the intention to kill this woman but can't you hear her plea first before you make rash decisions?" 

"But you're highness... She's drank a Shura's blood. It is an incurable disease." 

"Yes XuanWu but look at her now... Her allies have defiled her. She's deserted now." 

XuanWu left a sigh and the weapon from her hand disappeared in the wind. She looked at the pale woman and asked her a question. 

"Are you sent by someone here?"

"No. I came at my own volition using the power that I have left." 

"Very well then, who was your master and why did he left you in such a state?"

The woman could not speak. Instead, blood flowed from her eyes that seems to be tears. Wei Yue took another sheet of cloth and replaced the bloody blindfold. 

"He- He's Lu XueCao. An infamous demonic cultivator." 

Wei Yue's eyes grew wide. Lu XueCao was the one who started the past war 100 years ago when XuanZheng and ShaoTian's battle shook the earth and sky. Everybody thought Lu XueCao died but that was just as the myth had said... He took his remaining followers and sucked out their soul siphon dry to replenish his lost powers. And now...

"What is Lu XueCao's true intention? Why did he dug out your eyes?"

"He said that my eyes can peer into the future and placed it on the sixth Shura's."

"T-This... This is trouble. I must return to the ninth heaven and discuss this with other higher positioned immortals." 

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Bringing out an Erhu, Xi Yuyao played a soft tune slowly bellowing the strings back and forth with her other hand intricately placed on the strings. The melody was that of a soft yet mournful music which filled the air with emotions of loss and grievance. FeiXian heard the tune and immediately looked far away where the sound is coming from. It was nearing dawn and a sliver of light beyond the mountains can be seen. The light reflected on cliff where Zhao Min was cremated and it shone brightly upon the marked grave. 

"FeiXian I- I need to be alone for now."

"Hao. Just call me if you need me."

"Alright."

FeiXian went to where the Erhu's sound was coming from while YingLuo remained in front of Zhao Min's grave. 

As FeiXian took few more steps, Yuyao noticed it and stopped playing. The Erhu from her hand disappeared and she stood up from the large stone where she sat beneath the peach trees. 

"What are you doing here?" 

"Ayi I just came to listen to the music." 

"Hmm... Alright. It seems like you have no intention in harming me."

"My sister RuoMin, she plays an Erhu just like you do... She had became the Lunar Empress and we're bound to led astray by fate. I haven't seen her anymore after the siege of the Jade Phoenix's kingdom." 

"Funny. I love playing Erhu and you have the same face as my late brother." 

"I- I'm sorry for your loss."