The fated ones

Chapter 24

Meanwhile, in qing qui, mo yuan had instructed bai qian and bai zhen on what they were to do and under what scenario. He didn't feel the need to tell bai yi again, since the man was present when they were given the instructions and should understand the implications, very clearly. But his brother and daughter were a different game altogether. They kept questioning and needling mo yuan, especially bai qian. They wanted the answers to everything from what they were doing, what was going to happen, how it was going to happen, how did xaio jiu fit into this and so many more. Their constant poking and prodding into his mental space were starting to feel like an inquisition to mo yuan and the old god of war had never taken kindly to being questioned for his actions. Still, since this was his precious seventeen, he finally told them what he knew which was essentially nothing at all.
"I do not know the answers to your questions, seventeen. Even if I did, I would not be at leisure to speak my mind freely. I am simply following the instructions I was given by dijun. Beyond that, I do not pretend to know anything." Mo yuan calmly answered trying to pacify bai qian.
But it had the opposite of the desired effect. This lit a fire under bai qian because in her mind she could not believe that the shifu she held in the highest regard was just blindly following the commands of dijun and unfortunately, she said that out loud. "shifu, how is it okay to follow someone else' commands blindly into a situation you know nothing of? The probability of everything and anything going wrong in this scenario with no context to rely on. Especially a command given by dijun could have an end number of results, who is to say it would all end up safely for us? How can such blind faith in dijun be good for anyone and especially you, shifu?" She said this all with doubt and contempt written clearly all over her face.
Hearing this, mo yuan lost all semblance of patience and control he had exercised before. With ill restrained anger on his face yet a deathly calm voice, mo yuan called out, "mind your words, seventeen. The person you speak of is not only the first but the true emperor of heaven and earth, the master of the universe. And this does not exempt qing qui. You must be aware of the fact that qing qui is the only immortal land that does not come under the jurisdiction of the heavenly lord. Why do you think it is this way, seventeen?"
"The only reason why you get to exercise so much freedom is the blind devotion and loyalty of your father, bai zhi towards the true emperor, dong hua dijun. When he unified the realms and crowned himself the heavenly lord, he trusted your father and as a reward for his loyalty, he let him be a free ruler. Do not ever misuse the freedom that has been given to you, bai qian. Because as easily it was given, it can be taken away."
"You have always said too much in front of him, failed to hide your dislike of him and ran your mouth too far without any consequence. When, if someone else had been in your place, his head would have been cut off before his mouth could run this far. Why do you think your life has been spared, bai qian?"
"you've been spared, this far, seventeen not just because you are his loyal brother bai zhi's daughter but due to the fact that you are the dear aunt of the one he loves. You know, he unified the realms just because he was simply annoyed from the constant war. He had no big ideals of establishing peace. He took up the duties of the emperor because of the sad state of the realms, for it was only his powers that could bring this universe to heel, put an end to that chaos and maintain it. So, what do you think he will do for the one he loves?"
"you have not the slightest clue as to what he is and what he does. To him, you are nothing but an ignorant child, seventeen. Do not challenge him or his decisions, for he was not a merciful ruler and even now, mercy still doesn't exist in his system. The only one who can sway his decisions and protect you from his wrath is feng jiu and she is not here right now. I do not say this kindly but heed my warning, seventeen. You, your husband and even if you accumulate the whole of sky kingdom and qingqui, it is still no match for him. You have not seen the dong hua of yore; the stories that you read and hear of the prehistoric wars are only just partial truths to save the consciences of children like you. The real thing you cannot even begin to imagine."
"As for me, seventeen, since the day I was born and till my last breath, I will always blindly follow dong hua whenever he asks me to even if it were to lead me to my demise. Do not ever question my loyalty to the great emperor, dong hua dijun. And that is the last I want to hear of this little outburst of yours."
Mo yuan was done educating, bai qian and with that, he turned his attention back to the container. Suddenly the clouds roared in the sky but instead of turning dark, the sky slowly turned red. At this point, he remembered what dong hua had told him, "you will know when it's time." And he knew. He reached out to the container, securing it with his cultivation. Before a bright red beam of power came hurtling down, aimed towards the container and went directly in through the opening at the top.
Behind him, he heard bai qian scream out feng jiu's name and jump towards the container. But before he could attempt to pull her back, canghe appeared directly in front of bai qian. The intent of the sword was clear, one more step and it'll pierce her heart then and there. Mo yuan thought to himself, dong hua has always been neat with his work.

The bright red force of power that was coming from the sky and directly into the container was too strong for mo yuan to handle alone, the container was bursting with this power already and still more was coming in with no end in sight. Remembering how dong hua had already known this and prepared him for it beforehand, mo yuan called out to bai yi and bai zhen. Understanding what was required of them, they merged their cultivations with mo yuan's around the container. They tried, fruitlessly to hold it in but the power inside the container was too strong for them to handle. This time, mo yuan called out to bai qian, "you want to help your niece now or not?" Feeling guilty, she simply asked him for his command.
"send a missive to your husband and your Kunlun brothers. Inform them dong hua dijun calls for their service and tell them what they are required to do. Do not give any explanation. These are dijun's orders and they are bound by duty to come." She sent the message with the cranes and joined her brothers and master in maintaining the container.
A few moments later, twenty people appeared behind them. Among them, fifteen were the disciples from kunlun but along with ye hua, lian song, si ming, zhonglin and cheng yu had also appeared. The appearance of the four uninvited immortals registered with mo yuan but he didn't say anything to that effect. Mo yuan was aware of the close relationship these four had with dong hua and feng jiu. Since, Dong hua already trusted them with feng jiu, it said everything he needed to know about their loyalty towards them.
As for the new immortals on the site, they could see something huge was under works there but no one dared to ask any question. They were here on dong hua dijun's missive and no one has the right to question his actions and commands. They knew if dijun had ordered them to do something then they must do so without fail. So, the cultivation of twenty more immortals was merged with the one that held the container closed but barely.
With that, for a little while the power of the twenty-four of the greatest immortals of the world right now held the container stable. But the onslaught of power had neither stopped nor had it slowed down. This had started becoming more and more difficult for them. So, with the continuous incoming of power, all of them had started to sweat. By now the container was filled with so much of this glowing red energy that it all just seemed like a burning box of fire. Everyone was puzzled as to what this great power was but one thing was for certain that it could not be controlled by them.
A while later, the incoming stream of power from the sky, dwindled and eventually, it stopped. With no new addition to the container, everyone felt a little relaxed, thinking that they might be able to hold it down after all. But Mo yuan had an inkling at the back of his mind that this was just going to get harder. Going with his gut instinct, he told bai yi to call for his brothers, their wives and everyone that could be trusted with this much power at hand.

Meanwhile, in the sky kingdom, after the power burst stopped, dong hua turned around to look for bai zhi and zhe yan, only to find them sitting down behind him suffering silently in pain. He empathized with their pain knowing fully what this had cost them. Since he, himself had experienced that pain tenfold when he had erased his name from the rock of three lives. Moving in their direction, he bent down between them and placed a hand on both their foreheads. He reached inside their cores and withdrew the pain into himself. The power that the rock had released into him had been enormous, he could now feel it rising inside him to subdue the pain and left it feeling nothing more than an ant bite to him.
When his two brothers heaved out a sigh of relief, he smiled on the inside. Along with mo yuan, these three were his brother in arms, they had fought uncountable wars together and stayed together through the toughest times of each other's lives. Dong hua had always held his brothers in the highest regard, so, taking their pain onto him was nothing in the face of such an everlasting bond.
Bai zhi turned to look at his face in shock, asking, "what did you do? That horrible, scorching and burning sensation is suddenly gone. It feels like the pain was never there."
Dong hua replied simply, "that was not your pain to handle, brother. You did what I asked of you and now it is my duty to free you from your sufferings."
Zhe yan looked at him carefully for a second, mulling it over and then accused, "you channeled the pain into your body, didn't you? Instead of us, it is your body that is suffering through it now."
Bai zhi opened his mouth to ask dong hua to return his pain back to him as he didn't want his brother to suffer from twice of that excruciating pain. But before he could say anything, dong hua interrupted, "rest easy, bai zhi. My body has experienced ten times this pain before, it is nothing more than an ant bite for me at this point. Besides, xaio bai is back, and with the love and power, she gives me I can handle a pain million times stronger than this without flinching. She will be waking up shortly, brothers and I don't think mo yuan can contain the power any longer. They need us there."
Bai zhi didn't know what shocked him more, the pain dong hua has suffered before, dong hua's love confession for his granddaughter, or the fact that his granddaughter was back. His brain was fully scrambled at this point. Trying to undo the knots in his mind, he chose to focus on the latter. He stood up and nodded at dong hua, "where now?"
When they appeared back in qing qui, zhe yan and bai zhi couldn't believe what their eyes were witnessing. At one end of the valley, was a big box-like structure that glowed a pure bright red and was teeming with so much power that even looking at it was hurting their eyes. And on the other end of the valley, what was supposed to be only mo yuan's task was now being shouldered by twenty-three more. They counted again just to make sure of the number. Twenty-four of the greatest immortals in all the realms were struggling to maintain one container and not just that, it looked like they were about to break under its burden at any point.
Reading their thoughts, Dong hua answered, "what you are seeing is no small feat. Xaio bai is gaining back access to all her powers. She is no longer the little princess of qing qiu. This is a metamorphosis process of sorts. She is transitioning into her original form as the true queen of all living of all the realms. She is a primordial spirit that is as old as mine. She is the source of all living as I am the source of nature. She's my true match, my better half. Her power is no joke, it is equivalent to mine."
"Now, I want you to go there and tell them to withdraw their powers once I have taken hold of the container. After that is done, huddle together and create a multi-layer protective barrier around yourselves. Make as many layers as there are people. I don't want all of you to be blasted away when she wakes up, otherwise, she will be really mad at me."