One Tail at a Time

Red

Have I mentioned, that every war I have ever fought in, brings the rain, thunder and lightning?  It seems that before we even find her, the weather takes a turn and what had begun as a clear sunny day, soon darkens the closer to the Demon Lands we get until it is pouring down.

I really don't know what to expect, but I am prepared for anything, especially when it comes to that man.  It has been centuries since we last clashed and having lost to me time and time again, the grudges run deep so I am definitely expecting a concerted effort to prevent her from leaving.

With me, as I have already mentioned, is Di Jun and his own personal guard which consists of trained elite warriors which he himself trained, so I am confident we will get her out of there by the end of the day.  

Only the closer we get to the Demons shield, the more I notice her attempts to leave.  The energy on the pin is growing weaker with each effort and I suspect it is because she threw everything into her first attempt which would have weakened it.  And that only increases my fear for her safety.  The pin would not work if she was already in the darklands or a place shielded by his magic.  

And if she was in a place where his own personal shield was protecting them, then her energy in the pin would have been too weak to counter it, even with my energy added, because the pin was made solely for her energy whereas my energy merely acted as a way to travel and to get her through the barriers of Kunlun Mountain.

And that is where my concern lies.  If she had tried to get through his barrier, she would have been seriously injured and the more she tries to leave, the weaker the signal is becoming, which means she herself is weakening.  I need her to stop, because she may need to fight only the closer to the Demon Lands we get, the more urgency the signal becomes until eventually, it does out completely.  

Turning to Di Jun, I inform him that I suspect she is now in the Demon lands which instantly has Bai Zhi gathering his sons for war.

"I'll kill him." he whispers in the heat of the moment, only one look from Di Jun has the man snarling angrily.

"No!  She more than likely left of her own accord." he says in reference to the replicas of herself she has unleashed on Sang Ji to get away.  "Therefore, we enter peacefully and demand a meeting to ascertain exactly what happened, before we make any decisions" he adds most level headedly, only like Bai Zhi, my anger too is soaring.  

I just explained her attempts to flee, yet he is still insisting on a peaceful entrance.  Well, I am sure he will look most elegant and regal when he floats in on his silver lined cloud, but I have no such notions.  My disciple is trying to escape, so regardless of whether she left Kunlun Mountain willingly, she now wants out and so with a short sharp nod at Bai Zhi and one very intense glare at Die Feng, I leave Di Jun to make his peaceful entry while the rest of us storm the barrier.

It takes a mere few seconds to blast our way through and as I suspected, the guards are thick on the ground and in the air having obviously expected us, only the sight of myself, Bai Zhis lightening rod and the white light shield my disciples are flaring out towards them, have most quickly pulling back while we purposely forge a path towards the main palace where I detect her one final attempt to flee.  

It is all I needed to feel.  I know now that she is there, in the Palace itself and so weak, that I immediately round up hundreds of guards to interrogate them with the urgency of the insane.  I am so close to taking heads from shoulders, that several buckle under the force of my energy which I use shamelessly to gain information on where she is being held.