Chapter 61: : Taming The Last Female Dragon Spirit Beast [1]
"Xuan."
The moment he heard the voice, he felt dizzy and began falling off the spirit beast. Xuan was falling unconscious.
It was after his hand slid off Xi Ning's waist that she realized Xuan was falling down, but it wasn't too late.
"Xuan!" she yelled. However, the unconscious boy couldn't hear, feel, or know what was happening.
Xi Ning was speeding down with her spirit beast, the wind slapping her face and whooshing past her ears; she was going that fast.
Because even Xuan's unconscious free fall wasn't slowing down at all, she was having a hard time catching up, and she needed to catch Xuan before he fell into the forest.
In the end, Xi Ning couldn't reach him, even though she leaped from her spirit beast and threw herself in order to catch him.
The moment Xuan fell into a tree of the forest, he was gone—vanished like thin air. Xi Ning landed on the ground with brutal force.
She stared at the tree, looking for Xuan, tears already filling her little blue eyes. "Xuan!" she muffled. How was she going to explain this outside?
Xi Ning fell on her arched knees, covering her face. In that moment, as she yelled like a monster, "Xuan!" a purple aura exploded through the forest, sending birds out of their nests.
The worst part of it all, the thing that made her feel frustrated, was that she couldn't sense Xuan's spiritual energy.
---
Meanwhile...
Inside the council hall of the Wuxia Capital, Emperor Woo sat on the majestic throne while his eight counselors were sitting at both sides facing one another.
On top of the table was a map—not just any map. It was closely comparable to holographic maps, but in their era, they didn't have technology.
So the map, as they would call it, was a magic map.
"Now that I'm temporarily on my feet," Emperor Woo sighed, "let us address this situation at hand."
The point of the meeting wasn't to celebrate him being on his feet. Rather, the magic map was divided in two because of the darkness covering half of it.
The darkness signified the demons now crawling to the surface, and nearby towns had been reporting their missing wives and daughters.
And any man who stood in their way had their heads eaten from their bodies. It was clear what they needed the women for.
"I say we rally a few guards and take the fight to them!" Xi Ning's father stood, giving them his suggestion.
"Now they're attacking the elf country. They wouldn't see us humans coming."
Emperor Woo let out a sigh, keeping quiet, though his mind was filled with endless thoughts. He wouldn't want to help the elf country.
On top of that, the current general leading the demons was identified as the former elf country's emperor, Feng.
It would explain why most humans were being abducted compared to the numbers of elves. With that said, Woo could see where the lines led.
The undead Emperor Feng didn't want to wipe out his own race. Of course he wouldn't do that; this was a revenge scheme.
Attacking the elf country was because he planned to reclaim his lost throne, and with that, the coalition of demons and elves would be more than enough to wipe out the human race.
Yes, this was a revenge scheme. After all, it was Emperor Woo who drove his blade through the man's heart. But now he was back.
What else could he want if not that? Woo sighed. "Mr. Ning is right—we don't wait for them."
"Yes, the current ruler of the elf country does have a soft spot for humans. Last I heard, she helped a mere boy get his revenge on a small town, and she was wanted as a criminal for that," a counselor said.
Everyone kept quiet. That was a good thing for them then. All that was left was to send a few guards to make a truce.
"No, guards will not do it. Three counselors among you should volunteer," Emperor Woo said.
It was a tough decision for them. However, along with Xi Ning's father, two other counselors stood up.
---
Xuan lay on a cracked floor. Beside him was the map to the taboo dragon, opened as if he had been looking at it before.
But it wasn't Xuan. After all, he was only coming to himself because he had been unconscious the whole time.
He was in a cracked cavern wall that wept with shimmering streams. Sea-hued crystals glimmered faintly around the corners, and the waters echoed in soft, murmuring drips.
Xuan slowly sat up, waving his head because he felt a bit dizzy. "The hell happened?" he muttered to himself.
Then he saw the map beside him—perplexed, but he didn't think much about how the map had loosened and opened beside him.
He already knew someone else was responsible for that, so he stood up on alert. There was a big hole at his right, but it was very dark, and he couldn't see anything.
Xuan closed his eyes, trying to visualize what happened seconds before he woke up.
With time, he had mastered part of the rewind skill. Now, without rewinding reality, he could rewind it inside his head even farther than five seconds.
Right now, Xuan rewound back to when he heard the strange voice. He inhaled; though this was just a skill, rewinding back still made him feel the pressure he once felt.
He saw himself fall into the forest and just disappear. He saw Xi Ning in pain, and he saw himself just appear in this cave.
Brought down as if carried by an invisible force, most of all, he saw the dragoness.
And as he opened his eyes, the cave at his right blinked and growled. "Oh shit!" Xuan stumbled backward.
However, the big glowing eyes he once saw disappeared, and a beautiful woman with two horns appeared. She was wearing a dark robe reaching down to her legs.
"Oh my, did I scare you?" she said.