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"All of you, stop."
A voice soaked with smelling poison sounded on the battlefield. It did not require urgency, was not firm or contained any malice. No, it was soft, even slightly alluring, like sweet nectar for hapless flies, before getting bogged down forever in a sweet treat. It was clear that even if he did not demand anything, he still obliged to obey.
The entire body, already covered with various wounds, immediately stopped upon hearing this voice. Yanqing's head ached and his ears were ringing. His whole body seemed like an unbearable burden to him, which made it so hard to stand that despite his attempts, he still had to fall. Everything hurt. It seemed to him that every wound was covered with some kind of poison, burning his body and veins with unbearable pain. But he knows it's all his imagination. There was no poison for anyone, but only the pain of his failure.
The pain of his loss in this battle.
Both of his rivals look down on him as if he was nothing more than an annoying fly that needs to be crushed. Maybe he is. In the end, this battle proved how weak and insignificant he was against these two. If it wasn't for that voice, he would have died here and now. Although he can't ask the question is he really so weak that they don't even need to look at him, recognize his existence in this battle? Or was he nothing more than a small obstacle they could play with?
A sound involuntarily escaped from his mouth as he, despite his wounds, tries to look back at the Blade. But Blade doesn't even acknowledge his existence, he just puts his hand on his hip, hesitantly looking back at the owner of the voice, who Kafka was, as if waiting for a signal.
"... what did you do?"
His hoarse voice breaks the prolonged silence.
Kafka smiles lazily with her pale pink eyes with a detached expression on her face. "I'm just clearing the stage for the front entrance. It can't be that the three of you behaved badly in front of the tough General Luofu."
After that, Yanqing's body was doused with ice water. His General was here. The general who should be in charge of the deployment of troops at the moment was present here and watched this show from beginning to end. He saw all the blunders and mistakes committed by Yanqing in an impulsive rush to achieve justice and test his skills. He saw this obviously losing battle in which Yanqing was nothing more than a small obstacle that was easily stepped over.
"Ha ha."
With that familiar laugh, Jing Yuan suddenly appears in Yanqing's peripheral vision. Yanqing couldn't make out the general's stony face, which he wears at many meetings, however, he could tell by the eyes. That the general was watching with interest all the participants in this battle except... him. He couldn't raise his head to meet his general's gaze without hurting his body even more. Therefore, he remained in the same position in which he finished the fight.
"Jing Yuan..."
"General!"
After the greeting, Yanqing couldn't help but wonder. Why, if the general was watching their entire fight, Jing Yuan hadn't dragged them into prison with shackles yet? Isn't it now of paramount importance to imprison criminals in order to resolve the situation with Stellaron as soon as possible. So why hasn't it happened yet?
Yanqing can do nothing but sit on the ground staring blankly into space when he realizes the fact that the fugitives and the general are currently talking like distant friends. They say when there is confusion in Xianzhou and people die. He trusts his general and believes that Jing Yuan is one of the smartest people, but now he is wondering. And what exactly is going on? Why is the General behaving like this? Why can't anyone tell him so that he doesn't feel like he's sitting alone in the dark. But the pain of the wounds interrupts this stream of thoughts. Yanqing realizes that despite the fact that his body can barely function because of the pain after the fight, Yanqing needs to straighten up to reach a safe place and find out what is actually happening. Therefore, swaying slightly in pain, trying not to wince, Yanqing finally joined the conversation.
"..."...thank you for Xiangzhou's help in this little matter. Take this man away - this time I'll pretend I didn't see anything.
Oh. he lets them go. Ah, so that's what they are.
wait a minute-! But why???
"General?! I..."
His exclamation is immediately interrupted by the look directed at him and the harsh, but so familiar words.
"now is not the time."
Jing Yuan's face shows a familiar expression of mixed disbelief and guilt. He had seen that look when he first started his training with the general. At that time, he couldn't look into Yanqing's eyes without that hunted expression on his face, as if remembering his waking nightmare. Fortunately, it didn't last long, which made Yanqing briefly forget about the very existence of these emotions. However, as soon as he sees it, the pain hits him in the heart. Why is he looking at him like that? What did he do wrong to have such a look directed at him? Is it because he disobeyed an order? Questions were swarming in his head, which clearly did not like Yanqing, he could not stand not knowing what was going on around him. So the only thing left for him was to watch the two criminals: Kafka and Blade deftly leave, disappearing into the fog, leaving no traces behind them. In his shock, he absentmindedly reaches for his hand, but remembers in time that he scratched it during his battle. Even without bringing his hand to this place, he can clearly feel how wet this place is from his blood, so Yanqing instead of the usual pose, he presses his hand to the opposite side, where there were the least wounds.
"it's been a long time, old friend..."
Jing Yuan's quiet voice was imbued with sadness and nostalgia, which made Yanqing involuntarily twitch.
What's happening? Why doesn't anyone tell him anything? Isn't he worthy of knowing?
"General,"
Yanqing wanted to say that he was sorry for what happened. That he wants to know what's going on. He doesn't understand what to do next. But Jing Yuan quickly cuts off any question Yanqing wanted to ask him by glaring at Yanqing.
Can someone please tell me what's going on?! Why doesn't anyone tell him!
The people he was told to hunt appear out of the blue and are within range of capture... But this is not happening… Everyone knows what he does not know, while not trying to somehow explain something to him. Then... why is he even needed here? Wasn't he good, strong enough to learn something? He could finally carry out his first mission as an adult lieutenant, so that everyone in him would not see only a small child and yet ... everything slips out of his own hands again and disappears again, leaving him alone. Just BECAUSE SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT IS HAPPENING HERE?
Don't people want him to listen to them and follow orders?!
"I'm not him."
A voice with regal detachment responds to Jing Yuan, from which the mood drops sharply.
"mm, I'm sorry."
After that, they continue to talk about something, but Yanqing does not listen. Not when he knows that he is superfluous here, that no one pays the slightest attention to him. Perhaps he has a habit of doing not deliberate actions, but not this time. This time, he will leave the stage without orders, especially when his presence is clearly undesirable. Not when he's left alone in the dark... again.
***
Because of this, ignoring his wounds and leaving as quietly as possible, Yanqing heads to the only place where he can think everything over. A small place that was his personal paradise in Xianzhou. It was a small cave near the rocky coast with a small path of sand. It's quite difficult to get there on foot, but it's easier to do it on Yanqing swords. This place is dull, cold and gray, but fortunately for him, quite often a salty breeze blows from the south side, which brightens up his days.
Sitting there on this rocky shore and applying ice to his wounds, he tries to understand what actually happened. Why the general released the criminals, and who they really are. Why was he thrown away again, even though he proved his reliability. Why the general can't put it into practice. Is he that bad? Remembering the whole conversation that took place no more than 5 minutes ago, his heart is again bound by the pain from the look that the general awarded him. And also the words he said.
"now is not the time."
How many times had he heard that phrase? How many times had he been told over and over that he wasn't old enough for this? In his opinion, it's cruel to pretend to trust him, but in fact not to tell him anything important, since he is still a child. Hahah- what a joke a kid who became a lieutenant when ordinary knights are more than 200 years old. It's funny that he is told to introduce himself as an adult, but treats him like a child. Leave him in this limbo where he can't belong to any of the groups.
"Yanqing was 9 years old when this happened. At that time, he was already a personal student of General Jing Yuan for more than 3 years, so he was trusted to do exercises on his own in the garden. It was already evening, and he had already completed all the exercises that he had to do for the day. When he was ready to go to bed, he felt something hit him in the head. Looking around quickly, he realized that it was just a small blue ball. Yanqing himself rarely played, as he was focused exclusively on training, but looking at the small object in his hands, a childish desire to play again awoke in him. Suddenly he heard several voices shouting from behind the fence
- Hey, there! Could you please return it to us! We are very sorry that he got into your garden.
They turned out to be children, seemingly the same age as Yanqing. Without thinking twice, he went towards the voices with the ball in his hands. When he gave the ball back into the hands of one of the boys, he was greeted by a chorus of 4 voices, with words of gratitude.
- Thank you! As a reward for our ball, do you want to play with us? Oh, yes, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Lao," the boy to whom Yanqing gave the ball said happily. Then he pointed to the girl standing behind him – this is Shi Hong, and the two blockheads behind Li and Qi Shang.
After that, the girl laughed, and two seemingly identical boys shouted at their companion. Deciding to be polite, Yanqing said his name
- Nice to meet you, my name is Yanqing!
However, as soon as he said his name, all the happiness that someone wanted to play with him dissolved from the sour faces of other children. Not knowing the reason for this situation, he asked
- Is something wrong?
After these words, the other children simply backed away from him, and the only girl in the group awkwardly shook her hands from side to side.
- Not really… You're training to become a cloud Knight, aren't you?
To this, he awkwardly shook his small head in confirmation. It was a fairly well-known fact that he was one of the youngest who was preparing to become a knight.
- Well, you have to train a lot so, um... after that, she hesitated, as if not knowing what to say to him.
But one of the two identical boys answered for her, who pushed Yanqing towards the garden fence with a frightened expression on his face.
- That's why no one wants to play with you! Don't come near us anymore!
After that, all the children ran away from him in fear, leaving Yanqing standing at the gate wondering what he had done wrong. After this incident, he no longer tried to play with other children in the neighborhood, preferring instead to relax alone in the garden."
The next thing he knew, everyone was whispering about him.
"Hey, isn't this the general's disciple?"
"I thought he would be older..."
"This is ridiculous..." "poor child..." "he's just a child, but how can this be!" "how did they even give this position to someone like him?"
"You need to learn not to behave so recklessly – Fu Xuan lectured him"
"Try to introduce yourself more responsibly, this is not befitting your status! Tingyun advised him, "
"Please don't embarrass me in front of the master! – Qingque begged him",
"Can I ask you to wait for me somewhere else, I have a delegation waiting for me that I need to meet - the general gently told him"
"I don't want to train with a kid who isn't even a hundred years old!" "I don't want to become your punching bag! Leave me alone!" "What are you doing here, shouldn't you be training! Stop having fun!" "Aren't you a lieutenant, so what are you doing here among us? You have to be much stronger than everyone here put together" "I don't want to play with you, you're scaring me!" "Go away!" "Train" "You're not enough" "You have to be strong once you've been chosen" "leave me alone" "I don't want to talk to you" "It's not the time for you to know about it" "I think you're too small yet"
There was always disbelief, pity or simple fear in their eyes. It seemed as if the thought that Yanqing could be someone important made them sick. As a result, because of all this, he found himself alone in the garden again and again performing mandatory workouts. That it hurt. He had no friends, no hobbies not related to weapons, no social skills. It seemed that he was stuck alone in that garden forever, never having achieved his goals. He thought that he knew his general, whom he thought of as his parent figure, well, but this turned out to be a lie. If earlier he thought that he was 2 steps behind him, now a whole chasm has broken out between them, which he does not know how to overcome. As if all those years did not bring them closer at all, but on the contrary increased the distance. The conversation earlier only confirmed this to him. The general's past will never be told to him, no matter how close he was. Now he is completely alone. And all he wanted was for someone to be with him. He really want to have a friend who could comfort him now. But he's alone.... again.
***
Stellaron was bored. Yes, he may be one of the most powerful organisms in the entire universe, but even he can get bored. In the eyes of others, he is just some kind of core with energy without thoughts and reflections. Which would be fundamentally wrong. He wasn't some brainless stone who didn't have the strength to realize that it was alive. He could think well and straight, just not show it. He also has his own plans and goals, but has anyone been interested in this? No. So why would he talk about it, to those insignificant beings who can't even listen to him. It makes no sense to anyone. Let him continue to think the way they want.
However, listening to people's wishes can be really monotonous. They are all of the same type and similar in their essence. To achieve some carnal desires like wealth or health. Few of them are distinguished by originality. And so it became here. He fulfilled the strongest collective desire that the local residents wanted so much. He revived their Ambrosial Arbor. But even this is not enough for them. He can see from here how they crave more, crave more knowledge, more things to satisfy their dirty desires. But he does that, too. He fulfills them until these desires feed them, giving them energy. While this is happening, he will do what they want from him and change Xianzhou. Even if it's not mentally boring.
For the sake of satisfying his curiosity, he decided to listen to the smaller desires of the people of Xianzhou, who were not so strong. Unfortunately, he was not very surprised by what he found. They were of the same type, as on numerous other planets. It began to seem to him that hoping for something new was pointless, as he heard it. A small desire, barely reaching him. And something in this desire awakened his buried interest. He decided to listen and understand what this little creature was asking for.
"he wanted at least someone to be with him. He really want to have a friend who could comfort him now. But he's alone."
Loneliness?
Stellaron is not familiar with such a concept since he is always connected to his relatives scattered throughout the universe. Even if he wanted to, he could never really be alone, so he doesn't understand what this creature means. For a moment, he imagines what would happen if all the noise and connections he feels with others were abruptly cut off. What would happen if a dense silence enveloped his entire existence, leaving him with nothing. Imagining this makes him uneasy. He wouldn't like it, he's sure, so maybe he understood a little bit why this little creature doesn't want to be alone.
But why is he like this? Aren't there numerous creatures similar to his kind running around on this piece of metal? How can he be lonely when there are so many things around. Maybe he doesn't understand something? Stellaron didn't like not to understand. Moreover, it was the only desire in such a long time that awakened something in him. So he decided that if he studied the being with this desire more closely, he would be able to identify the root of the problem and answer his own questions.
Having reached the trace of this desire, he really saw a small creature that looks like a newborn compared to others. Where many residents of Xianzhou are already over a few hundred, this little deer is not even 2 dozen. And this made his interest even more inflamed. Usually such small things do not have strong desires that he could hear. Almost always they are taken care of by older creatures fulfilling their small and innocent requests. But not in this case. This little doe was alone and far away from other creatures, for some unknown reason. Moreover, his blood was not quite like the others on this ship. It was similar, but slightly modified. It seemed that there was some kind of virus in this blood, which modified the composition, giving the little deer some mutations. Unfortunately, he does not know what exactly it is, since this is the first time he sees it, so this action does not bring him positive results.
Instead, he decided to pay attention to the tracks of a small deer, hoping to find something there. To his surprise, this baby was ready to become an emanator of the Hunting path. To be honest, he had never seen anything like this, for such a small one to start achieving such compatibility with paths, it usually took much longer. He knows that the local general Jing Yuan is him, but the age of this creature is almost 56 times the age of a deer. So that doesn't explain how this is possible.
...Interesting. it turns out that there is really something on this piece of iron, how curious.
Unfortunately, it still doesn't give him any clues, but he ignores it in favor of the other. He wonders what will happen if he fulfills the wish of the little doe. Will he become a full-fledged emanator or something else. How much chaos can he sow in this state? Perhaps part of why he does this is that he feels a little sympathy for this crumb. But in any case, whatever the reason, it would still not be difficult for him to fulfill it. All he needs is to create a creature that will always be with the little doe. But from what should he create it?
After analyzing all the accumulated knowledge, he came to the logical conclusion that the disease of these creatures is ideal for this. Mara is found in every centenarian, including in the body of a small doe. Moreover, this disease will always be with him, right up to his death. If he gives this disease his own consciousness, he will be an ideal companion for the fulfillment of this desire. Thus, the little doe will not only never be alone again, but will also become stronger to become an emanator of the Hunting path. This is actually the best option in this situation.
Deciding what to do next, he finds Mara in Yanqing's body. At first it was nothing more than a black clot of don't understandable what, but soon it began to change shape, acquiring more human-like outlines. After a few moments of such machinations, what used to be just a bunch of energy became an exact copy of Yanqing with black hair and red eyes. Satisfied with his result, Stellaron decided to give his gift, which he had just created. It's time to fulfill a wish.
***
Sitting on the sand for a while, Yanqing felt drowsy, which clearly indicated that the wounds he had forgotten about still needed treatment. Reluctantly and struggling with drowsiness, he tried to get up from his seat to return to the camp and recover from the result of his unsuccessful fight. But to his bad luck, he was too sleepy to even move a single muscle. It seemed that his whole body was leaden, and his head was stuffed with cotton, which made it harder and harder to think by the minute. He regretted that he didn't immediately go to treat his wounds at this moment. Because the situation he was in now was getting more serious by the minute.
"Don't need to worry about this. Sleep"
It doesn't help that his mind was trying to convince him that taking a nap would be nice, which seemed to indicate how bad it really was.
"Sleep. And your wish will come true," a sweet voice hummed in his head. That's good, but wish? What wish? He doesn't remember asking for anything.
"it doesn't matter now. Close your eyes and let me do it. I promise all the pain will go away as soon as you close your eyes."
The voice in his head kept coaxing him to close his eyes, tempting more and more Yanqing to do just that. Perhaps if he falls asleep, he will feel a little better? The voice agreed with him.
"Of course. Soon it will all be over, there is no need to suffer anymore, you will never be alone again. I promise you"
Ha, being with someone right now sounded good. Yes, maybe he'll take a little nap, and then go on. It's clear no one needs him yet anyway, so that's all right. After these thoughts, his eyes began to close by themselves, slowly plunging him into a deep sleep. Falling on the sand and ignoring the itch from it, Yanqing took a deep breath and sank into his deepest sleep in this life. Being in this state, he did not pay attention to the next words of the voice that sounded in his head.
"Sleep sweetly and in the morning your wishes will be fulfilled, a little Doe."
Suddenly, from the voice that spoke so softly a little earlier, loud crazy laughter was heard, which became more hysterical by the minute. Through this laughter, he said with self-satisfaction.
"Now it's time to rise from the ashes…"
"Xian Yu"
After these words, in the place where the teenager was lying, roots began to bloom and grass began to grow. Soon, plant sprouts began to appear there and buds of white lavender began to bloom. Where there had been nothing but rocks and sand for a few minutes, now there was a large flowerbed with numerous large white flowers.
The teenager himself has also undergone changes. Now, where there used to be light wheat long hair, there were jet-dark curls. Wounds that had previously been bleeding began to heal by themselves, and blue clothes acquired a darker color. What used to be Lieutenant Yanqing has become something else, something dark, having its own consciousness.
"Get up Xian Yu, it's time to do what you were created for"
A voice demanded, trying to wake up a teenager lying in the middle of a new flower bed. Suddenly, the eyes that had been golden before abruptly opened, revealing their dark scarlet color. It seemed that they could not understand what was happening, but it immediately passed. Now, slowly rising from his seat, the man named Xian Yu was ready to take up his duties. After straightening his clothes and loosening his already ruined ponytail, Xian Yu was already fully aware of who he was and what needed to be done.
"do you know what to do?" a voice in their head asked curiously
Without saying anything to this, Xian Yu only raised the familiar sword covered with frost to examine his reflection. A young man with an emotionless face and scarlet eyes stared at him from a pure blade. After watching enough, he said in a low voice
- Xian Yu and Yanqing are one, the enemies of Yanqing are the enemies of Xian Yu. Xian Yu's task is to hunt down the enemies and destroy everything that is dangerous in order to stay with Yanqing as much as possible. Xian Yu is Yanqing's friend, so he should always be there.
To this, the voice with complacency said only one word
"Good."