27th Day of the First Month in the Year 736 NCE.
Exterius Sacrum Sanctorum, Heaven Overseeing City, Heavenly Spirit Empire.
“Thank you once again for graciously agreeing to meet this request, Your Holiness. Words fail to express how immensely grateful I am,” said an immaculately dressed Bai Xiulan as she offered a humble bow. Her stance was perfectly erect and straight, and her eyes were trained straight at the polished white marble floor beneath her.
Standing next to her, a few steps at the back, was 'Son of the Heavens' Mu Yuelong. His courtesy mirrored that of his mother’s, albeit he failed to hear the words that she had spoken.
Bai Xiulan and Mu Yuelong, this pair of mother and son, currently found themselves in a meeting inside the fabled Exterius Sacrum Sanctorum; the nest of the Heaven Gazing Fairy.
Levitating opposite to the mother-son pair, glowing in a soft, shimmering sacred white light, was the Sovereign herself. Her staid eyes scanned the figures of her two guests, evaluating them for flaws and discourtesy. A harsh moment of silence later, the Sovereign spoke.
“As an ally of the Mu Household, it is my responsibility to assist my allies whenever I can. But, responsibility aside,” her eyes moved and narrowed on Yuelong, “I have a certain amount of personal interest in this matter myself.”
“He has lost his ability to hear, correct?” asked the Heaven Gazing Fairy.
Bai Xiulan frantically nodded her head and replied, “That is correct, Your Holiness.”
“And, I assume you have already tried everything to resolve this issue yourselves and failed, eventually leading you to me. Correct?”
The Eldest Madame tensely bit her lips. “...Correct, Your Holiness.”
“Did Patriarch Mu not attempt to pry at this matter himself? It was my understanding that he had quite the accomplishment in the [Medicine Path].”
“My husband is currently preoccupied with his cultivation and hasn’t had time to tend to family affairs for a while now. And I don’t dare to interrupt him.”
“Peculiar,” said the Heaven Gazing Fairy. “And here I thought that the Golden Sovereign was warmer towards his family.”
Hearing her dismissive words, Bai Xiualan couldn’t help but offer a cry of retort. “He’s no–!”
“Leave.” The Heaven Gazing Fairy waved her hand. “I must speak to the Son of the Heavens alone.”
Bai Xiulan looked visibly startled at that offer. Her head instinctively snapped up and searched the Heaven Gazing Fairy’s face for clues before hurriedly lowering itself upon realising how insolent such an action was. After a minute of internal conflict, she bowed lower and quietly answered, “...I obey, Your Holiness.” She then turned around and left.
Meanwhile, Mu Yuelong, having not heard any of the words exchanged, could still instinctively feel the threatening and hostile atmosphere within the space. He had quietly been swallowing nervous gulps for quite some time. The absolute silence of his perception only served to make his nervousness all the more unbearable.
Then, when he noticed his mother suddenly turn around with a pale face and walk away, Yuelong panicked even further. “Mother,” he yelped, only to see her sign by placing a finger on her lips.
Yuelong immediately shut up.
Bai Xiulan left swiftly, taking quick and hurried strides. She did not dare to call upon her energy or use any movement techniques as doing so would be seen as an unmistakable challenge toward the Sovereign.
Heaven Gazing Fairy waited and watched Bai Xiulan until the ornate golden doors of the Exterius Sacrum Sanctorum closed. She then turned her gaze toward the trembling and nervously sweating figure of Mu Yuelong.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
After intensely staring at the boy for some time, she floated from her perch and arrived in front of him. She then extended the index finger of her right hand to poke at the boy’s forehead.
At her sudden action, Yuelong was quite understandably startled and attempted to move back. However, before he could command his muscles to do so, Yuelong had his entire being frozen into stillness.
“Do not struggle.” The words of a Sovereign were absolute within their Domains.
A wisp of crystal-clear divine energy shot out from the tip of Heaven Gazing Fairy’s finger and penetrated into Yuelong’s forehead. Having attached a piece of her perception to the sliver of energy, the Heaven Gazing Fairy instantly felt a part of her sense entering the mind-space of Yuelong.
First to greet her was the scene of an enormous world protected by a thin layer of translucent golden energy. The energy shielded every single portion of that enormous world, leaving nothing to bear against the infinite void surrounding it.
Not an instant after Heaven Gazing Fairy’s intrusion, two bolts of golden energy shot out from the golden shield and transformed into two golden warrior-like figures. The golden warriors charged ahead, blades at the ready, and immediately made an attempt to slash at the divine energy of the Heaven Gazing Sovereign.
Seeing the attacks aimed at her, Heaven Gazing Fairy did not waste time by attempting diplomacy. Instead, she willed her divine energy to transform into an image of herself and then proceeded to snap her fingers.
Time stilled, and the blades that were but a hair’s breadth away from striking her stopped. And then, the strangest sight transpired as everything started to turn backwards and move in reverse.
The blades grew far away, the golden warriors charged in reverse, their forms collapsing back into bolts of golden energy, and eventually, melded back into that translucent barrier that shielded Yuelong’s mind. Time reversed, and everything, except for the Heaven Gazing Fairy herself, returned to how it previously was.
Having easily dealt with the wards and countermeasures installed by the Golden Sovereign within his son, Heaven Gazing Fairy then proceeded to study the translucent golden barrier.
“Remarkable.” She couldn’t help but offer a word of praise after a while. The technique used to construct this barrier was brilliant and ingenious. So much so, that even for a practitioner of her strength and knowledge it would not be easy to completely undo this barrier.
Of course, destroying the entire thing would be childishly simple and hardly require more than a wave of her hands. However, doing so would also kill the Son of the Heavens; something that the Heaven Gazing Fairy did not wish to do for plenty of reasons.
As she continued to study the barrier, looking for any gaps or loopholes to exploit, the Heaven Gazing Fairy soon came upon the most interesting of scenes.
At one of the very edges of the barrier, she found a small crack, no larger than a finger’s width. The crack was stained with silver light that radiated a strange and unknown energy.
“Strange. Very strange,” commented the Heaven Gazing Fairy as she arrived before that crack and studied it intensely. “The silver energy is infinitely weaker than the Golden Sovereign’s energy present in the barrier, and yet it somehow is resisting? No, it’s not resisting but rather, it's influencing it?”
“Which Path is this?” The Heaven Gazing Fairy was the wisest and most knowledgeable entity in the whole world. Moreover, she was a practitioner of the [Wisdom Path].
Thoughts and assumptions whirred around her as she attempted to identify the nature and identity of this unknown energy that had managed to draw her interest. A cloud-like haze surrounded her figure, as thoughts struck against other thoughts to form hypotheses. Her derivation continued for a decent while before it arrived at an answer.
“A new Path?” Heaven Gazing Fairy’s still eyes quivered and shook. Her shock was immediately apparent. Her thoughts whirred once more and the derivation began once again. This time, the answer came to her much sooner.
“Mu Yuelong is not the Star. The Mu Household has been lying to me.” An intense feeling of annoyance rose up within the Heaven Gazing Fairy. For a moment, she even considered killing the boy before her.
Fortunately, Heaven Gazing Fairy's annoyance cooled quickly. Killing Yuelong would incur hatred from the Golden Sovereign and provoke a war between the Mu Household and the Heavenly Spirit Empire. And while she did not fear defeat, she did not wish to needlessly waste the wealth and lives of practitioners and common mortals. Moreover, should she enter a conflict with the Golden Sovereign, it might inspire the Demon Sovereign to act; stirring further trouble and chaos in the world.
However, what she feared most of all was something else.
“Such chaos might rouse the interest of the Devil.” This was something the Heaven Gazing Fairy earnestly wished to avoid at all costs.
Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, the Heaven Gazing Fairy snapped her fingers and in an instant, she appeared on the other side of the barrier. Turning around, she noticed the silver energy causing the gap in the barrier, to dissipate and disappear.
“It appears that the Star of this generation is most remarkable,” she quietly muttered. “I must find them.”
Deciding as such, Heaven Gazing Fairy readied herself and headed deeper into Yuelong’s mind-space. News of such a talented Star was welcome and important, however, there was currently a more important task ahead of her.
A task that might very well concern her future and that of the entire world.