Entering his shared room, Fu Yingjie sat on his bed and stared through the emptiness of his room into the far distance. His mind had been scrambled lately. He couldn't blame Yuan Chun Huan for her furious outburst at him. After all, it was him, who made her the promise. A promise which was consuming his soul gradually. He could no longer concentrate during the lectures periods. And he had also been having difficulty sleeping lately. Fu Yingjie tried to calm his mind by meditating, but he simply couldn't bring himself to the task. Maybe after resting, his mind would gain some inner peace.
He quickly took out the Dream Caller leaves, and started chewing them. Not long after, he was fast asleep. However, his dreams were plagued with the same nightmares.
In his dreams, as his memory recollected, he was only eight years old when the source of the nightmare found root in his mortal soul and began to torment his dreams.
His family had been returning from a journey to a village, when they were attacked by a small army of wolves, led by the two wolf lords of the Shadow wolf valley. Although the wolf clans of the Shadow valley were demonic beasts, they had right to their own existence. As long as they didn't indulge in any senseless killing of the innocent, they would have no problems with the mortal cultivators. That was the pact. Some of the wolf clans were also directly connected to the powerful Zhu clan who used them for their own bidding.
Fu Yingjie's parents were powerful cultivators in their own rights. True Daoists who believed in upholding justice and righteousness as part of the Nine Golden Stars sect. For many years they had been carrying out their obligations, making the surrounding villages a safe place to dwell.
And on that fateful day, their travelling group was ambushed by two wolf clans from the Shadow valley. They had fought very hard against those demonic wolves, but the wolves had the backing of a few wandering demons. The group of mortals had all been killed eventually, except for his parents and himself. One member of the travelling group who were killed was Yuan Li, a travelling friend of Fu Yingjie's father.
His father who was at the peak stage of the bronze core, was about to use his ultimate move not knowing the demons had anticipated his ways. They had planned their actions well in advance. They were fighting ferociously when one of the demon lords threw a talisman at the remaining members of the travelling group. It was the Unknown worlds teleportation seal. A nascent level artifact. Yuan Li had intercepted the seal just as it was activating. The seal disappeared but he had also vanished instantly.
However, a remnant of teleportation seal had touched Fu Yingjie's father, transporting him many miles away from their position.
However, his mother was only at the middle stage of the bronze core. Facing two late stage bronze core demon lords was beyond her imaginable abilities. Wolf lord Worm-Blood, the leader of the Worm Wolf Clan, and demon lord Black-Claws of the Black Wolf clan. The last two members of their own group.
With his mother holding him, they had fled using flash steps, but the wolf lords had pursued them relentlessly. They were chased to a nearby cave where his mother had realized there was no other way, except to fight the wolf lords. Determined, she had turned to face them in a last stand. She had taken out her white obelisk staff which grew into a size of six feet, and started radiating a brilliant gold light. Seconds later, the staff flew to the front, and split into nine staves.
The nine staves formed nine walls of white light, blocking the entrance into the cave. Although she didn't know for how long the defence would hold, she was ready to maintain it with all her resolve. The white obelisk staff was her clan's heirloom handed to her due to her Radiant Heavens Sacred arts cultivation. It was a powerful ancient magical treasure which required a cultivator of the golden core stage to fully bring out its powers. Her own father, the sage of a Million Radiance, was using before his untimely death. Her mother had given it to her after that incident.
Her power was greatly lacking to fully use the might of the Radiant heavens. There was no way she would survive the impending attacks without any support. Her husband would have dealt with the two demonic beasts.
"Husband, where are you?"
Fu Yingjie's mother had asked again through the communication stone. She had been trying to get in touch with him for many seconds already. She was beginning to loose hope when she heard his voice.
"Please, hold on. I'm on my way.."
Soon after, she heard a booming voice outside their hide-out cave.
"Give up, White-Lights. You can't stay in there forever. We only need your hearts."
Worm Blood mocked, brandishing his deadly red sabre.
"Oh, your tender human hearts. How nourishing, White-Lights. How delicious. The heart of a guardian and of a young child. They are already causing me to forget who I am. No, I meant who I was. I can't even think properly anymore."
Black Claws licked his lips while holding his two flying claws serving as his weapons.
"Why are you two looking for the trouble of the Nine Lights clan? We don't have any problem with the beast kinds, neither do we have with the demonic beasts of the Shadow valley. You slaughtered innocent ones. You broke the pact. Why are you doing this?"
His mother had asked them in anger.
"What slaughtered? You killed us, we killed You. We both lost fighters today. Anyway, are you asking me why? Do you remember what happened at the Straits of Souls five years ago? Yes, you do. Your husband killed two of my Red Moon clans. My own family members. And he didn't even bother to send them to me for proper burial. Those two are my sons, or have you also forgotten that? The agony and dishonour your husband brought me and my clan was overwhelming. What if that was you It happened to?"
Worm Blood asked with blazing red eyes and knitted brows, and continued after a pause.
"It should be sons for sons, but since he only has one son, I will settle for his son and his wife. That's fair enough, or not?
"In this lands, you know it's forbidden for the beast kinds to kill mortals without a just cause. Your kind enjoyed killing innocent people for the fun of it. That was the reason for the pact between my kind and yours. Those two sons of yours caused a massacre of the innocent lives. Is that just? Such evil souls couldn't be allowed to linger on the mortal plane, so we burned them. Their souls were sent straight to their reincarnation where they will face the judgement of the sisters. They will decide what befits your son's. We don't have problems with your clans, but we don't condone evil of such. It was against the Dao of life, and you know that."
"Dao of life? Alright, -."
Worm Blood was saying before he was interrupted by Black Claws.
"Aha, big evil is coming, White-Lights. You should hide now."
"BLACK CLAWS!"
Worm Blood shouted through the mind voice.
"Can you allow me to talk?"
Worm Blood stared daggers at Black Claws with furrowed eyebrows.
"Thank you."
Afterwards, he had turned his attention back to Fu Yingjie's mother.
"As I was saying, that's fair enough, I understood. Don't I also have a just cause for trying to kill the two of you now? Your husband killed my sons, I kill you and your son. I believe that is also fair enough. Or don't you agree?"
"Can you please give us your hearts? We don't have to fight unnecessarily today. As you can see, it's a beautiful day. Your action might even give you a lot of good Karma in afterlife."
Black Claw impatiently pleaded, glancing at the sky to the far north.
"Alright, if you don't want to cooperate with us, that means we are done talking."
Worm Blood said angrily as he struck forward with his sabre, initiating the Blood-Fangs sabre mystical technique. The sabre red lights formed massive head of a red wolf with blood red fangs, and collided with the flame walls. The impact knocked Fu Yingjie's mother backwards a few step and caused violent shakes all around the cave.