When the azure light of Axiang's magic faded away from Si Ming's body, the little boy slowly stood up. Somehow he managed to save Si Ming from those neverending nightmare loops from the charm spells. Exhaustion had finally claimed his little body as he stumbled a few steps back. Sweat plastered his forehead, and all he wanted to do was to lie down.
But still, he forced himself to stand tall and erect. Without his parents, he must settle this like an adult. After all, he was a five-hundred-year-old god.
Charm spells from the fox tribe constantly gave unlimited waves of hypnotizing magic even if the caster wasn't actively using her power. Immortals, fairies, lower-tier gods—practically all celestial-beings who were powerless and weak in their cultivation Qi, were bound to be trapped under that spell, unable to free themselves on their own will. Perhaps Si Ming was just a lower tier god, or maybe his cultivation wasn't strong enough.
In a way, Axiang was just a little child in a human form, but his power had a slightly different feel compared to Si Ming. Sure, he earned the title of 'Little Celestial Grandson' being the youngest in all Sky Realm, but there were still subtle differences between celestial-beings and gods.
Besides, Axiang wasn't as common as any other fairy boy of his age. He was the first five hundred years old celestial-being who had reached the scale of a deity. But this was no surprise to anyone in the entire Three Worlds if they had known the truth of what he had experienced in the past. His fate to reincarnate for seven lifetimes had etched to his core as a newborn. In fact, in terms of strength, skills, and how he chose to wield their powers was determined by those reincarnations.
Axiang couldn't imagine how he had done it, only being a newborn to suffer mortal pain. He couldn't imagine how it had felt, and as years went by, he couldn't make himself feel it again. The aching experience dulled with time. His memories of those reincarnations blurred.
He sighed. Gritting his teeth, he remembered the fox fairy who had kidnapped him. It was unnerving. Although he might not have been as strong as his father, the God of Sun, he was strong enough to break that fox in half. And yet he got himself caught.
Somehow, Axiang felt familiar magic emanating from that fox fairy when she came for her evil purposes. So faint that he wondered if it was just his imagination like he had seen those flickering magic somewhere before.
He could feel a memory wiggling around, trying to break through from the surface of his mind. Strange, because he would have remembered meeting someone like the fox fairy. She was the sort of person who was hard to forget if the reaction of all male humans, and gods in the Three Worlds in any indication.
When Axiang was lost in his thoughts, the fox fairy was clearly taking advantage of it. And he was captured to be her sacrifice, especially it almost trapped his human mother to face the same kind of torture.
It had been like a nightmare come to life.
Even though Axiang knew his father had gone to save his mother by going to her inner core, he was still stricken with that feeling—guilt. Guilt that he hadn't realized what was going on, guilt that he had easily captured and made everyone worried, guilt over what his mother had suffered, guilt that almost everyone in the room was trapped inside the charm spell. So much guilt. Enough to last a lifetime.
There was no point in making things worse than they already were, no point in reminding himself. He doubted that it would solve anything. Not with that fox fairy who kidnapped him still looming around, unpaid with what she had done.
For a moment, Si Ming went completely, utterly still. His breathing had gone back to normal. Axiang could only help to cast away his hallucinations because every way out in this charm spell was in the hand of one's own will and desire.
Sharply, Axiang turned his attention to Huashe. Unlike mortals and celestial-beings, mythical beasts only went to their deep sleep. But he still concentrated his powers on the mythical serpent, just in case there was an anomaly for what he had known.
As a precaution, he reached for his magic. The azure color of his flames filled his vision, finding their ways into the mythical serpent which now had turned to his original form—a green water snake.
And it was just as Axiang expected.
Only that—
The mythical serpent was actually sleeping soundlessly. Then again, how was he able to let out a pretty quite loud snore in his brumation? By this fact, Axiang arched his eyebrow a little higher at him. No doubt that the mythical serpent actually enjoyed every second of his sleep.
Now that left his parents, Axiang didn't bother to use his powers to check on them. Because he knew, his father would do anything for his mother.
That only left Axiang for one option. To hunt down that cursed fox fairy.
He knelt, putting his hand down on the cold, frosty ground. Again, he reached for his magic, letting the power rise out of the deepest part of him. A fitful bluish flame flared in his palm. That fox fairy would sense him using his magic and probably realized what he intended to do with it, but there was nothing to be done about that right now.
Axiang just hoped that the fox fairy didn't have enough magic left to suck out the energy out of any living creatures on her lair. Probably not, since it took a lot of power to do that sort of thing, especially when the fox fairy had been wounded by his father.
He closed his eyes. It only took him a few seconds before his flames came back to him, alerting his senses of the exact position of that devilish creature. Weak sparks of pinkish magic grew behind the big door, but there was something else there. No flickers, no flares, no waves.
In a flash, he remembered. The familiar feeling he had felt when that fox fairy went to kidnap him. He could sense that another source of magic was pounding helplessly like it wished to be saved. Perhaps, it was self-contained, purportedly a strong one, like a deity scale.
Axiang was conscious enough to think about what might come to him—memories from his reincarnations. He drew in a deep breath. He had never tried to seek answers for what happened to him in the Human World, so there was a big chance he might feel the same pain all over again.
But at this point, he would take his chances, both for ending that fox fairy and facing the truth, no matter how reluctant he was for the second option.
As his eyes fluttered open, bluish smoke filled his vision before he was teleporting to where the fox fairy was.
And there she was, standing in front of a black box which seems likely to be a coffin with its beneath blossoming with red budding roses. The female fox's arms were cuddling swaddling clothes in her arms. Her nine-tails wiggling, showered with vibrant red magic, and used those magic to form some sort of invisible shield. Somehow, Axiang knew that red magic was the familiar magic he had felt before. But what really intrigued him was that magic emanating from that coffin.
Her eyes now widened in astonishment at Axiang's arrival to the center of this whole lair. A slow smile began to creep up the fox fairy's lips, but the cold look in Axiang's eyes killed it. Her eyes darted between the door and him.
"Surprise, surprise," her voice was too cheerful. "I don't even come to fetch you. Just in time for sacrifice. Not too long, we will become one family. After all, my son will be revived in place of you."
An involuntary shiver shook his little body at the fox fairy's words. His face put up that expressionless marble mask which wasn't befitting for a child like him.
But he didn't want to show his weakness. He wanted to be like his father.
"I see," Axiang forced the word out his stiff, cold lips. "You're conducting an old ritual, but you're missing a god's entity. All your effort is in vain."
The fox fairy laughed as if Axiang was telling a bad joke. "Oh my, you really know a lot for a boy like you. Yes, indeed I need a god's entity to strain all of his celestial aurae and I also need a case. You'll be a perfect choice as you're the God of Sun's offspring. Do you think I'll do something out of impulse? I have the Goddess of Souls' entity with me, won't that be a waste?"
The Goddess…
The Goddess of Souls...
The words echoed in Axiang's mind. His gaze fell to the coffin. At once, his face tightened, and his lips flattened into a hard, thin line. He, himself, had no idea why the little spark of anger that he had been holding had turned into something much greater.
Why did he feel so irritated by the word sacrifice? And why did that fox fairy expression make him feel like he wanted to let her taste blood? This wasn't a feeling a boy like him should have...
"I'll end you," Axiang blurted out in a voice that made goosebumps pop up to anyone who heard him.
"Oh, can you?" she scoffed. "When I'm the one who kidnapped you, little boy?"
Instead of answering, Axiang's feet pivoted as lashed out using his azure flames intensified on his palms against the shield that the fox fairy had cast.
"We'll see about that." At his words, the shield let out a loud crack. A cloud of fuzz exploded against the invisible shield in an ugly burst and fluttered down. Even the fox's lair spun in place, fuzz swirling around its top, teetered, and plunged.
His magic hit hard there, and that invisible shield crumbled at once. The fox fairy was taken aback by how easy the little boy could crush the shield built with the Goddess of Souls' energy. She gritted her teeth, trying to ignore her shocked surprise.
Axiang landed hard on his feet and jerked his head up. His dark eyes flared in blue flames, sparking his anger and disgust to the fox fairy. "I'm not a little boy, I'm five hundred years old."