Inside a Mountain Cave, Pylon Mountain Range
Blue Ice covered the entrance to the cave. Though, because of its transparency, the sunlight gave off a blue hue to the dimly lit cave. Because of the blockage of air flow, the atmosphere was very cold, the iciness emanating from the Blocked entrance maintained this cold temperature.
Laying on the cold rock floor, Xi Heji suddenly woke up. The first thing he noticed was a tracking rune stone set next to him. He then gazed around, wandering his eyes throughout the area around him.
'What happened? Why would…'
He remembered the last thing his eyes saw before he fell unconscious. It was Xi Meiying, who knocked him out with troubled eyes.
He raised his hand to his head, feeling dizzy and some lingering of a freezing pain.
'I wonder what caused Meiying to be so troubled…'
He looked at the blocked entrance, he had a feeling as though nothing was beyond it.
'… to have to leave me here.'
After being unconscious for a while, his body was able to recover the lost energy from the healing runes used on him. He stretched his body out, raising his arms around his head.
Suddenly, he heard water drops. Looking towards the entrance, he noticed the ice started melting. Through the transparent ice, all he could see was the shadow of a figure that appeared to be that of a woman. As the Ice melt down, Xi Heji approached the melting ice.
"Hey Meiying, what happened? why did you leave me in this pla-"
As the ice fully melted, but what greeted his eyes wasn't the blue eyed beauty he was expecting. Standing over the melted ice, a figure with red eyes and hair looked over to him. He didn't remember seeing such a figure before.
'Such murderous intent!'
Just laying his eyes upon this crimson beauty, he couldn't help but compare it to Xi Meiying.
But the calm and collected demeanor Xi Meiying usually sported was a stark contrast to the sinister aura that hovered around this figure naturally.
This figure started walking towards him. She smiled, but Xi Heji couldn't help but feel afraid.
'Domain of Absolute Sound'
The surrounding quieted down. Only the footsteps of the figure remained present. Pulling out his sword from his spatial ring, he rested it to his side.
The figure noticed this clearly, but seemed to not care as she continued forward, entering Xi Heji's striking distance. As soon as this happened, Xi Heji shot towards the figure.
Halfway to the figure, he pulled out his second sword from his ring in an attempt to catch the figure by surprise.
"I'm glad to see you have fully recovered".
A soft voice whispered into his ear.
Xi Heji widened his eyes.
The figure was no longer in front of him, almost as if she was never there. Behind him, two soft arms hugged at his waist.
"Meiying!?"
He turned around, forcing Xi Meiying to release her hug. She smiled as she looked at him. Her red eyes shone, reflecting in the eyes of his own.
"Who else?"
Xi Heji reached at her dark red hair, letting it cascade down his fingers as he retracted his hand.
"What… happened to you?"
Xi Meiying giggled, though this time, the air of eeriness was not present. She stroked her own hair as she smiled.
"Don't worry, I will let you know with time. Now come, the attack of the Han Clan is over. We shall return to meet grandfather, he is worried about you as he hasn't seen you all day."
She reached out her hand as she grabbed his, disappearing from the cave.
***
Appearing over the clan, the crystal of Han Guo was no where to be seen. Xi Meiying took the giant crystal into her spatial ring before she left, so not much evidence of a battle was left behind at all. Besides a dense collection of blood in a certain area, you wouldn't have thought anything major had happened.
The barrier was still down, as the Reflection of Heaven and Earth was deprived of an abundant amount of energy, restoring would take some time.
'Are you able mask my aura?'
The Goddess of Blood smiled.
'You noticed how bad it was, right? Even your own little husband couldn't recognize you!'
The Goddess of Blood laughed.
Xi Meiyings red eyes shone, a feeling of intense anger was pushed down as soon as it came up.
'I never asked for your observations, your lack of solemness is what caused your downfall with your rash decisions.'
The Goddess laughed while ignoring her insult.
'Of course I could perform such a simple task that is masking aura.'
The Goddess of Blood waved her hand in Ci Meiyings mind, causing Xi Meiyings aura to completely disappear. Xi Heji noticed this as he looked strangely in Xi Meiyings direction. It was as if she disappeared before him, he could no longer sense her.
***
Inner Residential Circle, Xi Clan
The Xi Clan was mostly sent into lockdown as soon as the elders caught wind of the attack from the Han Clan. So, nobody saw the mysterious figure that was able to beat down Han Guo. This information was kept among the Inner elders from the public to avoid attention from surrounding powers as well as suspicion.
Xi Meiying and Xi Heji arrived at Xi Fengges estate. Sensing their presence, Xi Fengge came out to greet them. As Xi Meiying and Xi Heji descended, Xi Fengge gave a quick glance at Xi Meiying before returning his gaze to Xi Heji, a smile forming on his face.
"I am relieved to see you well and healthy, Heji."
Xi Heji smiled as he walked with his grandfather into his estate, Xi Meiying following closely behind.
***
Xi Meiying excused herself after conversing with Xi Fengge and Xi Heji a couple hours later.
She made her way to the patriarchs estate, after the disappearance of the Grand Patriarch, Patriarch, as well as the Sky Emperor, the Xi Clans first elder took temporary command, as the status of their patriarchs were unknown. The best assumption was that both patriarchs left for the Sky Society for negotiation on whatever they may have had, though this seems unlikely as the Sky Emperor had no need to cater to their Patriarchs demands.
Xi Meiying opened the palace doors as she made her way down to the alter. After entering, she flew to where the Patriarch was supposed to be enjoying his meal.
In the distance, the patriarch could be seen laying down, though he was not dead, his state of mind was crushed. As the Patriarch heard sounds of approach, he lifelessly gazed to the descending devil which caused suffering he had never experienced before.
"I-I-I… finished eating him before your return… may you spare my life?"
The Patriarchs voice was shaking. His whole body was quivering, sweat dripped down endlessly from his forehead.
"Hahaha"
She laughed as she patted his head like a dog.
"Good, good. Well, good news for you! Since you were so hungry…"
She waved her hand as a red crystal appeared beside her.
"I brought you another course~"
The red crystal broke apart to reveal the motionless, eyeless and heartless Han Guo, who was still being kept alive by Xi Meiyings blood control.
The patriarch froze seeing Han Guo on the floor. Not much time later though, he started laughing manically.
"This what you brought upon yourself, Han Guo!"
He continued laughing while crawling towards Han Guo.
"You should've never attacked my Xi Clan HAHAHAHA!"
Suddenly, one of the Patriarchs fingers fell off.
"You mean my Xi Clan, isn't that right, dog?"
She appeared in front of him, petting his cheek.
"Y-yes m-master! HAHAHAHA"
Xi Meiying coldly smiled at him.
"Now go on, finish your meal~"
Xi Meiying turned around to leave.
'I have a little surprise for you.'
Xi Meiying ignored the goddess as she continued to the entrance.
'Well, I guess your husband will always remain weak~'
*BOOM!*
The surroundings exploded as Xi Meiying released her qi. She mockingly laughed.
'Well, I would feel rather ashamed when you, as a goddess of the highest level would stoop so low as to insult the strength of a moral human while you are relying on one to stay alive'
The Goddess smiled at her attempt to anger her.
'Ahahaha! Well, if that makes you feel any better. Bring me into the conversation won't change the fact that he is still… weak!'
The Goddess laughed as she continued.
'Even without my body, if I so wanted to, I could kill him with my mere presence!'
Xi Meiying felt immense bloodlust flood her body. Even with the memories of the Goddess, her control of her bloodlust is far from complete.
'ENOUGH!'
The atmosphere shook as the plane started to dismantle itself. Rubble was sent flying in all directions, bashing into the nearby walls as they threatened to collapse. Though, Xi Meiyings anger did nothing to faze the goddess. Particles suddenly started forming in front of her, manifesting the familiar red figure.
She reached her hands out, cupping her cheeks.
"Awww, you look so cute when your angry~"
Xi Meiying jumped back, forming a blood katana as she brought it down upon the Goddess.
*BOOOOOM!*
The ground split as the plane shook violently once more, revealing the edge of the Alters plane as cracks started forming in it.
As the smoke cleared, the Goddess stood. Her dress without a single speck of dust, her red eyes looking directly at her.
"I do not possess a physical body, nothing you can do can hurt me."
She appeared behind her, hugging her.
"I'm just playing with you, no need to be so mad~"
She released her hug as she started walking to the front of her. She eyed Xi Meiyings shaking eyes.
"Having created a separate plane, it used all of my power. And without continuous power, the plane would no longer be able to sustain itself."
She looked toward the center of the plane.
"Maybe having his Qi Paths cripple isn't so bad after all."
Xi Meiying calmed herself down.
"What do you mean?"
She smiled as she looked back at Xi Meiying.
"Pysla"
Xi Meiying fluttered her eyes in realization. Pysla was the queen of spirits. During the Goddess of Bloods prime, she captured the queen of spirits during her weakest moment. Being the creator of spirits themselves, all spirits are connected to her. When she was supplying energy to all the spirits in existence, she was attacked by the Goddess. After the goddess slaughtered all of her strongest spirits, which were protecting her at the time, the goddess captured her at her most vulnerable moment, putting her into eternal sleep as she held her hostage in her inter dimensional storage. But as time went on, the Goddess of Blood found her completely useless, as she couldn't find a way to extract her pure natural essence in order to give her an immunity to all of the core elements. Making the Queen a slave was out of the question, so she remained in the Goddesses hand for millions of years. After the Goddess of Blood fell, she used all her power to create a separate plane. Lacking the power to sustain it, she used Pysla as a source of power, since she had retained all the power she originally had since her capture, as she was lying dormant in the Goddess inter dimensional space. Though, because her time of capture was during the energy share, she was heavily derived of qi. Though, one could not underestimate a Gods qi, as even millions of years later, the Goddesses plane still remained standing.
'Much like me, the Queen of Spirits is severely weakened as has no physical body. I could fuse the soul of the Queen of Spirits with him, though her cooperation will depend on him.'
Xi Meiyings red eyes brightened. A rare look of joy appeared on her face.
A/N: Meiyings little arc is over, I just want to get her inheritance out of the way. You can expect Xi Heji to return to the spotlight in the next couple of chapters.