Chapter 102 Chapter 102
In the silence, the blank consciousness opened its eyes.
He was falling.
After realizing this, he instinctively reached up, trying to grab something.
Countless bubbles floated around him, ethereal and ethereal, some vibrant and vibrant, others gray and dilapidated. In this deep space, as he fell, these bubbles barely brushed past him before soaring upwards without a glance back, never to be touched again.
Where is this?
"This is the memory room." said a voice.
After an unknown amount of time, he finally landed on the ground, as if someone had gently placed him on the bed, and he felt a soft touch from behind.
He sat up slowly and took in the entire space.
It was a space of only black and gray, with no end in sight. Beneath his feet lay a mirror-like surface, though it only reflected a few blurry shadows. Scattered across this surface were colorful bubbles of varying sizes, identical to those he had just encountered. The difference was that they were firmly stuck there, not floating upwards.
If you look closely, you can vaguely see some blurry images in the center of the bubble.
"What's this?"
"Fragments of our memories."
In the silent space, two identical voices asked and answered each other.
We? He felt a little strange.
"How do I get out of here?" He looked up and asked the mysterious voice. Although his memory was blank, he vaguely remembered that he had something very important to do.
However, this time he waited for a long time, but the voice did not appear.
"..." He felt a little disappointed, then turned his gaze to the bubble beside him. Although he had no recollection of how he got in, if he could regain his memory, he would surely be able to find a way out.
Thinking of this, he reached out and touched the bubble closest to him.
A huge suction force came from the point of contact, and consciousness fell into darkness again.
…
Of the five senses, the first to recover is the sense of smell.
The unique fragrance of sycamore wood mixed with the scent of soil after rain is familiar yet very strange.
The second is hearing.
There was the rustling of leaves in the wind, the chirping of birds, and the undisguised footsteps of someone coming.
Phoenix opened his eyes, a faint smile on his face. He raised his hand and summoned a folding fan. The next second, a stream of green light appeared. The tip of the spear and the handle of the fan collided, and the blazing red flames and green wind intertwined. The aftermath of the two forces' confrontation instantly flattened everything around them.
After the attack, both sides retreated a distance at the same time.
Hearing the sound of falling trees, the smile on Fenghuang's face faltered for a moment. But when he saw the appearance of the person who came, the anger that had not yet erupted strangely dissipated.
The man was dressed in black, his face completely obscured by the black veil draped over his bamboo hat. Judging by his attire, he looked like an anonymous warrior wandering the world, but the pure white dragon horns on his head clearly revealed his identity.
"The Dragon Lord of the South Sea Dragon Clan..." Phoenix had heard of this Dragon Lord's reputation—the sharpest blade wielded by the South Sea Dragon Clan, whose mere presence on the battlefield could strike fear into countless enemies. Furthermore, it was said that this Lord was an unwavering defender of the Dragon Clan's interests. If anyone dared to offend the Dragon Clan, the tip of his spear would be pointed at their throat.
Fenghuang secretly thought it was a bad decision. He thought the person who came today was his partner who was fooled by him, so he let him go up the mountain. Unexpectedly, he turned out to be his enemy.
The feud between the Phoenix and Dragon tribes is a long-standing one. In the past, the Dragon tribe fought with other tribes for territory, and in a brazen move, they flooded an area of 800 miles. It's unclear whether they succeeded in seizing the territory, but a Phoenix, living nearby, was tragically affected. His painstakingly built nest was nearly completed when the flood washed it away.
In this age of territorial supremacy, seizing someone's land and demolishing their house is a mortal enemy. Even thousands of years from now, if you knock over the castle that an obsessive-compulsive disorder patient has just one building block away from completing, he will instantly transform into a purgatory Asura and vow to fight you to the death.
With their home gone, facing a behemoth like the dragon clan, other little demons might not have the courage or strength to retaliate, but the phoenix did. So, the young and hot-tempered phoenix ran to the dragon clan's territory that day, causing a scene and setting them ablaze.
The Dragon Clan was not to be outdone. "Today you burn my house, tomorrow I'll flood yours. No one can expect an easy life." From then on, the two sides fell into a strange cycle, and the feud was finally sealed.
Phoenix wasn't one for fighting, but after a while, he grew tired of it. Coupled with the implementation of his plan, he fled to the north, farthest from the South China Sea. To prevent a repeat of this tragedy, he even built a house on the top of a mountain. They'd lived in peace for centuries, but today, the strongest fighter from their dragon clan had sniffed the air and arrived.
He actually still had the mind to find trouble. Tsk, if I had known earlier I would have beaten him harder.
Even though he had a thousand thoughts in his mind, Phoenix remained calm on the surface.
"I've long heard of your great name. I wonder if Long Zun has come all the way to Qishan today. What advice do you have for me?"
"The name 'Dragon Lord' is just a nice name for a sword." The Dragon Lord looked gloomy and took back his gun. He thought to himself with self-mockery that he was more like a slave of the dragon clan than a Dragon Lord.
All of Dragon Lord's battles were solely to satisfy the selfish desires of those above him. His fighting was meaningless, and he didn't want to kill any more innocent lives. He felt the Dragon Clan was rotten to the core, but if he stepped away and looked at other clans, they all seemed the same. He, questioning the rules, seemed like an outlier.
Now, the higher-ups must have sensed that his blade had other plans, so they sent him to deal with the Phoenix, their biggest concern, to maximize his potential. Even if he managed to return alive, the elders would definitely find a way to force him to die through some unforeseen accident.
Long Zun didn't care about these conspiracies; he had already made other plans. He was surprised that he encountered no obstacles on his way up Qishan Mountain. When he finally reached the top, the red figure was sitting in a tree, looking down at him with a smile on his face, as if he had been waiting there for a long time.
For no reason, Long Zun suddenly remembered the outside world's evaluation of the Phoenix - resourceful and well-planned.
Did you expect this to happen?
What do you want to do, or in other words, what is there about me that is worth your attention? Long Zun was extremely curious about this.
"Lord of the Mountain, I want to make a deal with you," said Long Zun. "The elders of the Dragon Clan have branded me with the Heavenly Dao Mark. I would like you to block the influence of the mark and grant me my freedom."
Phoenix was somewhat surprised that the Dragon Clan's sharpest blade actually wanted to break free from their control. He had thought that Dragon Lord would be the biggest obstacle to his plan, but now it seemed...
"Mark of Heaven, I can indeed help you, but what can you give me in exchange?" Phoenix closed the fan nonchalantly and looked up at him.
"What do you want?" Under the black veil, Long Zun's voice sounded very calm.
Fenghuang, who seemed to have noticed something, suddenly narrowed his eyes, walked up to Long Zun, and gently lifted the black veil with his fan. Long Zun allowed him to do so, his golden eyes calmly reflecting Fenghuang's image.
"Aren't you afraid that I might do something shady?" This was already a very dangerous distance, and even he didn't dare to easily entrust his trust in this situation.
"You wouldn't do such a thing. Besides, I'm more valuable to you alive than dead."
In fact, it doesn't matter if you really die. There is nothing worth staying in this terrible world. The reason why Long Zun wanted to break free from the control of the dragon clan was simply because he wanted to hold the power of death in his own hands.
"What do you want?" Long Zun asked again. He felt uncomfortable with the prolonged staring, so he took the initiative to look away and took a step back, intending to put the black veil down again.
However, Fenghuang took off the hat directly, and did not miss the moment when Long Zun almost lost his breath.
"You're a little different than I thought."
Phoenix didn't directly answer Long Zun's question. Instead, she looked into those brilliant golden eyes and said, "Your soul is beautiful, but filled with boredom and fatigue. You hate the world today, don't you?"
Long Zun nodded silently. This wasn't something he couldn't express; after all, the world seemed to have been rotten for a long time.
No matter how high-sounding the rhetoric is, it cannot conceal the fact that those struggles are fundamentally aimed at satisfying the desires of the leaders.
To gain greater benefits, they can unscrupulously plunder other ethnic groups. This era values winner-takes-all: the strong gain everything, the weak lose everything. There are no laws protecting vulnerable groups, and the fate of the defeated in an ethnic war is easy to imagine.
Yet few creatures truly grasped the problem. Fighting was common, therefore justified; bloodshed and death were common, therefore justified; the survival of the weaker tribes depended on the protection of the greater demons, so for the greater demons' benefit, they too should charge forward, their sacrifices justified. Everyone thought this way, even the lesser demons who were sacrificed.
Phoenix had traveled to many places before. He had seen countless wronged souls wandering the land after the war between two tribes, repeating their experiences before death day after day.
They lamented the injustice of the world, questioned why the reasons for fighting were so frivolous. Friends who had shared drinks and tea yesterday were now forced to turn on each other, and the source of all this was a ridiculous and outrageous reason given by the leaders of both sides.
But apart from the Phoenix, no one can see them, just like no one can see the little demons struggling to survive in the chaotic world. However, not being able to see does not mean that the pain does not exist. Whether they are alive or dead, this world is too cruel for them.
In their brief exchange, Phoenix saw the same weariness in Long Zun's eyes. He knew Long Zun was a man like him, with the same ideas. So he extended his hand to Long Zun and said, "Will you cooperate with me? Let's change the world together."
Get him to join with an offer he can't refuse.
"Become my kind, my accomplice."
"Accomplice." Long Zun looked up at Fenghuang. He almost immediately guessed what Fenghuang was going to do.
Most of the chaos stems from conflicts of interest between different ethnic groups, and only by integrating them all together can this farce be ended.
The word "accomplice" is absolutely correct. Although the world is in chaos and constant fighting today, according to the unwritten rules, whoever takes the initiative to provoke a large-scale fight will be a sinner for all time.
Moreover, demons are all proud and arrogant, and will never submit to his power for no reason, nor will they easily change their minds. Therefore, gentle means are ineffective in most cases, and the only way to gain the upper hand is to use the universally recognized right of speech - fists.
It's not like there haven't been demons who've attempted this before, but most have perished along the way, their previously gathered strength dissipating. This not only further escalates the situation, but also condemns them to history's shame, cursed by countless beings. From the perspective of all living beings, this is a thankless task.
"Do you know the price you have to pay to accomplish this?" Long Zun, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke.
"I know it clearly. And precisely because I know it clearly, I must act. We hold the power to change the world, yet we are held back by fear. What makes us any different from those indifferent beings?"
"You're right." Long Zun suddenly smiled. Perhaps this person rarely smiled, and his facial muscles were not familiar with how to make a "smiling" expression, so the "smile" he showed was just a twitching of one corner of his mouth.
"Okay, I promise you, from now on, you and I are allies."
There was something that Long Zun didn't say - in fact, it didn't matter even if he failed. Even if future generations wanted to find fault with them, they would probably drag them both out and scold them together. Whether they could see it at that time was another matter.
As soon as he finished speaking, Long Zun suddenly threw away his robe and knelt on one knee. He placed his right hand over his heart and said, "In exchange for removing the brand, I will follow you until the end of my life."
"You Lin, this is my real name."
For demons, a name is the shortest curse. Unless they agree, demons will never easily tell others their real name.
"I see." Phoenix chuckled. He took a few steps back and transformed back into his original form. A dazzling, fiery red bird circled above the mountain. Then, a tail feather appeared and, under the influence of energy, gradually condensed into a fiery red crystal.
This was a gift from the Phoenix to Dragon Lord to shield him from the Heavenly Dao's brand, and it also served as a witness to their alliance. Later, Dragon Lord fashioned this crystal into a pendant and hung it on his ear, never removing it.
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