Disorder in the Palace, Love Blossoms

Chapter 20

~~~ Heyy guys. Sorry about the long wait again, but here is another chapter. It is slightly longer than the others, so I hope that makes up for it. Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoy! (I would post a recap of the previous chapter, but this one is already quite long. Sorry!) ~~~

He then rolled over and instantly fell asleep. Xun Yu sighed. He can be so stubborn at times, but I hope that he feels better when he wakes up. To make sure that he wakes up okay, I will stay here by his side, so that I can fetch anything that he might need. While Xun Yu sat in a chair next to the bed, Cao Cao entered a strange dream. He found himself standing in a room that was comprised only of darkness. Not an ounce of light was visible, and he began to wonder where he was, how he got there, and why he was even there. He took a few steps forwards into the all-consuming darkness, trying to figure out if there was more to his surroundings than the infinite darkness that he could see. However, he stopped suddenly when he heard a deep and menacing voice that seemed to echo in the darkness. As much as he wanted to move, to take another step forward into the dizzying darkness, he simply could not move. He was somehow frozen in place.

The voice laughed loudly, jubilantly. It was obvious that the voice's owner was amused at Cao Cao's struggle to move his paralyzed body. After ceasing his futile struggle, Cao Cao stood still and prepared himself to accept whatever fate that he was about to be dealt. After noticing that the man had ceased his struggle, the evil sounding voice smugly told him that he was fighting in vain, that he would be crushed, and that he could not even hope to figure out why Yuan Shao had attacked him. The voice then went on to warn Cao Cao that he would face more enemies in the future. His dream seemingly ended when the voice said I look forward to destroying you. Cao Cao then woke up and sat up in bed as beads of sweat trickled down his forehead. He then turned and saw that Xun Yu was staring at him with a blank, almost static, expression. Cao Cao felt slightly unnerved. Behavior like this was unusual, an extremely rare occurrence, for Xun Yu. In fact, the person sitting beside of him did not appear to resemble Xun Yu at all. They even had an entirely different aura, one that was malevolent in nature.

"Wenruo?" The ruler inquired softly.

He reached out to touch the man's face, to confirm that he was in fact sitting there before him, but the body dissolved as his hand made contact, dissolving into a liquid pool on the floor. Cao Cao's eyes widened in fear and disbelief, and he quickly backed away from the strange substance on the floor. He desperately called out the name of the man that he loved, but he was greeted with nothing. Only the sound of silence and the infinite darkness of the room around him. Suddenly, everything around him vanished and he soon found himself transported to another room full of bright white. He squinted his eyes to shield them from the overwhelming brightness. This is not real. This has to be a dream! Cao Cao thought desperately to himself. Where is Xun Yu? None of this is real. Right? I just need to calm down. The ruler then fell to his knees as frustration and confusion overwhelmed him; however, he was briefly distracted from his emotions when he heard a loud splash as he fell, accompanied by the feeling of a strange wetness. Cao Cao then looked at the ground and noticed that it was a strange liquid with the viscosity of water, but it was the color of milk, or white rice. What is this? I feel like I am losing control. Xun Yu, where are you?!

The owner of the deep and menacing voice watched with baited interest as the ruler, who was usually calm and collected, became a panicked and frightened mess; however, the voice's owner did not yet understand why Cao Cao would experience such emotions if he was separated from Xun Yu. Dark energy started to emerge from the man's body in small waves that quickly increased to larger ones. The owner of the voice was shocked that the man before him possessed dark energy on such a massive scale, especially since it was obvious that he was trying to hold most of it in. This mortal is slightly more impressive than I originally thought he would be. But I now know his weakness, the one thing that would hurt him more than anything else in the world, if I ever need to exploit it.