Heaven Realm
The heaven realm is divided into the clans and official regions. The former is where the various clans such as The Tigers, The Dragons, The Phoenix, etc. reside and the latter is for the heaven officials. The heaven realm is leaded by the Heaven's Emperor and Empress, Sang San and Wang Zhang, who watches over the heaven realm and the mortal realm where the humans live. When there's trouble in the heaven realm, the officials are responsible to handle. While the trouble in the mortal realm will be handle by the clans depending on the type of trouble and the specialty of the clans. However when there's real trouble both the clans and officials would help as much as they could. But for the past 10,000 years, all realms have been peaceful without much disturbance from the demons.
The Dragon Clan
"Ye Zun, why are you bullying the juniors again?" Shen Wei calmly asks his younger twin brother as he approach the Dragon clan's training ground where the group of juniors immediately runs towards him for protection.
"I'm not bullying them. How can you see it as bullying when I'm just practicing my skills. Clearly it's different." Ye Zun defends himself with hurtful expression.
"But Zun-ge is so much stronger than us and he doesn't hold back at all. So it is equivalent to bullying." One of the junior protests.
"What!?! What kind of logic is that? I'm pushing you so that you all can become stronger." Ye Zun once again defends himself from the strange accusation made by the junior.
"Well, to be frankly speaking, you all really should be getting stronger and beat him up. Even though, there's not much action needed these days but you still need to be prepared in case some emergency occurs." Shen Wei agrees with his didi on the point that these juniors should get stronger as one can never tell when a crisis would occur. Even if it's been peaceful for a long time, but the demons can also just come knocking on their door anytime.
"Wei-ge, why are you siding with Zun-ge?" Another junior whines from behind.
"No, I'm not siding with anyone. I'm just stating the facts." Shen Wei clarifies his intention.
"No matter. You all need to get stronger like gege here." Ye Zun urges on.
"Then why don't you practice with Wei-ge?" The smallest junior asks.
"Because gege is too strong, I can't bully him."
"Zun-ge just admitted that he really was bullying us!" The smallest junior loudly exclaims.
"Oops"
"....."
All the juniors have joined hands and are now chasing Ye Zun to capture him so they that they can gang up on him. Shen Wei who stood in the middle of the chaotic running in the training ground can only shakes his head in disbelief. 'Ye Zun and the juniors maturity is relative at the same level, aren't they?' Shen Wei questions inwardly.
Shen Wei and Ye Zun are the beautiful twin brothers of the Dragon clan which is one of the top clans in the region. The brothers are well known for their beautiful features and high level of cultivation along with deadly martial art skills. Despite being twins, you can easily distinguish one from the other. The one with long jet black hair with golden eyes who gives out calm and gentle vibe is the older twin: Shen Wei. Whereas the one with silk-like pure white hair with silver eyes who is always going around causing trouble and pulling pranks on others is the younger twin: Ye Zun. Regardless of their difference, their brotherly bond is very strong that the whole heaven dare not test. If you mess with either one, you'll eventually have to deal with two automatically.
Once the younger one is done fooling around, both head towards the main hall just in time to meet their father who happened to enter at the same time. Both salute their father and notice his serious expression.
"What's wrong father?" Ye Zun asks.
Their father gives a long sigh and looks towards the training ground. "There has been a report about demons movement."
"Demons?" Shen Wei repeats as he happen to mention them earlier on with the juniors.
"Yes, but there's not much information on the details nor the objective of such movement. But the Emperor has called for assembly tomorrow. I want you two to accompany me there as well."
"Yes father." The two brothers respond while understanding that this is rather a serious matter otherwise their father wouldn't ask for their presence.
However, not long after their discussion, the war horn was blown to notify all regions in the heaven realm that 'They are under attack'. The last time this horn was blown is 10,000 years ago.
All the clans and officials immediately come out of their residents and try to locate the enemy around them yet they don't see any until someone notify that an army of demons has directly appear near the most inner region of the heaven realm. They are attacking the Emperor's palace.
Shen Wei and Ye Zun immediately transform into dragons and literally warp to the palace. Upon arrival, hundred of demons has made their way in and swarm around the palace. Right at the entrance, the Tiger clan is following and ripping the demons apart. Shen Wei and Ye Zun transform back to aid in the fight, but the Tiger's clan General instruct them to head inside the palace to help the Tiger's clan leader locate the Emperor and the Empress instead. The brothers then fight their way inside to complete their task.
They suspect that the designated location should be the bedroom chamber considering from the time of the attack. So both hurriedly fight their way to such room. When they finally arrive, they were astonished at the scene in front of them. Inside the room, it was as if a tornado has swept by. Everything inside were broken leaving only debris on the marble floor. In the middle of the room, a demon is about to strike its sword towards the Tiger's clan leader who is injured on the ground.
Ye Zun use his power to pull the leader away from the demon while Shen Wei stealthily reach the demon with his sword unsheathed and on the demon's neck. If it moves or even breath too hard, the blade would instantly cut its head off.
"Shen Wei restrain him. Leader Zhao call for assembly immediately." Emperor Sang instructs while trying to help the injured Empress Wang up to her feet.
By the time the assembly call was issued, the rest of the demons were all killed. The only one remaining is now under Shen Wei's blade in which the demon would be interrogate in the Heavenly Hall with all the clans and officials present. Despite being the sole survivor from this sudden attack, the demon seems indifferent to everything. Shen Wei couldn't help wonder if the progress of the current event is actually intentional.
With everyone present, Shen Wei brings forth the demon into the Heavenly Hall. The crowd silently look at this high ranking demon that shows no sign of respect for the Emperor. One is able to tell the ranking of demons based on the appearance. The more human-like, the higher ranking they are, but that doesn't mean they can stand in this Heavenly Hall without respect. So Shen Wei accurately hit the knees leaving the demon no choice but to kneel.
"Demon ... what's your name?" Emperor Sang nicely asks.
"Guo ChangCheng."
"What's your purpose for invading into the heaven's realm?"
"Purpose? I don't know. I'm just simply carrying out my orders."
"And what would that be?"
"To wound the heaven's Emperor or the Empress in which I manage to succeed in wounding the Empress. And wounding the Tiger clan's leader is consider a bonus."
"Why just wounding and not kill?" One of the people in the crowd asks out loud.
"Right. Why just wounding? Demons should have the knowledge that wounding the Empress or the clan leader wouldn't do much since they're able to quickly heal by themselves. So what's the real purpose?" YeZun mumbles his thoughts to his brother.
"Poison?" Shen Wei makes his guess.
The demon snickers and looks at Shen Wei. "You're quite brilliant, young Dragon clan." Then his gaze divert to the Emperor. "Both have indeed been exposed to poison."
The revelation makes everyone in the hall gasps.
"What poison did you use on me?" Leader Zhao calmly asks the demon but he already guess that it wouldn't be any ordinary poison otherwise why bother coming all the way here.
"It's a new poison freshly brew by the Demon King. As the king is too lazy to come up with sophisticated name so he instruct for it to be called 'Demon King's poison'" demon Guo explains exactly as instructed.
"If it's new, then the effect from it is unknown?" The Emperor questions.
"Of course not. Freshly brew only meant that it was recently made especially for this use. But we have already invent this and tested it for 3 years." demon Guo clarifies.
"Why 3 years?" Shen Wei asks as he question the significant of 3.
"It's the total time the subject receiving the poison will die. First, the poison will slowly take up a year to fully paralyze the subject being unable to even lift a finger. Then it takes another year to blind and deafen the subject. As for the remaining period, it will greatly depends on the subject's own strength. If one is weak, they might just die after the 2nd year or maybe before. But if one is strong, they might last longer. Unfortunately, our test subject only lasted 3 years. I had to wonder between the Empress and the clan leader, who would last longer?" demon Guo surely takes his time elaborating.
"What's the term for the antidote?" The Emperor asks as he start to realize the demon's intention.
"Ha ha ha, you really deserve the title of Emperor to know that there's an antidote. You have my respect." demon Guo mocks causing a silver blade to appear right by his neck and threatening to slice his head off.
"If there wasn't a term, you wouldn't have let yourself be caught." Shen Wei says this since he was the one to catch this demon.
But the demon pays no mind to him. "There is an antidote but we don't have it. If you want it, you'll need to make it yourself."
"What do we need?" Shen Wei asks coldly as he feels that it's probably not something good.
"Pollen of the Arctic Flower and the blood of the Demon King."
"Blood of the Demon King?" YeZun repeats what he just heard.
"Where can we get the Demon King's blood?" Someone among the crowd whispers this question.
"The king awaits in the demon realm. Everyone is welcome to visit. He also mentions that full scale war is also welcome. But he also doesn't mind if you are to let the both of them die. So it's entirely up to you to choose. Well ..... now that I've completed my mission ..... please excuse me." With that said demon Guo instantly vanishes into thin air as if he was never there, leaving everyone in the hall stunned.
The task to obtain the Arctic Flower is not that difficult. It's a rare flower that appears at the coldest land in the mortal realm. But on this land, there are restrictions on one's power. Upon entering, one would become a mortal no matter the origin. Both the Emperor and the Demon King can become just a mortal man on this land. So encountering a strong power enemy is no problem unless they possess high level of martial art skill. Other than that would be the coldness beyond describable.
On the contrary is the demon realm, where just getting there is already something very troublesome. First, one must go through the Nightmare Forest. As the name suggest, all sorts of nightmare can be found here. Upon exiting the forest alive, one may or may not find the entrance to the demon realm. It greatly depends on such person's luck. But if one is able to find such entrance, what awaits inside is the 9-regions of the demon realm, where each region is guarded by high ranking demons. Only upon passing through the last region, one will arrive at the location of the Demon King. However, all these information are just myths. No one has ever lived to tell the tale. So it may be accurate or totally different; no one knows for sure.
So whether or not someone can go through the aforementioned to reach the Demon King is something quite unpredictable. Let's say for some miracle, the blood is obtained, one must still go through the same path that they came in since using a portal in this realm is probably not achievable. If lucky, the demons are too lazy or too wounded, one may have easier time coming out. But otherwise, it'll be another round of fierce fighting again. Not to mention that they need to go through the Nightmare forest all over again.
As a result, everyone in the hall remains silent while being lost in their thoughts and evaluating their chance of survival if such task were given to them. But no matter from which angle you look at this, it's absolutely a suicidal mission that nobody wants to take part in. Inside the Heavenly Hall has been silent for a long while before the Emperor finally speaks up and asks for a certain person.
"Where's Zhao Yunlan?"
"My lord, my useless son is still no where to be found. For sure, he's not in the heaven realm and probably hiding somewhere in the mortal realm." Leader Zhao answers with a very tired expression. Well, these father and son are not exactly on good terms.
"Hasn't he been gone for several thousand years?" The Emperor tries to recall the time.
"5,000 years to be exact, my lord." Shen Wei is the one to answer the exact number of years that this lad has been missing.
"That long?" The Emperor is even stun at such long period of time and not once did he show his face to anyone.
"I'm afraid so. I'm even considering to cut ties with him." Leader Zhao blatantly replies.
"However, with the current situation, I'm afraid I need your so call 'useless son' on this matter. I'm going to need someone to find him and bring him back here. So any volunteers?" The Emperor asks into the crowd.
There were some discussion and whispering within the crowd but after a while all of it die down and silence return to the hall again. Then suddenly a hand is raised from among the crowd.
"I volunteer." Shen Wei speaks up from the middle of the crowd.
"Shen Wei, are you sure about this? This is quite a dangerous task." The Emperor asks to reconfirm.
"Yes I am sure. Finding someone in the mortal realm shouldn't be too dangerous, my lord." Shen Wei responds with confidence.
"The mortal realm is indeed not dangerous but the man himself is." The Emperor clarifies his concerns. Well, first of all, no one wants to deal with this Zhao Yunlan. And second, Shen Wei exactly fits Yunlan's taste for beauty, so he's actually sending the cute little sheep to the big bad wolf. But that would be the normal case. However, there's some issue that may make Zhao Yunlan reject this person and won't come back at all.
"I'm sure that I can manage, my lord." Shen Wei is still confident that he can succeed this mission.
"Very well, I'll call for another assembly once I meet with Zhao Yunlan and decide how to handle this. For now, you're all dismiss. Shen Wei, you stay behind." The Emperor is placing his bet that Shen Wei could bring him back but he'll probably need some help. Anyway, right now it's urgent so there's really no other way.
Once the hall is empty with just the 2 of them, the Emperor hands Shen Wei a golden locket. "This will guide you to Zhao Yunlan. He gave it to me in case that I need him for critical situation. I have prayed that I won't have to use it but now it's inevitable. We need him back. Do everything you can to bring him back, even if you have to tied him up. You have my permission to do anything that you seem fit for the situation."
"I'm sure that he'll understand and comes back here without the need to use force." Shen Wei is kind of reluctant to use such method on this person.
Then Shen Wei just makes a brief stop at his clan to inform his father and brother of this departure before immediately descending the heaven to the mortal realm. He couldn't help but feel excited since he's now going to be meeting the person that he has always wanted to meet for a very long time.
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A/N
How's the first chapter?