When she returned with more books he was sure she must have checked one hundred times to see if it was a decent read, the cute serious look on her face only tempted him to laugh at her even more.
Maybe he was not destined to be a real dragon! Or any other kind of dragon!
She slammed a book hard before him. The ancient immortal dragon arched an eyebrow in interest at the book as he leaned on his left hand resting on the makeshift table between them.
His eyes glazed over the title this time written in bold red strokes on the hard cover.
The Chronicles Of Mo Yuan.
Xueyao pointed at the name in the title and asked, ''Do you have any idea who this demon is?''
The black dragon glanced at her and shook his head that he did not. Xueyao then flipped open to the first page that had a precise drawing of the figure the book was about.
''This is Mo Yuan, the third leader of the First Heaven and our biggest terrorist.''
The ancient dragon brought the book closer towards him in interest.
''He took over after brutally murdering his father with Resentment Energy a few thousand years before I was born here. This book highlights how he is this close to killing every dragon here with his powerful resentment cultivation along with almost ten million puppet demon soldiers he had created to be against us forever.''
He stared deeper into the drawing and wondered why she was telling him this.
''He…has killed many of us over the years here including every one of the disciples my master once trained. It's a miracle he hasn't killed me given my strength and life expectancy as the weakest immortal blue dragon under my Master and in the whole of the Fourth Heaven.''
Something about the way her words resonated in him made his gaze on her more gentle than before.
''He is a maniac, the prince of demons and master of resentment energy and other powers he derived from mastering that forbidden art. He once mocked us, saying that the immortal dragon we are all hoping for to wake one day to save us from our pending destruction would abandon us all again once he found out that he is not capable of fixing the realm he made and wouldn't even care to try and save us.''
Something in his gaze flickered as he heard a lowly immortal's opinion about him while he was asleep.
''He once called you a coward, a dragon with no sense of responsibility and one who created this realm just to sit back and watch it all come crumbling down for his own sick amusement.''
The ancient dragon's hands balled into tight fists on the makeshift table as he glared daggers into her soul like she was that lowly immortal of the first heaven.
''He said he has gained more power than you and he always threatened about knowing of a secret technique to end you for good.''
The immortal black dragon gazed at her in total disbelief of this demon. His perfectly shaped eyebrows furrowed in discomfort at this needle-sized enemy.
''Mo Yuan has found a way to preserve his heaven from collapsing with the rest of us.''
She watched as he began to withdraw himself from the stone, eyes shifting as conflicting emotions resonated in him all at once.
''While you might be thinking all the four heavens you made and considered a mistake would fall, the worst of the heavens would survive this and I really want to believe Mo Yuan is just bluffing about finding a secret ancient technique that could herald your own bane. If he achieves that, Mo Yuan would take his ten million demon soldiers to destroy the mortal realm and every other realm in the formless dimension. Making demons the only surviving living beings in the whole universe and that's it.''
''Impossible.''
''Impossible? Do you mean it's impossible for Mo Yuan to preserve the first heaven from being destroyed with the other heavens or it is impossible to get you killed?''
That struck a nerve in him as his eyes locked on her in silent rage. Xueyao didn't know how she managed to remain calm under his burning stares and maintain eye contact with him.
''If you sit back and decide to do nothing but return to your sleep, you would have to shoulder the responsibility for dooming all three heavens and other forms of life outside the immortal realm except Mo Yuan and his ten million bloodthirsty demon soldiers that will come for you next to kill you while you sleep.''
Their eyes locked on to each other longer as he slowly began to think about this and weigh if her words might be true or she is just cooking up some nonsense to stir him to go through those silly tribulations with her. But the longer he stared into those deep pools of brown, he realized that she was not playing games with him but stating plain facts about the reality they live in.
''Alright, let's say Mo Yuan and his ten million demon soldiers are still no match to kill you in your sleep. But that doesn't mean other realms and worlds out there would be invulnerable to his attacks.''
Xueyao leaned back to fold her hands across her chest. ''Fine, you want to be that sleeping beauty down here in this cave forever for selfish reasons only known to you. But can you handle the wrath of other Gods out there when they come for you for letting the good immortals of the realm you made perish because of your negligence and doing nothing when the evil immortals from the same realm you abandoned survive to come and destroy their own world that they made?''
His eyes stirred away from her a bit because she was right. No matter how much he deeply disregarded what he has made till now…he was going to let the mortal souls he gave a chance to live a second life to experience eternal death again and the immortals that degenerated to demons under his poor supervision and neglect would survive after this apocalypse to threaten other worlds and all forms of life that had no business with him or his hatred.
''I once read this book,'' she began softly as she showed him another book. ''That you are not only an ancient immortal black dragon or the first mortal soul to ascend as a dragon…but a gifted God as well.''
His gaze returned to her worried that she already knew too much.
''The ability to create an entire realm as an immortal black dragon has made you a secret member of the Great Five Order of the primordial Gods of the Formless Dimension. Though, you earned your way in as one of them.'' she gave him a proud smile. ''And became the first mortal to live after death as an immortal black dragon and become a God as well.''
He rolled his eyes that it was no big deal.
''Think about it and remember. You are not only the immortal black dragon of the immortal realm but a Great Five Order Primordial God of the whole formless dimension. You are not only responsible for us but for everything that lives and breathes in the formless dimension. Going through this tribulation with me to save the second, third, and fourth heaven and gathering a large army of immortals from these three heavens to face Mo Yuan and his demon soldiers and to destroy them for good would spare other realms from being destroyed by Mo Yuan. Then after that, you can return here to sleep as long and as much as you want knowing that no immortal would have a reason to venture down here to disturb you and from achieving your personal goals.''
She was good.
He acknowledged within himself the more he stared at her.
His eyes followed her movements as she reached out for her bag to bring out a weird object in the shape of a dragon and placed it before him.
''This is one of Temperance Hall's finest lamps. I brought one for you that you could turn on when it's cold and dark here at night.''
She began to gather her things while leaving the book about the chronicles of that demon with him before standing to her feet to call it a day with him.
For some other unknown reasons, his eyes seemed to linger still on the weirdly shaped lamp longer than he should.
She folded her hands behind her as she gazed at him wondering what was going through his head now after hearing her mind.
''I don't want to rate you totally as some heartless monster who would sit back and watch his creations get destroyed without feeling anything. My few moments with you sometimes portray you as that God but I want to believe there is more to you than meets the eye.''
His heart stirred a bit in response as his gaze remained fixed on the lamp.
She turned around to leave but paused to say this, ''Tomorrow, I am going to give you a gift if you agree to do this with me.'' She concluded and left him all alone in the cave.
There was something about this lamp he couldn't place a finger on. It resonated with that same haunting feeling within him that pushed him to seclude himself from the world for one hundred thousand years.
''Look, Xuan Lingxiao,'' he tried to remember while bringing both of his hands to the side of his head as his nails dug deep enough to draw blood. ''I…made you this lamp because the fire of a dragon is much brighter than…'' he whispered right before snapping out of the trance he fell into. He gripped onto the edges of the flat stone to catch his breath as that familiar aching overwhelmed him again. And before he knew it, tears from that strange forgotten memory began to smear his perfect face as he held himself tighter.
If only she knows what it feels like….
His hands moved on the surface to fling the books and lamp from his sight right before collapsing completely to the ground.
…to suffer from a painful memory you can't recall.