Chapter 41 – Zhulong

Yun Xiguang saw that two phoenix feathers were wrapped around the little spirit bird, and was delighted that the little spirit bird had recovered two strands of spiritual energy. Yet, he was worried that these two strands would be taken away by the people from the Special Affairs Bureau.

This belonged to the little spirit bird. No one should take away the little spirit bird’s phoenix feathers. Besides, this spiritual energy was not something humans could control; it carried the power of the laws. If it broke free from the little spirit bird’s control, it would bring disaster to the world.

But how could he take away the phoenix feathers under everyone’s watchful eyes? Yun Xiguang lowered his head in deep thought.

Before this, Yun Xiguang still had a bit of confusion.

Previously, when he used the phoenix feather to bind The Crimson Chi and used the rules of the world to block everyone’s view, he successfully took The Crimson Chi and the phoenix feather out together. What about this time?

Everyone had seen The Crimson Chi appear and knew there were two strands of spiritual energy within the mountain. What would these strands of spiritual energy look like in front of everyone this time?

Li Zheng was also pondering over this issue.

According to his duty, he should take back the phoenix feathers and report everything to the country. This was his responsibility.

Upon sensing Li Zheng’s fleeting thoughts, the Golden-Winged Great Peng immediately roared in Li Zheng’s mind, “Report what? If you report it, will your superiors understand? Are you planning to spout gibberish at them? Do you want to babble nonsense?”

The Golden-Winged Great Peng was so agitated that it didn’t even say “cluck.”

Li Zheng understood this logic, but he couldn’t lie to his superiors either, and besides…

“Even if I don’t say anything, there are so many people here, can they not see it? Even if I don’t speak up, there are still many Yun family members who know the truth alive, won’t they reveal the facts?” Li Zheng asked, “This isn’t something I can hide.”

The Golden-Winged Great Peng, not well-versed in the rules’ stipulations and unsure of how much the Yun family knew, found itself at a loss too.

At this moment, Yun Xiguang, who had thought of a possible solution, approached Yun Boquan, squatted down, and said, “Uncle.”

Having lost the dragon bone, Yun Boquan had also lost his power as a Spiritbond Master. At the same time, when the Yun family had transplanted the dragon bone into him back then, they had removed one segment of his spine. Now that he had lost this piece of bone, he couldn’t stand on his own and lay paralyzed on the ground.

He glanced at Yun Xiguang and said weakly, “You’re just as stubborn as your father.”

“Compared to you, who acts on impulse, we father and son are far from it,” Yun Xiguang said, “Uncle, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

“At this point, I’ve already lost everything there is to lose. Whatever you ask, I won’t answer,” Yun Boquan closed his eyes, his face gray and lifeless, showing that his will to live had been extinguished.

Without his strength and backbone, if he lost his will to live as well, he wouldn’t be far from death.

Yun Xiguang asked, “I just want to know what my parents’ names were. He was your real younger brother, you won’t even tell me that?”

Hearing this, Yun Boquan slowly opened his eyes, gazed at the sky, trying to reach up to touch that expanse of sky, yet unable to even lift his hand.

Yun Xiguang looked at the sky, suddenly enlightened, and thought of a name. He asked, “Was it called Yun Botian?”

Yun Boquan was slightly startled, and after a moment, revealed a complex smile, “Yes, you guessed it right. Yun Botian, the ‘Tian’ in ‘Botian’ means the same as in ‘broad as the sky.’”

“Broad as the sky? That was the meaning of his name? I thought it was the ‘broad’ in ‘broad learning’, wasn’t the character ‘Bo’ a mandatory character for your generation?” Yun Xiguang asked.

Yun Boquan said, “Your grandfather named him this with the intention of vast skies, hoping that all the land under this sky would belong to the Yun family. But he didn’t like it. He said the sky belonged to all living creatures; the Yun family couldn’t have both ‘Bo’ and ‘Quan’, and also ‘Tian’. He nagged about changing his name for years, but the Yun family would never agree. After he married your mother, he immediately moved his household registration away and changed his name to Yun Botian.”

“How could you remember his name? Many people don’t remember him anymore, and the relevant files are gone,” Yun Xiguang said.

“I’m a Heaven-grade Spiritbond Master, protected by the Azure Dragon’s power, no one can tamper with my memories,” Yun Boquan said.

“Did someone use a spirit beast’s special ability to delete the existence of my parents? Like the power of the Bookworm?” Yun Xiguang asked.

“It’s not the power of a Bookworm, it’s a type of ‘dilution’,” Yun Boquan said, “The ink on paper fades gradually with the exposure to sunlight and the passage of time; the existence of your parents was also ‘diluted’ in this way. But if preserved well enough, or if the paper and ink are not prone to fading, complete ‘dilution’ is impossible. To be able to be ‘diluted’ means it wasn’t ‘profound’ enough. You weren’t diluted away, were you?”

Yun Boquan’s explanation was somewhat abstract, but Yun Xiguang understood his meaning.

The power the other party used wasn’t so much the “deletion” ability of a Bookworm, but rather an acceleration of the flow of time.

As time went on, people’s memories of certain events would fade, and if the time was long enough, they would completely forget.

Similarly, the writing on paper would also fade over time.

As for electronic data recorded in computers, although it wouldn’t fade due to the passage of time, this part of the data would become useless due to “dilution”, automatically cleared by the computer as junk data.

Thus, the information related to Yun Botian and his wife was forgotten by people over the course of time.

Only those with extremely powerful abilities could retain impressions of them, like Li Zheng, the Yun family elders, the Spiritbond Master Association president, and others. If one were to use an apt metaphor, they were high-quality brushes and ink; the characters they wrote wouldn’t easily fade. Even after a long time had passed, one could still make out faint traces of ink, so they would have an “impression”, but couldn’t recall specific events.

Yun Boquan, on the other hand, was powerful and had a blood relationship with Yun Botian; his memory was like carefully preserved archives. As long as time didn’t pass too absurdly, it would always be preserved.

As for Yun Xiguang’s memory, it relied on obsession.

He didn’t have power, nor did he have ink that could last for thousands of years; what he had was obsession.

He was like a bamboo slip, carving the information about his parents onto the bamboo slip, preserving it. When the winds and frosts of the years came, the writing on the bamboo slip faded, and he would redraw it, deepening the memory.

Again and again, over and over, obstinately preserving the information about his parents, fighting against time, and refusing to forget.

“You could remember them all this time; it’s a miracle,” Yun Boquan sighed, “I thought I would never have to see that brother of mine who always opposed me, but you just wouldn’t let go of your obsession, your temper as bad as his.”

“Do you envy him?” Yun Xiguang asked, “The word ‘Quan’ is too heavy; bearing it is too tiring. You envy that he could follow his heart and live freely.”

Yun Boquan looked at Yun Xiguang’s insightful eyes and sneered, “Envy? I might as well say he was stupid! If he hadn’t left the protection of the Yun family, how could he have met such a tragic end?

“The Yun family is such a powerful force; as long as the Yun family remains strong, the family’s children will always receive respect and admiration! If he had been willing to submit to the Yun family, why would he have died such a miserable death in a foreign land, leaving not even a corpse behind?”

“Respect and admiration aren’t earned through the family, but by what you do. Ancestor Yun Guanyue, from nothing to being revered by tens of thousands, wasn’t because he had the Azure Dragon, but because he was worthy. Countless revolutionary martyrs, even without the assistance of spirit beasts, will be remembered for eternity,” Yun Xiguang said solemnly, “Moreover, given the situation back then, even the Yun family couldn’t have saved my parents’ lives, right? Or perhaps, the Yun family didn’t dare to save them.”

Yun Boquan’s expression stiffened, not speaking, and his attitude confirmed Yun Xiguang’s guess.

From the moment everyone else’s memories started to fade, Yun Xiguang understood that the creature that killed his parents was far from an ordinary spirit beast; it was at least a divine beast.

Today, hearing Yun Boquan confirm the ability to erase the existence of his parents, combined with the huge snake tail Yun Xiguang had seen in the sky on the day of the incident, Yun Xiguang roughly guessed what kind of spirit beast had killed his parents that day.

It was Zhulong.

One of the twelve ancestors of the ancient Wu clan, human-faced and serpent-bodied; opening its eyes brought daylight, closing its eyes brought night; its thoughts could transform the sea into a mulberry field.

If his enemy was Zhulong, no wonder the Spiritbond World had covered up this news after investigating and sealed the case forever.

In today’s world, no Spiritbond Master could defeat Zhulong.

Not the president of the Spiritbond Master Association, not the Heaven-grade Spiritbond Master who belonged to the national forces, and neither could Yun Boquan.

In fact, if not for Yun Boquan revealing the existence of Zhulong today, hardly anyone in the Spiritbond World would have known that Zhulong had also awakened in today’s world.

Yun Xiguang had only seen information about Zhulong in the secret ancient books of the Yun family, notes left by Yun Guanyue.

Yun Guanyue learned about Zhulong from the Azure Dragon.

Back then, when Yun Guanyue and the Azure Dragon were chatting idly, he asked about what kind of spirit beast could withstand heavenly fire. After some thought, the Azure Dragon answered that there were three. These three weren’t resistant to heavenly fire, but rather, they wouldn’t provoke heavenly fire attacks at all.

Yun Guanyue was quite surprised; wasn’t the existence of spirit beasts already inconsistent with the laws of heaven and earth? How could there be spirit beasts that wouldn’t provoke heavenly fire?

The Azure Dragon said that these three spirit beasts were all related to the rules themselves.

Zhulong was such a creature. In ancient times, Zhulong controlled the changes of the sun and moon, bearing its duties, and assisted the ancient human race in multiplying and thriving. It was originally part of the law. Since it had awakened, it proved that the law wanted it to awaken, so it wouldn’t be attacked by heavenly fire.

Yun Guanyue then asked, what about the other two spirit beasts?

The Azure Dragon fell silent for a moment before answering, “I cannot utter their names. But they can no longer be considered spirit beasts; they are the sun and moon themselves, the world itself, and the rules themselves.”

The reason they were spirit beasts was that the forms they manifested were spirit beasts. If one day they didn’t want to be spirit beasts anymore, they would abandon their appearances as spirit beasts and turn into the most fundamental chaotic power.

The Azure Dragon told Yun Guanyue that if those two spirit beasts awoke, all things in heaven and earth would only have one path – submission.

Yun Xiguang didn’t know exactly what the two spirit beasts the Azure Dragon spoke of were, but he knew that Zhulong was not something the Yun family could handle.

Yun Boquan said, “You must have guessed who was responsible for your parents’ deaths, right? Let me tell you, it wasn’t that someone wanted your parents dead, but the world wanted your parents dead. I don’t know what they did during the time they left the Yun family, what they discovered, but they must have done something to anger the laws, which is why Zhulong punished them. Don’t seek revenge, you can’t fight against the entire world.”

Yun Xiguang looked at Yun Boquan and suddenly revealed a mocking smile.

“What are you laughing at?” Yun Boquan said unpleasantly; he disliked Yun Xiguang’s expression.

Yun Xiguang shook his head and said, “I’m laughing at how amusing the Yun family is. You defied the world’s natural order by initiating an array that alters races, yet you don’t feel fear for it. Instead, it’s Zhulong’s appearance that makes you feel powerless, making you afraid to even mention it. Your attitude is simply that you think the Azure Dragon, which has always obeyed the Yun family, can be deceived, ordinary spirit beasts can be deceived, and humans can be deceived. But when you really encounter a tough nut, you don’t even dare to utter a word.

“If you were ecstatic after finding out that the one who killed my parents was Zhulong, thinking you could capture Zhulong as the source of power for the heaven-defying array, I would look at you with higher regard.”

“You’re talking nonsense! Do you know how powerful Zhulong is? This is impossible!” Yun Boquan shouted with his last ounce of strength.

Yun Xiguang said, “But allowing humans to change races and absorb the power of spirit beasts, isn’t that also an impossible thing? You’re just bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

“To do what is known to be impossible, that is the mark of a hero. The Yun family, however, is just a bunch of cowards who consider themselves noble; in reality, they bully the weak and fear the strong.

“You say my parents were punished by Zhulong for angering the laws? Well, let me tell you, I’ve done plenty of things that anger the laws too, and I’m just waiting for Zhulong to punish me!”