âJiu-ge!!â Yukai ran towards @niejiulixx the moment he spotted the man. The battle was over, the beast slain--leaving many disciples bloodied and tattered in its wake. However, Jiuli looked good. No, he looked more than good. Standing proudly, his sabre cleaved in blood, he looked positively alive, and Yukai made sure to tell him that. Thus, such were the first words out of his mouth upon his joyful reunion with his sworn brother after a long, fearsome battle-- âHot damn, you look good!!â
Yukai, on the other hand, was more in line with the others--His robes were charred and his face was caked in residue soot from that little fire-bomb trick he pulled with Xiayi. And what a hair-raising, magnificent, blood-pumping attack that was--at the minor cost of a few aches and pains and burns to his robes.
Of-course, as with everything in life, shit hit the fan just as things seemed to calm. The ground shook and quaked with tremendous force, splitting open a huge rift in the middle. The disciples unlucky enough to be standing over the rift began falling in as the earth split open--some were fast enough to jump out, while others mounted their flying swords in the nick of time; the rest--battle-weary and immobilized from injury--cried as they toppled into the abyss. Yukai barely had time to curse before sprinting forward and diving after a disappearing disciple, snagging him by the collar and hauling him out, his own flying sword wobbling at the weight of two cultivators. Just as Yukai re-emerged with his baggage in tow, a brilliant red glow spilled from the crevasse depths. Yukai shielded his eyes, his proximity to the light nearly blinding. When Yukai opened his eyes, everything was submerged in red. The ruby tinge made the blood caked on the disciplesâ faces appear almost black.
All eyes glued to the ascending object, the disciplesâ faces ranged from disbelief, to horror, to panic, to sheer awe.Â
Yukai recognized this light. He witnessed it before; once, when he was but a child; angry and scared amidst the turbulent rocking of his stowaway boat, miles away from his home-town, witnessing an energy so pervasive that for a single moment, it painted the skies blood red as far as the eye could see.
This was pure evil, the evil which tore his family apart, which destroyed so many families like his. This was the source of his grief and strife, and the grief and strife of countless others, orphaned and abandoned in the conflict. This was the culmination and manifestation of his obsession, his blood, sweat and tears poured over the last ten years trying to locate and destroy the damned thing--the mission he slaved his life over, so the dark artifact would never bring harm to anyone again.
Yukai had spent the last ten years trying to locate and destroy this thing. But now, destroying it was the last thing on his mind.
As if compelled by an irrefutable force, Yukai moved forward, his face mirroring the same trance of those around him, unflinching even when the stone began to shake furiously mid-air. Suddenly, the jewel exploded in a brilliant display of pyrotechnics. With lightening sharp reflexes, Yukai reached out and swiped for a piece.Â
