King Cangyuan was sitting with his wife Li Xue, holding her close. Mei was in the middle of healing the wounded Royal Guard members one by one. My friends were just sitting together in a small group, probably discussing what their next move was gonna be and how we'd get out of this town. And all of that peaceful recovery was completely interrupted by Longwei's dramatic entrance.
The silence lingered for a few painfully long moments.
Longwei and I stood on a stage-like platform, with a few steps leading down from it. He just casually looked at the rising sun, felt the morning air, stretched out his arms a little like he'd just woken up from a good nap, and said cheerfully, "Good morning, folks! Great day, huh? Beautiful sunrise!"
No response. Still absolutely silent.
"I'm happy to announce that your little town has been liberated from your ailment and troubles. You're very welcome," he said, then bowed theatrically. "And speaking of announcements, I'd like to-"
Longwei's speech was suddenly interrupted by Master Juechen's arrival. Sure, now he arrives. Perfect timing, Master. Needless to say, he was completely stunned to see Longwei standing there casually.
"Wow!" Longwei exclaimed. "If this isn't perfect timing, I don't know what is!"
Master Juechen walked cautiously towards us until he was about twelve feet away and spoke carefully, "What are you-"
"I was in the middle of saying something until you arrived, Juechen," Longwei said with a straight face. "Anyway, you're all probably worried to death about my humble presence here. I'm well aware of the effect I have on people."
He gave a deliberate pause. My friends looked at me desperately. I just gave them a look which meant I was just as clueless as everybody else about what was happening.
Longwei cleared his throat dramatically before he began his speech. "Long ago... actually, not that long ago, maybe about a month ago, someone you all call the 'sixth supreme being', dogshit title by the way, took something which rightfully belongs to me. Well, I wouldn't really say he stole it exactly, he just found it before me. I know, I know, finders keepers and all that, but I say keepers keepers, you know. Those who are actually capable of keeping something, is who gets to keep it, right?" He looked directly at me and winked. I didn't react at all. I was not in the mood for philosophical jokes. And his joke fucking sucked anyway.
He looked around casually and spotted Feichen's necklace in King Cangyuan's hand. Before any of us could even see him move, no surprise there, it was in Longwei's palm.
"When the fuck did you- nevermind," I muttered.
He smiled at me and turned to address the crowd. "This necklace. Beautiful isn't it? Ziyang tells me it has housed the glamorous looking wife of the king here."
The king immediately held his wife with a stronger protective grip.
"Don't worry, your highness. I won't steal her from you," Longwei said dismissively. "I'm rather here for something else which this necklace holds." He chanted a few magic words and from the necklace materialized what looked like an ancient scroll. It was clearly way too old to even exist. It felt like it should crumble just by touching it. It was that ancient. "This..." Longwei held the scroll up high so everyone could see, "is the map to the Primordial Core."
Everyone gasped! Me included!
"Impossible!" Master Juechen exclaimed. "How did-"
"Shut up," Longwei dismissed him casually. "Now, why am I showing you all this map and letting you all know I'm in possession of it? Simple. You'll now spread this news. All around. The already great and powerful Longwei is now in possession of something that'll lead him to something even more great and powerful."
He gave a dramatic pause to let everyone take in the shocking news. Needless to say, no one took it well. Longwei getting his hands on the Primordial Core could mean a million different things. None of which was good news for anyone. And why would he even announce it publicly?! With anybody else, we would've chalked it up to arrogance, but since it's Longwei, it means he's deliberately putting up an open challenge.
"That's not all folks," Longwei spoke again with a grin.
Everybody opened their ears wider now. Because honestly, what else could there possibly be?!
"I will not be doing all of this alone," he said with a wide smile.
'What, he's got friends?' I thought to myself. 'I wonder which cocky asshole is in cahoots with him.'
"I am happy to announce," he continued, "that the people who will be joining me in this grand adventurous quest is none other than, drumroll please, the newly formed and soon to be famous Zenith Sect!"
Now shall we just HOLD THE FUCK UP!
'WHO?!'
"Or since they're in allegiance with me, I think it'll rather be called the Zenith Cult," Longwei added casually.
'WHAT?!'
Let me just get you everyone's reactions first before I describe my own mental breakdown!
Master Juechen's eyeballs almost popped out of his skull. Liangyu fainted along with Mei. Jian started slapping himself repeatedly to check if it was even real or if he was trapped in a fucking nightmare. Qinyue took the longest breath she'd ever taken in all her life and screamed at the top of her lungs, "WHAT THE FUCK?!"
And King Cangyuan? He got up immediately and looked at me and my friends as if we were the main villains who had orchestrated this entire thing from the very beginning! All the trust we'd built had gone completely down the drain and let me tell you, he felt betrayed!
Now logically, it makes no sense for him to feel that way. But can we really blame him? Dude had been mind-controlled for a whole month, got back to his senses, was instantly plunged into a dangerous plan to take down a villain by strangers he'd just met, had to participate in a brutal fight which severely damaged his Royal Guard, and then fucking Longwei shows up and announces the strangers are his friends!
The Royal Guard, though they were in absolutely no condition to fight, still clenched their fists and held their swords tightly, ready to engage us just in case.
As for me, I just kept staring at Longwei with tears forming in my eyes. That's right. Eyes full of tears and a blurry vision, imagining all the ways my future was going to be trashed and busted, if I even had one anymore. My friends and I had barely begun our own "adventure" and we were going to be declared "top priority bad guys" by the government.
Longwei casually put his arm around my shoulder, shook me like we were old friends, and winked, "We'll have tons of fun."
Han came running at that exact moment, probably didn't even notice Longwei and me from all the crowd, reached Jian and asked between heavy breaths, "What's up? What did I miss?"