On top of the snow-covered mountain, stood a magnificent palace made of ice. Every corner sparkled as the sun shone, on every side of the palace the maids lit fires for warmth. A woman walked through the almost transparent ice floor. Her light blue robe swept across the floor, her hair ornament swayed as her feet stepped, the fan she was holding was slapped repeatedly against her palms. Her face is so sweet even though there is no smile there, her steps even look very hasty, her brows knit impatiently.
"Miss Fu." Xiao Zuan quickly greeted Fu Ziya who didn't stop even when she was already standing in front of him. The woman stood in front throne of Xuehua palace, her eyes lazily stared at the handsome man sitting behind the table, he didn't even glance at Fu Ziya, busy inhaling the aroma of tea that Xiao Zuan had just poured into his jade glass.
"Don't you want to sit down?" said the man behind the counter, he glanced at Fu Ziya briefly before putting his glass back down.
"Is that all you can tell me about?" Fu Ziya opened his fan,
"Then what do you want?" the two of them exchanged glances, very intense and sharp, on one hand, Fu Ziya looked like she wanted to throw the table in front her, while the man was still casually sitting on his throne.
"Yun Guoqu"
"You're the only one who can call me like that." Fu Ziya rolled her eyes.
"Whatever you say. Now give it to me. I've done what you wanted, now give it to me." Emperor Yun Guoqu waved his hand, a wooden box appeared on the table, Xiao Zuan handed the box to Fu Ziya. The woman's expression became softer when she received the wooden box decorated with sculptures, until a smile broke out on her red lips when she peeked at the contents of the box. He cleared his throat once.
"Okay, this is good." Fu Ziya closed the box and sat down quietly in the prepared place. Xiao Zuan poured tea for her.
Please don't ask me to do that again. Then you have to meet them yourself." Yun Guoqu muttered lazily, which could be interpreted as either approval or indifference. Fu Ziya ignored Yun Guoqu's lazy reply, so she just focused on enjoying the tea that had been prepared. After all, she had known Yun Guoqu for a long time, she was well aware of the nature of the emperor.
Fu Ziya was an immortal of the Fu clan, who knows how long she had known Yun Guoqu. You could say she was the closest person who could be called a friend to Yun Guoqu. Maybe because they've known each other for a long time, so Fu Ziya can understand Yun Guoqu better even though his attitude is sometimes very annoying, especially his cold and indifferent nature.
The two of them are very close, so close that it causes misunderstandings. People thought she was the reason Yun Guoqu rejected Miss Shun. Remembering that, Fu Ziya would roll her eyes because it was impossible. No one likes Yun Guoqu, if you get to know the ice man more closely, he is heartless, and annoying.
"Sister, you are here too!" someone shouted very loudly. Fu Ziya turned a deaf ear. Hah, why did this brat also come.
"Emperor Yun Guoqu, good morning." The young man looked younger, the clothes he wore were dark in color, had a bright face and stepped over to sit by Fu Ziya's side.
"What are you doing here? You ran away from your sister again?" the young man was Wan An, Fu Ziya's noisy cousin, childish despite being hundreds of years old. He was a young master of the Shi Heise valley occupied by the Wan clan.
Due to Fu Ziya's frequent visits to Xuehua Palace and Wan An's rebellious nature, the young man often followed Fu Ziya to the palace where Emperor Yun Guoqu lived. From then on he acted friendly with the emperor and shamelessly called the emperor 'brother'.
"Don't talk about her, what is sister Fu doing here? Did I interrupt your date with Guoqu da ge?"
"Dating your ass." Fu Ziya replied casually, it was not the first time someone make fun to her, she had already gone through that temptation for thousands of years, it no longer had any effect.
"Yeah, you're interrupting my date with your sister."
"Hahaha, who would believe in a heartless man like you?" actually she didn't really think much about the gossip about herself with Yun Guoqu, but things got worse after Yun Guoqu rejected the Shun clan's arranged marriage, they added her name as the reason for the rejection. She didn't accept it! If it goes on like this, no one will want to marry her! No man would want to be with her! This was even more annoying when Yun Guoqu joined the pouring of oil in the blazing fire. What a heartless man, he did that so that no other clan heads would hand over their daughters to him.
"How about you, what are you doing this time?" as if remembering his destination to that place, Wan An turned to Yun Guoqu, the man still sitting leisurely on his throne. "Dage, from today on I will stay here."
"What are you asking permission for? Usually you go straight to the west room as if it were yours."
"Just say you're jealous because you can't stay here for fear of the gossip outside getting louder."
"you! this boy!" Fu Ziya hit Wan An with fan. So loud that the younger one groaned. For the record, she hit Wan An with added strength in it, it hurt much more than Wan An could imagine.
Yun Guoqu smiled faintly on his throne, sometimes life in Xuehua was boring, at least today he could watch the interesting performances of two cousins who always quarreled every time they met. Maybe he should apologize to Fu Ziya. Apart from that the woman's temper was a bit bad, but her face was so beautiful that of course many wanted to marry her, but he maliciously took advantage of their friendship until the suitors retreated slowly.
Casually sipping tea, Yun Guoqu enjoyed his morning even though the two people in front of him were so noisy. Suddenly a subtle vibration stopped his hand. Maybe it was just a small gesture, but the other three people in the room watched it intently. Sure enough, not long after that a huge explosion was heard. Yun Guoqu immediately stood up and disappeared.
He appeared in the courtyard, there was already a big hole there, in that hole was pierced by an arrow that produced fire, Xuehua palace was a palace of eternal ice and snow, if there was a fire that could still live, it meant that the fire itself was not ordinary fire.
"General of the Demon." said Wan An who was already standing behind him with Fu Ziya. Yun Guoqu watched the arrow closely, unmistakably, it was a demon general's arrow.
"Why would he attack at a time like this?" arrows came back from an unknown place. Yun Guoqun stopped the arrow with his bare hands, again examining the arrow that was like burning iron, the red color still remained but the fire that burned it had been extinguished in his hand.
A strong wind suddenly blew. Not only did it blow hard, but the wind also brought hot air, Yun Guoqun ordered the guards and servants who had gathered to see the commotion to leave, he felt something was wrong. A great and evil power was threatening from behind the dark clouds that suddenly covered the sky of Xuehua palace.
The wind vortex formed from the dark clouds so fiercely it blew everything away, it all happened too quickly when a fire dragon emerged from the wind vortex, Yun Guoqun deflected it with a shield, the ice sword sheathed on his waist swung forward, splitting the fire dragon opening its mouth.
Something dark was visible from behind the flames that remained of the fire dragon, the figure did not look like a demon general, the figure seemed to be fused with smoke, only two dark red eyes that he believed were staring at him intently.
Yun Guoqun looked back, everyone managed to take cover well. He disappeared in thin air, seeing that, Fu Ziya and Wan An also followed behind.
The figure as if waiting for them to catch up, Yun Guoqu stomped his foot on the rocky cliff, "it's not a demon general, is it?" He didn't reply to Fu Ziya's soft voice, he only focused on the distant black cloud while inside he still felt a pair of eyes watching intensely.
"The demon general is so ugly and scary, after all he is very afraid of Yun-ge, he will not dare to attack Xuehua palace when da ge here" Fu Ziya glanced back, seeing the damage caused by that creature could not be taken for granted. He only let out wind and fire, but look what he has done.
Other things also bothered everyone, Xuehua palace had strong defenses and protectors, those creatures broke the barrier just like that, it proved that the creatures they were chasing were not random creatures.
"It's, the demons, right?"
"Down!" The voice from the front snapped Yun Guoqu out of his thoughts, just as he lowered his head, dozens of swords flew right above his head. The sword shattered before it even touched anyone, Yun Guoqu's hand was still raised when from the blade a cloud of smoke appeared that covered their view.
"Hey, I can't see anything!" complained Wan An. Fu Ziya moved her fan elegantly, from every wind that was created from her fan appeared tiny floating balls that were very bright, surrounding them and giving them light.
"Oh!" someone shouted and a thump appeared, balls of light came down to give light, that's where he saw Wan An fall in a not-so-good position while rubbing his head which had fallen first. "Damn tree! What tree is this? Why is it so big?!" he cursed.
"You're so clumsy." Fu Ziya commented. The mist that enveloped them slowly dissipated, leaving a dark forest devoid of light. Luckily Fu Ziya's balls of light were still functioning properly.
Wan An who was still cursing a tree suddenly stopped talking, "What is this stench?" he said. The originally faint stench grew sharper as Yun Guoqun walked along to the source of the smell, the others followed quietly. The light generated from Fu Ziya's one ball of light should be able to illuminate the entire forest, but not this time. Their vision was still limited even though the balls were floating around them.
The stench grew stronger, but they saw nothing. Yun Guoqun felt that he was stepping on something, he stopped, aimed the ball of light at his feet, the area that was previously so dark, suddenly became so bright in the middle of the night, the moon that was previously reluctant to shine where they stood, now shone brightly, so that they could see the pool of blood on the ground.
"AH!" someone suddenly shouted, the scene before them did not bode well. In front of him, corpses were scattered and gathered to form a small pile. Yun Guoqun examined one of the closest corpses and examined it. The corpse's body was dry with internal organs gone, if all the blood had been sucked out, then where did this pool of blood come from?
"Who did this?" asked Wan An who was standing on the pile of corpses, the smell was so strong.
"Am I the only one who doesn't know where we are right now?" Yun Guoqun took the pooled blood and smelled it, the blood was still warm, but the corpse in front of him didn't look new.
The movement from behind the tree caught Yun Guoqu's attention, he moved as fast as light, his sword already lodged in someone's neck. He frowned, it was neither a monster nor a red-eyed creature, but only a young man in green who was surprised with a sword suddenly ready to cleave his neck.
"Did you find the culprit, dage?" Wan An glanced behind Yun Guoqu's back, a look of disappointment on his face, "Who is this?"