Chapter 90 - Grown Folks' Business
Chapter 90 – Grown Folks’ Business
At the end of the room was a pedestal hoisting a beautiful necklace with a lot of gemstones. Drawn to that necklace just like he was to the keystone in his possession he moved forward to touch it when a sudden chill crept up his spine.
His scalp went numb feeling a great sense of danger. He didn't know what was prowling in the dark but whatever it was it wasn't Barney and friends here to play. Petrified he tried to extricate himself from the illusion but failed miserably. That's when the real panic set in.
He had done this a couple of times and never had a difficult time coming out. Maybe that was because he had never gotten close to the keystones in the fog and try and touch any of them. It seemed touching the keystones bore such a terrible consequence.
While Rui Yewan was running for his life in the illusion things weren't looking good in the outside world. Rui Yewan's body had collapsed to the floor and he curled up on the ground sweating profusely.
No matter how hard anyone tried to shake him awake he didn't move. It was as though his soul had been ferried elsewhere leaving behind this empty shell.
The two panicked as they hurried over to support him. Rui Fei knelt beside Rui Yewan and rest his little brother's head on his lap calling out to him to wake up but Rui Yewan didn't even flinch.
Ji Yao glanced over at the keystone hovering in the air surrounded by a black fog and scowled. He had never dealt with such a situation before but since this had something to do with the keystone he had to cut its power supply to help Rui Yewan.
He engaged his aether intending to activate the lightning seraphic energy and fend off Rui Yewan's seraphic energy cutting the power supply but his stubborn Qilin seraphic energy dominated and send out a ball of flames.
The flame eradicated Rui Yewan's seraphic energy and surrounded the keystone locking it in place. Just as Ji Yao succeeded in shutting down the keystone he felt shivers down his spine like an enemy had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
This time his reaction was a little different. It was fear mixed in with the desire to fight. A strong desire to challenge that person's authority and show him who is king. He knew he should restrain himself as he had no qualms with Rui Fei but his beast-like instincts were telling him that if he didn't fight then he had let down his entire ancestry.
He struggled to control his body refusing to turn his head to look at Rui Fei. The rule 'never give your back to the enemy' echoed in his mind but he knew in this current state if he turned around and faced Rui Fei he would lose the tiniest shred of rationality left in his mind and fight till one of them yield which was highly unlikely.
Luckily Rui Yewan who had been rescued from the brink of death woke up coughing violently like he had been saved from death. He raised his head and covered his mouth coughing out a mouthful of blood. He had been running for a long time but the creature caught up with him and strangled his neck while crushing his aether.
He had to watch as his seraphic energy slowly flowed out of his mouth into the creature's nose. Whenever it inhaled his seraphic energy it would close its eyes with a look of contentment.
This experience was so terrifying that Rui Yewan thought he was going to die. He didn't think there was a creature on this planet much worse than his father but there was.
The suffocating atmosphere between Ji Yao and Rui Fei suddenly dissipated but the looks on their faces seemed to say that this wasn't over. Like the north poles of magnets, they were repelling each other yet at the same time, they were drawn to each other.
Ji Yao could touch Rui Fei and Rui Fei loved Ji Yao's scent but if they throw their seraphic energy in the mix they were suddenly enemies. This was so confusing and it had to be dealt with.
After taking care of Rui Yewan the two patiently waited for him to speak. Whatever happened when he connected with the keystone must have been life-threatening for him to be in such a sorrowful state. Rui Yewan chugged down the elixir Ji Yao handed to him and felt a comforting warmth spread throughout his body.
"*Cough, it's… um," he said struggling to put into words what happened, "I found only one keystone but….. but it's in the imperial palace grounds guarded by a pure Nocru. He… he was more terrifying than that bastard."
Rui Yewan clutched his chest recalling the excruciating pain of having his aether crushed. Ji Yao had rescued him on time which meant he hadn't suffered any losses but the traumatic experience was forever etched in his mind.
The two didn't force him to talk and let him rest in his room after sedating him. As soon as Rui Fei closed the door of the room Ji Yao said, "We can't let him do this again. I need to practice the-."
"I will do it," replied Rui Fei as the both of them spoke simultaneously. The two of them stared at each other none of them willing to back down.
It was Ji Yao who broke the silence saying, "How about this, whoever masters the technique first will be the one to find the locations of the other keystones?"
Rui Fei smirked as he responded, "Yeah sure…." He bit his lower lip and leaned down till their faces were inches apart and said, "We all know who is going to win."
Ji Yao's lips twitched at the strong stench of arrogance. He pushed him away before strutting off. Rui Fei was about to follow with a foolish smile on his face when Rui Li showed up like a ghost right in front of him. Her eyes narrowed as
she asked, "Why are you acting suspicious today? What are you hiding?"
The smile on Rui Fei's face vanished as he replied, "That's grown folk's business," while patting her head, "go make yourself useful by watching your brother." Before Rui Li had the chance to protest Rui Fei disappeared just like that.. If it weren't that she had to take care of Rui Yewan she would have put on her Sherlock Holmes hat and went on investigating grown folk's business.