[Bonus chapter for 1100 golden tickets :)]
"Now, come along obediently. You're still the young master's favored wife, he'll definitely treat you well." One of the experts smiled, trying to coax Meiying into returning willingly. After all, should their plans succeed, their clan would rise to unprecedented levels. At that point, even should another Meiying come along and offer herself up, even they might not give her a second look.
Suddenly, the sound of whipping air and breaking glass resounded. The experts turned pensive gazes toward the distance to see a young man with two pairs of wings flying toward them with speed that shouldn't have been possible for someone his age. Little did they know he was severely torturing his body by flying at this speed. After all, his wings were spurred by his soul cultivation, but, his energy and body cultivation couldn't keep up.
That said, his presence had the desired impact.
"Dyon?" Meiying's eyes turned misty. She had a sensitivity to the truth of things only True Empaths could match. Despite Dyon's speed being far beyond her cultivation's ability to see, she could just feel that it was him.
Dyon's ring flashed, causing ten saint level Demon Generals to appear. This was overkill, considering the three experts were only at the lower saint stages, but Dyon wanted to ensure that they knew that they had no chance whatsoever.
In an instant, Dyon had appeared before Meiying. The usually domineering and oppressive wind will that circulated his wings became a gentle gust that wrapped around her protectively.
Even in this situation, Meiying giggled. "It seems I should apologize for all those times I teased you."
Although Dyon wasn't facing her, he grinned. "You mean all those times you almost coaxed your dad into killing me. Thanks for that, by the way."
"Pft. You were so intent on getting your own self killed that you hardly needed me."
Dyon's Demon Generals stood in the skies above the cowering experts. The familiar and graceful figures of River and Ronica stood at the forefront, leading their oppressive aura.
Seeing that the situation was handled, Dyon turned to Meiying frowning once he noticed the injury to her leg.
"Let me heal that for you..." He said solemnly, bending down gently rotate his aurora around her wound.
Meiying grit her teeth in anger. "I have that bitch Jade to thank for this. If not for her, I would have escaped without anyone noticing at all!"
Dyon's brows furrowed. "I'm sorry. I should have given you better arrays."
"Don't be like that. I saw first hand how tired you were that day. The fact you gave me any at all is the reason why I made it here. If I didn't have your teleportation array, I would have never made it across that moat fast enough. And if I didn't have your communication array, I would have likely been forced to go back before I even helped and all of this would have been for naught."
Meiying suddenly shook her head, "we don't have a lot of time. The only reason I was able to escape is because they're busy executing some of the most important parts of their plan. Although, hehe, they may find that they'll struggle to do even that."
"Oh?" Dyon looked up, seeing the box clutched to Meiying's chest. "You didn't do anything too dangerous, did you? You know Madeleine just about killed me when I told her what I let you do, right?"
Meiying giggled. "Big Sister Madeleine getting angry? I'd like to see that."
Dyon suddenly turned back. "Kill them. We can't let them report back too soon."
The Demon Generals didn't need any more prompting. The experts lasted a mere instant before their lives were erased from the world.
The only problem with Dyon's plan was that to the Daiyu, every member they had was a precious existence. In the end, he was still too inexperienced about the martial world.
As a clan living in poverty for the sake of their future, how could they afford to lose saint level experts so easily? This was why, much like the Sicarius clan with Arios and Ava, the Daiyu had soul tied stones to their members. The instant those experts died... Elder Daiyu knew.
"Tell me everything you know." Dyon said, turning back to Meiying.
Meiying nodded. "Most of what I know is limited to what Chenglei would know, so I'm not sure if I have a whole picture of things since Elder Daiyu is very close to the vest even with him."
The truth was that Meiying was sure that she had slowed them significantly. Without what she had taken from them, it was likely they wouldn't even be capable of executing their plans.
"The first thing I should probably explain is what this box is," Meiying started, "If it wasn't for Elder Daiyu being worried about losing his life in the battle to enter the Belmont Holy Land, he would have never passed it on to Chenglei. But, luckily, he did. So, I was able to use that opportunity to steal it."
Meiying smiled, holding out the box from herself, before opening its lid, "This is – "
Suddenly, Meiying froze, her face looking ghastly pale.
"Meiying?" Dyon stood from his kneeling position, a worried expression on his features.
"It's – It's gone..." Meiying's eyes reddened. She had thought that she had done great. How proud had she been? Even while running for her life. And yet, everything she had worked for... It was gone!
Dyon circulated to Meiying's side, his eyes narrowing as he looked down at the box. What he saw was something that he had seen once before.
Two beautiful feathers lay in the box. One was an ice blue that had flames cold enough to freeze a meridian formation expert in an instant. The other was a feather of some of the purest flames and heat in existence.
These were the feathers of the ice and fire phoenix!
Meiying's hand trembled as she reached for them.
"Meiying wait! You'll hurt your –" Dyon's words stopped mid-sentence. The next sight he saw was truly sickening, even with all the blood and gore he had become accustomed to.
The image of the beautiful feathers immediately disappeared, replaced by a lump of bloody flesh.... Human flesh...
