Spirit Cultivation

"Milady…? Are you alright?" The golden-robed man asked worriedly, seeing her Milady staring at Xuefeng's back who was getting further and further with them. Her eyes were wide open as she was momentarily stunned. 

"He could see us…" The mysterious lady muttered to herself after a moment of daze and repeated out loud, "To think he could actually see us…" She could still see his glare when she closed her eyes, her insides tingling when she recalled the scene. For some reason, she found his glare pretty attractive, not knowing why she didn't realise that earlier. 

"Yeah… Now that I think about it… Is it possible that he controls one of the nine Legendary Spirit Beasts? Not only is he able to see through our disguise but also block my Fate Perception. There is one Legendary Spirit Beast which has such powers. I think he escaped from his Realm a few hundred years ago and no one saw him since then. Could it be that he was hiding in the Earth Realm?" 

The Milady opened her eyes, blinking a few times at the golden-robed youth as if she tried to return to her senses and asked, "You mean Drakos, the Heavenly Dragon? The one who stole the Elemental Bracelet from the Fate Goddess? Do you think he would lower himself to working with a Human?"

The golden-robed youth rubbed his forehead and he speculated, "I have honestly no idea… Now that I think about it, to completely ignore Fate Qi, only Fate Nemesis, Drakos, can do it. What if Xuefeng has the bracelet on him and the Heavenly Dragon is hiding inside of it? That could also be a solution. Did Milady see or feel anything?" 

As she tried to recall any details, searching for any bracelets on Xuefeng's body, the lady found out that she surprisingly didn't remember anything other than Xuefeng's eyes! She actually didn't know what to say to that so to the question she simply shook her head, denying, "I don't think I saw anything..." 

The golden robed youth rubbed his chin and thought out loud, "Hmm, I guess we need to spy on him more and check if we can see something. Maybe he is hiding the bracelet inside his clothing. As we can't use Fate Qi to feel him, how about we use other methods? What do you think, Milady?" 

Xuefeng was wearing his jacket on so with his long sleeves, the bracelet was hidden inside of it. Even if there was a bulge on his arm, it was hard to tell if that was what they were looking for. 

Contrary to his expectations, the lady didn't want it, rejecting right away, "No! Let's just observe from the distance and see more of him first. Only he can see us and others can't. He already gave us a warning to leave him alone so we should respect that for now. After all, we want to have a harmonious relationship with him. We can't work with him if he doesn't trust or dislike us." 

Hearing the proposal, the youth naturally praised his Milady for her insights, but deep down he knew there was something wrong with her, "Right! Milady is the smartest after all. We should do that." Too bad he wasn't in position to ask his Milady about that unless she wants to talk herself so all he could do was agree with her. 

On the other hand, the lady continued to observe Xuefeng who was getting further from them, knowing why she wanted to wait. The moment she looks into his eyes, something makes her brain not know what to say. She wanted to investigate more on that. 

...….

As Xuefeng flew back down with Xiao Wen in his arms, he didn't let go of her this time, knowing they would be meeting every cultivator in the Xiao Family soon. He wanted to show them all that he was Xiao Wen's man and she didn't mind that at all. The only one who was frustrated was Xiao Feng who now didn't have a possible way of retreat, knowing that everyone was aware of the two dating. 

'They are still following us but they stay in the distance. I think your glare worked just fine, haha!' Drakos called out to him just as they hovered above the heads of hundreds cultivators who were standing right in front of the Tang Family's Palace.

It was covered by a white barrier which acted like a last line of defence in case Tang Family was in danger. Even Monarch Stage cultivators of Xiao Feng calibre would have troubles to destroy it so it wasn't a surprise they still didn't break through it. 

Xiao Family had the same barrier but it had to be activated in advance, locking the whole palace until its broken or the energy runs out so it couldn't be used in case of a sneak attack at night. 

'Leave them. They shouldn't trouble us for the time being. If they do, it will only piss me off and they won't get anything out of me. They should not be this dumb.' Xuefeng replied in his mind, already having some understand of how this Fate Organization acted. If they wanted to rope him in, he should be safe. Now with Drakos help, he wasn't scared to face them. 

Xuefeng looked around the battlefield, his golden wings still strong as ever swinging in the air to stabilize himself and saw many Tang Family Guards already dead with little to none deaths from Xiao Family. This was a prime example of how easy it is to kill in groups. There were many Tang Family Guards who didn't make it inside when the barrier surrounded their homes so all they could do is fight till the last blood in hope to protect their families. 

'There is another issue you might want to know. I think they know about my abilities and probably about my identity as well. I don't mind that as I already decided to expose myself for a long time. If they are from the Heaven's Realm, they only need to see my abilities to figure that out so it was bound to happen sooner of later.' Drakos informed calmly, not bothered by the information at all but Xuefeng squinted his eyes when he heard it, wanting to know more. 

Xuefeng didn't wait and asked curiously, 'What identity? Are you some kind of a big shot Spirit?' At the same time, Xiao Feng also approached them and called out to him, "Let's meet up with Elder Yang and Pio. They should have already started breaking through the barrier. If we don't help them it will take too much time." 

When Xuefeng heard Pio's name, his expression immediately turned ugly, looking around the battlefield to find him and finally spotted someone familiar, Yi who was standing next to the a young man of Silver hair and an old man who had to be Elder Yang. 

'So he did save Yi…' Knowing that at least Yi was safe, Xuefeng was conflicted for a moment, but deep down he knew that if he were to choose, he wouldn't hesitate to save Tianshi. It was great that Yi was safe but was Tianshi's ultimate pain worth trading for that? 

He was put in front of a deep question that only he could answer, following what he believed and loved. What was more important, the love of his life wellbeing or the life of his lover's friend? He knew the answer but it didn't matter as he couldn't choose anymore. 

Seeing the angry Xuefeng, Drakos laughed and stopped disturbing him, 'Hah, I guess I will tell you after you finish your current matters. If you fight that Pio, I will be there to help you.' 

Ling also warned worriedly just in case, not yet knowing the full scope of Drakos' abilities, 'Xuefeng, be careful... That Pio is also a Fate Holder.' 

Just as he wanted to reply, Xiao Wen tried to gain his attention when she saw he didn't react to her father's call and asked while kissing him gently, "Xuefeng…? Are we going? You seem to be absent-minded again." As she was in his arms, she could see every change that was happening with him.

"Mhmm, we are going. I really need to talk to a certain someone." Xuefeng nodded when he came back to his senses and kissed her back to confirm he was fine. His face was calm but Xiao Wen could feel the hidden tension building inside of him. 

"Please, you don't need to make a big scene with him right now. I am also angry at him but the priority is to take our revenge on Tang Family first. You will be able to fight him later. He wasn't in fault for Tang Family attack—" Xiao Wen tried to calm him down or rather redirect his anger on someone else but Xuefeng stopped her from talking by saying firmly, "I will do what I think is right and I want you to support me. I'm not going to pretend to be someone else. I'm myself." 

She looked at Xuefeng's eyes, full of power and steadfastness which made her quit convincing him. Xiao Wen actually realised her mistake, always trying to change the way he did things but the more she did it, the more he wasn't the Xuefeng she loves. 

Xiao Wen hugged him tighter in front of everyone who watched from the ground and whispered, "I am sorry… I will always support you no matter what you decide." 

Xuefeng didn't need to reply, only embracing her as an answer, accepting her apology and flew after Xiao Feng, heading towards the front where Elder Yang and Pio were standing.