"How long was I unconscious?" Kenji asked as he regained his consciousness, he tried to get up but he felt a sharp wave of pain in his abdomen, he stumbled.
"My lord!" Shen rushed, "It has been four lights (days)."
"Where are we?" Kenji asked.
"One of the caves." Chao Xing answered.
"What about Liuxing?" Kenji asked.
"We do not know my lord. Are you in pain, my lord ?" Shen asked.
"Let it be. What about the creatures?" Kenji asked.
"They have not been sighted since." Chao Xing said.
"We have ordered the guards around every corner. There has not been a single sighting since that moment."
"Have you investigated the other caves? Or any secluded areas?" Kenji asked.
"No, my lord!" Shen answered.
"Let us go and investigate further." Kenji instructed.
"But my lord…..you have-"
"I am fine. Let us proceed." Kenji interrupted.
"My lord, Liuxing is our enemy. May I ask why did you project the pain towards yourself?" Chao Xing asked, her tone humble, voice low and polite but dissapointment and suspicion clear in her eyes.
"We need to investigate as soon as possible right now Chao Xing. I have my reasons, I will be answerable to the heavens for it. No questions or criticism will be pointed at you all."
"Your highness, Shen and I care for you, we wish to be your friends but you clearly draw a boundary, we do not mind that but at least we deserve an explanation to your attempt of the fatal projection you performed for our most strongest nemesis when you had the perfect opportunity to end him."
Kenji quietly listened, his gaze did not waver,
" If I kill our nemesis, who will we fight?"
"My lord, is that-"
"We need him alive to know about his schemes, about the creatures." Kenji interrupted.
"My lord, if we end him, all his schemes will end, what schemes and what creatures then?"
"If I would have killed him…. those creatures might have wreaked a havoc, his kingdom might have escalated the whole situation into something more worse. Would that have maintained a peace when we already have an upcoming war?"
"My lord, we kill the leader and the troop loses track. Killing the leader means weakening the army, the morale, the troop, the whole kingdom." This time, Shen spoke up.
"That is only possible with mortals not with us, not with the demons, not with the divines. Tell me yourself, would you stop fighting or would you stop ruling or will the heavens end up in misery if I end myself ? Absolutely not, because each individual here have their own power, they derive their own power, they are not powerless like a mass of mortals. In case of demons, if I end Liuxing today, the whole demonic realm will rise to revolt. They will attack more strongly because they will get an excuse to do it. Ofcourse the heavenly realm never loses to the demonic realm, but what if it does? Afterall it will be the first ever war where two realms collectively and as a single unit come ahead for war in my presence, and everyone is well aware of my sinister fate, my wretched energy. My father lost the kingdom to a war because of me, what if that happened with the divine realm too? Even though the divine realm is mightier than my fate, it has still suffered continuously because of my fate. We can never take a chance."
Kenji silenced both of them. Chao Xing and Shen glanced at each other.
"Now, we should proceed for further investigation as soon as possible. Let us move out of this cave." Kenji instructed.
Shen and Chao Xing felt somewhat ashamed, they silently and closely followed Kenji out.
The fog was not there.
Kenji felt a sharp wave of continous pain in his abdomen, he felt his energy weakening. He felt as if his whole body was on fire and in the water at the same time, he could not feel the ground, he could not feel the air, all he could feel was unbearable pain. But he had to keep going.
'I just hope he is okay.' Kenji hoped for Liuxing.
"Move in smaller units in all four directions." Kenji forced his voice out and instructed.
The troop moved ahead as instructed.
Kenji alone, Chao Xing leading a troop of five, Shen leading another, the lead guard leading the others left.
"We will meet again at the cave. And if any of us encounter anything we are to use the summoning talisman to call out to each other as quickly as possible." Kenji instructed.
Everyone followed, kenji moved ahead, somehow he managed to move himself. He moved from one cave to another but could not find anything unusual. Suddenly, he noticed the shift in the energy of air. Detecting the shift of energy he moved ahead, the fog started appearing again.
He kept moving ahead, following the shift in the energy with quiet steps and suddenly, he heard it again. The sound of wet flesh,like it was taking steps towards him. He quickly sent out a summoning talisman and drew out a protective talisman around him. The talisman was glowing around him. He kept moving ahead.
Suddenly he heard the steps of the other troops following him.
"Did you all encounter anything?" Kenji asked.
" No my lord!" They replied in unison.
"Can you all feel it? The shift in the energy of air? We have to follow that. As you can see the fog and mist is here again. Be close
to each other and do not step outside the boundary of protective talisman.
"My lord! What if we encounter Liuxing again? This time I suggest you let us fight instead." Shen asked.
'I would rather die than let anyone else fight him. I would rather die that let you all attack him because I am well aware that you all will harm him. Even if I have to harm him, I will make sure that I feel his pain but the others would never do that, so I would rather die than let you all fight him.' Kenji thought.