The Void Emperor

The viridian lake with stagnant water refracting daylight, with surface shining like thousands of stars were embedded in it. Around the lake, countless trees were protruding from the ground, but none of them were what would be called "a normal tree", rather every single one of them had different characteristics - some had a weird shape, some had a rather unique trait - their trunk was covered in a certain type of scale-like material or even completely mirror-like, some were bearing fruits while others didn"t and so on.

What was specifically enchanting was the scenery which appeared before Ryuu and Long Xingyue which made both of them absent-minded for a while. There were some carvings on the strange rocks nearby and even some of them were embedded in the trees and each rune-like carving was giving off a faint color, albeit very faint to notice with an eye but if someone paid attention to the area they would surely notice them.

Asura Ryuu: *cough*, "Xingyue, what is this place?"

Hearing Ryuu"s voice, Long Xingyue finally reorganized her thoughts and turned in Ryuu"s direction with eyes full of excitement.

Long Xingyue: "Brother, how do you like my secret place?"

Asura Ryuu: "Wh..? That"s what you wanted to show me?"

As an answer to Ryuu"s question, cheerful and childish "Um!" escaped Long Xingyue"s lips and made Ryuu somewhat confused, not knowing what he should do now.

Long Xingyue: "Brother, don"t just stand there. Come on, let"s get in!"

"Get in? She doesn"t mean the lake, does she?", Ryuu thought but ...

Long Xingyue: "Bro, you will help me wash my hair, right, Right?"

Ryuu looked at his sister staring at him with excited eyes and even though he wanted to refuse, he just couldn"t bring himself to do so and, in the end, he had to agree as both of them undressed and entered the water.

Asura Ryuu: "We"re still kids so it should be fine, right?", Ryuu"s thoughts were currently preoccupied with similar questions and worries, but when he remembered they were kids right now, Ryuu found a way to relax and let go of his worries.

Long Xingyue: "Brother, come, my hair is not going to wash by itself."

Ryuu looked at his sister almost completely soaked in the lake with only shoulders and head protruding out of the water and a grin snuck on his face. He arrived behind his sister in a blink and began caressing her hair gently as an artist would gently touch his masterpiece.

Long Xingyue thought that her brother was just afraid to move her hair even a bit because it would hurt her and was planning to make fun of her brother, but suddenly her heart became filled with excitement. She forgot what she wanted to say and just stood unmoving and rooted in place with hurried breathing and even more excitement acc.u.mulating.

Long Xingyue: "Un-", a soft excited and satisfied voice involuntarily escaped her mouth and by the time she realized it, her cheeks were already dyed in red.

She turned slowly with eyes slowly gliding to Ryuu in order to see what was his reaction when he heard her "moan", but was stupefied by what she saw-

Ryuu with closed eyes had a part of her hair in hands and was pa.s.sionately rubbing it across his cheek while with his other free hand he picked up water and slowly let it slide down her hair from the top to bottom as few drops of water remained on it. When she saw Ryuu"s gentle look and the way how he treated her as a treasure, excitement in her heart slowly dissipated and what replaced it was mixed feelings of sorrow, satisfaction, longing, and happiness. Even Long Xingyue herself didn"t know what to do in this kind of situation. "What is this feeling ... I didn"t feel like this since that time ... when my m-mom d-did the s-s--*hic*-same thing f-for me".

Exactly at this moment, a transparent tear slid down the cheek of a little girl soaked in the water while hugging her knees and fell splashing on the surface of the water.

-----

Ryuu"s thoughts were chaotic at that point in time as well, but that was partly thanks to himself and mostly thanks to his Soul Spirit. There was no way that Ryuu wouldn"t feel the feelings of his sister while possessing the Soul Spirit which was born from emotions.

"My sister must have had quite a past if her feelings are this complicated right now...", Ryuu thought.

Little Dragon: "Anyway, I have to tell you ... Ryuu you"re a natural lady-killer."

Asura Ryuu: "Huh? What do you mean?"

Little Dragon: "Seriously, you didn"t even notice what you did ... how ignorant and naïve can you be? Even if you are physically a kid, mentally you should already be way past that period."

Asura Ryuu: "Come again?"

Little Dragon: "Nevermind, just pay attention to your sister a bit and you will see what I wanted to tell you."

"Huh?", Ryuu thought and glanced to his sister as instructed and the first thing he noticed was her shaking shoulders and then a translucent drop or two falling in the water.

Ryuu focused on his Crimson Dragon Soul Spirit and felt the changes that appeared within himself.

An emulated feeling surged into his brain, something like experiencing someone"s memories in their body but feeling what they feel, that is the closest way to describe it - his heart tightened, choked with sadness and grief. The intensity of emotions went up and down, always changing and alternating until Ryuu retracted his Spirit Power and recalled his Soul Spirit. He had to do so or his Soul Spirit would affect himself and he might lose control of himself.

Ryuu knew fully well why not a single human was born with more than three Soul Spirits up until now and he was very clear on pros and cons of what he had done; It was hard to even control one Soul Spirit with basic Spirit Power that humans were born with, that"s why those with dual Soul Spirits were called geniuses and those with three were fought over by every force in order to nurture them into a strategic weapon of ma.s.s destruction. Basically those with three Soul Spirits were always the center of attention and considered as the tools, but that wasn"t the main problem - the main problem is that human physique can"t support three such Soul Spirits with a low Spirit Power and as it was hard to control one, imagine how hard it is to control three.

The most efficient way to understand would be if you think about it like this: Humans have one hand with five fingers and even then it is hard for the body to keep up with our mind - to be precise we can imagine several possible scenarios by the time we begin moving an arm, let alone pick up our sword. In a similar way one Soul Spirit is way too demanding for humans to fully control it, let alone three or, in Ryuu"s case, ten.

Why was Ryuu able to remain alive after splitting that one soul spirit into nine and having ten Soul Spirits in total? Because of his fusion with Little Dragon. In other words, Ryuu not only got a Soul Spirit from her but he also got a dragon"s physique from Little Dragon and he was, in the truest sense, more of a dragon than a human. That is primary, but not the sole reason why Ryuu was able to do the impossible. The other reason is what he cultivated himself in the previous life - a Soul with awakened Spirit Power which evolved once again because of the emotional trial he went through in the Illusion Realm. So in this case, Ryuu is already a humanoid dragon with a very strong Spirit Power, basically a monster even among the G.o.ds themselves, if we follow Little Dragon"s words.

What Ryuu didn"t know was that both he and Long Xingyue were being observed by something from the shadows throughout everything that happened between them. The figure was well-hidden and neither Ryuu nor Long Xingyue found it, but of course that creature couldn"t escape Little Dragon"s Spiritual Power, as to why she didn"t tell Ryuu, there was one thought in her mind at that moment: "If he relies on me all the time then he will never be able to truly become powerful, so I should leave this one to him. Those four years within the Illusion Realm shouldn"t have been in vain even though Spirit Beasts in there are vastly different than those of this world and even if he didn"t have his Soul Spirits active at that time, for someone who split one Soul Spirit into nine ... I have high expectations for this little monster."

Another thing Ryuu didn"t know which Little Dragon did was the origin of his family. There is no way a dragon who lived for a million years wouldn"t be able to recognize a race or two and she confirmed it when Ryuu"s father went a "bit" berserk when they ran away from home.

"Ryuu will have an interesting life this time, it seems ... and so will I too.", she thought.

At this moment Long Xingyue"s childish voice which was slightly trembling resounded.

Long Xingyue: "Brother, do you know why we are forced to live outside of the forest and why I, no, why we have no mother?"

Ryuu looked at his sister and something began stinging deep inside his soul, he was actually wondering whether he should ask or not and how the following events would unfold if he asked.

Ryuu"s thoughts at that moment were a bit chaotic and he was feeling troubled. When Ryuu thought about it a bit he decided to ask anyway because there will be a time when it would be necessary to know so, the sooner he knew, the better.

Asura Ryuu: "Um, tell me if it"s okay with you, after all, that is my mother as well."

At that moment, teary-eyed Long Xingyue turned around and looked straight at Ryuu"s eyes, not wanting to separate her eyes from his ever again. Whether it was from fear, affection, or something else, only Long Xingyue herself knew.

Long Xingyue stared at Ryuu and, while slightly lowering her head filled with tears, she threw herself in Ryuu"s embrace which made both of them fall and disappear beneath the surface of the water for a short period of time. When Ryuu dived out of the water with Long Xingyue in his embrace, he didn"t know what to do and all he could do at that moment was to find a rock under the water to sit on while letting her release all her pent-up sadness and tears.

Her crimson eyes appeared to be murky as if layers of clouds were overlapping each other inside of them, while tears swept her feelings away like a surging river.

What brought comfort to Long Xingyue was the feeling of warmth she felt while in Ryuu"s embrace as well as his gentle hand gently gliding across her dark hair while his green eyes awoke hope in her and made her feel rea.s.sured while looking at them. Ryuu"s only role here was to be there for his sister and listen to their, seemingly tragic, story of his family crumbling apart.

Little Dragon: "At last, here it is ..."

Asura Ryuu: "Yeah, seems like it"s time to hear about my family"s circ.u.mstances."

Little Dragon: *Sigh*, "Don"t expect something positive or you will just be filled with hate when you hear about it later."

Asura Ryuu: "Hm?"

Asura Ryuu: "Do you know something that I don"t?"

Little Dragon was silent for a moment pondering whether to respond, but she decided to do so in the end because Ryuu will hear about it shortly after anyway.

Little Dragon: "There is a high possibility that your mother is a pure demon and your sister is half-human, half-demon, something similar to you."

Asura Ryuu: "Oh? There are demons in this world?"
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Little Dragon: "Well, technically I"m also of the demon race, you see ..."

Asura Ryuu: "Hmm, so how does it feel to be a demon? And what is the relationship between humans and demons?"

Little Dragon: "As expected, you guessed it."

Little Dragon: *Sigh*, "Demons and humans don"t get along very well, that is most likely the reason why her mother is not with them right now. If my guess is correct, something must have happened for her to go missing and it is likely that she was captured because she is a demon and is made to be a slave right now, but you will have to hear about that from your sister later."

Ryuu"s clenched his teeth while remaining somehow calm on the surface. Needless to say, his emotions were surging inside and his green eyes even had a bit of red glow in the center but it was faint enough to avoid being seen.

Little Dragon: "Shouldn"t you control your emotions because of your Soul Spirit?"

Asura Ryuu: "Yeah, I should but ..."

Asura Ryuu: "Hating each other just because they are of a different race and taking away their freedom, it is unacceptable!"

Ryuu"s clenched teeth eased a bit while his emotions stabilized again and when he glanced at his sister and found out that she was still crying on his chest, Ryuu relaxed a little.

Asura Ryuu: "Sorry, little master, I"ve always despised those who want to control others" life or take away their freedom so my feelings got the better of me, you see..."

Little Dragon: "Hmm, is that so?"

Asura Ryuu: "Yeah..."

Asura Ryuu: "Anyway, let"s wait for Xingyue to calm down and hear about what exactly happened then I will decide on what to do then."

Little Dragon: "Hee, so you could remain calm after all. Not bad, not bad. Worthy of being my student."

While Ryuu and Little Dragon were talking and bickering, Long Xingyue needed a period of time to calm down and recollect herself before she began narrating the story of how her family fell apart in a single moment.