Reborn To Be The Imperial Consort [BL]-Chapter 78: Thalassotélos — XV

The ten-tailed fox levitated in the sky, arms spread apart as if to embrace the destruction he was causing to the dragon clan.

His expression was calm, as though he was not flying in the sky in the midst of a destructive dance of flames but swimming in the calm water of a clear pond.

Crimson eyes snapped shut, the thin veil of eyelids fluttering as the eyes underneath them moved. The fox’s nostrils flared as he sucked in the scent of blood, of burning wood and burning flesh flooded his senses, making his mouth water.

As he hung in the sky, flying in the air without a single care for the burning world under him, his body tilted backwards, wind caressing his — Hu Lijing’s — face as those luscious amber locks fluttered, black smoke rising from the burning flames with everything in their vicinity as their prey.

As those tall embers of destruction rose higher and higher, threatening to reach heaven and swallowing everything in their gruesome wake, be it a person or be it a stone, none were spared in their elaborate dance of vengeance.

It was a cruel revenge, but it was well-earned.

The ten-tailed fox would be damned if he allowed his own chance at revenge from ten thousand years ago, a poisonous grudge that he bore against not just his the tigers or the monkeys or the dragons alone, but his own clan too.

Unfortunately for him, the said clan had been long since wiped out by those cunning bastards who had been the reason for his fall all those years ago.

If he could not eviscerate those bastard foxes with his own two hands and watch them scream and beg in agony, then he would make peace with causing the same but worse destruction to the other clans.

And now, as the dark smoke swirled around him, tracing shapeless patterns in the sky like some ink that could disappear, that the ten-tailed fox had succeeded in wiping out both the tigers and those monkeys, the only one remaining from his list was the dragon clan.

Sure most of the people who had contributed to his fall and his sealing must be dead, succumbing to the almost irresistible temptation of death, some others must still be alive. And even if they weren’t, the ten-tailed fox would personally pick apart the spines of each of their descendants.

Their bloodlines would be forced to remember the deluge of the ten-tailed fox’s revenge that crashed into them like the high rising tide of the ocean.

However, he had to act quick. He could feel the fading life force of the child in Hu Lijing’s womb.

He had to act quick if he wanted to get his hands on the clan leader of the clan of dragons and rip his liver out just as he had promised the man before being sealed and pushed into the endlessly dark void of near constant nothingness.

No wonder he was a little crazy in the head. Maybe a bit sick too.

But in his defence, he had been forcibly sealed under the spirit foxes’ clan, so he was allowed the right to be a little silly.

Just a little.

The ten-tailed fox cracked open an eye as he remained suspended in the air, flying in the plain sight of those reptilian fuckers. As he dropped his gaze to watch the utter panic below himself, he let out a pleased chuckle that rumbled in his borrowed chest, his borrowed heart beating a frantic rhythm as if to mirror his sadistic joy at the sight of misery.

The sight, the sea of flames under him and the slithering tongue of embers flowing all around pleased him to no end. The path of the pyre diverged, moving in a different direction, its intricate flames burning ashen trails as they left.

It was such a pleasant sight, truly there was no more amusing sight that of others’ misery, their misfortune.

His lips curved into a sordid smirk as he straightened himself, gaze flickering around to take in every sight that his victims had to offer.

His crimson eyes shone with a light of languid amusement as he enjoyed the screams of terror, of agony and of desperate plea for help.

He too had once done all of that, but it had fallen to deaf ears. To him, mercy was but a word true meaning of which he knew but had no particular desire of imparting.

He only knew the meaning by the words of mouth, for as long as he lived, he had never found mercy. So when he fell from grace, he made sure to inflict the same pain upon others as he had experienced.

"What is mercy?"

He had asked, it was a simple question, really. Ten thousand years ago, when he had not been sealed yet, wherever he went he made sure to take a vice hold of his preys and asked that question.

Did he ever get an answer that satisfied him?

No.

What was mercy? Was there truly an answer to his question? Or was it a mere paradox he had created in order to find amusement in desperate attempts of his preys?

He didn’t know.

Those under him, burning in the flames as wood crackled, were all dragons who could take flight and yet, in face of these flames they were but a specie of flightless birds, or tigers with their wings clipped.

He loved watching these bastards struggle.

The longer he observed, the wider his smirk became. Flailing arms, running feet, terrified faces and flames that clung to them like a smouldering blanket which would burn them alive.

This form of entertainment was truly the best.

The ten-tailed fox threw his head back, his smile having taken a bizarre look as he rolled his neck and raised one of his hands, slender fingers in an elegant curve as he brought his arm down, a single sentence leaving his lips.

"Hellish flames." He grinned once more.

As dark wisps of smoke whirled together, a loud rumble shook the ground, their wordless groan a chilling symphony as flames rained down below.

"What is mercy?" He asked once more.

Even above all the chaos, all the screams and deafening cacophony, his voice rang clear, resonating and resounding all the same.

The ghost from ten thousand years ago, the ghost from a past long gone, asked this question once more as he observed the vices of existence, his visage indifferent as that of a detached god.

A god he had once been. There was no one to answer his question however—

"Mercy is compassion, mercy is pity and it is kindness." A deep voice, much closer than the ten-tailed fox had expected, replied, candidly. "It is forbearance. None of which you seem to possess."

The ten-tailed fox’s head snapped to the direction of the voice, there he saw the lonesome figure of a male — surely he was dragon — clad in all white without a single smidgen of char on his robes, flying in the like he was.

Handsome face, icy blue eyes, raven locks and an envious build...

"Long ZhenHai?" He asked in amusement, his gaze roving over the man’s form. "Here to rescue your fox from my evil grasp?" He sneered, laughing heartily as he canted his head to the side ever so slightly.

Long ZhenHai showed no reaction, not did he answer the ten-tailed fox’s curious inquiry. Rather, he went on to say:

"And clearly, you haven’t been on the receiving end of mercy either."

It was a contemptuous statement.