Kenji had returned to his chamber at the Onyx Palace after discussing the schemes of getting back the missing members of the ghost realm with the Ghost Emperor.
Kenji sighed, the cold breeze flowing this hair, the veil on Kenji's lower face moved in a swift motion. Kenji loosened his hair. The brooch still clutched to his robe.
"Will I meet him again?" Kenji's thought spiraled as he stared out into the shadowed horizon.
Kenji lifted his gaze towards the gloomy sky, just as the sky darkened further, a sudden glimmer danced across the sky, "A bolide?"
One streak, then another—dozen of shooting stars slashed through the night like celestial blades. Kenji's breath caught.
"Liuxing?" He murmured.
The air trembled. He moved his gaze, taking a look at the campus from the balcony of the chamber he was staying in. At the far end of the roof of Onyx Palace,a figure was standing, his hair flowing with the wind, his cloak moving swiftly as the breeze touched him, the beads in his silver necklace shimmered like spark of fire. It was Liuxing, his gaze locked with Kenji's.
Kenji's heart thudded in his chest. The brooch pulsed faintly against his sleeve in response to Liuxing's energy.
The last time they stood face to face with each other, the sky felt like it would fall upon Kenji.
And now , "You really came back….." Kenji murmured, Kenji removed his gaze away from the figure standing on the rooftop and fixed his gaze over the glowing brooch, a distant ache surfaced over Kenji.
He lifted his gaze towards the rooftop and Liuxing was not there. The shooting stars were not visible anymore. Kenji sighed, "I'm just seeing things, I should not let my past become my weakness." He thought.
The wind shifted.
Without a sound, the flickering lanterns lining the chamber Kenji was staying in dimmed, then extinguished, one by one. Kenji turned around, his eyebrows furrowed. Shadows crawled across the walls, swallowing the warm glow of the moon. The air grow,thicker and colder.
Kenji stood still,the brooch clutched in his hand.
Suddenly, Kenji felt a hand grip his waist and pull him towards itself. Kenji's back came in contact with Liuxing's chest, Liuxing's grasp tightened around Kenji's waist. He did not speak, he didn't need to.
Kenji's breath hitched. Liuxing's left hand traveled to Kenji's left hand clutching the brooch tightly, Liuxing's finger's brushed Kenji's closed fist and travelled to his palm, where Kenji held the brooch.
"We meet again, my lord!" Liuxing said, his voice steady and heavy with something unresolved.
Kenji's lips parted slightly, but no words came out. The weight in Liuxing's voice clasped Kenji's throat like chains.
"Is it you?" Kenji asked, his voice carrying a hint of painful tremor.
Liuxing moved away.
Turning his face towards Liuxing, Kenji asked again, "Wen Ling ?"
Liuxing did not utter a word, he maintained silence, his gaze planted towards the floor.
Just as the silence, stretched unbearably, the heavy thud of boots echoed through the corridor outside.
The guard knocked on the door thrice, but Kenji and Liuxing, neither moved towards the door or answered.
The chamber door burst open. A gust of cold air swept in as several gaurds stormed inside, weapons drawn and expressions grim.
Kenji's eyes widened for a brief second, but before he could, Liuxing was not there anymore. He had vanished. The chamber was warmly lit with glowing lanterns as if the darkness had not swallowed it while.
"My lord, we sensed demonic energy from your chamber. Shooting stars have been sighted and it could be Liuxing." The lead guard announced, scanning the dimly lit room.
Kenji turned smoothly, drawing his robe tighter, face calm despite the storm in his chest. "The energy was residual", he said, his voice steady and calm, "I was meditating—communing with the relics left behind in the eastern wing."
The gaurds hesitated.
"If the shooting stars are sighted then we should get going right now, we might get a hint of where the princess is. Maybe, we might even be able to bring her back." Kenji ordered.
The gaurds bowed in unison.
Without wasting another breath, Kenji turned on his heel, his cloak billowing behind him as he strode out of the chamber. The corridor outside buzzed faintly with the energy of an impending shift—the kind that only came with the falling of shooting stars.
Kenji paused at the threshold of the great hall.
"Ready the gates. Prepare the for the path to the wailing river." He commanded.
One of the guards stepped forward hesitantly. "But, my lord the path is unstable. The threads—"
"I said prepare it." Kenji interrupted, not unkindly but with the steel of someone who wanted this to be over.
"We have no time to wait, we make our own path."
Kenji stood before the obsidian doors of inner sanctum.
"You come bearing urgency. I believe there is a shift in our scheme, your highness!" The Ghost Emperor said.
"I will be following the path of the wailing river, your highness the shooting stars have been sighted and I believe we will find the princess and the kid there itself." Kenji said.
A long silence fell.
"That path is cursed. Even the dead fear to tread it. Many who cross do not return, it is a river of the battle fought between superior guardian and Her Highness Mei Feng. And we all know that the resentful energy of Her Highness along with has been sealed inside that river by Superior Guardian. Even the heavenly beings are forbidden to go near that path." The Ghost Emperor said, getting up from his throne and moving forwards toward Kenji.
"I am the gaurdian of destruction and misery. I am called a walking calamity for a reason, Your Highness. I believe we will find your daughter there and I am here from the heavenly realm to help the ghost realm. I will do it at all cost." Kenji said.
"I will walk beside you."
The proclamation sent a ripple through the hall.