Reborn To Be The Imperial Consort [BL]-Chapter 77: Zopyra — XV

Long ZhenHai didn’t have an idea when of how this chaos started, for him, one moment he was busy trying to break away from the chains shackling him like a caged dog as he watched the arrogant dragon run off, and the next the loud noise of emergency gong was resounding throughout the clan’s premises.

The abrupt shift, the whiplash worthy change going all around him was more than enough to make his head spin.

On moment, he was lying in front of his bed, braced against its skeleton as he stewed in the resentful misery of his forced solitude and the next, a familiar servant burst into his room, the sheer panic etched on his features making Long ZhenHai frown almost imperceptibly under the veil of his hair.

In front of his eyes, the young dragon rushed towards him, distress in his eyes and panic under his feet as he hurried to kneel beside Long ZhenHai’s hunched form, his trembling hands reaching to free him from those chains that bound him for decades on end.

Long ZhenHai slowly turned his head to observe the youngling’s movements, his bloodshot icy gaze drinking in the sight of his tumultuous hands. His long hair splayed as he moved, like threads of moonless night sky flailing around in the endless void.

Willingly, he ignored the sound of gong beating and the gratingly loud noise of it as he opened his mouth, his sight flickering every so often. He ignored the shaking in the youngling’s form, and the rising screeches of panic that filled the area.

Every noise others made fell into his deaf ears, Long ZhenHai had long stopped listening to the misery of everyone but himself.

They could die for all he cared. He had grown accustomed to staying in one place, if he didn’t want to move on his own accord, he was not going to let anyone move him, no matter their age or their social standing.

He could care less when he was suspended in the midst of being so paradoxically uncomfortable yet comfortable. fгeewebnovёl.com

When his lips parted, a sigh rolled off them. His tongue darted out, warm and wet appendage swiping across the chapped flesh of his lips as he made a guttural noise at the back of his throat before stopping himself.

As the sound left his throat, Long ZhenHai blinked, having given himself and the youngling a start — if the latter’s reaction of jolting away from him was any indication of it — from his voice.

He blinked once. Then blinked twice, his lips moving as he struggled a little to form coherent words.

"What... Are you... Doing?" He asked, to his own ears, his voice was nothing short of an unpleasant noise akin to a rock dragging against sharp claws.

Had it really been such a long time since Long ZhenHai had last spoken out loud, much less to another being?

His words came in a rather slow drawl, slurred around the edges from being out of practice; though his voice was rough and barely audible from disuse, the boy understood him well enough.

The young dragon shuffled back to him, bowing his head as his trembling hands resumed undoing Long ZhenHai’s shackles in earnest.

His lips trembled as bit them, voice thin and weak in presence as he spoke, his words crawling into Long ZhenHai’s oversensitive ears in an agonisingly slow pace.

"For-forgive me, Young Master Long... But the Clan Leader ordered me to free you." His words were a whisper, tremors in his voice too much to form any tangible sense for a long time. "He wishes for you to see him."

"He... Wants an audience with me?" Long ZhenHai raised an eyebrow, sceptisim had been carved in his bones from the moment his imprisonment had begun.

The young dragon shivered at the gravely quality of his voice, his form trembling as though a young leaf clinging to a twig in the capricious gust of wind.

If possible, his head bowed even deeper, a small sound left his lips as he shook his head slowly, cautiously.

"I have not the sli-slighest inclination of what he might have in mind, Master."

Long ZhenHai averted his intent gaze from the boy, not bothering to move as he let out a soft hum at the back of his throat, the sound of it more scratchy that he would have liked.

"Go back. Go and tell the Clan Leader that I do not wish to have an audience with him. I am better off isolated in the solitude of my confinement." With that, he turned to look in front of himself, staring at nothing in particular.

At his words, the young dragon broke into cold sweat and his fingers shook, making the distinct clanking of chains rise above the constant noise of urgency from the gong.

"I do not think that it is something Master can refuse without a second thought," valiantly, the youngling tried to become the voice of reason, stamping down his fear of Long ZhenHai. "I beseech you to reconsider! It might be something of importance especially when our clan is under attack."

Long ZhenHai turned to give him an indifferent look. A few strands of his long black hair stuck to his cheeks, others fluttering about with his movements as he pursed his lips, a critical look concealed in his eyes.

"Truthfully, I could care less, young one." He humph’ed and turned away once more. "Now leave before you become a sore sight to my eyes."

Then, he closed his eyes, clearly, silently but loudly declaring the conversation over.

As soon as his words fell, the chains that the youngling had been working so earnestly to undo fell apart with an anticlimactic click.

His powers awoke with a hum, the shockwaves of it booming out of him as they crashed into anything and everything. Unrestrained, untethered and shapeless; just like the water he was born from.

The sheer scale of his power left an addictive taste on his own tongue. After all, it had been a few decades since he last had complete extent to every drop of his power without worrying about hurting himself.

Long ZhenHai let out a guttural sound at the back of his throat, close to a purr than a growl as his eyes snapped open, icy blue irises flashing as they moved around erratically and almost greedily drinking in the sight of natural light spilling into his room through the door.

He was greedy. For everything he had lost those few decades ago.

Long ZhenHai was patient, he was gentle but he was no saint. He knew very well the destructive havoc that the ten-tailed fox in his beloved Jing’ge’s body was wreaking all over the clan territory.

He could smell the putrid stench of raw power, greater than even his own, rancid and bitter was the taste of it on his tongue; dark, brutal and downright demonic.

Those were the perfect words to shortly and roughly describe the first taste of the power of the ten-tailed fox within Hu Lijing’s body.

It was repugnant to his nose and made Long ZhenHai want to throw up, but he held back the urge.

He raised his head, not paying even the slightest mind to the youngling who had fallen a few feets away, having been blown away but the burst of Long ZhenHai’s long sealed powers coming to life once more.

Long ZhenHai dragged his feet out of his opulent cage that was nearing destruction as well. The panicked cries, the confused chaos surrounding him was — much to his own horror — music to his ears.

He wanted these people to suffer as well, for being accomplices of the clan of dragons in keeping him trapped.

As he turned his head to look out of the window, clad in pristine white, Long ZhenHai’s breath hitched, his long, silken raven locks blowing as a particularly strong gust of wind following a loud explosion hit him in the face.

His heartbeat quickened, his feet moving to really take in the sheer beauty of disaster laid bare in front of himself.

The hellish scape of flames and crackling pyre nearly had him confused if it truly was hell.

He spread his arms, head raised to breath in the scent of fire, the familiar yet tailed smell of ambers filled his nose, his eyes slid shut as his lips pulled into a bizarre smile.

So this was why Long ZhenHai was needed in order to leash Hu Lijing.