Maiden Of The Splitting Moon

Within the Hundun Clan\'s mountain, the power coming from the Primordial Lightning grew stronger and louder with each strike. For the demons that camped at the base of the mountain, they weren\'t affected by the power but rather just the noise. Perhaps it came from offering something to the Hundun Clan but they were untouched by the pressure that the soldiers of the Cerulean Fortress had felt. 

They merely waited for the Hundun to finish their work on Kong Zhi\'s body. 

Among them, the five Kings and Queens congregated with each other, but their leader Shi Hou was nowhere to be found. 

"Where do you think he could be?" 

The fifth and final one to make herself known asked with a somewhat naive and curious voice. Unlike everyone else who seemed experienced in life, this queen was not. Rather, she seemed more like a princess than anything. 

In fact, that was exactly who she was. A very familiar princess from none other than the Mu Clan, Mu Jing, now known as the Illusory Princess. Not the most elegant of names but one that she was stick with. 

Standing by her was a pair of guards, holding their glaives to their side and looking forward stoically. Her fiance, Mu Yunfei, was nowhere to be seen, probably together with the rest of the Mu Clan. 

But with her, all five of them were together: the Illusory Princess, the Revenant Lord, the Boulder King, the Azure Dragon Queen, and the Huilu King. All of them were present and without Shi Hou, their talks began. 

"There\'s no need for him to be here", Shiji Wu chuckled as he rubbed his chin gently, "We can discuss our own plans in particular." 

Mu Jing leaned further with a mischievous smile. 

"Dividing the army right?" 

He nodded before looking at the other three. 

"Once this is done, we\'ll take a portion of the spoils, is that clear?" he said. 

The other three held their breath thought, Ao Shuang had a somewhat uncomfortable expression on her face. Something that Shiji Wu noticed quickly. 

"Is there something wrong Azure Dragon Queen?" 

She looked at him, hesitating to speak before finally making up her mind. 

"Are you really going through with this? Did you not see Shi Hou\'s face when Kong Zhi was taken away? To take advantage of this when he is already in this state, it\'s a bit too immoral, isn\'t it?" she said. 

Her lover Huo Shen looked at her while holding her hands and caressing her cheek. 

"She\'s right. Shi Hou was the one who sought us out, earnestly promised us what we desired. To go behind his back like this... this is going too far, isn\'t it?" he said. 

Shiji Wu\'s eyes lingered on them for a bit before laughing at their words. 

"And do you really think that he can fulfill that promise of yours? I\'m sure that even the both of you know how difficult it is to achieve what you want. Do you think that he can give you a child?" the demon asked. 

When faced with his question, the couple could not answer. 

Although Shi Hou promised to do whatever he could to help them conceive a child, how would he do it? 

Could he even do it? 

Both of them knew just how difficult it would be for them to have a child. The treasures needed to help them succeed were far and few in between.

Could the Roaring King obtain them?

And when met with their silence, Shiji Wu smiled and clicked his tongue. 

"As powerful as you both may be, you are still too young and blinded by your love. Rather than wait for him to help you, it would be better to wind this war and take what should be yours. I mean, all of us!"

He looked at all of them with his arms spread apart. 

"We all hail from respectable clans! Powerful clans! It should be our time to show our strength! Not some lowly demons like them! Now when the war is won, we\'ll each take our share of the army, our share of the spoils. And then, we set our eyes on the human lands!" 

"And if we lose?" the Revenant Lord asked, his ghoulish voice croaked out. 

The Revenant Lord spoke the least and his face was obscured by his hood. Even then, one could sense the disgust coming from him. What Shiji Wu wanted to do was both shameless and immoral. But the Boulder King\'s face didn\'t change in the slightest as he looked at the demon. 

"We won\'t lose, now that Kong Zhi will become the new Idol of Chaos, the perfect Idol of Chaos."

Although he had a look of excitement and anticipation, everyone else showed discomfort. Only Mu Jing seemed to share his intent. she smiled shrewdly before whispering to her guard. 

And Shi Hou was by himself, grieving his betrayal to Kong Zhi, not knowing that he himself would be betrayed. But perhaps he should\'ve seen it coming, after all these clans were not truly loyal to Kong Zhi or to the army. They only came for what Shi Hou had promised of them, a new home, a new hope. 

But none of that mattered, not without Kong Zhi. 

The Roaring King may have been his loyal follower, but he was also one of the first to join. 

"Ah, would you ever forgive me, Lord Kong Zhi?" he muttered somberly. 

He sat at the edge of the mountain, separated from everyone else. Cross-legged and on the ground, his back was hunched over and his remaining arm laid in the middle of his legs. In his hand was a gourd that he drank from. Next to him was a bowl of wine, cheap and disgusting but it was wine nonetheless. 

"Could I even call you my lord after this? Once you become the Idol of Chaos, what will happen then?" 

Taking a swig of his drink, he put the gourd away and held the bowl of wine with care. 

Holding it in front of him, Shi Hou straightened his back and lowered his head to the mountain. 

"Lord Kong Zhi, I give this tribute to you. No matter what happens from now till then, my respect for you will never disappear."

He then tiled the bowl and splashed the wine at the mountain. His sad eyes turned to ones of determination and resolve. 

"Even if you cannot fulfill our goal, I will fulfill it for you. I promise you this, by the heavens, so long as I breathe I will win this war and carve a home in the Human Continent. Even if my horns are broken, even if my limbs are taken, till my last breath and when the final drop of blood is left, I will not stop."

As he promised this to his lord and himself, Shi Hou stood back up and tossed the bowl down, shattering it. 

"Failure or not, I will not let you down, my lord."

Set on this, he walked away, preparing to fight. He needed a set of armor, thick and dense. He might not have his horns anymore but he still had his body. He would become an unstoppable battering ram, capable of breaking through gates and crushing bodies to mush. 

When the reports of Kong Zhi\'s death spread around, Du Xiu was among the first to know and when he did find out, his reaction was somewhat empty. 

"So he\'s dead..." 

He sat on his chair and looked into the empty space. What was there to feel? Kong Zhi was dead and he was pathetic. 

"Is the war done then? Or is there something else?" he muttered to himself. 

Looking elsewhere, he studied the map before focusing on the newly made Cerulean Fortress. 

"So it\'s there then, the final battle."

He then stood up. 

"Let\'s gather everyone then."