Chapter 334 - Crystal Cave (1/2)
”Exactly how far are we going?” A slightly irritated, but familiar voice asked.
”We're almost there, just a little more...” Another somewhat familiar voice responded with a hint of excitement that made the voice sound very foreign.
The Emperor heard these two voices amidst the darkness before the scene suddenly came into view as if a blindfold was taken off his eyes. The Emperor immediately frowned, both in annoyance and confusion. He went to move but found that he could not, he seemed like a statue, rooted to the spot with his arms clasped behind his back... and neither could he speak, for some reason.
It was as if he was simply a guest, a passenger in his own body forced to silently watch an irritating scene unfold.
{...Is this a dream?... It has to be...}
The Emperor found himself standing in the wide passage of a cave with odd little glowing white dots embedded in the cave walls, lightly illuminating the passageway. The light was low but it was enough for the Emperor to clearly see the faces of the two people who had stopped in front of him, facing each other as they spoke. This was what confusing him, one of them appeared to be his beloved Lei Xing while the other one seemed to be his currently infuriating brother, Prince Yi.
The Emperor was close enough to Lei Xing to see her knit her brows in a familiar way that indicated she was slightly annoyed. He could guess that she was not on going along down some random cave - this was about right for his Lei Xing, she did not a fan of the unknown and was skeptical of people.
The Emperor guessed that she was only here because he was. And since he did not care to go into a random cave with his brother, much less drag his Lei Xing along, the Emperor was about to open his mouth to say they were leaving, but Prince Yi beat him to it, ”You'll like it, I promise...Just a little more.” He said, smiling at Lei Xing beseeching.
The Emperor immediately glared at Prince Yi and wanted to grab Lei Xing's hand and drag her out, but he found that he could still not move. He tried to open his mouth to speak again but he still could not say anything. This was extremely infuriating. He hoped Lei Xing would ask his opinion or at least look at him, but instead, she simply relented with a sigh, ”Alright...” Causing Prince Yi's smile to widen in an obvious glee that made the Emperor want to go knock his teeth out.
Neither of the duo before him asked for his own input on the matter as they resumed their walk. Dream or not, the Emperor could obviously not leave Lei Xing alone with his brother and so instantly wanted to follow, but again this iron of a body that was apparently his was still not responding to his will.
As the two people rounded the corner, the Emperor started to feel more agitated, worried he would lose sight of them. Finally, when the Emperor was drowning in his increasingly anxious thoughts, his body started to move but it was in infuriatingly slow measured steps, following the two from a distance.
He was moving now, but he was definitely not in control here because if he was, he would be holding Lei Xing's arm dragging her out of here while questioning her as to what they were doing following his brother into some random cave.
What's more, she was ignoring him while giving deference to his brother's words. She did not even glance at him once, neither of them did. Prince Yi turned back several times as they went along, but his eyes only ever stopped at Lei Xing. Prince Yi too was ignoring him, but that was to be expected. Since there was nothing else he could do, the Emperor begrudgingly satisfied himself with glaring at Prince Yi every time he turned back to look at Lei Xing.
Finally, they ended up coming out in a wide opening, with an even more surprising view that surprised the Emperor. There was a small man-sized hole in the ceiling of the cave, where the outside light shone in.