Celestial Realm—Serpent Domain, Land of Beasts
"And just what kind of pathetic stunt is this?!"
An enigmatic lady, draped in silk and gold that clung to her voluptuous figure, spat venomously. Her stunning features starkly contrasted with the raw contempt in her voice.
Siyu slammed her hand against an ancient tree, making it shudder and drop its leaves like a sudden, heavy rainfall. Behind her, a male servant who was clad in a black robe with visible silver scaly spots protruding on his skin gulped, watching as a smoky dent appeared where her hand had struck the tree.
Beast Deities typically kept to themselves, especially the snake deities who were notoriously solitary and reclusive even among their own kind. They usually only checked on each other when necessary, relying on their keen senses to detect each other's presence even from miles away.
Today, however, Siyu and a few others had ventured into Hong's forest-dwelling within the Celestial Realm after noticing his aura had grown strangely weak. It was as if he was there but not fully present.
And what they found was far from expected.
Countless pairs of blood-red eyes locked onto a man kneeling in tattered clothes—far from the regal appearance of a deity. The scorn in Siyu's gaze mirrored the disdain of everyone who had accompanied her.
Her brother's rash decisions were becoming a broken record and infamous among their clansmen. No, perhaps even those outside their territory had been keen on her foolish brother's acts which made almost everyone in the clan feel untoward and hateful to him due to Hong's actions tarnishing their pride and reputation.
Despite her delicate features, Siyu's flaming crimson eyes were narrow and cold, never betraying her serpent bloodline. With a flick of her finger, her robe crafted from her shed skin lashed out like a raging hurricane, flinging Hong's body back and forth with cruel precision.
But no matter how fiercely she struck him, there was no reaction. With this, Siyu's face hardened and her strikes abruptly stopped.
"Could that brat have—"
A chilling premonition seized her. In a swift motion, she pulled Hong's body closer, confirming her fear. "Damn it, he shed his beast soul and took off! This immortal body is deteriorating."
An immortal body rotting? Nonsense! He'd already made a run for it.
"Just an empty shell," she growled, her frustration was so evident that even her prized dark purplish scales emerged on her pearly white complexion like a brocade of adamantine jewels.
"That stupid brat!" Her voice cracked like lightning tearing through the sky. "How dare he play us like fools?"
"Master," Shin, her nervous attendant, spoke up with a quiver, "I… I fear your brother has bypassed the laws of rebirth and time."
"What?!"
Siyu's irritation flared as she directed another attendant to hand her an hourglass filled with remnants of water from the reincarnation pool. It was tightly clasped in his hand. But that wasn't all. Siyu's head throbbed as she sensed Hong's blood mixed in the water.
"How reckless can that kid get?!" she fumed, feeling a rush of urgency.
It hadn't been long since he'd made a deal with a mortal woman to help him ascend and return to the Celestial Realm by racking up good karma.
Their father's absurd demand to rectify his past crimes from hundreds of years ago had led him to the Lower Realm, where he met Bai Feiyin. And now, here he was, getting himself into more trouble for another mortal?
"He never learns!" Loong, her half-brother who had come along with a snoopy air, hissed purposely, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Father should've thrown him in a dungeon or sent him to the underworld! He's nothing but a troublemaker!"
Hearing his blatant criticism, the others finally had the courage to chime in, agreeing that Hong had really outdone himself this time.
"Young Master Loong is right!"
"Hong must be punished!"
"Right, right!"
Faced with their wild chattering and Loong's satisfied grin, even Siyu, who is usually patient with her little brother, felt a surge of anger she couldn't ignore. She had no clue what was going through his head anymore!
"Father is going to be furious when he finds out," she harshly breathed, and clamped her eyes, seething. "I'm afraid, next time, it won't just be a matter of sending that mortal to Old Yama's land. He might even get rid of her entirely to teach Hong a lesson."
Siyu was torn but before long, she opened her eyes with a sudden understanding and a sly smile curled on her lips.
"No. This might actually work in our favor," she mumbled. "Hong, you foolish brother. You might see that mortal again, but you won't remember who she is."
That's the effect of the pool's water that not everyone was privy to.
"Given your wild ways, it might be better if you end up killing her yourself when you see her. That way you will know how foolish your actions are. Only when you live with pain will you understand pain. That kind of pain that you would avoid at all costs."
She turned to her servant with a knowing look before shifting to Hong's shell.
"Retrieve Hong's body and brew his bones with those scraps from my cave."
Shin, who was still absorbed in the crowd's mindless chattering, froze upon hearing his master's sudden order. The servant looked at her conflictedly with wide eyes.
"M-Master, you don't mean to get rid of those…" stammering, he swallowed his words hard, seemingly unable to utter a word further when her piercing stares met his.
However, even with those icy glares darting at him, Shin felt unwilling, and his tone rose a little as he nervously tried to reason out.
"Y-You can't! I beg Master to reconsider… those are—"
"Silence!" Siyu's domineering voice rang out sharply causing the crowd to shudder in surprise.
"What are you still here for? Scram!" Flicking her sleeve, the angry woman hissed venomously at the curious onlookers, especially at Loong who swiftly slithered away without waiting for his followers to take off when their eyes met.
"Tsk!" Siyu clicked her fork tongue in disgust as she looked at the way they hurriedly dispersed just by a mere word of her.
Glancing at her stubborn servant, she furrowed her brows looking rather upset.
"Reconsider?" she echoed his last word and snickered. "What more do I have to reconsider? Those jilted beast eggs are to be disposed of anyway. They haven't hatched despite all the eons that passed. Even if by a miracle they hatch, they did not develop any beast marks to prove their bloodline."
Her harsh tone bore in his mind, "They will only die being preyed on."
'If that's their fate... It's for the better that they weren't born.'
Brewing a serpent beast's bone produces a miasmic and dangerously potent concoction. Submerging the eggs to that thing would be no different from killing them.
Siyu spun on her heels with nothing more to say, leaving Shin standing despondently looking at her firm back fading in the distance.
From afar, Siyu looked languidly at the boundless sky and whispered to the cold passing wind, "... I won't wait any longer."