Reborn To Be The Imperial Consort [BL]-Chapter 50: Zopyra — II

The kit was taken to the clan, their flesh burning from its mere touch, its temper didn’t even need any mentioning.

The person who carried the divine kit suffered burns as they held it, its body scorching hot as though the small bundle was nothing but the deepest, hottest core at the heart of a volcano.

Still, weathering past the pain of their burning flesh, they carried the kit to the clan. A grand celebration was thrown upon the discovery of its existence.

Alas, born from the flames of a natural disaster, how could the little kit be nothing but the knell of destruction?

As it grew up, it grew restless, curiosity of the strange world it had suddenly found itself in, brimming in its small form.

It wandered about, due to the heat of his uncontrollable warmth, it was closer to a walking volcano than a mere kit, however divine it may be.

Yet, it was this divinity of it that the spirit foxes hesitated to stop it from venturing out and about. Silently, they bore with the losses the flame-born kit caused.

Some would whisper to one another. "Why is it in a kit’s form? Aren’t we foxes born with our mortal forms?"

Others would shake their heads in lament. "Regardless of its power, it is but a mindless fox for now."

The kit paid them no mind, their useless drivel never seemed to reach its pointed ears. Sometimes, however, it would spare those foxes a glance or two. The disdain and disregard clear in its amber eyes as it prowled through the corridors, its fit, slender, canine body graceful as it moved while swishing its beautiful tail.

When the innocent question was brought to the clan leader by other curious kits who wished to play with it but couldn’t, the clan leader would look at them, smiling.

The kit carried with itself the purest of flames divine and damned. If angered, it would set everything around itself on fire, mighty roars shaking the very foundations.

"You don’t know." Very placidly, the clan leader would reply to those curious kits. He would sometimes caress and groom the divine kit’s smooth fur at the expense of some pain for himself. "But ages ago, when us foxes thrived many times more than now, our ancestors were born as foxes, like this kit. With age, their tails would increase, with tails increased their powers, until finally one day, the first ten-tailed deity ascended to heaven."

The children would reply with curious noises and look at the kit with a new gaze.

Yes, if it was its destiny to ascend to godhood then it only made sense that it would start from the most primitive like their ancestors.

And if it was epitome of what fox spirits like them should strive to be, then only it deserved the first name given to their ancestors.

"Hu Lijing." The clan leader proclaimed and hence, the flame-born kit was called Hu Lijing and referred to as such.

It did not mean it suddenly gained a human form. It continued to act ignorant and it continued to follow its primitive nature.

That is, set everything aflame whenever he went.

Perhaps it was because of this that heaven realised the havoc a fox like the one of prophecy was wreaking and could do more if left unchecked long enough.

Thus, seven years after the birth of flame-born spirit fox Hu Lijing, heaven bestowed upon the Spirit realm yet another spirit which came in the form of the realm’s youngest dragon.

Born from the restless whirlpool of the endlessly stretching sea, rose the dragon of high waters, supreme in its power, the young dragon came upon the world, roaring its cry which resounded throughout the realm.

While its birth was unknown to all but the clan of dragons, when the young dragon had hatched, breathing its first into the world, away from its abode in the sea, a young kit’s ears twitched.

The divine kit with amber fur had stopped dead in its tracks, ceasing whatever it had been doing when it sensed the disturbance in the world’s energy and the change in the scale of power.

The scale which had been tilted in Hu Lijing’s favour previously was now moving back to balance.

Hu Lijing’s amber eyes flashed as it turned to look outside the pavilion, head tilted as it purred.

Some had been placed on the other side of the scale. Absolute power no longer remained under its little paws.

Hu Lijing growled, making everyone else back away as it took a stance, looking ready to pounce. Its small mouth pulled back, revealing the sharp canines underneath as its body tensed, like a hunter ready to spring out.

Its amber eyes flashed dangerously, natural instincts taking over whatever semblance of rationality a seven-year-old kit would possess. Its claws emerged, amber fur raising as it bared its teeth.

More than anything, this new entity was half of its soul, half of its existence and was perhaps the only true restraint Hu Lijing would never have on itself.

The kit growled, flames roaring to life in its beautiful tail as it pounced on the empty air, startling everyone.

Shockingly however, as Hu Lijing jumped, a fiery slash appeared in the air, the space parting to reveal a hellish scape within. Before anyone could even attempt to stop the enraged kit, it disappeared within the hell of magma.

Far away, the dragon hatchling stirred, its breathtaking slender body, long and muscular, strong and firm; covered in shimmering bluish white scales and long whiskers. Its clawed feet and roaring majesty in its voice.

It was born strong, how else would it be a deterrent to Hu Lijing otherwise?

Its body twisted off the land, strong muscles flexed and scales shimmered as it took its first flight, alone and high up in the sky it flew. Beneath it was nothing but an infinite deep blue expanse of the deep sea.

As it swirled danced in the air, roaring and rejoicing in its flight, the waves beneath it crashed against one another, rising higher and higher they seemed to be able to touch the clouds.

The dragon danced in the air, bubbling with delight and youth at its hatching.

And then, the space cut open, parting its large maw, the phenomenon spat out the divine kit of flames right on the divine dragon of endless sea.

The moment their bodies collided, a sharp his cried from the contact. Before the young hatchling could even react, the furious jaws of the divine fox tore down in its scale.

That day, the spirit of water and the spirit of fire fought one another, up in the air and neither admitting defeat, their natural instincts overpowering anything and everything that made some sense.

Blood splattered into the water, guttural cries rose, claws slashed and teeth tore away flesh, neither cared. Their fight continued.

Fire met water, embers met droplets, cold met warmth and claws met claws. Blood met blood and instinct clashed against one another.

Even if nothing was certain, that day it became known—

—Hu Lijing, the spirit of flames and the young dragon of the infinite sea, were natural enemies. One deterrent to the other.