Once upon a Christmas Eve (3)

FLAMING STAR FORTRESS, REALM 1

"Milady I have some information."

Argenti opened her silver star eyes. Her legs were crossed as she floated in a room made of white flames.

"Creed I hope it's important information. You know you're not allowed to disturb me when I'm training."

"I know I am not supposed to, and I know it was rude of me, but I believe you will forgive me after you hear what I have to say." Creed said whilst he bowed, his eyes directed at the floor. He didn't dare look at Argenti directly.

Creed had the appearance of young man, however he had six horns protruding from his head, his skin was a pale white and his eyes were blood red . If Mao Lu was there, he would have recognised Creed as the person who welcomed him when he first came to the Flame Star Fortress.

"Speak then." Argenti said, as she waved her hand. The room transformed. The white flames faded away and were replaced with white brick walls. A throne made of white flames popped out and a small sofa appeared next to it.

Argenti descended to the throne and sat down. Creed took a seat at the sofa in front of her.

"You ordered me before to discreetly investigate more about Chàng Bo, so I spent some time in the Star Realm. At first, I found nothing of note, nothing more than what we already knew, but recently I discovered something rather questionable." Creed said excitedly.

"As we know Chàng Bo was poisoned, framed and forced to leave his realm. Well I went to the scene where Chàng Bo was cornered that day, and I noticed that ever since he was poisoned there, on the top of Chun Mountain, all the spiritual plants in that area had withered and died."

"Isn't that from the poison." Argenti commented.

"Yes, it's from the poison. Witnesses told me how he suddenly fell from his flying sword and began bleeding from all his pores, Chàng Bo even spat blood on the ground. The poison or rather substance in his blood caused all the plants on the mountain to wither."

"I don't see the importance of this Creed."

"Milady please be patient, I haven't gotten to the important part yet." Creed reassured, "Even though most of the plants on the mountain had withered and rotted there was one plant that was blooming and growing the most. It was the Wanting Heart flower."

Argenti stared at Creed blankly.

"Milady before I became your Eternal Servant, as you know, I was a botanist and pill cultivator, so I know what I'm talking about when I tell you that Chàng Bo wasn't poisoned."

Argenti raised her brows in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"At first when I heard about the poison, I thought it was Mandrake Darrell poison. Mandrake Darrell is a rather terrifying weed that only grows in Realm 349, it can be made into a poison that can lay dormant within a host for many years and if applied whilst using an incantation, the applicator can control the release of the poison and has the ability to kill the poisoned individual whenever they want. It is the best poison for assassination, but the plant is rather rare and the demand for it in the black market is rather high. It's almost impossible to get your hands on it if you don't have some crazy connections or resources.

Mandrake Darrell poison rots life essences when activated and can kill anyone below the Allfather stage in less than 10 minutes, even Supreme stage practitioners have trouble with it.”

“If Chàng Bo had been poisoned with Mandrake Darrell, then when his blood got on the mountain all the plants on the mountain would have been dead, yet the Wanting Heart flower was blooming brightly.

When I saw that I was confused. I thought to myself, how can this flower still be alive? But it made sense to me when I realised that Chàng Bo wasn't poisoned. It wasn't the Mandrake Darrell poison like I'd thought it was.

You see there is a spiritual plant called Sweet Dream that can only be found in Realm 202. It is incredibly rare. It has the exact same symptoms as the Mandrake Darrell poison. When someone eats Sweet Dream or takes an elixir with Sweet Dream inside of it, all their life essences are consumed. It feels just poison and just like they're dying. But they're not, it's a fake death, the host appears dead but actually they've only been put to sleep for 100 years, and after that 100 years their life essences are revived, and they wake up again completely fine."

Creed rocked in excitement as he babbled on, "Sweet Dream and the Wanting Heart flower tend to grow together, which is why the Wanting Heart flower wasn't affected by the fake death that Sweet Dream caused unlike the other plants on the mountain and that's why it didn't wither."

Argenti's eyes narrowed darkly. "You're saying that Chàng Bo wasn't poisoned but actually given a spiritual plant that would put him to sleep for 100 years."

"Exactly, and Sweet Dream is a perfect preservative, the body of its consumer will be perfectly healthy and will not rot in those 100 years. It's used as a medicine for patients that have terminal diseases that don't have a cure yet. The patient would be put to sleep for 100 years and when they wake up, hopefully a cure for their illness would have been found and they can be treated. And if not, they can just be put to sleep for another 100 years.

This means that whoever did this to Chàng Bo didn't want to kill him. They just wanted him out of the way for one hundred years."

Argenti's mind whirred, "Then could they have framed Chàng Bo as an excuse? They made it look like Chàng Bo stole Ju Juan's artefact and killed Lee Jingyi, so that if he went missing for 100 years everyone would just think he was hiding somewhere and waiting for the drama to pass, like they think he is now. After they used Sweet Dream on him, they were probably planning to take him somewhere. To protect him perhaps, but from what?"

"This changes everything. If our unknown enemy, who has stolen the keys, wants to protect Chàng Bo instead of hurting him... then it means Chàng Bo is cherished by this enemy. That could also mean that the fate companionship and protecting Chàng Bo is doing our enemy a favour." she thought mentally.

"But it doesn't make sense." Argenti thoughts continued to churn, "Chàng Bo had the gatekeepers key, did they know? Did they expect him to use it or were they taken by surprise? If they made him take Sweet Dream, then that means they were planning to kidnap him after the drug took effect. They probably didn't plan on Chàng Bo using the Gatekeepers key to escape, or meeting Mao Lu. They probably thought we were going to torture and hurt Chàng Bo, they didn't expect a fate companionship."

Argenti felt more stressed, "Who are these people? What is their connection to Chàng Bo, why have they stolen the keys, how did they even know about the keys, are they working for the Outsiders? What are their intentions?" she thought. There were just too many questions in her head.

Creed leaned forward, "There is also something else that's quite interesting that I thought I should tell you. This information won't have any real relevance to this case, but I thought it was rather ironic. Fate works in mysterious ways."

Argenti sighed, there was more, "What are you on about Creed?"

"Have you ever heard of the story of Sleeping beauty? A girl that slept for 100 years and was awoken by her Prince Charming?" Creed asked.

Argenti frowned, "No I haven't heard of this story."

"It's a popular tale throughout the Realms with many different versions of it. Most think it's a folk tale but in actuality it's a real story that originated from Realm 399.

The story goes that a Witch named Maleficent, gave a Princess named Aurora, Sweet Dream. The Witch was mad at the kingdom and the King for betraying her but she was very fond of the princess, so she gave Aurora Sweet Dream to put her in a 100 year sweet slumber and then she cursed the rest of the kingdom to make them suffer with horrendous nightmares for 100 years.

However Maleficent didn't count on a dashing Prince coming to save the Princess and the kingdom 99 years later. The Prince was a powerful cultivator at the Ascendance stage, and he killed the Witch, saving the Princess. And he kissed her at the exact moment that she was supposed to wake up, which is why many mistakenly think it was true love's kiss that broke her from the spell."

Argenti looked at Creed blankly.

"There's another name for Sweet Dream, the flower is also called True love. You see Sweet Dream is a very beautiful plant and the reason it's so rare, even in Realm 202, is because so many practitioners in the past would pluck it, not knowing its value and sell them as decorations. Because of this the flower developed a defence mechanism where it emits a certain scent which stimulates people's pheromones.

The scent is very faint, and hard to notice at first, but the moment someone smells it they literally fall in love with the flower and they can't bear to hurt it and would do anything to protect it.

When Sweet Dream is made into a medicine or a pill, that defence mechanism becomes a side effect. The side effect is that the drug increases the concentration and production of someone's pheromones. And pheromones are a chemical in mammals that produces a social response."

"I know what a Pheromone is Creed, please get to the point." Argenti was getting impatient.

"Basically, pheromones are naturally occurring chemicals that send out subconscious scent signals that can trigger very powerful sexual responses. However, if you're a cultivator or a mage your cells are very refined through training and magic, so this natural scent is extremely faint and only someone who is biologically matched towards you can be attracted to it. In science someone who likes your natural scent is biologically your match, in magic someone who is matched towards your pheromones perfectly is your soulmate. Perhaps your lover from your previous life or your destined other half.

In the story I told you about, after many years of the kingdom being asleep of course many practitioners passed by the sleeping kingdom, but none bothered to involve themselves with the Witch. But when the Prince passed by and smelled the scent of the Princesses concentrated pheromones, he instantly became attracted and curious towards that smell. He had matching pheromones to the Princess, which is why he went out of his way to save the Princess and have a furious battle and kill the Witch. And when he found the Princess, he couldn't help but kiss her and fall in love with her.

The reason Sweet Dream is also called True Love, is because due to its side effect, many patients that have used it in the past end up finding their true loves.

Their destined over halves come to them, pulled towards them due to the pheromones like moths to a flame."

Argenti's expression was confused, "That's all very lovely information Creed but I don't understand what you are trying to get at."

"I'm aware that Gatekeeper Lu was the one that helped Chàng Bo, and I'm also aware that Gatekeeper Lu will become Chàng Bo's fate companion. I also heard from some of the other Gatekeepers who were exiting the meeting a while ago, that Gatekeeper Lu was set on having Chàng Bo as his companion. That he seemed to have fallen in love for him."

When Creed said this Argenti's eyes lit with realisation.

"Chàng Bo and Gatekeeper Lu only met a short while ago, love doesn't develop that quickly normally. But Chàng Bo has had Sweet Dream in his body for a very long time, even if it wasn't activated until recently, he's probably had a high concentration of pheromones for a long time as a side effect. Of course, the scent is undetectable to others, so Chàng Bo and those around him obviously never noticed.

And then when Chàng Bo used the key he ended up next to Mao Lu who is ironically his perfect match. Not to mention that Mao Lu was the one that used time to reverse the effects of the drug and save Chàng Bo, so he was exposed to high dosages of Chàng Bo's pheromones.

Of course, Gatekeeper Lu would develop a large attraction towards Chàng Bo, eventually falling for him.

They met by sheer coincidence but biologically and magically they are made for each other, you could almost say their meeting was a divine intervention. They probably interacted in their previous lives as well. Doesn't fate work in such mysterious ways. Isn't this very exciting."

Creed was a romantic and he loved situations like this, his red eyes were filled with starry excitement as he told Argenti. He rocked back and forth in his seat.

But Argenti wasn't smiling, "Divine intervention, only One could make such an intervention, but One left the 400 realms long ago. Coincidence, perhaps it is. But if it's not, then there may be something darker going on here. But Mao Lu is a new Gatekeeper and the enemy probably didn't count on Chàng Bo escaping using the key, and there's no way they would have been able to anticipate their meeting or that Mao Lu would decide to make Chàng Bo his fate companion. I hope I'm overthinking things, because if every little detail of this was planned out then we are being manipulated like puppets by these people."

_________

REALM 145, CHAOYANG, XIDI HIGH STREET

Chàng Bo looked at Mao Lu incredulously, "Why the f*** would you just stand there? Do you want it to kill you?"

"I. I tried to stop it, but it didn't work..." Mao Lu looked at his hands in confusion.

"An Irregularity is a creature that can consume the Realm, that also means eating essence. Using high concentrations of essence to harm it like you tried to do earlier, won't work since it will just consume the essence thrown at it." Gates explained, "The only way to deal with such a creature is to use the incantation to seal and expel it. But you can't do that whilst its hiding in that host."

"Then what can I do!" Mao Lu thought, "I don't want to kill Ben Zi, he was annoying, but he isn't a bad guy and he doesn't deserve death. But if I can't use my powers to stop it then what can I do?"

"Its limitation is that it's hiding in Ben Zi's body, unlike the previous Irregularity you faced, this one can't consume physical objects, it can only do what the body is capable of. Chàng Bo seems to have figured that out, which is why he threw a car at it instead of using a spell." Gates added.

"Then I'll use physical objects too" Mao Lu decided. "But I need to use it in a way that won't kill him."

Gates wasn't listening when Mao Lu said this, it was too busy focusing on Chàng Bo. It was suspicious, "How did Chàng Bo know that he couldn't hit the Irregularity with an essence-based attack?"

Chàng Bo had known because he had opened the Encyclopaedia on the Sovereign System. It had told him:

"HIGH LEVEL IRREGULARITY

An Irregularity is made from a disturbance in the Realm. This one has formed from negative human consciousness. It has a high level of intelligence and has taken a human body as a host to protect itself from the Gatekeepers abilities.

It is impervious to any type of essence/magic based attacks, however in its human host body it is vulnerable to physical attacks.

Once the body it occupies is beyond repair it will have no choice but to leave that body, which will make it vulnerable, and allow the Gatekeeper to get rid of it.

YOU DO NOT HAVE CLEARANCE FOR MORE INFORMATION."

That's why Chàng Bo thrown a car at Ben Zi when he'd seen it charging towards Mao Lu.

_________

Ben Zi's body twitched; it was buried beneath the car.

Like a spider, on all fours, he scuttled out from under the car and onto its roof.

Several bones appeared to be broken, his arm was twisted, and his body was bleeding. It made a gruesome sight. But the Irregularity didn't seem to mind as it popped the bones back into place and twisted the arm correctly and forced the wounds to close and the body to stop bleeding. It gave a twisted grin as it roared, "Gatekeeper!”