9 Meeting

Gu Long stepped forward and lightly placed his hands on the wooden door. He felt the coarse, rough, old wood underneath his hands. He breathed in deeply and pushed the doors open. The doors swung open revealing a enormous hall.

The floor and walls were made of ancient stone dating back to the Fall of the Heavenly Dragon, an event that caused an enormous change in the world. There were many lit candles around the room, making sure that it wasn't too dark. In the middle of the room, a white marble circular table lined with gold and decorated with golden dragons and phoenixes as well as circles and mystic symbols. The base of the circular table merged seamlessly into the stone floor, looking as if it had grown out of the stone itself. There were many unembellished stone chairs around the table. There were two bigger, pure white marble chairs decorated with the same falling dragon from the wooden doors. It was made of unalloyed gold and glimmered with a mystic light. On either side of them there were smaller, undecorated chairs made of green jade. There were people seated in the stone chairs and there was one person seated in one of the jade chairs. The people seated on the stone chairs ranged from middle aged to very old. Some had long white beards and wrinkled skin while most middle aged men had a shortcut brown or black beard. The rest of the middle aged men had no beard at all. The man on the chair looked very young, no more than eighteen. He had piercing sapphire blue eyes and short cut black hair. He had a sharp, square jaw, high cheekbones and was well muscled. His body proportions were perfect. He had black leather armor on with the Gu Family insignia on it. It was a golden-red dragon enveloped in blazing white flames falling towards a plain. That was all neatly wrapped up in an oval.

Gu Long walked forward and all the people at the table stood up to greet him. Gu Long then walked to the vacant green jade seat and slowly sat down with a weary face and heavy shoulders.

"Young Master, we were told that you arrived alone at the gates, all dirty with your robes in disarray. What happened? And where are Head Gu and Madame Gu? Aren't you supposed to come back together from the Imperial Examinations tomorrow morning?" The Elder that looked the oldest said.

The Elder was wearing a standard grey robe with the Gu family insignia on it. When the other elders and middle aged men heard this they exploded into questions wanting to know that and that causing Gu Long a headache.

"SHUT UP!! If you want to know anything than stay silent and let him speak!" A young yet domineering voice spread across the room.

The young man with the black leather armor spoke. The entire room fell into silence.

"A Dark Soul appeared. My parents stayed behind to save me. I also heard them talking about more than one thing sending agents before we got separated. Not only that, I also got a message from some dark being. My parents are dead and he has their souls and that his bonds are weakening and even the gods can't stop him." Gu Long sighed and reminisced sadly.

The room burst into an uproar. The Elders complained, they couldn't get a lot of information from this.

"SILENCE!"The young man spoke once again and then turned to Gu Long. "Little brother, tell everything right from the beginning, Okay?"

"Un" Gu long nodded and proceeded to tell everything right from the beginning of the day.

When he finished talking the entire room was silent. A tremendous tension hung in the air. Everyone's faces were pale with fear.

"Is it?" Someone broke the silence.

"Yes, the Veil is falling and They are sending their agents to look for Him." Another responded.

The entire room burst into discussion. Everyone was panicking.

"Attention!" Everyone turned to look at the young man. "We will discuss this further tomorrow. For now, it is already late, we should all have some rest. It is for the best."

The Elders looked at each other nervously. They then nodded and everyone dispersed back to their quarters. The young man turned to Gu Long. This was Gu Long's brother- Gu Kaiming[1]. He was eighteen years old and trained the guards of the Gu Family. He was young but had already reached the 1st Level of the Qi Formation Stage which was after the Body Refining Stage. He was quite a talent.

He walked to Gu Long and wrapped him up in a bearhug. Tears slowly dripped from both their faces. They stood there long and Gu Long, tired by the day's events fell asleep in his brother's arms. His brother then carefully carried him like a princess to the Gu Head Mansion. He looked at his little brother's face. The moonlight hit Gu Long's face exactly and highlighted his features.

"Ahhhhh. Xiao Long, I promise I will protect you forever and never ever let someone hurt you. We lost our parents and now we only have each other. I will look out for you in the future and help you grow strong. I love you, my little brother." Gu Kaiming then looked up and continued walking as tears fell from his face.

When they arrived at Gu Head Mansion, Gu Kaiming carefully tucked Gu Long into his bed, pulling up the silky blankets up to cover Gu Long and making sure that he felt no discomfort or cold. He then went into his own room and thought about what his parents told him long ago.

-'For now, I don't want Gu Long to know our family history and family secret but there will come a day when you have to tell him if we are not there. Tell him everything even about the Energy Seed and even about our Bloodline. Everything'-

Gu Kaiming fell into deep sleep, worried about telling Gu Long about the truth of their family the next day.

[1]Gu Kaiming- Ancient-Enlightened