Brothers Pt.5

Waking Mo YunXing from his ice prison was easier said than done. Nothing seemed to work, and MingYu was quite sure he had used everything. Pulling out all the fire and flame talismans he carried within his robes, he had plastered them all over Mo YunXing and watched as they burned off one by one without leaving even a dent in the crystal clear ice.

"Should we use force to break it?" ZhiYi offered, rolling his sleeves up expectedly.

"And break him into pieces? Maybe not yet." MingYu paced around the statue.

Every prison conspired by Heaven or Hell must have a key, there was no point in it otherwise. It would be easier to just zap them dead and be done with it, or better yet, lock them up in one of the eighteen levels of Hell to suffer for an eternity or two.

Judging by Mo YunXing's appearance, this was only a momentary imprisonment, nothing more. A few decades in ice then he would be free of this place. But they didn't have a few decades to wait.

MingYu stopped on his tracks as he noticed an indent in the ice beneath Mo YunXing.

"ZhiYi, can you push him out of the way?" MingYu said as he hunched his back and studied the ice beneath the statue.

ZhiYi complied and with little struggle, wedged the ice block out of its root and the statue slid over to the side. Beneath Mo YunXing, an array was carved with thought and precision. A smart deity, MingYu mused. The array was left unfinished. Mo YunXing must have frozen over before he managed to complete it, but the existing one was clear enough for MingYu to decipher what was being concocted. It was a counteractive spell for a curse.

"A frozen heart curse." ZhiYi said as he, too, studied the incantations.

For a moment, MingYu was taken aback that ZhiYi, a demon, knew something of heavenly incantations, then he remembered that the grandmaster of demon cultivation himself used to be a deity. Actually, MingYu seemed to know very little of ZhiYi anymore. Brushing the disheartening feeling aside, MingYu tried to uncover the missing incantations. But to know the remaining incantations, one had to know the source of the curse, to begin with.

"Frozen heart curse spreads very fast as it starts from the heart. He must have had very little time to carve the array." ZhiYi mused aloud.

MingYu nodded in agreement.

The curse most likely took hold of Mo YunXing's entire being in less than a few minutes. Mo YunXing's desire to survive was very strong for him to maintain a steady hand to carve such an impressive array in a short time frame. If he was already within this side of the barrier as he succumbed to the curse, he must have gotten the curse here, within the gorge.

"The ice picks from before have to be the source of the curse. He was probably impaled by it and accidentally touched the seal." MingYu concluded.

But MingYu didn't know the specific incantations for that particular source of a curse. ZhiYi seemed to realise this as he silently reached up and removed the golden feather pin that kept his hair in place. The silky black strands cascaded over his back and shoulders as ZhiYi kneeled over the array and started carving over the smooth ice, filling in the blanks.

MingYu watched in awe as ZhiYi worked with utmost care with his brows furrowed, concentrating on the task. Taking short breaks, ZhiYi studied his handwork, making sure there was not even a speck out of place. After ZhiYi was finished, the array looked like it was entirely carved by Mo YunXing himself. Every line and stroke was an exact replica to that of Mo YunXing's. But by itself, the array wasn't going to work. It also needed at least a droplet of the cursed person's blood. Mo YunXing himself was frozen solid within the impermeable ice.

"We need to draw out his blood, but how?" MingYu groaned as he took a seat on the ice and stared up at ZhiYi with apprehension. ZhiYi smiled at him and with the gold pin, stabbed at the ice. It went through the ice like it was wet clay. MingYu's jaw dropped as the pin pierced Mo YunXing's frozen palm. With a swift pull, the pin was out of the ice and the blood trickled through the tiny entrance, dripping over the array.

The array started emitting a golden hue and MingYu jumped up to help ZhiYi push Mo YunXing back over the array. As the array and frozen Mo YunXing made contact, the surface of the ice started steaming, droplets of water formed and dripped away. Soon, the body of Mo YunXing regained its healthy glow and the man blinked his eyes open.

"Mo YunXing?"

"Who wants to know?" The hoarse voice sounded hostile as Mo YunXing eyed the two cautiously.

"I'm general star Qing MingYu, currently serving my punishment in the mortal realm."

"What does that have to do with me? Why are you here?"

"Mo YunXing, we are here because of your wife, madam Mo." ZhiYi said and instantly the cold facade seemed to melt off Mo YunXing, his drooping eyes wrought with worry as he hurried up.

"What is it? What has happened to her?"

"Nothing has happened to her." MingYu assured. "She is currently holding our brothers and not letting them go. Why aren't you by her side but here in this abyss?"

"You think I want to be here?" Mo XunYing thundered, waving his hand angrily as he stepped around the seal. "I was frozen solid!"

"Yes, we are well aware of it." MingYu said dryly. "Why did you come here in the first place?"

"The mist of LongXia is a good hiding place from Heaven. No man nor god ever comes here."

MingYu could see the reason why. The gorge itself rained curses, only a fool, and the three of them wandered into it willingly. "So you failed your mission?"

Mo YunXing grew stern, his eyes almost piercing. He stopped pacing around the seal. "I didn't fail! It was that damned Wu TianLan's fault!"

"How so?" ZhiYi said as he exchanged stiff looks with MingYu. They hadn't expected the sudden turn of events.

"I heard he was a deity, just like us." Mo YunXing said as he waved at MingYu.

MingYu forced a surprised look on his face. "Oh. Really?"

"I don't know what kind of an idiot they kicked down this time. My mission was to advise the future grown prince of Lang dynasty. I wasn't supposed to start my mission for a decade at least. Then I was informed that Lang dynasty will never come to exist and I've failed my punishment - which hadn't even started yet! Some sick brick under Wu TianLan crushed the last of Lang's balls!" Mo YunXing was now raging as his face turned deep red and veins bulged over his temples.

"I'm sure he deserved it." ZhiYi said coldly.

"I was called back to Heaven to receive a new mission. I didn't want to leave my wife so I hid among the mist of LongXia, visiting her occasionally. But then I came over the seal and the curse unleashed itself upon me."

"I didn't know our punishments are all interlinked." MingYu said tightly.

"Let me guess, he ruined your mission too, didn't he? I sure hope that deity's soul was ground into dust and thrown down the deepest depths of the universe!"

MingYu nodded stiffly, then hurried to change the subject. "Mo YunXing. Do you know how to get out of here?"

"We can't." Mo YunXing barked, still heated over Wu TianLan and the unfair treatment he had endured. "The seal is forged by the king of Hell. The two seals are both opposites of each other, to keep Long MeiShi in the empty realm between the two seals. The ice here and the one on the other side of the seal are the barriers to that realm. Only the king of Heaven and the king of Hell or their descendants can break it. The three of us can't do anything. We are trapped."

"But the seal of the Heavenly king also works as a portal." ZhiYi offered. "What is this seals purpose then? Can we reverse the two?"

Mo YunXing quieted down as he crouched over the stone slap and studied the markings. After a long moment of silence, he said, "Only an individual who has no karmic debt can free us."

"What the- How does that even make sense? If the person has no karmic debt, why would he be on this earth, to begin with?" MingYu frowned as he kicked the ice around the seal.

"It's very rare, but possible. There is no karmic debt, yet, if it is an entirely new soul that has just entered the circle of life." Mo YunXing said as he straightened his back. "But even then, as the person grows up, the karmic debt will usually be already formed. Unless they have been living in a cave somewhere, hidden from the world all their lives."

"So we are doomed."

"Not entirely." ZhiYi said, "There is one who might fit the description."

"Who would so naïve and innocent to save -" MingYu quieted down as muffled noises and sounds of steps could be heard right beneath their feet. Then the voices came closer and they could hear two persons talking.

"There's no one here. Are you sure you know the way?"

"They should be in this area. The arrow stopped right here."

XiaoHe! Maybe Heaven and Hell weren't so cruel after all! MingYu thought as he went on all fours, crawling over the ice. "PingZe! Can you hear me?"

"Did you hear that?" XiaoHe asked.

"Brother MingYu? ZhiYi?" called PingZe.

"We are here! We are trapped!" MingYu screeched, pounding at the ice with his fists.

"I told you, I can always track them down. Never in my life have I failed to track anything! You are too much of a worrier!" PingZe said.

"Just be quiet! You talk so much. I can't hear a thing!" XiaoHe's voice had now come closer.

"So fussy, like an elderly woman!"

"I'm not!"

"Oh, oh, are you blushing?"

"…!"

The trio could hear XiaoHe stomping his feet.

MingYu snarled, this was not the time to kid around! "Are you two done? Get us out!"

"How?" PingZe called. "I can see a stone seal here on the ice."

"Don't touch it!" All three men screeched at the same time.

"Ok, ok, I was just pointing it out. What do I do?"

"I need XiaoHe to bleed over the seal!" It sounded more morbid then MingYu had intended.

"You need what?" XiaoHe's voice came out so high pitched it nearly broke.

"Just a little bit of blood of a person with no karmic debt, so we can reverse the seals!"

"No karmic debt? That actually explains a lot." PingZe snickered. "Come here, I will just prick the tip of your finger-"

"I- I'm afraid of sharp objects!" XiaoHe wailed.

"Is there something you are not afraid of? Come on, it's just a little prick-"

A rumble echoed through the gorge, silencing the two. MingYu froze at once. It was starting, again.

"PingZe, watch out for the ice hail! It's cursed!"

"What the-" PingZe's voice halted as ice picks hit the surface of the stream, breaking into pieces with ear-splitting cracks. A whistle sounded and PingZe commanded, "Stay put. Don't move out of my sight!"

"What is going on!" XiaoHe's voice trembled like a vibrating zither string.

"Don't you dare faint now. Just prick your finger!"

"I faint at the sight of blood!"

"Are you kidding with me? Fine, I will do it!" PingZe gave a sharp whistle and XiaoHe screeched.

"Why did you just do that? My finger is bleeding!"

"Bleed over the seal and then you can faint if you want!"

The trio watched as the carvings over the seal moved on their own, slithering around like snakes. As the lines rearranged themselves, an uneasy feeling weighed at MingYu's guts. If the seal was now inverted, then it meant by touching the seal they got out. But, that would also mean that the ice hail-

The uproar on the other side of the ice stopped abruptly and MingYu screamed, "Touch the seal, now!"

The three jumped, clawing at the seal before the ice picks impaled them in their spots.