Back on the beautiful land of the moon...

An enormous black dragon could be seen hopping from one rock to another in the Deep Valley of Ice Spirit River.

Its obsidian scales were shining and one could see a few touches of dark blue on them.

Its wings were huge and its deep red eyes were changing their color between black and red every few minutes.

At first, it appeared that the adult looking dragon was actually playing around but after a few minutes you could realize that you were not looking at a cute dragon playing but at an angry and furious dragon who was taking his anger out on the poor rocks.

It would let out a stream of fire every now and then, trying to burn anything or maybe everything that came into his range.

"Why did you bring him here?" Lord Yueliang asked Ruoshan as he stared at the black dragon from the top of the valley.

"If I have not brought him here then there will probably not be a Capital City of the Han Empire anymore. He just transformed a few hours after Xingan left. It's best if you keep him here with you. After all, there's nothing much here for him to destroy." Ruoshan said as he flinched a little when the angry dragon burst a huge rock into crumbles and dust.

Lord Yueliang gave Ruoshan an icy glare before he started to build a barrier around the valley to make sure that the angry dragon wouldn't cause a ruckus in the rest of the moon land.

"Do you seriously think that he will turn into his final beast self?" Ruoshan asked as he watched the Moon Deity completing the final steps of the barrier.

"At first he was only away from your brother but he kept in check because of his bond with the Supreme Immortal. Then he got bonded with Little One too. Now, the Shadow Lord has none of his bonded masters with him. Your brother is out there somewhere but he hasn't returned in the entire past month. The Supreme Immortal is also too busy, and Little One has left for the Jin Empire. Right now, he's feeling left out and his beast isn't liking the distance that has formed between him and his three most precious bonds." Lord Yueliang told Ruoshan.

His eyes held the slightest glimpse of empathy but it disappeared soon enough before anyone could see it.

"Well, at least he's not breathing out black fire," Ruoshan said with a sigh.

"Let's hope it will stay that way," Lord Yueliang said with a sigh as he and Ruoshan finally left the valley and appeared in the study of the Moon Manor.

They settled around the table that was placed in the middle of the study. A group of maids entered the study and left after a few minutes.

"How are we going to calm him down? He needed to change back to Zhang Yong before Xingan returns back." Ruoshan asked as he poured the freshly prepared tea that the servants of the moon manor had served them.

"The Supreme Immortal is in the Heaven Realm and he's busy with some important work. I don't think he will be available anytime soon. Little One is not an option, that leaves your brother. It's time for him to finally return. Find him as soon as you can. I don't think Little One would like to find out that she had somehow bonded to the Shadow Lord of the Dragon Clan. Moreover, it's not the right time for her to find out about the identity of Zhang Yong." Lord Yueliang said as he refilled his cup with the fragrant tea.

"No matter what time it will be, she's never going to like it when she will finally found out about her bond with Zhang Yong. And maybe we too will face her wrath for keeping quiet all this time." Ruoshan said with a sigh.

Lord Yueliang took out his zither. His long slender fingers ran on the cords as a beautiful melody drifted out of It.

"But it's not our place to tell her the truth. Let's focus on finding the location of The Demon Lord of the Southern Province first."

*********

Li Ming was sitting in a private room of a restaurant as she tried various new dishes for the very first time in her life, or to be fair, in both of her lives.

The food of the Jin Empire had a unique taste and there were many local dishes that she hadn't seen in the Han Empire.

As she tried the dishes her mind was busy forming new plans for her future. There were too many things to do and her mind was creating a new plan every day. Her future plans were stockpiling as time passed.

She needed to start working on these plans as soon as possible. 

The private room in which she was sitting had two parts, separated by a partition that was mostly made of linen drapes.

She didn't know who was the person sitting on the other side of the partition but she was sure that there was definitely someone there in the room with her.

She mostly ignored the other person as she gulped down the food quickly. She hadn't get the chance to have her breakfast that morning and it was already noon which meant that she had not eaten anything since her dinner from the previous night.

While Li Ming was busy finishing all the food that was covering the table, a silhouette in black and red robes was sitting on the other side of the partition, his eyes were fixed on her every movement. 

A small smile graced his lips as he watched her eating all the food hurriedly. He was observing her so closely that he could tell when she liked a dish or when she didn't like one. When she found something interesting about a particular dish as she tried to find out about the special ingredient that was making it delicious or when she looked at one of the dishes in horror.

He almost let out a chuckle at her cute expressions. All he wanted to do at that moment was to move out from behind the partition and sat beside her, just observe her more closely.

He wanted to read her eyes which held so much life and happiness in them and to inhale that lilac fragrance deeply so that it could be engraved in his memory for the rest of his immortal life.

But unfortunately, he couldn't do any of those. Though the emotions that he was feeling were too strong to ignore but at the same time, his mind was busy in proving that stranger girl as a danger, not for him but for the one who had made him wait for her arrival for millennium.

His heart was marked for that one and only person and he wouldn't let some little girl take that right away from her.

His hands tightened in a fist as his knuckles turned white. The smile and affection that was present in his obsidian eyes a few seconds ago disappeared as they turned bright red in anger and disgust.

He would make the girl pay for even thinking about playing such a deceitful trick on him. 

The three shadow guards who were hiding outside the window of the private room of the second floor of the restaurant shuddered as they felt the sudden change in their Master's powers.

Just a few minutes ago, he was emitting a warm and comforting vibe but suddenly it had turned into a cold and threatening one.

They were both amazed and afraid at the speed at which their Master was changing his mood.

It was a huge shock for them when they found out that their cold-hearted Master was actually following a young girl. Then they got another shock when they first felt the warm and comfortable vibes coming from their Master and the final shock was when the warmth suddenly disappeared and its place was taken by the usual cold aura but the most frightening was the anger that accompanied it.

Was their Master got rejected or something? That's the thought that appeared in the head of each of the shadow guards for a second but all of them immediately shook their head to kick the outrageous thought out of their mind.

Which girl in her right mind would agree to be their Master's partner? But the main point was that none of them were ready to believe that there was even a single girl born in all the three realms who could make their Master's cold heart move.

They would probably need a girl from some other world who could be able to do this impossible work.

Only if they knew how close they were to the truth. But the point was, there's indeed someone who had succeeded in moving their Master's heart but not in the way they wanted.