The silhouette of a man in dark black and red robes was standing behind the oak tree in the backyard of the magical mansion.
His keen eyes sharply observed the girl who looked like she had just survived a disaster. He found himself looking at her to find if she was hurt anywhere and to his relief, other than her not so good appearance and the frown that was plastered on her face, she looked completely fine.
With a swift leap, he was sitting on one of the higher branches of the old oak tree, hidden from the sight of the girl and her weird creature friends.
He only wanted to take a look at her in the auction house to find out whether the black mist was really after her or not.
What he was not prepared for was to find a clone of the girl sitting in the private room of the auction house.
Though the others in the room couldn't find anything strange about the girl that was silently observing the auction from her seat, but his sharp eyes couldn't be fooled by such a simple trick.
Due to some unknown reason he didn't like seeing her with a strange man, even though this stranger was the so-called elder brother of Zhang Yong.
In the end, he made himself believe that the reason behind his dislike for seeing her with the Crown Prince of the Han Empire was because he knew exactly what kind of girl she was.
He just didn't want to let another man get himself entangled in her dark clutches. There was no doubt that she was collecting powerful men for some kind of her voodoo dark jinx.
He was not sure what made him think to find her in the Xiao Tiantang but somehow he found himself at the entrance of the Godly Maple Tree.
The moment he appeared in the spiritual dimension, the energy there rushed to inform him that the girl was not in a good condition.
Without thinking twice, he rushed towards the Maple Tree which had the portal in its very center.
He was not supposed to be able to enter into her world. If he remembered it right, only Ruoshan had the allowance of entering into her space without asking for permission.
Of course, Xiao Tiantang was an exception since they all shared a history with that place. This gave them a free entry in that magical world as long as they didn't have any bad intentions towards its Master.
However, as he stepped his foot towards the other end of the portal, he felt the energy of the magical mansion too welcoming him with open arms.
Though everything was so weird but Hei Long's entire focus was on the girl, whom he found lying on the grassy lawn in the backyard.
It was the words of the little girl with those amazing wings, who shouted at Li Ming in alarm, that stopped him in his tracks and made him hide himself out of their sight.
He could see that she was struggling to even breathe properly and somehow it made him worried and panicked.
All he wanted to do was to rush at his lilac girl and get her out of her discomfort but something was holding him back. Of course, it was the part of his mind which despised that girl with its entire being.
"And...?"
Hei Long focused his entire attention on the conversation that was going on between the little snowball and the girl.
It was his first time seeing that furball speaking as most of the time it behaved like a normal puppy.
"Remember what I told you guys about the Demon Realm? How there was a dark power that has taken over it and it's sucking out all of its life energy every day?"
Li Ming's question caught Hei Long's attention. He had no idea that the girl knew about the state of the Demon Realm, but again, looking at the way his brother was wrapped around her finger it was not really surprising that he finally let out his deeper worries in front of her.
Scratch that! It's more than surprising that the Evernight Lord told anything about the Demon Realm and its condition to someone.
The fact that he, Ruoshan, told all these things to a girl who he had met barely for a few months was even more shocking.
Situations like these only confirmed Hei Long's doubts about Li Ming. He couldn't see any other reason for his brother and Senior brother to suddenly show such trust and closeness to a strange girl.
If it was their Chosen One, he would never have questioned it but she was not even their mate, then the only reasonable answer he could find was that the girl had used some kind of dark arts on his brothers and she's even trying them on him.
He shook his head, planning to confront his brother later as he focused back on the conversation.
"Yeah, but what about that?" Snowy asked in confusion.
"Well, that day...I felt some kind of familiarity in that black mist. Like either, I have encountered it before somewhere or if...I-I don't know to be honest. I have been trying to remember or find out exactly why that dark energy feels so familiar but no matter how much I'm trying, the results are fruitless."
Li Ming irritatedly brushed her hair away from her face.
The mystery behind the black mist was slowly but surely driving her crazy. Neither did she succeeded in finding even a single lead about that mist nor was she able to completely forget about the mist and focus on her other important businesses.
"Hey! Calm down. Just tell us everything. Maybe we can't help you but sharing it will give some relief." Alvina softly murmured to Li Ming.
The pixie had flown near to Li Ming's face as she reached out with her small warm hands to lightly rub them against Li Ming's cheek.
Her actions brought a small but soft smile to Li Ming's lips.
"Thank you, Al." Li Ming softly whispered as she showed her gratitude towards the little fairy.
Alvina just beamed in return before flying back to her initial position where she sat down on a wooden log along with two other fairies.
On the other hand, the Second Demon Prince who had always disliked Li Ming from the very start was currently looking at his lilac girl with soft eyes as he took in her sweet interaction with the winged creature.
But as the scene in front of his eyes changed as the fairy flew back to sit beside her other friends, the Demon Prince also came out of his trance.
The soft look in his eyes immediately changed to an empty stare as he continued to listen to what Li Ming was telling her friends.
"So, I told you guys about how that dark energy possibly got a taste of my energy that day. I didn't think too much about that initially but from that very night, I started getting weird dreams."
Li Ming looked at the group of pixies and then at the two little snowballs. All of them were silently listening to her, giving her the chance to share her worries with them.
But what warmed her heart the most was the person who was currently hiding behind the thick veil of the leaves of the old oak that her great great great grandmaster had grown in the backyard of the magical mansion thousand of years ago.
Though the two of them, Li Ming and Hei Long, were not really close to each other but that didn't mean Li Ming couldn't feel the very presence of her mate around her.
Whatever was stopping Hei Long from recognizing her was only working on his side of the bond, while the bond that Li Ming shared with him was working perfectly fine.
Since her senses and powers were already surfing on the edge and he was the only mate present near her, the soul mark that was etched on her wrist immediately recognized him.
Also, both Xiao Tiantang and the magical mansion had alerted her about the presence of an Immortal inside her space, though they never specified which Immortal it was.
A small smile appeared on her lips as a warm feeling took over her heart. No matter how much the Demon Prince tried to hate her but he couldn't stop himself from loving her more and more with each passing day.
His worry for her and her well being just spoke how much he cared about her even though he boasted about hating her and getting rid of her.
This only made her promise herself to win her mate's heart and make him fall in love with her.
She was not going to give up on her mates so easily. They were hers, just like how she was theirs...!