Summoning Back to West Lake
On the ninth watchtower of the Western Fortress, a seventeen-year-old boy sat perched at the edge.
He was idly playing a small flute, its melody drifting out in lilting, rustic notes.
As the music floated through the air, a gray-white adolescent Celestial Eagle swept out from a nearby grove and landed cheerfully beside him.
The boy stroked the eagle's gray-white head with a grin. "Gray, you've been sneaking off to steal rabbits again. Is the food here in the fortress not to your taste, or has that awful beast tamer been mistreating you?... Alright, alright, I know — he hates you for your impure bloodline and always makes things hard for you. Give me a chance and I'll cook you something good."
"Eee～～～！" Gray bobbed its head as if it understood every word.
The boy and the eagle were playing together on the watchtower when a piercing alarm suddenly rang out across the entire fortress. The compound erupted into motion almost immediately — columns of Military Mages in full gear could be seen being deployed to the front lines.
"What's going on?" the boy called down to a communications officer below.
"Wang Xiaojun, what are you still doing up there? Get inside the fortress right now — with that little frame of yours, a White Demon Eagle might just snatch you up for a meal," the officer shouted back.
"It's fine. Gray will protect me," Wang Xiaojun replied.
Just then, a tall, lean man with a face full of pockmarks walked over. He tilted his head up to look at the boy above and barked an order: "Protect you? Command just issued orders — all personally raised Celestial Eagles are to be put down immediately. Execute it now!"
"What did you say? How could the military give an order like that?" Wang Xiaojun stared in disbelief.
The pockmarked man's fury surged. "A Sovereign-class demon eagle has appeared at Xi Ling. Every Celestial Eagle in this fortress is about to turn traitor. What are you still standing there for? Didn't you hear me say *immediately*? Anyone who defies this order will face military discipline!"
Wang Xiaojun felt the world tilt beneath him. He looked at Gray — still young, still growing, wings not yet fully spread...
*Kill it with my own hands? How could I ever bring myself to do that?*
Gray had been the only gift his older brother — who had already given his life in service — had ever left him. He had raised the eagle from a hatchling to now. That bird was the most important companion he had in the world.
"Hmph. A mongrel eagle like that has no place in the military to begin with," the pockmarked beast tamer sneered.
"No!" Wang Xiaojun stared at the eagle beside him, bit clean through his own lip until blood welled up, and blew the flute with everything he had.
The sharp note struck Gray like a command. Its entire bearing shifted in an instant — the posture of a soldier, absolute and unquestioning.
A second note followed. Gray spread its wings, kicked up a swirl of wind, and launched into the sky at breathtaking speed.
Though it hadn't yet reached full maturity and its feathers weren't fully grown, its flying speed was no slower than a purebred Celestial Eagle.
In moments, its gray silhouette had shrunk to a speck and vanished into the distant forest, leaving no trace.
The pockmarked beast tamer turned purple with rage, stabbing a finger at Wang Xiaojun. "You good-for-nothing little brat — you dare openly defy military law?! You're just like that mongrel eagle of yours — neither of you deserve to be here. Do you have any idea what you've done? The one you let go will turn traitor. It will join those White Demon Eagles and attack our fortress!"
Young Wang Xiaojun lowered his head and said nothing.
He didn't understand why such a brutal order had been handed down. He didn't know what terrible thing had happened out there. He and Gray had leaned on each other through everything, their bond deeper than words. He would rather face military punishment than commit something so monstrous.
After the pockmarked beast tamer stormed off in outrage, Wang Xiaojun finally raised his head. He scanned the vast fortress around him — and went rigid.
Clumps of white feathers matted with blood were drifting through the air like a grim, slow snowfall.
Over at the Beast-Taming Arena, Celestial Eagles lay fallen in spreading pools of blood, cut down in droves.
They writhed in agony. They gazed up with eyes full of desperate pleading. Their anguished cries rose one after another — each one driving through the boy's chest like a blade.
Every one of those eagles had been shaped by his older brother's dedication. Now they were falling before him, one by one. And the cruelest part was that they hadn't fallen on a battlefield. They had fallen at the hands of the very tamers who had cared for them most tenderly.
He couldn't bear to look. He shut his eyes tight.
No tears came — but something inside him was bleeding.
In the meeting room of the Lingyin Tribunal, news from the Western Fortress arrived the moment it broke. Around the conference table, the assembled Chief Adjudicators and Councillors wore grave expressions and maintained a heavy, solemn silence.
No one had anticipated the situation would spiral this badly — neither the plague that had struck from nowhere, nor the White Demon Eagle corps that had launched its massive assault on Hangzhou without any apparent cause.
"White Demon Eagles are just about the worst enemy the military could face. The Celestial Eagle corps hasn't simply been crippled — it's become a liability to the entire fortress. Thank the heavens the head beast tamer issued the kill order immediately, or the consequences would have been unimaginable," Chief Adjudicator Ah Li Tian said.
"And now we're beset from within and without," Councillor Zhu Meng said. "Has Elder Lu managed to develop a medicine to counter the plague?"
"We do have a medicine," Elder Lu replied, "but the remedy we produced from the Totem Xuan Serpent's blood only provides resistance — it doesn't offer a complete cure. We need the Totem Xuan Serpent's bile, or more of its essence, to go further."
Tang Zhong's brow furrowed. He glanced back at Tang Yue — flanked by two Palace Guards — and spoke to her directly: "Go to Bai Mountain as soon as possible. Obtain its bile from the divine creature yourself."
Councillor Zhu Meng slammed to his feet. "If its blood alone was enough to formulate a resistance medicine, then this plague was almost certainly its doing. Are you not aware of how dire things are?! How much more time are you going to waste on your so-called ancient traditions? How many more people must die for your stubbornness and ignorance?!"
Tang Zhong went silent.
Councillor Zhu Meng stepped out from behind his seat and strode toward Tang Yue, his anger filling the room.
Tang Zhong shot up at once, fearing Zhu Meng meant to take out his fury on Tang Yue.
But Councillor Zhu Meng simply stood before her, his gaze fixed on her face.
A long moment passed — and then, slowly, he lowered his head. The imposing authority he wore so naturally dissolved all at once.
He let go of every shred of his dignity. In that moment, he became something closer to a supplicant.
"I can understand your wish to protect it," Councillor Zhu Meng said, his eyes threaded with red — proof that he hadn't slept in days. "But Hangzhou has fallen into a catastrophe... The White Demon Eagle corps' assault will be a brutal battle. If we don't resolve this plague within a single day, Hangzhou will be blanketed in corpses. So please—"
He lowered his head even further, bending at a full ninety degrees before Tang Yue. "I beg you. I beg you — summon the Totem Xuan Serpent back right now. I give you my word: if we find a way to resolve this, we will not kill it."
Tang Yue stepped back several paces, staring at Councillor Zhu Meng in disbelief.
When the shock settled, she glanced at Tang Zhong.
Tang Zhong gave a helpless nod.
*How could he not care about Hangzhou? How could he want to be the one who brought ruin to it?* Now that Councillor Zhu Meng was willing to compromise — willing to spare the Totem Xuan Serpent's life — there was no reason to hold back any longer.
"Very well. I'll summon it back now. I'll bring it back to West Lake," Tang Yue said.