Chapter 334 - Crystal Cave

"Exactly how far are we going?" A slightly irritated, but familiar voice asked. 

"We're almost there, just a little more..." Another somewhat familiar voice responded with a hint of excitement that made the voice sound very foreign.

The Emperor heard these two voices amidst the darkness before the scene suddenly came into view as if a blindfold was taken off his eyes. The Emperor immediately frowned, both in annoyance and confusion. He went to move but found that he could not, he seemed like a statue, rooted to the spot with his arms clasped behind his back... and neither could he speak, for some reason. 

It was as if he was simply a guest, a passenger in his own body forced to silently watch an irritating scene unfold. 

{...Is this a dream?... It has to be...}

The Emperor found himself standing in the wide passage of a cave with odd little glowing white dots embedded in the cave walls, lightly illuminating the passageway. The light was low but it was enough for the Emperor to clearly see the faces of the two people who had stopped in front of him, facing each other as they spoke. This was what confusing him, one of them appeared to be his beloved Lei Xing while the other one seemed to be his currently infuriating brother, Prince Yi.

The Emperor was close enough to Lei Xing to see her knit her brows in a familiar way that indicated she was slightly annoyed. He could guess that she was not on going along down some random cave - this was about right for his Lei Xing, she did not a fan of the unknown and was skeptical of people.

The Emperor guessed that she was only here because he was. And since he did not care to go into a random cave with his brother, much less drag his Lei Xing along, the Emperor was about to open his mouth to say they were leaving, but Prince Yi beat him to it, "You'll like it, I promise...Just a little more." He said, smiling at Lei Xing beseeching. 

The Emperor immediately glared at Prince Yi and wanted to grab Lei Xing's hand and drag her out, but he found that he could still not move. He tried to open his mouth to speak again but he still could not say anything. This was extremely infuriating. He hoped Lei Xing would ask his opinion or at least look at him, but instead, she simply relented with a sigh, "Alright..." Causing Prince Yi's smile to widen in an obvious glee that made the Emperor want to go knock his teeth out. 

Neither of the duo before him asked for his own input on the matter as they resumed their walk. Dream or not, the Emperor could obviously not leave Lei Xing alone with his brother and so instantly wanted to follow, but again this iron of a body that was apparently his was still not responding to his will. 

As the two people rounded the corner, the Emperor started to feel more agitated, worried he would lose sight of them. Finally, when the Emperor was drowning in his increasingly anxious thoughts, his body started to move but it was in infuriatingly slow measured steps, following the two from a distance.

He was moving now, but he was definitely not in control here because if he was, he would be holding Lei Xing's arm dragging her out of here while questioning her as to what they were doing following his brother into some random cave. 

What's more, she was ignoring him while giving deference to his brother's words. She did not even glance at him once, neither of them did. Prince Yi turned back several times as they went along, but his eyes only ever stopped at Lei Xing. Prince Yi too was ignoring him, but that was to be expected. Since there was nothing else he could do, the Emperor begrudgingly satisfied himself with glaring at Prince Yi every time he turned back to look at Lei Xing.

Finally, they ended up coming out in a wide opening, with an even more surprising view that surprised the Emperor. There was a small man-sized hole in the ceiling of the cave, where the outside light shone in.

What was even more surprising was that in here, the walls had pointed clear glass crystals growing out of them, all around them, even on the ceiling itself. The ground was the only place with no crystals, instead, it had a bright green, somewhat shimmering grass bed - Although there were a few large crystals boulders strewn about. 

The Emperor was greatly surprised by the scenery, but he found himself looking on with uninterested eyes, with his remaining fixed on Lei Xing, who lightly glanced about the cave, also not very interested as she flatly went, "Crystals...interesting." 

Prince Yi was apparently not phased by her dry response, He simply smiled at her and said, "Wait a bit... You'll see." Then he walked to the middle of the opening and looked up through the hole in the ceiling of the cave. 

The Emperor found himself glaring at his brother again and it was only now that he realized that Prince Yi appeared younger...much younger. The Emperor's eyes quickly returned to Lei Xing and he also realized that she too did not quite look the same either. While he had never known Lei Xing in her younger years, he did have a frame of reference that was Xiao Ting. 

Now he was confused and was even more convinced that this was a dream, an odd one at that. It was one thing for him to dream about his brother with Lei Xing. But why would he dream of a younger version of them in some random cave?... Moreover, with him being the third wheel in the scene, of all things.

"Now..." Prince Yi suddenly excitedly said, as the light coming from outside diminished greatly and a soft hue of purple, red and yellow light shimmered in from above. The next thing, the ground below came to life, as flower stems with white shimmering buds suddenly sprung up from the grass below.

The flower buds opened up to reveal bright petals, radiating the similar soft white light the dots in the cave passageway had. The most surprising component of these flowers was that in their centers housed little crystal clutters of three, that mirrored the hue of yellow, purple, and red glow from above. 

To the Emperor and Lei Xing's amazement, the crystals lining the walls also took on the colors coming in from above, each crystal picking its own choice of light from the three presented, creating a room of colorful lights. Seeing this astonishing sight reminded the Emperor of something, but before he could place it, he was distracted as his eyes narrowed in on Lei Xing's lit up face.

She was smiling, obviously enthralled by the scene as she glanced about and then crouched down to scrutinize the flowers, "It's beautiful..." She quietly said as she touched the crystals in one of the flowers, her smile slightly widening. The Emperor also found himself slightly smiling as he watched her, he wanted to go over and hug her, she looked incredibly beautiful in the soft glow of the room, but again, his body was back to being a rigid unmoving stone.

"...Not as beautiful as you." Those shy words filtered into the Emperor's ears and he was reminded that there was an unnecessary third party in the room with them. Prince Yi apparently shared his thoughts, but it was greatly unwelcome and the Emperor went back to glaring at Prince Yi, who was surprisingly blushing as he hesitantly looked at Lei Xing, completely unphased by the Emperor's glare or rather, he was bluntly ignoring it. 

To the Emperor's delight, Lei Xing did not have much of a reaction to Prince Yi's sickening words. She simply cast him a nonchalant glance and then went back to scrutinizing the flowers. 

He had also come to the conclusion that the other two could not see him and was completely convinced that this was a dream. Therefore, there was no reason for him to get affected by anything he saw here...but that was easier said than done. 

This was really a strange dream, one he would like to be done with now. Despite the fact that he knew this was not real and the fact that all they were doing was talking, it still REALLY rubbed him the wrong way as he glanced between the two.