Chapter 69: The Spirit Skull
Blake waited with the old man Dai Tien Hoang in the alcove for an entire night. His eyes never left the slight small figure of the girl with the long curly black hair on the platform.
She sat cross-legged in front of the old blind man, as if in a trance. Her body was barely moving, her eyes closed.
The long night continued forward as the hooded figures kept adding more fuel to the fire and continued adding the powders. Their drumming and chanting never abated.
Towards twilight, Jasmin's body began twitching and shaking. She began to react to that which only she could see. Her hand reached out, trying to clutch at something.
With a jerk, she screamed out loud.
Her scream pierced the night and reverberated throughout the ruined temples. It was so startling, it brought the drumming and chanting to a halt
Beside her, the old blind man began chanting in a loud voice, as if he was trying to bring her out of the deep trance.
Sobbing and crying with horror, Jasmine clawed at something in front of her, and then awakened, as if from a bad dream.
Above her, the faint blush of a pre-dawn twilight was starting to glow.
"Oh God! Blake killed the King!" Jasmine's voice wailed out.
Blake hissed with a sharp intake of his breath. If it hadn't been for the fact that the old man Dai Tien Hoang had already told him this, Blake would have fallen over laughing.
So it was true. He had killed the Overlord seven hundred years in the past. But why was it that everyone knew this except for him?
Blake felt as if his lack of any memory of this event was putting him at a distinct disadvantage from everyone else who was here. There had to be a way for him to recover some kind of a past life memory so he wasn't walking around half blind.
He was about to ask Dai Tien Hoang how to retrieve his memories when the Overlord's voice could be clearly heard in the early morning air.
"And all along, I thought you were her."
Jasmin turned towards the Overlord.
Jasmine buried her face in her hands and tried to recover her wits before answering him.
"I'm sorry that I can't tell you anything more about your wife—my sister," she gave a shuddering breath as her mind's eye relived the moments of her past life. "I don't even know if she escaped the clutches of the soldiers."
"I knew that there was a woman who had died the day of my funeral." The Overlord stared at the girl with something akin pity.
"I knew for a certainty that it was you, from the signature of your earthly soul. Only, I didn't know who you were, a concubine, slave girl, or the Queen herself. Turns out you were her sister, the beautiful Princess Dai Tien Lai."
Blake clenched his fist.
He had no idea how she died, but if her brother in law, the king had already died, it had to have been Blake himself who caused her death.
He squeezed his eyes shut. Please God don't tell him he was the one who killed her. Since he had killed the King, chances were high that he had also killed the Queen, Jasmine's sister.
"The Queen died of old age," a voice spoke up from below the alcove that Blake was hovering over.
He looked down.
It was the nun Dai Tien Ha!
He turned back to Dai Tien Hoang with horrified eyes, but the old man merely nodded, as if it was old news and not a big deal.
The Nun stepped from her place in the shadows and came towards Jasmine.
"My brave beautiful sister, Dai Tien Lai," she touched Jasmine's face. "You protected me and stayed behind to hold off the soldiers long enough for me to escape. You gave your life to help me escape. So, in this life, I will protect you to the best of my ability."
"You're my sister, the Queen???" Jasmine gasped. She turned back and forth from the Nun to the Overlord, barely able to grasp that they had been family members to her in the distant past.
"Yes," Nun Dai Tien Ha sighed. "I was that poor, pathetic, scared creature once upon a time. But now, I have begun the process of cleansing my soul so that I may achieve nirvana in a future time."
Jasmine closed her eyes. "There's your wife, Anh Hai. You no longer need me for any further information."
"On the contrary," he shook his head and stepped closer to the dais. "There is much more I need to question you."
"But we all know I am not the Queen, just her sister. What further reason do you have to keep me here?"
"You were buried in the Queen's tomb. The jewels were buried along with your body. We need to find that gravesite and restore the gems."
"I don't—" Jasmine shook her head. "I don't know where my gravesite is."
The Overlord smiled.
"You were dead. You wouldn't know that. But she would." He turned to the Nun.
Nun Dai Tu Liem nodded.
"I knew in that lifetime. Whether it is still there, seven-hundred years later, I cannot ascertain."
"There is no way to know until we return to that site." The Overlord insisted.
Nun Dai Tu Liem said nothing.
Morning had broken over the ruins of the Holy City of Champa. Around them, the dark robed figures rose up from their seated position and began dousing the flames with sand. Their job was done here.
One by one, they pushed down their hoods and began cleaning up all traces of the ceremony.
The royal robed figure with the arrow still stuck in his cheek was lifted up off the dais and transported down. They took him to one side and began attending to his needs.
Suddenly, from behind Blake, Dai Tien Hoang flew out of the hidden alcove. Since he was still shielded from view by his magic, no one saw him except for Blake.
He pulled out a whip and cracked it hard, over his head.
CRACK!!!
The whip snapped at the royal robed figure with the arrow in his cheek.
In one clean shot, his head rolled to the floor, bloodless.
"Aaaaaahhh!!!" The hooded figures who had been tending him scattered in all directions.
Without hesitation, Dai Tien Hoang turned back and snapped the whip in the direction of Tong Li.
"Hurry. Pick up his head and put into your bag." Dai Tien Hoang yelled at Blake.
Without thinking, Blake commanded the system.
"System, put head in bag!"
Instantly, the head on the ground disappeared.
A flashing yellow tab appeared in front of his eyes.
«Assignment: Retrieve the Spirit Skull from the Holy City of Champa at Myson Mountain. COMPLETED!!!»
"Blake! Don't just stand there. RUN!!!" Dai Tien Hoang bellowed.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone