When Li Ming finally came out of the dark abyss and her consciousness returned, she found herself laying on a soft mattress.

The room was dimly lit with dozens of candles and with just one look around the bed-chamber, she could tell that she was in the Moon Manor.

She slowly sat up and immediately a sharp pain shot through her body, making her hiss but then her eyes landed on her right hand.

Everything that happened before she lost her consciousness, started appearing in front of her eyes. The pain, the loss, the heartache, the helplessness, everything was once again clearly jammed into her mind.

She felt her body shivering as the dark memories returned but what stopped her from immediately fleeing from the room to find her mate, was the condition of her soul mark.

The skin around the soul mark was red and bruised. However, all five tendrils were safe. The connection between her and Hei Long had not disappeared yet.

"How?"

The question was out of her mouth as she slowly climbed out of the bed. She could feel something breaking inside her heart but she could tell that Hei Long was definitely no longer in danger.

Her emotions were so messed up that no matter how hard she tried, she just could not tell exactly what was wrong.

Her body and mind were still exhausted. She could barely walk but she needed to find her mates as soon as possible.

She followed the connection that she shared with them and it made her realize that all of them were present in the next room.

She made her way towards the room and as soon as she stepped inside, she stumbled, and her body was immediately pulled towards the ground.

However, before she could land on the hard cold floor, a pair of strong arms stopped her fall as they pulled her against a solid chest.

Her eyes immediately flew open as her soul and heart immediately recognized the man who was holding her.

"Y-You.....you....a-are...alright! You are....!" She could barely speak as tears started rolling down her cheeks. Her hands immediately moved to cup his cheeks as she looked at his disheveled state.

He looked exhausted. His hair was scattered all around, his clothes were wrinkled, his face looked pale and his eyes had lost their usual red glow.

But she could tell that he was no longer under the hold of the Valkyrie. There was no trace of the dark magic in his body.

"Xingan....."

Li Ming heard Ruoshan calling her name in a soft tone and when she turned her eyes to look at him, she found that he looked no better than his brother.

But another thing that she noticed was the grief that was filled in his eyes just like the one that she had also observed in Hei Long's eyes.

Her eyes immediately scanned the room, noticing all of her soul mates who were looking at her with eyes filled with sadness.

"What's wrong?"

Li Ming asked as she tried to look for her bondmate but could not find him. She could feel the bad feeling inside her heart increasing with each passing second and when her mates decided to suddenly part ways to make whatever was behind them visible to her eyes, she felt like once again her world came to a standstill.

"Zhang Yong!"

She shouted as she ran towards the bed where her mate was currently laying. His condition was even worse than Hei Long's and that was because she could feel the presence of dark mist inside his body.

"What happened? What's wrong with him?" She asked with worry coating her voice as she took a seat beside him. Her hands immediately find his hands and she realized that his body was freezing.

"He used all his power to separate the curse from me but the moment I was freed, the curse took over him." Hei Long replied to her question. His voice was filled with regret and sadness.

But he was not the one who should regret.

Tears rolled down her cheeks and landed on Zhang Yong's hands that she was still holding tightly as if she was afraid that he would disappear the moment she would let go of him.

His eyes slowly fluttered open and she felt her heart breaking into millions of pieces as she watched how lifeless they looked.

"I want to talk to her....alone." His voice came out low, barely audible but all her mates nodded their heads before they left the room.

Hei Long was the last one to leave and Li Ming knew that he was suffering from guilt.

"It's not your fault. Don't punish yourself." She whispered those words for him but he was already walking out of the room.

She turned her attention back towards the man who looked completely different from her 'always energetic and full of life' bondmate.

She pulled his sleeves up to look at his hand and it took every single ounce of her self-control to not cry when she saw his hands covered in black veins.

There was not even a single thread of spiritual energy present in his body but what shocked her the most was that she could not feel his dragon spirit inside him either.

It was like he read the question in her eyes because the very next moment, he dropped a crystal ball in her hand.

She immediately recognized the dragon spirit that was present inside the crystal.

"Why? Why did you separate it from you?" Li Ming asked as she looked at her mate with horrified eyes.

The level of pain that one had to go through while separating their animal spirit from their human form, was beyond imaginable.

If losing a mate was seen as the most painful experience of the magical world, then separating one's animal spirit from their human body was clearly the second most painful experience.

"I can't let the darkness destroy it too. It was the best decision." Zhang Yong replied to her question with a small smile on his lips, one that never reached his eyes.

"I want you to pass this spirit ball to that person of my clan who's capable enough to become the next leader. I'm leaving this responsibility to you."