“Do you all get to meet with the 4 often?” Mai asked, walking to a large building that resembled the meeting place of the 4.

 

“We visit each other often, it’s been a while since the last incarnations passed on here so they have had free time to spend with us,” Giang said and smiled.

 

“If there are visitors in the islands they might be busy…but I’m sure we could get Vermillion bird island to open up for us since you’re here.” Hao Yu said and walked with them into a room with 4 statues. One for each of the 4 beasts.

 

They were in their beast forms and all had gems on their heads. The Vermillion Bird, Azure Dragon, and Black tortoise statues all looked alike and only White Tiger’s seemed different. While the other three had glowing gems, White Tigers gem seemed like it was dull and ‘asleep’ in a way.

 

Hao Yu went to the Azure dragon Statue,  he just stood there for a while, looking toward the two women, he was going to interact with the statue but first, he wanted to see if Mai could use the statue since she wasn’t technically a ‘resident’ of the island.

 

Giang brought Mai to the Vermilion Bird statue and told her to reach up to touch the gem. She did as she was told and when her fingers tapped the gem she felt like she was seeing through someone else’s eyes.

 

She was looking at two people, both faced away from her but one of them she recognized as Huy because of his clothes. The other person was unknown to her but she quickly called out to Huy without caring.

 

“Anh!”

–

Huy immediately turned around, hearing Mai’s voice very clearly.

 

“Mai?!”

 

Mot turned around as well, he seemed to also hear the voice.

 

–

 

“Huh.” Giang and Mai both looked very confused.

 

Giang quickly went up to touch the gem as well, she could vaguely see what Mai saw because they were close together but she wasn’t sure that what she saw was accurate.

 

“Oh my..” Giang murmured.

 

“Two Anhs?!” Mai asked with a confused expression, Huy and Mot were definitely identical.

 

Hao Yu was a bit confused because he couldn’t see whatever Giang and Mai were seeing.

 

“The current vermillion bird is identical to Loc!” Giang exclaimed to Hao Yu with a shocked expression. Hao Yu immediately looked very curious.

 

“The current Azure Dragon is here too right?” Hao Yu asked Mai, who was very shocked but managed to nod before going back to trying to speak with Huy.

 

“Anh! I’m on the island for the lovers of the Four, can you please open up  the vermillion bird island for me!” Mai called out to Huy, after getting over the sight of Loc and Huy.

 

Meanwhile, Hao Yu went to touch the gem on the Azure Dragon statue’s head, a sort of curious excitement bubbling up at the idea of an exact copy of Yu Ze. He touched the gem and could see two people. One who he recognized immediately to be Yu Ze and one who also looked exactly like Yu Zhe, just without the scales covering part of his body. 

 

Hao Yu didn’t say anything, he was just in shock. He had known Yu Ze since they were 15 and the other person looked exactly like Yu Ze looked a few years after they met. It was amazing really.

 

“You have my face but you remind me of someone else.”  Hao Yu could hear their conversation. He was intrigued by the current Azure Dragon’s words, who did Yu Ze remind him of?

 

“Oh? I feel the same way.” Hao Yu was even more curious now that Yu Ze said it.

 

“Who are you thinking of?”

 

“Wang Hao Yu,”

 

Hao Yu didn’t even listen to the rest of that, he was too embarrassed that Yu Ze would say that he resembled someone as grand as another incarnation of Azure Dragon. They didn’t even look alike, they actually didn’t resemble one another at all! Yu Ze was just exaggerating as he usually would.

 

—

 

“And who do you think I resemble?” Yi asked Yue.

 

“Black Tortoise’s son. Your mannerisms are similar,” Yue murmured and then looked around a bit, he felt like someone had been watching them for a few minutes.

Both of them chose to hide their more romantic relations with the people they found eachother resembling, it would be odd to tell someone that they resembled your lover.

–

 

“How do I open up a path to here?” Huy asked Mot who chuckled a little and led the way.

 

He flew with him to the edge of the Vermillion Bird island and put his hand on Huy’s shoulder.

 

“The branch that lead you here, imagine it sprouting from this island and over to that one.” Mot explained and pointed to a small island far in the distance. Huy closed his eyes and tried his best to imagine it. He opened his eyes as he heard the sound of wood sort of creaking. Surely enough the branch had appeared and stretched itself toward the other island.

 

“It might take your lover awhile on her own,” Mot said and motioned for Huy to join him as they flew in the path of the branch, over to the other island.

 

They flew over and didn’t see Mai and Giang waiting at the edge of the island, it was to be expected since they had created the branch so quickly.

 

“Come, they’re probably still in here,” Mot said and led the way on foot.

 

There weren’t many people on the island. Those who were present seemed mostly uninterested, likely because they were the lovers of the other 3 beasts and not Vermillion Bird but a few did look up and looked hopeful before noticing that neither of the two was the person they hoped spontaneously came to visit.

 

Huy was enthralled by this place but he wanted to find Mai quickly. Luckily they did soon reunite as Giang and Mai rushed out of the central building on the island.

 

“Anh!” Mai quickly exclaimed and rushed up to him. Giang just calmly walked toward Mot while looking at the resemblance between him and Huy.

 

“It's…uncanny…” Giang murmured. Mot chuckled a bit and wrapped his arm around her.

 

“It’s the same for Yu Ze and the current Azure Dragon.” Hao Yu spoke up as he joined them.

 

“I figured such was the case,” Mot said and smiled.

 

Huy seemed shocked as he looked over at Hao Yu.

 

“You… look very familiar…But I can’t place it.” Huy murmured.

 

“I thought so too and figured he reminded me of Yue but… the more I look at him I notice that he really doesn’t resemble Yue at all…l but he’s so familiar…” Mai murmured.

 

“Yue?” Hao Yu asked.

 

“The current Azure Dragon,” Huy explained.

 

Hao Yu flushed as he heard this… twice now he had been compared to them. To him Yu Ze was the most beautiful thing to ever exist, human form and Dragon form alike. He would most likely be described as Handsome now as he had the appearance of his adult self but in the appearance that ‘Yue’ takes on, he was definitely the definition of beauty in Hao Yu’s eyes.

 

“N-Nonsense, how could I resemble someone so beautiful.” Hao Yu pulled out a fan and hid his face a little.

 

“Nevermind, it’s definitely Yue,” Mai said immediately after seeing Hao Yu’s reaction.

 

Hao Yu seemed even more embarrassed and Huy just nodded in agreeance with Mai, “That was a very Yue thing to do.”

“So why do the current incarnations resemble the first ones?” Giang asked.

 

“It's more like the first ones resemble the current ones…” Mot murmured.

 

Mai, Hao Yu, and Giang looked confused while Huy seemed to understand pretty quickly.

 

“Aiyla, Yu Ze, Zoya, and I all look like the true incarnations of the four. The true Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise,” Mot explained.

 

“And Yue and I, are the true incarnations of Vermillion Bird and Azure Dragon,”  Huy explained.

 

“Then the other incarnations…?” Hao Yu asked with a confused expression.

 

Mot hesitated for a second, “It’s like we’re just birds, or dragons who have enough magic to transform while they’re….actually gods.”

 

There was silence for a while, “Please don’t act like that, I’m not nearly as grand as you’re thinking, my power is far below that of most other incarnations at the moment.”

 

“Oh…Why is that?” Giang asked. It was hard to believe that the ‘a true god’ would be weaker than the other incarnations.

 

“All other incarnations have taken in their grounding cord in some way. This causes strain for the incarnations but for the real one… I can only imagine that It’s much more overwhelming. Immense power and strength is one thing but the knowledge that comes with being a god…” Mot murmured.

 

“...Yes but it is something we will soon need to grasp,” Huy murmured.

 

“Zoya could help but I’m not sure if she’s awake…” Hao Yu murmured.

 

“Yu Ze probably already thought of that and is probably waking her up.” Mot smiled.

—

 

“Elena?” Andrei asked as he watched Elena stare aimlessly out of the window in his office.

 

“Do not worry too much, they’ll be okay…” Andrei said and held her hand.

 

“I’m not worrying…I just…” Elena murmured, “I feel weird…”