Rising Phoenix

Feng Zhiwei instantly jumped forward.

Ning Ji’s hand flashed forward, the dagger in his hand thing as he pushed past Shao Ning to parry the Crown Prince’s sword, but the dagger was too small to completely resist the strike. With great flexibility, Ning Ji took Shao Ning in one hand and whirled away from the sword, throwing himself towards the corridor entrance while his other hand reached into his robes.

As he moved, the masked and black-robed man by the window lifted his hand, sending forward a powerful blast of wind to slow Ning Ji’s movements.

As Ning Ji slowed, Shao Ning lost her balance and slammed into the hallway. The old and rickety building’s rail immediately broke, and Shao Ning let out a scream as she fell. Feng Zhiwei rushed over, and when the mysterious robed man saw her, he swiftly pulled back his raised hand.

Feng Zhiwei had no time to pay him any mind and ran forward to grab Shao Ning. In her desperation, Shao Ning grasped at her savior’s hand, pulling with such great strength that she almost dislocated Feng Zhiwei’s shoulder, but Feng Zhiwei fought through the pain and was just about to pull Shao Ning back up onto the ledge when a sudden brightness filled her eyes, and a howl filled her ears.

A fiery arrow climbed through the sky like a red dragon, whistling through the wind and flying past her.

A muffled cry came from behind her, and sticky wet liquid splashed against her neck. A weight fell heavily against her, knocking Feng Zhiwei forward before she could get Shao Ning properly up onto the railing!

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

Feng Zhiwei could only swiftly grab Shao Ning and hug her tightly.

She hurtled through the wind, the world a blur as she flipped through the air. From the corner of her eye she could see a man riding over, moonlight flowing over his armor, his princely flag flying in the breeze, moon-white silk gleaming and golden crown shining, looking up as Feng Zhiwei fell, Shao Ning in her arms.

His thin smile was cold beyond compare.

People gathered before the Falling Flower Palace.

Thousands of torches lit the pre-dawn dark like so many floating stars rising up among the ten thousand palace halls. A thousand armored soldiers stood silently at the foot of the old and dark building, watching as the two thin bodies embraced and tumbled through the air, two willow leaves drifting between heaven and earth. The fiery arrow that had started this all had flown forward with an indecipherable angle, arching through the air like a shooting star, a furious dragon that howled as it pierced into the chest of the one crowned dragon, heir to heaven’s son. The arrow thunked in, flames sparked, blood spilled, and a body fell forward.

The Crown Prince’s body dangled against the rail, his head drooping to the ground as if bowing to the gathered soldiers, confessing his lifetime of arrogance, pride, and mediocrity.

The Dynasty’s greatest seat, with peerless honor, never-waning ambition, and that struggle beyond despair to rise again against all odds, at this dawn, crumbled to ash.

Such lofty blood, spilled to such a worthless and poor end.

As dawn beckoned, three people fell.

A gust of wind suddenly whipped forward from the horizon, scattering droplets of rain, sending the torch light into a shiver and throwing everything into a haze. As the gathered soldiers blinked their eyes clear, a sky blue gleam flashed.

A man jumped over the railing and skimmed down the building as if riding a breeze, accelerating towards the plummeting figures. All eyes were watching, but no heart was certain what would happen or who he would save.

Ning Yi sat on his horse, his expression as chill as a deep winter night — everything was moving according to plan, and once Gu Nanyi saved Feng Zhiwei, Shao Ning would fall and splatter, crunched and no more.

Excellent, excellent.

Gu Nanyi reached the falling pair.

He did not reach out and grab either of them, and only struck lightly into the air with his sleeve.

A cool, thick mist suddenly spreading the pre-dawn sky, and the empty sky suddenly seemed like a cool garden of deep green. The man fell, back straight and feet upright, as if a tranquil immortal strolling through the air, and in the mist that flew forward from his sleeve, one could almost see an immortal riding the wind through the clouds.

The onlookers watched, hearts and minds still in stunned amazement.

The flick of the sleeve separated Feng Zhiwei and Shao Ning, allowing Gu Nanyi to reach forward and point a finger at Feng Zhiwei’s chest.

The free falling Feng Zhiwei suddenly get her body lighten, and her limbs and bones relax as air seemed to be sucked into her lungs. The Qi lying dormant in her body was jolted awake, and her falling slowed.

Shao Ning was pushed backwards at a strange angle, and flew off into the distance. Gu Nanyi gestured in her direction, palm downwards, and Shao Ning drew a long parabolic curve through the sky into the crowd of waiting guards where a capable expert was able to jump and catch her.

As the Princess was being rescued, Gu Nanyi grabbed Feng Zhiwei’s hand as they gently fell to the ground, neither slowly nor quickly. Though the pair were two men, the hearts of the onlookers were moved as the pair floated downward elegantly and touched the ground, finishing the grand display of breathtaking skill.

Everything happened within the duration of a flying spark, and most only saw the Shao Ning Princess pushed away and caught while Gu Nanyi saved Feng Zhiwei, incapable of perceiving or understanding the many other actions involved. These people would have been completely unable to understand the delicate interaction of that finger to her chest and the interplay involved, and the delicate balance on which the chain of events rested.

But of course, Ning Yi was one of the people who saw through everything.

His eyes flicked to the roof of the building where silhouette of a black robe shimmered and disappeared.

Just now, when Shao Ning had been pushed aside, that person perched on the rooftop had acted, pushing with his Qi across a great distance to help adjust Gu Nanyi’s push, sending Shao Ning off to safety.

Who was he?

A retainer of the Crown Prince? But why would he cooperate with Gu Nanyi?

His eyes remained lifted up to the sky as he thought over the strange series of events, deliberately averting his eyes from the falling pair and their held hands.

He refused to look at Feng Zhiwei.

His outward calm was impenetrable, and no one could see his shock, and his wounded and scarred heart.

Shock at seeing her fall, and then alarm when she protected Shao Ning, and finally a tidal wave of anger rising with an unquenchable despair.

Their negotiation as they stood before the Tian Bo Pagoda was still clear in his mind, but not even half a day later and she had already betrayed him.

She was always this way, masked and gentle, but with one turn, casting aside all promises under the nine heavens — always using the most enchanting and beautiful demeanor to wield knives and cut him.

And he, how long would he keep a soft heart?

When would he stop? When? Why keep this weakness that always plummeted his mind into this scourging abyss?

In the old days he could still tell himself that an unfavored prince need not consider too much, but now? Now he stood on a different road, and on the path before him lay a bloody civil war, with the fate of thousands upon thousands of lives resting on his shoulders. He could not entertain a single sliver of doubt or hesitation.

No matter how much one thought or how many steps one retraced, no one could fight their bitter and cold fate.

Wei Zhi, Feng Zhiwei.

You and I, from today forward…

Are enemies.

Feng Zhiwei turned to look at Ning Yi.

The man sat in the distance, his horse proud and tall, a thousand armored guards spread orderly behind him. All of heaven and earth was captured in his eyes, and only she was missing.

She watched him silently and then finally let out a deep and long sigh.

Some things happened without her intentions, and she did not know what she could have done. Fate was indomitable, and seemed to force her at every turn to oppose him.

She did not intent to explain.

Explanations could not solve their impasse. When she had embraced Shao Ning as they fell from the ledge, at just the right moment for him to ride in and witness it all, Heaven’s will was already complete.