STNS: Chapter 546 (Patreon)

Five years. It had been five long years since her older brother and the only person who truly cared for her had been banished from the clan. Since that moment, Huǒ Yujie had been locked away in the sealed realm with the great phoenix, her clan’s deity. She had not been allowed to leave. All the food and cultivation resources she required were brought to her.

Huǒ Yujie sat under the shade of the great phoenix’s wings. The great phoenix looked sadly at the young woman as she stared at nothing. She didn’t feel like cultivating, she didn’t feel like moving, she didn’t feel like doing anything.

What purpose remains for me now? Wherefore do I strive thus? To what end is all this labor?

Long ago, Huǒ Yujie had cultivated her heart out because she wanted to earn her father’s approval. When it became clear that he never saw her as anything more than a tool for his ambition, she had switched her goal from wanting approval to wanting freedom. It was common knowledge among cultivators that the strong were free to do as they pleased. In the end, it all amounted to nothing. No amount of individual strength would allow her to be stronger than a clan. Maybe she could have done something if her brother was still with her, but he was gone, and she had no idea whether he was alive or dead anymore.

What hath become of him? The boy he kept company with—Jian Wu?

She still remembered the kind young man who had been journeying with her brother. He had been a strange one, always wearing a mask, but his kindness had been undeniable. Not many people would go out of their way to help random strangers, but he had done so. And he was strong. For a time, she had believed that maybe he could help her out of her predicament, but then he had gone on to the Heavenly Sword Sect, and she never heard from him again.

"O great phoenix," she whispered, "canst thou unveil to me what transpires beyond these walls?"

The great phoenix tilted his head toward the sky, contemplating.

"Would such knowledge avail thee aught?"

Huǒ Yujie furrowed her brow. "And what would avail me now? Is there aught left that might?"

The great phoenix inclined his head, acknowledging her words. "Yet still thou seek’st to know?"

"Aye. I would know," she said.

While the great phoenix’s powers were limited, sealed away. She had learned this shortly after the Thirteen Kingdom’s Tournament. The Great Phoenix Clan to which she belonged used to worship the great phoenix, but after her father came into power, the great phoenix had been sealed away. There was a formation surrounding this temple that prevented him from escaping or utilizing his full power.

Huǒ Yujie had no idea where her father had gotten this formation. It was not an original part of the Phoenix Temple. He had acquired it from somewhere and then used it to seal away the great phoenix for his own purposes. She knew what he wanted. It was what every cultivator wanted.

Power.

There were many reasons for cultivators to gain power, and her father’s reason was immortality and greed. He wanted to escape the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, and he wanted to stand at the top. His goal was to become more powerful than Zhe Dāozhe. Godhood was what he sought.

She did not know his motivation, but in the end, it didn’t really matter what motivated him. His goals were clear and the one who would suffer the most for his hubris was going to be her. She was integral to his plans. That was why he kept her in the dark. She needed to acquire a certain level of strength for his goals, and he still had his desire to show the clan’s strength, which was why she was allowed to attend the tournament, but at the end of it all, what he wanted was personal power.

While his strength was limited, the great phoenix could still extend his perceptions beyond this temple and into the greater world, to see what could not be seen immediately in front of his eyes.

"Very well. I shall peer beyond."

The great phoenix closed his eyes, and she felt his qi wash over her. It was warm and comforting, as always, but it was also powerful enough that anyone else would have been pushed into the ground. She alone was immune because she had lived with him ever since she was a small child.

A loud, deliberate, and sad exhalation of breath escaped the great phoenix. "Hmmmm. A grievous shadow hath fallen upon the world outside. Tragedy walketh unfettered."

And thus, the phoenix told her of what had happened in the outside world. Jian Wu had joined the Heavenly Sword Sect, but not for long. He had gone on a mission to help wrest control over a country from a despot and his council of elders, only to run afoul of a man even more powerful than Zhe Dāozhe--a figure who had been hitherto unknown to the world.

Zhou Shíwēi.

The name alone made her shudder. He was the leader of the Zhou Clan, famous the world over for their mercantile spirit, numerous auction houses, and vast network. It seemed they were much more than she had first assumed. In truth, the Zhou Clan was a power that had hidden in the shadows this entire time, and now, they were out in the open and had claimed much of the continent for themselves. Their leader had already taken control over several nations and the rest were forming an alliance with the Three Celestial Sects in order to stand against them.

Only the Xia Dynasty was different.

They had refused to ally with anyone and stood alone. Huǒ Yujie would have taken him to task, but she understood the reason he hadn’t allied himself with anyone. The plan he was hoping to carry out would be met with harsh criticism in the wider cultivation community. While there were not many rules that cultivators followed, they did have a code of honor, and his plans violated the code that the Three Heavenly Sects had set. They would try to stop him if they found out what he planned to do.

"And where is Jian—Wu Jian?" she corrected herself.

The great phoenix cocked his head, then shook it. “I know not. His presence is hidden from my sight.”

She swallowed. “Is he…?”

“He yet liveth, that much I can tell, but a great formation concealeth him and his companions. The Zhou Clan hath summoned their full strength to seek him, scouring the Xiao Continent. Yet methinks he is not here, else they would have unearthed him already.” the great phoenix said.

“Then…?”

"I suspect he hath journeyed unto the Da Continent. The Zhou Clan shall soon come to the same surmise, and their search shall cross the seas. Oh?"

“What is it?” she asked.

"The Zhou Clan hath caught me in my divinations. They shroud themselves now. I see no more." He sighed, lowered his head, and opened his eyes. The brilliant golden color met her own. "Not only do they hunt Wu Jian and his companion, Wu Meiying, but they wage war—against the Heavenly Sword Sect and the Supreme Ocean Palace. I deem the Heavenly Sword Sect would hinder their pursuit, perchance to shield the boy’s path."

According to the great phoenix, the battle was fairly evenly split. The Zhou Clan had stronger cultivators than both the Heavenly Sword Sect and Supreme Ocean Palace, but the other two sects had greater numbers, and the only person who could give the two sect leaders of each perspective sect trouble was Zhou Shíwēi, whose strength was unrivaled under both heaven and earth.

The storm without is fiercer than I had dreamed.

So much had happened outside that she felt even more hopeless now, knowing what she knew.

"I warned thee—this knowledge would bring thee no comfort," the great phoenix said with a chiding smile.

"Mayhap not. Yet I would rather feel helpless knowing, than feel helpless and blind."

“So I see.”

At that moment, the doors on the far side opened. This section was the only place that looked like a building. The rest resembled and open prairie with flame-like flowers arrayed across the ground. Huǒ Yujie assumed one of her minders had come to deliver food.

Her minder it was not.

It was her father.

Huǒ Yujie jumped to her feet, unable to contain her surprise. Her eyes opened wide. He was not alone. All of her brothers save the one she cared about were present, along with the many elders of the sect. Many of them were stone-faced, but her siblings looked either confused or uncomfortable.

"F-Father… what madness be this?"

“The situation has changed. We are going to begin the ritual sooner than later.” He glanced at the elders. “Seal the great phoenix’s movements.”

“Yes, Sect Master,” the elders all bowed and moved to follow his instructions.

As the elders moved to surround them, the great phoenix finally stood up, a glare upon his face.

“Since thy ascension as sect master, thou hast cast me naught but scorn. Never once hast thou shown me courtesy. And now, thou wouldst endanger one placed under my guardianship? Nay—in thy dreams!”

The great phoenix finally chose to act. He had done nothing thus far because he was bound and could not excise his full power outside of this realm. But if they were bringing themselves to him, he would not hold back.

“I thank thee for coming before me of thine own accord. For the slights I have endured at thy hands, I shall leave not even thy ashes to be scattered by the wind!”

This was the first time Huǒ Yujie had seen the great phoenix unleash his full power on people. She had always seen him as a wise, kind, and caring grandfatherly figure. He doted on her like she was his favorite grandchild and never got into fights with anyone. Even now, he was doing this to protect her from the machinations of her father, so she was not afraid of him.

The same could not be said for the others. All of the younger members of the Huo Clan had fallen onto their hands and knees, their breathing heavy and labored. Even Huǒ Pànguó, the strongest among the younger generation at the Realization Realm, looked like he was going to pass out.

However, the elders were made of different stuff. They remained calm even as the flames of the great phoenix threatened to overtake them. A shield sprang up before them, protecting them from the phoenix’s flames. It was bright red and semi-translucent. Despite this, the great phoenix did not relent and let his qi sweep over everyone.

Not that it mattered in the end.

The great phoenix was powerful, but with the seals binding him and the elders’s shield protecting them, he was unable to do anything as they activated another formation. The great phoenix’s eyes widened as he tossed Huǒ Yujie away. She had been hiding underneath him until that moment. Now she landed on her backside outside of the elders’ formation. Her eyes widened when she saw the great phoenix forced to the ground as though gravity had increased.

“What dost thou to the great phoenix?! How darest thou lay such cruelty upon thy guardian?!” Huǒ Yujie shouted.

She stood up and attempted to stop them, even though she knew it was a foolish, futile endeavor. She did not get far. Her siblings interposed themselves between her and the great phoenix.

“Stand aside! Empyrion Dance!”

She manipulated her qi to create thousands of fiery strands that danced around her like serpents and struck her fellow clansmen. The attacks were powerful enough to send many flying backward. However, her attacks only hurt them a little. These were members of her clan. They were immune to fire but not to force.

“Phoenix Feather Rain!”

She next summoned a rain of flaming phoenix feathers and made them rain from the sky. Each one struck one of her brothers and exploded. The flames did not hurt, but the force they were hurtled away did. Despite this, they got back up, and once more moved to intercept her.

The battle was long, and Huǒ Yujie fought with all her strength, but she was eventually subdued by Huǒ Pànguó. He pinned her to the ground as she struggled underneath him. In the end, she exhausted all her strength.

“Cease your struggles,” her father said coldly before turning back to the elders, their formation, and the great phoenix. “Now, we are running out of time. Let us begin the ritual.”

Huǒ Yujie renewed her struggles when she heard what they were doing, but she could do nothing in the end. All she could do was watch on in horror, until the sight became too much and her world went black.