Rising Phoenix

But all these glorious things vanished like a flash in the pan. When Ning Yi was seven, the Tian Sheng Dynasty was founded and a serious illness swept over and destroyed the brilliant child’s unlimited talent. After a long struggle between life and death, Ning Yi’s personality had changed. After that, the youthful and talented sixth prince began to waste his time in brothels, and his name was most often breathed through the lips of the beautiful and popular courtesans of Dijing.

After this, Xin Ziyan had once sighed and said to his friend, “I had wanted to pass the ten thousand miles to give him his gift, but all the rivers and mountains separated us” (1). He spoke of Ning Yi, but no matter his meaning when he spoke, no matter how profound, and no matter whether anyone had actually tried to gift over ten thousand miles, to the current Ning Yi, everything was meaningless.

Because of his illness, Ning Yi did not go to the Chu Palace in the northwest of Tian Sheng to receive his title, but was instead recovering his health in Dijing. Of course, it was still a debatable issue whether he was recovering with medicine or with beauties.

But Feng Zhiwei definitely wouldn’t think about this question now. She was still pointing in the direction behind her earnestly. Ning Yi looked at her, but before he said anything, the tenth son who had coughed into the wind grinned and asked, “Then, can you please lead the way?”

His smile was crafty, and his black eyes were agile and excited as if he was waiting for a good show. He thought that Feng Zhiwei would be ashamed or nervous, but Feng Zhiwei just nodded and turned around and led the way.

“Follow him!” Ning Ji recovered immediately and called out.

The patrol followed along as Feng Zhiwei led them, turning left and then right, finally to the entrance of a small alley. “I saw that man go into this alley.”

She had led them to the large robed figures run down house. When Ning Yi had given her this chance to save herself, the first thing that had come to her mind was this mysterious person. She might incriminate herself is she gave Feng Hao up, but if she brought them to the mysterious person, they could at least defend themself, and she could find an opportunity to escape when the fighting started.

And so Feng Zhiwei took several quiet steps backward, and positioned herself to run away as quickly as possible when the chaos started.

But as she was backing away from the patrols, she felt a sudden coldness against her back and something hard pressing against her waist.

She looked around and saw the golden horsewhip pressed against her waist. Ning Yi looked down from his horse with an almost friendly smile on his beautiful face. “Where are you going?”

Feng Zhiwei looked into those smiling, unamused eyes and slowly smiled back. “I’m not going anywhere. Just here, waiting for the Commander to capture the real killer.”

“What a coincidence. We want the same thing.” Ning Yi’s smile deepened.

Feng Zhiwei’s mouth twitched. No one had even died; why was this great prince bothering himself with such a minor matter? She stood next to his beautiful black horse and looked it over admiringly. Smiling again, she asked, “Great prince, this is a tribute horse from Da Yue right? These are very rare! I hear that Da Yue can only tribute a couple every year.”

When her words stopped, the tenth prince Ning Ji turned his eyes towards her, looking somewhat apprehensively at Ning Yi.

Ning Yi’s expression didn’t change, and he looked down into Feng Zhiwei’s casual stare. She had raised her head slightly, and even in her pale, boyish face her eyes were clear and calm, and nothing strange could be seen in their depths.

Hi eyesight dropped slightly, and he answered a terse “En,” and turned away, his face lost in thought.

Feng Zhiwei didn’t seem to realize that his mood had changed, and she cheerfully reached out to touch the horse. Ning Ji’s expression abruptly changed and he shouted out, “Don’t touch Nie Dian¹! He has a bad tem….. yi?”

The famous bad tempered horse had suddenly changed his temper today. He only slightly dodged Feng Zhiwei’s hand at first, and afterwards even moved into her caress.

Ning Yi turned his head with a look of surprise (2). Feng Zhiwei moved her hand back and smiled awkwardly. “I apologize. The horse is so beautiful and I couldn’t resist.”

She smiled lightly, her expression and thoughts innocent. The robed figure had told her a few days ago how the second and sixth sons of the Emperor had fought over a famous Da Yue horse. Their fight had gotten so intense that the Emperor had almost had to enforce ancestral family law. The rumor was the sixth son ended up grounded (3) for three months, and it looked like the rumors were true.

“Hong!”

Before the pair had finished their chat, just as the Yamen runner was about to kick open the door of the shack, a great clamor burst out from within the run down house.

In a flash, half of the courtyard wall had collapsed and that herbal stove near the wall flew out and knocked down several of the Yamen runners. Many more cried out in pain and tried to dodge as the accompanying blast of air knocked down more of the surrounding people.

In the midst of a dense cloud of floating dust, two blurry figures rushed out from the ruined yard. One figure was in a large black robe and wore an ebony mask. That was the mysterious man who had “tortured” Feng Zhiwei all this while. The other figure was a stranger. He had a slender body and wore a curtained hat. His sky sea cyan clothes danced like water, and his body movement art was very strange. He rose up out of the cloud, and for a moment every part of his body was still like the deepest abyss. The duskbreak light was a halo to his cyan clothes, and for a long breath he seemed like a jade statue, flying skyward in the light.

For a moment, everyone just lifted their heads and stared. Feng Zhiwei squinted her eyes and thought idly that the man must be gorgeous, even though she could not see his face.

Just as everyone was stunned by the man’s stylish appearance, the two figures had already rushed forward. The two had apparently already been fighting inside the yard, and when they were disturbed by the group of Yamen runners outside, they just decided to break out.

The robed figure saw Feng Zhiwei, and after a slight gasp of surprise, rushed over to her. The man in the cyan clothes followed like a blur of blue smoke and reached his hand out to grab the robed man’s shoulder. The figure dodged without thinking, but the grasping hand didn’t change directions and thrust towards Feng Zhiwei’s face.

His fingers were jade in the sun, but his fingertips were red and sharp as coral.

The man’s speed was alarming, and even before she could react his clawing hands were about to reach Feng Zhiwei’s face. Just as she was sighing inside and saying goodbye to her beautiful face, Ning Yi hmphed coldly.

Before his freezing sound had filled the air, the raised cuff of his sleeve had already flashed green in the air.

In that moment, the all light between heaven and earth flashed.

The light was almost blinding and all of the crowd closed their eyes. Feng Zhiwei could barely resist as she struggled to see what was happening. She felt a soft cloth brush her face and the cyan that filled her eyes was pure sky lake blue, like the joy of a sky after storm. The dim light through the blue was purified, and the soft and gentle brush was like the touch of a beautiful dream.

But then a white light flashed and the sky cyan faded. A glorious blue flew by her face and a light gold Mandara bloomed in its place, and a wet droplet flew into the air.