One by one, the weapons and armor descended from the sky, glowing threads of qi linking them to their destined wielders. Disciples reached out trembling hands, each expecting only weight, steel, and coldness.
Instead… warmth.
The first sword settled into a disciple's palm. At once, a voice whispered faintly in her mind — not words, but intent: I am yours, and you are mine. The blade pulsed with her frost dao, shimmering with crystalline edges that matched her inner resonance.
She cried out, dropping to her knees. "It spoke… it spoke to me!"
Another disciple staggered as a breastplate wrapped around his body in golden light. The armor pulsed once, then adjusted its fit, shrinking or expanding seamlessly until it felt like a second skin. His eyes widened as he felt its will merge with his own. His strength steadied, his dao calmed — as if a brother-in-arms stood at his side.
"Senior Brother Haotian!" he shouted, tears in his eyes. "It has a spirit! The armor itself… acknowledged me!"
The courtyard erupted.
"It… it chose me!"
"My blade is alive!"
"I can feel its will guiding me!"
The sky shimmered as the dao weapons and armors continued to bond. Some glowed brightly with frost, others with water, lightning, or moonlight. The rare frostfire armors pulsed with dual flames, fierce and proud, while ordinary swords sang with the voices of loyal companions.
The disciples wept openly, bowing to Haotian.
"Senior Brother Haotian, thank you!"
"With this, we will never be alone in battle!"
"Our dao now has partners that will grow with us!"
Above them, Haotian stood with his hands clasped behind his back. His golden eyes glimmered faintly as he explained.
"Dao-forged weapons and armors are not dead steel. When harmony is perfect, the dao itself breathes life into them. From this day on, every blade, every shield, every plate of armor you wield will have its own spirit — a will that grows alongside yours. Treat them not as tools, but as comrades."
Yinxue's lips parted slightly, awe softening her normally composed expression. "He… he gave them dao companions. For every disciple."
Ziyue's eyes burned, her grip tightening. "Weapons with will… even sovereign sects dream of this."
Shuyue's tears spilled over. "Senior Brother… you've given them family in their blades."
The disciples roared, their voices unified, the air trembling with their devotion.
"Senior Brother Haotian!"
Above them, hundreds of dao weapons and armors pulsed as one — a living chorus of steel and spirit — echoing the cries of their masters.
The Moon Lotus Sect was no longer a sect of women bound by discipline. They were now an army clad in living dao armaments, forged by the hands of one man who defied heaven.
The training fields of the Moon Lotus Sect thrummed with life. For the first time, the disciples did not wield cold steel — but living dao weapons and armors that pulsed with will.
Teams formed instinctively. Frost-sword wielders sparred side by side with lightning-shield bearers, their dao resonances blending into waves of storm and ice. Moonlight-blade users weaved illusions across the field, while frostfire gauntlet bearers crashed forward with fists that blazed like twin suns.
Where before training had been mechanical, now it was alive. Each weapon whispered, nudged, and guided its wielder's movements. Strikes became more fluid, defenses more instinctive. Dao merged seamlessly into every motion.
Haotian stood at the edge of the field, hands clasped behind his back, golden eyes sweeping the horizon of flashing light. The disciples moved not as scattered individuals, but as living teams, guided by both their dao and the spirits of their forged companions.
He nodded once, satisfied."They've already learned to treat their blades as partners. Good. With time, these teams will be unbreakable."
At his side, Yinxue crossed her arms, her gaze softening as she watched. "Their confidence is different. They no longer fear their own weaknesses."
Ziyue's sharp eyes followed a frostfire-armored disciple who smashed through three opponents. "The armors even correct their hesitations. It's like they're being taught while they fight."
Shuyue clasped her hands to her chest, whispering, "Senior Brother gave them more than tools. He gave them trust."
Haotian's lips curved faintly, but he did not answer. His gaze had already turned inward.
That night, the forges were silent. Only Haotian remained in the great alchemy-forging hall. Before him lay neat stacks of untouched Scarlet Dragonfire Ore, veins of molten jade, and bones of wyverns stripped from the East.
But these were not for the sect. These were for himself.
He ran his hand slowly across a length of ore, his expression calm. "A sect can rise with living weapons, but its master must wield more. I need a weapon and armor that can carry not only my dao, but my burden."
He closed his eyes, and in his mind's eye the form took shape:
— A spear, its length etched with the scales of a great flood dragon, its tip shaped like a dragon's fanged maw. Its colors gleamed white and silk-blue, like a river's crest shimmering under moonlight.
— An armor, flowing like living scales, designed not to hinder but to coil around him as if he himself were a dragon. Its helm would bear subtle ridges like horns, its breastplate layered with sleek plates that glistened like water.
The theme was one: Flood Dragon Sovereignty.
Haotian opened his golden eyes. They glimmered with resolve.
"My spear will roar as the river, my armor flow as the tide. Together, they will embody my dao of harmony, time, and space. The Flood Dragon's Crown."
He pressed his hand to the forging table, runes spreading in streams of silver light. The hall trembled faintly under the pressure of his intent.
"Tomorrow, I begin."
The courtyard blazed with red-gold light as Haotian's forging reached its crescendo. The molten rivers split and reformed, each stream shaping itself into armor. But when the glow dimmed and the first set settled onto a disciple… gasps rang across the field.
It was not heavy plate, nor crude steel.
The armor shimmered with phoenix grace.
Crimson-gold plates curved perfectly along the disciple's form, each contour flowing like feathers of flame. The waist guards hugged her slender waist, binding her frame elegantly, while long inner robes unfurled behind her like trailing wings. When she moved, the fabric shimmered, spreading wide like a phoenix taking flight.
A circlet rested against her forehead, etched with runes shaped like layered feathers. At its center, a faint ember glowed — alive, pulsing in harmony with her dao. Each movement she made caused the circlet's feather motifs to gleam, as though a phoenix plume crowned her.
"It's… beautiful," the disciple whispered, touching her circlet with trembling fingers. "It feels alive."
More armors descended, each molding perfectly to their destined wearer. Soon the entire field filled with women clad in phoenix raiment: long crimson inner robes flowing like wings, armor plates etched with feathered ridges, circlets burning faintly with light. When they stood together, their silhouettes shone like a flock of divine phoenixes reborn in firelight.
The disciples wept openly."This… this isn't just armor…""We are phoenixes…""Reborn by Senior Brother's hands!"
Haotian stood before them, voice steady, eyes gleaming faintly."You are not meant to be chained by cold steel. You are phoenixes, reborn in dao and flame. This armor does not hide your grace — it reveals it. It binds with your dao, it breathes with you, it fights with you. From this day forward, you carry both beauty and terror, as phoenixes rising from the ashes."
The courtyard erupted with cries.
"Senior Brother Haotian!""We are phoenixes!""We will soar with you!"
Even Yinxue, usually composed, raised her hand to her circlet, her cheeks faintly flushed. "So this is what you intended…"
Ziyue's lips curved into a rare smile. "Armor that declares us phoenixes… to wear this is pride itself."
Shuyue touched her waist guard, marveling at how the armor seemed to highlight her very figure. She whispered softly, "Senior Brother… you made us shine."
Above them all, the phoenix-armors pulsed in harmony, flames flickering faintly like wings unfurling, a living army of phoenixes ready to soar.
As the phoenix armors settled onto their destined wearers, the next wave of molten streams split in the sky. Swords began to take form — and the disciples froze as their destined blades descended.
These were not plain weapons. Each sword shimmered with phoenix grace.
The blades gleamed in hues of crimson, silver, or frost-blue depending on their wielder's dao, but every edge carried feather-like ridges etched along the flat of the steel, as though born from a phoenix plume. The guards were curved, elegant, with wing motifs spreading outward. The hilts bound smoothly in silken wraps that trailed faintly, like phoenix tails in flight.
When the first disciple gripped her sword, the blade pulsed once, light flaring like a phoenix's cry. Her eyes widened as the weapon's will whispered to her dao, guiding her stance.
"This sword… it's alive. It knows me."
More blades landed in their destined hands. Frost dao users found their swords glimmering with crystalline feathers, every strike shedding icy sparks. Lightning dao swords hummed faintly, their edges tracing arcs of gold. Moonlight dao swords shimmered translucent, their wings of silver making them almost ghostlike. The rare frostfire swords burned with dual flames that flared like twin phoenix wings at every swing.
And when the entire sect raised their blades together — hundreds of phoenix swords flared, their glow harmonizing with the phoenix armors.
From the air, it looked as though a flock of phoenixes had spread their wings across the training field, each sword blazing like a plume of divine fire.
The disciples cried out, their voices carrying through the mountains:
"We are phoenixes!""With blades that soar!""With armor that burns!"
Yinxue raised her own sword, its feathers etched in frost and time, her phoenix armor gleaming. Ziyue's icewind sword now shone with spectral wings of silver-blue. Shuyue's sword pulsed with warmth, the dao of love shimmering at its edge.
Haotian looked upon them, satisfaction burning in his golden eyes.
"The Moon Lotus Sect," he declared, "has risen. From this day forward, you will not be known as mere cultivators. You will be the Phoenix Blades — the storm that tears through demons, the fire that refuses to die."
The disciples roared in unison, their phoenix swords and armors pulsing with spirit. For the first time, the sect no longer looked like mortals training in robes.
They looked like an army of phoenixes, reborn in dao and steel.
The training field still shimmered like dawn, filled with phoenix maidens clad in living flame-armors and swords that pulsed like wings. The air burned with their cries, the living chorus of phoenixes reborn.
Yet above it all, Haotian stood silent at the center.
He raised his hand. From the sea of ores and treasures he had reserved, molten light rose in a tide. Unlike before, this was not crimson-gold. It was white and silk-blue, the colors of rivers and sky. But as the molten essence gathered, it fractured into ten streams — each glowing in a different hue: flame, frost, lightning, wind, earth, water, crystal, void, light, and shadow.
The ten elements wove together in harmony, shimmering into a rainbow sheen that layered over the white-blue foundation.
The disciples froze, breath caught in their throats.
"Senior Brother… this forging is different.""It feels like… the heavens themselves are bending…"
Slowly, the molten streams condensed.
First came the spear: its shaft long and white-silver, etched with the scales of a great flood dragon, flowing like a river's current. Its tip curved into a dragon's fanged maw, sharp and majestic, the edge shimmering with the rainbow sheen of ten elements. When the molten light settled, the spear pulsed once — and a spectral flood dragon roared from its length, its cry shaking the sky.
Next, the armor took shape.
Plates of silk-blue and white folded and flowed, sleek as water, coiling around Haotian's frame like living scales. The breastplate shimmered with layered dragon ridges, his gauntlets curved with claw motifs, the helm marked with subtle dragon horns that glistened under the sun. Every surface of the armor shimmered faintly with rainbow hues, each element alive, yet held in perfect harmony.
When the armor settled onto him, the ground itself trembled. His golden eyes glowed, and behind him the aura of ten elements surged skyward — a rainbow flood dragon ascending into the clouds.
The disciples dropped to their knees at once.
"He… he is not like us.""Our phoenixes… but he…""He is the dragon that rules the skies."
Yinxue pressed a hand over her heart, her voice trembling. "Haotian… you've become our sovereign."
Ziyue's sharp eyes softened, awe in her tone. "No phoenix can match the flood dragon that commands the heavens."
Shuyue's tears spilled freely as she whispered, "He shines so far above us… yet he still calls us his."
Haotian lowered the spear, his armor glowing faintly, the rainbow sheen flowing across his frame like living water. His voice carried with calm weight.
"You are phoenixes, reborn to blaze against the darkness. But every phoenix needs a sky to soar beneath." He planted the spear into the ground with a resonant boom. "I am that sky. I am the flood dragon who will lead you."
The phoenix maidens raised their swords in unison, their phoenix armor blazing, their blades pulsing as if bowing toward the dragon.
"Sovereign! Sovereign! Sovereign!"
Above the Moon Lotus Sect, phoenix cries and dragon roars echoed together — harmony of flame and flood, fire and water, phoenix and dragon.
And in that moment, the sect was no longer a hidden northern order.
They were an army of phoenixes led by the Flood Dragon Sovereign.
The training fields blazed with life. Hundreds of disciples moved in formation, phoenix armors shimmering like flowing wings of fire and silk. Their swords cried with them, each blade pulsing with the will of its spirit.
Pairs formed first — two phoenix maidens sparring, their blades clashing in arcs of flame and frost, moonlight and lightning. Sparks fell like rain, the air alive with phoenix cries. Then groups of five and ten, moving in dazzling synchronicity. Their inner robes trailed behind them, spreading like wings as they struck and turned, a storm of phoenixes in flight.
Above, the sky itself seemed to shimmer with their aura, their training no longer the rigid drills of mortals — but the soaring dances of divine beasts.
Yinxue leapt high, her seven-fold dao blazing across her phoenix sword. Frost and ice erupted in an arc, only to twist as her dao of love wrapped her strike in warmth, guiding rather than breaking. The phoenix etched in her circlet flared bright, her armor trailing crimson and white wings as she landed, steady as snow.
Ziyue streaked past her, her icewind sword dao whistling sharp. Her blade multiplied into dozens of spectral feathers of steel, each moving with the speed of wind. She flowed like a storm current, her phoenix armor gleaming frost-blue and silver.
Shuyue followed, her sword glowing with the dao of love, interlaced with the beginnings of her virtues. She swung once, her phoenix blade resonating with compassion, striking through her partner's defenses — not to destroy, but to erase. Her armor shimmered bright crimson, the trailing robes flaring like wings in flight.
Haotian stood at the center, his golden eyes watching.
"Good. You are no longer a sect of women," he said quietly. "You are phoenixes. Let the world tremble when you soar."
The disciples roared their response, swords blazing like a sky of fire.
Then Haotian lifted his own weapon.
The Flood Dragon Spear pulsed, white and silk-blue, the rainbow sheen shimmering faintly across its length. His armor coiled around him like living scales, spectral dragon horns glinting as the air thickened under his aura. The ground trembled as the will of the flood dragon awakened.
"Now," Haotian called, his voice carrying over the cries of phoenixes, "face me."
A wave of disciples surged forward, phoenix blades blazing.
The clash was thunder.
The first strikes came from ten phoenix maidens, their blades weaving frost and lightning in a cage of feathers. Haotian stepped forward once, the spear sweeping in an arc. The rainbow sheen of the ten elements rippled outward — and the cage shattered, their blades thrown wide, their armors flaring as the spirits within shrieked in protest.
More came, thirty phoenixes at once, their blades and wings harmonizing in waves of flame and moonlight. Haotian let them surround him, then thrust his spear forward. The spectral flood dragon roared from its tip, its cry shaking the field as it blasted the phoenix storm apart.
Yet even as they staggered back, their phoenix swords cried, their armors flared, and the disciples rose again — not broken, but stronger, driven by the wills of their living companions.
Yinxue, Ziyue, and Shuyue leapt together, their phoenix armors blazing like stars.
Yinxue's seven-fold dao froze the air, the feathers of frost crystallizing around her. Ziyue's icewind sword split the skies with speed, spectral feathers slashing in hundreds. Shuyue's sword pulsed with love, her strike blazing with compassion that threatened to erase everything before it.
Haotian's eyes gleamed.
He stepped forward, spear whirling, his dragon armor roaring with the rainbow glow of ten elements. Flood and flame, lightning and void — all burst outward at once.
Dragon and phoenix clashed.
Explosions rippled across the training field, shockwaves flattening grass, the cries of phoenixes mixing with the roar of the dragon. Disciples watching from the sidelines gasped, their eyes wide with awe.
And when the light finally dimmed, Haotian stood in the center, spear steady, his armor unbroken. Around him, phoenix maidens lay on the ground, their armors flaring weakly but their eyes alight with joy.
They had fought, truly fought, against the dragon.
Haotian lowered his spear, his voice steady."Good. You fought like phoenixes. You rose even after you fell. Remember this: a phoenix does not bow, and a dragon does not kneel. Together, we will burn the heavens if need be."
The disciples roared in answer, phoenix blades blazing once more.