News of the Dragon King's retreat spread like wildfire. For a sovereign who had reigned over the Beast Sanctum for centuries to vanish overnight sent shockwaves across the ancestral land. To many, it was unthinkable. To others, it was an opportunity.
And at the center of it all was Feng Jiu, the newly crowned Queen of the Phoenix Clan.
The sanctum that had once been the Dragon King's was now ashes. Her flames had consumed the throne, whether she willed it or not. But her enemies were far from cowed.
In the gathering hall of the Phoenix Clan, her elders knelt, their voices uneasy.
"Your Majesty, this realm is not as it was before. Every beast clan watches us with suspicion. If we stand too tall, they will unite against us. If we bow too low, they will devour us."
Feng Jiu sat upon her new throne — a seat woven from scarlet fire that refused to extinguish. Her crimson eyes burned with authority.
"Let them watch. The phoenix does not cower under the gaze of jackals."
But even as she said it, she understood the truth. Their return had shaken the balance. Ancient bloodline clans — White Tiger, Azure Serpent, Nine-Tailed Fox — whispered of her as both threat and opportunity.
And then came the summons.
The Beast Assembly, a council of the oldest beast lords, invited her to prove her right to rule within the ancestral lands. It was no request — it was a test.
On the day of the Assembly, Feng Jiu walked alone into the coliseum carved into a mountain's heart. Tens of thousands of beasts gathered, filling the skies and valleys. Their roars shook the world.
At the center of the arena, the Beast Lords waited. Among them, the Nine-Tailed Fox Queen with her sly smile, the White Tiger Patriarch with his aura of killing intent, and countless others.
"You seek a place in the ancestral lands," the Fox Queen purred. "Then prove you are not a fledgling."
The Tiger Patriarch stepped forward, his claws gleaming like forged blades.
"If the phoenix wishes to rule, let her show us her fire can match our fangs."
Feng Jiu's wings spread wide, scarlet feathers scattering sparks.
"Very well. Come, then. Let my fire judge you."
The battle that followed was chaos — her flames clashed with claws, tails, and fangs. Phoenix techniques bloomed:
"Nirvana Ascension" — her flames wrapped her wounds, regenerating as she fought.
"Golden Sun Burst" — a miniature sun erupted, blinding the Tiger Patriarch and scorching his stripes.
"Crimson Skyfall" — her wings unleashed a rain of fire-feathers that turned the battlefield into a storm of burning meteors.
One by one, the challengers fell back. When the smoke cleared, Feng Jiu stood at the center, her feathers scorched but her fire burning higher than ever.
The coliseum fell silent, then erupted into roars of reluctant acknowledgement.
That day, Feng Jiu was no longer just Queen of the Phoenix Clan. She was acknowledged by the beast world as the Phoenix Sovereign of the Ancestral Lands.
But as the cheers shook the skies, her heart stirred uneasily. For in the middle of the battle, flashes of memory had surged again. That silver-haired figure. That battlefield. That voice calling her name.
And then — one word, clear as flame.
Tie Ling.
The name burned into her mind. Who was she? Why did it make her chest ache with a longing she could not explain?
The storm of her destiny was only beginning.
---
While Feng Jiu claimed her crown above, Taiyi's path was lonelier, harsher.
He had crossed the Black Lightning Trench, barely alive. But the abyss had tempered him. His body, once that of a youth, was now forged by storms. His eyes remained hidden beneath his blindfold, but his perception was sharper than ever.
Every day on the mortal shores, he battled sea beasts, mercenaries, and ancient predators. His sword never left its sheath for long.
Through countless fights, his cultivation surged like a tide, breaking through bottlenecks with terrifying speed. Within mere years, he stepped into the mid-rank of the Middle Immortal Realm. His aura alone could crush the proud cultivators of the East Sea.
But his swordsmanship grew even faster.
Blindfolded, he honed techniques that blurred the line between instinct and mastery:
"Silent Void Slash" — a cut that made no sound, yet severed the soul.
"Ocean-Breaking Strike" — his blade cleaved waves and beasts alike, parting seas with a single motion.
"One Heart, One Sword" — the technique where his will and blade became inseparable, striking faster than thought.
The mortals whispered of him as the Blind Swordsman, a ghost who walked the shore, striking only when provoked, leaving corpses of sea kings and marauders in his wake.
But fate was not done with him.
One day, while pursuing a leviathan into the reefs of the Forbidden Shore, Taiyi was lured into a place where even the sea itself screamed.
The water twisted unnaturally, currents forming chains of black mist. Strange whispers echoed — voices not of the living, but of the dead. The reef became a labyrinth, and in its center, he found a monolith carved from obsidian, its surface engraved with runes of the battlefield.
When his hand touched the stone, his vision shattered.
He stood once again in that ancient war. Flames devoured the heavens, blood soaked the earth. Silver hair whipped in the storm — his own hair. His sword cleaved gods and demons alike. And beside him, wings of crimson flame — Feng Jiu's wings — shielded a child whose face he could not see.
The image struck his heart like lightning.
He staggered, blood dripping from his lips. His body trembled violently as power surged, threatening to tear him apart. But for the first time, a fragment of clarity pierced the haze.
"This battlefield… it was real. I was there."
The sea howled around him. The Forbidden Shore pressed its curse into his body. But his blade glowed with a light that would not submit.
He gritted his teeth, muttering through the pain.
"If I must suffer to regain the truth, then so be it. No curse, no storm will silence my sword."
And with each passing day trapped in that cursed place, fragments of memory seeped back. Faces blurred but familiar. Flames and swords intertwined. A name whispered in his dreams.
A name that made his heart ache.
Tie Ling.