The sky over the western wastes was bleeding, yet Han XiaoHua felt its savage beauty in her bones. On her sixteenth birthday, she was a whirlwind of white and gold, her fire-crystal staff a comet's tail in the fading light.
"Charge!" she commanded as she swept her staff in a low arc, unleashing a wave of shimmering heat that sent a pack of snarling demons shrieking into ash.
" Commander Han, We're closing in. We only need to break through the vanguard of the enemies."
" Great, reinforce our front lines. Send the shadow archery battalions to the river's eye. Push through. Don't hold back. General Xuyin1 herself will join us later."
" On your commands , my lord!"
The western armies were winning. Xiao Hua's heart thrummed with a fierce, exultant pride. For the first time, she wasn't just the Phantom General's little sister; she was a commander in her own right.
But suddenly her triumphant advances was halted by a figure who moved with a chilling grace. He wore the armor of the Han clan, yet his face was hidden behind a blank porcelain mask.
" My lady, long time no see"
" Who are you? What are doing here? Move to your position RIGHT NOW!"
" I'm afraid I won't be obeying your commands, Lady LiuHua." The man's voice lowered by the last words.
XiaoHua spun her staff, but his single, dark blade met her every move, parrying with an ease that spoke of a power she didn't comprehend. The clang of their weapons was a sharp, brutal rhythm
"You have the grace of a true royal, little one," the man's calm voice cut through the din as he forced her back. "But you lack the-…umm how to put… that finality."
XiaoHua grit her teeth, pouring more energy into her fiery dance, but he matched her effortlessly.
" Your sister has it though," with every word, his blade met with her's.
"That merciless predator's instinct. That-- that killer's precision. How wonderful, must have passed down from her father-"
"The great General Yu."
The name gave XiaoHua a half-second of pause, a flicker of confusion. The man pressed his advantage, his voice a poisonous whisper.
"Tell me Han XiaoHua, why does, a daughter of the lion clan fights with the fire of a Dragon?"
The question was a discordant note in the song of battle. "My mother's a dragon you idiot!" she retorted, her attack growing fiercer, angrier.
The masked man, Feng Ruo, let out a soft chuckle. "Really?" he asked, his blade locking with her staff. The pressure was immense.
" Ummm…. Facts. I like it!"
"But let me point out something for you, little one"
"Your beloved brothers, Jiutian and Yueming, they carry the Sigil of the roaring verdant lion on their skin. A proud mark of the Han. Truly..."
"But you… you and your precious sister, Han JiLan bear the sigil of the Azure Dragon."
" If your mother's that powerful, why your brothers didn't inherit, her sigil?"2
Xiao Hua's blood ran cold. It was a true, simple fact of her life she'd never thought to question. Her attack faltered.
" Stop splitting bullshit, if you can't fight just admit defeat!" xiaohua roared as she charged towards the cloaked figure.
" You lived a life of a lie, yet…. Yet you still has that pride, no wonder you really are that shen's daughter" Feng Ruo's voice was a surgical instrument, dissecting her world with cold precision.
"Know this too, miss 'Han' … You were never his. You're Shen LiuHua, daughter of the Emperor Shen JinHai."
" You're and you will be!"
The name felt foreign, a violation. The faces of her family flashed through her mind, suddenly shrouded in a fog of questions she'd never known to ask. Panic, cold and sharp, seized her heart. Why would they lie?
Feng Ruo saw the terror in her eyes and twisted the knife. "And your precious Jilan-jie," he hissed, "the woman you worship? She's not even your true sister."
The words struck her harder than any physical blow. "Not your sister-"
Her fluid, dance-like form faltered, only for a moment. Her staff's movement becoming clumsy for a single, fatal split second. But it was all the opening he needed.
" stop with that nonsense. You—"
His dark blade shot forward and buried itself deep in her heart. The physical pain was a distant echo to the agony of a soul that had just been annihilated. As her vision began to blur, he leaned in close, his final words a triumphant whisper.
"See? You're that man's daughter after all. Always weak, always inferior….. and that weakness- it's a fatal flaw in this world."
That was the final blow. Her world, her name, her family, her sister—everything she knew and loved—shattered into a million pieces of dust. The strength fled her limbs. The fire in her staff sputtered and died. Her mind, once a beacon of joyful pride, was now a white-hot void of confusion and terror. She froze, a perfect, broken statue in the midst of the carnage. She crumpled to her knees, her hands flying to the wound.
" You'll never know what it is to conquer the world, kid. You're nothing but a mere peasant compared to that woman."
" You are that demon's child"
With a final, contemptuous look, he melted back into the raging battle, leaving Han xiaohua bleeding into the dust as the life began to fade from her wide, shocked eyes.
Miles away, Han JiLan's sword was a sliver of moonlight, executing a perfect, passionless strike that ended the life of a hulking demon general. As the creature dissolved into dust, a sudden, searing pain exploded in her chest. It was a spiritual agony so profound it buckled her knees. A piece of her soul felt like it had been violently torn away.
"Ah-Yan!" Han Jiutian was at her side in an instant, his twin sabers a bloody blur. "What is it? You okay?"
JiLan clutched her chest, her face a mask of dawning horror, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She looked at her oldest brother, her eyes wild with a terror her brothers had never seen.
"Da-ge," she choked out. "Xiao-Hua." She turned to Han Yueming, who had already appeared at her other side.
"Er-ge… our Xiao-Hua, she— where is she?-"
" What's going on? What—"
"She needs us, Right now."
Her brothers did not need another word. Jiutian bellowed, like a whirlwind of steel clearing a path. Yueming's bow sang, thunderous arrows obliterating any demon that dared stand in their way. They understood. They were her brothers; they would move even the heaven and hell for their little sister. JiLan's face, once a calm battlefield mask, was now stripped bare, revealing the fury beneath. The demon general before her roared, sensing her distraction. JiLan didn't even seem to see it. She simply moved, her blade becoming a blur. It wasn't just a fight. It was an erasure.
With her enemy dissolving into dust, she didn't waste a single breath on a victory cry.
" Get me the Night Fiend. GO!"
She turned and ran. A silver phantom against a dying, blood-red sun, sprinting across a field of corpses, racing toward the fading, flickering ember of her sister's life.
" General, your ride is ready…."
Landing near the edge of the encampment, she let out a sharp, piercing whistle. From the darkness, a powerful, black-manned warhorse answered her call, its hooves thundering on the hard-packed earth.
Without breaking stride, JiLan vaulted into the saddle. She rode into the dying, blood-red sun, chasing the fading embers of her sister's life.
The thunder of a lone warhorse announced her arrival. Han JiLan rode into the heart of the battlefield as the last pockets of resistance were being stamped out by the victorious Western Army. Cheers were beginning to rise from her soldiers, but she neither saw nor heard them. Her silver eyes, wide with a terror that chilled any soldier she passed, scanned the field of carnage with a single, desperate purpose.
She vaulted from the saddle before the horse had even stopped, her brothers Jiutian and Yueming right behind her.
"Xiao Hua!"
Her voice was sharp, cutting through the din. She pushed through the ranks of her own men, ignoring their salutes and their concerned faces.
" Where is your commander?" Yueming questioned the soldiers.
"Answering the general; commander was near the rearguard of the demons moments ago, my lord. We were ordered to attack the vanguard"
" HOW DID YOU LEFT YOUR COMMANDER ALONE?! YOU WERE SUPPOSE BE BY HER SIDE!" Jiutian roared at the poor captain, who was obviously terrified.
" A-Yan, we need to act fast. The faster we clear up, the quicker we can find her."
"What are your commands? General—"
" They are facing an internal fall out, Prepare for a counter attack"
" Your orders general?..."
"Place our core spearmen between the flank cutters. Form the front lines into a spearhead and aim at the rear end of their river's eye. I will take the mystic edge3"
The phantom general's command came. It was matter of time before the demons collapse. The western armies who are already beaming with the face of victory, strike as the final lines of the demons fall.
But Han JiLan wasn't ready for a victory cry. Her gaze swept over the fallen, praying to every god she didn't believe in, a frantic litany of "no, not her, not her" running through her mind.
But then she saw it. In the center of the clearing, a small figure in the distinct white and gold armor of a commander lay too still amidst the bodies of slain demons.
JiLan's world, which had been a chaotic storm of panic, suddenly went perfectly, terrifyingly silent. The sounds of the battle, the cries of the wounded, her brothers' footsteps behind her—it all faded into a distant, hollow roar. The air grew thick, and her feet felt like they were encased in lead as she forced them to move.
" No…no, no, no please no"
She ran, closing the distance to the fallen commander, her heart hammering against her ribs with a dread so absolute it was a physical sickness.
She fell to her knees beside the body, her hands trembling uncontrollably. For a moment, she couldn't bring herself to touch it, to confirm the truth she already knew. But finally, with a choked breath, she reached out and gently turned the figure over.
Pale skin, smeared with dirt and blood. Wide, unfocused eyes. It was her little sister. Her Xiao Hua. JiLan heard the sound of her entire world collapse.
The one who always complained about her icy demeanor, who would poke her cheek and say, "You look too good to be that cold, Jie." The little girl who was the only source of pure, uncomplicated warmth in her life. She was lying broken in the mud.
"J…Jie"
A faint, gurgling sound escaped Xiao Hua's lips, and her eyes fluttered, trying to focus on JiLan's face. That tiny sign of life shattered JiLan's paralysis. She pulled her sister into her lap, cradling her head with a desperate gentleness, trying to shield her from the horrors of the world that had already broken her.
"Shhh, Xiao Hua," LiuYan whispered, her voice a soft, cracking thing Xiao Hua hadn't heard in years. "Y-Y-Yes, honey, nothing— nothing will happen to you ok? Jie is here. I'm here for you. You'll be fine—" she was already chocking on her own words.
" Don't you dare leave me…."
LiuHua's eyes pleaded with her, a desperate urgency in them. She choked on her own blood, trying to force out the words, to warn her, to tell her the terrible truth she thought JiLan didn't know.
" It's fine baby, you don't have to talk—don't talk for now. I won't let anything—anything to take you away. I won't, I promise— GET ME A DOCTOR RIGHT NOW! Please—"
"I'm so sorry"
"J-J-Jie…Jie… he said h—" The words were lost in a final, wet cough. The light in her eyes, which had flared for a moment with love and terror, finally faded into stillness.
Her small hand, which had been weakly stroking JiLan's cheek, went limp and fell. Han JiLan caught it, her fingers gripping her sister's cooling ones.
"Xiao Hua?" she whispered, the denial in her voice absolute.
"Xiao Hua, baby…wake up." She gently patted her sister's cheek. "Wake up, please" A single, hot tear traced a clean path through the grime on her own face.
" I told you I'm sorry—Please don't do this to me….please"
Han Jiutian let out a roar of pure, guttural agony. Han Yueming's handsome face became a mask of cold, deadly fury. When a few remaining demons, seeing the commanders distracted, made a final, foolish charge, the brothers intercepted them. It was not a fight. It was a slaughter. A whirlwind of twin sabers and a volley of thunder-whip arrows erased the demons from existence, a final, violent punctuation to a day of tragedy.
The explosion of violence from her brothers finally broke the dam of JiLan's control. The battle was over. The world was safe. But none of it mattered. She pulled her sister's lifeless body tight to her chest, burying her face in LiuHua's hair. The half-crying became a full, silent, body-wracking sob that shook her to her very core.
The undefeated Phantom General was gone. In the twilight of a bloody battlefield, all that was left was a girl, holding her little sister, weeping as the world turned to ash around her.
Author's note:
1. GENERAL XUYIN = THE PHANTOM GENERAL / ETHEREAL SHADOW
2. IN THIS NOVEL, A NEW BORN WILL NOT INHERIT THE SIGIL OF THEIR FATHER ALONE. THE SIGIL WILL BE DECIDE BY THE STRONGEST PARENT , EITHER MOTHER OR FATHER HAS EQUAL 50% CHANCE OF GIVING THEIR SIGIL TO THE CHILD AT BIRTH. BUT THE CHILD WILL INHERIT THE SIGIL OF THE OF THE MOST POWERFUL PARENT , PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY.
3. THE FORMATION TAKES A V SHAPE, (SPEAR) AND MYSTIC EDGE IS THE EDGE OF THE SPEAR HEAD.