Rising Phoenix

Feng Zhiwei lifted her eyes and looked into the young girl’s face. Her pair of clear eyes shone with a mirror-like clarity that seemed to capture the fine motes of dust drifting in the air — this pair of eyes were the only part of her that did not fit her…

After a moment, Feng Zhiwei gently pulled her hand out of the Princess’s grasp, smiling lightly as she replied. “Your Highness, I do not understand what you are saying.”

“You do understand.” Shao Ning finished, quickly regaining her calm after she finished her speech. “You know what he has done, and you understand what he is planning for you. You understand, and you should listen to me.”

Feng Zhiwei paused in silence before speaking. “Your Highness, he is your elder brother.”

“I only have one older brother.” Shao Ning said, pouring herself a cup of wine and quickly finishing it off. “We come from the same womb, and he was twelve years older than me. Our mother passed early on, and when I cried alone through the night, alone in my palace, he came to take me to his palace and watched over me through the night. When I was sick, he put away country affairs to take care of me, and was punished by Father Emperor. When I wanted to leave the palace to play, he would help cover for me, and would take responsibility if something went wrong. I wanted the to have a free life at Qing Ming, and he spent many months speaking to father, spending a lot of effort to have Tenth Brother accompany me… the people of the world all say that he was frivolous and mediocre, and should not have been the Crown Prince, but whether or not he was a good Crown Prince, he was my one and only and forever irreplaceable, best older brother.”

“My older brother.” Shao Ning’s face was flushed, and she placed her cup heavily on the table, sloshing some wine onto the back of her hand. She brought her hand to her mouth and licked up the liquid, her snow white hand a striking contrast to her dark iris. “He died in front of me, his chest pierced through, and after his death not even his descendants were saved, and he could not rest in the Imperial Cemetery. Does being born into the Imperial Family really doom you to this miserable end?

Feng Zhiwei closed her eyes, and in her mind’s eye could almost see the bloody flames flashing before her.

“I refused to help him poison Father Emperor, but I will not refuse to seek his revenge.” Shao Ning smiled miserably. “Wei Zhi, if even I understand how he died to Ning Yi’s interlocking stratagems, how could you not? Or do you really think that I am frivolous and ignorant, and that my so-called revenge is only a childish tantrum?”

Feng Zhiwei remained silent. For better or for worse, the Princess had finally wisened up, but with Prince Chu’s power throughout the country, avoiding him might not even be enough and she wanted to provoke him? If she courted her death, Feng Zhiwei did not wish to join her…

“I am Tian Sheng Dynasty’s most beloved princess, and this title of most beloved is not powerless.” Shao Ning laughed coldly. “I was also granted three bodyguards, and while a normal prince only has three thousand guards, I have ten thousand, and all of them are selected soldiers from the Yu Lin Army. Father Emperor has followed the ancient rites of Tang Mu Yi¹ and granted me one of the richest and most fertile He Jia county in the Jiang Huai region, and… in the years of Father Emperor’s aging, he has lost son after son, so during these years of as he has tended to the affairs of the country, he has considered treating with me taboo.”

While the first few things that the princess had mentioned did not amount to much, Feng Zhiwei raised her eyebrows at this last sentence. She had never thought that the Tian Sheng Emperor would spoil his daughter like this — no wonder Ning Yi thought he had to kill her.

Feng Zhiwei paused for a moment before replying in a sincere voice. “Your Highness, these matters are not ones that should enter this Minor Minister’s ears. Whether you speak of your honored self or Prince Chu, both of you are the Emperor’s flesh and blood, and for family to bare blades against each other will devastate His Imperial Majesty.”

“And is he not already devastated?” Shao Ning cast a strange look at her. “You say flesh and blood, and I also thought like this before, but Ning Yi does not necessarily think this way. The things he has done…”

Feng Zhiwei turned her eyes and looked Shao Ning in the face, but the Princess shut her mouth, an uncomfortable expression on her face.

“Wei Zhi, I want you to help me, and I also want to help protect your life.” Shao Ning took Feng Zhiwei’s hand again. “You are already in danger.”

“Princess, are you not in the same situation as well?” Feng Zhiwei looks deeply into her wine cup before suddenly shooting Shao Ning a smile. “You have taken the risk of leaving the Imperial Palace, yet in this most eventful of years, danger is still hidden everywhere. Have you not heard the rumor that remnants of the Crown Prince’s party are still hidden throughout the city, and while the hunt is still ongoing, even if something terrible were to happen, it would be impossible to find the perpetrators.”

“This will not happen.” Shao Ning’s expression changed. “I have brought many guards…”

“These guards, are they all trustworthy?”

Shao Ning’s face went pale, and just as she opened her mouth, the candle on the table suddenly quivered.

The wall behind her silently split open, and a spear head lunged forward like a venomous snake, piercing straight for the center of Shao Ning’s back!

The spear moved too quickly for words, pouncing like a flash of lightning, and almost as soon as it had appeared through the opening in the wall, it was already a second away from the Princess’s back.

Feng Zhiwei’s hand smoothly slipped forward out of the Princess’s grasp, her fingers grabbing onto Shao Ning’s sleeve as she pulled back in a mighty heave.

Shao Ning was pulled forward, her face smashing heavily into the platter of fruit placed on the table, pressing flat the last slices of peach, splashing the fruit’s juice in every direction.

The spearhead flew over Shao Ning’s head, the howl of wind in its wake putting out the candle. The metal tip shone with a cold gleam in the darkness, and like a bolt of lightning flying forward until it ground itself, shot forward into Feng Zhiwei’s face.

In the blink of an eye, Feng Zhiwei fell backwards, the spear tip almost touching her nose, filling her nostrils with the cold tang of metal and blood.

A cacophony erupted outside the room, the sound of whipping clothes never ceasing as figures traded blows. Gu Nanyi never appeared, clearly entangled with another expert whose kung fu was as extraordinary as the person who had sent forth this spear.

Someone was determined to make this place the scene of both their deaths.

All light was extinguished, and the air was filled with the sweet aroma of peach. The tip of the spearhead quivered in the air like a bloodthirsty venomous snake, searching for its prey.

A shadowed figure shot into the room, a guard rushing in, calling out softly as he came forward, “Princess! Princess, are you alright!”

Shao Ning let out a sigh of relief and was about to call back when her mouth was covered by a cold hand.

The palm that covered her mouth was smooth and carried a faintly sweet taste, and as Shao Ning’s eyes fell open in shock, a strange thought flit through her mind, so out of place in the chaos: how is Wei Zhi’s hand so small, so smooth, so sweet…

Feng Zhiwei covered Shao Ning’s mouth and grunted deeply. When the guard had run up and reached the side of the couch, Feng Zhiwei flicked her hand up, her fingers grasping forward like a steel claw, seizing the guard’s throat and throwing him into the spearhead.

“Chi.”

The spear pierced flesh, and blood fell as water from a fountain. The guard’s throat gurgled, his shocked eyes suddenly flashing, for a moment, reflecting in his pupils a mirrored look on Shao Ning’s face. Then the light faded, and like the candle beside them, was extinguished.

The fierce spear that would not retreat until it had taste blood was finally satisfied, and it retreated back through the hole that it had pierced through.

Feng Zhiwei grabbed the peach covered Shao Ning and rushed forward, crashing into a man’s chest just as they reached the door. When the clean, clear smell filled her nose, Feng Zhiwei knew that Gu Nanyi had arrived.

“Take her to the Imperial Palace!” Feng Zhiwei pushed Shao Ning into Gu Nanyi’s arms. She could not allow Shao Ning to die where she had arranged to secretly meet Wei Zhi. If the Princess had to die, then she could die somewhere else.

“No!” Young Master Gu immediately pushed Shao Ning aside, reaching forward to grab his little servant girl Feng.