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543. The Source of Flames
🕑 Added 2023-04-21 14:00:03 +0000 UTCLittle Flame pointed the way, her fingers skeletal whenever they peeked out from under her sleeves. They left the Night Market behind, flying out into a wilderness of dead trees, wilting bamboo, and stagnant ponds.
“I once tried to escape the Night Market,” Little Flame said softly. “I walked out into the wilds, on and on until my legs went numb, and even then, I kept going. Out and out. Into the endless night. And then, at the very edge of the horizon, I found her.”
Darkness. The world cut off, dead beyond a sharp edge. Hui sat up, startled. Eh?
They flew closer, and the edge came more clearly into vision. Sheer stone dropped off the edge of the world, falling to oblivion.
Huh. I guess it isn’t unexpected that there’s a limit to this small realm. Still, a sharp edge like this, a blatant cliff for the world’s edge… I guess it’s better than an ice wall, but…
The silk circled toward the ground. It touched down gently. Little Flame lifted her skirts and stepped off, while Hui and Black Dragon leaped to the ground.
Walking to the edge of the cliff, Little Flame crouched down and peered over the edge. “Down there. Beyond the limits of the Night Market. I climbed down there, hoping that I might be able to escape and return to… to my beloved. But instead, all I found were…” She rubbed her hands over her arms and shivered slightly.
“The flames,” Hui guessed. He pressed his lips together, looking out over the cliff.
“Are you going?” Black Dragon asked.
Hui nodded. “I have to. Elder Sister, Senior, please go back first.”
Little Flame nodded. She glanced at Black Dragon and edged back toward her nervously.
Black Dragon looked at him, then nodded. “If I don’t hear from you in a day, I’m coming back to find you.”
“Senior is too considerate,” Hui said, bowing. I’m not going to refuse her help. One near-Immortal level existence can only be countered by another near-Immortal existence! If the phoenix-fire woman is here, and she’s not restrained somehow, the only way to deal with her may be to rely on Black Dragon.
I’d rather find my own way to deal with the phoenix fire lady, though. I have no idea where Black Dragon’s ‘favor’ runs out, and I’m not eager to end up in her debt!
Behind him, the Black Dragon unfurled her silk again. Little Flame climbed up onto it, and Black Dragon stepped up behind her. She paused, watching Hui, then turned and flew off. Black silk fluttered, and she vanished, flying off into the distance.
All alone, Hui looked out over the chasm. The stone stretched down, down, down, into utter black. There wasn’t even a flicker of light in the depths, no hint as to fire hidden below. The wind blew up along the face of the cliff. He swayed backward with the force of the wind.
For a second, he forgot he was a cultivator, that he could fly, that he was any more than a mortal. He gazed into the darkness and swallowed. Every centimeter of the distance turned into a meter. The cliff fell away and away, on down until he couldn’t see it anymore.
Instinctively, he backed away from the cliff. Half a step back, he forced himself to stop. No. It’s fine. I can fly. I’m in no danger here.
Hui licked his lips. Carefully, he drew back up to the edge of the cliff. Here we go.
Toes lined up on the edge of the cliff, he hopped off and plunged, hurtling down into the void.
Stone wall on one side. Emptiness on the other. Hui dropped into the darkness, gazing down at the nothing below him. After a moment, he began to fly downward, gravity not fast enough. This is a cultivation world, after all. It’s quite possible that this world continues for some unreasonable cultivation number… hundreds of thousands of meters, or even millions!
Though… if the phoenix-fire lady is sealed down here, doesn’t that imply that Fen Long came to the Night Market? After all, he’s the one who sealed the Four Evils. But what would draw him here? No… for that matter, how did a pre-Immortal cultivator manage to enter the realm hidden within the Underworld and return alive?
Hui put a hand on his chin as he flew downward, his hair streaming directly back from his face. After a moment, he shrugged. Senior Fen Long is mysterious, mysterious indeed! I suppose I’ll just let him have his mysteries. In any case, I think Senior Chen Wuya implied he once ruled the… no, was it ‘an?’ ‘An’ Underworld. On top of that, the reaper said something about the two of them being… what, Immortal-like beings from another realm, or something? So it isn’t so odd that he and Fen Long ended up in this mysterious minor realm… probably.
Deeper and deeper. Hui flew on, hurtling down. He crossed his arms and yawned, bored. Damn. This thing really is deep. How far did Little Flame climb? There’s no way she went all the way down here. How devoted was she to this beloved of hers? I wouldn’t climb this far with a mortal body for anyone! It would take years to climb this far, years! If I was mortal, and my lover was mortal, they’d be dead long before I reached the bottom of this cliff!
The solid gray streaking by the left side of his vision abruptly fell away. Hui pushed himself to a halt and looked around, under the bottom of the realm. Off in the distance, an ember glowed. He squinted. Is it… in the center of the realm? Curious.
Again, Hui flew off. The ember grew brighter, flickering into a flame, then a bonfire. As he drew close to the flame, an orb appeared around it, bubble-like. Inside, flame roared. It completely filled the bubble from left to right, top to bottom, the fire raging wildly inside the bubble with no escape or outlet, nor any fuel.
Hui drew to a halt. He frowned. I don’t see a woman inside. Is this her, or is it just her flames, unrelated to her?
Come to think of it, how did Little Flame get here?
…She is a ghost. Don’t be stupid, Hui.
As he watched, the fire burned down. It collapsed in on itself, falling into ash. The ash collected into the bottom of the bubble, piling up into a dark lump.
Hui licked his lips. He glanced around. I did nothing. It’s not my fault, okay?
Abruptly, the ash jumped up. It formed into a baby. Eyes closed, the baby curled in on itself, sleeping. Before his eyes, the baby grew into a child, then a young woman, then an adult. When the baby reached adulthood, her eyes snapped open. Fire burned in her eye sockets and raged over her body. She screamed, her voice horrible to hear, and lunged at Hui. Madly, she slashed at the bubble. Her claws broke through, and flames surged out at Hui.
Holy shit! I don’t need any more of that, thank you, Senior! Hui jumped back, dodging the flames. They flew past him harmlessly, hurtling off into the void. “Sorry! I—”
In a moment, fire consumed the woman. It flared brighter and hotter, until it filled the entire bubble. Once again, the bubble appeared as it had when Hui arrived, full of heat and wild phoenix fire. Phoenixes rose, flew, and plunged back down into the flames, their illusory bodies only appearing for a brief moment.
“This… is the only option that remains,” Fen Long said softly.
Hui jumped. “Senior?”
“She, a rare female flame cultivator, wanted more. More heat, more power. Power to rival her male counterparts. She turned to the phoenixes. She emulated their flame, but that wasn’t enough. It could never be enough.” There was a deep sorrow to his voice, something that made Hui’s stomach shiver.
He spun around, then frowned. “Is this a recording?” Seniors like to do that. Senior Han Qin left a recording in the Phoenix-Spark Fire Altar, after all.
Mindless of Hui’s words, Fen Long continued. “Desirous of their powers, she devoured a phoenix. One. Two. A thousand. The phoenixes fought back, but once she assimilated their flame into herself, there was no defeating her with flame. She had become an Immortal-level existence… no. A flame to rival the Heavenly Emperor himself.”
“You know, it would have been helpful if you’d left Senior Chen Wuya a recording,” Hui commented dryly. It wouldn’t have changed anything, I don’t think, but it certainly would’ve made Senior less huffy when I came along.
En, or could it be? That memory that I stumbled into… is that his equivalent of a recording for Senior? Hmm… given that it only pissed Senior Chen Wuya off more, it’s probably better he didn’t give a direct recording.
“She swept through the phoenixes and devoured them all. None remained. Her flame grew, so powerful that it could not be contained, not within her body nor anywhere else. She had become the ultimate force of destruction, the ultimate flame. And yet, she lost everything. The flame had grown so powerful that it burned out her mind, her soul. It left behind an empty husk, with nothing left. No morality. No consciousness. Nothing but raw power.
“There were those who desired that power. Those who sought to harness it. Those who worshipped it. In those people, I saw… the same hunger that destroyed my original realm. The hunger no man nor woman can overcome. The hunger… for absolute power.
“I could not destroy her. No one can, not anymore. She has become fire. The embodiment and soul of fire. To destroy her is to destroy fire itself. And yet, to allow her to continue to rage, to continue to be used as a weapon… neither is that an option. I have seen what happens when ultimate power falls into the wrong hands. I refuse to allow it to happen again.
“To prevent what happened to my realm, to my friend, from happening here, I sealed her away. Somewhere no one could find her. If you have found her, then I ask you, please. Whatever you seek, be it power, love, or a god, please. Leave her here. This is the best option I could come up with. Until I discover a method to dissipate her flame back into the world… leave her here.”
Fen Long’s voice fell silent.
Hui put a hand on his chin. He regarded the woman, then sighed. Dammit. I don’t want love, or power, or a god, I just want to extinguish these flames! What if I want that, huh, Fen Long?
Ah, too bad. It looks like this is a dead end. Shaking his head, Hui turned to go.
“Wait.”
Comments
Noah
Ducks and Phoenix’s aren’t so different. The only difference is that when you eat a duck you’re trapped in debt, and when you eat Phoenix’s you’re trapped in the underworld…
Robert Mullins
Because phoenix's burn fat? Ultimate weight loss scheme.
Prometheus
The phoenix lady ate All The Phoenixes? How did she put away that much fried chicken and without getting fat?
