by Jeremy Bai
Bao began to chuckle, and Sunan lurched to a stop.
She quickly held the rock behind her back and tilted her chin up, pointing the knife at him. “Now what are you going to do, Sect Leader Sunan?”
He looked around and saw that in the past few seconds of fighting, neither side seemed to have gained an upper hand. In fact, other than the blow Sun Mai had landed on Mao Yun, no blood had been drawn. He looked back at Bao and took a deep breath. “Well, it seems that—”
Before he could finish speaking, his jaw dropped.
Bao’s eyes had gone wide, and not from shock or fear. They were almost bulging out of her head!
Her left shoulder was trembling slightly, and most bizarre of all was that a tiny pinprick of silver light could be seen in the very center of her pupils. Her head spasmed as she began to draw her left hand out from behind her back. Her entire arm was shaking, and the hand which gripped the silver rock was pale white, and silver streaks were running up her arm.
“Wh-what…?” she muttered.
Sunan took a step forward. “Chieftainess Bao, are you all right?”
As he watched, the whiteness in Bao’s pupils grew, spreading out to fill the irises of her eyes, and then the whites, removing any traces of color, until her eyes were pure silver. Slowly the trembling in her arm stopped, and the ashen color faded away.
Bao stared at Sunan for a moment with those silver eyes, and then she spoke. Her voice was different than before. It resonated with a strange timbre, as though it were a voice speaking out from the most ancient of times, perhaps even from a different world. “I’m fine.”
Sunan’s eyes flickered. “Of course, you’re fine.”
Her head cocked to the side. “You don’t want this fallen star.”
Sunan felt slightly dizzy for a moment. “No, I don’t want it.”
A slight smile appeared on Bao’s face. She then looked around at the surrounding fighting. Raising her voice, she said, “Golden Dragon Sect disciples, there is no need to fight. We won’t hurt you.”
A moment later, all fighting ceased.
Even Sun Mai backed off and simply stood there calmly. Bao’s followers looked around in confusion for a moment and then backed away from Sunan’s disciples.
Bao looked back at Sunan, her white eyes shining. “Sect Leader Sunan, you and your people really need to get back to Daolu as soon as possible. A great threat is heading its way, and you need to defend it.”
Sunan shook his head as another wave of dizziness passed through him. “Yes, a great threat. I understand. Must defend Daolu.” He began to walk back to his force. “Come on, men, we need to get back to Daolu as soon as possible.”
Sun Mai looked over at him with a frown. “Sunan, something’s not—”
“All of you Golden Dragon Sect disciples must listen to me!” Bao said, raising her voice again. “Daolu is in peril! Ride back as quickly as possible!”
Sun Mai turned toward his horse. “You heard the sect leader, men. No delays, we have to get back to Daolu!”
Shuffling sounds could be heard as Sunan, Sun Mai, and all of the other disciples mounted their horses. Then they galloped away at top speed.
***
As the Golden Dragon Sect disappeared into the distant trees, Mao Yun approached Bao. He was bleeding, but the wounds were superficial and did little more than cause him to wince.
“Bao, what’s going on?” he asked.
As Bao turned to look at him, she slowly lifted the silver rock up in front of her. Her hand began to tremble, and the silver of her eyes began to fade. “Th-this rock…” she muttered. “Don’t… don’t touch it.”
The silver left her eyes, and her hand dropped to her side, although it maintained its grip on the rock.
As for Bao, her knees gave out from under her, and she collapsed. Mao Yun lurched forward and grabbed her arm, catching her just before she hit the ground.
Chapter 26: Metalsmith
When Bao awoke, she recalled a strange dream, a dream of meeting a young man and of fighting him. The more she contemplated the dream, the clearer the details became, until she realized it might not have been a dream.
She was lying on her back, staring up at the sky. At first, she was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t notice how strange that sky was. It was pure white, with pink clouds that streaked by in an arcing trajectory, moving so fast it was dizzying.
She slowly sat up.
She was on the peak of a mountain. Farther below, thick fog stretched out in all directions, as far as the eye could see. The fog was black and churned like boiling water.
There was no sound except for a faint hum that bordered on music.
Bao closed her eyes and shook her head, but when she opened her eyes, the scene was just as it was before.
At this point, she noticed a woman sitting on a rock several meters away.
As soon as Bao laid eyes on her, she gasped. The woman wore pure-white robes embroidered with silver thread and was without a doubt the most beautiful woman Bao had ever seen in her life. In fact, she was so beautiful that she didn’t even seem real. Her hair was white, but it was not from age. It was pure, like silver, but brighter, so dazzling that it almost hurt one’s eyes to look at it.
Pure-white eyebrows arched above the woman’s closed eyes, and on her forehead was a strange glowing symbol.
The woman sat there silently, motionless, her hands resting on her thighs.
Who is she? What is she? An immortal? A goddess?
Bao struggled to her feet, then clasped her hands and bowed respectfully. “Greetings, Senior, I am Bao. May I ask, where am I?”
In response, the woman sighed. In the noiselessness of the world, that sigh resounded like the rumble of distant thunder. It felt as if storm winds were battering against Bao’s face, and she almost took a step back.
“So weak,” the woman said, and then she opened her eyes.
Yet again, Bao gasped.
The woman’s eyes were silver, and even brighter than her hair, and when she stared at Bao, it was as if daggers were piercing her mind, as if a mountain were crushing down on her from above.
Gritting her teeth, Bao clasped her hands again. “Senior? I don’t understand.”
The woman took a deep breath, and the pressure faded away. “You’re weak. Like all humans. I tried to give you a taste of my power, but you could barely handle it for ten minutes. Weak. Very weak.”
Bao thought back to how she had fought with the young man. She remembered grabbing the fallen star and then being filled with a sensation of utter power. She remembered ordering the young man and his followers to leave, and she remembered how they had followed her instructions without hesitation.
“Senior, are you the fallen star?” she asked.
The woman laughed. “I am no star. But I do come from the Upper Realms. What fell into your hands is… well, it’s difficult to explain to someone with a mind so limited as yours. Let’s just say it’s a sliver of my will. I had a little fight with that bastard, Yu. Supreme Judge? More like Supreme Bore. Such an uptight fellow, always running around enforcing some law or another. Unfortunately, he’s very strong. Quite the opposite of you. I knew I was losing, so in the chaos of the fight, I managed to slice away part of my will and send it down here to this pitiful place that you people call Qi Xien. Thankfully, that bastard Yu didn’t notice. I was aiming for you, you know.”
“Aiming for me?” Bao replied.
“Yes. The Perfect Realm has been boring recently, and I’ve been paying attention to your little Pure Phoenix Sect. Such a name… suits me. Anyway, I need your help, and I’m prepared to reward you.”
“You need my help?” Bao’s eyes narrowed.
The woman chuckled. “Yes, someone like me, asking for help from a mortal like you. It’s funny, I know. I need to borrow your body for a bit. You’re weak, but I can mold you into something stronger.”
“Borrow my body?”
“Yes. For only a few hundred
years or so.”
“A few hundred years!”
“Can you do anything other than repeat my words?” the woman asked with annoyance, her white brows furrowing into a frown. “Are all humans this stupid and weak? Yes, a few hundred years. Once I’ve finished everything I need to do in this cesspit, you can have your body back, and it will be much more powerful than it is now. By that time, you’ll already be an immortal. A nice exchange, wouldn’t you say?”
Bao was so taken aback that she was at a loss for words.
The woman began to tap her finger on her knee. “Girl, do you know how many people in your world pray for power? Do you know how many people light incense in the hope of gaining blessings from the Upper Realms? Do you know how many people offer sacrifices to lower realms hoping to gain even a fraction of what I’m offering you?
“I will make you more powerful than any human alive. Even that boring, so-called Demon Emperor will shake in his boots at the mention of your name, although by that time, I’ll most likely have killed him myself. Just help me achieve my goals, and you can have power beyond your wildest dreams.
“If you want to, you can ascend to one of the Upper Realms, maybe even the Perfect Realm. You can live forever, be a god! All for simply giving me a bit of help.”
Bao’s eyes narrowed. “What exactly are these goals of yours?”
The woman’s eyes flared with brilliant light. “Destroy the world. Kill everyone. Rain destruction upon the mortals.”
Bao’s eyes widened.
The woman cleared her throat. “Sorry, a bit of a joke. In the Upper Realms we say things like that sometimes as a form of humor. I don’t want to destroy the world, just reshape it a bit. It’s not like I want to wipe out all humankind or anything. Lots of people will survive.”
“No,” Bao said.
The woman’s eyes widened. “No? Did you just say no? Do you know who I am? Do you know how powerful I am? I don’t need to ask your permission. Do you know that? I can take over your body if I feel like it. It’s just that I don’t want to go to the trouble. Do things the easy way, do you hear me? Give me your permission! NOW!”
“Or what?”
“Or what? Or what?” The woman threw her head back and screamed, clenching her fists at her sides. The entire world began to tremble as she rapidly grew larger and transformed into something far from human. Her neck stretched out, and her head transformed into that of a beautiful, fierce bird. Enormous wings took the place of her arms, wings with long silver feathers tinged with a multitude of colors. A tail of feathers spread out behind her, long and draping, and her legs stretched out and were soon covered with silver scales. At their ends were enormous talons with long, curving, razor-sharp claws.
In the blink of an eye, the woman was a hundred times her original size, towering over Bao, glaring down at her. It was then that Bao realized there was one thing that was exactly the same about her, and that was her eyes. They were the same shining silver color, and they were even the exact same shape.
A silver talon shot out and wrapped around Bao, although it didn’t actually touch her.
“You call yourself the Phoenix? You are no phoenix. I am the Phoenix! Do you hear me? Your Pure Phoenix Sect is a joke! You are a speck of dirt on the leg of an ant compared to me.
You want to know what will happen if you refuse me? I will make you suffer! Yes, that is what will happen. I will crush you and flay you and slice you and burn you a thousand times over. You will give me what I want!”
Bao looked into those burning silver eyes and smiled confidently.
“You’re bluffing,” she said. “If you could take over my body without my permission, you would have done so already. The answer is still no. Let me out of this place.”
“No? No?” The phoenix began to laugh, and the sound grew louder and louder until even thunder and lightning would cower in fear beneath the sound of it. “How dare you!”
Massive pressure crushed down onto Bao, and her mind trembled. And yet, she gritted her teeth.
She’s trying to scare me, that’s all. This place isn’t real. It’s my mind. She’s here in my mind, and she’s trying to trick and threaten me!
“No! Back off, you oversized chicken. This is my mind! GET OUT!”
***
Mao Yun carried Bao in his arms for the entire ride back to the forest stronghold. They tried to pry the fallen star out of her hands, being careful not to touch it, but the task proved impossible. Her fingers were like bands of metal that refused to budge.
Her hand was bone white, with silver streaks running up her arm toward her shoulder. As they rode along, those streaks grew longer and wider. By the time they got back to the fortress, her entire arm was white, and Mao Yun could only presume that the color was spreading to the rest of her body.
A Yen-Li priest was called up, but he proved no help. A priestess of Hen-Shi came but offered no solutions, although she was able to confirm that the whiteness was not spreading any further past Bao’s shoulder.
Her grip on the fallen star never loosened.
A week passed. Two weeks. A month.
They tried to feed her, but her mouth wouldn’t open. At first Mao Yun was worried, but as time passed, it seemed that her body was in a strange state that didn’t require sustenance.
Gradually, day-to-day affairs returned to normal.
With the cooperation of Third Zhou and Li Runfa, rumors were intentionally spread that, according to the Hen-Shi priestess, Bao was on an astral journey to the Perfect Realm. That caused a bit of a stir and actually raised morale temporarily.
The effect lasted for only a month. Then, whisperings floated that Bao was sick, or even dead.
Another month later, people were complaining openly. Morale was beginning to plummet, and Mao Yun wasn’t sure what to do. Third Zhou and Li Runfa had no ideas.
Mao Yun even considered cutting her hand off to separate her from the fallen star, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to do something so drastic, not when it was clear that her body was in no danger because of the passage of time.
One night, Mao Yun was standing watch over her and was nearly frightened out of his skin when she sat straight up in bed and opened her eyes. They were glowing silver.
She turned her head to stare at him, and then the whiteness began to fade. Then the whiteness that had covered her shoulder and arm for the past months faded away. The fallen star dropped to the ground.
Bao shivered and looked down at the rock. “Oversized chicken,” she muttered. Then she looked up at Mao Yun. “Find me a metalsmith.”
Chapter 27: An Eye
Throughout the months during which Bao had lain there still and unmoving, her body never seemed to change at all. Her hair hadn’t grown. She didn’t lose weight. She remained the same as ever.
After waking up, though, she felt a wave of weakness building up deep inside of her. It was as if she hadn’t slept during all of those months, and all the exhaustion was on the verge of breaking out at one time. She felt like she might fall unconscious again at any moment.
Other than willpower, the only thing that kept her awake was hunger. Deep, piercing hunger that made her stomach feel as heavy as a mountain.
She swayed a bit back and forth, then placed her hand down on the bed in front of her to stop the dizziness. For a moment, all thoughts of metalworkers vanished from her head.
“Bao, you’re back!” Mao Yun exclaimed, leaping to his feet.
“Hungry,” she said. “Food. Now.”
Mao Yun blinked, then rushed out of the room, whereupon the entire stronghold was thrown into a frenzy.
Mao Yun returned minutes later with steamed buns, pickled vegetables, and cured meat. The food vanished almost before he could put the tray down in front of Bao.
“More,” she said before she even finished swallowing the final mouthful.
Mao Yun’s eyes went wide. Over the course of the next three hours, dish after dish was brought in, which Bao wolfed down with
ravenous hunger. Even during the time in which the event played out, exaggerated stories already began to spread.
“Did you hear that Chieftainess Bao just ate ten bowls of noodles in a row? Without even breathing!”
“I heard that Mao Yun already sent people down to Fan to buy more pickled vegetables. Chieftainess Bao ate an entire month’s worth of stock!”
“I heard that at one point she was so hungry waiting for the next dish that she ate the chopsticks!”
“The chopsticks were nothing! They even had to get a new table!”
After three hours, Bao took a deep breath. “Water,” she said. Mao Yun nodded.
More stories spread.
“Third Zhou said we’ll probably have to start working on a new well after this. The current one is running dry!”
“Mao Yun said that for the next month, all the alcohol and wine is free because Chieftainess Bao drank all the water!”
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“I’m going to burn this incense to Eastern Sea Goddess and beg her not to turn Chieftainess Bao into a water ghost!”
Finally, Bao finished. She wiped her lips with a cloth handed to her by Mao Yun, then yawned.
“Mao Yun,” she said.
“Yes, Chieftainess Bao?”
“I… need to… sleep for a—” She promptly flopped back down into the bed and began to sleep. This time it was not a coma, but she did sleep for three days straight, during which time Mao Yun, Third Zhou, and Li Runfa took turns watching over her, just like they had during the long months in which she was in a coma.
Third Zhou was on watch when she woke up again. This time, when Bao sat up, she didn’t ask for food and water, instead she requested a pen and brush. Third Zhou hurried back moments later, followed by Mao Yun. When Bao was handed the brush, she immediately began to write on the paper.
From north to east the clouds surge forth
From south to west fair feathers sing
“What’s that?” Third Zhou asked.
Bao sighed and shook her head. “I’m not sure.” She looked at the words she had written, then slowly handed the brush back to Third Zhou. “I just felt… as if I had to write them. They were burning within my head.”