The Dragon Palace breathed like a slumbering beast. Its jade corridors glimmered with beauty, but Taiyi knew that beneath the scales of majesty festered worms.
He stood once again before the jade map, the flickering candles casting his shadow into something longer, sharper—like a predator's. His hand moved across the carved seas, placing white and black stones in deliberate rhythm.
Every stone was a life, a scheme, a hidden blade waiting in the dark.
The rebellion in the northern trenches was not merely a clash of ideals. It was a chain, every link tied to traitors closer to the throne than the courtiers dared imagine.
And Taiyi was done waiting. It was now time to strike and he was sure now sure that he had cast his net wide enough such that no one would get out no matter who they were.
His gaze was calm but a storm was brewing on the inside. He has tried to be calm and to stay humble but it has made everyone to underestimate him but now it was time he bared his fangs.
---
Days later, when the Dragon King convened the council to prepare Ao Shen's campaign, Taiyi made his move.
"Your Majesty," Taiyi said, voice calm, respectful. "Allow me to present intelligence I have gathered."
Scrolls unfurled across the jade table. Routes traced in red ink, names written in discreet symbols, caches of stolen weapons hidden in coral caverns. The court gasped, the generals muttered, and Ao Shen's face paled in fury.
"These are lies!" Ao Shen snapped. "Fabrications to slander our loyal men!"
Taiyi's lips curved faintly. "Then let us test them. Choose one cavern at random. If we find nothing, I will kneel and accept punishment before the court. But if we do…" His gaze cut like a blade through silence. "Then perhaps the rebellion's roots are closer to us than you care to admit."
The ministers froze. None could fault the logic. To reject the proposal outright would cast suspicion on Ao Shen himself.
The Dragon King's voice rumbled like thunder. "So be it. We march at dawn."
---
The raid was swift, merciless. When the palace guards shattered the coral cavern, weapons spilled out in rivers—spears, tridents, blades, all forged with dragon fire. The proof was undeniable.
One of Ao Shen's closest allies tried to flee. Taiyi himself stood in his path, his calm eyes colder than the sea.
"You played your hand too early," he said softly, before striking the man down with a single blow.
The courtiers would whisper of that day for years—how the silver-haired youth, calm as still waters, revealed the serpent in their midst and cut it down without hesitation.
For Ao Shen, it was a humiliation deeper than defeat. His face burned with shame, but bound by the evidence, he could only bow.
And Taiyi? He bowed too, humble as ever, but in that humility was victory.
The Dragon King watched him long into the night, seeing not a child, but a king in the making—unyielding, calculating, yet cloaked in courtesy.
Taiyi had bared his fangs, and the East Sea trembled.
"Our days of peace are soon coming to an end. I am afraid that boy spells danger," the dragon king said as he stared at Taiyi's back.
---
In the Phoenix Realm, silence had fallen after the council. Feng Jiu's defiance spread through the clans like wildfire. Some praised her courage, others sharpened their claws, waiting for her to falter.
But in her chamber, she was alone with her thoughts.
The words of her sister haunted her. Your fire is beautiful, Jiu'er. But flames that burn too fiercely draw storms.
She stared at her reflection in a pool of molten fire. A phoenix's face, perfect and cold, stared back. Crimson eyes, flawless feathers, a being meant to embody the holy essence of flame—pure, unfeeling, detached.
But was that truly her?
Her fists tightened. The elders wanted a saint of fire, a symbol untouched by longing or doubt. But her heart burned differently. She wanted to live, to fly, to fight, to love.
"I am no cold flame," she whispered. "I am fire itself. And fire does not stay still—it devours, it dances, it defies."
As if answering, the flames in the chamber surged wildly, wrapping around her in spirals of scarlet and gold. The air trembled.
Her body trembled too, for she felt something deeper—an ache in her soul, as though a part of her was missing, far away. She could not name it, but when she closed her eyes, she saw flashes of silver hair, heard faint echoes of laughter, felt the ghost of a warmth she had lost.
Her chest tightened. Her wings unfurled, filling the chamber with burning light.
"If storms come," she declared to the silence, "then let them come. I will not hide. I will burn through them all."
The flames obeyed, roaring higher, breaking through the ceiling of her chamber. For a moment, the entire Phoenix Realm lit with her blaze, as though a second sun had risen within.
The clans woke in shock, staring at the crimson inferno that blazed above the palace. Whispers spread, fear mingled with awe.
Feng Jiu's breakthrough had shaken the entire realm.
But in her heart, it was not glory she felt. It was yearning.
A voice calling to her from beyond the sealed sky.
A promise waiting to be fulfilled.
Fragments of her memories have been flickering in her mind and she can't help but wonder about that battlefield and that place.
---
In the depths of the East Sea, Taiyi sharpened his schemes into weapons, drawing the Dragon Palace into his grasp.
In the heart of the Phoenix Realm, Feng Jiu burned away her shackles, becoming fire unbound.
Neither knew the other's name.
Neither remembered the bond they had once sworn.
But their paths had begun to blaze toward one another.
Fangs in the deep, flames in the sky.
And fate, once silent, now whispered of storms to come.
Will the two lovers really unite against and what about their daughter? Would they find her?
---