Chapter 57: Suzaku's Blazing Feathers Enter the Western Country

On the Nine Spirits Platform, a mighty wind swept across.

Zhao Xiang’er took out a jade imperial seal from her sleeve, engraved with a dragon and tiger in combat. She handed it to Lu Jiajia and said, "Sister Lu, please place this national seal in the center of the Imperial City to stabilize the nation's destiny, lest the nation fall apart due to the coming upheaval."

Lu Jiajia took the national seal. It felt very heavy in her palm. She looked at the young woman before her. At this moment, the ancient scroll in Zhao Xiang’er's hand was almost burning, yet Zhao Xiang’er seemed to feel no pain, as if what she was about to do was something truly intolerable to heaven and earth.

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

Zhao Xiang’er stood before the Vermilion Bird Platform, the strong winds at that height making her dark hair dance wildly and her robes flutter.

She turned around. Behind her was a miniature view of the Imperial City from a bird's-eye perspective. Before her stood the bronze Vermilion Bird statue, several times taller than herself. The statue was outlined with vermilion lines, its wings spread wide. The edges of every feather glowed with a blood-red, seemingly indelible paint. Behind it, nine extremely long tail feathers hung down, covering the long staircases leading to the Nine Spirits Platform on all four sides, like nine cascading waterfalls. Yet, its pupils were stark white, as if they had not yet been dotted to bring it to life.

"Mother once told me that the Nine Spirits Platform has an array that allows it to fly, but it requires a core to activate."

Zhao Xiang’er gazed at the bronze statue, which seemed poised to take flight, her eyes fixed on its pale, unpainted pupils. She slowly said, "The core of the Nine Spirits Platform's great array... is me."

At the Grand Tutor's mansion, a sudden, urgent knocking resounded at the door.

The Grand Tutor pushed open the large door, looked at the shadow guard before him, and coughed heavily a few times while clutching his chest. He asked weakly, "What major crisis has happened now?"

The shadow guard replied, "Her Royal Highness... Her Royal Highness's matter!"

The Grand Tutor frowned. "That old fox is dead. What trouble could that girl possibly get into now?"

The shadow guard looked up and said, "The Grand Tutor previously instructed that if this particular matter occurred, I must report it to you immediately..."

The old man's body jolted as if a rooster were shaking its feathers. He said, "Could it be...?"

The shadow guard said, "It is rumored that someone saw Her Royal Highness... on the Nine Spirits Platform."

The old man's hand, gripping his walking stick, suddenly trembled, and the stick clattered to the ground. He looked distraught. "What madness is she up to now? Her Majesty said she could only ascend the Nine Spirits Platform to offer sacrifices to heaven and form a spirit pact at the age of eighteen! She just turned sixteen today; going now... would surely be a path to certain death!"

The shadow guard was startled. He had originally hesitated whether to disturb the Grand Tutor with this matter, but he hadn't imagined it would be so serious, concerning Her Royal Highness's safety.

Before he could ask anything, the Grand Tutor had already stepped over the threshold. "The Nine Spirits Platform, I'm going there at once!"

On the Nine Spirits Platform, Zhao Xiang’er extended her hand and pressed it against the bronze statue's chest.

The Vermilion Bird statue's stark white eyes glowed anew, like embers reigniting, and the red paint on every feather seemed to transform into real, burning flames.

And the nine spirits surrounding the Vermilion Bird seemed to come alive at this moment. Their bronze bodies, which should have been hard and unyielding, now twisted as if melting.

Among the nine spirits, some were shaped like long snakes, yet with fine downy feathers growing along the edges of their bodies. Others resembled a trident, with three sharp prongs forming their elongated heads. Some moved like kites but appeared boneless, bending their bodies. Others looked like conch shells, rounded at the top and sharply pointed at the tail, with intricate, delicate patterns. Still others were like a *lingzhi* mushroom, their bodies curved like a swan's neck, and their surfaces incredibly smooth...

The nine distinctly different spirits all came to life the moment Zhao Xiang’er touched the Vermilion Bird statue.

In her other palm, the ancient scroll burned and disintegrated page by page. One could imagine the immense pressure the world within it was currently enduring!

Before her, the Vermilion Bird statue also seemed to awaken. Its stark white eyes gazed at Zhao Xiang’er impassively, revealing not a trace of emotion.

Then, as if sparks had flown into them, the flames of light in the Vermilion Bird's pupils gradually brightened. Yet, these were not real pupils; instead, they resembled mirrors of faint color, capable of seeing through all illusions in the world.

It had slumbered for a hundred years in the Imperial City of the Zhao kingdom, atop the Nine Spirits Platform, and now it had finally awakened.

"Are you the one chosen by the Master?"

The bronze Vermilion Bird statue did not speak aloud, but its voice resonated in Zhao Xiang’er's mind.

The voice was gender-neutral, yet carried a cold authority, as if a deity surveying all creation, occasionally casting its gaze upon the mortal world.

"Master?" Zhao Xiang’er asked, "Are you referring to my mother?"

The bronze Vermilion Bird statue asked, "Did the Master tell you that you are her daughter?"

Zhao Xiang’er retorted, "Otherwise, who would I be?"

At this moment, the bronze Vermilion Bird statue's voice fell silent, and its gaze remained impassive. It stared at the young woman who had awakened it, shaking its head gently. "Let go. You are far too young now. Forcibly forming a Postnatal Spirit will only lead to an untimely death. You need at least two more years. After two years, you can break through to the Longevity Realm, ascend here again, and form the Postnatal Spirit."

Zhao Xiang’er lowered her head slightly, her lips pressed tightly together. Her body seemed to be under immense pressure, threatening to force her to her knees. She defiantly shook her head. "No... there's no time!"

The bronze Vermilion Bird statue stared at her, repeating, "Forcibly forming a spirit pact leads only to certain death. Let go!"

Zhao Xiang’er's gaze was resolute. "You fool... if I could survive without forming a spirit pact, why would I come to you?"

The bronze Vermilion Bird statue stared at her, anger now burning in its eyes. "If you were not the one chosen by Her Majesty, I would have struck you down here already."

"The chosen one..." Zhao Xiang’er said, "So, she isn't actually my mother?"

The bronze Vermilion Bird statue was silent for a moment, then said, "I am merely Her Majesty's servant; I am not qualified to answer that question."

Zhao Xiang’er's eyes gleamed slightly. She gave a faint smile and said, "You are not the true Vermilion Bird at all. What right do you have to oppose my choice?"

The bronze Vermilion Bird statue's voice remained utterly devoid of emotion. "The true Vermilion Bird Deity resides atop the Hidden Realms, caring nothing for the mortal world. But Her Majesty bestowed divinity upon me, and in a sense, from a hundred years ago until now, I have been the Vermilion Bird Deity of the Zhao kingdom."

Zhao Xiang’er asked, "What else did Mother tell you?"

The bronze Vermilion Bird statue stated impassively, "Her Majesty instructed me to wait a hundred years. On the day of my awakening, I was to guide her chosen one across the Three Thousand Worlds to form the Postnatal Nine Spirits."

Zhao Xiang’er said, "Then what are you waiting for?"

The bronze Vermilion Bird statue said, "I am Her Majesty's servant, but I am not foolish. In your current state, you cannot possibly endure the Three Thousand Worlds, let alone form the spirit pact that would invite the Heavenly Demons' scrutiny and a lightning tribulation. Her Majesty instructed me to help you form the spirit pact, but if it's impossible for you to succeed, why should I help?"

Zhao Xiang’er looked at the ancient scroll in her hand, which seemed to be scattering like butterflies, her voice tinged with pain. "The Three Thousand Worlds you speak of... are they in the Western Kingdom?"

A shimmering light suddenly flickered in the bronze Vermilion Bird statue's mirror-like eyes. It asked, "Could it be that you have seen them?"

Zhao Xiang’er suddenly laughed. She said, "Since I was five... I've loved sitting in the banyan tree, watching the sunset, and I did so for eight years. The Three Thousand Worlds you speak of... I've seen most of them during those eight years. I believe they cannot stop me, much less kill me."

The bronze statue folded its wings and watched her in silence, as if discerning whether her words were true.

Zhao Xiang’er continued, "In the autumn of my sixth year, I climbed the great banyan tree for the first time. In the afterglow of the setting sun, I saw a dazzling kingdom... At the time, I thought it was an illusion and never mentioned it to anyone."

"After that, I climbed the banyan tree almost every evening to gaze westward."

"And every day, the world I saw was different..."

"For eight years, I was immersed in it, as if witnessing three thousand illusory dreams, unaware of what was real or fake, until I suddenly awoke three years ago."

Zhao Xiang’er's smile held an unspoken meaning. "Eight years, two months, and twenty days. I have already seen all of the Three Thousand Worlds you speak of. What right do they have to trap me or kill me?"

The Vermilion Bird Deity statue sighed with emotion. "I suddenly understand why the Master chose you."

Zhao Xiang’er said, "Then what are you waiting for?"

The Vermilion Bird Deity statue said, "After the Three Thousand Worlds, when the Heavenly Demons return, what will you do?"

Zhao Xiang’er asked, "What are Heavenly Demons?"

The Vermilion Bird Deity statue said, "They are dead things floating in the Sea of Ruins, all powerful beings in life. Now, the weaker ones are in the Longevity Purple Court, and the stronger ones are still beyond the Purple Court. The Nine Spirits Her Majesty prepared for you are unique divine artifacts that will inevitably breach the barrier between the mortal world and the Sea of Ruins, drawing the Heavenly Demons. Moreover, the Postnatal Spirit itself defies the laws of heaven and earth, like a double-edged sword. Even if you truly form it, you could still be hacked into a thousand pieces and reduced to skin and bones!"

Zhao Xiang’er slowly shook her head. "I don't care about any of that. I only know that if I can't kill that demonic fox today, Mother will truly be disappointed in me..."

Besides, the scene of that young Daoist priest pulling his junior sister into the ancient scroll was a shadow she couldn't erase from her mind, no matter what.

If she couldn't even bear this small danger, always seeking foolproof plans for everything, wouldn't the "three-year pact" made earlier in the great hall seem utterly ridiculous now?

She didn't want to say another word. With great difficulty, she straightened her body against the oppressive pressure of heaven and earth, slowly moved her hand up the Vermilion Bird statue, and then abruptly grasped its neck.

A shrill cry echoed throughout the Imperial City.

The Grand Tutor, who had just stepped onto the Nine Spirits Platform, instantly turned pale upon hearing that cry.

"Still too late..."

Beneath the Imperial City, the ground began to quake, as if a mythical ox were turning over.

Lu Jiajia, riding her sword, descended into the city. As the national seal settled, hundreds of sword intents, each weighing a thousand catties, protected it.

This national seal had, after all, lost most of its spiritual power. Even with all her sword intent bolstering it, she still couldn't completely quell the Imperial City's tremors.

Suddenly, as if sensing something, she looked up sharply.

Above the Imperial City, a massive fiery silhouette suddenly swept low. Waves of intense flame surged over the city, and the space it passed through seemed like scorched canvas, leaving an extremely long black trail. This black shadow slowly mended itself, with dark spatial ashes like tribulation dust drifting from its edges, gradually fading into the air until they vanished without a trace.

And the colossal fiery being soared higher into the sky, its wings stirring magnificent winds. On the back of the great bird with vermilion wings, a young woman in black combat attire sat cross-legged, facing west, her eyes closed.

"Vermilion Bird's Shadow, Sky-Burning Fire?" Lu Jiajia's heart jolted.

This was a widely circulated prophecy in the Zhao kingdom, though incomplete, only a half-phrase. Even Lu Jiajia, who cultivated outside the mortal world, had heard of it.

And today, the bronze statue transformed into a bird, soaring through the heavens, its wings shattering the void, and its countless feathers forming an endless sea.

It was a sea of fire suspended inverted in the sky.

The clouds above the Imperial City also began to burn. They were like bundles of connected straw that, upon being struck by a single spark, instantly transformed into an unquenchable inferno. Evening had not yet arrived, but the entire sky was already painted with vibrant, fiery clouds.

Zhao Xiang’er was engulfed by the waves of fire. Her dark robes resembled the eternal night of the far north, while her graceful, undulating silhouette was like soft mountains in the faint glow of dawn at the edge of the sky, just as the eternal night was about to end.

In an instant, the fiery sea of clouds was far behind them.

They were so splendid and vibrant, signaling colors of irreversible destruction.

Before them, individual bubbles, almost illusory, contained myriad worlds.

The Vermilion Bird shattered the void with its wings and flew into the Three Thousand Worlds.

The phrase 'Punishing Heaven, Following Earth, Sacrificing with City-States'—those city-states, it turned out, were the Three Thousand Worlds of the Western Kingdom.

At the same time, at the far end of the Western Kingdom, deafening peals of thunder resounded. A rift opened in the center of the vast sea of clouds, as if two invisible hands were wielding immense, mountain-toppling power, tearing apart the entire sky along with the cloud sea, bit by bit.

In the center of the Imperial City, Lu Jiajia looked up at the miraculous scene. Her own dazzling white robes seemed to dim in comparison, and her sword, Minglan, buzzed and trembled incessantly, as if sensing something.

She vaguely guessed something, her heart filled with dread.

Legend had it that the Twelve Hidden Realms resided far removed from the mortal world, and only great cultivators who had ascended beyond the Five Paths could glimpse even a sliver of them.

The Twelve Hidden Realms, along with the Immortal Court reachable by those who achieve celestial ascension, were all among the world's most mysterious places.

So, the Vermilion Bird Deity statue had taken Zhao Xiang’er to... could it be the legendary Hidden Realms?

Beside her, the national seal suddenly expanded, and within its translucent jade, light and color overflowed, as if something was about to burst forth from it.

As the national seal grew larger, the earthquake throughout the Imperial City subsided.

Meanwhile, below the Nine Spirits Platform, the Grand Tutor's white hair whipped wildly in the strong wind. He looked up, his cloudy pupils reflecting the vast cloud-streaked sky, turning a deep crimson.

"Your Majesty," he said, his voice weathered, "though it's two years early, the time is nearly upon us." He began to walk towards the upper part of the Nine Spirits Platform.

Many years ago, he was a scholar who had failed the imperial examinations and arrived in the capital. On a day of heavy snow, clutching his manuscript, he waited a long time outside the mansion of the Zhao kingdom's foremost literary master. Finally, the great scholar, slightly tipsy and chatting with an old friend, emerged. He quickly presented his work. The scholar took it, glanced through it briefly, said nothing much, but simply placed a piece of broken silver on the manuscript and handed it back.

Just as twenty years of diligent study were about to result in a disheartening return to his hometown, a small crimson palanquin glided through the wind and snow and slowly stopped before him. A palace maid descended from it and handed him a letter, saying it was a gift from her master.

At the time, he didn't know who the maid's master was, but if even a maid could travel by palanquin, her master's status must be extremely noble.

He was initially overjoyed, thinking this was a token of appreciation from some high-ranking official or noble. Only when he opened the letter did he realize he had underestimated its significance.

Relying on the letter's contents, he actually embarked on the path of cultivation, advancing smoothly and breaking through realms repeatedly. In just over a decade, he reached the peak of the Immortal Connection realm, seemingly on the verge of entering the Longevity Realm, a state only possessed by reclusive immortals.

Cultivators were one in a thousand; those who could enter the Immortal Connection realm were perhaps one in hundreds of thousands of miles.

This was far more appealing than a successful official career, for a human life was but a hundred years, while the Longevity Realm could almost double one's lifespan...

Later, through various coincidences, he entered the capital again, but unlike before, he was directly invited into the Imperial City by the late emperor.

That was his fifteenth year of cultivating the Dao. That year, he entered the Dao through literature and calligraphy, his skill in analyzing and interpreting characters unrivaled in the nation. He was eventually granted the national seal and, in the same year, ascended to the Longevity Realm, becoming more than qualified to be appointed the Grand Tutor of the nation.

And in that year, he finally learned who the immortal-like figure who had helped him all those years ago was.

It turned out that in the same year, this immortal-like figure also came to the Imperial City, and his own arrival in the capital had been her arrangement.

He never did meet Her Majesty face-to-face. However, later, he served as the primary tutor for a young girl, who was said to be Her Majesty's daughter.

"Zhao Xiang’er..."

He recalled the scene when he first heard that name; truly... it didn't sound like the name of an immortal's daughter.

But only today did he understand what that name truly meant.

He finally reached the top of the Nine Spirits Platform.

The old man sat withered on the high platform. The national seal, which had been devoured by the old fox and with which his connection had been severed, now re-established its connection to his body. Yet, for some unknown reason, the nation's destiny was no longer a sign of stagnant decay, but instead burned fiercely like fire beneath a stone.

Time continued to pass; it was an exceedingly long hour.

Finally, the bell for the *shen* hour rang.

Though the clouds in the sky had long lost their color, they grew thicker and thicker, as if all the clouds in the Zhao kingdom were surging towards this spot. The sky also seemed to lower, so much so that from the peak of the Nine Spirits Platform, one could seemingly pluck a handful of white clouds.

Meanwhile, the Nine Spirits Platform was completely sealed off by Lu Jiajia with sword locks. She vaguely sensed what was about to happen; if such beings were to descend, ordinary people would have their souls extinguished by merely glancing at them.

Above the sea of clouds, a long, dark trail was once again dragged across the sky, as if a powerful black dragon were leaping through the clouds.

The shrill cry of the Vermilion Bird resounded in the distance.

On the Nine Spirits Platform, the nine strange-shaped divine bronze statues now moved like true living beings, transforming into wisps of white light and soaring into the sky like feathered serpents.

Within the ancient scroll, the flow of time seemed to accelerate greatly.

The demonic fox's snowy white spirit struggled relentlessly in Ning Changjiu's hand. Every muscle fiber in Ning Changjiu's right arm seemed stretched to its limit, and it felt as though embers were burning between his bones and flesh. Fine beads of sweat continuously trickled down his arm, falling into the bottomless gray void.

"Ah..."

The snow fox suddenly let out a shriek of agony, and Ning Xiaoling's delicate, tender eyebrows furrowed at the same moment.

Ning Changjiu's fingers were like hooks, gripping the snow fox's body tightly, pulling with all his might. His momentum, already built up in one go, now reached its peak.

The moonlight-glowing branch had already pierced her body, dissolving and absorbing her spiritual energy. Yet, for some reason, Ning Changjiu couldn't fully command its power. Although he knew it was a divine artifact in his hand, he could only use it for simple slashes and thrusts...

But that was enough.

An illusory Daoist temple enveloped them.

In a trance, he recalled the back of his senior sister Zhan Qing's Daoist robes. It was the first time he had descended the mountain with her to slay demons, and he had followed behind, filled with trepidation.

It was the Winter Solstice then.

And now, the Winter Solstice was approaching again.

Over twenty years had passed in a blur, like a dream, unnoticed.

His senior sister had once said, "Look up at the stars, and you can see the Divine Kingdom."