Legend of Fu Yao

“Senior,” said Meng Fuyao, as she spat her broken tooth that was engulfed in a mouthful of blood and saliva on Zhan Nancheng’s face. Using his robe embroidered with golden dragons and drifting clouds to wipe her mouth, she continued to smile as she added, “Please think carefully. I won’t be able to beat you, but with my ability, as long as I’m not afraid of death, it isn’t too difficult for me to keep him a hostage. Even if you kill me, I will drag him to death as well. I’ll let him understand what it means to be unlucky.”

“What for?” The woman perched herself on the ceiling, frowned down at Meng Fuyao and asked, “Is it worth it? Why?”

Meng Fuyao kept quiet as a collection of memories flashed by like streaks of lightning in her mind – the soldier who died from a snake’s kiss by the pond, the ashen face that hung upside down in the green vines, Wang Hu who committed suicide in the swamp, Hua Zi who was burned to his bones, Three who pushed her in the passageway, Lao De who triggered the bomb, Ah Hai who was left with half of his body, and Little Luo who was nowhere to be found.

She slowly placed the dagger on Zhan Nancheng’s throat and watched the thin line of blood flow down from that noble Emperor. Revealing a deadly smile, she answered, “For those who sacrificed themselves.”

The woman looked at her in confusion. A few moments later, she said, “You’re a talent, why always risk your life? Release him, and I’ll just ask him to pardon you.”

“Now it’s a matter of whether I’m willing to pardon him, not the other way round,” Meng Fuyao smiled pleasantly. “You had it wrong.”

The woman looked reluctantly at Zhan Nancheng and muttered, “Shouldn’t have accepted the gifts from the Zhan family in the first place…” She thought for a moment and proposed, “I will give you a strand of my white hair. In the future, this item might save your life.”

Meng Fuyao stared at this violent yet naive martial arts expert and solemnly declined, “Senior, I will also grow white hair in the future, and I might grow even more strands than you. I will not trouble you to give me yours.”

The woman sighed as she started getting impatient, breaking the strand of white hair that she had been rubbing in her hands. “Then I can only kill you,” she said.

…

Zhan Beiye was in mid-air.

The stairs in front of him had exploded into slabs, and there was a shower of arrows targeting his back. He had his mother in his arms, so he only had one hand left to attack.

If he abandoned his mother and used the momentum to jump, he could very well avoid the pit and the arrows.

Yet he held his mother even tighter to himself and gave a loud holler.

“Up!”

With a kick, his foot picked up the stone slab that was falling. It was an entire piece of white marble slab, its length reaching a few meters and its mass nearing a tonne, yet he hooked it with only one foot and flung it into the air!

The slab flew towards the shower of arrows behind him. Even the sharpest arrow could not pierce through the strong stone, and the arrows all broke into segments. With these movements, Zhan Beiye inevitably started falling.

He was falling towards the pit filled with steel knives.

Zhan Beiye hollered once again.

“Stop!”

His holler was as loud as thunder, and it stunned the soldiers on the first step, who were armed with pikes and ready to stab him into the pit. In that split second, Zhan Beiye did a split, showing a degree of flexibility that was almost impossible to accomplish in mid-air. As he fell, he stacked his two legs on the rim of the pit, stopping his downfall.

Once Zhan Beiye steadied his body, he was as stable as a monolith that would not shift even under a tornado. As he looked up, he shot a solemn glare that hit the soldiers like heavy steel, causing them to suck in their breath.

Zhen Beiye’s legs pushed against the rim and crossed, causing him to spiral in the air. With a grab, he snatched over ten odd pikes and flung them out towards the soldiers. In the midst of the whooshing noises of the pikes cutting through wind, the soldiers all flew back, clattering together in a mess while rolling and groaning on the floor. Then there were those who fell into the pit, who let out tragic screams as blood splattered all over. Zhan Beiye laughed at the sight, and stepping on the heads of these miserable people, he leaped towards the entrance of the palace.

However, more soldiers dashed out. The soldiers who were ordered by Zhan Nancheng to stay outside the palace formed rows of barriers to try to stop Zhan Beiye.

“Whoever blocks my way will die!”

Zhan Beiye always kept his words simple and did what he said. With a flash of his sword, he had already stabbed three people, leaving behind bloody marks. He smirked. “I really love killing people. Thank you for providing your brains.”

His eyebrows and body were stained with blood and flesh; every slash of the sword had resulted in spurts after spurts of blood that scattered in the magnificent palace like a rainbow. Those soldiers who fell but had yet to die were mercilessly stepped on, causing their skulls to break, creating successive cracking sounds.

Organs and brains flowed in the pool of blood and broken bones.

Kill, to stop killing.

At that moment, Zhan Beiye no longer wanted to think about whether he was a part of Heaven Demon. He only knew that for every second they delayed him, Meng Fuyao would be placed in greater danger. Since whoever blocked his way would be an indirect murderer of Meng Fuyao, whoever stopped him would have to die!

The merciless slashes and celestial aura of a reincarnated God of War caused the soldiers’ hearts to thump and their limbs to go weak. Though they dared not back off due to their responsibility, their attacks weakened, and many secretly retreated while attacking. Zhan Beiye showed no mercy, and in his dash he created a bloody path, allowing him to run into the Inner Palace.

Once he ran in, he noticed neither Zhan Nancheng nor the grey-clothed woman. He only saw Meng Fuyao’s bloody appearance, her swollen lips, and even that broken finger which she tried to hide behind her sleeves.

His eyes turned red at that sight.

Then he saw Zhan Nancheng who was badly beaten, and heard the woman on the ceiling say, “Then I can only kill you”.

Immediately, he dashed in.

He cut through the wind with such force that his robes created rustling noises, and he dashed head-on like a steel knife. The woman only raised an eye and lazily said, “One more, sigh, looks like I will need to put in a bit more effort to kill.”

Zhan Beiye smirked, and without any hesitation, he pounced on her and hollered, “If you want to kill her, kill me first!”

The woman looked down and agreed casually, “Kill both of you.”

Suddenly, Meng Fuyao interrupted, “Zhan Beiye, stop right there!”

Zhan Beiye ignored and continued charging towards the woman with great fury. Meng Fuyao could only shout, “Ouch!”

The wind ceased, and Zhan Beiye stopped in his tracks. In a second, he ran to Meng Fuyao’s side and asked, “What happened? Where does it hurt?”

This time, Meng Fuyao rolled her eyes at him, before turning to the woman. “Senior Cloud Soul, you receive gifts from the Zhan family, and you have the liberty to kill anyone you want. But to such a woman,” she pointed to Consort Dowager in Zhan Beiye’s arms, and continued, “do you also want to kill such a pitiful lady who endured so many sufferings in this world?”

“Tell him to put her down, I won’t kill innocent people,” Cloud Soul answered nonchalantly and did not ask how Meng Fuyao knew of her identity.

“If you kill us and leave her here alone, how will she survive?” Meng Fuyao snorted. “Have you not heard of the saying ‘Although I did not kill Boren, Boren died because of me’?”

Cloud Soul frowned and said, “I’ll tell Zhan Nancheng to not kill her.”

“Sigh, I’d rather believe in a pig than believe in Zhan Nancheng,” Meng Fuyao said painfully. “Even a pig has a greater sense of humanity than him.”

“What to do then?” Cloud Soul opened her eyes wide and even asked Meng Fuyao dumbfoundedly, “What’s your opinion?”

“Hmm, this is hard,” Meng Fuyao commented as she furrowed her eyebrows together. “How about this, if we die here and leave her here, she will definitely die as well, and you’ll be killing innocent people. Why not we head out and let you kill us? It’s better to die outside than inside of the Palace.”

She had just finished suggesting when Zhan Nancheng puked out a mouthful of blood. He could not speak, and could only stare grudgingly at the willy and shameless Meng Fuyao, before looking pleadingly towards his only savior, Cloud Soul.

Cloud Soul did not speak. The eyes of this woman who looked old yet young, and seemed mature yet naive, was at times focused and at times lifeless. One moment, she was muddle-headed, and the other moment, she was very sharp. She looked casually at Consort Dowager and said emotionlessly, “I find her pretty likable, and for such a rare person that suffered even more than I did, I cannot kill.”

Meng Fuyao agreed loudly, “Yes, once you kill her, you will be the most miserable person in the world. That’s not good, you need someone to be worse than you.”

Cloud Soul smiled and scrutinized Meng Fuyao, slightly pointing at her and said, “Young girl, don’t treat me like a fool. I just chose not to do what I could do.”

Meng Fuyao grinned at her cheekily, but deep down, she thought of how all the top ten martial arts wielders were weirdos. Gale spent 13 years in jail looking for a disciple, Splendor of Stars took revenge on all women just because he was deceived by a lover, and Cloud Soul, at times sharp and at times muddleheaded, liked to randomly gift her white hair. She wondered how the rest of the experts were like.

Anyway, no matter what, she was able to capitalize on the loophole. It was also a relief that Nancheng’s personality was too poor and he was not a likable person. Cloud Soul evidently did not like him, and only protected his life out of responsibility.

“I allow you to bring Zhan Nancheng and this woman out of the Palace,” Cloud Soul said as she lazily chewed on snacks, the crumbles dropping on Zhan Nancheng’s head. “However, I cannot give you so much leeway. Once we’re out of the palace, the two of you have to fight with me. No matter whether you two die or not, Zhan Nancheng must be released.”

Meng Fuyao looked towards Zhan Beiye. This was his enemy, so he should make the decision.

Zhan Beiye merely said, “There are many other chances to kill him.”

He glanced at Meng Fuyao gratefully. For the night, he had only planned to take a look at his mother and had no expectations of trying to save her. Lo and behold, the situation turned completely different from what he had in mind. Fuyao substituted his mother and subdued Zhan Nancheng, then Cloud Soul appeared, and it became almost impossible for him to safely bring his mother out from the huge army. But Meng Fuyao was able to decipher Cloud Soul’s personality in just a short conversation and bait her into agreeing to battle outside the palace. As long as they exited, the Black Wind Horses would be able to bring his mother to a safe spot. The importance of this to him was immeasurable!

It was all thanks to Fuyao. The girl who never gave up even in the worst situations and created miracles from the impossible!

Zhan Beiye’s eyes darted across Meng Fuyao, who was still giggling although her body was terribly injured. Before he dashed in, how did Meng Fuyao even confront Cloud Soul who was a top ten expert, and still adamantly kept the hostage in her hands?

He looked up silently at the caisson ceiling that was engraved with dragons and phoenixes. In his arms, Consort Dowager suddenly whispered, “… Daughter-in-law…”

Zhan Beiye’s body stiffened, and he let out a long breath. Cloud Soul laughed on the ceiling, “Yes, daughter-in-law, if not why would she help you to this extent? You are blessed, this young girl is a deserving match of your silly son.”

The corners of Meng Fuyao’s mouth twitched, and she said, “Senior, have you not heard of ‘close female friends’ or ‘friends who live and die together’?”