“My emperor Heifeng, please bless your newborn son.” A jadelike young woman clad in comfortable yet majestic looking royal robes handed the infant swaddled in her arms. The baby gurgled loudly, but did not cry. The newborn seemed to gaze at the black-armored Emperor, his father.

The man coldly glanced at the baby while holding him in one hand. The other hand grasped a needle which pierced into the baby’s finger, drawing a drop of blood. A smile flashed on the man’s lips when he saw that the baby did not cry, and it widened the very next moment. “My son… he has inherited your Yellow Dragon bloodline with a thick concentration of 40%. The bloodlines of the Azure Dragon, White Tiger and Black Tortoise are in balance, with 10% each. However, he has also inherited a quite thick portion of the bloodline of our Dark Phoenix clan, at 30%!” Hearing this, the woman became pale.

“I shall grant my son the name of Jiansui, after a dream of the Swordcore Saint, the final Perpetual Emperor of the Primordial Era, who graced me in a dream last night. Heifeng Jiansui, my first son who has been born 6 years after the birth of my daughter, Heifeng Xingmei! You have been granted 7 years to hone yourself. After this time has passed, you shall battle to the death with your sibling for the right to claim the title of the successor of the Throne of the Dark Phoenix Empire!” With the majesty of a Divine Emperor passing a Decree to all under the Heavens, a shocking proclamation was made.

The Emperor handed over the child to his mother as he continued the proclamation. “For these 7 years, he is granted an allowance of 100,000 Elemental Jades for training himself. He is not allowed access to any more money for these 7 years. He is allowed 3 visits to the Divine Scripture Palace, and allowed to choose a Mortal-rank weapon from the 1-layer Treasury Palace. During the battle of the successor’s seat, he is restricted to only Mortal-rank weapons unless he has forged them himself. “

“My son, Heifeng Jiansui! I wish that good fortune may descend on you! Have my blessings!” The Emperor flicked a finger causing a violet aura to appear on his finger. This was the legendary ‘Violet Qi from the East’, the sign of a virtuous king. The light entered the baby’s body, purifying him.

After the Emperor left, the mother glanced at her son. “After 7 years pass, that Heifeng Xingmei will be 13 years old! Her 75% pure Dark Phoenix bloodline will awaken, leaving you no chances of escaping death! My son Jiansui… your namesake was the final Perpetual Emperor of the Primordial Era of 1 million years ago, who sacrificed himself to kill a Calamity that would have destroyed the Nineorigins World... I hope some of his destiny rubs off to you, allowing you a chance at life…”

The peerless woman never saw the face her son made when he heard her words. Now that his fate had been declared, the mother decided to feed her child.

+++

That night, after being put to sleep after being fed his mother’s milk, the newly christened Heifeng Jiansui seemed to sleep soundly. In reality, the reincarnated spirit within him was pondering over the events that occurred soon after his birth. “It seems that a million years have passed by since my death. ‘The final Perpetual Emperor of the Primordial Era’… this is a grand yet ominous title. I am now a prince of the Dark Phoenix Empire. And to become the Crown Prince and succeed the throne, I have to slaughter my sibling in a duel after 7 years…”

“To begin with, let’s check my new mortal body first.” With a single thought, divine sense entered his infant body, allowing him to gain information about the best way to train himself. “My mother’s remnant energy after my birth hasn’t dispersed yet and that Violet Qi given by my father still remains… I might as well use them.”

Since the energy pathways within his body hadn’t been developed yet, he gently converged the two energies to meet at the most vital point in his body – the heart. His body had been created by the merging of Yin from his mother and the Yang from his father, and the two energies from the same sources converged again, forming a purifying power similar to the power of limitless creation held by the primal chaos.

His body was a still lake and his heart was its centre when a single stone dropped. Countless ripples originated from his heart area, sweeping through every single point in his body. His bones were washed, his marrow changed, his blood was transformed and his skin was cleansed. The energy that cleansed his body resonated with the origin energy that covered the world, drawing it into his body. Without conscious thought, the heavens decided to temper his body. An hour passed until the yin-yang energies finally dispersed and the purification of his inner and outer body stopped.

Once again, Heifeng Jiansui called upon his divine sense to observe himself. His body had been thoroughly cleansed by the baptism of energy. Not a single grain of dust marred his body. His internal passageways and energy channels had also been strengthened by large margin, enough to allow him to begin cultivation!

The greatest change was in his heart. His heart had seven apertures, and their openings glowed with the energy of the five elements. While ordinary mortals might not possess a seven-aperture heart, it was a famed saying that truly virtuous men had such a heart. Of course, cultivation would also refine the heart until it had seven apertures as well!

Fire, water, earth, wood and metal... their energy ripples emitted from five apertures of his heart, linked to the bloodlines possessed by his body. As he observed those energies, Heifeng Jiansui felt two faint fluctuations from his remaining two heart apertures that should have been impossible to find on his body!

The ripple of primal chaos! The twin energies of creation and destruction rippled from the two remaining apertures of his heart.

“How is this possible? This was a reincarnation and not a single aspect of my previous body was transferred over…” Heifeng Jiansui sent a strand of divine sense into the two apertures. The moment his divine sense struck, he was immediately inserted into an illusion…

+++

A black colored phoenix flew in the heavens. Chaosfire danced on its body and its flight through the sky tore a black streak through it. A fireball spat out could turn millennia-old trees into ashes in blinks of an eye. With peerless strength as its capital, the Dark Phoenix was the king of the heavens.

After countless years of being unopposed, a human cultivator challenged it, greedy for its corpse. Even though the phoenix turned the cultivator into ashes, its location was broadcast to the world. While it could oppose a single man, it could not battle an army. Yet, it tried. After nearly exterminating the sect that opposed it, it was shot through by a specially refined arrow and fell from the sky.

Yet it was a phoenix, it could not die…

+++

After witnessing a fragment of the life of the Dark Phoenix, Heifeng Jiansui realized that it was a fragment of the bloodline memories. This was something usually only available to those who held a pure bloodline, so how did he witness it with only 30% of the bloodline. It was an easy answer: could it be related to his reincarnated soul, a purified body, the baptism of heaven-earth energy or the fact that he was not even one day old?

No matter what, he did grasp some benefits from the phenomenon. His observing of the Dark Phoenix as it flew, battled and cultivated allowed him to grasp a few techniques. The most important was a breathing rhythm which would increase the density of his phoenix bloodline. He immediately started practicing it.

As he breathed in and breathed out, the ripples of the five elements in his heart lessened while the ripples of chaotic energy increased. It was completely unnoticeable, but the flow of energy entering his body increased as well. From tonight, Heifeng Jiansui made the decision that he would keep using this breathing technique without pause and without end.

If he practiced diligently, the breathing technique would become something that his body would unconsciously adjust to. Without conscious thought, it would become a routine that would fuse to his biorhythm and become something inseparable from him!

+++

The next day, the newborn Heifeng Jiansui was taken to explore the Royal Palace by his mother. The guards, maids and the servants always respectfully bowed before his mother. Even nobles and other concubines were respectful to her.

Swaddled in his mother’s arms, she set out showing him off to the various knights of the castle. As she replied to the various well-wishes given to her, she suddenly froze on seeing a 6 year old girl. The infant Heifeng Jiansui saw his mother’s reaction and put his eyes on the little girl.

“Consort Chanlong, you seem to be quiet healthy after your delivery? Good to see your newborn son. As I now have a sibling, I feel less lonelier. May I have a chance to hold him?” Heifeng Xingmei was dressed in a black frock with a phoenix mark on the back. She gave the sensation of burning fire even when she was offering polite greetings.

“Forgive me dear, but I am still a new mother; I can’t bear to let my child go for a moment. Perhaps you can hold him when he is older?” After warding off the little girl, my mother – Consort Chanlong quickly rushed away.

All the while, Heifeng Jiansui’s eyes were on the figure of the little girl his mother ran from. All he gathered was her lonely, wistful look.

+++

That night, Heifeng Jiansui was not taken for another outing. Instead, a pair of elders entered his room. After his mother greeted them, he realized that they were grandparents from the maternal side.

“Jian-er, greet your mother’s parents!” After his mother handed him to the two grandparents, he opened his eyes and gurgled at them.

“How cute! Yue-er, you son is quite something. Bye the way, here is the book you wanted. It was quite difficult to get hold of. And this is simply the abridged version!” The grandmother offered a thin book to his mother who gratefully grasped it.

After a while, the old couple went back. Meanwhile, his mother held him in one arm and held the book in another.

“Jian-er. Think of this as a bedtime story, okay?” After the infant gurgled once, his mother began reading.

“The sword is quite simple yet quite difficult to grasp. A layman can swing a spear for a week and be a master in the mortal world while a sword requires a decade to grasp. A saber is considered a deadlier weapon than the sword, yet the twin-edged blades of a sword allow for greater prowess in killing. The quote ‘One sword cuts through ten thousand tricks’ means…” This was certainly no bedtime story, this was a sword codex!

And Heifeng Jiansui happened to be intimately familiar with this sword codex, after all he had written it himself!

Perhaps according to his mother, this was a way that would allow the destiny of Sheng Jiansui and Heifeng Jiansui to be bound together. But she would never realize -- Sheng Jiansui and Heifeng Jiansui’s fates were bound together more tightly than she could ever comprehend.