《Song of the Phoenix》Chapter 3
Advertisement
Baihe’s pair of dark, ominous eyes swept across the silent crowd, stunned into frozen statues by her ghostly appearance. Nobody moved, even the wind was quiet and the trees were still. Satisfied with their reactions, her cold eyes landed on Prince Zhao’s stiff face.
Putting on her best actress skills, she imitated how vengeful spirits would behave based on her knowledge from modern day horror movies. Baihe didn’t need additional makeup because her complexion was already deadly pale. Her body showed evidence of malnutrition and her eye sockets were hollowed like a zombie. The long black hair added to the finishing touches as it framed down the entire length of her figure, covering most of her ghastly, white face, revealing a pair of dark, cold eyes.
It was said that most people in ancient days were extremely superstitious. Under the hands of Prince Zhao, how could a useless trash like her survive? Thus, in the hearts and minds of everyone present, they all believed her to be dead and the phantom before them was her vengeful spirit.
“Why did you kill me? Why? Injustice! Injustice!” Baihe adjusted her pitch as she wailed.
By sheer luck, gloomy clouds sheltered the sky as the world turned dark. The sun had abandoned the humans below and the moon refused to grace them with her presence tonight. Even the stars in the night sky were absent. The quiet wind suddenly howled, swaying the trees and flapping the edges of the robes worn by all the people.
Her white robe fluttered and her mass of long black hair fanned out from the gust of wind, creating an illusion like she was levitating inside the coffin.
To think that nightfall would arrive at such a pivoting moment…even heaven was on her side! Such a perfect opportunity, Baihe obviously wouldn’t waste the good will of heaven.
“I will haunt you for eternity! I will curse you! You shall never live in peace!” Her shrieking voice sent shivers down the spines of her audience. The angry wind carried her sinister words as they echoed throughout the eerie night.
Advertisement
A young lady’s scream broke the others out of their stupor. Fei Fei was sprawled on the ground, her butt kissing the hard pavement, while her knees were huddled close to her body as her mouth sprouted guilty words.
“It — it wasn’t me! It had nothing to do with me! It… it wasn’t me! N—not me!”
Baihe looked at her younger sister Fei Fei, born from the same father, but different mother. A frosty chill glazed over her heart as she stared at Fei Fei curled up in the fetal position. Unless one possessed a guilty conscious, such strong reaction was unwarranted.
Ah Fei Fei, seems like you and Prince Zhao both plotted together for my demise! In fact, based on the reactions of all those attending tonight’s funeral, they more or less knew the truth, but turned a blind eye to the crime. Some most likely even participated and were happy accomplices — her cheap father included. Good! Good! One day, this debt of grievance I’ll make sure to return back ten folds! No, hundred folds!
To deal with such shrewd people, one must target their weak spot. Adding an extra oomph behind her performance, she slowly lifted her slender arms and stretched both of them out in front of her. The sickly, pale hands dangled limply from the air like a white powdered jiangshi corpse stalking them. Everyone backed a few steps away, sticking closely to those behind them, almost to the point of stacking up together like sacks of rice.
At this moment of supernatural chaos, none of them were rational enough to realize that they were all martial art practitioners. Superstitious fear had overwhelmed their logical brain.
Altering the pitch of her voice again, Baihe raised it a few notches higher, summoning the sound of a spooky, creepy banshee. She unleashed her killing intent, the thick dangerous aura blanketed over every inch of the surface.
Such strong killing intent! Definitely a ghost! If they weren’t convinced before, now they were! Otherwise, based on the Baihe they knew, how could she be capable of such feast?
Advertisement
“All of you, I will make sure your generation of bloodline ends here. I curse you all! None of your offspring will live pass their mother’s womb! The prestigious ladies attending my funeral, by morning, your beauty will be gone along with time. And as for you Prince Zhao…” Her eyes darted to the frozen prince, hands quivering by his side.
“You shall never get the seat on the dragon throne! I’ll thwart your every path unless…”
Her warning wails penetrated their core and their weak hearts quaked in fear as they all held their breath, waiting with rapt attention for her conditions.
“Unless… you all complete three of my dying wishes; then, I’ll leave peacefully to the underworld. First condition…I’m hungry, so bow down to me and kowtow three times in respect while burning incense sticks.”
The moment her words were spoken, the group of people bustled into action. Since this was supposed to be a funeral, there were already joss sticks available. Each of them grabbed two incense sticks and burned them to appease the vengeful ghost. Their knees connected with the cold pavement as they all knelt down, holding the incense sticks before them to pay their respect.
Every one of them were selfish men with ambition and women with hidden agendas. None of them wanted their bloodline to end with them. They all wished for glory, wealth, and honor. All those present, were aligned with Prince Zhao. If kneeling down can appease a spirit and give way, then it was a small price to pay.
None of them dared to look at Baihe’s face anymore as they were all busy praying earnestly on the ground while holding the burning incense sticks. Seeing the high and mighty Prince Zhao, bowing down with his head lowered as he paid her respect, a small dose of satisfaction drizzled into Baihe’s heart. Each time their forehead connected with the ground, the blissful sound rejuvenated Baihe’s mood.
In the same eerie voice, she continued her speech. “Hmm…good. That tasted delicious! Thank you for all the incense sticks. I was worried I would go hungry in the underworld. Leaving on a full belly will be much better. Now for my second condition…leave behind all your valuables, gold, and jewelries.”
Women began to remove their hairpins and jewelry; men removed their heavy money pouches. All of the valuables were dumped into a pile before Baihe. Contented with her free loot, she gave them her last wish. “Finally, set my coffin on fire. Let my ashes become one with the wind, as I journey to the underworld, hoping for a happy and free afterlife. After you’re done, all of you can scram!”
Immediately, a spark of fire brought the lively flames to life. None of them were willing to stay a moment longer and all of them scurried away as if they were the one being burned. Baihe scanned the surrounding, only after her sharp eyes confirmed that all of them were gone, did she hopped out of the coffin.
Such performance was worthy of an Oscar award! Either that, or these people were truly too gullible and easy to fool!
Author's Note: Thank you to all those who took the time to comment and leave feedback for me on my blog. For those who haven't already, I would love to hear from you; if not, I'm still happy to have you reading this novel and enjoying it.
For faster release and access to new chapters (usually ahead by a few chapters), always visit my blog at Queendrops.Wordpress.Com
I reply to all comments on my wordpress blog because I check it frequently and post new chapters there first, so do return to see my response if you leave feedback or comments. This is my appreciation to those who take time out of their day to leave a little comment; the least I could do is set some time aside and reply to their good wishes.
If you comment here on RRL, a reply will only be given when I check RRL, which will most likely be on a much, much later date.
Advertisement
Dungeon Core Chat Room.
This is a slower-paced "experiment and dungeon building" web novel that tries to use the idea of peer-to-peer communication with Dungeon Cores instead of Dungeon to slave monster communication to break up the detailed dungeon building. Rank 1 description: (minimum met for system initialization...detailed description as follows) Each race was given a system by the gods to make up for their shortcomings and balance their place in this world. Humans: Abysmally bad at understanding and using magic unable to use more than the lowest of magic were given the "Skill System" magic in the form of premade skills with use, study, and mastery tied to experience. Elves: Intuitively understand magic and have long lives leading to vast knowledge and skill in their chosen fields. However, as a species, they have nearly zero sex drive and less than low fertility, so they were gifted the "World Tree System" with experience gained through the care of natural areas – gifting the chance of children to increase their numbers without dirty copulation. All “natural” or “wild” monsters are given an "Evolution system" designed around killing and consuming as many creatures as possible, slowly increasing strength and, at thresholds, allowing mutations to alter them multiple times. Dungeon cores are different. Unlike humans, they can see, manipulate and live off mana. Unlike Elves, they naturally crystallize after extended periods of time in high mana level areas. However, they cannot easily move or communicate and typically go insane without companionship. As a species other than the odd eccentric they are unimaginative. Brute forcing solutions without the drive to truly innovate. Thus they have been gifted with the "Dungeon Connection System" a magical version of the internet accessible by their peers that allows them to barter and sell: bait, traps, monsters, and knowledge, as well as entertain each other with “adventure streams” using exciting recorded battles and humorous reels of arrogant chumps biting off more than they can chew to often fatal effects. This is the casual story of a dungeon unluckily spawned far from potential adventurers forced to innovate beyond its peers to find its place in this world. Rank 2 Description: Justification. I've been on a dungeon core kick for months and while I love the genre – it's sparse with entries. Often the forced conflict gets repetitive and frantic solving of threats "power levels" the protagonist to god levels to progress the plot – taking away the nice steady progression fantasy I'm looking for. (Progression in this story is linked to how strong of monsters/traps/whatever he can create not his "level"...this is demonstrated by some of his newer monsters beating his older monsters not with discrete "this monster has 10 attack this one has 40") Additionally, the focus on 3rd parties with their drama takes away from the reason I’m reading dungeon core novels in the first place – I'm looking for magical crafting, experimentation and kingdom building – not defence from higher and higher levelled enemies looking to steal/destroy/control the MC. This novel is kind of just me writing the story I wish I could read. I like thinking about the experimentation that can be done in fantasy settings using 'mana' as an excuse to make up rules and try to keep them internally consistent. IE once I define how a rule works, I'm going to commit to keeping it – no breaking hard truths I've given when it's convenient, even if it backs me into a corner. Hopefully, that should make the story interesting to read even if it's SOL and less action-oriented. There will be problems to solve and a clear progression in strength (of created monsters and knowledge) however due to not wanting to force conflict for the sake of conflict the general theme will be closer to slice of life with few action sequences and no overarching goal so please keep that in mind when picking this up as the genre is not for everyone. Finally, I have a clear goal of what I want from this story (not an endless romp but a series of arcs and then a conclusion that's a couple of dozen medium-sized chapters long) I want to commit to finishing it or at least bringing it to a point of rest. I hate all the engaging stories that stop with a “hiatus” indefinitely so in the event I lose motivation I'll work to end this even if the ending becomes rushed/unsatisfying just to give a sense of closure. I’m planning on including several polls in terms of direction and taking feedback heavily into account if I get enough readers (but may choose to ignore it if it deviates too far from the direction I want to take this as in feedback like: “The MC needs a cartoonishly evil arch-enemy that wants to enslave him and force the mc to pump out magic items” or “the MC needs to make a body and learn teleportation then live with humans” will get shot down without consideration.)
8 258Xenos The Abysmal
After what seemed like vengeance, he was given a chance in a new world, Titan. Reborn as a half vampire and half human, 'Dhampir'. Will he be scrutinized for his mixed blood, or rule the world in darkness.
8 200My Universal beast system
"Wha...are you!?" Asked a Hero with a terror filled expression on his face. No matter what he does, nothing seems to work on the being in front of him. Hearing his question, a tawny yellow coloured beast with a majestic face reminisced. "Me? I am a Lion, what else?" "Lion?" Confusion apparent on the Hero's face as he didn't know what a Lion was…. (Story can be dark) New Update(March): I am having an exam, rare updates of chapters for a while. Please understand.
8 83Prisoners: the hidden face
For millennia, planet Earth has been a prison planet. The confederation of 116 planets once imprisoned earthlings. She is now ready to free the prisoners. But at what cost ?On an overpopulated and divided planet, a young woman tries to save her sick brother. She does not know that many trials await her
8 68Unknown Fate's End
The ancient's believed that a man's fate or destiny is written already, and that only God or maybe the Gods could change it. If they did change it, it was believed it was for a purpose unknown to that man or for maybe for the ammusement of those higher beings. However, whether that is true or not, one thing is for certain. Changing a man's fate will create a ripple of changes. Join our hero, who whether by luck, by some divine intervention, or by his own choice, separated from the fate that he shared with his fellow earthlings. Watch him struggle in his new world. Watch him grow. Watch him learn. Watch him walk a path oustside what destiny has for him. FYI: The magic concept in this story is high fantasy with involvement of polytheistic religions and demons. There will be a mix of GameLit style writing mixed with traditional magic novel style writing. The plot developement will be slow in the first volume, as I will focus on world building and character building. The main character will not be OP immediately and will develop into one in his own way over time. This series is built less like modern Japanese, Korean, and Chinese webnovels and more like the old school fanstasy novels like DND and Forgotten Realms.
8 84So try and love me while you can [Zacky Vengeance]
8 136