Records of the Nine Heavens

Fifth Excerpt: "Tian's Rise to Power, Lady Jin Fenghuang’s Rebellion"

Other moniker/s: "Lord of the Nine Heavens", "Heaven's Tyrant", "Usurper", "The Unrecorded".

Tian: "Heaven", as he'd dub himself (his true name lost to the ages / wiped from all records), plotted to acquire the throne!

Through countless subterfuges, deep scheming and outlandish designs, he somehow managed to fool and murder the all-powerful Jade Emperor (who had come to see Tian as his kin).

Even then, it wouldn't have angered most Heavenly Beasts too much: after all, even in the peaceful Realm of Xū, the world remained a land where the winner was King and the loser was Thief. Such, was Nature. Such, was Life.

That was something innate to all beings that even omnipotence couldn't wipe away.

Primordial Beasts especially so, were used to a new strongest rising and falling. The Jade Emperor's reign had lasted but a few million years, whereas the oldest amongst them had lived for billions.

As such, the Primordials had bowed to Tian and his rule, as if compelled by a higher, indisputable law.

On the other hand, Tian was born weak and had been forced to act cautious and scheme his whole life to survive. All that time, however, he had been aiming higher than anyone could have possibly imagined...

He spent countless years, and eventually found a method to kill Hundredth Xū's and steal his power! Then, as the foolish (or rather, indifferent) Primordial Beasts and Heavenly Beasts followed what they were told without any questioning, he claimed the throne.

Tian became the Lord of the Heavens. He then went on and, to demonstrate his power, cleaved the heavens in two. Then he slashed once again and the Heavens were not two anymore, but three. Then they became five, seven and, finally, nine. He slashed the True Heavens eight times, creating the Nine Heavens.

Powerless to resist, everybody pledged their allegiance through Soul Contracts and the like, and were thus, from then on, completely unable to fight back. From then on, the Four Primordial Emperors were suddenly banished from the Nine Heavens, while the Four Divine Kings, considered by Tian to be the greatest threat to his rule, were publicly imprisoned on a flying island in the skies: Worldlords Island.

King Yama, too, bowed his head in a reenactment of what had happened many millennia prior.

Soon, Tian's true self was revealed and his figure as a just and rightful Lord of the Heavens was torn apart as he became a Tyrant.

Furthermore, unwilling to see himself following the path of his predecessor, he placed a seal on the countless Daos! Without his permission, be it Heavenly Beasts and Mortals alike, they would have their path to the Second Ascension blockaded! Even those that had already ascended would experience a powerful backlash, a Dao poisoning of sorts, if they were to tap into their Dao without permission.

Needless to say, Tian was unwilling to see anyone rise to challenge his hard-earned hegemony!

Unable to rebel against the new Lord of the Heavens, the Four Emperors could only watch as they would see countless of their kin get slaughtered if they didn't comply with Tian's demands, starting with their four most prized offspring held hostage at Worldslords Flying Island...

[...]

Other moniker/s: "The Golden Phoenix", "Primordial Empress Consort", "The Blaze that Freed", "Creditor to all that ever yearned for Freedom".

A thousand and some hundred-odd years prior to the Evil Saint's rise to power, a person couldn't hold it anymore. It was none other than Lady Jin Fenghuang, the One Phoenix!

This individual was a Primordial Avifauna, and a fairly infamous one at that! During the Endless Slaughter she was even bequeathed the title of "Golden" Phoenix, as even more so than even other powerhouses of the time, her plumage had been dyed the colour of Second Ascension blood: both her enemies' and her own. Unlike Blindlight whose meteoric rise came to a stop eventually when his slothfulness kicked in and put an end to his carnage, the blazing phoenix never once wavered. To her, finding fuel to burn brighter was both a joy and a must.

Born of the only tear ever shed by the Primordial Molten Emperor: at the dawn of the Endless Slaughter, back when 'He' witnessed the ugliness of the world and eventually decided to retire from it alongside his fellow emperors, he cried his first and only tear of molten blood. That one blazing teardrop would burn the brightest for eras to come.

Countless years later, as the conflict was singlehandedly suppressed by the Jade Emperor, Jinghuang's flames caught the eye of the Roc, Primordial Emperor of the Sky, just as he returned to submit to Hundredth Xū.

Her very existence abhorred him.

The crazed warmonger, and the peace-seeking ruler.

After many millennia of butting heads when it came to their vastly different worldview and principles, the two alas reconciled and fell in love.

And as a result, the Divine Fire Queen was born.

[...]

[Note: in a way, the Divine Fire Queen (the Vermillion Bird), technically had the most ancient bloodline amongst the four Kings as she had the blood of two of the Emperors. Amusingly enough though, destiny made her the youngest of the four siblings[...]]

As the brightest blaze that had come to regard freedom beyond all else under the influence of the Roc, the Golden Phoenix refused to lie down any longer.

Just as all hope seemed to be lost for the countless living beings and Tian's seal was on the verge of being assimilated into their soul on the existential level, Lady Jin Fenghuang attempted the impossible: to release the seal bearing down on the Humans and the Heavenly Beasts, to allow them a chance against Tian! Such a seal, created by the Usurper through the remnant power of the Jade Emperor, was supposed to last through the ages.

Yet, she didn't give up: she, with her own restricted cultivation, challenged this seemingly indestructible seal, that had been laid down with the power of the fallen Deity... and won.

According to some, this might have been because her talent and power, sharpened to no end in the Endless Slaughter, were on par, if not on a higher level altogether, with the Four Emperors' themselves! Mostly, however, it should have been due to her innate Phoenix body, as it allowed her to regenerate so long as a single speck of her existence remained. Her relentlessness weathered down the seal until it eventually shattered.

However, due to some twisted joke of fate, she did indeed successfully lift the seal and regain freedom... But she wounded her Being and exhausted her never-ending vitality in the process.

As time passed, she slowly began to fade into the Dao: her individuality gone with the fatal wound to her essence, the Qi within her body wished to merge back into the world. One day, her seemingly transparent and already faint figure suddenly... Disappeared.

The only thing that would be left behind would be a single silver feather... Grown dull due to the death of its previous owner, the only sign showing the great power of the once glorious Golden Phoenix was the golden glow that emanated from within the silver body of the feather...

[...]

Excerpts from the work: Records of the Nine Heavens

Author: Unknown