Ch. 3 The White Snake Empress
作者：
Yun Su 更新：2023-12-23 10:29 字數：1651
The speaker was none other than Bird Three’s aunt, White Phoenix, whom Three knew very well.
Phoenix was standing on higher ground from them. Her face was as creamy as snow and her black eyes were crystal clear. Her shapely body, even dressed in plain white clothes, made her look as ethereal as a fairy goddess.
“Aunt White!?” The three of them were shocked.
“Bird Three, Tiger Lin, Dragon Zhen, what are you doing here? Don’t you know this is the mountain’s dragon spine?” Phoenix started scolding them, knowing who they were.
“Aunt White, isn’t this the Mantang Inn? When did it become the dragon’s spine?”
“Bird, take Tiger and Dragon back home.”
That was when Quesi yelled, “hah, who knew Taohua Village hid a monster…… the snake empress? I didn’t think you’d be alive after that battle years ago!”
Phoenix rolled her eyes, “kid, do you know who I am?”
“Not only do I know who you are, I know who defeated you and locked you here. I never thought you’d be able to break through and hide in this remote village!” Quesi pointed at Phoenix and yelled. “White Phoenix, if you tell me where my brother-in-law is, I’ll let you die with a whole body!”
“Your brother-in-law?” At first, Phoenix was indifferent, after seeing Quesi’s flames of anger, she chuckled out loud. “So you’re from the Que family, one of the four hidden families of Canghun? Is this brother-in-law Que Hun?”
“How dare you speak his name?” Quesi lit her spiritual fire and looked ready to battle Phoenix.
“Miss Que, you gotta beat me if you want to fight Phoenix!” Bird stopped Quesi.
“Hey, you’re human, she’s a monster, how can you be family with her? Get away, or I’ll kill you too!”
“I was an orphan left in the mountains, my teacher took me in and taught me to survive, and Aunt White saved me many times from monsters. Now that my teacher is gone, I can’t allow you to hurt my aunt!” Seeing Quesi’s determination, Bird confronted her.
“Let go!” Holding the spiritual fire, Quesi flew past Bird toward Phoenix.
“No!” Bird used the ancient martial arts from his teacher to block her.
His teacher has said ancient martial arts came from thousands of years ago, where the essence lay in the word “martial.” People who trained in martial arts could never focus on just being tough or mean, it was all about training the mind and learning the craft from within, cultivating one’s morals, intelligence, in addition to the physical training.
When it came to spiritual fire, one either fought back or did defense, however, there’s no absolute fighting or absolute defense in this world, so the only thing one could depend on was one’s brain. When one has learned all the martial arts skills and knowledge, achieved unity in mind and matter, one would be able to seek out the enemy’s weaknesses and keep winning.
Using the ancient martial arts to fight Quesi’s spiritual fire was full of challenges, after a round of battles, Bird became weaker and took a few blows from the spiritual fire.
“Miss Que, Aunt White is not evil, don’t make her your enemy!” After taking more blows, Bird spit out some blood and stumbled backward.
“To you, maybe, but for me, she’s the reason my brother-in-law went missing. I have to get an answer today!”
Before, Quesi was cultivating at Mt. Cangyun. If she didn’t need to host the Que family ritual, she wouldn’t have been sent down the mountain by her teacher, and she would never have had the opportunity to use the “escape from the secret room” challenge to come to Taohua Village. She thought she could find help in hosting the Que family ritual, but she’s actually found the snake empress White Phoenix who was supposedly blocked by a spell.
Phoenix spoke then, “the Que family’s offspring is all pathetic, and Que Hun is the only decent one. Though this girl is not too bad. Bird, you’re not her match, let me help, alright?”
“I’ve not fought monsters for many years, today is a good time! Ready or not, here’s my strike!” Jin Ming used his spiritual fire to jump up and attack Phoenix.
But Phoenix was an ancient snake empress, so mere mortals could not compete. She didn’t move at all, just emanated her all-white energy to break Ming’s knife and bounced him back.
Ming is the son of a Jinyuan Kingdom general, whose achievements were renowned throughout Canghun. After one move from the snake empress broke a few of his ribs, everyone became terrified; they gathered around to try to fight her together. Before they made a move, however, another force stopped them.
“You’re insane to try to fight the White Empress!”
The person who blocked them was Cass.
“White Empress, I’m the manager of the Mantang Inn at Taohua Village. They’re all competitors of the ‘escape from the secret room’ challenge, and they just wanted to look for the thousand-year-old grave at Taohua Village, and have no intention of insulting the dragon’s spine. Please forgive us for our transgressions.”
“In the battle between humans and monsters eight years ago, I signed a contract with Que Hun’s blood for peace between the species, or humans would not know a moment of peace in the monsters’ reign!” ”White Empress, you’re indeed correct. The blood contract from eight years ago was only known by the four hidden families, but your sacrifice was known by all. Que Hun is gone now, if he could see the peace we have today, he’d have been gratified six feet under.”
“Que Hun? I’ve almost forgotten about him after all these years. He was Yun Gui, and a descendant of the Que family. Too bad his death has ended the blood contract between the humans and monsters, so the battle will inevitably start again.”
To her, her only master in this lifetime was Yun Gui, or Que Hun, or she would have never signed the contract. She has seen the once amazing Que Hun lose his energy, now that he was gone, the love should have perished too.
“Yun Gui? Que Hun? My teacher’s name is Que Hun?”
For years, Bird has always called his teacher “teacher” and never asked his name or nickname, who knew his name would be revealed after his death? Even more surprising, his teacher was actually from the Que family, and was the legendary Que Hun, a renowned master in Canghun.
Bird couldn’t help laughing out loud:
“My teacher is Que Hun? My teacher? Finally, I know your name and how great you are!”
He was laughing and crying hysterically, as he did, he kneeled and kowtowed on the floor until he spat blood and passed out.
Meanwhile, Quesi was shocked to learn the truth. She couldn’t believe the big battle between humans and monsters eight years ago was when the blood contract was made, and that her brother-in-law was a sacrifice of the contract.
“No way…… He’s a Mind Master known throughout Canghun and the pride of our family, why would he be sacrificed in the blood contract? It’s not fair, it’s not fair!”
The shaken Quesi looked at White Phoenix again, her eyes full of hate, “you snake monster, give me back his life!”
She kicked her legs, seemingly wanting to give a deadly blow to Phoenix, but someone struck her in mid-air, and she fainted in Jiang Ju’s arms.
Jiang begged for forgiveness, “Cass, what do we do with the competition?”
Cass replied, “this is the dragon’s spine and the place where the human vs. monster blood contract was signed. You better return to where you came. You’re a smart one, you should understand the seriousness of everything, be careful.”
Among all professions, being a merchant seemed to rank the lowest in Confucian thought, however, Mantang Inn is much more than a hotel. In Canghun, the Mantang Inn is the largest force after the four hidden families. They had the power to make or destroy a nation. And no one knew who was the inn’s owner.
Jiang nodded gravely, “Understood,” then left holding Quesi.
Some other competitors also left with him.
“Teacher…… Aunt White……”
Bird’s friends carried him. He was still chanting his family’s names. Reaching out his hand, he wanted to hold onto something, but everything was shaky and vague, he hated the feeling.
When he closed his eyes, all lights went out, and White Phoenix also disappeared. They were back at Mantang Inn and where they started.
With everything that has happened, Tiger and Dragon talked among themselves.
“Dragon, with Bird like this, you think we can still get out of here?”
“No matter what, we have to keep Bird alive!”