Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 3

Huifen and Chao ended their visit to campus at the Fire Phoenix Palace. Elder Yongrui was there to greet them he’d given them a tour that was more thorough than even Huifen had ever had. The elder that had helped her husband during his time in the mine was the only overlord beside Sage Fang left in the Fire Phoenix Sect in their lower realm sect. There were still numerous sky realm elders and a few talented disciples that would soon be ready to take the place of those old monsters.

Since Chao and Yongrui were so familiar, Huifen followed behind lost in her own thoughts. As interesting as she found the fortress-like palace, Huifen really did want to get back to their room so that she could finally have the conversation that she and Chao were needing to—as well to have a peek at her new third pillar technique. Much of today hadn’t been for their sake, but the sake of the joint sect. They’d visited lecture hall after lecture hall, the mission hall, library, and arena. How many people had they greeted? A few hundred?

The tour was over, and they headed toward the exit. A weighty presence arrived as they were leaving. Sage’s Fang and Ping touched down near the entrance.

As soon as the giant fire sage that was even larger than Yongrui saw them, he strolled forward and bowed deeply. “Sage Huifen, this one is greatly ashamed of the crimes that were perpetrated against you and that I wasn’t here to stand against the elders of my own sect in their treason. To go as far as to attack their own sect… Their deaths are just.”

Huifen had known this overlord in her early days in the sect when she was still but a girl. He was the youngest overlord in the Fire Phoenix Sect at only fifty years old. Huifen had just come to the sect when he had advanced his realm. He was the only fire sage who was likely to ascent to the divine realm. Despite being an overlord, his enthusiasm for life was as fiery as his cultivation. He’d always been kind and even teased her when she was still learning the heart of ice technique. There was one more quality that the man was known for to everyone that knew him.

She stepped forward and issued a martial salute. “Senior Brother, you have no share in their crimes. They didn’t include you in their plans because they knew you would make it difficult for them.”

“Even so,” he said, continuing to bow. “This one would bring them back to life just to kill them again if he could.”

“Thank you, Senior.” She wasn’t sure if it was because they were talking about the traitor fire sect overlords, but she was more embarrassed for being made the center of attention then felt any pang from the memory of what had happened to her.

Sage Ping stepped forward and returned Huifen’s salute while giving her an empathetic look. “Little Sister, I share my husband’s astonishment. This news has saddened us greatly, but I also must praise you. To stand against the so many overlords and come out victorious. You are truly inspiring.”

Finally straightening himself, Sage Fang said. “It was mentioned in our meeting that you practice nature laws? Ping Ping, maybe you could share pointers with Sage Huifen since nature is your element of cultivation?”

The woman wasn’t quick to respond. She seemed tentative. Her smile that came next was reserved than before. “Of course.”

As exciting as Huifen felt about being able to ask a true nature cultivator questions, she responded. “Don’t feel obligated, Senior Sister.”

The sage shook her head and her shyness from before disappeared. “Don’t be silly. I’d be honored to share pointers with you.”

“Good. Good.” Sage Fang clapped his hands. “And Little Brother,” he said turn to Chao. “I can’t praise you enough. I must admit I’m still getting my mind around what was said of you. Would you be willing to trade pointers with this one?”

“This one answers,” Chao said, saluting him. “I would like that.”

“Wonderful. Business awaits or I’d impose on you now. Yongrui,” Sage Fang growled, turning to the newest and only other overlord in the Fire Phoenix Sect. “You and I need to have a conversation.”

Chao moved to step between them when Yongrui grabbed her husband’s shoulder and held him back. “I have a tongue lashing coming for my past transgressions,” the man said. “It’s not something a man should shy away from.”

He wasn’t quick to back away, but her Chao did so after seeing his mentor continued standing his ground. She knew Chao had never forced the issue of Yongrui’s passed in their time training together. She might as well tell him now that the elder and Sage Fang would have to work out their differences. The Fire Phoenix Sect needed every overlord it could get.

It was reasonable that the joint sect shouldn’t have any worry of being attacked from at outside influence after they’d defeated nine overlords and four divine cultivators if they included the divine spirit blood cultivator Billi and her dead master Syaoran. That didn’t mean there wouldn’t be encroachment from outside forces on the Monolith continent. There were also large forces in the north with far more overlords than they’d had when the ex- Fire Phoenix Sect overlords were still alive. The Divine Flying Tiger Clan also produced tribulation cultivators far more often because of the nature of their cultivation practices. The threat of an assault was always present. If their rivals smelled weakness, even if it was a false signal, who knew what they might do.

When Huifen and her husband were all that remained, she grabbed his arm and said, “Let’s go.”

For the first time in over a year, they returned to their old rooms in the Ice Phoenix Palace. At least, Huifen had. Their marriage bed had been brought from the Frozen Moon Mystic Realm and placed in her room. It was one of the largest rooms in the palace, and it was larger than the one they’d been staying in.

When she opened the door and walked in, she stopped and looked back to see Chao standing at the doorway.

“What is it?” She asked.

His eyes hit the floor. “I’ve never entered this room before. Are you sure it’s appropriate, Senior Sister?”

Her initial response was to be annoyed. They were finally going to get to have their conversation and he wanted to play around instead. She sighed. “Junior Brother,” she said, going along with it while also making her annoyance known.

In the next instant, he was in the room, the door was closed, and he was wrapping her up. When he tried to kiss her, she turned her head. It landed on her cheek. Then her neck.

“I really shouldn’t indulge your silly games.”

“You really shouldn’t,” he agreed.

“We need to talk.”

“We really do.” He didn’t stop.

Pushing him away, she folded her arms across her chest and gave him a pointed look.

He expertly mimicked her stance and glare.

She was really starting to become irritated when he spoke. “I just don’t want you to think I didn’t miss my Huifen after going two days without her. You’re my favorite law to cultivate.”

She plopped down in the middle of the floor with a huff.

“None of that,” he said, sitting down across from her. “If it wasn’t a once in a lifetime opportunity, I wouldn’t have bothered. Now tell me, how is my wife?”

“I know,” she replied, letting her annoyance fade. “I’m better than I think I should be.”

“From killing ex-Sect Master Tengfei?”

“That and the rest of the killing. My conscience is clear, but this battle didn’t make me feel as dirty as it would’ve once had.”

“Good. It’s the same for me. After all our time in the realistic combat of the Training Construct, it’s appropriate, I think. We did all we could to try to save the lower realm cultivators from having to fight. Our consciences should be clear. How do you feel about finally getting your revenge by killing the emperor?”

She searched her heart and mind for an answer but couldn’t find one. Chao waited patiently until she responded. “I feel like nothing has changed. If it was right after the violation, maybe it would be different, but I feel the same.”

He looked pleased.

“What is it?”

“My wife is strong. If they would’ve forced you to go against your own principles, then it would’ve been their victory. I may be wrong, but isn’t recovering without the need to take revenge the ultimate revenge? It just shows the Sun family was nothing to you in the end.”

“Is it?” She thought about it for a moment but wasn’t sure. It sounded right—in part. It was something she’d have to consider at length.

She then turned her attention to him. “Now, about you facing off with a divine realm cultivator who was threatening to kidnap me…”

She watched as he stiffened his back and sat tall to oppose her. There’d been a time where he would’ve accepted her rebuke without resistance. Well, that may have not been entirely true. It may have been masked by timid etiquette, but he’d always stood firm when it came to something he believed in.

She couldn’t help but to remember when they’d first met. He’d been just a low-level nascent realm cultivator and she was nearing the peak of the earth realm. They were an entire world apart. She’d been annoyed with his initial clumsiness around her but had understood it. The difference in power between them had been like the heat of a candle to that of a bonfire. It was common in the world of cultivators for those in the lower realm to practically worship the higher. It wasn’t just out of respect, but fear. And yet he’d been more afraid of what she thought of him than what she could do to him. Maybe it was because he’d grown up around a divine realm cultivator like his father.

Then she thought of how he’d stubbornly remained in the mine for four months to the point his cultivation had even dropped a small realm. There was the time he’d insisted against the Sect Master’s command that she stop using heart of ice while they cultivate the laws, and he’d thrown Elder Wang Li’s words in her face when she’d spoken poorly of Huifen. There was his fight in the arena against a cultivator an entire larger realm higher than his and he had only been dueling for a few weeks. She would never forget what he did for her in killing Prince Jin, the man that violated her. And that was just before he’d become her husband. Now he’d killed multiple overlords in one battle and a divine realm cultivator.

She’d been meaning to rebuke him, instead she said, “Thank you.”

When she bowed her head, like always, he leaned forward to stop her. She gave him a little blast of her qi to keep him from doing it. He’d never been a coward, just naïve about some things and he lacked experience. He was also too polite sometimes. She’d been there to seen him grow, and even was his master for a time—though she admitted she was never really his master. Just a senior disciple helping a promising junior.

“However,” she added after lifting her head. “We had a smarter play, especially after Prince Rong said he just wanted to take me hostage. I know you were convinced he’d likely end up killing me anyway, eventually, but if you would’ve though it through, he would’ve at least kept me alive for a time. My qi was low, but I’d already taken a recovery pill. Within ten to fifteen minutes, I would’ve been able to briefly execute Ice Phoenix’s Breath and you would’ve had a short window to finish him that wouldn’t have left you injured. Mother Quinyuan would’ve even caught up by then.”

“I know what you say is right,” he replied without backing down. “But it would’ve still been a gamble. Gambling with your life is not something I’m capable of doing.”

“Even if it’s the most likely way for you not to survive? And if you didn’t survive, would it have made any difference? He would’ve still been able to capture me.”

“No. If anything, I was sure of my ability to injure him greatly. All that I had to do was close the rest of the space around us. It would’ve reflected his attack back at him and been impossible for him to dodge.”

She glared at him but knew continue to argue would do them no good.

He then held up his hand to keep her from moving on. “If the day comes in the divine realm when I’m unable to use the space laws with the same proficiency I am here, I’d be willing to consider such a gamble because I’d have no choice. I had a choice, Huifen. Because of what had happened with my sound and the fire dragon, I knew I’d touched on something that could threaten him. The only gamble I took was not knowing to what extent it would work. I better understand that now. Next time, I will not be injured.”

Seeing him compromise, even if it was to a limited extent, soothed her spirit more than it probably should have. Nodding in acceptance, she said, “So after spending two days without me or the ability to hear, what did you discover?”

He leaned forward and rested his arms on his knees. “It’s still just at the theoretical stages, but if I’m not wrong, the sound laws provide an avenue for a cultivator to inject their will into their martial techniques. That’s why its like sound had contain other elements and even space. It doesn’t actually carry these elements, but just as it can carry emotion, it carries my command. So if I provide it with the will to awaken a fire dragon to the tribulation level, as long as my qi and laws allow, it can bring it to life. What’s more, because I use the sound law to create the technique, the dragon can make use of sound’s characteristics without me having to create a second technique like a sound orb with its roar. That is why I was able to do the impossible and create a mobile wall of space tears. My will that was present through my sound tore space as it spread out toward Prince Rong.”

She felt her nostrils flared as she considered the implications and knew he was portable watching her nose twitch, but it didn’t bother her like it once had. “What law is it? Awaken?”

“I’m not sure. It’s possible. I tried to repeat the process and hand my will in the same way with all of my other elements, but the will I supply them only affects the element I’m working with. If I had to guess, because its sound’s nature to carry emotion or induce it—or maybe inspire is the better word—sound’s awaken law acts differently. Either that, or sound is simply different than the elements. It might be a different law all together.”

“My husband is incredible.”

Seeing him turn plum red, she giggled.

They talked a little while longer, revisiting the battle and the aftermath. Their conversation then turned to what they should do about the Aureate Empire, and just as they’d agreed before, they would spend some extra time when replacing the emperor. The man had mentioned a name before he died of who he thought might be a good successor that she would approve. Koshing was his name. They knew that Quinyuan already had visited the royal palace and put things on hold. An empire couldn’t wait forever though.

In the end they both agreed, there were many things that would be required of them in the coming months, including venturing out into the Monolith Continent, and the world. As great of a victory as they’d won, they were still not invincible in this realm. Huifen knew far better than Chao how powerful the northern continent’s cultivators could be. If they weren’t careful to prepare for the trials Father Zan was convinced they should attend, they’d get themselves killed.

“You’ve waited long enough, my Huifen. Bring out the jade with your new technique. I have a lot of experiments to do that don’t require space or high realm elements.”

She felt like Little Genji as she bobbed her head excitedly and pulled it out of her spatial ring. “See you in two days,” she jeered.

He winced. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“I can’t wait to hear what you’ve come up with by the time I’m done reading.”

A tiny fire dragon appeared in one of his hands, and an ice fairy in the other. They flew toward her. He was trying to win her over with cuteness, but these two awakened figurines she was already used to. Then as they split and arrived at either of her cheeks, they reached out and kissed her.

She inclined her brow as if challenging him to do better, when she heard two adorable voices squeak, “I love you.”

They had found their way past her defenses and a smile was already stretching across her face. Realizing it, her hand shot to her face and a word escaped. “Oh.”