Reborn (The Jade Phoenix Saga #1) - A Cultivation LitRPG Series
REBORN
Book One of the Jade Phoenix Saga, A Xianxia Cultivation LitRPG Series
D. I. FREED
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Contents
Prologue
Part One
1. Barn Incident
2. Corrupted Sign
3. Jing Clan
4. Fall and Rise
5. Death and Life
6. Free
Part Two
7. Rescue
8. Secrets
9. Future Planning
10. Visitor
Interlude
Part Three
11. Fear, Doubt, and Failure
12. Grandma Huan
13. Stories and Sects
14. Skin
15. Foundation Building Stage
16. Pain and Truth
17. Skin Mantra
Interlude
Part Four
18. Street Performance
19. Leaving the Firelight
20. Ring
21. First Night
22. Fear and Courage
23. Vine
24. Food
25. Plunge
Interlude
Part Five
26. Feathers
27. Fengbao
28. Thanks
29. Hook Swords
Part Six
30. New Home
31. Fox and Boar
32. Dogs and Hunters
33. Unwelcome
34. Despair
Part Seven
35. Story
36. Sale
37. Bath
38. Burn
Interlude
Part Eight
39. Identity
40. Opening Ceremony
41. First matches
42. Second day
43. Night Before
44. Final Day
45. Honor and Sacrifice
46. Final Matches
47. Prizes
Interlude
Part Nine
48. Review
49. Party
50. Friends
51. Sects
52. Target
53. Good Trade
54. Compensation
55. Discoveries
Interlude
Part Ten
56. Senses
57. Smell
58. Plot
59. Punishment
60. Show
61. Elder
62. Challenge
63. Next
Interlude
Part Eleven
64. Introduction
65. Energy
66. First Meridian
67. Additions
Interlude
Part Twelve
68. Skill Scroll
69. Fire Skills
70. Uncle Gen
71. Lightning and Darkness
72. Blood
73. Bai
74. Story
75. Preparations
76. Goodbyes
Epilogue
Afterword
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Prologue
Main hall, City Lord’s Palace of Fei Shu City, Xiao Weili Prefecture, Xing Nation, Gui Empire:
Fenghuang Da paced across the worn wooden floor with a scowl on his bearded face. One particularly sharp turn caused the marbled red seams of his otherwise black hanfu to whip out and then stream behind him, fluttering about his legs. Out of his left eye, he saw a single long black hair that had escaped from his topknot. It bothered him that it exposed a sign of imperfection in the otherwise refined clan leader’s visage he allowed the public to see. As the lord of the city and Patriarch of the city’s strongest clan, he felt he should show no weakness. Even at a moment such as this.
“What could be taking so long?” His clenched fists and stomping gait revealed his agitation, despite his best efforts.
“Brother, be calm,” pled Fenghuang Gen. Da’s middle brother continued to enjoy meals more than physical training, so he was thicker around the middle than cultivators who focused on combat. But as a healer, it was not unexpected. Most of them behaved that way. He wore a green qipao with blue vines adorning the chest and cuffs. Still, his gentle appearance did not lessen the power and prestige he wielded as a powerful master of his craft.
Gen raised his hands in an appeasing gesture and spoke again. “These things take time. There is nothing you can do.”
A laugh sounded in response to the comment. Da looked over at Fenghuang Zhao. His youngest brother leaned against a nearby pillar, his hands crossed over his chest. Still young by cultivator standards, he was shorter and thinner than both his elder brothers. Dressed in a black qipao highlighted by silver clouds, he laughed again and clapped his hands to his thighs.
In a mocking, but not unkind, tone he said, “My dear eldest and fiercest brother, general of the mighty Xing Army, esteemed Patriarch of the Fenghuang Clan, bringer of peace to the Xiao Weili prefecture and mightiest cultivator for a hundred thousand li in any direction, finally brought low by the birth of a child. And not even your first.”
More teasing laughter from Zhao and even a few chuckles from Gen followed this statement. Da finally paused his march to turn swiftly and glare at his most irritating brother.
“If you ever loved a woman, Zhao, you might be lucky enough to worry for her as I do my Meixiu and her sister-wives.” Da returned to his pacing with even more fervor than before, each echoing step causing the ether lamps hanging throughout the palace room to sway and the light to shimmer against the gold and silver designs. Fenghuang Da didn’t care. Let them fall, he thought to himself.
Zhao offered a sly smile and responded cheekily, “Brother, I love many women. And often.”
Da huffed and shook his head but ceased his pacing.
Gen stepped up to Da and said, “Zhao, boorish as he is, is correct. At least in that you must calm yourself.”
He held up his right hand and it glowed for a moment, illuminating the room with the color of the forest. A green square with black writing and a blue border on it appeared before him. “Do you see, brother?”
Name: Da
Clan: Fenghuang
Clan Rank: Patriarch
Qi Type: Aura
Qi Affinity: Fire, Metal
Cultivation Stage: {Blocked}
Status: Agitated, elevated heart rate
Health Assessment: Lack of Qi control may res
ult in harm to self, nearby individuals, or objects and structures.
Fenghuang Da glanced at it, waved his arm dismissively, and huffed again. “I do not require your insight, Gen. If I lost control, this—”
His statement was interrupted by the howling cry of a baby.
One of his second wife’s maids approached with her head lowered, carrying a bundle of crying newborn. Seeing his child for the first time, the clan chief summoned his Qi and rushed to the woman.
He knew it would appear as though he had vanished and reappeared in less than the time it took to blink an eye, but he did not care at that moment. And it suited his purposes anyway.
Da let go of the Qi of the Heavens and Earth as he stopped in front of the meek woman. She lowered herself to her knees, still holding the child.
“Speak!” he bellowed, anxious to hear of his second wife’s condition. The child’s crying immediately ceased upon hearing the echoing roar.
The servant’s timid, shaky voice was low but heard by all in the silence. “My lord. Your lady wife is well and is expected to return to full health in a day or less. I have been ordered to present to you your young daughter, Fenghuang Yu.”
Da restrained himself from raising his voice again. Losing control of his emotions like that was unbecoming of a leader, especially before a mortal.
In a much softer but no less commanding tone, Da ordered, “Stand and hand my child to me.”
The terrified woman rose slowly and then extended her arms, which held the pink-skinned child bundled in wool and violet silk.
Da knew his reputation. In fact, he worked hard to maintain the fear that most in this country had of him. In a world where power was the only true currency, fear was a commodity of incalculable value.
Da reached under and lifted his youngest child. Despite this being his fifth child, it still amazed him how small and vulnerable they were. His scarred warrior’s hands dwarfed the small swaddled form. He turned, ignoring the woman as she bowed low and backed out of the room. With as much gentleness as possible, he pulled down the cloth with a finger so that he could gaze upon the face of his only daughter.
Da felt his two brothers appear on either side of his shoulders and stare down at the tiny form. Gen reached his hand out and held it over the child.
It glowed green and he said, “She is healthy. Obviously I can tell no more until she is tested at the stone in ten days. She barely made it in time.”
Despite being the most talented healer of his generation in the nation, not even Gen had the ability to use the God Sign to assess a human until they had first been declared by the gods.
“She’s so small and wrinkly,” muttered Zhao, his face alight with both awe and bewilderment.
Not taking his eyes off his daughter, Da heard Gen chuckle lightly behind him. “She is a baby, brother. You looked much the same when you showed. I remember.”
The younger of Da’s two brothers had been born one hundred and seventy-two years after Gen, making him the baby of the family. This of course meant he had been spoiled rotten and had thus developed a blasé attitude toward the future and his responsibilities. That did not mean he was weak or timid or unable to fight. In fact, he served a critical purpose for the family with his Darkness affinity Qi. Da was thankful for the abilities of both his middle and younger brother. The clan would be far less without them.
Gen continued his description of Zhao’s birth. “But you cried more and smelled much worse than this little gem. Yu…” Then in more of a whisper, “Jade indeed.”
Da straightened and turned his head to look at his brother in surprise. “You know the translation, then? It is obscure, even for the ancient tongue.”
Gen shrugged and said blandly, “Don’t pretend that isn’t why you and Meixiu picked the name, or that you won’t make your daughter study it just as hard as we had to. It’s a tradition in our family that you have kept with your other children. It is a shame that most families name their offspring with little thought for the old translations. In fact, few remember much of the ancient tongue at all. Except us. Although this one did take me some time digging in the scrolls. Only you and Meixiu would choose such an auspicious name.”
“True,” Da responded, with a nod. Then he turned back to his tiny daughter and, with the gravity of a Patriarch, shook his head and said, “Either way, our clan will benefit from her, as we do from all Fenghuang children. If she can cultivate, then she will become an Aura-, Mana- or Ether-wielder, adding power to our forces. Knowing her mother and myself, she will likely be a power to rival the three of us.”
Fenghuang Gen asked, “And if she cannot?”
“She will be valued and will eventually allow us to arrange an alliance through marriage. The clan must always come first.”
Ten days later, the one hundred and three most senior members of the Fenghuang Clan stood in a ceremonial room large enough to fit one hundred and fifty comfortably. Its red walls were adorned with large birds in flight, each plumed in a single color of the rainbow, except for a few black, white, silver, and gold birds shown sporadically in between.
The decadence was not something Da personally appreciated, but it was necessary to show the clan’s prestige. Oftentimes a show of wealth was as effective as a show of physical strength.
Sitting at the front of the room on a raised dais, he allowed a little of his power to leak out, knowing they would feel the pressure. It would… encourage all to remember he was the Patriarch. Not that his position was easily mistakable. His seat of rank was a tall ornate chair of dark wood with a carved phoenix, its wings spread in flight, cresting just over his head.
To his left and right and slightly behind sat two similar but smaller and less ornate chairs. On the left was Caretaker Bo. The old man was rubbing his long white beard and laughing lightly as he spoke to an obese middle-aged man who was also chuckling, each laugh causing his bulging stomach to bounce under his blue qipao.
To the Patriarch’s right was a stunningly beautiful woman in a violet hanfu, her hair long and purple like the silk wrapped around her, but worn up in ornate curls held at the top by a pair of long crossed silver rods. Meixiu’s head was tilted as she listened to a young woman whispering in her ear. Her beauty still captivated Da, even after more than a century. She was also the only one of his wives permitted to be present, the other two being neither clan elders nor strong enough in their cultivation.
Da sat with no expression on his face, as was proper for one of his position, simply watching his clan’s various factions building alliances or enmity as they willed. He would not lower himself to get involved in such drivel unless the clan was put at risk. And they all knew better than to get the clan chief involved – that almost always resulted in both sides losing face and power. And sometimes blood.
A child snuck his way around the outside of the room, staying low and silent. Da’s eyes flicked to the child, but he made no other motion, despite his desire to grin at his precocious second son. That boy’s affinity was strong and rare, like his uncles’ – he would make a great warrior for the clan one day. Perhaps even his heir. There was no harm in him watching the ceremony. Which reminded Da…
With a glance around the room, he watched as his clan members’ calm conversations began to slow and emotions began to rise. None had eaten or drunk anything since the sunrise of the previous day as a supplication to the gods. That rule was not technically required to be followed for the ceremony, but it had become a tradition to the point of causing a significant loss of face to anyone who might breach it.
Allowing just a bit more of his power to spill out, Da stood and the room slowly became silent.
“Welcome to the Declaration Ceremony of our newest additions,” he intoned. “As is the tradition of the Fenghuang Clan, we hold this ceremony on the shortest and longest days of the year, as then we are closest to the gods who grant us our God Sign and the gifts of Qi and cultivation.”
Every person in the room – save the two seated to
his left and right – bowed their head and spoke in unison, “Clan chief.”
His second wife and mother to his only daughter, Long Meixiu, stood and called out in a captivating voice that resounded through the room, “Bring the Eye.”
The red-painted double doors at the other end of the hall opened and four trusted family guards, strong cultivators all, entered carrying a table made of the same dark wood as the Patriarch’s throne. The table appeared to be simple, with slats and four legs; but upon its top, numerous circles and swirls were carved. These were runes and designs that only the greatest of Ether-wielders could understand or create.