Chapter 46: Phoenix

Chapter 46: Phoenix

When they reached the river, Bran grabbed a handful of sand. Watching the many cloudy yet translucent grains slip through his fingers, he felt satisfied.

Zoya walked to Bran’s side. She imitated Bran, grabbed a handful of sand, and asked, “What’s here?”

“Phoenix.”

Zoya chuckled softly. “You’re tricking us again.”

Bran became very serious and lowered his voice. “Really. You must show reverence for this land.”

Then he looked up and shouted at a boy who was preparing to move closer to the riverbank, “Come back! Looking to die!?” He quickly picked up a stone and threw it at the river surface in front of the boy. A huge shadow lurking there twisted its body and moved away.

Bran cursed inwardly; this wasn’t good. The boys standing with Zhuoma, while decent, could not compare in training to the Northlanders and the Dragon Riders, even compared to Bran’s own watered-down training. The natural difference in their living environments created a huge contrast in their awareness of and reaction to danger. By the small streams of the Royal Capital, noblewomen could walk without worry, and children could play safely. So their first reaction upon seeing a river was a sense of security, a place to rest. But this was the Northlands; rashly approaching a water source was seeking death.

Looking at the Little Dragon Rider siblings beside him, then glancing at Zhuoma’s group of boys, he gestured toward the riverbank and said, “Who wants to show them something enlightening?”

Aiman said, “I’ll do it.”

After speaking, he drew his sword, walked to the river’s edge, and stood there quietly. The surrounding boys watched him nervously; the huge black shadow in the river just now had really startled them. A dark shadow slowly swam over. If the boys hadn’t been watching tensely, it might not have been easily noticed. As the shadow neared the shore, its whole body pressed down to the river bottom, continuing to approach. When its entire head was almost touching Aiman’s feet, it paused slightly. Just as the head was about to rise to attack, Aiman thrust his sword, piercing right between the shadow’s eyes. At the same time, he released the sword and leaped backward. It was then that the beast’s power erupted in the river. Its whole body lunged upward out of inertia, sending its already dead corpse onto the shore.

Now the boys could clearly see it was a several-meter-long, crocodile-like beast with six legs.

Bran clapped and praised, “Impressive.”

Zoya, seemingly to assert herself, walked to Bran and asked, “Compared to you?”

Faced with Zoya’s question, Bran was speechless. The little girl, because she had gained an advantage in hand-to-hand combat, simply assumed she was better than Aiman who was armed, wanting to win face for Bran. Looking at Zoya’s “I believe in you” face, then at Eileen smiling nearby, this situation was awkward. If I could beat him when armed, would I have needed to call my sister to hit him?

Bran quickly changed the subject. “We civilized people don’t talk about such fighting and killing. My little girl should be gentle and gracious. Come, let me show you the real secret of the Northlands.”

…

The word “secret” stirred everyone around. Even Eileen, who had wanted to embarrass Bran, stopped her follow-up actions.

“Remember that story?”

“That broken bird on your family’s wall again?” Eileen was a bit annoyed.

“A nameless great fire happened on this sandy ground once, burning for days and nights,” Bran began to speak without restraint. “So there must be an image left behind by a Phoenix here.”

Eileen snorted contemptuously. “Liar! I asked about it. My father said there’s no such thing as a damned Phoenix in the Northlands.”

Bran revealed an expression that said ‘you’re so silly’ and retorted, “That means you still believed it.”

Eileen gripped her sword, stepped back to create distance, ready to teach Bran a lesson. Aiman stepped in just in time, separating the two. Bran spread his hands open, magnanimously indicating he wouldn’t argue with Eileen, but this gesture had the opposite effect.

So, Bran saw Aiman take a leaping step to avoid him. Eileen seized the opportunity and swung her sword over. Bran cursed inwardly; I really just meant to show I didn’t care. Under the watchful eyes of the boys, Bran lunged forward, trying to close in on Eileen’s chest. A pair of Short Blades simultaneously jumped into his hands, and with a silver Starlight, he slapped away the incoming sword. But Eileen, already on guard, also dodged backward and delivered two heavy, consecutive slashes that sent Bran staggering.

Eileen, having gotten her wish to see the silver Starlight, grew even more excited. She liked this blade light, liked these scattered points of light, liked this dreamlike feeling that seemed within grasp. So she swung her sword more urgently, faster, forcing Bran to dance a screen of light in front of him.

A cat’s howl from behind interrupted Eileen’s excitement. She felt a chill on the back of her neck, forcing her to take a step to the side, turn sideways, and withdraw her sword into a defensive stance. Bran had already put away his Short Blades when she stopped. He then spread his hands and shouted, “Draw, draw!”

Looking at Bran’s open hands gave Eileen a suffocating feeling. And because she was in a pincer situation between the Black Cat Huahua and Bran, she couldn’t really be forceful. So she felt somewhat unsatisfied, somewhat regretful, somewhat helpless, and reluctantly responded, “I’ll let you off this time.”

…

Bran clapped his hands, acting as if the earlier interruption hadn’t happened, and continued speaking. “This is the Northlands, not that desolate land of the Dragon Riders.” This venting felt good; Bran felt like he was regaining lost ground. “There are many ancient beings here, ancient secrets.”

Bran enticed them. “And now, an ancient secret is right under your feet. You just need to bend down a little, brush aside the river sand beneath you, and you might very well discover this secret. Even if you don’t find anything, what have you lost? Compared to exploring ancient secrets, everything is worth it.”

Having said that, Bran stopped paying attention to this group of boys. He pretentiously found a safe spot far from the river and began digging a sandpit. Digging pits by the river or seashore was very interesting; inadvertently, you could encounter all sorts of pretty stones, shells, even amber. As long as your luck wasn’t too bad, you’d always have one or two finds.

So on the River Beach, the initially skeptical boys kept exclaiming in surprise, continuously showing their various discoveries to others, and the atmosphere grew increasingly lively.

The Little Dragon Rider siblings were very close to Bran. They whispered to each other, “How was it?”

Eileen said with a smile, “My speed isn’t as good as his, but his strength isn’t as good as mine. I suddenly increased my speed to the maximum in the middle, and he received it easily.”

“By a lot?”

“By a lot. His blades are strange. Actually, he was using the blades to slap my sword away the whole time, which isn’t conducive to utilizing speed, but he still seemed very relaxed.

Then, I increased my strength and disrupted his rhythm. His technique is different from the Northlanders we’ve seen before. When the strength increased to a certain point, the result of the collision was as if he was just passively receiving it, with not much resistance. It gave you a feeling like your strength hit empty air. He seemed more like he was using the inertia from the weight of the weapons themselves to counter my strikes. But he wasn’t comfortable himself. From his subsequent reactions, trying to keep up with my speed again became a bit strained.

His weapon usage is quite interesting. It’s more like he was flinging the weapons over at extremely high speed.”

Saying this, Eileen casually threw a stone at her brother. “Just like this. When you try to reflect the force back onto him through blocking or other means, he’s basically detached from the weapon. He himself doesn’t receive a noticeable impact.

I almost suffered at the beginning, so I pressed him hard, making him take the hits whether he wanted to or not.

Against him, as long as you don’t get sneak-attacked and closed in on at the start, you can basically press him down and hit him.”

Saying this, she couldn’t help but laugh and look at her somewhat embarrassed brother. She added, “Don’t you think Bran’s movements are a bit too much like a Northland woman’s?” Then she burst into loud laughter without any decorum, occasionally patting her brother’s shoulder, which momentarily drew the gazes of all the boys on the beach toward them.

Because Bran was mentioned, the siblings’ eyes turned toward him, and then their eyes began to widen. At that moment, Bran was very carefully lifting from the sandpit an egg the size of a human head. Its surface reflected a fluorescent glow, clear and transparent. Facing the sunlight, Bran raised the egg in his hands overhead. The siblings saw inside the egg a golden shadow completely composed of light. Then, for the first time, Aiman learned that his sister could still scream while laughing heartily. Amid her scream, he heard his sister’s slightly unfamiliar tone, thick with disbelief and astonishment: “Phoenix!”

Then, he saw Bran, as if on cue, clutch that egg protectively to his chest. All the light and shadow disappeared. He felt an indescribable sense of loss.