Nothing lasted forever; saints still died from old age.
Phoenix Servant was dead but her intent remained.
“Senior, I’m afraid you got the wrong person. I am not the person you’re waiting for.” Feiyun said with respect.
“The bronze vessel took you here, you are him yet not Her strong emotion affected him.
“Who might you be referring to, Senior?” Feiyun became curious.
“The strongest man in the world, and the most charismatic. He took the phoenix race from the valley and led them to the apex. Everyone knows who he is and calls him the divine phoenix, only I know his true name… Feng Feiyun.” She said with pride and affection. [1]
“What?! Immemorial Divine Phoenix was a man, and his name was Feng Feiyun?” Feiyun couldn’t stay calm and became overwhelmed.
How could there be such a coincidence? Was it really just a coincidence?
As far as he knew, he was a unique exception among the phoenixes, or rather, the illusory memory of the phoenix soul within him.
“It is not your fault, the soul within you has his memories but they have been twisted
After a long while, he took a deep breath and asked: “Am I Feng Feiyun or the reincarnation of Immemorial Divine Phoenix?”
“There are too many secrets hidden within you. If you wish to see the truth, you must first find the Seal of Reincarnation.”
“What is that?”
“It is a part of the reincarnation cycle, His Excellency had taken it from hell.”
‘The seal? Is it the thing that fell into Jin?’ He wondered, wanting to return to Jin.
Phoenix Attendant could feel his emotional ripples and said: “You don’t need to worry about who is Immortal Divine Phoenix or Feng Feiyun. I can see that you wish to refine a strand of the soul into your inner core. At that point, you two are the same.”
Feiyun heard this and became a bit more relaxed. He said: “Thank you, Senior. There is something else I don’t understand. Phoenixes are all females, why is the divine phoenix a man?”
“Phoenixes are all women now, I see.”
“Is there something wrong?”
“How long has it been since Time Immemorial?” She asked.
“Three kalpas, or 20,000,000,000 years.”
“That long already? I don’t know the exact details but here is what happened, back in Time Immemorial, there were male phoenixes as well. Unfortunately, a war nearly destroyed everything.”
“The land consisted of Nine Continents but only one remained in the aftermath.”
“Everyone thought that His Excellency died from old age, this is far from the truth. He participated in the final war and was the reason for the survival of the single continent.”
“Though we defeated the enemies, the laws of the world also changed. Perhaps this is the reason why phoenixes are all women now.”
Feiyun became shocked again. He naturally knew about the cataclysmic event at the end of Time Immemorial signaling a new era.
However, the legends seemed to purposely avoid all the details - potentially a fallen meteor, a great war between all the races, or a complete lack of resources and essences…
Now, it seemed that something had changed drastically. Did someone want to cause a mass extinction for the phoenixes and dragons? Because dragons were all male now as well.
Who hid the truth behind the war?
Feiyun had a terrible feeling about this. He asked: “What actually transpired during the end of Time Immemorial? Who was strong enough to crush eight continents?”
“I don’t know who they are, only that they came from a distant galaxy and were extremely powerful. They created ships capable of crossing through space, not even something saint artifacts could do. Space is simply too vast.”
“They came seeking all the resources of the nine continents and enslave all inhabitants. Nothing could stop, not even saints.”
“Just imagine, they only had seven ships yet they nearly destroyed the nine continents.”
Feiyun’s heart beat faster after hearing this. How could such frightening enemies exist?
Time Immemorial was a period far stronger than the present, perhaps a hundred times more so. And the enemies only had seven ships? Now, could they stop a single one?
He could only rejoice at the vastness of space. Perhaps they haven’t been around to find their way back.
The problem was - why did the sages not leave any warning in the historical annals?
“His Excellency led various tribes and finally managed to imprison the invaders along with their seven ships. Some were sealed to the present, others to the past. Perhaps some would randomly appear again later.
“Before death, he prophesized that the appearance of all seven ships would start another disaster, the return of the invaders. True destruction would come then.”
Feiyun thought about the vessel within him and said: “How, how can this be… none of this was recorded. We are divided now, the myriad tribes fight and massacre each other. We cannot stop the invaders a second time.”
Phoenix Servant didn’t know the situation outside and said: “Although we won, we didn’t kill all the invaders. Perhaps some of them are still hiding among the tribes, causing trouble when possible. I simply don’t know what happened after Time Immemorial. However, the past is indeed recorded into something along with the physical locations of the seven ships.”
Feiyun had friends and lovers, not wanting to see them die or become slaves to the invaders.
“What is it?” He was awfully interested in this issue.
“The destruction tablet.” She said.
“Wait, you said that the ships were sealed into the past and future.” He thought of something else.
“The spirits were sealed, not the physical ships. You somehow possess the spirit of the bronze vessel. When the spirit and the ship itself are combined, that’s when they can exert their true power. If you wish to stop the invaders, you must find all seven. That’s the only thing that can stop them or at least carve out a path toward survival. Otherwise, everyone would be helpless.” She explained.
He wanted nothing more than to leave this place and announce the calamity to the rest of the world.
Alas, he also knew that they might view him as a madman, or the hidden invaders might kill him right away.
1. The Feng in the main character’s name is Wind, the Feng in this case is phoenix. With this context, we finally know that Immemorial Divine Phoenix is a male. This was terrible for me because I started the translation using the pronoun “she/her” for this character. After reading some more context, I swapped it to “he/him” but more contexts regarding phoenixes being all females made me change it back to “she/her”. The with the Phoenix Servant’s line revealed that the sex is male, so I went back to change it to “he/him” again. Now, I had to go back to change it to “she/her” again. I’m not confident that I got all of them. The narrative was purposely misleading. Maybe sometimes, it’s just better to leave it alone and not correct inconsistencies because they are deliberate by the author. The real problem here is the gender-neutral context of Chinese, the author doesn’t have to reveal gender if he doesn’t want to while the translation needs to use he/she. Otherwise, I would have to use “Immemorial Divine Phoenix” 5 times in a single paragraph. I hope this note makes sense, it’s the reason why there might be some inconsistencies regarding Immemorial Divine Phoenix’s sex in s. But now, we know that it’s a guy for certain ☜
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