Chapter 12: Bloodlines and Betrayals

"Absolutely not," Elder Zhou's voice filled the council chamber, his fist slamming onto the table with enough force to rattle the jade cups. "This is clearly a deception. Three centuries of hunting our bloodline to extinction, and suddenly the Crimson Phoenix Grandmaster wants collaboration? Impossible!"

The emergency council session had been ongoing for hours, ever since Lin Feng, Liu Mei, and the Grand Elder had returned from their meeting at the boundary pavilion. Night had fallen outside, but no one seemed ready to end the heated debate.

"We cannot dismiss the possibility out of hand," Elder Ming countered, her voice calmer but no less firm. "If there is indeed a threat that requires both our techniques to counter—"

"The only threat is the Crimson Phoenix Sect itself," Elder Zhou interrupted. "Always has been."

Lin Feng sat quietly beside his mother, watching the back-and-forth with growing concern. The three artifacts returned by the Grandmaster sat at the center of the table—the jade medallion, the sealed scroll, and the crystal dagger—along with the jade tablet containing information about supposed bloodline survivors.

"What do you think?" Lin Feng asked his mother in a low voice, while the elders continued their argument.

Ming Lihua studied the artifacts with a thoughtful expression. "The items are genuine. The medallion belonged to an uncle of mine who died defending the mountain's eastern gate. The scroll appears to be a copy of the Middle Temporal Principles text, thought lost in the siege. And the dagger..." She hesitated. "The dagger is a ceremonial tool used in bloodline awakening rituals."

"And the tablet? The information about other survivors?"

"That's harder to verify without leaving the mountain," she replied. "But the locations and descriptions are specific enough to be investigated."

Across the table, Liu Mei sat with Elder Lian, both of them examining the dual-natured token the Grandmaster had given Lin Feng. Lin Feng had presented it to the council immediately upon their return, holding nothing back about the private conversation.

Well, almost nothing. He hadn't mentioned how the token seemed to pulse in rhythm with his heartbeat when he held it, or how the jade lotus mark had warmed not with warning but with something that felt strangely like recognition.

"The token is unlike anything I've encountered," Elder Lian reported, looking up from her examination. "It genuinely contains both jade and crimson energies, perfectly balanced, neither overpowering the other. By all known principles of energy manipulation, this should be impossible."

That silenced the arguing elders temporarily.

"Impossible, yet it exists," the Grand Elder observed from his position at the head of the table. He had been mostly silent throughout the debate, listening to all sides with the patience of a man who had learned to think in centuries rather than moments. "Which suggests either the Grandmaster has developed techniques beyond our current understanding—"

"Or he is telling the truth about working with Wuying," Ming Lihua finished quietly.

A heavy silence fell over the council chamber. The idea that Feng Wuying—son of the Grand Elder, heir to the Jade Lotus legacy—might have secretly collaborated with their greatest enemy was almost too shocking to contemplate.

"If—and I emphasize if—my son had some arrangement with the Crimson Phoenix Grandmaster, he must have had compelling reasons," the Grand Elder finally said. "Wuying was not easily deceived, nor would he betray our sect's principles without grave cause."

"The Grandmaster mentioned a threat that transcends sect rivalries," Lin Feng reminded them. "Something that requires both our bloodlines to counter."

"Convenient," Elder Zhou scoffed. "A mysterious threat that only he knows about, requiring us to lower our guards and share our most guarded techniques."

"Not share," Liu Mei corrected. "Integrate. He specifically mentioned the integration of Phoenix and Lotus energies to form something new." She held up the token. "This appears to be proof that such integration is possible, against all conventional understanding."

The Grand Elder turned his gaze to Lin Feng. "You've been quieter than I expected, grandson. This concerns you most directly. Your father's legacy, your bloodline's future. What do you make of the Grandmaster's offer?"

All eyes turned to Lin Feng. He took a moment to organize his thoughts, aware that his words would carry weight not because of any wisdom he possessed but because of the bloodline he represented.

"I think," he began slowly, "that we're missing critical information. Whether the Grandmaster's offer is genuine or deception, we can't properly evaluate it without understanding what my father might have known." He looked down at the table. "He spent years in the outside world after the mountain disappeared. He might have encountered threats or knowledge none of us possess."

"And you wish to pursue this?" his grandfather asked neutrally.

Lin Feng met his gaze. "I think we need to investigate, cautiously. The tablet information about other bloodline survivors, the token, my father's possible arrangement with the Grandmaster—all of it. But not blindly rushing into collaboration."

The Grand Elder nodded slowly. "A measured approach." He looked around the table. "Does anyone disagree with investigating before deciding?"

Even Elder Zhou couldn't object to gathering more information before making a final decision.

"Then our course is set," the Grand Elder declared. "We will verify the information about these supposed bloodline survivors. We will research the possibility of integrating opposing energies, starting with analysis of this token. And most importantly..." His gaze returned to Lin Feng. "We will seek to understand what Feng Wuying might have discovered that led him to such an unusual alliance."

The council adjourned shortly after, with assignments distributed among the elders and senior disciples. Lin Feng found himself walking the quiet corridors of the mountain with Liu Mei, both lost in thought.

"How are you really feeling about all this?" she asked after they had walked in silence for some time. "About your father, I mean."

Lin Feng sighed. "Confused. I knew him as a simple farmer who died of a fever when I was ten. Quiet, hardworking, unremarkable except for his kindness. The idea that he had secret arrangements with the leader of the Crimson Phoenix Sect..." He shook his head. "It's like discovering I never really knew him at all."

"Or that you knew one side of him," Liu Mei suggested. "We all contain multitudes, Lin Feng. Perhaps your father's quiet farmer life wasn't a lie—just incomplete."

They had reached a small meditation garden nestled between two of the mountain's inner peaks. Stone benches surrounded a pool of still water that reflected the star-filled sky above. Lin Feng sat at the pool's edge, Liu Mei joining him.

"What about you?" he asked, turning the conversation. "Have you heard anything from the Soaring Dragon Sect? About your status?"

A shadow crossed her face. "Nothing official. But one of the monitoring representatives mentioned that Grand Elder Wei is still deliberating. Apparently, my actions have created quite the political dilemma—abandoning a betrothal alliance on one hand, but potentially opening diplomatic channels with the returned Jade Lotus Sect on the other."

"Politics," Lin Feng said with distaste. "Everything reduced to advantage and alliance."

"Says the grandson of a sect Grand Elder," she teased gently.

He smiled despite his troubled thoughts. "A position I've held for all of two weeks. Hardly enough time to become jaded."

"Give it time," she replied, returning his smile. Her expression grew more serious as she looked out over the reflecting pool. "Lin Feng, there's something I've been meaning to discuss with you. About my jade resonance."

The shift in her tone alerted him that this was important. "What about it?"

"What the Grandmaster said—about it being 'deliberately placed.' I can't stop thinking about it." She turned to face him fully. "My parents were ordinary merchants. No cultivation background, no connection to any sect before I was recruited by the Soaring Dragon talent scouts at age twelve. There's no reason I should have any affinity for jade energy at all."

"Unless someone gave it to you," Lin Feng realized, the implications dawning on him. "But who? And why?"

"That's what I can't figure out. I've been trying to remember anything unusual from my childhood, any strange encounters or unexplained events." She frowned in concentration. "There was one thing... a dream I used to have repeatedly. About a green light and a voice that said I would 'carry what others could not.'"

Lin Feng felt a chill. "You never mentioned this before."

"Because I thought it was just a child's recurring dream," she said. "But now, with what we know about the jade lotus fragments being scattered throughout the world, seeking compatible hosts..." She looked down at her hands. "What if I was chosen for something? What if my meeting you, my betrothal to Ren Zhao, all of it was somehow... arranged?"

The possibility hung between them, disturbing in its implications. If Liu Mei's jade resonance had been deliberately placed, if her path had been manipulated to intersect with Lin Feng's, then how much of what they had experienced had been their own choices?

Before Lin Feng could respond, a sharp crack echoed through the garden. Both of them jumped to their feet as a section of the stone path split open, jade light spilling from the fissure.

"Temporal distortion," Lin Feng identified, recognizing the energy signature from his accidental journey to the past. "The mountain is still stabilizing."

The fissure widened, the jade light intensifying. Lin Feng grabbed Liu Mei's hand. "We should go. These distortions can be dangerous."

But Liu Mei stood transfixed, staring into the light. "Lin Feng," she whispered. "Look."

Within the jade light, images began to form—shadowy, indistinct, but gradually solidifying. A scene from another time playing out before them like a living memory.

A man in Jade Lotus robes, his back to them, kneeling beside a young child—a girl of perhaps five or six, with features Lin Feng recognized with a shock.

"Is that... you?" he breathed.

Liu Mei nodded, her face pale. "And that man... I remember him now. He came to our home when I was sick with a fever that wouldn't break. My parents called him a wandering doctor."

The scene continued to unfold. The man placed a hand on young Liu Mei's forehead, jade energy flowing from his fingers into the child. As he turned slightly, his profile became visible.

Lin Feng felt as if the ground had dropped away beneath him. "Father," he whispered.

The man was unmistakably Feng Wuying—younger than Lin Feng remembered him, but with the same strong features, the same gentle expression. He was speaking to the child Liu Mei, though no sound reached them through the temporal window.

They watched, frozen in shock, as Feng Wuying completed whatever technique he was performing. A small mote of jade light remained on young Liu Mei's forehead for a moment before sinking beneath her skin. The child smiled, her fever visibly receding, color returning to her cheeks.

Feng Wuying rose, spoke briefly to someone outside their field of view, then departed—leaving behind a healthy child who would one day become the woman standing beside Lin Feng now.

The temporal window began to flicker and fade, the images dissolving back into formless jade light. Within moments, the fissure sealed itself, leaving the garden peaceful and undisturbed, as if nothing extraordinary had occurred.

Lin Feng and Liu Mei stood in stunned silence, hands still clasped tightly together.

"Your father," Liu Mei finally managed. "Your father gave me the jade resonance. But why? Why me?"

Lin Feng had no answer, his mind reeling with questions. If his father had given Liu Mei her jade resonance, had he somehow foreseen their eventual meeting? Had he deliberately created a connection between them? And if so, was it related to whatever arrangement he had made with the Crimson Phoenix Grandmaster?

"I don't know," he admitted. "But I think we just took the first step toward understanding what my father was planning." He turned to face her fully. "Liu Mei, whatever we just saw, whatever it means, it doesn't change what's between us now. Our choices, our feelings—those are real, regardless of how we were brought together."

She searched his face, uncertainty warring with determination in her eyes. "How can you be sure?"

"Because the jade lotus mark responds to you in ways it doesn't to anyone else," he said simply. "Not because of some plan or manipulation, but because of who you are—who we are together."

She seemed to find what she was looking for in his expression. Her hand tightened around his. "Then we find the answers together. About your father, about my resonance, about all of it."

"Together," he agreed.

As they made their way back toward the inhabited sections of the mountain, Lin Feng felt the dual-natured token in his pocket—jade and crimson, lotus and phoenix—pulsing with new urgency, as if the temporal vision had somehow activated it further.

His father had given Liu Mei her jade resonance. His father had worked with the Crimson Phoenix Grandmaster. His father, the quiet farmer, had been weaving a complex web of connections and preparations that were only now beginning to reveal themselves.

Whatever Feng Wuying had been planning, whatever threat he had foreseen, Lin Feng was now certain of one thing: he and Liu Mei were at the center of it all. Not just as pawns in someone else's game, but as essential pieces in a strategy spanning decades—perhaps centuries.

The question now was whether they would play the roles laid out for them, or forge their own path through the increasingly tangled legacy of jade and flame.