Chapter 6: Phoenix Cry Over Crimson Ashes

The Verdant Lotus Sect burned.

Lord Xue's shadow-wreathed army clawed at the faltering ward, their blades spitting acid that hissed against the jade light. Elder Wu knelt at the formation's core, blood seeping from his nostrils as the toll of sustaining the barrier devoured decades of his life with each breath.

"Fall back to the ancestral hall!" Yun Mei barked, hurling a grenade of crystallized poison into the fray. It detonated mid-air, dissolving three attackers into sludge—but ten more took their place.

Li Chen stood paralyzed, the Bell's chains embedded in his forearms like puppet strings. It laughed through him, voice clattering like rusted gears. "Strike them! Let me drink their discord!"

"Fight it!" Yun Mei grabbed his face, her scar glowing faintly as she channeled qi into his meridians. "Your precious moral high ground isn't worth dying on!"

Ming Yue's shards hummed in their sandalwood prison, a mournful counterpoint to the Bell's cacophony. Li Chen clenched his fists, chains slicing deeper. "The ward can't hold. We need to—"

A thunderclap silenced him.

The ward shattered.

Lord Xue Ascendant

He descended on wings of liquid void, his ivory armor now etched with veins of pulsating black. Where his shadow touched, stone bubbled and disciples withered mid-scream.

"The gardener's thorn pricked me once," he crooned, landing before Elder Wu. "Now, let us see how deep your roots run."

Wu's staff exploded in a burst of viridian light, a final barrier shielding the survivors. "Li Chen… the shards…"

But the Bell yanked Li Chen's body forward, chains lashing at Lord Xue. The shadow general caught them effortlessly.

"A muzzled hound still bites," he mused, wrenching Li Chen closer. "But your teeth are blunted."

A needle pierced Lord Xue's wrist.

Yun Mei grinned, smearing blood from a split lip. "Try this tooth."

The injected poison—Soulrend Chrysanthemum—erupted in geysers of black steam, tearing through his armor. Lord Xue staggered, shadows recoiling.

Li Chen lunged for the sandalwood box.

Rebirth in the Furnace

The shards scalded his hands, jagged edges drawing blood. Ming Yue's voice, fractured but alive, whispered: "The forge… the heartfire…"

Elder Wu's failing barrier bought seconds, not minutes. Li Chen sprinted toward the armory's smithy, Yun Mei covering his retreat with a storm of needles.

Inside, Jiang Feng hunched over the furnace, his left arm—the necrotic one—feeding blackened flames. "Took you… long enough," he rasped, swaying.

"You should be in bed!"

"And you… should've let me die." His corrupted veins pulsed as he intensified the fire. "Toss the shards in. Now!"

The furnace blaze shifted from orange to cobalt. Ming Yue's shards glowed as they melted, liquid silver pooling in the crucible.

"It needs a catalyst!" Jiang Feng shouted. "Something to bind the spirit!"

The Bell's chains surged, dragging Li Chen backward. "You are MINE!"

Li Chen seized the molten Blade with his bare hand.

Flesh Against Destiny

Pain beyond pain.

Ming Yue's essence flooded his veins, colliding with the Bell's corruption. Visions ruptured his mind:

A throne of swords.

A woman in lotus armor shattering into starlight.

Yun Mei's corpse, strangled by chains.

"Focus!" Jiang Feng yelled. "Shape it!"

Li Chen plunged the molten metal into the quenching trough. Blood, sweat, and tears hissed into steam.

The reforged Blade emerged—sleeker, darker, its edge rippling with moonlight and shadow.

Ming Yue Reforged: Half divine, half corrupt, throbbing with dual heartbeats.

Jiang Feng collapsed, his infected arm reduced to crumbling ash. "The balance… is fragile. Don't… waste it."

The Price of Dawn

Li Chen exploded into the courtyard, the Blade's dissonant shriek scattering shadows. Lord Xue turned, disdain curdling to fury.

"You dare graft my essence into that relic?"

Ming Yue answered first.

Li Chen's slash birthed a nova of conflicting energies—moonfire and devouring void. Lord Xue's wings disintegrated, his roar shaking the heavens.

Yun Mei flanked him, detonating talismans that pinned the general's feet. Elder Wu rose, his body disintegrating at the edges, and clapped.

The earth split. A colossal lotus of pure qi engulfed Lord Xue.

"NO!"

Wu met Li Chen's gaze, nodding once, before dissolving into the lotus's petals.

The explosion blinded.

Ephemeral Victory

When the light faded, Lord Xue was gone. His army retreated into swirling ash.

The sect lay in ruins. Survivors crawled from debris, their cries thin in the sudden silence.

Yun Mei found Li Chen kneeling over Jiang Feng, the reforged Ming Yue across his lap.

"Is Wu…?"

"Gone," she said softly. "But the ward's last pulse… I felt it. He's part of the land now. A guardian spirit."

Jiang Feng stirred, breath shallow but steady. "The Blade…?"

Li Chen stared at Ming Yue. Its spirit was now two voices: one celestial, one serpentine.

"Still mine," he lied.

Yun Mei touched her scar, now throbbing black. "The Bell?"

"Gone with Lord Xue. For now."

But in the ashes, a single chain slithered, burying itself deep.

That Night

Li Chen stood at the sect's shattered gate, Ming Yue's whispers gnawing at his resolve.

"Kill Jiang Feng," urged the shadow within the Blade. "His corruption festers."

"Protect him," countered the light. "Redemption blooms in unlikely soil."

Yun Mei joined him, bandages peeking beneath her singed robes. "We can't stay. They'll return."

He nodded. "Where, then?"

She flicked a lotus petal into the wind—it disintegrated, scattering north. "Where the flowers die. Wailing Peaks."

"The Demon Sovereign's prison," Li Chen said.

"The source," she corrected.

Ming Yue trembled, both voices united in dread.

But the Bell's laughter echoed from the earth beneath them.

End of Chapter 6