The Ascent of the Inverted Mountain and the Phoenix's Cry

The Desert of Severed Strings

The trio walked across an endless white desert, the grains of sand glinting like shattered mirrors. Above them, the sky was ground:

The roots of giant trees hung like curtains.

Upside-down rivers flowed toward them without falling.

Mud cities floated like bubbles.

"The Tian Xiang Valley!" cried Yi Bao, clinging to Lin Xiu's time staff. "Where everything is inverted… even truth!"

Yue Yan suddenly stopped. Her foot sank knee-deep into the sand. Icy strings burst from the ground, wrapping around her body like transparent serpents.

"The strings of the Sky Harp... my clan severed them here twenty years ago."

Her eyes locked onto an image forming within the strings: a Lady of Ice—who looked like her, but with longer lashes.

Lin Xiu struck the strings with his staff. A broken melody rang out, carving into the sand the image of a little girl crying as men in white robes ripped strings from the Lady of Ice's chest.

"Your mother..." Lin Xiu whispered.

Yue Yan fell to her knees: "Zu Lan said she ran off with a demon! But... they tore her soul apart!"

The Angry Ship of Bones

Suddenly, the desert quaked. A ship made from the bones of giant birds erupted from the sand, its sails stitched from frozen skin. On the deck, ghostly sailors with silent blue eyes pointed toward the inverted horizon.

"The Ship of Liang Mu!" Yi Bao shuddered. "It carries the souls of those who refused to conform to the flipped world!"

One ghost threw down a bone ladder. A voice like fractured wind escaped its mouth:

"Climb... or remain as dust."

They boarded. The ship sailed toward the sky-ground. The ghosts didn't attack them but were carving small bones on the deck. Yue Yan noticed the engravings resembled the seal on Yi Bao's chest.

"What are you carving?" she asked a ghost with half a broken face.

It pointed to Yi Bao:

"His memory... before he became a monkey."

Yi Bao jumped: "I wasn't always a monkey?!"

The ghost passed a transparent hand over the carving: an image of a man in heavenly robes dancing under a rain of stars.

The Remembering Storm

Suddenly, a storm of withered autumn leaves swept over them. Each leaf carried a cry of sorrow:

An orphan child in a temple.

The scream of an ice phoenix being slaughtered.

The ticking of a dead god's city clock.

The ship rocked violently. The ghostly sailors began to dissolve into mist!

Yue Yan gripped the ship's mast: "This isn't a storm... it's our fleeing memories!"

Lin Xiu struck the leaves with his time staff. The whirlwind froze for a moment, revealing a massive face in the clouds:

"I am Zu Lan... keeper of stolen memories."

The face blew. A wave of black frost engulfed the ship. Yue Yan screamed as her own ice turned into prison bars around her!

Lin Xiu jumped in front of her, pressing his forehead to her frozen one:

"Memory is a double-edged blade... free it before it imprisons you!"

From his eyes, two drops of blood fell and merged with the black frost.

Yue Yan closed her eyes. She remembered:

The day she was crowned heir, Zu Lan patting her shoulder… while hiding an icy dagger behind his back.

The cry of her ice phoenix as its feathers were plucked to make her ceremonial cloak.

She opened her eyes: "Enough!"

A wave of white frost burst from her, shattering the black bars!

The Harbor of Shattered Clouds

The ship docked at a frozen cloud shaped like an abandoned port. Buildings of melting ice, boats floating mid-air. A broken sign read: "Tian Ping Harbor – Where Brides' Dreams Anchor."

Yue Yan touched an icy pillar: "Here... my mother married Zu Lan."

A frozen image inside the pillar: the Ice Lady (Yue Yan's mother) stands beside a young Zu Lan, holding the hand of a three-year-old Yue Yan. But the lady's eyes are filled with red tears.

Yi Bao smashed the pillar with his claws. A leather scroll fell out:

"A will to Yue Yan: When you are grown, seek the 'Heart of the Ice Phoenix' beneath Zu Lan's throne. It is the key..."

The rest was torn.

Lin Xiu picked up a ripped piece: "Something's written here: 'The Heavenly Seal is not for power… but for regret.'"

Suddenly, three icy masks floated from the buildings:

1. A laughing mask with no eyes.

2. A weeping mask with no mouth.

3. A silent mask with no holes.

"Port Guardians!" warned Yi Bao. "They test the purity of heart!"

Trial of the Three Masks

The laughing mask flew toward Yue Yan:

"What makes you laugh?" A voice like children's bells.

Yue Yan hesitated: "I laughed... when I freed victims from their pain!" (referring to killing them).

The mask erupted in a horrific laugh. Blades of ice shot toward her!

The weeping mask faced Lin Xiu:

"What makes you cry?" A voice like an old man's moan.

"I cry when I see… prisoners who think they're free!"

The mask melted into acidic tears.

The silent mask stood before Yi Bao:

<<...>>

Yi Bao paused, then shouted with all his might:

"I do not choose silence! I choose to scream into the darkness!"

The mask split in half!

The harbor began to collapse. A bridge of ice formed toward the mountain's peak.

The Mountain of the Beating Heart

They climbed stairs of frozen moonlight. Each step echoed with a pulse:

Doom... Doom...

At the summit, a floating palace of blue crystal. Beneath it, the Heart of the Ice Phoenix, the size of a house, beat while suspended in chains of darkness.

"The Heart of the Mother Phoenix!" cried Yue Yan. "It's the source of the clan's power!"

But the heart was ensnared in a black web of energy—the same force as her monstrous shadow.

Zu Lan appeared on the palace balcony. No longer a "smiling sage," he was now a beast with three horns on his forehead, his eyes glowing like embers.

"Daughter... you've returned at last. And you've brought me a gift: the Tian Gu Seal!"

Yue Yan stepped forward: "I'm not your daughter... I'm your grave!"

She drew the water dagger from her chest. It turned into a transparent ice sword.

The Dance of Snow and Blood

Yue Yan attacked. Every strike released icy feathers that slashed at the black chains. But Zu Lan was faster. His monstrous shadow devoured her strikes!

"You cannot defeat me! I'm the one who planted 'Jueyi' inside you!"

The black web extended toward her like grasping limbs!

Lin Xiu leapt forward. His time staff struck the ground:

"Let's play a new game!"

A temporal bubble expanded, engulfing them inside the Phoenix's Heart!

All around them, the spirits of past ice phoenixes circled overhead. Zu Lan trembled: "How did you enter my sanctuary?!"

Yue Yan saw her mother's spirit among them! She reached out: "Mother... forgive me!"

The spirit touched her: "Break the web… with warm tears!"

Yue Yan closed her eyes. For the first time in years, warm tears fell. They touched the black web… and melted it!

The phoenix's heart pulsed fiercely. A wave of icy energy expelled Zu Lan from the temporal bubble!

The Seal and Regret

Outside the heart, Zu Lan waited in rage. But Yi Bao leapt onto the melting web. The Tian Gu Seal on his chest blazed:

"Now is the time... for regret!"

The seal detached and flew toward Zu Lan… not to attack, but to embrace his forehead!

Zu Lan screamed. His demonic horns began to melt. Memories poured out:

A young man weeping over the ice phoenix he killed to master dark arts.

Him swearing to become powerful to protect those he loved… then forgetting who he loved.

Him stealing a child (Lin Xiu) from a temple, whose soul bore the "Seed of Madness" that could one day defeat him.

"No... stop the memories!" he cried, falling to his knees.

Lin Xiu approached. He didn't strike. He placed a hand on Zu Lan's shoulder:

"Madness isn't for war... it's for seeing truth."

He took back the Tian Gu Seal.

Yue Yan shattered the final chains around the heart. The Ice Phoenix was free!

"Go, Mother! Live!"

Her mother's spirit soared into the sky, leaving behind a blue feather in Yue Yan's hand.

The Fall of the Palace of Frozen Tears

The palace began to collapse. Zu Lan fled through a shadow gate.

Yue Yan held the blue feather: "This... is the seed of a new phoenix."

Lin Xiu looked at the seal in his hand: "And this seal... is the seed of a regretful demon."

Yi Bao stared at the horizon: "Look! The ship's waiting!"

The ghost ship docked at the edge of the collapsing mountain.

They boarded. The ship sailed off as the Cold Cloud Palace turned into a frozen waterfall.

Yue Yan stood at the ship's bow, the blue feather gleaming in her hand:

"Now I know why my clan sent me to hunt you… You're the only one who can face Zu Lan."

Lin Xiu sat on a coil of rope, playing with his time staff:

"Confrontation is boring... Let's plant a mad garden instead!"

He tapped the feather and the seal. Tiny seeds fell into his palm.

Yi Bao hopped onto his shoulder: "And my memory? When will I know who I was?"

"When you stop asking… and start singing!"

Deep below, Zu Lan crawled through a dark tunnel—half of his face human, the other demonic.

"I will not lose... I'll find the 'Final Field' and break all chains!"

And the ship sailed through a sea of clouds, carrying wounded hearts... and seeds of mad hope.