Chapter 30 - Phoenix Reversal

As Lu Na fell, she saw the Ancestor leering at her fall. That was not the last thing she wanted to see before her death so she closed her eyes. The wind rushed up past her, whistling in her ears. But the bottom never came.

“I knew you could do it.” Her spirit sounded so happy in her head. She almost sounded giddy. This was the first time Lu Na ever heard actual joy coming from that snake lady.

Lu Na opened her eyes and saw that a red glow surrounded her. She craned her neck all around to see that a phoenix spirit had enveloped her, allowing her to fly. At least, that’s what she thought it was until she rose.

“What’s going on?”

“Your mother’s spirit is protecting you. I’m trying to negotiate with it.”

“What do you mean by negotiate with it?”

“You don’t have all of its spirit energy. It thinks that you might not be your mother’s daughter.”

Before Lu Na could ask the next question, the Ancestor greeted her again. His leer had turned into a snarl, reminding Lu Na of his withered face earlier. She reached into her spirit realm and used her spirit’s technique. The yellow mist might have covered his body, but the red glow was within the Ancestor. It cycled through his body as if it was his blood.

“I didn’t want to dirty my hands, but I have no choice, do I?” the Ancestor said. He clenched his left fist and raised it into the air. A large yellow frog with black dots appeared behind him. It’s black eyes trained on Lu Na. “I guess I will eat you and whatever spirit energy you still have left.”

The yellow frog spirit’s tongue lashed out at Lu Na.

The phoenix spirit flew back, but it wasn’t fast enough. A part of its belly was struck and red spirit energy flowed away from it into the frog.

“Please phoenix spirit, help me. Or else we’ll be devoured,” Lu Na said.

“It says that you’re not strong enough to fight him. You might as well give up and stop struggling,” her spirit said.

“That’s stupid. I will not give up and die. There must be something we can do.”

“Decide quickly as the phoenix spirit is giving up.”

“Won’t it die too?”

“This spirit was only a part of your mother’s true spirit, like one of its feathers.”

Lu Na couldn’t believe how strong her mother was. If this was only but a feather, what level of spirit energy would she have?

The frog spirit leaned back on its hind legs, prepared to jump. Wings sprouted on its back. Lu Na had little time before it flew at her and devoured her whole.

“If only I had a spirit wand or something. Maybe I could draw the energy out of the Ancestor,” Lu Na said. But wait, she only just remembered. Hadn’t she thrown the spirit wand down his throat with the wards earlier?

Lu Na focused on the Ancestor with her technique and sure enough, the wand was in his stomach. Now if she could reach him, then maybe she might pull the red spirit energy out of him and return it to the phoenix.

“Can you tell the phoenix to dive at the Ancestor?”

“Are you mad? I’ve been trying to get her to fly away with you. We could regroup with your friend or brother and fight him another day,” her spirit said.

That was a good idea. That was a great idea. Why did everything depend upon a talentless woman like her? Let someone else clean up this mess.

Lu Na felt a phantom hand on her shoulder and she was pulled into her spirit realm.

The sun shone above, blinding her briefly. She was standing in a green meadow. Wasn’t it just night? When her eyes adjusted, she saw her mother. She looked just as she remembered.

Lu Na ran toward her and hugged her. She had turned into a small girl.

“Na Na, I didn’t give you these tools only for you to run. You can’t keep hoping others will protect you and start making something with it, as I know you can,” her mother said.

“But I’m so tired. I’m scared. I don’t want to do this anymore,” Lu Na said.

When Lu Na looked up, she saw her mother’s face. She had a scar running down from her left eye, down her cheek, until it touched her chin. Her hair was a tangled mess and she was missing a part of her ear.

“I need you, Na Na. If you let this man go, he will get stronger than you could ever imagine and no one could stop him. You must stop him here and now or else everyone dies.”

“Mother?” Lu Na broke from her embrace. One look at her mother and Lu Na could tell that she had suffered beyond anyone should. Her clothes were ripped and dirty. She had no shoes, displaying feet caked in dirt. Her bare arms were showing scars that crisscrossed all around. Lu Na had a sinking feeling that these were only the visible scars.

Lu Na took a step back from this stranger, turning back into her older self. The illusion was broken, but the only thing that remained was the sunny sky.

“I’m sorry Na Na. I put this burden on you and I have little time. When your spirit triggered the message in the spirit realm, I knew it was time to reach out to you,” her mother said.

“What can’t you come back? I miss you.”

“I miss you too, but we must hurry. First, fight the Ancestor. Your idea is correct and that the spirit wand technique I showed you will draw his spirit energy out back into my phoenix spirit. Once that happens, she will help you.”

“But what if I fail?”

Her mother embraced Lu Na, smelling her hair and kissing her head.

“Then I will follow you right after to the underworld. We’ll meet on the Yellow Spring Road and wait to reincarnate together. Because if you don’t beat him now, I won’t make it.”

Lu Na cried. This was not the mother she remembered, but her embrace was the same. She would never forget this feeling no matter how her mother looked.

“And I’m sorry Na Na. I have to send you back. The last thing I wanted to tell you is the secret to the spirits and the reason they hunted you. The spirits are not our friends. They have been slowly killing humans like a poison for centuries. I’ve been on the run ever since my spirit told me. That’s why I gave you and your brother the tools to figure out why. There are only a few spirits that know this secret like your spirit. I made her swear to help you, but don’t trust her either.”

“No, don’t go.” Lu Na embraced her mother. She knew that this was her real mother.

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“I’ll see you again Na Na. The hairpin has one more thing inside that will lead you to more clues. When you find the device with the clue, it can dominate all the spirits in the human realm. If you survive this fight, find it. It will force them to stop killing humans before their time. I will hold them off for as long as I can until you do. But until then, I love you.”

The world became dark again. She was back in the night sky, floating on her mother’s phoenix spirit.

“Lu Na, make her run. Maybe she’ll listen to you since your mother entrusted her to you,” Lu Na’s spirit said.

Lu Na shook her head. She glared at the Ancestor and fixed her eyes on the spirit wand inside him.

The yellow frog spirit bounced up, its wings flapping feebly. It gave the frog no real leverage, but the push from the ground was strong.

“Run! Please Lu Na,” her spirit said.

“No.” Lu Na grabbed onto the phoenix’s back, feeling the feathers in her hands. They were warm to the touch. In that instant, she learned how to control it almost as if her mother had put it in her head. She leaned her body to the right and the phoenix followed, narrowly avoiding the frog’s mouth.

“Hah! Learn your place, you dumb frog. You belong in the water. We rule the skies,” Lu Na said. She leaned forward and the phoenix spirit followed. But instead of fleeing as her spirit wanted, they were diving right at the Ancestor.

The frog followed right behind, finally able to use its wings.

“Lu Na I hope you know what you’re doing,” her spirit said.

“Spirit, all I need from you is to get ready. I’m going to pull all that red spirit energy back into my mother’s phoenix.”

“What? That’s impossible. He’s a human. You can’t pull it out of him. If there was a way, the spirits would have done so already. They wouldn’t need to bond with you humans.”

“What?” That shook Lu Na for a moment, but she had to concentrate. She only had one shot at this. As expected, the Ancestor had opened his mouth wide again. This time, he shot out tendrils of yellow mist that wrapped around Lu Na just like his frog spirit. He was going to pull her in.

Exactly what Lu Na wanted.

Right as Lu Na entered his mouth, she reached up with her left hand. She clenched her left hand and opened them. The spirit wand flew into her open hand. He closed his mouth and it echoed within his mouth like a cave.

“Let’s do it spirit.” Lu Na pulled on her spirit’s technique. It felt like second nature to her as she’d been using this technique for many years to create her wards. She remembered how her mother had taught her this before she disappeared.

“It will not work on a human,” her spirit said.

Lu Na had a wide smile.

“He’s not human.”

Lu Na pulled harder, using everything she had. She dove into her own spirit realm and pulled with everything she had. That drowning feeling hit her again but she ignored it. Her whole body was shivering from the effort she was using while feeling heavy like an ocean weighed her down.

“Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

After a moment, Lu Na felt the weight lift off her body and she could breathe. She could feel her spirit helping her, giving her a lot of spirit energy. She did not know how her spirit was pushing it into her, but it wasn’t enough.

The spirit wand glowed and pulled spirit energy from the Ancestor, but he fought it. It only pulled a trickle of that red spirit energy from his body.

“Now the hard part,” Lu Na said. With her right hand, she weaved a keyhole within the phoenix spirit’s back. The spirit was nothing more than her mother’s technique. That meant that Lu Na could modify it like any other technique she’s learned. And just like with the null metal she had earlier, this one was going to be different. The change she did was to use the same technique the doctor had used on Sun Ren that drew spirit energy from its target.

When Lu Na finished, she stabbed the spirit wand right into the phoenix’s back. The red spirit energy coming from the Ancestor became a flood. It ripped itself from the Ancestor’s body to flow back into the phoenix. The cave-like mouth started rumbling. Lu Na held on as hard as she could. There was no way she was going to let go now.

“I can’t believe it’s working,” her spirit said. She sounded exhausted, barely breathing from that sentence.

The mouth opened and spat them out.

Lu Na felt the wind again on her cheek. It was moist inside his mouth.

“You brat. How dare you?” the Ancestor spat out. He was back to looking like the decrepit old man from before.

“Brat? How dare I? You even speak like an old man,” Lu Na said.

The red spirit energy rapidly drained from the old man until not even a speck of red spirit energy lingered within the Ancestor’s body.

Lu Na pulled the spirit wand out of the phoenix’s back.

Now, with all of its former spirit energy back to where it was, the phoenix screeched. Lu Na had to cover her ears, as she was still riding on its back. The phoenix shot a fireball at the Ancestor, scorching him in fire.

The flames burned off the Ancestor’s yellow spirit energy. The mist faded away like fog, seeping deep back into the ground. The flames kept burning away, pinning the Ancestor to the ground.

“The phoenix is going to drop you down now. She says you’re no longer in danger and that she needs to go save your brother,” Lu Na’s spirit said.

“My brother? Is he hurt?”

“He’s seriously injured. The phoenix is going to heal him before he dies.”

Lu Na got off the phoenix as soon as it allowed her onto the ground.

“Where is my brother?”

“The phoenix can only tell me it’s a dark place. When she heals him, he’ll make his way home. Don’t worry Na Na, he’s strong.”

Lu Na couldn’t believe that her brother was so seriously wounded. What happened after they separated?

The phoenix raised its head toward the west back to where Jianye laid. It flapped its long wings and took to the skies. A large torrent of air buffeted Lu Na, but not enough to knock her down. The phoenix flew so fast that it became a speck in the night sky quickly.

Lu Na turned back to the Ancestor.

The old man kneeled on the ground, barely breathing. He clutched his chest as if he was hugging himself.

Lu Na risked a headache and activated her technique to see spirit energy. The old man looked barely there. Most of the yellow spirit energy that was so robust before has now become nothing more than grains of sand within his body. The earth wards she threw at him earlier must have sapped most of his energy.

That was another thought she had. What if she created wards that simply sapped the spirit energy from anything it touched? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate defense against any technique or summoner?

“But that won’t work,” her spirit said. “It only worked this time because the Ancestor made himself into the spirit energy itself. Spirits and summoners are protected by a barrier that prevents something like that from happening. Why else would he have to devour you completely to take your spirit energy when he could have simply absorbed it?”

“Hey, can you hear my thoughts?”

Her spirit laughed.

“Remember how I said I wouldn’t fit in your head? Well, for that last technique that you used to draw out the phoenix’s spirit energy forced me to be in your head to help you shape it. But it’s already fading. I’m being pushed back into your spirit realm.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want you to know what I’m thinking. It would be creepy.” Lu Na also mentioned nothing about her mother. Last thing she wanted was for the spirit to read her memories or thoughts about that.

“I’m really going to lie down after this. Wake me when you get home.” Lu Na felt that same hollow feeling again the last time her spirit left her. Except this time, she could sense her spirit asleep within herself, kind of like a small animal that she put in her chest pocket. There was a warm breath coming in and out against her chest. Peaceful.

Let’s hope that was all she had to worry about. Lu Na walked past the writhing Ancestor. He went from clutching himself to now shivering in the fetal position. There was nothing she could do for him, nor would she want to. He should be happy she didn’t spit on him as she walked past.

Sect Leader Wong had calmed down, though. He looked like he was sleeping, but his face had a continual grimace. There were also many tear stains going down his face. Lu Na felt no real pity for him for what he did to her, either. However, she wondered what happened to the man now that the Ancestor devoured his spirit. Did that mean he was no longer a summoner?

Lu Na approached the alleyways back into the Wintersweet compound. The red lanterns led Lu Na away in bright, festive lights. As she had time to enjoy the scenery, she noticed that many of the doors within the compound were decorated with different themes and ideas from the Mid-Autumn Festival. If she walked fast enough out of here, maybe she’d still have time to see the releasing of the lanterns.

Although the thought of her brother was leaning on her mind more. She would have to walk all the way back to Jianye and hope to find her brother.

“Stop right there,” Elder Hen called out. “You’re not going anywhere.”