Phoenix Rise: XieRong

XieRong made sure to check all her traps for rabbits and pheasants.

She knew the old lady wouldn’t be impressed with more people to take care of.

"Young miss, why are we going into this forest?" Hui Nuo asked, as she huddled her sister closer to her.

"You’ll see," XieRong replied, killing another rabbit and storing it in her space. She had found four rabbits and one pheasant.

She found it odd that she’d caught so less, usually she found three times the pheasants and one or two rabbits more on a bad day.

She was the only one hunting other than poisonous snakes and scorpions.

XieRong put the extra cloak in her space on Hui Nuo and hid her inside a tree with Hui Zhen.

Something wasn’t right.

The forest was too silent and there were fresh tracks everywhere of around five to six people.

XieRong went around the clearing in which her master’s hut was situated.

She went to the small window and peeped in to see if everything was alright. She was relieved to see that there was no one inside, but she noticed that someone had gone through the things in the hut.

The shelves and pots had been ransacked and clothes and baskets of herbs lay as heaps and messes on the floor.

XieRong went inside the hut to look around for things they would require if they were to stay at her master’s cave and started to store them in her spatial ring. She made sure to leave most of the things untouched so that if the intruders returned they wouldn’t know that someone besides themselves were in the forest.

XieRong was about to leave when something caught her eye. She went near the cupboard where they stored the herbs and picked up a small, white, jade tablet with a roaring dragon carved at the borders.

’Interesting,’ XieRong thought, as she put it in her spatial ring and quickly left the hut.

XieRong then got Hui Nuo and Hui Zhen to follow her to her master’s study.

"Young miss, where are we going?" Hui Nuo asked again, startling at the littlest of noises.

She couldn’t blame her. She had been the same when she had first started coming to the forest, jumping ten feet high at the slightest of rustling from the bushes, until she had started to learn that the only places poisonous snakes and insects would hide themselves were in the areas where the trees shed leaves, small burrows and on the trees.

The trees in the forest hardly ever shed leaves, so those areas were easy to avoid.

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"Hui Nuo, trust in me. I won’t let anything happen to you or your sister."

XieRong was following the stream to the East.

Her master had selected this forest as her home for two reasons; one, for it’s variety of poisonous plants and animals, and two for it’s very convenient location. The Fa Estate was up North, to the Northeast was the capital, the South gave way to outside the capital and finally to the East was the Shen mountain range known to house the most potent poisons in the entire of the five continents.

XieRong kept to trees rather than the banks of the stream. She could tell that the people who had intruded the forest were no ordinary men if they’d made it so far.

It took half a Shi Chen for XieRong and her two new maids to make it to the main river from where the stream originated and another half to make it to the water fall. XieRong helped Hui Nuo and Hui Zhen up the rocks.

"Young miss, where is the house?" Hui Zhen, asked, looking around for another hut or a shack.

XieRong smiled as she carefully stepped on the ledge.

"There’s no hut, Hui Zhen, we are going behind the waterfall, come."

She pulled Hui Zhen and helped her to the entrance of the cave. After helping Hui Nuo, she herself entered the cave.

The Old lady looked at XieRong.

"I see you’ve brought me more mouths to feed."

"I brought four rabbits, a pheasant, some fruits and vegetables too."

"We will have to be more careful, XieRong, the forest is not safe."

XieRong was surprised. Her master only called her by name when it was something very serious.

"I noticed the intruders. They’ve not been very careful with their tracks."

"Hm. Give me what you’ve brought. I’ll see what I can do."

XieRong handed her catch to the old lady.

FeiHong leaped into her sister’s arms.

"Jie, you’ve returned! I missed you."

"Silly, it’s not even been a day!"

XieRong hugged her sister as FeiHong threw her arms around her waist.

"Hong Hong, I want you to meet Hui Nuo and Hui Zhen. They’ll be staying with us from now on."

"More friends?"

XieRong nodded.

"More friends."

XieRong handed her sister to Hui Nuo and made her way to her master.

"Master, here’s the ginseng," she said handing the pouch over.

Her master inspected the ginseng.

"These are better than I thought. We’ll begin your and FeiHong’s treatment. I have everything I need here, but I warn you, it will be very painful."

"I understand, master. I didn’t come so far to give up now. I want to fulfill my promise to mother."

"Good."

"Master, why are there people in the forest? It’s just full of poison."

"That is exactly why they are here, child, poison. The schemes of the nobility are treacherous. They’ve come here to look for a poison that cannot be cured."

"They’re heading towards the Shen mountains?"

The old lady nodded.

"Don’t go hunting, XieRong. In these five days, you will concentrate completely on your treatment."

"But master, the food?"

"Your master isn’t so useless, XieRong, that she cannot provide her disciple and the rest of her horde with food for five days. You will concentrate on your treatment, learning, and teaching FeiHong. You will not worry about the rest, understood?"

XieRong bowed at her waist, "This disciple understands."

XieRong and FeiHong wore only pants, as they sat looking towards the waterfall, their backs exposed to the Old Poison Lady.

"In these five days, the two of you are not to leave the cave. You will have to bear extreme pain through out the process. I will open five of your meridians daily until the fourth day, and on the fifth, I will remove the poison from your Dantian after which the treatment will be complete."

The hour of the snake (9AM to 11AM) was coming to a close.

The Old lady had stuffed cloth in XieRong’s mouth.

"XieRong, it will be more painful for you. You were born first so you have more poison in you, which has been cultivating for a longer time."

XieRong wasn’t afraid of pain.

She nodded for her master to start with a determined look in her eyes. If she could make it through this then she had a chance to cultivate.

The Poison Master’s eyes shone with pride.

Her young disciple was already facing so many hardships in life yet she remained undeterred from her path. The master knew this experience would make her disciple even more stronger both in heart and in mind. With this thought steeling her heart, the old lady began to treat XieRong.

XieRong felt nothing at first. Then she felt a small sensation, as if a needle were being poked through her skin and slowly but surely the sensation began to grow. It went from a million needles piercing her back to a million daggers being stabbed, twisted and removed over and over again.

XieRong clamped her mouth shut on the cloth in her mouth. She had clenched her eyes shut and allowed tears to fall from the side of her eyes.

She could hear FeiHong, Hui Nuo and Hui Zhen encouraging her to stay strong, but they sounded so far off, as though they were on the other side of the waterfall than right next to her.

XieRong stubbornly refused to faint from the pain. She wanted to remember it, the scorching pain of feeling something being wrenched out from the very depths of your bones, so that one day she could return the favour ten times over to the Fa Family.

XieRong could feel a disgusting feeling creep over her heart. She could feel it try to consume her being. It writhed and crawled and clawed at her heart, asking her to give in to the roaring anger she felt.

It had been a tempting offer, to let the darkest of her emotions guide her. To not be able to feel the immense pain and grief anymore, to become a lifeless doll set on revenge.

However, XieRong refused, remembering her vow to her mother that she would be happy no matter what she did and she knew this wouldn’t make her happy, just angry, angry at the Fa family, angry at herself, angry at the world. She then remembered the Auntie’s words from the inn: To keep kindness in her heart. She remembered the joy she felt when she successfully saved three people. She remembered all the times her mother had shown done small acts of kindness to someone despite being in a desperate situation herself, and how proud XieRong had felt to have a mother like her.

XieRong promised the heavens above to whichever gods were listening, that she, XieRong would not spare her enemies, but at the same time she would not let revenge and hatred consume her, that she would always remain the kind girl her mother had raised.

When the treatment for the day was finally over, XieRong opened her eyes.

She felt as though she had been in that soul twisting pain for at least three Shi Chen, when in reality only one had passed.

"You did well," her master said, starting to apply something cool and soothing to her back.

Hui Nuo took out the cloth from her mistress’s mouth and wiped the sweat from her forehead and was awarded a grateful smile from XieRong.

"XieRong, you must stay in that position until I finish FeiHong’s treatment."

XieRong looked at her little sister who looked absolutely terrified.

"Hong Hong, Jie is right here. Besides, didn’t master say it would hurt you less?"

Hui Zhen put a cloth in FeiHong’s mouth and rubbed her hand in consolation.

FeiHong put on a brave face as the old poison master began her treatment.