Phoenix sat up abruptly, narrowing his eyes at Trailokyavijaya (Conqueror of the Three Worlds) Wisdom King. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
—This was the peak of Xueba Mountain, a place extremely close to the Buddhist hall. It was a forbidden area on Mount Sumeru; ordinary people should not have been able to come here. Only Phoenix, being an ancient divine bird accustomed to high altitudes and having grown up in isolation here, was not used to living in the lower levels of the Thirty-Three Heavens and thus continued to reside here.
No matter how one explained it, Trailokyavijaya’s appearance here late at night was far too strange.
“…Someone told me to come up.” Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King was silent for a moment, then asked, “Were you dreaming just now?”
Phoenix frowned.
“I saw you smiling.”
Phoenix blinked, unsure how to respond for a moment. After a while, he could only ask, “Who told you to come up?”
Trailokyavijaya did not answer.
“…If it’s nothing, then you should leave.”
Yet Trailokyavijaya still didn’t speak or move. His gaze was unusually bright in the darkness, so bright it was almost ominous.
Phoenix’s breathing gradually became deep and long.
He had more experience descending into the Sea of Blood than anyone else in the Heavenly Dao and had seen the posture of too many great demons before they attacked. The feeling was all too similar to the Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King before him now, giving him a chilling premonition.
He narrowed his long-lashed eyes, his body tensing subconsciously. “Still not leaving?” he asked coldly.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the words left his mouth, Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King moved. It was not to retreat, but to reach out and tuck the hair at the side of Phoenix’s face behind his ear.
Phoenix’s first reaction to this gesture was not wariness or anger, but astonishment—the kind that left him bewildered. He didn’t even have time to react before Trailokyavijaya bent one leg, half-knelt on the bed, and the hand that had tucked his hair came to rest gently on his shoulder.
“Don’t blame me,” he said. “I am only…”
Phoenix shot up and shoved Trailokyavijaya away with one palm!
“What are you doing?! Get away!”
Trailokyavijaya staggered on the floor before regaining his footing, his expression seemingly hurt, though it was unclear if it was because he had been pushed away without a second thought or for some other reason.
At that moment, Phoenix had no mind to pay attention to his reaction. He rolled off the bed and started to walk out. As his sleeves billowed, the scent of water lilies wafted through the moonlight. The moment he brushed past, the fragrance clearly entered Trailokyavijaya’s nose. Trailokyavijaya suddenly grabbed his hand. “Wait! Phoenix, wait, do you really not…”
He stared straight into Phoenix’s eyes. In that instant, as if possessed, he asked as if by some demonic compulsion, “…Have you not thought of me at all?”
Phoenix’s response was to forcefully fling his hand away. “What nonsense are you talking about?!”
This utterly unhesitating reply, in a way, provoked Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King, turning all his hesitation and guilt into a subtle fury. He forcefully grabbed Phoenix’s wrist and dragged him back. In the struggle, they both fell to the floor. Phoenix kicked him away and rushed out, but in the chaos, Trailokyavijaya grabbed him by the hair and threw him back onto the smooth, cold floor tiles.
“Are you insane? Get off!”
Trailokyavijaya’s response was to forcefully pin down his slender body. In the moonlight, half of his profile was hidden in shadow, looking almost terrifying. “Do you know why it is me who appeared here?”
“You…”
“Because you don’t care about me at all. No, you don’t care about anyone except for that person, but you find me even more annoying, more disgusting, so the possibility of you falling for me is the lowest. You always have this…”
Phoenix forcefully pushed Trailokyavijaya away, but in the next second, he was violently flipped over and pinned down again. In the confusion, the back of his head slammed onto the floor with a thud.
It was a vicious blow. The sharp pain blurred his vision.
“…always this look of innocence and indifference. No one cares about you, and you don’t care about anyone…”
Trailokyavijaya grabbed Phoenix’s hair, forcing his head up, and gazed, fascinated, at the neck that was so fair it was almost translucent in the moonlight.
“Who would make you care more, hmm? Only that Sakyamuni, or does it include the children you will bear in the future?”
In that instant, Phoenix’s pupils, which had been dilated from dizziness, constricted. He finally understood what this whole absurdity was about, but the sudden guess that flashed through his mind was so terrifying that his first reaction was disbelief.
No… impossible. It can’t be like this.
Even if he has been deceiving me, it can’t be like this…
“Yes, it’s just as you think,” Trailokyavijaya said cruelly. Seeing Phoenix’s face, blank with utter disbelief, a twisted delight flashed through his heart.
“I already told you that person ordered me to come, understand? The eldest son is greatly unfavorable to the Buddha. The only way to completely eliminate this possibility in the bud is to completely sever the karmic cause, to strangle your so-called eldest son in his cradle… That’s why I’m here. Rather than letting you bear an eldest son with some unknown person, it’s better to do it with someone you won’t like at all, someone with no possibility of taking away even a fraction of your blind devotion…”
Phoenix’s eyes widened, his lips trembling slightly, as if he couldn’t even make a sound.
“See, you’re just that naive.” Trailokyavijaya caressed his face and chuckled softly. “Naively hoping others will be good to you, naively repaying them with all your affection, naively believing you’ll never be betrayed or hurt in your entire life…”
There was a hint of pity in his voice, but even he himself did not notice it.
“No…” Phoenix subconsciously shook his head in denial, but it sounded weak from a lack of conviction. “No, it’s not like that, I just…”
He gasped for a moment, then said blankly, “It’s not like that…”
Trailokyavijaya’s fingers dug deep into the cool hair at the back of his head. He stared at Phoenix’s bloodless face, something deep and inscrutable in his eyes. After a long moment, he bent down to kiss those cold, trembling lips. However, the approaching hot breath made Phoenix jolt violently, and he reached out and pushed him away hard!
“Phoenix!” Trailokyavijaya said angrily.
Phoenix scrambled up and rushed towards the outside of the hall. Trailokyavijaya immediately gave chase. But then Phoenix turned, a string of Luminous prayer beads appearing in his hand, which, with a flick of his sleeve, transformed into a short blade of pure cyan, forged as a single piece. He pointed it straight at him and shouted, “Stop!”
“What are you going to do, go to the Buddhist hall to question him? Don’t be foolish!” Trailokyavijaya’s heart was filled with rage. An indescribable mix of embarrassment and shame turned to anger, making his tone exceptionally harsh. “You think you can just protest and be done with it? Greatly unfavorable to the Buddha! This isn’t something that can be avoided just because you’re unwilling! Phoenix, I… I will be very good to you. Don’t you just want someone to accompany you? If it were someone else, they might not be as, as…”
“I’m not going to the Buddhist hall.” Phoenix was breathing heavily, but his expression had already calmed. “And I don’t want you.”
Trailokyavijaya said angrily, “Why?!”
In that instant, Phoenix remembered Venerable Bhadra’s words: You will bear two sons with someone who is not within the web of karma. “Not within the web of karma”—such a simple phrase, yet it had sparked Phoenix’s most tender and romantic imagination.
Will he despise me for having an aspect of extreme evil? Will he be good to me?
Will he always stay by my side?
This complete stranger, whom he had never met, was like a faint glimmer of hope for the future in a world of ice and snow. From this hope, he gained infinite confidence and strength, suddenly rousing a desperate will to fight against his perilous situation and bleak reality.
“For no reason,” Phoenix lowered his eyes, his voice soft but resolute. “I am leaving this place.”
Trailokyavijaya was shocked, and then came an anxiety and anger he couldn’t explain—even the shame and rage from being mercilessly rejected couldn’t compare to hearing this simple “I am leaving this place.” In an instant, he lunged forward and grabbed Phoenix’s hand, roaring, “Where do you think you’re going? This is Mount Sumeru! Do you intend to go to the Four Evil Paths—!”
Phoenix twisted his wrist and swung the blade, forcefully pushing Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King away!
He turned and flew towards the outside of the great hall. But behind him, Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King manifested his three-headed, eight-armed ferocious Dharma-form, smashed through a stone pillar of the hall with a single blow, and caught up in the blink of an eye!
Phoenix had never seen Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King’s Dharma-form. In his eyes, Trailokyavijaya had always appeared in his normal form, with two eyes and two hands, nothing strange about him.
However, the Dharma-forms of the five great esoteric Wisdom Kings were all terrifying. As Phoenix flew across the ice, he saw the shadow clinging to his back in the reflection and his heart leaped wildly. He flipped around in mid-air and swung the blade horizontally. With a loud “CLANG!”, he firmly blocked the battle-halberd that Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King had thrust at his back!
Trailokyavijaya’s three heads and nine eyes all stared at Phoenix’s panicked pupils. “If you don’t stop, I’ll have to call for help.”
“…” Phoenix tilted his head back uncomfortably, trying to put distance between his and Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King’s gazes. In the next moment, he heard him say coldly again, “Do you think you’ll be saved if I call for help? No, you’ll still be given to me—or if you’re still unwilling, the Adesha-chakra forms of the other esoteric Wisdom Kings are even more terrifying, more violent…”
Phoenix roared in fury, “Shut up!” With a horizontal slash of his blade, he knocked the battle-halberd away in a dazzling flash of light!
Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King was caught off guard. As he took two steps back to steady himself, he saw that Phoenix had already disengaged. Like a white bird gliding with wings outstretched, he had instantly flown to the end of the ice slope. Trailokyavijaya sneered and shot forward like an arrow from a bow, shouting, “Stop—”
Phoenix’s strength was actually not equal to that of the five great esoteric Wisdom Kings. Although he had subdued demons more times and had a more glorious record, that was just experience. In addition, he had suffered severe injuries, with his muscles and bones shattered by the ninety-eight rings of the Vajra Bell, and had not fully recovered. He had no advantage in this chase across the ice. When Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King caught up, a horizontal sweep of the halberd at his waist instantly shattered a huge ice slope.
With a thunderous crash, he fell into the lake beneath the ice. Trailokyavijaya dived in after him, swimming through the bone-chilling water, and grabbed the corner of a snow-white robe floating in the water.
The next moment, Phoenix tore his robe, burst out from the other side of the lake dripping wet, and rushed onto the plank-walk amidst a spray of water!
The plank-walk was a long bridge connecting the peak of Xueba Mountain to the main peak of Mount Sumeru. Below it was a bottomless, ten-thousand-zhang-deep ravine. With a heaven-shaking roar, Trailokyavijaya stepped onto the plank-walk. The entire bridge shook violently, and even the depths of the mountain ravine echoed with a rumbling sound!
“Stop! Stop running!” Trailokyavijaya said sternly. “You can’t leave Mount Sumeru!”
Phoenix gathered his soaking wet outer robe. His hair, drenched with water, appeared even blacker, which in turn made his face paler. Against the backdrop of the vast moonlight, he seemed to have the transparent quality of ice and snow.
His elegant cheek was slightly ashen from the cold. The tip of his blade pointed downwards, and the dripping water froze into ice in the cold wind.
He looked almost pitiful, but Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King knew he would not submit or surrender because of it.
He knew this little phoenix. This little phoenix that looked so slender and delicate. There had been many times when he thought that, faced with such cruel deception and blows, he would surely not be able to hold on, that he would surely collapse. Yet, each time, Phoenix did not fall. With a resolute and stubborn posture, he obstinately held onto a faint hope, never once truly bending his knee to this painful reality.
The raging fire in Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King’s heart gradually subsided a little. He said in a deep voice, “Come back, Phoenix. You have nowhere to go but Mount Sumeru. Do you need some time to accept me? I will take good care of you. I have always…”
But Phoenix shook his head.
“This is not the place for me,” he said, his voice soft but stubborn. “And the person I need is not you.”
His gaze, under his long lashes, shifted to the valley beside the plank-walk, where the cold wind howled. A bad premonition suddenly arose in Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King’s heart. He lunged forward. “Stop—”
But it was too late.
Phoenix grabbed the railing, which was outlined in ink and painted with gold, and leaped into the deep chasm!
Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King rushed to the railing, only to see Phoenix’s figure plummeting through the air like a kite with a broken string, soon becoming an indistinct small dot in his vision.
The next moment, that dot erupted in golden light, even illuminating the entire valley. In the light, Phoenix transformed into a flying bird, its tail feathers shimmering with brilliant starlight like the Milky Way. A clear cry echoed throughout Mount Sumeru, and then it plunged headfirst into the abyss!
Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King’s hand tightened on the railing. “Phoenix—”
But in the next second, a cold voice came from the void. “Don’t pursue him.”
Trailokyavijaya looked up sharply, his pupils wide.
There was nothing in the deep black night sky. The surrounding mountains, their snow-covered peaks, glinted faintly under the night sky. After a long moment, the sound of wind came from between the peaks, as if that voice had let out an extremely faint sigh from the nether sky.
Trailokyavijaya didn’t move, gripping the railing and waiting. But he waited for a long time after that, and the person did not speak again, nor did he give any further instructions.
·
Phoenix vanished from the deep chasm, and for a long time, there was no news of him.
He likely did not go to the Four Evil Paths, but instead descended Mount Sumeru and went to recuperate in a spatio-temporal rift somewhere at the border between the Heavenly Dao and Hell.
Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King told no one about the experience of that night, and very few people on Mount Sumeru thought to ask about the Phoenix Wisdom King’s whereabouts. After all, many people’s feelings towards Phoenix were very complicated. This ancient divine bird, born with an aspect of extreme evil, had once brought too much misfortune to the Heavenly Dao. Anyone who came into contact with it would suffer a curse-like fate. Over time, it became a semi-taboo topic.
In these years, the Heavenly Dao’s long and continuous suppression of the Four Evil Paths finally provoked a strong resistance from the Asuras.
Luminous Heaven, below Mount Sumeru, had been a borderland where gods and demons coexisted since ancient times. After Mount Sumeru’s failed campaign against the Asura clans, the new Great Asura King, Fan Luo, gathered his clan and the demons of the Hell Path and brazenly launched an attack on the Heavenly Dao, occupying more than half of Luminous Heaven overnight.
Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King received orders from Mount Sumeru and advanced towards Luminous Heaven. Completely unsurprisingly, the outskirts of this city were swarming with demons. Black energy swirled, obscuring the sky, and the void outside the city gates was already showing signs of turning into a Sea of Blood.
And the moat surrounding the city walls was dyed blood-red, like a giant, vacant eye staring blankly at the sky under the gloomy heavens.
Luminous Heaven border, the desolate outskirts.
Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King stepped lightly into the Buddhist hall. In the deep, dim front hall, light smoke swirled. The bluestone floor was warm and faintly glossy from long use, and the scent of sandalwood floated悠悠 in the air, instantly grounding all the golden splendor brought down from Mount Sumeru.
A slender figure knelt by the Buddha lamp, in a snow-white kasaya and a light gray outer robe. His long hair was tied at his side, the slightly curly ends resting on his hem.
“…Phoenix,” Trailokyavijaya murmured.
Phoenix’s eyes were slightly closed. He did not turn back, his fingers gently moving over a Luminous prayer bead.
His body had recovered considerably; at least his complexion was no longer ashen as it had been on that late night. Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King stood beside him, his gaze stealthily examining the profile under his hair, so meticulously that he didn’t miss even the soft, fine hairs near his ear. After a long while, he saw him finish a round of the prayer beads and stop.
“What have you come for?” he opened his eyes slightly and asked flatly.
He did not get up, nor did he raise his eyes to look at Trailokyavijaya. This distant attitude was no different from before, as if that unbearable night had been completely erased, leaving not even a trace, at least on the surface.
“…I’ve come to propose marriage,” Trailokyavijaya said after a moment of silence.
“It is for my younger sister, the Snow Mountain Goddess Shakti… You have met her. If you do not like male Wisdom Kings, at least she…”
Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King paused, but only saw Phoenix lightly move a prayer bead, looking somewhat weary. “Isn’t she in dual cultivation with you?”
There were numerous cultivation methods in the Heavenly Dao, and dual cultivation was also extremely common, nothing to be surprised about. Phoenix’s tone was so normal it was as if he had just asked the most ordinary of questions, but it was precisely this normality and ordinariness that made Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King suddenly extremely embarrassed. It was a moment before he could defend himself. “That was a long time ago. It has long since—”
“No,” Phoenix said. “There is no need to explain to others.”
He closed his eyes and continued to slowly move the prayer beads, one by one. The emerald-green Luminous against his fair, slender fingertips was so purely beautiful it was like a painting.
Trailokyavijaya thought he had gone back to chanting sutras. He was at a loss, not knowing whether to stay or go, and stood there, stunned.
—But he did not know that Phoenix was not actually chanting sutras.
When Phoenix closed his eyes, his mind was on that person who was not within the web of karma. He knew that person was not Trailokyavijaya, not Shakti, and certainly not any random person he could meet on Mount Sumeru. Every day, with tenderness and piety, he constantly imagined what that person looked like, what kind of eyes and face he had, how he would walk out from a crowd and stand before him.
When he knelt before the Buddha, he thought about how that person would appear. When he moved the prayer beads, he thought about how that person would take his hand and lead him away from this endless sea of lotuses.
Trailokyavijaya stared at his calm face, not knowing what to say. That face was so soft, yet it seemed to be behind a transparent, invisible wall, isolating it from any curious touch or prying gaze, making it completely impossible to fathom the deep waters of his heart.
“Shakti… really is your best choice,” he finally said after a long while, making one last attempt to persuade him. “Your true form is a Huang that devoured a Feng. If you even refuse the Snow Mountain Goddess, after returning to Mount Sumeru, you may encounter more people you dislike, and who knows how you will be treated then…”
The meaning in these words was very sincere, yet even Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King himself could feel how pale and powerless they were before Phoenix.
As expected, Phoenix did not open his eyes. He only shook his head slightly, indicating his refusal, and then moved another prayer bead.
Trailokyavijaya’s hidden anger quietly reared its head in his heart again.
Are you that persistent, for a stranger you’ve never met, who might not even be good to you?
However, before he could speak this time, hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the main gate. Then, the figure of a Vajra warrior rushed into the front of the Buddhist hall and bowed deeply. “Your Highness! The Asuras are leading demons to attack the Luminous Heaven Palace and have already reached the city walls!”
All of Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King’s frustration immediately rushed to his head. “What did you say!”
·
Luminous Heaven Realm, before the city tower.
The massive black shadow of a Nine-Headed Infant circled in the sky. The moat’s red waves surged, and strange fish with fiery heads constantly emerged. Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King, having manifested his three-headed, eight-armed form, stood on the city wall and threw his battle-halberd into the sky. The next moment, it pierced the giant forehead of the Nine-Headed Infant, and a sharp, infantile cry instantly tore through the sky!
“Lowly demons!” Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King roared, his voice sweeping over the demon-infested land like a giant wave. “If you do not surrender today, you will be annihilated here—!”
The Snow Mountain Goddess Shakti stood beside Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King, but her gaze shifted from the battlefield to Phoenix on the other side of the city tower.
The Phoenix Wisdom King, unlike the legendary figure who had repeatedly swept through the Sea of Blood and cleared Hell, seemed very indifferent to all of this. The strong wind lifted the sleeves of his light gray Dharma robe and the snow-white kasaya within. Although he was on a battlefield, it was as if he might turn into wind and depart at any moment.
Truly beautiful, the Snow Mountain Goddess thought.
Just as the legends said, so beautiful that it even gave one a… very ominous feeling.
She tilted her head with interest. The next moment, she suddenly saw the Phoenix Wisdom King gaze into the distance, his eyes fixed as if he had noticed something. At the same time, his expression underwent an indescribable change.
—Although this change was extremely slight and hard to notice, Trailokyavijaya Wisdom King on the other side noticed it too. He immediately turned to look at Phoenix, and then followed his gaze to the battlefield.
He saw that above the dense crowd of demons in the distance, a man in iron armor stood levitating in the air. The void behind him seemed to be burning with fierce flames. In the hurricane that connected heaven and earth, he exuded a powerful demonic aura that was chilling to the bone.
The distance was too great to see his appearance clearly, but his actions were very clear. The man raised his long blade, blood dripping from its tip, and pointed it straight at the city wall—at the Phoenix Wisdom King on the city wall.
Phoenix was slightly puzzled and knitted his long brows.
In the next second, the man lunged forward with his blade held horizontally, wrapped in a scorching, powerful dark aura, and rushed towards him like a sharp arrow in the world-sweeping wind!
__
Author’s note:
Zhou Hui: sobs Wifey, when I proposed to you back then, you shot me with eleven arrows. This baby is not happy, this baby is bitter…
Phoenix: You came at me with a f—ing blade, okay.
