Fanfiction: Mo Yuan and Shao Wan - Chapter 25 (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花)

 Chapter 25

written by kakashi

Shao Wan cloud-jumped to the gates of the Obsidian Palace. She had brought no weapons, because whatever arms she had in her current possession were useless against a High Demon God like Cheng Yin. She wouldn’t even try to get her whip this time. The gates were wide open and there were no guards or soldiers anywhere. She walked in, her skin prickling. The silence and the emptiness were ominous but fitting. This was how she had always imagined her tomb: A huge, black stone building that scared every visitor.

She sensed Cheng Yin’s aura in the red throne room, her once favorite place in the palace and where she had spent the most time with him. As she walked there, she greeted familiar objects exhibited in the corridors. A golden dragon scale she had picked up in front of her cave - it belonged to Mo Yuan’s father. A Spirit Stone that had been given to her as a tribute by a wood spirit. A jade pendant in the form of a turtle that she had won over a game of Go. The tip of a Moon Tooth Spade that a wandering Daoist priest had thrown at her in anger. A Qilin Core that she had kept to honor the Beast that had been so hard to kill. These were fragments of a past life that held no meaning anymore.

The doors to the throne room were wide open too - an invitation to her doom. Not many steps left. Hesitating would not change anything.

She was so scared of what she would see she kept her eyes glued to the floor. But no, being afraid was not how she would spend her last moments. Stepping across the threshold at the door, she took a deep breath and lifted her head. Cheng Yin sat at the far end, on her throne, and grinned. In front of him, in a puddle of blood, lay Fong Hung, in large toad form. Cheng Yin had bound him with magical rope and judging from the instruments scattered on the floor, he had used all means of torture known to Demons on her Mount.

Tears started to gather in her eyes. She lifted her hand to brush them away. There was no shame in crying for her friend and the pain he had to endure because of her inability to protect him, but Cheng Yin would not get to see her tears.

“Wan Wan,” Cheng Yin greeted her, extending his hand, “you took your time getting here; Fong Hung could hardly take it any longer. Is Mo Yuan a capable lover?”

She started walking towards him, not taking her eyes off her bleeding companion. Cheng Yin’s magic was palpable all around her - it was possible there were hidden seals and traps - and she braced herself for his attack.

It didn’t come. He must be very confident she would do everything to protect her Mount. She fell to her knees in front of Fong Hung and hugged his bulky form, almost choking on her tears. His life force was very feeble. How could she free him like this? He wouldn’t be able to leave on his own.

“If you submit to me willingly, I will let him go,” Cheng Yin said from the dais above her. “And don’t worry. Given a few hundred or maybe thousand years, he will recover and be his old ugly self.”

She looked up at him and what Cheng Yin saw in her eyes must have alarmed him, because the smile disappeared from his face.

“If you move against me, he is dead,” he hissed, pointing his fingers at Fong Hung, ready to strike. “In fact, if you do not obey my every command, he is dead.”

She stayed still, studying his cruel face. Had she ever thought him handsome? He was a monster. Worse than his father.

“And now, kneel in front of me and bow.”

Kneeling and bowing was one thing, but Shao Wan knew he would not stop there. No man had ever taken her by force, but Cheng Yin wanted to break and fully dominate her. She knew exactly what kind of things he would order her to do soon.

“Deeper.”

What if I don’t die here, Shao Wan thought as she put her forehead to the dark stone floor, marvelling at how cold it was, what if I stop being pathetic and do what I have always done best: fight. What if I get myself and Fong Hung out of here. What if I kill Cheng Yin.

“You are such a foolish woman,” the Demon King snarled, “we could have had this so much easier. Just accept that I am the most powerful and serve me, like everyone will. Did you think your precious Celestial would save you? Did you buy his promises, because you lust after him?”

He laughed unpleasantly and Shao Wan lifted her head, to meet his eyes. Would she be quick enough?

“Have you forgotten why you went to war with them in the first place?” he continued. “Have you forgotten what they stole from you?”

Her initial Feather, taken from her highly secured, sacred mountain by a treacherous Celestial. No, she had not forgotten about it. But other things had seemed more urgent after her resurrection.

“You know it was the White Goddess who went and stole it,” Cheng Yin said. “Remember who took her side when you confronted her about it? Mo Yuan, of course. You were furious, I heard, but had to back down at the time. When you came back from that cursed school, you started to assemble your army.”

That was the truth, sort of, even though he made it sound like such an easy decision. The Feather held a part of her soul. It was very powerful. And it could hurt her.

“Mo Yuan has it, you fool,” Cheng Yin hissed, “and he will use it against you if you do not obey him.”

Shao Wan felt very cold all of a sudden. Mo Yuan had her Feather? How did Cheng Yin know this? He must be lying. Or was he? It was possible the White Goddess had given it to the God of War. She had died, Shao Wan had learned, sacrificing her life for the Celestial cause. That would have impressed Mo Yuan.

“I doubt that serving the Celestial is something you want,” Cheng Yin continued. “Control your lust, woman! You used to be the Demon Overlord. Let’s rule the world together, Shao Wan. Let’s put the Celestials in their proper place!”

“Do you think I’m a fool, boy?” she whispered and opened up her sky-power link wide.

The upsurge in energy was so great that Cheng Yin was blasted off his feet as pieces of furniture and drapery ignited all around them. It only took him moments to recover, but it also only took her moments to throw the strongest protective shield she could create around Fong Hung. The world around her rippled as the heat inside of her was building. It was hard to see her opponent.

She needed to control this. By herself.

But how?

She thought of Mo Yuan and what he had told her back in school. Breathing. The key was breathing, controlling excessive Qi. Circulating it. Slowly, from the dantian, through the meridians, back into the dantian.

Cheng Yin’s magic hit her in the chest and almost toppled her over.

It hurt so much.

She found her footing and gathered her own power. Why was she so slow? She managed to divert some of the sky power to her arms and press it into her fingers, but this cost her a lot of concentration and before she could blast it Cheng Yin’s way, he hit her again, the force of his attack throwing her across the room until her back slammed against a pillar.

I should have listened to him, Shao Wan thought, reeling from the pain and feeling the meager control she had gained slipping away. Why was I that arrogant? What use is this type of power if it destroys me? She was going to burn again and no Mo Yuan was near to stop it.

She would at least make sure Cheng Yin burned with her.

Catapulting herself through the room with all the energy she could muster, she jumped right in front of the Yellow Demon King and put her arms around him in a deadly hug. She had moved so fast he was taken by complete surprise. He was yelling something, but she had long lost her ability to hear anything through the roaring of the power coursing through her.

He was very strong, struggling to free his arms, but she linked her own hands together with magic, tightening her grip. She looked straight into his face that was so close before hers. She wanted to see when the pain became too big for him to enjoy. She wanted to see him be afraid. She wanted to see him realize he had lost.

Only - his eyes showed nothing like it. He looked at her almost lovingly and for a moment, it seemed like he might lean in for a kiss. He was not done, she realized. She would not beat him. He moved his lips and suddenly, it felt like she was hit over the head with a boulder. She sank to her knees, blacking out for a moment.

She couldn’t see well. The energy must have hurt her eyes or was it the smoke in the room? Things were burning. She staggered to her feet, realizing she was gravely hurt.

He had stopped her sky-power. How?

But he also was on his hands and knees, affected by the phoenix fire. She swung her leg around and kicked him in the stomach with everything she had, throwing him on his back. With satisfaction, she saw him cough up blood. When he tried to get up, she kicked him again, in the ribs. And then in the head.

Sometimes, brute force was just as effective as magic.

Cheng Yin seemed to have blacked out momentarily, and she knew this was her chance. Lifting the heavy Fong Hung with magic she attempted to cloud jump out of the Palace … in vain. Cheng Yin had put up seals to prevent her from leaving easily.

She fell. Fong Hung was so heavy. Slipping her arms through the magic rope, she managed to hoist him up onto her back. Staggering under the weight, she walked out of the throne room. There was a hidden passageway not far from there - Cheng Yin did not know it.

She fell many times, walking out of the palace. But she made it. She managed to cloud jump herself and her Mount to one of the small, hidden caves high up in the Barren Mountains. She managed to seal and hide the cave … barely. She attempted to pour some energy into Fong Hung, but she had none left. His breathing was stable and the bleeding had stopped at least.

Her sky power flickered.

Was the link still open? She still didn’t see well and she felt way too hot. She hurt so much she wanted to cry. The pain built and built and she was certain she was dying.

If only she could have seen Mo Yuan one last time, she thought, as everything around her turned black. The last thing she heard before all her senses left her completely was her head hitting the rough cave floor with an ugly sound.

Chapter 26