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Author Note: Trigger warning... Death of a major character.
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...Cecile, a little impatient, interrupted him. "Everything I said is real, and I don't have to prove anything to you. I've come here with teacher Madeleine if you don't believe what I told you is the truth. Go speak to her." Then she turned and left.
Feng Yuan stopped her by flashing in front of her with snowflakes around him. He let his scent out, trying to entice Cecile, and said. "Let's not be so hasty~. I still don't even know your name."
Cecile frowned, 'I couldn't see him. He is much stronger than me...'
Then, his scent reached her, and she almost retched. 'He is trying to entice me with his scent? Truly incomparable with Yasenia's, it makes me want to gag.'
It was not that he smelled bad; on the contrary, if any other cultivator would have smelled, they would have found it quite refreshing. But for Cecile, it was the same as if her nose got buried in thrash.
This was because of her body's natural reaction. Not only was Feng Yuan's bloodline of lower grade than Cecile herself, but Cecile's body was accustomed to Yasenia's powerful and sweet scent, which was leagues above his. It was like smelling appetizing dishes for months and suddenly opening a garbage can.
Not retching instantly and maintaining her cool was a big achievement for Cecile!
Cecile looked into his blue eyes, pronouncing everything clearly, without being able to hide her disgust in her tone. "If you do something stupid, you will regret it. I wouldn't have minded speaking to you if you didn't come to seduce me. But your blatant intent is literally oozing from each pore of your body."
Cecile warned, her voice now icy. "Either give up on seducing me and speak to me normally or scram before I call teacher Madeleine. I just want to take the ritual silently and return to my lover's side."
The man frowned, "I've been trying to be nice to you, but it seems that you are treating my kindness as weakness. Do you think I don't dare do anything? You are in my territory!"
Cecile shook her head and said, "I'm not treating your kindness as weakness. I'm speaking like I would to a birdbrain."
The man was about to scold Cecile when he saw her take out a wooden stick and break it with her fingers.
Less than a second later, Madeleine fell from the sky, her light purple hair floating around and wrapped in a black aura. Her eyes exuded killing intent, ready to slaughter anything in her path. Behind her, five phoenix elders appeared in human form, a little confused as to why Madeleine suddenly burst here.
Madeleine's black and blue eyes looked at the man before Cecile and flattened him onto the ground using a speck of her aura to avoid killing him. Then, she focused on Cecile and asked worriedly, "Are you okay, Cecile? What happened?"
Cecile related everything, word for word, not hiding even her insults. When she finished speaking, the elders had ugly faces.
The thing was that among the elders, Feng Yuan's father was present!
However, unlike some may think, after hearing the story, he looked at his son with eyes filled with disappointment. Even when he was stronger than Madeleine, he asked politely with a sigh, "Miss Madeleine, can you let him go? I even told him not to mess with the guests… To think that he didn't listen and didn't even have the basic common sense to believe what the little chick told him... I must reeducate him later."
Madeleine, of course, nodded and lifted the pressure, letting him stand back up with slight injuries.
He looked at his father, and when he was about to protest, that elder disappeared and touched his forehead, making him faint. Before Feng Yuan fainted, he heard him say, "We will speak later about this."
Cecile was looking intently at the phoenix elder because she picked up something from the elder's voice. Unsure, she asked, "Would it be possible for senior to be the majestic phoenix that carried me to this mountain?"
Surprised, the elder raised his blue eyebrow and laughed, "That's right, little chick. You even warned me to avoid these things from happening. Who would have thought that my child would be the one making the blunder? I'm sorry for the trouble."
Cecile was overwhelmed receiving the apology from such a senior and answered a little flustered, "Do not apologize, elder. I just didn't want the situation to get a turn for the worse, so I called for master's aid. Senior doesn't need to punish him; after all, nothing happened to me."
The elder caressed his blue beard and nodded, "Your parents raised you nicely, little chick. Wait for a moment."
He disappeared, carrying his son with him, and then reappeared, alone. He smiled and said, "Let me show you around. There are quite good sights! Well, I'm a little tired of them after seeing them so many millenium, Bahahaha!"
Cecile smiled gently and nodded, not caring about Feng Yuan anymore. They began walking around, and the elder explained the history of some of the buildings. He showed Cecile a lot of beautiful and mesmerizing snow landscapes. Cecile was having a lot of fun listening to him.
Midway through the walk, the elder sighed and said, "His attitude is mainly my and his mother's mistake… You know how hard it is to get pregnant, so we treat every child nicely. Even then, we can have a child every one thousand years or so on average. However, we had been unlucky lately; before we knew it, more than 10 000 years had gone by since our last child. However, my wife got pregnant with little Yuan not so long ago."
The elder smiled bitterly and said, "Because of our joy, we spoiled him since birth. However, we went overboard. Even when relatives told us to be more strict, we didn't listen. Time passed, and as he matured, we saw that he was becoming arrogant."
The elder shook his head and said, "Thankfully, we realized and weren't blinded for too long. Since then, we've tried to right his wrongs, and he is now much better than before. I just hope we can turn him into a majestic phoenix we and him can be proud of. This event, however, will become a setback, sigh…."
Cecile nodded, completely understanding, 'With so little fertility rate, it is normal to spoil the children.' Cecile said, "I'm sorry, elder, maybe I could have handled that a little better."
The elder patted her head and said jokingly, "Bah, don't worry. I will just have to beat him up some more times, Bahahaha!" Cecile smirked slightly.
Meanwhile, Feng Yuan was breaking everything around his bedroom, where the elder had left him. "So what if they are from the Academy? Just a bunch of humans, can they compare to us, phoenixes!?"
Angered, he went outside, transformed into his phoenix form, and flew off. He had a 20-meter wingspan and blue feathers. As he was flying, a mental message entered his mind, 'Brat, don't think I have forgiven you! Moreover, you will pay for everything you destroyed in your bedroom with your earnings!'
Feng Yuan exclaimed, 'But dad! I didn't do anything wrong! I was just talking to her!'
The elder said, 'Little Yuan, can you truly tell me that you didn't want to make her yours forcefully? Your scent was all over her. Fly some time and relax your mind; we will discuss it deeper later. I have some things to do. Love you.'
Feng Yuan felt the connection breaking. He was still agitated, more so when the father that spoiled him took sides with another person. Therefore, he dove into the snow-filled forest, freezing everything with different attacks and venting his emotions. 'So what if I wanted to make her mine? Can't I try to take her away from her current mate? I shouldn't be much worse than him!'
He landed on a giant tree's branch and folded her wings. He looked at the horizon and then sighed, 'Maybe I should have stopped when she tried to leave the first time. But if I do that, won't I be unable to find a worthy mate? Or seduce someone I wouldn't be able to without insistence? I don't want to approach every woman as if I'm walking on thin ice...'
He let his body fall and glided until he touched the ground. While reflecting, his spiritual sense suddenly caught something on the side and turned his feathered head. He opened his wings and asked menacingly, "Who goes there!?"
The person that appeared was an extremely sexy woman with five pairs of bat-like wings and a seductive aura around her. Her voice was arousing and soul-stirring, "Hello~ Little phoenix~. Want to talk with this big sister~?"
The night passed silently, and the time for the ritual approached.
Morning came, and Clara and Cecile were in the dressing room. Clara was helping Cecile put on the dress.
It was a white and blue dress with an open back. It was sleeveless, but it had some gloves that reached Cecile's upper arm and covered the top of her hands. These open-hand gloves had two beautiful white ribbons on the wrist area.
The blue skirt reached her ankles and had white stripes going waist down. The front left her with an attractive cleavage, but not exaggerated, highlighting Cecile's perfect figure. This wear was high-leveled heaven-ranked and was a present for Cecile to solve yesterday's confrontation.
Cecile sat, and Clara began styling her hair. She decided to go for a bun with various white headpieces with phoenix carvings. She also placed a necklace with a white-blue phoenix on it.
When Clara finished, she couldn't help but appreciate the peerless beauty in front of her. Unlike Yasenia, Cecile was like an ethereal beauty untouched by the mortal world dust, making people want to look but not dare to. Clara praised wholeheartedly, "Miss Cecile, you are really beautiful."
Cecile nodded and answered with her usual cold tone, "Thanks, but just Cecile is okay, Clara."
Clara nodded with a smile.
Cecile stood up and walked with innate elegance. Her dress weaved in the wind like a beautiful water wave. Clara followed behind her, closely looking out for the surroundings. She spotted Feng Yuan, looking fixedly at Cecile, and frowned. "Cecile, Young Master Feng is looking at us."
Cecile glanced sideways and frowned slightly, "Something is off."
Clara nodded, "Would you like to take care of him? I can send him with his father."
Cecile sighed, "Let it be; I've already caused enough problems to the elder. Let's do the ritual and leave. Then we won't see him again." Clara nodded but had an eye on him.
Cecile reached below a long staircase that led to an altar with the statue of a titanic Phoenix engulfing the altar with its wings. That phoenix dwarfed even the elder surrounding it.
She looked at the six giant phoenixes perched on the stone wings. One of them was the elder, and there were another five phoenixes of similar size, three on each of the stone wings.
The scene was spectacular, to say the least. Seeing six mountain size phoenixes perched on something as if they were normal birds perching on a tree completely overturned Cecile's concept of sizes in her mind.
Cecile took a deep breath and began climbing the stairs gracefully like she was floating toward the altar. Two blue phoenixes opened their beak, sounding somewhat feminine, but imposing nonetheless.
"Today, we gather to witness the beginning."
The stone altar took a blue shade, and light snow fell around the area, giving a wintery tone to the environment.
When Cecile reached midway through the long staircase, another two spoke, sounding a lot deeper than the first two.
"Today, we gather to witness the end and the beginning."
As Cecile climbed the stairs, her steps transformed the blue stone into a blue crystal, giving the altar a mysterious and elegant atmosphere.
When Cecile reached the end of the now crystal blue staircase, Feng Yuan's father and the last phoenix spoke.
"Today, we gather to see her end, her rebirth, her transformation, and her ascension."
An ancient aura surrounded the altar, and energy gathered around, making Cecile feel as If her pores opened and were breathing, 'So comfortable.'
Cecile looked around the altar floor and walls; they were engraved with various phoenixes of different tones of blue and white color. Some danced, some fought, and others flew freely.
Cecile walked toward the middle of the enormous altar surrounded by giant stone wings, the light from the sky still shone on her because it had an open ceiling.
Countless phoenixes flew around the altar, Feng Yuan included, looking at the human about to receive the baptism.
When Cecile reached the center, the six of them opened their wings and chanted. "Witness her end!"
*QYAAA!*
All the phoenixes cried in unison, filling the sky with their melodic sound, as a blue and white pillar of light rose to the sky from the altar ground, surrounding Cecile.
When the pillar enveloped her, Cecile felt like her skin was being ripped off her and her muscles melting, "AAAAAAAAAHH!!!"
As Cecile's pain-filled scream echoed around, the pillar hit a transparent dome in the sky and gathered there.
With such an amount of inhuman torment, Cecile continued screaming in agony as the beam purified her body, killing every human part of her blood, muscles, bones, organs, and soul!
Little by little, Cecile felt life leaving her body, unable to withstand such drastic transformation. The constant agony with the feeling of her life escaping through every pore was dreadful. She tried to fight against it, but the pillar continued, leaving her weaker and weaker, her consciousness fading.
After half an hour of receiving this torment, Cecile couldn't hold on to the last amount of vital energy, and it left her body.
The pillar disappeared and Cecile fell dead with a thump in the middle of the altar, with no breath, pulse, or energy.
Cecile was dead.