在霜铁村的锻炉中,十七岁的莉雅握着生锈的钳子,将发光的剑刃置于火焰之上.火焰在她掌中异常地舞动——舔舐她的皮肤,形成绽放的莲花形状,然后化为灰烬.
"那个残废的怪物又在玩弄火花!"孩子们的嘲笑声透过窗户传来.她猛地缩回手.一颗飞火炙焦了干草垫,烧出了一只烧焦的凤凰符文.这是本周的第十三个标记.自从她在废弃的矿井里找到那块破裂的红玉之后,这些不祥的图案就一直缠绕着她.
午夜的尖叫打破了宁静.莉雅拉冲到外面,发现天空被磷光火焰染成毒绿色.三百名玉蛇宗的 Cultivators 悬浮在骨剑上,他们的领袖——穿着青色长袍的女人——挥了挥手腕.王叔叔的肉融化得像灯膏一样,暴露出他脊柱上的扭曲诅咒."凤凰 scum 隐藏得很好,"女人轻声说道.
莉雅拉的背部撞击在铁砧上.她口袋里的玉燃烧起来.一个充满硫磺气味的声音在她脑海中回响: "用血喂养火焰...否则就化为灰烬."
她咬破舌头,将鲜红的血液涂抹在石头上.
锻造坊爆炸了.
The blast wave hurled Liara to the ground. She blinked through swirling ash to find golden-red veins pulsing beneath her skin—living filaments hissing through her bloodstream.
"Seize her! Extract the Phoenix Codex even if we have to boil her bones!" The cyan-robed woman's shriek cut through smoke. Thirty bone swords lunged, only to melt into molten slurry three feet from Liara.
"Run!" the brimstone voice roared.
She sprinted toward the cliff behind the village, each step searing footprints into charred earth. Jade Serpent cultivators rained down curses: ice spears vaporized at her hairline, poison mist twisted into heat vortices. At the precipice, she finally saw the crimson jade had transformed into a palm-sized firebird gnawing on her bleeding fingertips.
"Jump." The bird spoke.
Liara glanced back—Auntie Wang's skeletal remains hung from silver threads, hollow sockets fixed on her. She leapt into the abyss.
The firebird swelled into a blazing raptor with wingspan stretching thirty yards. Liara gripped its tail feathers as talons screeched against canyon walls. Above, cultivators formed a thunder array, green lightning weaving a net.
"Speak my true name," the phoenix's voice bled her eardrums, "Ember Abyss."
The world went black when she uttered it.
Magma geysered from fissures, crystallizing into crimson swords midair. Liara raised her hand, and the blades froze like a murder of crows before diving toward their masters. Amid screams, the cyan-robed woman shattered a jade talisman, vanishing in smoke.
"Fool!" Ember Abyss suddenly folded its wings, nearly dislodging Liara. "You've roused the Watchers of Nine Hells."
Chains snapped far below. Six scabbed hands clawed through stone, revealing the half-rotten face of Eclipse Demon Lord—a fallen immortal sealed by Phoenix ancestors.
"Fresh... bloodline..." The demon's lone eye fixated on Liara, pale arms sprouting from decaying flesh. Ember Abyss shrieked, flames shifting from crimson to azure as it accelerated. Liara clung to its smoldering neck, feeling her skin crackle.
When they breached the clouds, moonlight stabbed her eyes like silver needles. Her wounds knitted themselves, a phoenix brand glowing on her palm.
"Skyfall Academy's barrier..." Ember Abyss plunged abruptly. "Hold on!"
A golden net of runes engulfed them. Liara's last conscious sensations were tolling bells and a boy's icy chuckle: "Another stowaway rat?"