The swiftness and ferocity of Feng Jiu’er’s counterattack had caught all three of them off guard.
Her inner force was inferior to Long Feiyan’s — but her agility was no worse than anyone’s.
That backslash — so fast, so precise, so ruthless! Even someone as formidable as Long Feiyan was forced to release her and pull away.
The blade swept past, and the veil across Long Feiyan’s face floated gently down.
Feng Jiu’er felt that in another instant she would be able to see the other party’s face clearly — yet at the very moment the veil fell, a tremendous force pressed down upon her shoulder.
“Ungh…” Feng Jiu’er felt only a heavy weight upon her shoulder, then a searing pain spreading from her shoulder blade. The next moment, she was pressed face-down with a hand holding her shoulder firmly, pinned hard against the bed.
And her garments were torn apart with a rending sound, split in two.
“Release me!” Jiu’er felt a numbing sensation across her shoulder, and in an instant the strength drained from her entire body. She lay limply on the bed, unable to rise.
All she could do was speak — nothing else.
“Mistress…” Qing Ye stepped quickly forward, retrieved the pristine white veil from the floor, and presented it in both hands before Long Feiyan, so frightened she hardly dared draw breath.
This Feng Jiu’er, whose abilities were on an entirely different level from their mistress, had somehow managed to knock away their mistress’s veil. It was simply… inconceivable!
This young one’s reactions had exceeded everyone’s expectations. Even Long Feiyan herself, now looking at the daughter she had not seen in over ten years, had a trace of astonishment in her eyes.
More than ten years had passed. She had never been at her side to properly guide and nurture her — yet who could have imagined that her daughter would surpass even her own younger self in such a startling way.
Ha. Excellent. Worthy indeed of being her daughter.
“I only wished to see the treasure map on your body. If you insist on resisting, I can simply cut away that patch of skin and flesh directly. Do you… wish to spite me and try?”
The cold blade traced a chilling line across the skin of Feng Jiu’er’s lower back. Whether to gamble — was there even a need to deliberate?
At this moment, she was the fish on the chopping board, the blade poised above — she had no room to choose.
She said nothing. She simply closed her eyes, steadied her mind, and waited for an opportunity to break through the sealed acupoints with her inner force.
Long Feiyan’s gaze fell upon her lower back. After a long moment, she spoke. “Trace it.”
“Yes, Mistress.” Qing Zhi produced the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone that had been prepared beforehand. Qing Ye began to copy.
Feng Jiu’er, however, opened her eyes and looked at the figure Long Feiyan cast against the wall.
The veil had already been restored to her face. What a pity — a moment ago, she had nearly been able to see her face clearly.
In the past she had not cared. Yet now, she found herself peculiarly curious about this veiled Ladyship.
She seemed to know everything. Even with ruined legs, she appeared to hold all information under heaven in her grasp. She had even divined that Feng Jiu’er had come to this imperial palace with a purpose.
Who in the world was she? Feng Jiu’er desperately wanted to know.
Most unsettling of all — she dimly and persistently felt that this veiled Ladyship and herself… were closely connected.
Yet it couldn’t be. And she couldn’t even bring herself to pursue the thought — because if they were truly that closely connected, then why did it feel… as though they were adversaries?
“You know the secret of the Phoenix Girl — then tell me, do you also know who else, besides me, is a Phoenix Girl?”
Jiu’er was now truly like meat upon the chopping board, subject to whatever anyone wished to do with her. So she relaxed herself, and ceased to resist with her inner force.
In any case, if they wished to kill her, she had no means of escape whatsoever.
“I do not know.”
“What about Long Feiyan?” Feng Jiu’er tightened her grip on her own palms, trying to read the other party’s thoughts from the hands pressing down upon her back.
Yet the fingers resting on her body did not react in the slightest — as though the name Long Feiyan stirred not even the tiniest ripple within this person.
“Long Feiyan is not a Phoenix Girl.” Long Feiyan said flatly.
“How do you know? Have you seen Long Feiyan’s body, or…”
“Little thing — what are you trying to probe for?” Long Feiyan gave a soft smile. Her long fingers traveled slowly up along her back and came to rest at one side of her spine.
“You think I am that long-dead mother of yours?”
Feng Jiu’er clenched her palms tight, her breathing abruptly turning heavy — because she knew that where the veiled Ladyship’s long finger now rested was her fatal acupoint.
Should that one finger press down, her entire martial cultivation could very well be thoroughly and irrevocably destroyed.
She… truly was not Long Feiyan?
“Ungh…” A scorching heat spread across her lower back. Long Feiyan’s inner force poured into Feng Jiu’er, and the Phoenix Mark, which had only been faintly visible before, suddenly became starkly clear.
Feng Jiu’er could only bite down hard. Whether she wished to channel her inner force in resistance or not made no difference now — her Phoenix Mark had already surfaced.
The veiled Ladyship seemed extraordinarily familiar with the Phoenix Mark, and knew precisely how to make it emerge with clarity.
Still she lingered on that question, growing more curious with every passing moment — who, in the end, was the veiled Ladyship?
Was Long Feiyan truly not the Phoenix Girl? Yet then why was she herself one?
Feng Jiu’er had always believed that her identity as the Phoenix Girl had been passed down from Long Feiyan. But if Long Feiyan was not, then why was she?
That Phoenix Clan she had never heard of before — why had those people chosen to brand the treasure map onto her body? Why had they chosen her to be the Phoenix Girl?
Was it because of whose blood ran in her veins?
Yet her birth mother was Long Feiyan, and her father was Feng Junzhuo. If Long Feiyan was not, then was it connected to Feng Junzhuo?
The image of Feng Junzhuo drifted through Feng Jiu’er’s mind — and even Feng Jiu’er herself could not help but feel contempt for that father: a man who had accomplished nothing of worth and was eaten alive by greed.
It was impossible that it was because of him. Her identity as a Phoenix Girl bore absolutely no relation whatsoever to Feng Junzhuo — this she could say with certainty!
Then, why in the world was she the Phoenix Girl?
“Ah…” The inner force pressing down upon her lower back grew more and more scorching — like a flame igniting and burning right there at her waist.
Jiu’er bit her lip. Beads of sweat, large as soybeans, slid from her temples and fell one by one onto the bedding.
Long Feiyan looked on, as serene as ever, as though she felt not even a thread of the other party’s pain.
The confrontation between the two seemed gentle on the surface — yet beneath it, the air smelled thick with gunpowder. War seemed on the very verge of breaking out at any moment.
No one knew how much time had passed. Finally, Qing Ye finished tracing the treasure map.
She stood up and spread the treasure map before Long Feiyan. “Mistress, this terrain map — it seems somehow familiar.”
Long Feiyan said nothing. Her long finger slowly moved back to that spot on one side of Feng Jiu’er’s spine — the fatal acupoint.
The beads of sweat at Feng Jiu’er’s temples densely seeped forth again in another layer.
She drew a deep breath, gripping her palms tightly. “Who… are you?”
“Little thing — you guess.”
Long Feiyan gave a soft smile, motioning to Qing Ye to put the treasure map away.
She lowered her eyes, looking at Feng Jiu’er’s back. “If you still cannot guess, feel free to keep thinking carefully. I… will give you the chance.”
“You…” All at once, Feng Jiu’er’s eyes flew wide open.
From one side of her spine, at the acupoint, a searing agony surged forth in an instant. In nothing more than a single heartbeat, the agonizing pain swallowed her whole and utterly.