original

The Sorceress: Blossoming Power

Tác giả: JoanB

Chương 1: Prologue

A blue-haired woman wearing soiled and blood-stained clothes stood in the middle of a deep fissure on a vast land that once was a forest. A worn-out dragon with a lion's head lay beside her as it blew out air from his nose and attempted to stand up, but the woman laid her hand on the dragon's head, making the creature cease his efforts.

Men wearing furrowed brows and grim faces carried their swords and various kinds of weapons as they approached the upper ground and looked down at her. The smell of flesh and blood assailed their nostrils as they watched her stand in the middle of animal corpses.

A well-built man bearing his full armor and a red cape stepped in front of everyone and yelled, "Sorceress, just give up. This is your last chance to surrender. You have nowhere to go."

"I have told you several times, even if I die, no one would get my power but only the chosen descendants. The Chiangda's powers are not something taken by force. All of your efforts are pointless," the Sorceress replied.

"But we can let you live if you submit to me. Remember, we're already engaged. I'm willing to take you as my wife and protect you," said the man with sincerity. The men behind him murmured, but the caped man raised a hand and silenced them.

The Sorceress looked at the caped man with sadness and longing in her eyes and chanted. "Time of life, hear my call, send my powers to those worthy to carry this torch… Creator of life, take my life as an offering to bring back balance to this world."

While she started chanting the caped man was uneasy, but when she said the second sentence... "What are you doing? No!!!" and turned to the two chained men holding a staff. "Stop her, mages!" The two raised their staff, but they faced the man instead and shouted. "No, you can't have our sister. Die." The mages gave up their last life essences and lightning fell as straight as an arrow at the caped man, but he lifted his sword instinctively on time and retracted the hit and continued to run.

The armored men panicked, but a man beside the mages lifted his sword and killed them in one blow. All of a sudden, blinding lights engulfed the dragon and the Sorceress. The caped man jumped down and lifted his sword with a shining rosy red stone toward the vanishing woman. "No, I won't allow you," he said and bolted like a mad dog just to stop the Sorceress, but he was too late... He stood in an empty space.

His feet gave way and knelt on where she last stood. "Why? Why did you die than to be with me?" He clenched his fist, tilted his head, and screamed, "Why?!?"

----- o -----

Two centuries later.

As dusk took over in Fengfu City. A masked man ran at a speed of light to reach a mansion. At this moment, a blinding light covered the garden as dusk fell in the Xian Mansion on the Evergreen Hills. Suddenly, the light transformed to the other end of a rainbow falling on the snowy white garden. The newly wed Xian couple ran out from the house to witness a shining white bundle slid down from the rainbow's trail. Then, the light extinguished as fast as it came and the night became still.

The husband knelt beside the bundle and opened it. There, he saw a baby girl with black hair sucking her thumb fast asleep. Lady Xian Ai took the baby and saw a name written on her cloth, Xinyi. She looked at Lord Xian with pleading eyes. The husband was unsure because they didn't know of the child's origin.. but nodded after seeing his wife lovingly kiss the baby's cheek.

"Fine. Her name will be Xian Xinyi from now on," said Lord Xian Lang. The masked man, who hid behind trees, heard them and heaved a sigh of relief to hear the baby was safe and left.

Xian Xinyi grew as a bouncy and jolly baby. And the most unusual thing was animals gathered around her wherever she went. They suspected something, but they did not utter a word. Anyway, there was nothing else they had seen to bother their minds with.

She brought joy to the couple, but after her fourth birthday, Lady Xian got ill for no apparent reason. Doctors said she got sick because of the wild animals staying in their garden. Thus, Lord Xian drove away from the animals, saddening Xinyi. Yet Lady Xian grew weak every day.

Days went to a year of sickness, and on Xinyi's fourth year with them, Lady Xian died, but they kept it from the child. As they buried her outside her courtyard, Xinyi escaped from the guards and wailed in front of the mound of soil with the grave markings, 'my beloved Xian Ai' written on it. As Xinyi cried, light engulfed the mound in a second. When it died down, they saw an immense tree with golden flowers standing on the mound.

With this, Lord Xian understood what kind of child she was. Xinyi was a Chiangda, a person with magical ability and hunted by an influential sacred organization declaring that human beings of such sort were demon-possessed.

He sent Xinyi to a place far from people with a woman name Xian Yan. Later he remarried and became the prime minister of Youshi nation.