Awakening of the Ancient: Rise of the Fallen

"I don't see any light in my future except one." Xu Ming said in a melancholic tone as he remembered his father and grandfather. All he had now was his mother.

"Hah, You can't fool me. You are indeed special. You even managed to attract Elder Wu towards you." She said with a smile.

"Whatever." Xu Ming simply replied. He didn't want the conversation to keep going on.

He closed his eyes and started ignoring her.

She tried getting him to talk, but he didn't give any attention to her this time.

He stayed there for 2 hours before he finally opened his eyes. He started swimming towards the shore.

The girl was still enjoying her time inside the water when she noticed Xu Ming leave. She also started going after him.

Xu Ming got out of the water and got dressed before he left. The girl came out after she noticed that he had left. She wore her clothes and ran after him.

He got to his new residence.

"Hey, why are you still following me?" He asked.

"I'm not following you. That's my courtyard." She said as she pointed towards a courtyard.

Surprisingly, her courtyard was right beside his.

Xu Ming didn't reply, and simply entered his courtyard and closed the door.

"Hahaha... it's so fun to tease him." The girl chuckled as she left and entered her courtyard.

Xu Ming was seeing an Outer Disciple's courtyard for the first time and he was quite surprised at how beautiful it was.

It was so much bigger than the hut inside which he spent his year. And it was all for him.

He found the bedroom after looking around for a bit and fell onto his bed. He immediately fell asleep.

Although he had a different place to live, his dream was still the same.

A young boy, sitting in darkness with no expression on his face.

The boy had a small stone in his hand and he was drawing something in the ground.

Xu Ming was quite curious as to what this man would draw. He placed all good focus on the drawing.

At first, it was just random lives, but with time, the lines changed into a proper drawing.

It seemed like he had drawn a beautiful Phoenix. Xu Ming was somewhat surprised as he saw the carving of the Phoenix.

Although it was just a carving made on the stone using a stone, it looked so life-like. What actually shocked him was that the phoenix resembled someone he had seen before.

It looked a little like Lexi, his father's Ice Phoenix. 

He could feel some light shine through the blank eyes of the man as he finished the carving.

A tear fell from his eyes on top of the carving of the phoenix.

As the tear of the boy fell on top of the carving he made, it started shining in bright light.

The brightly shining carving came out of the stone and took the form of the real phoenix, though the phoenix that appeared was only the size of his palm.

The Phoenix had a skin that seemed similar to a beautiful Ice crystal.

It started circling around the boy in excitement as if it was thanking the boy for bringing her into existence.

The boy's blank eyes gained a clear focus as he finally saw another living being.

He didn't think about how it came to existence, all he cared about was that he wasn't alone anymore.

He raised his hand and the small Ice Phoenix came to his hand and sat on it.

A smile appeared on the boy's face as he saw the cute ice phoenix.

Xu Ming didn't know why, but as he saw the smile on the man's face, there was a sense of relief in his heart. He was feeling happy himself, as he saw the happiness of the boy.

"Are you... alone as... well?" The boy asked as he stuttered.

The ice phoenix probably didn't understand what he was saying as it looked at him confused.

"You... can't talk?" He asked further.

The ice phoenix just let out a few strange noises.

"It's... alright. You're... not... alone." The boy smiled as he said.

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Far away from Xu Ming and the Mortal world, there existed a beautiful land.

The land was covered in snow and surrounded by water.

There were beautiful ancient buildings in the place. All these buildings seemed like they were made from the purest of ice.

A 50 meters long Ice Phoenix came flying and landed in front of an Ice Palace.

The Phoenix turned smaller and took a humanoid form.

She entered the Ice Palace.

As she entered a Hall inside the palace, she was greeted by quite a few women. They all had beautiful skin and none of them looked older than 30.

A woman was sitting on the throne. 

"Estel, you're here," The woman on the throne said with a smile as she noticed the girl.

"Mother, I've told you before, my name is Lexi now." The girl bowed down to the woman on the throne as she said.

The woman on the throne was the Queen of all the Ice Phoenix.

"Hmm, If you like Lexi more, then you can keep that name. Come take a seat." The Queen said with a smile.

Lexi walked closer to the Queen and sat on the seat that was near her.

"Alright. Let's be..." 

Before the queen could finish her words, a frown appeared on her face as she stopped.

"What is happening mother?" Lexi asked with concern.

"Something strange is happening. You know that all the Ice Phoenix have a link to the Queen, right?" The Queen said in a serious tone.

"Yup. What about it?" Lexi asked.

"A new link was established just now." 

"Oh? Is a new Ice Phoenix born in our land?" Lexi said with a smile.

"Not here. Although the link is established with me, there seems to be some force that is stopping me from tracking its location. I'm pretty sure that it's not here though." The Queen exclaimed.

There were shocked gasps all around. What the queen stood wasn't a normal matter.

"How can an Ice Phoenix be born someplace else? That's impossible!" Someone in the hall said.

"It has happened. Even I'm not sure how it can happen." The Queen said with a frown.