Rising Phoenix

While Grandfather Yan committed suicide, Ning Yi stood outside the Ancestral Temple, his expressionless face illuminated only by the flickering of torches. As miserable cries rose up from inside the broken ruins, amid the silence of the guards around him, Ning Yi smiled.

“Heaven? Heaven is with me!”

Then he turned away, leaving the miserable weeping of the Yan Family behind.

“If anything happens to her, all of you will accompany her to her grave!”

The fury of a lord could overturn heaven and earth, and the struggle of the weak could only ever be feeble and futile. Three days later, the people returned from the neighboring county and took in the ruins of the magnificent temple. All of them were welcomed back by the rumor that the Yan Family had been destroyed by the will of heaven for their crimes: running roughshod over their innocent grandson, bullying commoners, and acting perversely until finally the earth cracked beneath the foundations of the temple.

The superstitious commoners readily accepted this explanation, and even if they did not believe, no one could prove otherwise. The South Sea province had many recorded incidences of the earth shattering, and as long as there was no proof that a natural disaster was caused by man, the commoners would never be able to cause trouble. Some of the villager’s houses had also been destroyed, and the local government was quick to offer the most abundant compensation in recorded history, so the villagers just quietly moved to new houses, hiding inside and counting their silver.

With a turn of his hand, Ning Yi had destroyed the Yan Family’s spiritual pillar, opening up a vacuum for Yan Huaishi to step into. As Prince Chu’s three thousand heavily armed guards watched, the entire Yan Family could only silently accede to Yan Huaishi’s rise to interim Family Head, and they could do nothing as Yan Huaishi replaced all the elders, pulling all power and wealth into his hands. The explosion underneath their Ancestral Temple that had sent their sacred palace into ruins had completely destroyed all sentiment of resistance. Although all of them understood that their temple had not been struck by natural disaster, they could only yield to Ning Yi’s vicious cruelty.

When the Yan Family choose to submit, Ning Yi became certain that the Chang Family had not been able to penetrate into the Yan Family, otherwise with such backing, the Yan Family would not have given up so easily. So, after decisively handling the Yan Family, Ning Yi immediately turned to investigating the hidden forces of the Chang Family.

As he interrogated the captures spies, Ning Yi secretly sealed the city gates. Before the investigation had any success, he had already ordered his men to spread rumors that some of the spies had broken. His disguised guards quickly captured several groups of Shangguan and Huang Family people trying to escape, and soon after contraband was discovered in the Shang Guan Family’s overseas trade ship and a young master of the Huang Family’s direct line was revealed to be involved in bribery and corruption. Suddenly, the two great families were in dire straits.

Of course the Shangguan Family and Huang Family did not wish to be destroyed, and they both reached out to the Chen Family and Li Family for an alliance, but that was when Ning Yi had Zhou Xizhong announce Yan Huaishi and the Chen and Li Family heads as Director and Vice Directors of the Department of General Maritime Affairs. The resistance was snuffed in its cradle and the Shangguan and Huang Family were isolated.

Through the Shangguan and Huang Family connection, many corrupt officials in the South Sea government were discovered, and tyrant Zhou Xizhong took the opportunity to clean house, expelling all officials related to the Chang Family. In various manners, these officials were dispatched, removed, or otherwise handled, and Ning Yi finally turned his focus to the main Chang Family.

As soon as the Imperial Envoy had arrived in South Sea, all direct line Chang Family members had left their mansion in Feng Zhou City, leaving only a skeleton crew of servants to take care of the mansion. But Ning Yi was certain that the Chang Family had left people to take charge of their offensive inside Feng Zhou City.

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As soon as they had arrived, Feng Zhiwei had dispatched men to monitor the Chang Mansion. After capturing the spies, Ning Yi had not consigned all of them to interrogation. He had chosen some for torture, and after allowing several to die, he had intentionally given two of the spies the opportunity to escape. The two spies had thought themselves able to escape through their own strength and cunning, but little did they know that Ning Yi had men trailing them to their superiors. Soon, new leads were discovered and another large group of Chang Family forces were unearthed.

Over this short span of time, in the wealthy households and the lofty halls of the government, from the Yan Family to the Chang Family, a quiet, ferocious raid swept through the doors. The commoners had no idea what was happening around them, and everyone else was living their normal lives, but out of view, heaven and earth was being overturned in the matter of minutes. Everyone in power knew what was happening, but they could only watch in a stunned daze as Ning Yi swept through their province.

They were all shocked by His Highness’s true face — as he quickly plowed set up foundation in South Sea, everyone could see that Ning Yi only ever won the greatest successes at the most opportune times. All South Sea officials thought Ning Yi cruel! The Imperial Envoy was lingering on the edge of death, and though Prince Chu seemed to have a great friendship with Master Wei, he had not returned to the West Yard to visit Master Wei for the past three days and nights!

Finally, after finally settling his business, Ning Yi returned to the yard.

Though South Sea had been stabilized for now, Ning Yi showed no happiness; he had only moved as Feng Zhiwei had planned to, and now that she lay in bed with severe illness, Ning Yi thought that putting her plans into action was better than anxiously waiting by her bed. When she woke she could focus on healing, and finally he could focus on waiting for her to wake.

Everyone was waiting for her to wake.

Gu Nanyi lay on the rooftop all day amidst the lingering scent of herbal medication. He gently played his leaf flute morning and night, as if by playing he could ward off the terrifying separation. From time to time he would disappear and return with strange, weird things and force Feng Zhiwei to eat. Ning Yi never stopped him, for at this point he was a drowning man clutching at straw, willing to try anything.

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Yan Huaishi and his wife stayed by Feng Zhiwei’s bed and refused to budge, and though the Qing Ming students had been kicked out of West Yard by Ning Yi, they wandered around the courtyard gates like a roving group of ghosts.

Helian Zheng and Yao Yangyu had triumphantly returned and were just about to gleefully report how they had conquered the granary guarding officials when they heard the news. If it were not for the other students holding him back, Helian Zheng might have started slaughtered a string of Yan Family people right then and there.

Countless people were racking their minds for any possible cure, and a fortune was spent on medicine to slow Feng Zhiwei’s death. All the physicians agreed that this illness was incredibly aggressive and that most patients never made it past 24 hours. They did not understand why, but something special inside Feng Zhiwei’s body was holding back the sickness, but she was still dying, growing weaker and weaker day by day.

Everyone was contacting any famous physician they knew. Helian Zheng had even sent one of his valiants back to the steppes to bring back the Grand Witch Doctor from the King’s Court, but not even Dijing’s Grand Physician could make the trip in time.

Gu Nanyi headed out everyday, and whenever he returned everyone avoids him lest they be squeezed to dust like the walnuts in his hands.