Spirit Vessel

An ancient white carriage, that was around the corner, entered the street. The wheels grinded against the ancient street made from blue pebbles, creating a repetitive sound. The driver was an old man with a black veiled hat on his head.

“Master, the kid Feng Feiyun just left, will he make a move tonight or not?”

Zheng Dongliu lifted a part of his veil, revealing a pair of old eyes.

In the ancient carriage came a hoarse voice:

“Feng Feiyun has already started.”

“Has already started?”

Zheng Dongliu seemed quite puzzled and asked:

“But the five thousand city guards are not mobilized, what will he use to combat the Eagle Hawk gang?”

“His move is called 'during war, never stop deceiving,' the five thousand city guards were only a trick to fool San Ye. The true attack force is the one hundred and thirty six servants pushing the gift carriages. If I am not mistaken, these one hundred and thirty six servants were hand-picked from the absolute best of the city guards’ elites. They are the sharp knife aiming towards the heart of the Eagle Claw gang.”

The master responded. [1. A strategy in China. Literal translation would be War Never Tired Deceiving.]

Zheng Dongliu was still skeptical and asked:

“He wants to use one hundred people to kill the entire Eagle Claw gang? Is Feng Feiyun crazy or not?”

"He is not crazy at all, the one hundred and thirty six elites are only the vanguard. They serve as a knife to disrupt the Eagle Hawk gang, the other five thousand city guards would be the real force."

Zheng Dongliu became even more confused and said:

“But you just said that the five thousand city guards were only a trick to confuse San Ye; plus, they are still in the barracks outside of the city – they are simply not mobilized.”

“Heh heh, but Spirit State City has a total of ten thousand city guards, where did the other five thousand guards go?”

The master responded.

Having heard the remark, Zheng Dongliu’s heart suddenly jumped, and yelled:

“Replace the beams with rotten timbers!” [2. A strategy from Sun Tzu’s 36 stratagems.]

“Come! Feng Feiyun did not let me down. I would like to see if he could give me any more surprises.”

The master was a highly intelligent woman. Any actions from Feng Feiyun could not delude her eyes.

Zheng Dongliu controlled the ancient white carriage and slowly headed towards the Blood Eagle Mansion.

The Blood Eagle Mansion was located to the east of Spirit State City; it was made from piling up blue boulders, like a huge castle.

The thirty feet tall walls had towers and battle stations, just like an impregnable fortress; the defense was formidable.

If Feng Feiyun actually led five thousand city guards to attack the Blood Eagle Mansion, he most likely wouldn’t make it through the door before his entire troops were annihilated.

Now, the sun had set in the west mountains. The sunset was like a crimson flower on top of the peak outside of the city, illuminating the few last sun rays.

Feng Feiyun jumped down from the Crimson Tiger’s back and landed firmly on the ground. He squinted his eyes towards the front gate; the blood in his eyes started to flow, like many small rivers.

Gently inhaling the air, one could smell a pungent stench of blood.

The thick walls were engraved with ninety nine skeletons, each of them were hideous. If it was night time, this place would turn into a ghost castle — simply frightening.

Feng Feiyun took out two fingers and gestured in the air. His eyes became more focused, and mumbled:

“Clearly, this is the Soul Suppressing Blood Formation; San Ye is, indeed, truly capable!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, a group of giant red eagles flew out from the Blood Eagle Mansion. With feathers as red as fire, their beaks had a symbol on them and were stiff like steel pincers.

They numbered around one hundred with claws as big as the human hands; they flew straight out from the green wall towards the carriages led by Feng Feiyun.

“Whoosh Whoosh!”

The flapping wings of the blood eagles caused the wind to roar, it tore the air apart; they caught all one hundred servants carrying gifts, like an eagle catching a small chicken, and brought them all inside the Blood Eagle Mansion. Then, all of them disappeared behind the castle walls.

What was left was only Feng Feiyun and Housekeeper Liu, as well as the twenty eight large carriages.

This was clearly the first blow, it seemed like Feng Suiyu had passed the message to San Ye that I wanted to deal with him.

Then… Very good, this was all part of the plan.

Feiyun’s face still had a faint smile, and he laughed loudly:

“San Ye is a renowned person, is this the hospitality of San Ye?”

An old hoarse voice came out from the mansion, extraordinarily loud and far reaching:

“This was because of all of my naive animals, they didn’t know better and caught all of Young Master Feng’s servants; these beasts are too bold.”

San Ye’s voice reached to almost half of Spirit State City. His cultivation was really powerful, each of the sound waves turned into large sonic bells, heading towards Feng Feiyun.

It was like a crazy hurricane coming without restraints!

“Bang!”

Housekeeper Liu suddenly stood in front of Feiyun and knocked all of the sound waves away with one fist.

There was still a faint smile on Feiyun’s face. He naturally understood the ridicule in San Ye’s words, and replied:

“These animals are indeed very bold, San Ye must be very lax in your daily disciplining! It seems like I have to discipline them in place of San Ye.”

Feng Feiyun gave a small signal and Housekeeper Liu became a black shadow, flying away. Within the blink of an eye, he was already inside the Blood Eagle Mansion. Ordinary people wouldn’t have been able to see his shadow.

“Rumble!!”

A series of loud noises occurred as well as the screams of the eagles. A moment later, more than one hundred blood eagles became dead eagles; their carcasses were piled in one place.

Housekeeper Liu wiped the blood on his palms and stood in front of the Blood Eagle Mansion.

A long silence ensued!

An unknown amount of time had past, then the voice of San Ye resonated in the air once again:

“I had heard that Young Master Feng is different from the past; today, it seems like I have to look with a different pair of eyes. Boss Wu, don’t linger any longer, go bring the gifts from Young Master Feng in here.” [3. Look with a different pair of eyes is a saying from The Three Kingdoms, meaning a person had changed and can’t be judged with an old perspective.]

Boss Wu, who only had one hand, brought with him a group of muscular men wearing red belts and came out from the Blood Eagle Mansion; they coldly stared at Feng Feiyun, then grinned.

His right hand was dismembered by a single blade from Feng Feiyun; with great hatred and grievances in his heart, he was anxious to rip apart Feiyun’s muscles and flay his skin.

Naturally, Feiyun didn’t consider them worthy in his eyes, and let them bring the twenty eight carriages into the Blood Eagle Mansion while following them at the back of the line.

***

"Master, it seems like San Ye isn’t stupid, he had seen through the small tricks of Feng Feiyun; now with his one hundred and thirty six elites captured, what will Feng Feiyun do to defeat the enemy?"

Zheng Dongliu maneuvered the carriage to the small woods outside of the Blood Eagle Mansion and stared into the far distance.

His master was still comfortably sitting in the ancient carriage, and calmly said:

“Has Feng Feiyun entered the Blood Eagle Mansion?”

“He entered just now.”

Zheng Dongliu replied.

“Within three shi chen, the Eagle Claw gang’s name will be erased from Spirit State City.”

His master’s words were accompanied with a smile. [4. Shi chen = ancient chinese hours using the zodiacs, divided into twelve hours each day. One shi chen = two modern hours.]

“What?”

Zheng Dongliu considered himself a wise man, but the events unraveling in front of him made him feel like he was a fool. Right now, Feng Feiyun did not have a single soldier, how could he destroy the many thousand men of the Eagle Claw gang?

But this master seemed to have the same perspective as Feng Feiyun; any moves from Feng Feiyun were not concealed from her.

She lifted the curtain; her fingers were out in plain sight again. The five delicate fingers appeared to look like jade*, a white butterfly flew back and landed on her finger. Then, it became a strand of spirit energy and disappeared into her palm. [5. This is a chinese expression that is a lot more poetic, describing something looking like jade, but I didn’t want to inaccurately embellish the raw to make it more English friendly.]

The corner of her lips revealed a smirk, as if she had learned something. A pair of perfectly clear and beautiful eyes, filled with intelligence, looked towards the Blood Eagle Mansion located a few thousand meters away. She saw the blood qi from the grand yard begin to move; the magical runes shuttled back and forth, this was a formation created from spirit energy as well as blood.

Her finger made a small symbol; her pretty eyes squinted, then smiled:

“The Soul Suppressing Blood Formation, it seems like Feng Feiyun will be in big trouble this time.”

What was the Soul Suppressing Blood Formation?

Zheng Dongliu’s experience was vast throughout the years and could be considered to know quite a few things regarding the cultivation world, but he had never heard of the Soul Suppressing Blood Formation.

The master let the curtain down, then she held her red lute in her hands; the fingers gently flicked the strings, then came a beautiful voice:

“The Soul Suppressing Blood Formation is a forbidden formation from the Sen Luo Temple. Rumour has it that it requires ninety nine male virgins and ninety nine female virgins in order to create a complete formation. The engraved patterns of blood makes up the runes, and the white skeletons create the foundation.”

“Once the Soul Suppressing Blood Formation has been activated, it will wake up the Soul Eater Skeletal Beast from hell, and it will call on the Soul Suppressing Skeletal Sword; if god is in the way, slay god, if Buddha is in the way, slay Buddha. In the entire Grand Southern City, only three or five people could break this Soul Suppressing Blood Formation. Each of these few were all powerful giants, enough to frighten the four directions and eight spheres.”

Having heard the remarks, Zheng Dongliu’s expression greatly changed and exclaimed:

“Even a thousand year spirit beast from the 'Beast Taming Camp' wouldn’t necessarily be able to fight against a Soul Eater Skeletal Beast, let alone the spirit energy from the Soul Suppressing Skeletal Sword; this time, with Feng Feiyun rashly going into the Blood Eagle Mansion, he will surely be dead nine times out of ten.” [6. Original raw would be, ten parts nine dead.]

“Unfortunately, this Soul Suppressing Blood Formation is simply not completed. With San Ye’s cultivation, he had no chance of forming a real Soul Suppressing Blood Formation. This one is only a corner of the real formation. Even if the Soul Eater Skeletal Beast was to be awakened, its battle power is at most one percent of the real thing, not enough to cause fear.”

In this world, there didn’t seem to be anything that could be hidden from her eyes; wise and deep, akin to a grand sage traveling the mortal world.

***

When Feng Feiyun had stepped into the Blood Eagle Mansion; Feng Wanpeng, Feng Suiyu, and Strategist Ge were all standing on top of the castle wall, gazing towards the Blood Eagle Mansion.

Feng Suiyu secretly sneered in his mind: “Feng Feiyun ah, the Blood Eagle Mansion will be your grave. You probably didn’t know that I had already sent the news of your attack to San Ye. The moment you step inside the Blood Eagle Mansion is the moment where you jump head-first into a net- to seek your own death.” [7. Jumping head first into a net is another common Chinese expression.]

Strategist Ge gently swayed his feather fan and furrowed his brows:

"This child Feng Feiyun is too rash, how could he go alone into the Blood Eagle Mansion. Even with Housekeeper Liu’s protection, how will they resist the entire few thousands of gang members of the Eagle Claw gang? This chess move is such a failure!"

Feng Wanpeng’s face also became dignified: “Did I make a mistake? I simply shouldn’t have let him deal with the Eagle Claw gang. Ultimately, he is too young in age; plus, he hasn't cultivated. There is simply no way out from rushing into the Blood Eagle Mansion.”

Feng Wanpeng’s heart was filled with regrets. If San Ye was determined to kill Feng Feiyun, then, even he, wouldn’t be able to have the chance to save him. If Feng Feiyun truly died in there, then how could he be worthy of Feiyun’s mother’s exhortations?

Thinking of Feiyun’s mother, Feng Wanpeng tightly gripped his fists and shivered:

“Feiyun, you better not let me down!”