The Sorceress: Blossoming Power

A blue-haired woman wearing soiled and blood-stained clothes stood in the middle of a deep crater on a vast land that once was a forest. Beside her was a worn-out dragon with a lion's head puffing out air from his nose, attempting to stand but the woman laid her hand on the dragon's head, making the creature ceased his efforts.

Men wearing furrowed brows and grim face carried their swords and weapons as they approached the upper ground and stared down at her. The smell of freshly butchered flesh and blood assailed their nostrils as they watched her in the middle of animal and human 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, 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 whom 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 magical sword instinctively on time and retracted the deathly streak of light and continued to run. The armored men panicked but a man beside the mages lifted his sword and killed them in one blow.

Suddenly, the dragon and the Sorceress appearance thinned down. The caped man jumped down while lifting his sword with a shining rosy red stone. "No, I won't allow you," he said and bolted like a mad dog to stop the Sorceress, but he was too late... He extended his hand to grab her but touched air as if she was an apparition slipping. The last he saw of her was her crying face.

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

----- o -----

Two centuries later.

As dusk took over in Fengfu City, a masked man sprinted to reach a mansion. At this moment, a glaring light covered the garden in the Xian Mansion on the Evergreen Hills. Then an end of a rainbow fell on the snowy white ground.

The newlywed Xian couple ran from the house to witness a shining white bundle slid down from the rainbow's trail. And the light vanished 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 the child's origin.. but nodded after seeing his wife lovingly kissed the baby's cheek. This scene made him smile and at peace.

"Fine. She will be called 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 third birthday, Lady Xian got ill with no clear reason. Doctors said she got sick because of the wild animals staying in their garden. Thus, Lord Xian drove the animals away, saddening Xinyi. Yet, Lady Xian was not healed and grew weak every day.

Days went to a year of sickness, and on Xinyi's fourth year, Lady Xian died but they kept it from the child. As they buried her outside her courtyard, Xinyi escaped from her guards and wailed in front the mound of soil with the markings, 'my beloved Xian Ai' written on it. As Xinyi cried, mist engulfed the mound and frightened Xian Lang and others. When it cleared, they saw a huge tree with golden flowers stood on the grave.

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 possessed by demons...

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.