The Sorceress: Blossoming Power

In Fengfu City, the weather and the skies went back to normal. A rain shower washed the lands that were in chaos. The sun took over the darkness. Relief filled the plants and the animals as the horn left the heavens. 

When the horn vanished, the Undead bodies limped and fell to the ground. Those who jumped out from their graves after being dead for years turned instantly to dust and blown away by the winds. One could breathe a refreshing air once again.

The people's hearts eased and thankful that everything went back to normal, although there were still the dead they had to bury, for good. Sadness was also in the countenance of those who lost their loved ones.

The Platanna people placed their dead comrades in the boat and covered them with the orange stones to bring them to their homeworld, to be buried by their waiting loved ones.

However, Ming, Xian Lang, and the rest were anxious about what happened to Xinyi. They asked Nianshi, Xionmao, Ah Lam, and the others who had a mind link with her for her situation and whereabouts. 

Nianshi only told them she and the horn were in her domain. And at the moment, they were in a battle, but in truth, his connection with her was cut off after the lightning struck her badly. He lied to assure them, but he was also frantic to hear from Alva.

As Xinyi brought the horn in her domain, an apparition of an old man appeared above it. His forehead wrinkled, his white beard reaching up to his chest, and seriously gritted his teeth with her intervention. He raised his hand and sent a bolt of black lightning toward Xinyi, who was also floating in front of him. Yet, the lightning didn't come out. He looked at his hand and wondered why his power did not work.

Xinyi told the old man that it was futile to do so here in her domain because she was in control of everything there. The old sneered at her and tried to attack multiple times, but nothing came out. Seeing his effort was useless, he asked what was in her on why she wasn't burned by his lightning when they were still outside her domain. 

She told the man that she also didn't know. The old man pointed to her ring and said there was something inside which absorbed his powers. Suddenly the formless beast came out and followed by the Hutyuns. There, she realized who protected her. 

She was thrilled to see the Hutyuns, who now doubled in numbers. But they were back to their black dot form. The Hutyuns flew toward her and became mini-animals again, which delighted her. In truth, the flashes of lightning awakened them. They mimicked the old man's lightning around her as not to alert the enemy of their presence. 

The old man then pointed at the formless beast while in tears, as if he knew the being. The beast also recognized and cried, looking at the weeping man. Coincidentally, the old man was the formless beast's creator. They ran and embraced each other as if their bodies touched, although the bearded guy was only a ghost now. It was an unexpected and wonderful reunion. 

Balmeron, the old man's name, was actually a great alchemist. He politely asked Xinyi to let him and the formless beast live in her domain. He also offered to help in her laboratory under the volcano. Xinyi allowed them. 

Prince Zelmer left Chiji after Lifen refused his offer of marriage and the title of Princess. But he promised to come back. He didn't leave empty-handed though, but with something to help Platanna. Balmeron gave him the unicorn horn to help his former world. 

The last and late Chief Guardian of Platanna was his good friend, including the dead unicorn king and Lady Seliah's matriarch. They had foreseen the death of their Kore and created a powerful spell to bring it back to life, but they needed the colored essence to be fired by the unicorn king with his horn. The Chief Guardian gave part of his colored essence for the cause and saved it in the unicorn's horn. This partly weakened him. 

Knowing Platanna Chief Guardian was a man astonished Xinyi. It was the first she heard of it.

With the need to find the other half of the colored essence, Balmeron created the formless beast who would locate and absorb the said essence and transfer it to the horn. But he did not plan the being to be formless. It was the result when the Lady Seliah's matriarch, Morlena, sabotaged his project.

Morlena asked them to give the credits to her so that she could marry the Cendarth King, the most powerful king in their time, who was now the late great grandfather of Prince Zelmer. However, the other three refused. They insisted to give to whom the work was due. This where the chaos began. She planned against the three to make her wish to come to fruition.

She falsely accused Balmeron of telling the king of their plans but taking all the fame to himself. The king of the unicorns got angry and attacked Balmeron, leading to his death while he was still making the most beautiful beast he wished. Before his last breath, he cursed the unicorns. The unicorn king didn't last the curse and died too, passing the colored essence in his horn to his son. Lady Seliah's unicorn was the grandson and inherited it.

Unknown to them, when Balmeron died, Morlena used the alchemist's notes for her own gain. 

She then made a spell to unleash the power of the curse and used it, thinking of forcing the Cendarth King to take her as his queen. But instead, she killed almost half of the population of Platanna. 

It was the last Chief Guardian who fought and stopped the onslaught. However, he had to use half of the power of the Kore and drained it. That explained their Kore's poor condition. 

The outcome could have been better and he could be alive if the powerful Platanna magic casters helped, but they let the Chief Guardian fight alone while they cowardly hid. They also had a malicious desire to see him die because he scolded the kings and powerful beings for abusing the Kore's power. The kings didn't allow any recording of this event because they were ashamed of their forefathers' sins.

From then on, there was no longer any Chief Guardian that was sent to Platanna.

Unknowingly, this last bout with Xinyi, the horn had absorbed part of her colored essence as well. Then absorbed by the formless beast while the horn attacked Xinyi, as he was designed for such a goal. In other words, the needed essence was now whole and in the formless beast. Balmeron had it transferred to the horn before Prince Zelmer left.

Balmeron instructed the prince to plunge the horn to the Kore and the colored essence would work its own to build the Kore back to life. For short, Platanna was saved and had no need for the power stones. 

Xinyi sent a message to Nianshi to tell Ming that she was fine, but she had to rest for a while inside her domain. The spring spirit had to heal her so that she could recover part of her colored essence. The portion that the horn absorbed. 

The old man explained that he never hoped to possess the sacrificed person as what Lady's Seliah's family had exaggerated to scare people from killing them after their matriarch died in the volcano, the capital punishment for the people's death.

Years after, the prince came back to Chiji as promised and returned power stones to where they belonged. This time, he relinquished his status as a prince but stood as Platanna's ambassador to Chiji. He also relentlessly courted Lifen. After nonstop pursuance, Lifen gave in and married the prince. It was a grand wedding, with the Cendarth King present from Platanna, who blessed and officiated their marriage.

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As for Xinyi and Ming, Xinyi found the tomb of her predecessor and wore the crown on her twentieth birthday. She then formed an enormous invincible net around Chiji. This way, no aliens could go into their world without her permission. 

She gave birth to four children, two boys, and two girls. She continued to practice her powers and revived the Chiangda ritual, strengthening the power chains and the Kore in no time. 

Xian Lang died of old age fifteen years after Xinyi got the crown. He refused to take the fruit Lifen gave him. He said he had seen his children got married, held his grandchildren, lived a good life, and preferred to die as nature dictated. 

With a desire to see her biological parents, Xinyi travelled back to Zeirean with the help of her uncle, but Ming declined from accompanying her to look after their children. But she arrived within a great war between powerful humans from other worlds who wanted to transfer there because their world was dying too. Yet, the Zeirean people refused. There, she worked with their world's Chief Guardian to save Zeirean as well and from finding the way to save the other world's Kore. 

They then understood that every world in the Alithea System was in the same state, dying. And they later found out that the Great King had died and no one had sat on the throne for years. 

In Vethilles, the people in the Great King's palace had kept this truth because they wanted the treasures and prestige for themselves. They didn't choose the next Great King with their evil greed in mind. This brought the world's chaotic situation with no Great King to govern them.

Xinyi traveled to every world and held a grand gathering with the Chief Guardians. With the help of her grandfather, the king of Cendarth, they were able to convince these powerful people to help in bringing the greedy people in Vethilles down, but after Xinyi had undergone different bouts of fights to show them her capabilities.

Along with the Chief Guardians from every world, they attacked Vethilles' Grand Palace in the middle of part snow and fire land. With Xinyi's multiple power bloodlines: the child of the greatest Sorcerer of Zeirean, the granddaughter of the most powerful King of Cendarth, the Chief Guardian of Chiji, she was the last standing person after the great coup d'état the Chief Guardians had made. Sadly, the rest died as martyrs. 

As a person possessing the rainbow soul, she was qualified to take the throne as the Great King, or Queen, but she rejected the offer. She had no other desire but to go back to Chiji after a long absence and to be with Ming and her children she missed so much. Thankfully, she had constant communication with them through Shijian.

Thus, she held a contest for those possessing the rainbow soul to choose the best candidate. The new Great King was a young man from Platanna who was silently living in a small village in the mountains. Xinyi was the one who discovered him when she visited the worlds, seeking those who had rainbow souls.

The person had undergone training while Xinyi sat on the Great King's throne until his crowning. Then she went back to Chiji and lived with Ming until their hairs became gray.

Author's Notes: Thank you for reading, supporting, encouraging me, voting, commenting, and giving reviews for the past year and two months. I designed this book to be a long one but sadly has to end now. I hoped you enjoyed the story of Xinyi, our blossoming Sorceress. I would really appreciate it if you leave a review. Thank you for everything.

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