Fresh Embers of Love

Chapter 58

The Phoenix Tangyue drank the tea that his Mother had made for him, stoically enduring the frequent number of times that she kept putting her hand on his forehead, in order to check his temperature.

He wasn't sure why she was so worried. He was up and out of bed, he was dressed, he had eaten. He was past the point of extreme weakness that comes with the forty-ninth day of Nirvana.

He would understand her worry if it was a day or two earlier. After having spent 49 days in an incubator, being roasted alive by Jiu Yao Flame, he had been pretty weak. Now, however, he felt fine. Refreshed, and restored. Perhaps even more powerful than he had been before.

He wished he had had more warning that it was time for his Phoenix Nirvana. Uncle had hung around this place for over three weeks before bringing up the fact that 500 years had passed since the last time.

Tangyue had been chafing at the bit to get back to the Heavenly Realm this whole time. Nuwa must be losing her mind with worry. He had left a message with her Father that he had to go visit his family, but by this point she must think that he had abandoned her.

Tangyue thought that he and Uncle might head back today, but Uncle had left early this morning, saying he had an emergency, and to wait for him. Tangyue sighed. He was getting really tired of waiting for Uncle.

"Xu Feng! Xu Feng!" Uncle's voice carried to him across the river.

Uncle leapt across the river, and scurried over to the house, breathing very heavily. Father came out of the house, with a puzzled expression.

"Xu Feng! I just found out... Runyu... he's acting crazy again!" Uncle told them while trying to catch his breath.

Father frowned. "What do you mean, Uncle?" he asked.

Uncle shook his head, still breathing heavy. "He just stripped the Empress of her crown! His daughter has been missing for months, no one has seen her! He sent soldiers to the Flower Realm to arrest people, and he's rounding up people in the Heavenly Realm! My people say that Kuanglu has been living with him. She must be influencing him to eliminate any threats to her son getting the throne!" Uncle declared dramatically.

Tangyue felt like the wind had been knocked out of him.

"Nuwa is missing?" he whispered, feeling the blood drain out of his head. He sat back in his chair, his strength gone.

Father looked at him with concern.

"Xu Feng, we have to get Tangyue out of here!" Uncle declared. "He's a threat to Fuzangloong taking the throne!"

"Tangyue doesn't want the throne" Father pointed out.

"Did YOU?" Uncle asked. "Do you really think it matters to a man like Runyu whether or not Tangyue wants it? His OWN daughter, Xu Feng! He's kidnapped his OWN daughter!"

Father frowned.

"We have to rescue her!" Tangyue said, jumping out of his seat.

"No one has seen her! No one knows where she is!" Uncle exclaimed.

He fluffed his robes around himself, blowing air out of his lungs. "It's so warm today" he commented.

Something flew out of his pocket, landing a meter away. Tangyue looked at it curiously. He went to pick it up.

"Uncle, why do you have this coin?" Tangyue asked, holding it up between thumb and forefinger.

"Oh, hey! I forgot about that!" Uncle exclaimed. "The last time we were at Qiwu Palace, I saw that coin underneath the Phoenix Flower Tree. I was going to ask you why you put it there, but then I forgot about it, because we were packing. These must be the same robes I wore that day."

"QingWa Sheng" Tangyue said thoughtfully.

"What's that?" Uncle asked loudly.

"If I were the Emperor, and I wanted to secretly imprison my own daughter, what better place than the base of my own secret army?" Tangyue asked. "She's got to be at Dongting Lake!" he exclaimed.

He shook his head. "I can't believe Qintian is allowing this, but that frog she married seems to have a strange amount of control over her" he lamented.

"Let's go get her out of there!" Uncle proposed.

"Absolutely not!" Mother said, putting her foot down. "It's too dangerous! You will not fight an army, under water, for the sake of a girl. I don't care how pretty she is! No!"

Tangyue looked at his Mother in alarm.

"If we use our brains, we won't need to fight at all" Uncle told her. "Jinmi, my dear, we could really use your help the most of all."

Father looked at her. "It's our niece" he said emphatically.

Mother looked like she was struggling to say no, but then finally nodded grudgingly. The four of them bent their heads together, coming up with a rescue plan for Nuwa, while the servants packed up the house, getting ready to leave this place behind.