Faithful Heart (Flesh of my Flesh...Blood of my Blood 2)

The Crossroads of Destiny - Prt 1

Author's note: I want to thank all my readers and everyone who has liked and left comments. I read them all even if I have not gotten back to each and everyone. Thank you so much. I wrote the ending and waited to post it all in one go. I hope you have liked this story and are left with a warm happy glow that our couple will be together forever.

All my love.

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The celebration in the Fox Palace had been outstanding. Fireworks had lit up the night sky after the fire lighting ceremony for her Uncle and Daiyu forming various animal shapes. There had been much food and dancing long into the night. Gun Gun had stayed with the nursemaids at the Fox Palace and Donghua had indulged Feng Jiu to stay as late as possible until sleep had won the best of her.

They had arranged a performance dance with swords for the fourth day of celebration, with all the clans sending their best artist, held outside in one of the open-air amphitheaters. Feng Jiu sat on a large dais with Donghua to her right and her sleeping son in her arms. Gun Gun had exhausted himself playing and crawling all over the grass with the other children in the nursery until he had finally started to cry as he grew tired. Feng Jiu had picked him up and finding Donghua had set out to see the performance dance.

Immortal Royalty from all the realms crowded in the large amphitheatre setting in stack rows and they greeted Donghua in awe as he ascended the steps with Feng Jiu at his heels towards the topmost seat. Once everyone had taken their seats, the sound of beating drums filled the air and rows of performing artist walked into the stage with their swords ready to dance. Feng Jiu watched in raptures as they twirled light as a feather in perfect sync in a demanding rhythm that she was sure would leave them with their lungs burning.

At the end of the dance a great cheer arose from the crowd and Feng Jiu tried to clap but failed with her sleeping son in her arms. After a brief interlude with a few dancing girls, the stage was once again set but this time for a lone performer. A guzheng was brought to the stage and a man sat by it while a woman dressed in red silks, her face covered by a golden filigree mask, and a sword in her hand walked to the center.

The audience grew quiet in expectation and the first haunting tunes were plucked out of the guzheng by the and the artist moved fluidly, her sword an extension of her hand. In tune with the slow music, she softly slid her feet through the ground twisting and holding positions that made Feng Jiu winced. Donghua shifted in his seat, and he eyes bored into the dancer drawing Feng Jiu's attention, he had almost been bored before.

"Is something wrong?" Feng Jiu whispered as she leaned into him, but he did not answer.

It was in that split second, when Feng Jiu took her eyes off the sword dancer, that the sharp sound of steel cutting through air whistled in the stage. Donghua's Cang He materialized out of thin air, and he cut the dagger in two where it clattered to the ground. A gasp rose in the audience as the Tiangan Shield pulsed to life around Feng Jiu and her son.

"Foul, deceitful beast," Donghua growled low in his throat as a dark cloud engulf the sword dancer only to dissipate and reveal Miou Lou.

"Wasn't that a great performance, Donghua?" Miao Lou asked as the man playing the guzheng was revealed to be Nye Chuyin.

"What have you done with the artist?" Donghua asked.

Feng Jiu watched as soldiers started to pour into the stage and many nobles summoned their swords. Her First Uncle, Bai Xuan was suddenly at her side, his sword in hand.

"Is that all you have to asked me?" Miao Lou asked, disappointment plain in her voice. "All this work and you are worried over two dead performers."

Thousands of years of work and Miao Lou had broken free of his seal in the worst moment. Bai Shui mountain had almost killed him and yet here she was standing before him, free of her shackles. Had she destroyed the sacred tree? Was the mountain now a flat plain?