The dragon and phoenix fate twins

Chapter 1 The End and the Beginning (Part 1)

Inside the wast forest that lies behind the royal palace of the Emblem kingdom, things are not so peaceful. Right there there is a woman who is dressed as a man carrying a woman that has a big slash wound from a sword on her chest. They are the twin sisters of the Cui family, Zan Cui, and Fei Cui. They are being chased by royal guards who want to kill them. Zan Cui runs with all her might with a cold yet desperate facial excretion. She knows that she is just delaying the inevitable but she still runs. She doesn't want to give up, why should they suffer under other hands? They have never done anything wrong, yet they are the ones punished. She is filled with regret. She should not have obeyed the Cui family even though she knew that they despised her. She should have abandoned them together with her uncle and sister and lived a peaceful life without them. She should have done everything in her power to see her sister and not believe that she married the second prince and then abandoned her. She should have trusted her sister more. Believe that her sister loves her, apologise to her. But now it is too late, all that is left is to run until they catch her.

That is when notices a cave, a cave that she recognizes, It is hidden behind tree roots and few know that it is there. If she hurries and runs in now, the guards will not see her running in and it will take a while before they find her. So she dashes for it and hides inside the cave. This place is dark with only a little light coming in from a few tiny holes at the top. It is only enough for her to see silhouettes. She puts her sister down in a place with a lot of soft moss. She then rips her clothes and tries to use it to stop her sister's bleeding. She looks very serious as she holds in tears. Fei Cui opan her eyes not seeing anything but knowing that it is her sister in front of her. She can sense her sister's distress. She has long lost her sense of pain, but she knows that she doesn't have long left to live. 

Fei Cui whispers gently: " Sister, don't worry. I may die soon but I have no regrets in taking the blow for you."

Zan Cui whispers hoarsely: "Don't say that, I won't let you die, I won't."

 Fei Cui: " There is no use, I know that I don't have much time left."

Zan Cui: " No, no, no, no, don't you dare give up."

Fei Cui smiles gently: " I'm sorry and I love you." 

After she said that she took her last breath and died peacefully. Zan Cui's tears finally came down like a waterfall. She is angry and wrong but most of all sad. She has lost the only 2 peapole that have loved her on the same day. First, it was her uncle, but before she had the chance to grieve him she was next but her sister blocked the blow for her. She did not have time to think before she picked her up and ran with all her might. She hates the Cui family, she hates her sister's husband the second prince. They are both responsible for this and yet they live happily. They were the ones who plotted against the crown prince yet they were the ones who were accused of that crime. She hates them with all her might, but she knows that if she could redo it all she would not seek revenge. What she wants is a happy life for herself and her loved ones and not the sad and bloody path of revenge. That is when she remembered the treasure that she had come to possess 5 years ago. No one knew that she had it and she has always kept it on her. She has kept it around her neck, hiding it under her clothes. She takes it out and what is in her hand is a Jade pendant. The pendant is circular with a hole in the middle, its color a clear white and on it there are faint carvings of a dragon and 6 orbs. It is so faint that you can only see it if you look closely. 

She has stumbled upon it by luck, or more accurately it should be called finding something good during a misfortune. She was 16 at the time Her elder brother brought her into the large forest near their summer place. It was due to a fit of anger, he had lost a bet with some powerful merchant's son and he was furious. So when he saw her, he decided to let out some steam. So he threw her into the forest has a lot of beasts. Although none of them were magical beasts, at the time, normal beasts should easily kill her. But that is not all he told her that she was not allowed back for 3 days and during that time he would chase her with a bow and arrow. And if she was hit by one of them he would sell her to that merchant's son as a slave. So that he would not need to use 35000 Ruby coins. He smiled with glee and told her that he would give her 1-hour head start. Many saw this but none cared, she is after all raised to be her brother's servant and plaything. Whatever he did to her, was within his rights. So no servent cared to report it. Nor would anyone care if they did. The only ones who cared were her twin sister and uncle, but her twin sister had moved into the royal palace a year ago, and she had not seen her since. Her uncle on the other hand was punished for helping her another time. He was sent on a mission to retrieve a special medical herb so he was not currently available.

So all she could do was run and hide, hoping that he would never find her. It was during that time she fell when running after she had almost been shot down. She was ducking away from the arrow and tripped over a large tree root. Then she accidentally entered an ancient array and was no longer inside the forest. Instead, she was inside what looked to be a mining complex. There were many paths to take and she could not go back from where she came. Even if she could she would not do it, because she knew what awaited her. She chooses a path randomly, then she takes another path then another. She realized that this place was like a maze and walking aimlessly could mean that she was walking around circles without knowing. But she had no idea which path was the correct one so she decided to mark the walls to know where she was previously. Luckily she has a piece of cole on her, that she used instead of a brush. Because she was never allowed to own one personally, so she took one from the kitchen without anyone knowing. She has been using it to practice writing in secret since. Back then she would never have thought that she would use it to mark her location. Truly, keeping things on her for safekeeping is a good idea even if it is just a piece of cole. So she marked the walls and continued walking. She walked for hours, but she was very patient. Even though her legs and feet hurt she never stopped.

That was when she entered a huge room inside the cave. This place was not only different because it was large but also because the walls and ceiling were covered with murals and it was lit up by a giant crystal-like structure in the ceiling. She looked at it and was very surprised, that crystal was actually a large piece of purple magical stone. Something evry cultivator craved but few ever saw even a tiny piece of it. Much less one as this one that is as big as a tea table. Other peapole would have looked at it with greed and tried to get it down. But it was useless to her, even if she took it she could not keep it.  Not to mention that she can not even get it down from the ceiling. She loves money and treasures because she was deprived of them. She watched others displaying them but was never allowed to own or touch one herself. But she never let her greed overcome her, she knew that she could not keep her treasure so what was the use to waste energy to collect it? She then looked at the murals. One of them was depicting a demon wolf with blood and death all around it. It has black fur, red piercing eyes, and blood dripping out of its mouth. Around it, there were only dead bodies lying around, which the wolf had clearly massacred. The next mural was of a noble white deer, standing proudly in a lake with humans worshiping it. The third one was a wounded fox, humans were hunting it down with spears but the fox's eyes were spirited and defiant. It was like it would survive even the harshest hardship. 

The 4 one was of a woman covered with moths. She was sitting down calmly with closed eyes and it looked like she was waiting for the moths to eat her up. Yet she was content. The next one was of two bears fighting each other honorably, just like noble generals out on the battlefield. The 6 mural was that of magpies fighting over a silver necklace that was looted out of a dead body. Then there was the last mural of a mighty dragon, that rules over the havens together with its phoenix mate. Looking at it she realized that all the murals depicted different paths one could take in life. The wolf represents the bloody path of a cold-hearted killer. The deer represents worship. The fox represented unwavering will, someone who works hard and never gives up. The woman covered in moths represented sacrificing for others. The bears represented the noble and honorable hearts of soldiers, fighting for what they believe in. The magpies represented a selfish greedy heart and the last mural represented the heart of a mighty and just ruler. The one path she did not see was the path of someone wanting a life of the mundane. 

Then suddenly the walls started to shake and a door appeared on each mural glowing faintly from inside. Seeing this she knew that this is probably some kind of test if her interpretation of each mural is correct then the test should be about knowing their own heart. If she chooses incorrectly she may die. She also did not know what the reward for all this was. All she knew was that this place wasn't simple. She thought about it for a while. Should she choose the dragon mural? after all, she does have a dragon fate. But that did not feel right to her. She doesn't identify with the deer at all, she is neither a worshiper nor like being worshiped. There is not even one person who does that anyway. She is not the bears nor is she as greedy as the magpies. She is not someone who would sacrifice themself for anyone like the woman with the moths. So all that's left is the fox, and she can indeed see a lot of resemblance between her and the fox. It is almost her in real life. Being used and despised by everyone. Yet she doesn't give up. So it should be the right choice, yet why does it feel wrong? She looked back to see if the tunnel she came from was still there and it was. She hesitates for a while and decides to go back, there may be a way out without doing the test.