Volume One: Femme Fatale Chapter Two: The Woman in Red

"Father!"
"Yue'er! Don't kill your father!"
Jiang Hao roared, suddenly sitting up from the ground. He slowly opened his eyes, his fists clenched tightly.
"Where... where am I?"
Before him stretched a shadowy nightscape, everything shrouded in mist. From all directions came the occasional guttural roar, as if from some demon beast.
"Father was killed by her."
"I too fell beneath her sword."
Jiang Hao lowered his gaze to his chest; the gaping, bloody wound from before had healed as if it had never been.
"Is this... hell?"
"So this is what hell looks like..."
Recalling the moment his wife, Ji Yue, had driven her sword through his heart, Jiang Hao was certain he had entered the legendary eighteen levels of hell.
"What a failure I am! Unable to protect my father, forced to watch as he fell before my very eyes."
As Jiang Hao sank into the pain of betrayal by the one he loved most, a cold female voice suddenly sounded at his ear, sending a shiver through his heart.
"I wondered who was wailing and howling here. Turns out to be nothing more than a human ant without even a spiritual vein."
Through the haze, Jiang Hao saw a breathtakingly beautiful woman appear before him, as alluring as a crimson lotus blossoming amidst lonely ice and snow, mesmerizing in her presence.
Her delicate feet hovered lightly above the clouds, her red robes billowing with the wind, accentuating her slender figure, graceful and ethereal.
Her features were coldly exquisite, as if carved from flawless jade, her skin pale as snow, smooth and lustrous, enchantingly radiant. In her deep, brilliant eyes flickered an untouchable coldness and pride.
Her hair cascaded like a waterfall, shimmering with an alluring sheen, as if it possessed a life of its own, sparkling like stars in the night sky with a unique brilliance.
"Who are you?" Jiang Hao stared, dumbfounded, instinctively rising from the ground. He exclaimed, "So there are such coldly beautiful female ghosts in hell!"
"Female ghost?" The woman in red frowned, her voice angry. "You human ant, how dare you call me a female ghost?"
"Princess?" Jiang Hao was taken aback, surprised. "So you were a princess in life?"
"To be honest, you are indeed the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. But it seems, alas, that your beauty is ill-fated."
Regaining some composure, Jiang Hao was now at least less disheveled than before.
The woman in red gazed at him in silence, as if appraising him.
Perhaps unable to express his sorrow, Jiang Hao shook his head with a bitter smile. "Well then, 'female ghost,' you claim to be a princess, and I was a prince in life. Looks like we're kindred spirits, at least we have each other as company on the road to the underworld."
"Insolence! I am no female ghost!" The woman's tone was icy as she commanded, "Boy! Listen well! I am the princess of the ancient Phoenix clan!"
"Ancient divine beast?" Jiang Hao's eyes widened, then he chuckled. "Beautiful as you are, why tease me? You look far too delicate to be an ancient Phoenix divine beast."
But his laughter was abruptly cut short.

A sudden, chilling intent to kill enveloped him, making his skin crawl.
Before he could react, a surge of murderous energy struck him like lightning...
"Ah!"
With a scream, Jiang Hao was thrown back like a broken kite, crashing hard against a towering tree nearby.
Bang!
The trunk, thicker than a grown man's waist, snapped in half under the impact.
Blood sprayed from his mouth as he fell heavily to the ground.
"It hurts! Feels like this woman shattered my organs with her kick," Jiang Hao groaned, lying on the earth, brows furrowed, his face pale as he endured the pain.
He struggled to his feet, only for the woman in red to reappear before him like a specter, making his hair stand on end.
"Don't come any closer!"
Fear surged in Jiang Hao's heart; he wanted to flee, but his legs refused to obey, forcing him to sit helplessly and awkwardly crawl backward.
For reasons he could not explain, a strong sense of dread welled up inside him when facing this woman—especially after feeling that deathly aura once more.
"Boy, what did you just call me?" the woman in red asked coldly.
"Is there no justice? Even in death, I'm bullied!" Jiang Hao shuddered, trembling all over.
Driven by a desperate urge to survive, Jiang Hao quickly replied with utmost respect, "A fairy! I meant that Your Highness is a heavenly fairy!"
"Such cowardly, death-fearing human ants!"
The woman in red looked at him impassively, her gaze as icy as a frozen lake. Jiang Hao's desperate will to live seemed insignificant before her.
Perhaps because the woman showed no further intention to punish him, Jiang Hao finally relaxed, rolling over to rub his aching chest, muttering, "This female ghost hits hard. When Ji Yue stabbed me, it didn't hurt nearly as much."
"Pain?"
"No, wait! Didn't I die already? How can I still feel pain?" Jiang Hao suddenly realized.
He wiped the blood from his lips, staring at the crimson stains on his hand in disbelief. "Blood! It's bright red!"
"Why is this happening? Could it be I'm not dead?"
"No, that's impossible! I died beneath Ji Yue's sword..."
Jiang Hao looked up, dazed, surveying his gloomy surroundings.
He glanced at the floating woman in red, then forced a bitter smile. "How could I possibly still be alive? I'm surely dead. This must be hell."
"Silence! Your endless chatter is unbearable!" The woman in red, silent until now, suddenly spoke, her tone cold. "Have you ever seen a dead man's blood so red?"
"Ah?" Jiang Hao's mind went blank, his ears buzzing. "Could it be... I really haven't died?"

After a long while, Jiang Hao finally raised his head, his gaze resting on the woman's delicate feet. He asked softly, "Fairy, how is it you can float in midair?"
To his knowledge, only powerful cultivators or legendary spirits could do so.
Before the woman could answer, Jiang Hao suddenly understood, exclaiming, "I see! Fairy, you must be a master of the Spirit Heaven realm!"
Though Jiang Hao lacked spiritual veins and could never cultivate, as a prince of Yan Yang Kingdom, he knew something of the cultivation world.
The realms of cultivation were: Spiritual Energy, Spiritual Spring, Spiritual Sea, Spiritual Pill, Spiritual Soul, Spiritual God, Spirit Heaven, Spirit Dao, and Spirit Immortal—nine major levels in all.
Only those who reached Spirit Heaven could be called true masters.
Spirit Heaven was the realm of harmony between man and nature, granting a lifespan of a thousand years. At this level, soul and body returned to their original state, vastly enhancing one's resonance with the world.
Cultivators of Spirit Heaven could manipulate the forces of nature, hover in the void without spells or treasures, if only for brief moments.
At this moment, Jiang Hao saw the woman in red as a Spirit Heaven master.
"Spirit Heaven master? What's that supposed to be?" The woman's voice dripped with disdain.
Jiang Hao was confused, momentarily lost.
Just as he was about to explain, the woman sighed softly. "Enough! Considering your pitiful fate, I suppose I can tell you."
"I was hunted, forced to flee here. Now, only a trace of my primordial spirit remains—soon I will dissipate entirely."
A hint of sadness flickered in her eyes. "Perhaps you are right. I am about to become a female ghost."
"Ah? Well..." Jiang Hao was full of doubts, but he calmed himself and stepped forward to comfort her. "Fairy, I only spoke carelessly just now. Please don't take it to heart."
The woman in red snorted coldly, her tone full of disdain. "I wouldn't stoop to quarreling with a human ant like you."
"Leave now! Before I change my mind, get out!" Her voice was chill incarnate, as if she could not bear to let anyone witness her vulnerability.
"As you wish, Fairy! May we meet again!"
Jiang Hao nodded rapidly, suppressing the pain as he struggled to his feet and fled.
"Pah, 'may we meet again'—I hope I never see that female ghost again!" he muttered to himself.
He did not understand what had happened to him, but realizing he might yet live, all he wanted was to escape this place—and especially the volatile woman in red!
Unbeknownst to Jiang Hao, as he turned to leave, the pendant on his chest flashed with a faint light.
The woman in red caught sight of it in the corner of her eye.
"A powerless mortal, yet he didn't die from my kick?"
She frowned as she watched Jiang Hao stumble away, her gaze lingering on the pendant. "That pendant... looks familiar somehow..."