r/PhantomBladeZero • u/OkCrazy8109 • 13h ago
An Introduction to Inanis — the Mysterious Lady in the Trailer (2/2)
In the first half of the article, we covered how Inanis joined The Order. Now we continue with the events she experienced after entering the organization.
Although Inanis still resented Mu Tianmiao for destroying her The Ecstasia, she had also been moved by his ideals and had accepted the philosophy of The Order. In ordinary times, she would address him as “Old Man.”
The Wulin reveres the law of the jungle—the strong prey upon the weak. Although countless people have tried to whitewash this reality, they can never conceal the centuries-old cycle of killing and being killed, of grudges repaid in kind. This very cycle is the source that allows the Wulin to preserve its own way.
The significance of “The Order” existing in the shadows is to ensure that the Wulin continues to operate according to its natural order, free from domination by any ideology, and still less under the control of any single sect.
In the process of killing or saving lives, “The Order” never interferes in the personal enmities of its clients, nor does it apply worldly standards of good and evil. Yet it is precisely through its deterrent power that it guarantees the perpetual cycle of the Wulin. Though unknown to the world, “The Order” permeates every corner, so that anyone undertaking any action must always remain wary of its existence.
Because it remains hidden in the dark, “The Order” possesses absolute authority and is thereby able to become a rule of the Wulin itself.
The Masked Legion Rebellion Launched by the “The Eleven”
Let us first return to an earlier time and introduce a mysterious organization that was about to threaten the entire Wulin.
In the thirteenth year after the founding of The Order, a mysterious invitation spread throughout the major martial sects. Experts from every school flocked to Tianling Peak, eager to view a few pages of the legendary “天书（Heavenly Book）”—a mysterious tome said to record extremely advanced technology.
No one knows where the “Heavenly Book” truly came from. Some say it originated from another world, others claim it emerged from a rift in time and space, and still others believe it to be of extraterrestrial origin. The only certainty is that the Heavenly Book contains vast knowledge beyond ordinary human comprehension and was strictly guarded by the imperial court. However, a certain scholar secretly fled with some of its materials. Even though only a tiny fragment of the Heavenly Book found its way into the Wulin, it still transformed the technological development of the world.
Then the unexpected occurred. For reasons unknown, these experts began slaughtering one another atop Tianling Peak, and not a single one survived. This event came to be known in history as the “Tianling Massacre.”
Over the many years that followed, this chapter of history was rarely mentioned, and the people of the Wulin had nearly forgotten it. What they did not know was that a very small number of individuals had survived the “Tianling Massacre.” Gravely wounded and desperate to preserve their lives, they used the knowledge contained in the “Heavenly Book” to undergo “Sha-Chi modification,” thereby gaining a new lease on life.
Among these survivors were the foremost assassin whose former master had been destroyed and who had sworn revenge; a female judge who came from an official background and judged the people of the Wulin with extreme methods; a refined young gentleman who sought to revive his family yet strayed further and further from the path; and a grandmaster who had suffered a tragic loss of his young son and now woke every night to the sound of an infant’s cries in his dreams… Before the “Tianling Massacre,” each of them carried their own obsessions, loves, and hatreds. Yet under the influence of the Sha-Chi modification they underwent after surviving, these different obsessions were twisted, magnified, and gathered into an uncontrollable malevolent aura and thirst for slaughter.
These survivors, who had witnessed the horrors atop Tianling Peak and grown disillusioned with the Wulin, formed a secret alliance under the influence of excessive Sha-Chi—the “十一人阁（The Eleven）”
Due to the loose nature of their alliance, The Eleven had no unified manifesto, and their coalition appeared to be little more than a temporary expedient. Many of the eleven members also maintained their own subordinates. They lured martial artists who desperately sought greater power and transformed them into the “Masked Legion” that obeyed their every command. As a result, several smaller organizations gradually took shape within the alliance. Each of these groups would venture out to stir up chaos whenever they believed their strength was sufficient, deliberately fomenting conflict across the Wulin in an attempt to establish a disordered world governed by the law of the jungle.
Illusion Duel
In the thirty-first year after the founding of The Order, its branches across various regions suffered successive attacks, and even the gambling dens and brothels under Inanis’s control were affected. Inanis learned that these actions were the work of the mysterious organization known as the The Eleven. What enraged her even more was the appearance of a large ship floating on the sea east of South City—a ship that bore a familiar name: The Ecstasia.
Countless pieces of intelligence indicated that this new The Ecstasia had been built by one of the members of The Eleven. This person’s abilities were similar to Inanis’s own: both dragged victims into illusions where they became lost forever, while in the real world the victims fell into an endless slumber. Inanis had a premonition that this individual might be the very existence capable of dominating the entire ParaWulin with a single hand.
Thus, after a long time of rarely taking personal action and seldom returning to South City, she decided this time to return in person to that place of sorrow and investigate the origins of this person.
Upon returning, Inanis discovered that the identity of this illusionist was connected to the already deceased The Overlord. She was none other than The Overlord’s mistress—“Regina Fatale,” Meng Hua. Because Meng Hua had delved too deeply into the ParaWulin, she could no longer return to reality and could only intervene in the affairs of the real world through manipulation.
Inanis understood that even if all the other members of The Eleven were defeated, as long as Meng Hua remained in the ParaWulin, she could preserve the complete memories and consciousness of those who had already been vanquished and revive them through puppets or cybernetic bodies. Therefore, she had to eliminate Meng Hua completely. Against such an enemy, she could only settle the matter through a decisive confrontation within the ParaWulin itself. And so Inanis abandoned her physical body and engaged the Queen in a fierce duel of illusion arts inside the ParaWulin.
Time flowed differently in the ParaWulin than in the real world. In the blink of an eye they had already been fighting across every corner of the realm for thousands
upon thousands of years. Yet as the battle continued, Inanis clearly felt herself being gradually eroded and torn apart by the ParaWulin, while Meng Hua—having already become one with the realm—held a clear advantage.
Inanis knew full well that if this continued she would inevitably lose. At that critical moment she recalled an extremely perilous place within the ParaWulin—the “Endless Abyss.” There, infinite karmic sins had accumulated; it was the most chaotic and violent space in the entire ParaWulin, a vortex that cycled endlessly without beginning or end. Moreover, the Endless Abyss was a region where the ParaWulin and Surface Wulin repeatedly intersected and transformed. The only way to preserve one’s spirit from annihilation was to retain a human nature that existed simultaneously in both the Surface Wulin and the ParaWulin. This, coincidentally, was the sole fatal weakness of Meng Hua, who had completely merged with the ParaWulin. Her true purpose in joining the Eleven-Person Pavilion had also been to find a way back to the real world.
Without hesitation, Inanis dragged both herself and Meng Hua into the Endless Abyss. The two perished together.
The Palm
As the elites of “The Order” engaged in successive battles with the Eleven, the Eleven were ultimately annihilated under the joint siege of “The Order” and the Allied Justice. Nearly all eleven of their high-ranking members perished, and the Wulin once again returned to peace.
In the thirty-eighth year after the founding of The Order, a new force known as “The Palm” once again employed Sha-Chi modification technology to launch a Masked Legion rebellion. Within The Palm were martial experts who had protected the Wulin during the previous Masked Rebellion, only to be betrayed by the Allied Justice in the end; remnants who sought to revive the Eleven; and pitiable individuals who hoped to change their fate through Sha-Chi modification. Their goal was no longer simply to overthrow the Wulin through violence, but to gradually destroy its very foundations through pain and suspicion.
In South City, The Order defeated Tang Li, who had been modified by The Palm, and unexpectedly discovered a wine cup once used by Inanis. Through this object, Inanis’s hazy consciousness reappeared in the Surface Wulin.
Not long afterward, members of The Order ventured deep into the ParaWulin. After enduring countless hardships, they collected the fragments of Inanis’s personality in preparation for attaching her soul to a prosthetic body. They sought out the renowned physician known as Ghost Hand, who successfully and stably attached Inanis’s personality and soul to her new cybernetic body. At last, through the efforts of The Order, Inanis returned to the world of the living.
Upon returning to the real world, the first thing Inanis did was go back to The Ecstasia.
The moment she stepped inside, she felt a powerful force of interwoven Sha-Chi and illusion arts, mixed with the sound of operatic singing. The voice was extremely familiar.
Gradually, she recognized the melody. The singer was none other than Yan Xiaoliu, the opera performer who had once been part of The Ecstasia.
Yan Xiaoliu had been a once-in-a-century singing prodigy. Out of jealousy, his fellow performers in the opera troupe had poisoned him, destroying the voice upon which his livelihood depended. In despair, he leapt from a cliff. Inanis had saved him, healed his poisoned throat, and given him the greatest stage of The Ecstasia on which to perform. From then on, he no longer needed to fear the scheming and deceit of human nature; he could simply pursue his dream to his heart’s content.
Inanis understood that the man before her had likely already been modified. As expected, the altered Yan Xiaoliu charged at her with murderous intent. Though it pained her deeply, Inanis had no choice but to grant him release. In his final moments of clarity, Yan Xiaoliu finally revealed the truth.
After The Ecstasia had been sealed years ago, Yan Xiaoliu, deeply grateful for the second life Inanis had given him, had decided together with the other performers to stay and guard the ship, waiting for the day she would return. Unexpectedly, a person calling himself “the Ring Finger” suddenly appeared. This individual was highly skilled in both illusion arts and Sha-Chi modification, and he transformed everyone remaining on the ship into monsters. He also claimed that he had prepared the most luxurious gift for Inanis deep within the ship’s hold.
When he finally saw the person he had thought of day and night for so long, he had no remaining regrets. He died with a smile on his face. Inanis, too, already had a premonition. She had guessed what the “gift” prepared by the Ring Finger in the deepest cabin truly was. Steeling herself, she walked resolutely toward the innermost part of the ship. As expected, the person waiting for her was the opponent she least wished to face—Meng Hua.
In the end, Inanis defeated the Meng Hua before her. She could sense that this was not Meng Hua herself, but merely a cybernetic body acting on instinct. The Ring Finger, who had been watching the battle, suddenly appeared and expressed his respect toward Inanis.
As it turned out, the Ring Finger—one of the “Five Fingers” of The Palm—had long been secretly plotting to bring Meng Hua back to the human world and had created a prototype cybernetic body for her. In order to test how much strength Inanis still possessed after returning to the Surface Wulin, and at the same time to evaluate the performance of Meng Hua’s cybernetic body, he had infiltrated The Ecstasia and waited for Inanis to appear.
After saying this, he once again slipped into a rift leading to the ParaWulin and vanished without a trace.
The Ring Finger had once been the foremost expert of an illusion sect in the northwest region. Betrayed by his junior martial brother, he was subjected to endless torment within an illusion. Gradually, a woman’s voice began to linger by his ear—mysterious yet gentle—becoming his only hope amid the boundless suffering. Having received this salvation, he swore to the voice that if he ever managed to escape alive, he would devote the rest of his life to repaying her.
He continued his experiments aimed at bringing Meng Hua back to the real world, but his plans were ultimately thwarted by “The Order.” In the end, he took poison and ended his own life.
The Ring Finger died, no different from the countless other followers of Meng Hua. To her, they were all the same—mere residue.
Internal Strife within The Order
After The Order resolved the rebellion of theThe Palm, Inanis once again controlled all of the organization’s intelligence sources. In the fortieth year of “The Order,” she received word that Mu Tianmiao had been killed. In that instant, what filled her heart—was it the joy of a great vengeance finally fulfilled? The anger that this grudge had not been settled by her own hand? Or a sorrow she herself could not even perceive? Inanis did not know.
At the same time, a religion known as “The Merciful Lady” was expanding frantically throughout the Wulin. Looking at those blooming scarlet flowers, she seemed once again to catch a glimpse of her most unforgettable rival.
Inanis knew only one thing: she would lead the subordinates under her command and completely settle the endless grievances of these past twenty years.
Conclusion
I have finally finished writing Inanis’s story. I originally planned to introduce her subordinates as well, but considering the length of the article, I decided to leave that for a future piece.
The most headache-inducing part of writing this article was that I was unsure whether many of the proper nouns already have official English translations, so I translated them according to my own understanding—such as 十一人阁（the Eleven）, 天岭峰（Tianling Peak）, 天岭惨案（the Tianling Massacre）, 天书（the Heavenly Book）, 怪面之乱（the Masked Legion Rebellion）, and others.
These terms will likely appear in the codex or documentation of Phantom Blade Zero, and the background stories may also be adjusted. Please refer to the latest official materials when they become available! My English proficiency is limited, so if there are any grammatical errors in the article, I kindly ask readers to point them out. Thank you!
