SILENT HOLLOW FOREST, VERDANT MOON KINGDOM
"Hua Shiming came later than expected, he expected him to be there in a few months, a year at most .But six long years passed before he finally appeared.
During that time, Hua Zhenlan was not resting, she did everything she could to ensure her and Chi Xianyan's safety when her brother finally came. Preparing tirelessly, as she wove layers and layers of protection. She had everything, offensive and defensive formations, detection arrays, concealment barriers, and all sorts of hidden traps. Every inch of her surroundings served a purpose – either to attack or protect.
Knowing that her cultivation base will be below his and he wouldn't be coming alone, she had no choice but to rely on strategy and preparation. Cultivating the dark arts will have given her the power she needed, but she wasn't willing to cross that line… except it was absolutely necessary.
Of course, Zhenlan didn't have the ability to create the countless formations that surrounded the small hut she called home. In fact she knew next to nothing about formations and arrays, but there were people who did –though they were very few in this realm. And expensive. Because they were few, they charged outrageously.
That is the reason the majority of Hua Zhenlan's time was spent on the forest hunting down beasts to sell their parts, using the profits to reinforce her formation network.
That is also the reason Chi Xianyan's training is usually in the forest. Even with all the planning, Hua Zhenlan did not know how things would end up, so she put everything she had into teaching and protecting. From the moment Chi Xianyan could hold a stick, she taught her everything she could; swordsmanship, foraging, water sourcing, navigation, shelter building, basically anything that gave her a chance of survival. Though she could not effectively train Chi Xianyan's fire elemental arts, Hua Zhenlan ensured that Chi Xianyan would not be helpless without her.
Years of repetition has dull her sense of time. Until one morning, while she was arranging the parts of her latest hunt – something… clicked. From watching the array masters so their work, she had learnt a thing or two. Moreover, she was in control of the eye of every formation and everything that goes on in the formations is within her knowledge, so she immediately sensed what triggered formation.
Her face darkened "He's here."
Quickly, she ran to the other room calling out Chi Xianyan.
A ten year old Chi Xianyan walked out, scratching her eyes from being woken. But seeing her grandma's expression, all the sleep disappeared. She has never seen her so panicked and her grandmother has done a lot of dangerous things for their survival.
Hua Zhenlan pulled her by the shoulder and said in a low tone. " You know all those things we've been practicing — now is the time to put them to use."
"Grandma, Is your brother here already?" Chi Xianyan asked, scared. It was obvious she knew the truth of what happened. Hua Zhenlan was not sure how things would turn out, so it was better if she knew the truth if she ended up alone in order not to run into the Chi Family or her brother's people.
As Hua Zhenlan was about to respond, they heard a rugged voice from outside. "Hua Zhenlan, come and greet your brother – it's been a long time we've seen each other".
"Go through the tunnel, you know the way to the other side. Ration the food and reduce the amount of traces you leave behind. Just like I taught you." Hua Zhenlan said in a low tone, bringing out a ring "before you go, take this ring. All of the things your parents wanted to share with you are here –including the movement technique and your father's sword, remember what I told you about the sword. After today you would be able to learn the movement technique, and your journey to the peak would start. Remember never let anybody put you down, never let anybody tell you are not good enough. You must always be somebody, because the worst you can be is nobody. Your parents sacrificed everything for you and I'm about to do the same, don't let that be a burden. Let it be a motivation that you are special and you are worth it. If we could, we would do it again because we love you from here to forever." Hua Zhenlan said in tears as she hugged Chi Xianyan tightly before composing herself.
She continued, "Now go. Remember don't come out under any circumstances, I will be very disappointed if you do. The trail leads to Azure Sky kingdom, when you get there keep a low profile and find that person." Pushing her into a hole in the floor before stumping her feet, making the floor return to how it was before.
"Zhenlan, if you don't come out I would have to come to you. You think all these little toys can stop me." Hua Shiming said. Since there was a concealment barrier, he could not spread his divine sense to see what was happening in the house. But he assumed his sister was planning something big.
"I'm coming in" Hua Shiming said as he took a few steps forward, he stopped when he saw her come out of the crudely built house.
"See I told you, your little toys can't stop me" he said smugly, as the men behind him laughed.
Boom
The laughter abruptly stopped, as everyone looked at the far right, where a pool of blood marked where a person had stood. Immediately all of them became vigilant, spreading their divine sense to the limit so as not to activate any of the formations by mistake.
"You were saying?," Hua Zhenlan laughed heartily. "It seems like one of your little friends activated the offensive formation."
Hua Shiming's face turned red from embarrassment and anger.
Ignoring his reaction, Hua Zhenlan looked around before raising an eyebrow as she asked Hua Shiming, "Brother dearest, are you looking down on me." Her voice was soft but the murderous intent in it sent chills down their spine.
She continued with a slight smile as she looked into his eyes, "I can see five of you .... Well four, but I don't see any sovereign. It can only mean you are looking down on me."
"Send a sovereign? Do you think sovereigns are fruit that you pluck on trees? Even in the entire sect, there are only two sovereigns. Do you think you are worthy of the patriarch or protector coming to you personally?" One of the men retorted, but Hua Zhenlan ignored him and kept staring at her brother as if she wanted to see his soul.
"I ...I told them about the problem that the movement technique had. Plus they thought you were using the technique as a trap when they discovered you were staying in this backwater land, since there should be almost nothing that can threaten you in this place. Putting all this together, along with the fact that crossing over is very dangerous – we already lost five people before we got here – they decided that sending a sovereign was not worth it. Moreover the sovereigns were busy. Zhenlan, you know I won't disrespect you like that." Hua Shiming quickly explained, even he didn't know why he explained himself like that, but his younger sister has always been scary.
But Hua Zhenlan didn't listen past the first line, she space out and started murmuring something until she looked at Hua Shiming again.
"You told the Whispering Lotus sect about the problem of movement technique?." Hua Zhenlan looked like she wanted to burst.
"I had to, anyway just give me the technique so we can leave. I will just tell them I saw the technique on your corpse or something." Hua Shiming replied, his body shivered a little.
"Impossible, the patriarch ordered us to bring her back if we found her alive." One of the men barked.
"You want us to let the killer of the patriarch's son go." Another responded.
"Know your place Hua Shiming." A third added.
" Give me the technique. I'm sure we can come to a compromise, I don't even understand why you would kill your husband." Hua Shiming sighed solemnly.
"Who made you say the movement technique is faulty, was it your stupid wife? I know she is the one that controls you like a puppet." Hua Zhenlan said angrily. She shouldn't have been angry that he told them about the fault the technique had, it had even reduced the target on their back, but she just needed a reason to burst.
"Su Xianli did not make me say anything. Give us the technique and just follow us back gently, I will try to have Su Xianli beg the patriarch on your behalf." Hua Shiming tried coercing.
" You think he will forgive me just like that for killing his idiot son. Though, he had like seven last time I checked and he doesn't really care about them. Lin Haoran was very smart, so he was his favorite. The only reason that bastard is not here today is because he has found someone to replace him." Hua Zhenlan replied coldly.
"Zhenlan, stop making this hard for yourself. If you come gently, you might get lucky. Patriarch Lin could take you as one of his concubines and you would have many children for him. Think of what you are putting your brother through" Hua Shiming pleaded.
Hua Zhenlan's face twisted at the prospect, she looked like she had never heard something more disgusting, "Apart from the fact that I would rather die a thousand times than let that pig near me —he is the only one sick enough to touch his dead son's wife. You already forfeit your role as my brother when you brought the Whispering Lotus sect to kill our parents and exterminate our sect. I knew you were jealous when father handed over the movement technique to me as the next keeper, you just had to blab to that manipulative bitch —Su Xianli. If you want to know why father didn't make you the keeper –this is why. Because you are weak, dumb and gullible, he knew it would be lost if he gave you. I knew you were not the brightest but never in a million years would I expect it to be this bad." Hua Zhenlan ranted off
"Zhenlan, Stop, stop."
"Get out of my head!"
" Shut up!!"