"He ....he ....he is dead, they are all dead. I saw it, they are all dead. She self-destructed, she killed them all." Su Xianli murmured, seeming a little lost, and not at all disturbed by the amount of blood she vomited and the fact that she was bleeding through her seven orifices. Little wrinkles started appearing around her face.
Lin Jian threw a pill at her, which one of the remaining living servants caught and fed her, replenishing her life force and returning her to her normal beautiful appearance.
" Leave." Lin Jian commanded.
That seemed to have brought her back to her senses as she stopped spacing out, bowed slightly and left.
Lin Jian closed his eyes and took deep breaths to calm himself down. He did not know how to explain to the council of elders how he lost two core disciples and about eight inner disciples of the Emperor and Monarch realm.
____
After a few weeks of walking, resting and eating the food supply in the dark tunnel only illuminated by her fire qi, which constantly ran out considering it she was only in the intermediate realm. Chi Xianyan finally faced a problem —and it was a big problem. An earth-burrowing beast had somehow found its way into the tunnel that was several meters underground and caused a portion of it to collapse. Now, the tunnel was completely sealed and the only way of getting to the other side was by moving the blockade.
The tunnel was built in the early stage of the waiting period, but the maintenance became a lot harder because of the prolonged waiting period. Hua Zhenlan had to maintain it once a year since the tunnel itself was a two month journey, but she hadn't done it for the past two years, because every time she went, it always looked exactly how she left it the last time she left it. Deep down, she was hoping her brother wouldn't come.
Chi Xianyan stayed near the blockade, hoping the burrowing animal would come and make a path. But after a few days, when her rations started running low, she knew she had to find a way out by herself.
She lit sticks and spread them out in order to illuminate the area around, her fire qi was not bright enough. In the light, she found out that the blockade was an inclined layer of earth and rocks, and there was a giant lump in the ceiling right above where she was sitting –it looked like it is about to collapse.
She was scared out of her mind, wondering what would have happened if it had collapsed on her. But after a moment she calmed down, and continued trying to find a way out.
Taking a big rock, she threw it at the lump, making a small portion of sand and dirt fall off. She turned off all the stick lights, and she noticed that a ray of light passed through the tiny hole she created. Immediately, she began throwing big rocks at the lump in the ceiling until all the sand and rocks came crashing down, creating a hole that could fit two people.
'Creating the hole is one thing, getting out is another.' she thought, climbing on the fallen rocks she couldn't reach the ceiling, let alone through the hole that was several meters in length. Looking at the tools she had, she searched for something that could help her get out. She thought for several hours before finally coming up with an idea.
Almost two weeks later.
Chi Xianyan is sitting on the floor, resting her head on a tree different from the dirt filled tunnel. She was panting, her entire body was covered with dirt and she looked sickly as her food finished a few days ago. But it was all worth it, she had been digging the blockade nonstop for the past two weeks, not in hopes of getting to the other side but to create a giant pedestal beneath the hole. She finally succeeded.
After resting for a bit, she dragged herself in search of a water source. She knew the chance of there being a river or stream nearby was low, so she stuck to non poisonous fruit.
She ate her fill of every fruit she knew to be safe before checking out her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that it was deserted. One of her fears when digging the hole was that it would lead to the territories of one of the terrifying beasts or a beast-infested area, but this place just had shrubs and trees —that could either be really good or really bad.
She also noticed that it seems she was at the edge of a forest neighboring a vast mountain range.
Restocking her food supplies with fruit, she started going towards the direction the tunnel was leading to – towards the mountains.
Not really knowing which direction to take, she just kept going north in hopes of finding someone that she could ask directions from. But the only living thing she encountered were insects, which were unbearable.
When her fruit supply ran out a few weeks later, she had to survive on morning dew and unripe fruits from stray strangling trees. She kept moving from peak to peak until she finally saw a group of trees ahead. By now she could not walk anymore, her eyes were barely open. She had lost all her energy.
'No…. I can do this. They trusted me… they trusted me. I can't die and let all their sacrifice be for nothing. Why ...why am I weak and helpless?. Why am I nothing?' Chi Xianyan thought, tears forming in her eyes. Immediately, she took the tear drop from her eyes and put it into her mouth. But that did little to help. As her eyes finally closed as she collapsed, she could only think of one thing: 'I must never be nothing.'
___
"...where did you say you found her again?" The first thing Chi Xianyan heard when she woke up, she could not open her eyes or move her body so she didn't know where she was.
She was panicking, her first thought was that the moving body at Silent Hollow forest was not dead and has been able to track her down. After all, she was just an Early stage Intermediate realm cultivator, she could do nothing against Heavenly realm experts.
"I told you, I found her in a willow shade forest extension, outside Ashwind village." Another voice replied.
"And you decided to bring her?What if she is trouble?." The first person asked.
"I already joined the Azure guards and my job is to protect people. If I can't protect this little girl, then have I not failed. And If she is trouble, don't worry aunty –I will take full responsibility." The second voice replied.
" You know you are not much older than her," The first voice said after a slight laughter. "Why are you acting all mature?"
That was all she heard as the fatigue kicked in, knocking her out again. When she woke up again, she subconsciously opened her eyes but immediately had to block the light out with her hand. She looked around what looked like a room made of wood before her eyes settled on a man, ...more like a boy, not older than fifteen sitting down beside her.
Immediately he saw her awake, he stopped spacing out and quickly introduced himself "Hello, I'm Jing Tu. Nice to meet you."
He stretched his hand out, which immediately caused her to flinch slightly. "Sorry, don't worry you are safe here." He quickly explained.
———
"I'm sorry, sir, but you can't leave until we accomplish the purpose of our visit," Chi Xianyan said calmly. Yet her early-stage Grandmaster aura flared as she tightened her grip on the hilt of her sheathed sword.
She didn't know what came over her, the man in front of her just reminded her of the feeling of being helpless that she tried so hard to bury.
Jing Tu immediately held her hand, stopping her from unsheathing the sword. He wanted to say something but was interrupted by the sound of laughter, the pot bellied man who neither stopped nor flinched on his way to the exit. It even looked like the cat, that had magically moved from his hands to his neck, was laughing.
Suddenly, the laughter stopped and the entire hallway grew silent. A crushing pressure filled the air – it felt like they were carrying a mountain. It gave them the feeling that they were a drop in the ocean.
Chi Xianyan was frozen to the spot, not because the aura was too unbearable. But because it gave her a feeling, a feeling that her grandmother carried, a feeling that she had seen and knew everything.
The pot bellied man's voice rang out seriously contrary to the laughter a few breaths ago. " Even if your Grand commander was here himself, he wouldn't be able to stop me from leaving." He said, exiting the building.
Gasps from the customers in the other room could be heard, but these people were fanatics. Though they felt the aura, they just thought he was mad or delusional. To them, nobody could beat the grand commander. But Chi Xianyan and Jing Tu both had a feeling he was not lying.
"You really need to learn to control yourself." Jing Tu said he went after the pot bellied man.
Seeing they were done, Chi Xianyan also left. Returning to the key to the front desk, she made her way to the tavern across the street.
"Greetings Captain Chi, I'm Pang De. I would not keep you waiting, may I know the relationship between the azure guards and that fat man?" A man said with an amicable smile, surrounded by men with cold faces. When he saw Chi Xianyan frown, he continued, "He offended my Pang clan, but I would not want to make enemies of the Azure guards. That is why I asked."
"His relationship with us is none of your business, but you can do whatever you want." Chi Xianyan replied coldly without stopping.
One of the elders wanted to scold her for disrespecting the patriarch like that, but Pang De raised his hand to stop him.
"She seemed angry about something, I hope it has to do with the fat man. It would be beneficial to us if he is an enemy of the Azure guards." Pang De said, as they went in the direction of the fat man and Jing Tu.
{AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the end of Chi Xianyan's origin story. Let me know what you think.}