He... he... he is dead. They're all dead. I saw it. They are all dead. She self-destructed—she killed them." Su Xianli murmured, seeming a little lost and not at all disturbed by the amount of blood she vomited or the fact that she was bleeding from her seven orifices. Tiny 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 nearly eight inner disciples.
---
After a few weeks of walking, resting, and rationing her dwindling food supply in the dark tunnel—only illuminated by her fire qi—Chi Xianyan finally faced a problem, and it was a big one. An earth-burrowing beast had somehow found its way into the tunnel 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, and maintenance became harder because of how long they had been waiting. Hua Zhenlan used to clear it once a year since the tunnel itself was a two-month journey, but she had not done so for the past two years because every time she went, it looked exactly the same. And deep down, she was hoping her brother wouldn't come.
Chi Xianyan stayed near the blockade, hoping the burrowing animal would return and make a path. But after a few days, when her rations started running low, she had to find a way out herself.
She lit sticks and spread them out to illuminate the area. In the light, she saw that the blockade was an inclined layer of earth and rocks, and there was a large lump in the ceiling right above her—looking like it was about to collapse.
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 noticed a ray of light passing through the tiny hole she created. Immediately, she began throwing bigger rocks at the lump until all the sand and stones came crashing down, creating a hole big enough for two people.
Creating the hole was one thing, getting out was another. Climbing on the fallen rocks, she still couldn't reach the ceiling, let alone the hole several meters above. Looking at her tools, she searched for something that could help her escape. She thought for several hours before finally coming up with an idea.
Almost two weeks later.
Chi Xianyan sat on the floor, resting her head against a tree, far from the dirt-filled tunnel. She was panting, her entire body caked in dust, looking pale and weak. Her food had run out days ago, but it was worth it—she had been digging nonstop for two weeks, not to reach the other side but to create a giant pedestal beneath the hole. She had finally succeeded.
After resting a bit, she dragged herself in search of a water source. Knowing the chance of finding a river nearby was low, she settled for non-poisonous fruit.
She ate her fill of every fruit she knew to be safe before checking her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that the area was deserted—one of her biggest fears while digging was that she might break into the territory of a powerful beast, but this place had only shrubs and sparse trees. That could either be very good or very bad.
She also realized that she was at the edge of a forest neighboring a vast mountain range.
Restocking her supplies with fruit, she started heading toward the direction the tunnel had led—toward the mountains.
Not really knowing which direction to take, she just kept going north, hoping to find someone to ask for directions. But the only living things she encountered were insects, which were unbearably annoying.
When her fruit supply ran out a few weeks later, she survived on morning dew and unripe fruits from straggling trees. She moved from peak to peak until she finally saw a cluster of trees up ahead. By then, she could barely walk; her eyes were half-open, her strength gone.
No... I can do this. They trusted me. I can't die and let all their work be for nothing. Why... why am I so weak and helpless? Why am I nothing? Chi Xianyan whispered, tears forming in her eyes. She took the teardrop and put it in her mouth, but it did little to help. Her vision blurred, and as she collapsed, she could only think one thing: I must never be nothing.
---
"...Where did you say you found her again?" was the first thing Chi Xianyan heard when she woke up. She couldn't open her eyes or move her body, so she didn't know where she was.
"I told you, I found her in the Willow Shade Forest extension, outside Ashwind Village," another voice replied.
"And you decided to bring her? What if she's trouble?" the first person asked.
"I've already joined the Azure Guards, and my job is to protect people. If I can't protect this little girl, haven't I already failed? And if she's trouble, don't worry, Aunty—I'll take full responsibility," the second voice replied.
"You know you're not much older than her," the first voice said, laughing softly. "You talk like an old man already."
That was all she heard before fatigue pulled her under again.
When she woke again, she instinctively opened her eyes but had to shield them from the bright light. She looked around the wooden room until her gaze settled on a boy—no older than fifteen—sitting beside her.
The moment he noticed she was awake, he stopped spacing out and quickly introduced himself. "Hello, I'm Jing Tu. Nice to meet you."
He stretched out his hand, which caused her to flinch slightly. "Sorry," he said softly, "don't worry—you're safe here."
---
"I'm sorry, sir, but you can't leave until we accomplish the purpose of our visit," Chi Xianyan said calmly, though 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 before her just brought back that helpless feeling she had fought to bury.
Jing Tu quickly held her hand, stopping her from unsheathing the sword. He wanted to speak, but was interrupted by laughter—the pot-bellied man who hadn't stopped walking toward the exit. Even the cat that had moved from his hands to his neck seemed to laugh with him.
Suddenly, the laughter stopped, and the entire hallway fell silent. A crushing pressure filled the air—it felt like they were carrying a mountain while standing as drops in an endless ocean.
Chi Xianyan froze. Not because the aura was too strong, but because it felt familiar—that same feeling her grandmother carried, the aura of someone who had seen and understood everything.
The pot-bellied man said in a voice utterly devoid of laughter, "Even if your Grand Commander himself were here, he couldn't stop me from leaving." Then he exited the building.
The crowd gasped. The others in the hall—fanatics who believed no one could rival the Grand Commander—dismissed him as mad. But Chi Xianyan and Jing Tu both knew he wasn't lying.
"You really need to learn to control yourself," Jing Tu said as he hurried after the man.
Seeing they were gone, Chi Xianyan returned the key to the front desk and made her way to the bar across the street.
"Greetings, Captain Chi. I'm Pang De. I won't keep you waiting. May I know the relationship between the Azure Guards and that fat man? He offended my Pang Clan, but I wouldn't want to be enemies with the Azure Guards," a man said with an amicable smile, surrounded by men with cold expressions.
"His relationship with us is none of your business. You can do whatever you want," Chi Xianyan replied coldly without stopping.
One of the elders wanted to scold her for disrespecting the patriarch, but Pang De raised a hand to stop him.
"She seemed angry about something," Pang De said slowly. "I hope it's about that fat man. It would make things much easier if he's an enemy of the Azure Guards."
Then they all went off in the same direction the pot-bellied man and Jing Tu had gone.