Again!

Qiao’s muscles burned as she forced herself to repeat the movements for another round. Small clouds of dust whirled up behind her steps as she performed her wild and deadly dance.

Again!

As the blade in her hand cut through the air so fast it was barely visible to the naked eye, it sung the tune to her precise and graceful movements.

Again!

But it wasn’t good. It wasn’t good enough. She wasn’t good enough.

Again!

Suddenly, one of her legs gave out and she stumbled, falling to the ground. Gritting her teeth, she got back up and picked up her sword which had slipped her grip. This wouldn’t do. She needed to be better.

She was the best of her generation. She was faster, stronger and more skilled than anyone her age. And yet, she had lost. She had finished first in her age-group, but she had still lost. To an outer disciple. He had shattered everything she had taken herself for. He had forever stained her image. And her grandfather hadn’t so much as given her a single look ever since. And it was all her fault.

She hadn’t been fast enough. She hadn’t been strong enough. She hadn’t been skilled enough.

Qiao tried to repeat the sword-movements she was practicing, but once again stumbled and fell. This time, she didn’t get up again. Instead, she turned to lie on her back and just stared at the sky, breathing heavily. It was so high and so vast. Unreachable to her, just like the past.

She couldn’t even be properly mad at the boy. He hadn’t cheated, he hadn’t tricked her, he hadn’t even been better than her. But he had beaten her anyways. She had no one to blame but herself.

Ever since that fateful day, Qiao had spent most of her time training. The family was okay with it, since she would compete in the tournament in fall and she was treated as one of the favorites to win in her age-group. But it wasn’t just that. They no longer cared as much about what she did or didn’t do. She wasn’t the promise of success she had been before the competition anymore. She had lost the glister of perfection she had spent so much time carefully polishing.

She would prove them wrong, no matter what it took.

“Young Lady, are you alright?”

Lifen, her head maid was standing over her, her face filled with a mix of concern and hesitation. The aged mortal woman had been assigned to taking care of Qiao ever since she was a toddler, since her parents had other duties to prioritize. She was also one of the few people who hadn’t treated her any different after her defeat.

“It’s okay, Lifen. I’m just exhausted.”

“Excuse my intrusion, but I’m concerned about you. I don’t know much about cultivation and the like, but you have been pushing your body so much that it just can’t be healthy.”

“Please don’t worry about me, Lifen. I know where my limits lie.”

“I have no doubt in your ability, Young Lady.”

The old woman went down to her knees beside her.

“But I also know that you aren’t feeling well.”

“…”

“You don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to.”

With a gentle movement, her wrinkled but yet strong hands picked up Qiao’s head and placed it on her lap before wiping away her built up sweat with a handkerchief and starting to pick out bits of dirt from her hair.

“Just keep in mind that you can do nothing to change the past. Focus on the future instead.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“…”

“Maybe try and take a walk to clear your head. You’ll feel better and more focused afterwards.”

Maybe she was right. Letting her thoughts spiral wasn’t going to get her anywhere. Also, changing the old woman’s mind on something like this was probably impossible anyways. Qiao took a deep breath, keeping her eyes closed as she felt the air rush into her hungry lungs. Then, as she exhaled, she opened her eyes once again. She had made up her mind.

“All right, you win. I’ll take a break and go on a walk.”

Lifen gave her a warm smile.

“That’s great to hear, Young Lady.”

After returning the smile for a moment, Qiao stood up and started heading towards the exit. She didn’t get very far before Lifen spoke up again, some of her usual strictness having returned to her voice.

“Stop where you are. I appreciate you going along with my suggestions, but you aren’t going anywhere looking like that.”

…

Freshly bathed, groomed and clothed, Qiao stepped outside again. No particular destination in mind, she just started walking. As per usual, the nature was breathtakingly beautiful as soon as she got a little way into the forest. As of late, she hadn’t taken any time to appreciate it, not even in her usual relaxation spot in the estate’s garden.

The last time she had taken a proper walk through the forest had been on the day of the competition… She shook her head. She didn’t want to think of that right now. Instead, as she walked along the small path down the mountain, she listened to the sounds of the forest.

Rustling leaves, humming bugs, singing birds and the occasional splashing of a small stream. Lifen had been right, she already felt more at peace than before.

Sometime later, the high-pitched laughter of several voices mixed itself into the melody of the forest. After a few minutes, a small group of disciples came into view. They were walking in the opposite direction and, once they noticed Qiao, respectfully made way for her, only picking up on their conversation again when she was some distance away.

Qiao suddenly noticed that she had nobody to laugh with like this. The other kids in her family were all rather competitive with each other and once her talent had started showing, she hadn’t been given much time to socialize anyway. She probably didn’t seem very approachable either with her cold and graceful demeanor, her polished beauty and her well-known skill.

She had many distant admirers she was aware of and quite a few acquaintances her age, but nobody she would call a friend. All other disciples her age she knew of had friends. Even the ones in her family had their groups and cliques. The closest relationship she had was that with Lifen, but that simply wasn’t the same. It had never bothered her up until now, but suddenly she felt like she was missing out on something.

Great. Now she had laid down one set of worries only to replace it with another. She let out a deep sigh. What was wrong with her lately? Hadn’t she long been taught better than to let herself be controlled by flimsy emotions?

Lost in these thoughts, Qiao wandered down the path, barely noticing that she the frequency with which she was passing groups of disciples gradually increased. Only when she arrived at a large gate over which the sign reading ‘Training Hall’ was hanging did she realize how far she had walked.

Qiao hesitated. On one hand she could just turn around and walk back. She had already walked for much longer than she had wanted to. On the other hand, now that she was already here, she might as well take a look. Even if she turned around now, it would already be so late that she wouldn’t be able to get much done today anyways. And the last time she had been here had been ages ago…

That did it. She would take a look at what all the fuss people were making about the Training Hall recently was about. She just had to make sure, not to draw any attention. As far as she understood, Elder Wei wasn’t exactly well disposed towards her family and she didn’t want to cause some kind of incident. She wasn’t forbidden here, but she also didn’t want to explain to anyone from her family why she was taking long walks and exploring the sect instead of training for the tournament. Curious, if a little apprehensive, Qiao stepped inside.

On first impression it was all rather… unremarkable. The buildings were in good condition but all awfully plain and uncomfortably cramped together. Besides these plain buildings and a couple of training fields, there wasn’t much to see… though Qiao wasn’t sure what else she had expected. The most notable thing was that there was quite little activity going on at all despite it being early afternoon. Were these guys all slacking off?

Qiao was already toying with the idea of just leaving again, when she turned a corner to see the main building. That wasn’t what drew her attention though because on the open plaza in front of it, there was quite a commotion happening.

A large crowd of people, both disciples and members of all ages, had gathered and there was visible turmoil, though the crowd was blocking Qiao’s view on what was actually happening. With rising curiosity, Qiao approached and then slowly weaved her way to the crowd. When she had finally made it to the front, her breath stopped.

Standing there, alongside a large dispatchment of senior members were several sect elders. Qiao recognized Sun Liang, Zheng Rong, Jiang Peng and Hu Chen. And at the head of them all, currently speaking to the crowd with his recognizable loud and commanding voice was her grandfather, Ning Bai.

“…that is why, effective immediately and until further notice, we are suspending all activities of the Training Hall and arresting all active instructors for investigation on accounts of suspicions of thievery and smuggling in an attempt to undermine the Lunar Peaks Sect.”