In a dark, contorted space, Moxian is dragged forward at a dangerous speed. Her once beautiful body is covered in blood and deep gashes, and her revealing dress has been torn into shreds that do nothing to hide even the most intimate parts of her body. If one were to look closely, one might even see a strange, dark aura festering in her wounds and damaging them further as time goes by.
For a long while, Moxian flies through this strange space while collecting numerous wounds, but eventually, a light appears in front of her and she exits the strange space and reappears in the beautiful forested area alongside the River of Fate. However, without even taking the opportunity to catch her breath, a talisman appears in Moxian’s hand and she crushes it before once more appearing within the strange, contorted space.
This process repeats itself half a dozen times, and each time Moxian travels through the contorted space, more and more deep wounds appear on her pale, naked skin, some so deep that they even reveal her white bones. However, despite how ghastly the wounds appear, Moxian either doesn’t notice them or simply can’t be bothered to care about how bad they are.
Moxian stops crushing talismans when she arrives at a large mountain range that, even from where she is standing thousands of feet high in the air, seems to reach far beyond the sky and stretch on for an immeasurable distance. On each mountain, there are hundreds or even thousands of small dwellings constructed of stone, wood, and occasionally even jade or metal. And if one were to look closely, one would see that many people lived on each mountain.
Without a moment of thought for the buildings and people beneath, around, and above her, Moxian charges through the air at a dangerous speed. And in the wake of her passing, a large wind follows behind and buffets the mountains, the buildings, and the different people living on them. Some more powerful cultivators, each of them women wearing long black dresses and dark veils that make them seem as though they are attending a funeral, use dark Qi to prevent the winds from causing too much damage while glaring hatefully at Moxian, but no one steps up to stop her as she passes dozens of massive mountains in the blink of an eye.
A few hours later, Moxian arrives at the base of a mountain in the middle of an immense plain. The mountain itself dwarfs all of the mountains before it and were someone to fuse them all together, those massive mountains would still only appear to be a large rock lying at its base.
Unlike the other mountains, this one only has a few buildings constructed on it. The most prominent building is one at the mountain’s peak, far, far beyond the reach of the clouds, and consists of a single, large temple carved out of the white stone of the mountain. And though it lacks a roof, the temple is so far removed from the effects of rain, wind, and snow that it does not need one for anyone inhabiting it to remain untouched by the elements.
However, when Moxian arrives at the mountain, she does not head directly toward the large temple. Instead, she falls to the plains beneath her and begins running toward a small, unstable bamboo hut at its base. Unable to fly, it takes her several minutes to reach the bamboo hut, and drops of blood outline the path she takes. But, when she arrives, she walks up to a large stone jar containing water and cups her hands to splash it on her body.
The water does nothing to clean off the blood, and it even makes her appear even worse as her hands attempt to wipe off the remaining moisture from her skin and inadvertently smear the blood across her naked body. But moments later, when she examines herself and sees she has no dirt or sweat on her figure, she makes a black dress matching those the other women had been wearing as she flew by appear in her hand and quickly puts it on before a black veil appears in her hands and she covers her face with it.
After looking herself over and seeing that there are no wrinkles and no dust or dirt on her dress or veil, she leaves the unstable bamboo hut and runs toward the mountain. It doesn’t take long, and she quickly locates a long, winding set of stone steps that begin at the base of the mountain and end at its peak and quickly begins to ascend the stairs. As she goes, bloody footprints and splatters of blood begin to mar the otherwise clean surface of the steps.
Moxian rapidly ascends the mountain using the stone steps, and as she goes, her newly-donned dress begins to conform to the curves of her body and darken noticeably as her blood begins to seep through it, and her veil begins to stick unevenly to the sides of her face. All the while, a loud wind swirls around her and seems to press against her from behind, forcing her to move faster.
With the aid of the wind, she reaches the temple at the peak of the mountain in very little time, and as soon as she runs into a large, arched doorway, she begins calling out, “Master, Master!”
However, before she can get out more than these two words, a voice contaminated by barely-concealed fury shouts, “Kneel!”
As she hears the voice, Moxian’s knees begin to fall toward the ground and she angles her feet in a well-practiced maneuver so she slides forward on the tips of her toenails, carried forward by the speed of her run. And as she slides across the room, she lowers her head and spreads her hands to the sides of her face with her palms pointed toward the ground. Her speed carries her several hundred feet into the room, and the blood leaving her body creates two long, unbroken red streaks along the ground leading to where she ends up with her knees, palms, and forehead pressed firmly against the ground.
“Master!” Moxian calls out excitedly, unaware of her master’s fury. “I found a good thing!”
“A good thing?” A woman’s voice hisses from nowhere. “Is it so good that you can ascend the mountain without first taking care of yourself?”
“Very good! And Master, I did take care of myself! I even remembered to wash myself with water and wear the right dress this time!” Moxian calls out proudly.
“You think I care about that?” The woman’s voice shouts furiously. “You are covered in blood!”
Confused, Moxian blinks twice and scrunches up her face. “But Master, it’s only my blood. I didn’t hurt anyone this time! Aren’t you proud of me? I’m learning to be a good girl!”
“You!” All of a sudden, a long, black cat with golden eyes and a white tail appears in front of where Moxian is kneeling and glares down at her blood-soaked form.
“Master! I really did good this time! I didn’t hurt anybody, and I didn’t break anything important, and I even remembered which direction the palace was in so you didn’t need to come out to find me! Why aren’t you proud of me?”
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Moxian's master, listening to the pleading in Moxian’s voice, looks down at the devastated body of her disciple and can’t help but feel pain and sorrow. Such wounds are easy for her to fix, but looking at her childish disciple who cannot even understand why she is furious, her heart aches. She had experienced this feeling numerous times since she chose to accept Moxian as her personal disciple, but this is the first time she had seen this little imp of hers in such bad shape.
Shaking her head in bitter frustration, she appears closer to Moxian and makes Moxian’s dress and veil disappear so that she can better see the hundreds of wounds marring her body.
“Master—“ Moxian begins.
“Silence!” Her master orders and Moxian’s voice cuts off immediately.
Then, with slow, careful movements of her front paws, Moxian's master kneads Moxian’s injuries and forces out the festering black energy inside of them before leaning forward and licking each gash until it closes, leaving not even a scar behind. The entire process takes a while, and throughout, Moxian doesn’t make so much as a single sound of discomfort even when she is made to lay on her side so her master can get the worst of her injuries covering her chest and stomach.
When she finishes and Moxian is made to kneel again, Moxian's master asks, “Well? Why did you return in such horrible shape?”
Excited, Moxian calls out, “I found a good thing! I have to share it with Master!”
Shaking her head, Moxian's master asks, “What good thing is so good that you have to suffer such injuries just to share it with me?”
“I don’t know!” Moxian says proudly.
Narrowing her golden eyes at her disciple, “You don’t know? Yet you think it’s such a good thing? Raise your head.”
Like a marionette, Moxian’s body raises until her back and head are upright while her knees and legs support her. She is completely unbothered by her lack of clothes, and as her master looks her over, she keeps a simple smile firmly fixed upon her lips. Meanwhile, her eyes have a measure of zeal to them that makes her master wonder just what it is that Moxian found.
“And where is this good thing?” Her master asks her while looking down at a small gold ring on Moxian’s middle finger.
“I have to get more!” Moxian grins brightly.
“More? You mean you came all this way and suffered so many injuries to share a good thing with me and you didn’t even think to bring it with you?”
“Hehe.” Moxian begins fidgeting, her body moving back and forth as her toes begin curling wildly. Then, she closes her eyes and uses her spiritual energy to request more of the purple mist from Lan Jin.
Confused by her disciple’s strange behavior, Moxian's master asks her, “Is the good thing you are talking about a nap? Because I had been doing that before you showed up.”
Moxian quickly shakes her head, but her eyes remain closed. “I already finished off the first of the good things. I have to make my pet give me more.”
“Your pet?” Her master asks, stunned. “Since when did you have a pet? And how does it relate to you having a good thing to share with me? And how are you going to communicate with it?”
“Master!” Moxian complains. “You’re asking too many questions at once!”
Next to her, her master’s eyes widen for an instant before she stares at Moxian while feeling irritated. “You little imp! It doesn’t matter how many questions I ask, I want you to answer all of them!”
Scrunching up her face, Moxian sighs and then begins, “Master, when I was out playing, I found a person swimming in the water and thought him to be funny so I tried to brand him and make him my pet. But my spiritual brand didn’t do anything and he started disappearing, so I used my blood essence to try to brand him with a slave seal instead, but that didn’t work either. I was really frustrated about it at first, but I couldn’t do anything since he had already disappeared and I quickly forgot all about it after I was affected by a small incident.”
Remembering how she lost against Qingshui and the dirty trick she played in order to beat her, Moxian frowns slightly. But, not wanting her master to ask her about the incident, she quickly continues her story.
“Well, I thought the situation over and done with, but after a while, my pet contacted me and told me that he had swallowed a plant with a large amount of elemental-Wood energy. I was surprised at first. I had even thought someone was playing tricks on me when I heard a voice inside my head. But I quickly realized that something strange was happening and examined my soul and found a connection to my pet!”
Moxian begins grinning while thinking about how terrified that dark space made her feel and starts speaking again while her master’s face grows concerned.
“So when I found the connection between my pet and me, I realized that my slave seal had failed also. But, for some reason, it connects our minds and allows us to communicate and my pet took advantage of that to beg for me to save its life! I thought it would be fun to save him, so I made him call me his master and gave him the same advice you gave me when I started cultivating.”
Narrowing her eyes in thought, Moxian says, “But, it seems my pet’s brain isn’t too good, because even though I told him the process he needed to follow to cultivate Qi, what he ended up with wasn’t Qi at all. Instead, he made some sort of purple mist.”
As Moxian says this, her master’s face reveals a strange expression, but Moxian has no idea what it means.
Shaking her head, Moxian finishes, “But even though his brain isn’t that good, what he makes seems to be a really good thing! And so I wanted to share it with you!”
Then she looks at her master’s stunned face and smiles brightly.
Her master, horrified by everything Moxian told her, wants to reprimand her for her reckless behavior. But, before she gets the opportunity to do so, Moxian falls to her side and begins letting out happy mewling sounds and contented sighs.
Startled, Moxian's master immediately transforms into the shape of a mature, attractive woman with long black hair with white tips, black cat ears, and a white tail. With only her disciple present, she doesn’t bother manifesting clothes for herself as she reaches out and pulls Moxian’s head onto her lap.
When she looks into Moxian’s eyes, what she sees horrifies her. Throughout Moxian’s life, she had been like a doll or even a puppet. She always used the face that she believed was expected of her in order to gain benefits or avoid punishment. Whether it be reverence, happiness, sadness, or whatever else, Moxian learned all of these faces in order to communicate with others. However, even though she learned the faces, she never understood the feelings that went along with them. Naturally, everyone within the Dark Moon Immortal Palace knew this fact well, and they avoided her like the plague because they knew she wasn’t sincere with anything that she did. For those who knew of her, all they had to do to see the lie of Moxian’s ‘emotions’ was to look into her eyes.
But now, as she looks down at her disciple, she notices that Moxian’s eyes are full of different emotions. From happiness to sorrow, to guilt, pride, and even trace amounts of kindness, there are numerous emotions clearly evident within Moxian’s eyes. But, more than anything else, there is pain. And as Moxian lies on her side making pleased sounds and being unable to differentiate between her different emotions, tears fall from her eyes and her body begins to tremble as she slowly lifts up one of her hands and turns toward her master.
Noticing how unusual Moxian’s condition is, she immediately sends a large amount of energy into Moxian’s body to find whatever is causing her to behave like this. But, this infusion of energy stops suddenly when Moxian’s eyes focus on her own and all of Moxian’s emotions disappear only to be replaced by love and adoration as seven small wisps of purple mist appear on the tip of Moxian’s index finger.
Then, as she smiles at her master with an expression far too gentle to match her body, still covered with blood and wracked with pain, she whispers, “Master, you can have the bigger half.”
Her hand trembling and her eyes moist as she stares down at her disciple, Moxian’s master takes a moment to process the entire situation before reaching out and grabbing the several small strands of purple mist. Then, as she leans down and kisses Moxian on the forehead, she whispers, “What a good disciple! Thank you so much for this gift!”
Moxian curls in on herself, her face resting in her master’s lap as her master runs one hand down her back. And as Moxian closes her eyes while bathing in the comfort of her master’s presence, her master glares at the purple mist in her palm and seals it away so that she can examine it more thoroughly later.