"Mighty Dragon Swallowing Sword!" A rather young boy's voice woke her up.

"Heavenly Dancing Fairy Palace!" Countered two equally young, shrill voices.

"Divine Mystic Spring Immortal Cave!" Another demanding and very young voice argued back - only for a girl's voice to reject it in favor of "Fleeting Flower Blossom Orchid!".

She groaned as she sat up, waking another girl she was sharing a mat with in the process. The other girl held her ears shut after a moment of desorientation.

"Children!" A commanding matron's voice interrupted the argument with a loud clap of very mortal hands.

The young, powerful cultivator kids that had just been arguing went quiet very quickly. "Sect names are not important right now. I have no doubt your elders will take your suggestions into account, but for now you should wash your hands and faces. Otherwise there won't be any dinner!"

She chuckled as she heard the mortal, the captain's wife if she remembered correctly, scold the proud scions of great cultivator clans like the unruly children they were. It was odd to think that these mortals, the captain and his wife, were the oldest people on the ship now. No elders, no martial uncles or aunts, no masters, no ancestors... just youths younger than 20, a few children and babies.

She spread out her divine sense and felt the others. She had been far too focused on possible pursuers the night before, but now...

6 people in Core Formation. She herself, at 15, was the youngest and weakest of them so she couldn't tell how strong the others were.

31 were in Foundation Building, in different stages. 12 of them around her age or a little younger and pretty close to Core Formation, too.

7 in Qi Training.

Talented descendants and clan disciples of lesser rank. One princess, but none of the princes. All of them of lesser clans, later born children or children from branch families with talent but not much backing.

No guards. No elders meant to keep them alive. No truly precious treasures she could feel. No, those went with the more important children, like her second and fourth brothers. A lot of girls, fewer boys.

Of course. What were girls if the family could protect their sons?

And then there were about 500 mortals. Some of those were probably clan children, future cultivators, but she couldn't tell which with her current strength.

Nothing, compared to before, but maybe enough out here, at the edge of the continent.

Divine Mystic Spring Immortal Cave...indeed.

With a weak smile she got to her feet and made her way up to the deck. She...wasn't feeling much of anything. Numb, she thought. Too numb from all the pain and horror. All of them were likely to develop mental demons if they were allowed to brood.

Outside it was dark again. Apparently they had slept away the entire day. Not surprising, with how long they had been awake the previous day.

Still, she jumped off the ship and ran across the sea towards the dark blotch obscuring the stars. Their mountain was larger than it seemed, but rather bare. Not much of a shoreline, just cliffs all around.

As she entered the formation she briefly felt it scan her bloodline. Not an elegant solution, but also not one their enemies could get around either. They just had to hope there were no...mistakes...in their bloodlines. Getting an ancestor wrong in these circumstances, when the spirit of the formation didn't trust them enough to take orders yet, would be unfortunate.

The island itself was brimming with qi, drifting like clouds around the mountain. Few trees, but many precious herbs and shrubs, so much so she didn't need to come close to feel them. No beasts, no doubt thanks to the formation.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

The mortals couldn't live there, even if there was a way to get them inside.

As she reached the cliff she jumped up to take a look. Up to near the peak, where her place as one of the strongest would be, of course. She saw one girl on the way, already digging a cave. As the first at the top she had choices, such as an overhanging cliff with an existing cave containing a qi spring. Very close to the Spirit vein, too.

She marked it mentally but kept looking - and as luck would have it she found a cliff with a small waterfall. Climbing upwards, she found herself on a nice plateau. The waterfall came from another qi spring in the cliff wall at the back of the plateau and the vein ran through the plateau into the mountain. Just as good in theory as the cave, but much nicer since she could get plenty of sunlight for a garden.

She spread out her divine sense and marked the plateau as her own while a small smile tugged on her lips. Now if she could get a few trees to grow here she would finally have her very own place, the likes of which only adults and nascent soul cultivators had any right to own.

"Aww, already taken..." A strange girl grumbled as she was still standing there admiring her very bare plateau that only had a bunch of herbs. That girl's clothes were clean and her hair was washed, unlike her own.

She half expected an argument and a fight...but nothing came. The other girl just left to keep looking. It was odd. The girl seemed to be stronger, so...shouldn't she have been challenged?

For a moment she contemplated reserving another spot, but...that seemed kind of mean, to reserve all the good spots in advance.

As she had the wood element she knew all too well that the ground was too rocky for trees right now. She would have to ask someone with earth roots to improve the soil before she could plant anything. And maybe get that someone to make a cave for her, too.

She remembered the girl making a cave further down - and decided to wash first. With a grin she jumped down the mountain like a monkey, and then onto the ocean to run back to the ship over the water surface.

She had to get her stuff, after all. Hopefully nobody had stolen her bag. She had copies of all of her families jade slips in there, but not much else except for some bare necessities like soap. And lots of seeds, even the precious types. No spirit stones or tools, sadly. Those went to her brothers, heavens knew where they had fled. Her parents' soul lamps were with them, but since they went to fight the enemy...well, even if they lived they wouldn't come to her.

She wasn't quite sure if she was glad to be free and safe - or frustrated because she had been left to her own fate.

With one last jump she landed on board and went into the improvised building on deck. The ship's belly was full of things, with no space for hundreds of people, so...well.

Loud discussions greeted her when she entered the smaller room where the cultivators were.

She almost groaned as she realised that it was the sect name discussion, again. Or maybe still.

Just as she was looking around for the strongest of them to keep order the captain let out a loud whistle, followed by silence as the noble cultivator youths seemed shocked at first - and then slightly embarrassed at the earlier commotion.

"Children. Please be reasonable." The elderly man began in that voice that just demanded the listener keep quiet. Authority, that was what his voice conveyed, she thought as she sat down against the wall. "First of all: I am well aware of who you used to be, but do you truly want to keep those names? Why don't you choose new ones, names your enemies don't know?"

He began his speech with an unexpected topic, but maybe she had just missed a big chunk of the entire argument that had taken place.

"You will have to start again, as a small collection of weaker cultivators. Do you want some other cultivator that has been around for centuries to feel challenged by the 'Divine Dragon Controlling Slayer'?"

That resulted in a lot of dissatisfied grumbling among the younger boys, but most people seemed thoughtful. She saw a few people nod in agreement. With a mortal!

"And what will the sects around here think if a few children found a sect with a grandiose name? They'll think you have something worth stealing. Do you want to be attacked because you call your sect something impressive?"

"No..." Now there was a consensus that wasn't the least bit reluctant. They definitely didn't want to be attacked again. Anything but that. "We just want to cultivate in peace." The ice beauty, who seemed to have washed herself at some point, said. Not many had gotten around to that yet.

The captain nodded. "In that case I suggest you guys elect a new sect leader tomorrow. Wash yourselves, get changed, have dinner, think about some nice, peaceful names, then sleep some more. You're not going to accomplish much today in this mood."

Silence followed for a little while. Then, the crowd dispersed as people went to get soap, a change of clothes and then a bucket of water from the sea the water practitioners cleansed to turn it into pure, sweet water for washing.

Someone cast some sort of shadow technique to separate boys and girls and she finally got to wash herself.

Clean and in new clothing she felt much better. Fresh. The minty toothpaste in her mouth made her smile.

Maybe she should just call herself that. Mint.

As a cultivator with a wood root it seemed rather fitting.