Xinyi struggled to breathe. They came out in short bursts that never satisfied her lungs or body. The world was getting blurry and had already begun to spin. She couldn’t believe this was happening. Not so soon, not when everything could have been okay.

“Shui!” She screamed in desperation. “Shui! Stop playing. Come here!”

Hot tears felt like they were melting her skin. Xinyi held tight to her wooden sword, the actual blade was strapped to her back.

She ran to find her little one. Her charge, the person whom she had made her purpose in life. If Hu Shui died, then Xinyi had nothing left worth living for. Her ancestor was here, but one day soon, he would leave like all the stories said.

And then she would be alone again.

The fog made it near impossible to see, worse yet, it blinded her spiritual senses as well. For all intents and purposes she was blind.

Xinyi started running in a direction. Slashing at the fog with Qi empowered strikes, hoping it would do something anything. But they were like sponges. Everything she threw at them was absorbed and disappeared in moments.

It was pointless. Everything was pointless.

The edges of her vision began to darken. Her breathes came out faster and faster–

She heard a loud laugh. Filled with mockery. It snapped her out of it. For the first time since Shui and her Ancestor disappeared, she took a deep breath. It was only the possible danger around her that came down like a cold bucket of water.

Xinyi used her wooden blade as a crutch and turned to look in the direction of the voice.

The fog seemed to come alive. It dispersed into a wide circle showing the terrain. She could see the trees far away in a large circle and the empty ground and brush. But what caught her attention the most was the young man standing alone.

Black fog that felt foreign when compared to the surrounding natural ones around her. They originated from the man, and it was filled with what Xinyi sensed as maleficence. A whip dangled loosely from his palm, like it was about to drop.

“Who are you?”

The man smiled, it was wide and made the hair on her neck stand up. This was no kind thing, it was deranged and filled with evil. Like the black fog that surrounded him.

“Don’t mind me, little deer. Go back to your suffering, it was quite…” He licked his lips. “...appetizing.” It came out in a whisper, but the wind carried it into her ears.

There were too many warning signals. Xinyi gulped and closed her eyes. She caught the flow of her Qi and stabilized it, bringing equilibrium to her body. She got into a fighting stance with a long exhaled breath.

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She had over-reacted. She must have. Hu Shui was probably with their Ancestor. How could a being that powerful be hindered by a little fog? The thought of how stupid she had acted made her laugh.

Her ancestor made Dong fucking ZhenKang look like a pup. And here she was worrying that Hu Shui was in danger at all. They might be just outside of their senses currently watching over her and waiting for her to overcome this obstacle.

This Ancestor, ever since he had appeared, had been beyond her wildest dreams. How could a man with many world shaking pills, potions, manuals, weapons, techniques, and the power to merely stare an Immortal Rank cultivator into an early grave be unreliable.

She just hoped he did not look down at her for the thoughts and actions just moments ago. It's how you end that counts, whether you overcome your challenges and encounters. Nothing else.

Xinyi would be damned before she failed him.

She heard the wind whisper into her ear. But ignored it instead. She knew where it came from, and could not bring herself to wield it. How long had she relied on no one, it was ingrained into her body.

That wasn’t mentioning her Ancestor had said not to barr the blade's edge unless it was life and death. For all she knew, this might not even be a situation worth a confrontation. Maybe the eccentric man would just walk–

She swung her blade to the left, years of drill work and sharpening her perception leading her body before she had time to think. The clank of blades clashing and a howling scream followed. It sounded otherworldly and like a ghost.

Xinyi jumped back. And surveyed her surroundings.

A figure, made of all black shadows. Without a head. Its purple eyes and mouth shone bright then faded back into the shadows it had come from.

The man tisked. “Worms should know when to die.” He waited for a moment but sighed with faux exaggeration. It looked fake. “Why aren’t you responding? Where is your panic? I demand to taste your despair once again! Respond!”

Xinyi grinned. Gathered energy from her gaseous core throughout her meridians. A movement technique flashed through her body, blade glowed a bright green. “I have nothing to tell a dead man walking.”

She lunged before finishing the words. Xinyi relished the widening eyes of her foe. Her body felt lighter than her best days. A mere couple of days with her ancestor and he had already boosted her physical strength, muscles, and ligaments beyond anything she would have believed possible.

If he was right, that was just the smallest change yet.

Xinyi struck like a viper. Her wooden sword carved the air. It took moments before she was in front of him, swinging with all her body could offer to decapitate the loquacious fool–

Her sword struck metal. A shower of sparks covered them as she was thrown away without understanding what had happened.

Tuck and roll.

Xinyi popped up in a bounce, grace personified. Even when thrown away she found balance–

“What the hell?” She whispered to herself. She could feel her muscles slacken.

The man grabbed his neck, a slight nick with blood seeping from it. He shook in anger, but she could not see him. Her eyes could not be torn away from what appeared before her.

Countless black shadowy figures with their tell-tale purple eyes emerged from the black fog around the man. They crawled out, jumped from the trees, walked in mid air. This was impossible.

“Fucking bitch. You won’t die until you’ve suffered a thousand cuts. Let agony be your lesson insect! No one dares strike at Yang Zexian! I am the son-in-law of a Dark Gate Palace Elder! I am the future! Your soon to be master of these pitiful lands! You’re nothing. I am everything.”

Xinyi felt her heart drop. They were here. They came and found her. The ones that killed her family. The evil cultivators had finally found them after so many years.