They reached a patch of forest and Jie slammed her fist into a tree. It struck with a loud thud, but the tree was supernaturally tough and remained intact.

"How can they even do something like that? How can anyone do something like that? I wanted to help them, and instead, they were just sick, selfish, evil people! I hate them! I hate everyone! Why are people like that? He even offered me the children! What the hell was with that?" Jie yelled.

"It's not uncommon for powerful cultivators to force themselves on weaker people. Male or female... they both do it. He must've thought you might be one," Ming said.

"They... what? Why? That's despicable!" Jie said.

"I never said it wasn't. Only those with no honor or morals would do so, but no world is without such people, and when people gain strength they reveal who they truly are. Do try to speak to me through the link I've made. Right now, you seem insane. Though there's nobody close enough to see you, it's wise to foster good habits," Ming said.

"I don't care about good habits! Those people are disgusting! I hate them all! Why won't anyone stop people like them? Why do bad people get to do bad things and nothing happens to them?" Jie asked. Tears ran down her snow-white cheeks.

Ming pulled her into a hug and stroked her hair as she sobbed against his scales.

"People are who they choose to be. It isn't your fault. And, just as there's evil, and evil people, so too is there good and good people. It is in the nature of good souls like yourself to despair at the existence of evil, and I urge you to remember that this is not your old world.

"You're not powerless here. And just as strength gives evil the ability to commit greater atrocities, so strength gives good the power to do greater acts of righteousness. In you, is the potential for incredible power, and it will be up to you how to use that power.

"One day, you could destroy all evil that you come across and make the universe a better and safer place. You don't have to be helpless ever again, and you aren't alone. I saw in your world how criminals are protected by the laws that should be persecuting them. But here, only strength matters. And, you will be the strongest of them all, kiddo," Ming said.

"I just wish people wouldn't be like that..." Jie said.

"All good souls do. If it makes you feel any better, Hell is real," Ming said with a toothy grin.

"You're joking?" Jie said.

"I'm not. Reincarnation, the Hells, and the Heavens are all real. Who knows, maybe our journey will take us there one day. They're all real places... well, not reincarnation though you do get reincarnated in a place... but you know what I mean," Ming said.

Jie giggled. "You can be really silly sometimes. Thank you," she said.

"No problem, kiddo," Ming said as he wiped the tears from her eyes, "Do you want me to go back there and teach them a lesson? I could kill them if you want."

"No! No... I don't want to be responsible for any more deaths. Let's just keep going... I'm sorry for being so weak and crying like this," Jie said.

Ming ruffled her hair. "This from the girl that had her body remade while she was still in it. Weak indeed. You just have a big heart is all. I should know, I helped make it," he said with a smile.

Jie smiled softly for a moment before a thought struck her and stole it from her lips. "What about the people I hit... especially that first one... is he going to be okay? I didn't... kill him did I?" she asked.

Ming chuckled. "It'd be his own fault if you did, but no. He was alive when we left. Just in a lot of pain. He was lucky," he said.

Jie let out a sigh of relief.

"You'll have to kill with your own hands eventually, you know," Ming said.

"I know... and I will, but I don't want to. I know I'm a hypocrite for already having you kill those men for me... but I just... I want to pretend I'm a good person for a little longer," she said.

"You are a good person, kiddo. The laws of your world aren't about what's right, they're just there to keep order. Some people need to be killed. The trouble with not killing bad people is that it just means they'll be free to do evil things that much longer. I know it's hard to accept at first, but you'll get there. You're a good person, and you'll stay that way. I believe in you," Ming said.

Jie hugged him tighter.

She pulled away from the hug and took a deep breath. "Alright. Let's go. I'm here to fulfill a promise, and that's what I'll do. Onward to The Crimson Academy!" Jie said.

They walked for long hours, taking stops to eat and cultivate as they continued southward. And, after a few days, they started noticing other travelers on the roads.

Many of the travelers were children around Jie's age. Some had entourages of guards, and wore expensive clothing, while others traveled alone or with their parents and wore rags similar to those of the villagers'.

Although many of the travelers looked dangerous and had powerful auras that far surpassed her own cultivation, Jie wasn't worried.

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Ming assured her that he hadn't seen anyone he couldn't deal with if they were attacked. So, she was relaxed and ignored the many stares as she cultivated between traveling to the academy.

She trained and followed Ming's instructions to the letter along the way just as she had since arriving on Xiannu.

Ming was always stunned as he watched over her.

It was true that children often started cultivating very early on in his world, but Jie was like... something else.

Few children could be anywhere near this disciplined... even adults couldn't, and yet Jie was like one of those mechanical constructs he'd seen while he was on Earth.

Devices that just kept working without stopping, never tiring, never slowing down, or taking a break. Yes... Jie was like a machine.

And her capacity for cultivating was shocking beyond words. Her cultivation speed had been astonishing from the very start. But, she'd become even faster, and not just because she no longer got knocked out by the process of making dragon lightning qi.

Somehow, she took in and refined more Essence than she had when she'd started... it was staggering.

Ming smiled a toothy grin while Jie cultivated, her face serene, focused, and serious. Not noticing the shocked looks she got from any who felt the immense amount of Essence she sucked in like a greedy whirlpool.

He chuckled softly when a group of guards steered their young master around her as though she were an Angel ranked beast in human form. If it weren't for the way they stared at Jie, he'd have thought they'd noticed him somehow.

He looked once more at the little girl.

He'd been sent to find someone with monstrous power... all he needed was time, and this little girl would fulfill that wish.

He was sure of it.

***

What were a few travelers on the roads gradually turned into an ocean of people as they neared The Crimson Academy.

Jie's eyes were wide at the sheer number of them. She'd never seen so many people in one place!

Merchant stalls littered the area, lining the muddy road and catering to the enormous crowd. So many people yelled and talked in unison that it merged into a deafening, overwhelming thrum of ceaseless activity.

And yet the chaotic throng of people only grew in density as it approached the base of a massive set of white stone stairs that rose high into the sky and ended at a pair of blood red gates. There were two statues made out of a red stone, one on either side of the gates, of a beautiful woman.

The statues were an intimidating sight to behold. Each of them dwarfed the skyscrapers back on Earth and was built into even larger walls comprised of smooth white stone.

This was a school? It looked more like an ancient palace!

"Let's get to the front," Ming said through their link.

"Don't we have to wait in the queue?" Jie sent back as she stared at the writhing sea of people ahead of them.

Ming snorted. "If you wait, you won't get in. Just look. Those with the power to push their way through are doing so. Strength is all that matters, kiddo," he said.

Ming was right. Even as she watched, groups with more powerful experts, mostly those with guards, shoved others aside into the mud and dirt. Those who tried to fight back were savagely beaten.

"It shouldn't be this way," Jie said.

"Perhaps not, but it is what it is. Now get moving, kiddo. If this school is even halfway decent, they should be able to help your cultivation a lot while I'm recuperating," he said.

Jie elbowed her way through the crowd with Ming flying over her, invisible to everyone else. She didn't want to be as savage as the others, but the crowd quickly grew too thick even for that, and she struggled to push her way through.

For all her supernatural abilities, this crowd made her feel weak as she could barely even budge most of them.

She couldn't help but wonder if she would ever become as strong as Ming said... strong enough to fulfill her promise... strong enough to protect the weak and the innocent...

Jie squeezed between a man and a woman, having to push them slightly just so she could slip through in the densely packed crowd. Somebody knocked her from behind as she did so, sending her stumbling into a small clearing in the throng. She bumped into a middle-aged man with a barrel chest. The man wore an impressive set of armor and carried a two-meter-long sword across his back. He turned to face her, his face twisted with annoyance.

"Watch it!" he snapped. Then, his annoyance turned to a sneer as he looked down at her.

"Where do you think you're going, brat? Do you think you're worthy of entering the same school as our young master?" he asked. He stepped more firmly in front of her as he folded his arms, clearly intent on barring her path.

A few other guards around him snickered.

"I just want to get past. I'm not looking for trouble," Jie said calmly.

"Oooh you're not looking for trouble?" said the man in a mocking voice, "Scram, kid. You should've got your family to send some guards to escort you."

"To hell with keeping a low profile. Let's teach this jackass a lesson," Ming said.

Jie felt a warm glow in her chest. Ming was always so protective of her.

"You should really step aside. You'll only have yourself to blame if you don't," Jie said.

The crowd around them sensed something interesting happening and shifted as heads turned their way and the small clearing formed into a circle around them.

The guards' mouths dropped open as one.

Then, they burst out laughing.

"You think you're scary, little girl? An attack from you is meaningless to experts like us. You're just too arrogant," said the man.

He drew his sword.

"Hey now, I think that's going a little far don't you, Yu Bo?" said another guard.

"This little brat dares to threaten us and besmirches our master's name in doing so! Fools need to be made an example of," said Yu Bo.

"Hey, kid just apologize okay?" said the other guard.

"I have nothing to fear. He cannot harm me," Jie said.

"What? That's it!" Yu Bo said.

"Wait! No!" yelled the other guard.

Yu Bo slashed his sword at Jie's arm.

Ming caught the sword an inch away from Jie's sleeve and squeezed.

The sword shattered like glass and fragments of metal splattered onto the muddy ground, injuring no one.

The breeze of the sword swing rustled Jie's clothes.

The crowd around them went dead silent. Yu Bo staggered back and stared at all that remained of his weapon.

The hilt.

"How did you... how did you do that?" he said.

"I told you. I have nothing to fear from you. Now get out of my way," Jie said.

He swallowed hard and stepped aside.

Jie took slow, measured steps forward, and all that had witnessed what had happened stepped aside for her, opening an easy pathway for her.

"Oh, kiddo. You're just the best. You have such a flair for the dramatic," Ming said.

"I didn't do anything, it was all you," Jie said.

Ming giggled in her mind like a schoolgirl. "Do you not hear yourself? You sound so sweet until someone starts to annoy you, and then you sound like an ice queen. I think those guards are going to need new robes," Ming said.

And though she tried her best, Jie couldn't help smirking a bit as Ming laughed and replayed the way she spoke over and over.

For some reason, as she smiled, the crowd took a collective step further away from her.

She shrugged. She felt a bit guilty about forcing her way through like this, but she had an important promise to keep. And, she had to admit, it was nice not to stand in line for hours and just cut to the front instead.