At around the same time, in a land quite far away, there was a sect. Made of pure white marbles, all houses were reflecting the rays of the sun gently. In the inner part of this sect, there was a young woman that was on her way back home. As she walked by a wall, she saw a poster.

The poster was a notice of recruitment for a certain arena being opened by a pinnacle cultivator in a city called the Seven Waterfall city. It mentioned how the participants would have to fight the master's disciples and, if they won a certain number of times, would be rewarded with techniques. She only glanced at it before moving on. It didn't pique her interest at all.

Why would she need to fight for techniques when there was a library filled with thousands of those in the sect?

She hummed as she went home. As she arrived at her house, she saw that her neighbor was sitting at her garden table and sipping some tea as usual. She had asked for this particular house back when she finally got promoted to an inner court disciple. It was quite a few years ago already.

That house had been vacated by its occupant long ago too. Death, they said. Anyways, she had decided to get this one. Usually, disciples were given a house according to their generation, grouping them together. She had asked for this one instead and, in the end, they gave it to her. Simply because it wouldn't change much for them.

As she arrived at her front gate, her neighbor asked: "Isn't your fiancé with you this time? it's rare"

She turned to look at the woman and answered: "I don't have any fiancé, that guy is living in his own dream"

The woman chuckled as she took a mouthful of tea. She savored it for a second before she asked once more: "So, where did he go?"

She gave up and told her: "He picked that arena mission"

The woman nodded, then she moved on to a different thing: "How about joining me for some tea?"

She happily agreed, promising to come after she lit up some incense. Right. She wanted to light some incense for the dead. She went to the back of her house where a smaller garden was. In it, there were no flowers or trees, only a single sculpture in the middle of it. It depicted a young man and under it was a small list of achievements. They remained impressive regardless of how many times she read them.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She began to clean the sculpture and its surroundings and then, she lit up some incense in front of it. She bowed once, clapped her hands thrice and smiled once. This was the sculpture of the one who saved her life and granted her the future she had now. Unfortunately, he died doing so. No one saw his corpse but after so long... Anyways, just because he wasn't here anymore didn't mean she would forget him. She would likely forever be grateful and there was no way the memories of him would disappear.

She left the garden and went to meet her neighbor again. This time, there was a second one sitting at the table. It was a man and the woman's neighbor. The three of them were good friends. They had been friends of her benefactor when he was alive and she met them through him. As she reached the table, she greeted them both more formally: "Thank you for having me, Senior Sister Han-Bi. Hello, Senior Brother Sang-Min"

Sang-Min greeted back less formally: "Come on, Soo-Hyun, don't be so cold. How many times will we need to tell you to call us by our names?"

Han-Bi smiled as she added: "He is right, you can drop the formality with us"

Soo-Hyun smiled as she picked up the tea but didn't answer. They both sighed as they were certain she would still be formal from time to time... As she picked the tea and drank some, she couldn't help smiling. Big sis Han-Bi's tea was always so goddamn delicious.

Sang-Min broke the silence: "So, Han-Bi told me your boyfriend went to the Seven Waterfall?"

Soo-Hyun glared at him: "Not. My. Boyfriend"

Sang-Min caressed the back of his neck as he chuckled: "Right, right, my bad. Anyways, why would he go there? I don't think it would be for techniques, we don't lack those here"

Soo-Hyun pondered for a moment. She recalled what he said to her before he left: "I will deal with some ghost from the past and come back to you, my love!"

She was still disgusted by it even now. Because of this idiot, no one else dared to pursue her. Simply because he made them all believe she was already taken... He was such a pain. She did want to experience some romance. Just not with him.

In any case, she answered the question: "No clue. Don't really care either. He talked about a ghost of the past"

Han-Bi and Sang-Min looked at each other then sighed. They didn't know what that ghost thing was about either. Their little sister was bringing them so much problems though... They couldn't understand why she was so against being pursued by Sang-Kyu. Sure, he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed but he did love her sincerely. They did want to help form the pair but she was so reluctant. It was tiring. It had been tiring. To the point they had given up some years ago already but it still seemed to be a shame.

They truly pitied Sang-Kyu. Especially Sang-Min since he was in the same kind of situation. He still hadn't managed to woo the love of his life even though they were always together. As he began to go down this road, he could feel the despair coming and hurriedly changed topic: "So, anyways, I heard sister Chi'Un was getting chummy with brother Tonghyon"

The three of them loved rumors.