Sparkling, lush terrain opened up to Wei Zhiruo's calm eyes. She stood atop a hilltop ridge, looking down the rolling meadows on one side and the other an endless jungle of trees, curling canopies and mountain tops touching somewhere farther, touching the skies. She didn't know where she was.
"Marr?" She called out to him. Marr came running, holding what seemed to be an orange fruit in his mouth. He jumped up, his paws touching nothing but air, and was soon sitting proudly atop Wei Zhiruo's left shoulder.
He bent down and nudged her, till she picked the fruit from his mouth and took a bite out of its soft orange skin, biting into the juicy flesh that was sweet and tangy at the same time and felt instantly refreshed. "Where did you get this? It tastes good."
"Over there —there is a huge tree full of these ripened fruits." Marr replied, pointing towards the wood they had left behind with his head. He then jumped, coming down her shoulder and started walking lithely, his paws springing against the grass, starting to descend down the hill. His brush-like white tail swung in the air.
Wei Zhiruo followed behind. "Where do you think this place is? Can we go back before anyone finds us missing in the mansion?"
"Sounds difficult to me. What about we let go of the plan and don't go back and keep moving wherever we like? It's not like we have any ties…there? Or do you?" A sharp Marr observed her hesitation and instantly pointed it out.
Wei Zhiruo looked up into the sunny autumn sky and said, "I am not clear about that. Many things are shrouded in mystery and we...I think, we should better go back and at least see what happened to her —mother."
Wei Zhiruo then told Marr about a small snippet of memory in which she was being lulled to sleep by that woman—the night lamp had been ethereally warm, as well as the lullaby that seemed to be a part of that magnetic charm, which that piece of memory exercised over her. It was this flash of a small memory that told her of the deep connection she had with her savior.
"Of course...she was your mother in this life and she saved us by sacrificing herself —she deserves our regard. How she turned into a Malformed beast like thing —that's naturally something we should look into and investigate. But is it safe to go back now? " Marr hummed in agreement. He paused a little, distracted by a chase of a pair of yellow butterflies flying close by.
"No, it's not. But I cannot help but think...Do you know —it takes very, very tragic...events for a heart to give birth to so much negative emotions that one's whole body and soul transforms into a rotten piece of chaotic, Malformed creature like that —so full of malaise. Inhuman torture of both body and soul. Humans dying in such a state turn into negative energy, and to be able to manifest a form out of negative energy itself? That is as difficult as using your soul to achieve a state of physicality." Wei Zhiruo didn't stop descending slowly, down the naturally formed unpaved road over the hill. Grass blades brushed against her bare feet. And the breeze played with her long hair. She tucked a few behind her ear and looked at the cat chasing the butterflies. "I think we need to go back. But we don't know anything, so I am not sure how to get started. Alas!" She sighed.
Marr looked behind himself, meeting her worried eyes and then said slowly, completely abandoning the chase of butterflies—"You know that many things are not under our control, right? What if our going back alerts him, that God? He must know us. Somehow, I still think it's troublesome to just leap into the tiger's den with no way out! Just count the number of mishaps you met on a single night —do you believe we will be lucky enough to come intact out of that place next time?"
"I know that too. It's just...never mind. Let's think about it after we know stuff about the terrains and places here. We need to first know if we are still near Jinghai or not. And this place doesn't look inhabited." Wei Zhiruo shrugged and said while stepping over a huge boulder, then jumping down over it.
The terrain of this place was a mixture of a number of distinctive features. There was a brook in front, spiraling downwards opposite hill. They were heading towards it. Opposite the brook and coming in front of them was also another forest. A darker one. The one they left behind looked very tame in front of that solemn, majestic forest they approached. The mountains were surrounding them on all sides and it was definitely a valley; while meadows interspersed here and there. Wild flowers, butterflies and random chitter-chatter of chirping birds was all they had heard. She spotted a wild goat.
"I heard some thoughts —an oak tree said, some monkeys and smaller animals live here. Foxes, wild cats, jackals, some deer and rabbits and even wild boars. Some predators must also live here too. There is plenty of food for all of them —but it's strange that there is no trace of human settlements around here. Usually that shouldn't be the case." Wei Zhiruo brushed another loose hair back.
"A hidden valley?"
"Most likely, that must be the case."
"Then let's keep moving forward." Marr replied and ran back to walk beside her.
They both talked for some time. Then they spent the rest of the time reaching the brook. By the time they were anywhere near it, it was past noon. The slow pace meant that they had grown hungry. Marr flew away to get them another wild ripened fruit from a nearby tree but warned, saying —"Be careful with this one. This one's too sour." He added while scrunching his face.
The green fruit which Wei Zhiruo held in her small hands looked delicious and fresh. She took a bite of its hard, pulpy yet sour flesh. It was really sour. But, after having a couple more bites, she felt her mouth filling with a strange kind of sweetness and felt full. She bent down, and reached for water with her hands. The brook bubbled, running cheerfully over pebbles of several colors and she washed her hands, then cupped her hands to fetch some water to drink. Water was cold.
Wei Zhiruo washed away the traces of blood on her body next, cleaning up some wounds as well. She washed her hands and took off the outer layer of her dress which looked like a silk robe and tore pieces of them to use as bandages. She planned to stay beside the water for the night. "Firewood. We might need to look for that."
"You rest, I will go. You still cannot use your Spiritual Senses so it will be dangerous for you. This place looks relatively safer. Wait for me to come back."
"Did you forget, I can fly too?" Wei Zhiruo sounded puzzled. "I can use the bloodline power."
"No, you cannot! Rest for me okay —pretend to be a good human for a while in front of me now." Marr hissed and looked back at her angrily and said, "You are not using any kind of energy. Your body is crumbling, you need this rest — and it doesn't need to be stressed for such miniscule jobs like looking for firewood! I can pretty much do it on my own!"
"It will be difficult for you to carry it back in your cat-form." Wei Zhiruo in return smiled and expressed her doubts. Her hands though, were busily winding, wrapping the extra fabric over the gaping wound on the stomach, and legs which had healed up to a considerable degree but still needed cover. "It will be faster for me to go with you."
"No need." Marr rolled his eyes at her and said, "I can manipulate phantom limbs if I need to. You will be doing useless work, see?"
"Okay, okay. I understand. You go and be busy, mister cat."
The evening descended quickly enough. It was going to be the first night Wei Zhiruo was spending outside in this world. Her stomach was full with the fruits they had picked in the afternoon, and a bunch of twigs and fallen branches piled up nearby, which she used to keep the fire burning.
Marr had also returned with a good enough pile of firewood and was now lounging at her feet.
After some while of shared silence, they once again fell into a slow tandem of exchanges and broken, intermittent conversations. Marr told her about the strange sounds he had heard the previous seven days while Wei Zhiruo shared details of her recent nightmare.
"I don't think it was a nightmare though." Throwing another small branch into the fire, Wei Zhiruo said. The flickering fire showered her face with warm yellows and reds, making the morose air lingering around her tired body lighten a lot. "I think she sealed that memory for both of us. I would have doubted that I lost it while obliterating my memories in this world —but you just said, you didn't remember such an event. How can it be so, if she didn't voluntarily seal away our memories? After all, only she knew about you."
"But aunt will never attack us! There must be something weird in this piece of your memory. Either it has been altered or there is something else fishy going on." Marr laid and stretched pliantly beside her feet. He was enjoying Wei Zhiruo's fingers brushing through his fur.
"I know —that's why the last bit is so weird. She held a sword and she tried to kill me. There was killing intention in her red eyes. Her eyes had turned red and she looked different and that's why I immediately knew she was an imposter. What took the shape of her, or used a real, hidden memory in my head to kill me — it is a little bit difficult to get an answer to this." The fire crackled.
Silence descended over them.
"So... another day in a completely different world." Marr asked after a long spell of silence. "It's quite nice to not always worry about what your evil mother or grandfather are plotting all the time...Aah. I like this. But tell me more about Syncesia. I knew my guess was right —that foul thing could only be done by the world consciousness! It really exchanged your life with that goddess, didn't it?"
Wei Zhiruo curled her lips, and her eyes lit up with a slightly colder look. She looked up at the star filled sky and sighed. It was another clear day of a clear autumn— "Syncesia wanted my blood... Actually, if one thinks straight enough, everything started from there. She was after you, I know this, as I have a gut feeling my childhood protection of your existence was some sort of instinctual response to a danger. She must have dug for ages to know of Blood-seeds existence, though. The Oracle was false —and there was no saving a falling world like Cuiping. If you think deeply, my being brought up with a constant reminder of me being the "key" might have solidified some kind of internal bias —but now, when I reflect on this, it's absurd that I believed it, and even believed it for all my life! How blind was I? Magic comes and goes and comes again in a cycle of revival and destruction —like everything in the world. And that's a universal truth! I guess, it's just the Cuiping World Consciousness which got greedy and wanted it all —he didn't want the long spell of destruction but to skip forward to another epoch of revival! Syncesia must have made a contract with Cuiping to trade me. Ruze clan would be the world's representative if they acted well enough as the puppet in front of the world…as such the plot unfolded. How easy, right?"
The cat hummed. His red eyes glinted in the dark, as he hissed into the air.
"They planned well. With the love your father had for your mother, it was not difficult to kill him silently. Then there was no king, just a small crown Princess. Internal disturbances, racial prejudices in the clan, and the final falling of the city fortress of the Capital city Finsmeave. After that, they would have got a hold of you justifiably —as you were a war prisoner. Next, they would have done the same Sacrificial Ceremony just a few years earlier. It was your aunt who disrupted their well thought out plan and you escaped. If it wasn't for her, it would have been exactly as they had designed. Syncesia gets the bloodline, you die to leave the well-developed country for your brother to ascend and rule, and the whole world welcomes magic back —a boon given by a pleased Goddess of hope. Clean."
"Not just that —think about faith." The log burned and embers flew. "How many more priests and followers of Syncesia must have been born after the revival? Uncountable. What do you think the people might have thought about Syncesia who had restored magic to the world? Their benefactress, and their savior —who wouldn't adore such a being?" Wei Zhiruo sighed as she thought of that Deity, whom she had seen only once.
"They would love her, worship her, adore her...but why our bloodline? Is it so powerful that, literally a God, and on top of that, a New Era God had to plan so much for it?" Marr affirmed her thoughts looking thoughtful. "Let me guess...I think it must have something to do with the "Game for Godhood" —I remember a rumor... Every new epoch starts with such a game, where Gods vie for Godhood of the past "Fallen God's" and snatch the power left in the universe. For that they needed faith —so many temples still flourished in the Middle world, one of the reasons was definitely to prepare the source of faith for the worshipped Gods for when they actually needed it for the game. She must be a part of it if she was so eager to earn faith."
"Ahh—I think you are right. The Temple of Hope was always seeking to advance into the Temple of Happiness. The Ancient Fallen God of Mirth and Joy —Iroum, I think, also has an unclaimed Godhood? If Syncesia wanted it, then using the Cuiping world as a chip is understandable." Wei Zhiruo threw in another log and took another bite of the sour fruit.
"But she didn't have to use you as a chip, did she? Your link with the Cuiping world is contractual, you hardly matter in her quest for faith. It can only mean that she desperately needed our bloodline! Why? And if she did, why go all the way round like this? Couldn't she have just killed us, captured us or snatched it away or something?" Marr asked.
"I think it's related to some Universal principles they cannot violate. But also...it may just be the bloodline which is precious and cannot be snatched away inappropriately." Wei Zhiruo light heartedly replied. "We know so little about it. This bloodline seal? What do you think is its actual usage?"
"We need to discover it on our own. There is no explanation!" Marr hissed furiously. "It must be those elders who think too highly of our capabilities, right? Pushing one after another tests! What does it matter even if they told us straightforwardly about what we needed to do? Did it take away from our skills or expertise?"
"There is nothing free and toil-less in this world. You earn and you keep it. If the windfalls were so easy to get, hardship and anything else in this world would be meaningless."
"That's there too. Hmm."
They talked like that for much of the evening. Both of them didn't need to sleep for the time being —Wei Zhiruo who just woke up after sleeping for a week didn't feel sleepy, nor did Marr. So, they both talked a lot and murmured under their breath, observing the fire eating away the wood.
Night descended.
It remained silent till Wei Zhiruo heard a very poignant cry for help, followed by several howling of the wolves!
****
Song Meiling looked over her shoulder. But she didn't see the creature running behind clearly before another, much firmer and bigger hand clutched her hands and then started dragging her away into the opposite direction yelling—"Run! Faster, faster!"
"It's a wolf! Run! Run!"
The howling of the wolf sounded behind her. For a moment her mind went blank. She looked at her badly beaten brother Song Hua and then looked behind at the two others badly beaten people who were accompanying in the same group, everyone supporting wounds and gashes all over their faces and body. She looked up at her big brother who had completely lost one of his eyes. "Brother, we…"
"Don't worry Ling'er. Just run! Keep running and don't think!" Heavy feet thumped against the forest's dry grass and dried branches, everything was too muddled up in that cacophony of yelling and heavy breathing and screams of fear.
Something jumped up from behind and Song Meiling felt her brother wrapping herself in his arms and rolling sideways to dodge. A growling sounded in her ears and saliva wetted her shoulders; she knew a wolf was upon them. Her brother though didn't let her go and kept rolling and then he hastily stood up, held her arms and started dragging her half-conscious self towards another direction!
"Brother run...leave me and run." Song Meiling pleaded this with great difficulty as her mind couldn't form clear words or sentences. The world appeared in a specter of colors in her eyes and she knew she was going to die either way. At least she didn't want to kill her brother because of herself. She tried to snatch away her hands from his firm clutches.
"Have you lost your mind?! What are you talking about right now! Save your strength and run!" Song Hua looked at her and started dragging her despite her unwillingness and kept running, but the wolf approached them again. They have been targeted.
"Aaahh—! Save me, save me...brother Jun! Brother…. Aaah—no! Brother, are you alright?!!" Someone was screaming close by.
Song Meiling heard her brother's heavy breathing, heard other companions scream and felt her brother shielding herself behind his body. She couldn't see anything, didn't know where that wolf was but she felt her heart plunging down like falling down into an endless trench of fear. Growling came closer and then she heard her brother yelling —"Aaah—! Back off!! Back off or I'll kill you!"
He then really lunged down at the beast! In her hazy vision she felt two figures tumbling together. "Brother no—! No, no no, you run—don't attack or you will die!"
He was going to be killed. She followed her instincts and ran towards the two figures but was soon thrown away by someone. She felt another growling figure jumping over herself. She was going to die...this thought had never been clearer than as now!
She messed up. She shouldn't have agreed to eat that mushroom, shouldn't have persuaded her brother to try out this trial, shouldn't have come to this man-eating mountain for a flimsy hope of achieving greatness—! She killed her own brother.
Her eardrums burst, blood spurted from her nose and mouth and she felt someone dragging her away. She could no longer see, or hear. She smelled her brother's scent and also felt the blood on his shoulder. He lost his arm. He lost his arm because of her. He had already lost his eyes and now he was also going to lose his life! "Brother, brother please hear me okay? Please, please, I beg you! Please just listen to me this once—you need to run away! Please leave me here and save yourself!"
Save yourself. Your useless sister cannot do anything right. But she doesn't want you dead, she doesn't want anyone to die! It was her fault! Why, why did she think it was a good idea? Shouldn't she —a person who has lived in the age of information boom —know what a few small children spending a night in a beast ridden forest meant? With no weapons and no security, no one to save them in times of peril —what was she thinking when she agreed to this insanity?! Oh yes, she was too busy getting giddy with joy of having travelled to her favourite book to think of anything!
"Brother please hear me—" but soon the hands holding her pushed her away and she smelled the rusty smell of blood! Oh, how familiar she had grown to this smell!
'Save—save us. Someone please!' She felt herself being knocked under the paws of a beast and felt the breath of the creature pinning her down on the forest floor! "Someone...anyone...someone please...brother...brother save—please don't…be dead…"
Song Meiling lost consciousness before she could feel the teeth of the hungry beast.
****
"No—! Ling'er!!No, damnit!" Song Hua used his intact hand to hold the blade and pierced the wolf's open weak spot, and heard another wolf jumping down over his sister. He didn't have enough time to go back to her as he was still fighting. He dodged, rolled, and turned in quick flashes and then was at the beast lurching over him. He killed another one. But the blade was useless and he didn't think much and started to run over. A beat, a second and then the wolf will be detaching his sister's head!
'No, no this...how could I fail!' He used all his strength to run towards the wolf but there was too much distance, and his mind went on autopilot as he hardly felt the boots coming off his feet, nor his kneecaps cracking under pressure. He stumbled and looked over. A wolf with yellow eyes was wringing the small neck of his five-year-old sister.
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He couldn't even close his eyes and felt that second stretch into years and years of pain. What was this? What did all this mean? His mind couldn't understand anything. Everything…lost. He lost his sister?
And when he saw the wolf tightening his jaws, he couldn't even open his mouth to yell.
But suddenly something changed. He saw it. The beast still held his sister's neck in its mouth, but his eyes, they had lost their luster. The wolf toppled down and Song Hua looked at it, falling down like a crumbling tower.
He looked up. He saw a girl. His muddled mind finally straightened enough and he somewhat reigned in his scattered thoughts and stood up, pushing against everything with his remaining intact limb and clutching the other broken hand he stumbled towards his sister.
"Ling'er?!Ling'er can you hear your brother? Wake up. Ling'er. Say something!!" He urged the cold body of her small sister. He held her body and shook it hard as if shaking a soul back into its shell. He felt cold all over. And kept repeating the word no, several times as if his saying that would change many things.
"She is alive." The girl with the strange blue eyes whispered. Song Hua looked up.
But she had already walked away and was now running away towards other wolves, like a flash of wind, heading towards another screaming companion.
He saw in that dark night, with the help of the moonlight as the girl easily used just her feet and hands, and later the knife he had dropped down somewhere to throw away, kill and save another boy from his own group.
She didn't stop there and was soon running towards the last companion fighting wildly with a wolf three times its size and saw her use the knife to dig at its collar bones, encircle its head from behind and take it between her chokehold. He pronouncedly heard the cracking of the bones and heard the whimpering and howling of the companion wolves who seemed to be hissing and retreating as if they had seen a difficult opponent.
"Song Hua! Are you guys alright? Is Ling'er okay?" Brother Tan ran back clutching his open wound in the stomach. He looked at the battered state of his companion and urged —"Hurry! What are you waiting for? Take out those Healing Pills! Take it and feed one of them to Ling'er! Hurry!"
As if suddenly his mind had opened up to sounds and thoughts finally, Song Hua turned away from the rampaging wolves and the countering girl and shivered, "Yes! The pills, the pills…!"
He opened up his lapel and took out a brocade pouch that looked very much out of place from his other apparel. The rough linen clothes he wore felt very weird when placed against the expensive brocade but no one took notice of it. Song Hua hurriedly took out a glass bottle and rattled it to see whether it held any pills. He heard the sound and took out two pills with his shivering hands and carefully held them between his fingers. He forced open his sister's mouth and force fed those pills to her till he was sure they went down her throat. After only that, he used another spare pill himself and felt the tingling breath of life and vitality filling his body. Only then did his panic ridden mind ease somewhat.
"Song Hua? Tan Juxian? Are you guys alright?" Another voice joined them. A boy looking equally unwell fell down beside a fainted Song Meiling. He felt for her breath and only then did he look up to see the other two who were busy looking at the one-sided beating of the wolves in the hands of a girl.
"Amazing…" Tan Juxian whispered. "She killed ten of them…"
"Yes…" Song Hua looked at another wolf being thrown away and stopping all its movement and breathing. He himself felt his own breath being stuck and wheezed. "Cough, cough, cough —water...give me some...cough!"
Jun Mingdao searched in his satchel still hanging on his waist. He took out a bamboo water holder and pushed it into Song Hua's hand hurriedly and finally looked around himself.
He saw the girl with loose long hair hitting and killing the last wolf and the other beasts howling retreating back and he himself stood up. He limped away in her direction.
When he reached her, he saw the girl bending down over a wolf and studying its fur. She then cleaned the blades of the knife she was holding over the fur, very carefully. She looked alright but he still asked in a hesitant voice, "You must be a candidate, right? Do you have enough Healing Pills? I have some spare and I can lend you some."
The girl looked at him and then seemed to observe his wounds, which were not grave enough and finally nodded.
Jun Mingdao quickly took out a glass bottle from his satchel and threw it in her direction. The girl caught it in her hands and opened it. She first sniffed its content.
"It's not spoiled! You don't need to worry. We got this in the shops at the Trial-starting place. They are the real deal! Made by immortal lords themselves..." He misunderstood her action as doubting the authenticity of the pills and explained. "I gave fifty silvers for this."
"No, thank you. It's alright." The girl replied and took one in her hands and crushed them before putting it into her mouth. She seemed to be surprised for a moment and then took another pill and ate it intact this time. "Is everyone okay over there?"
"Yes. You saved us. And killed so many wolves too. Are you injured?" He stuttered as if not knowing what to say next. When he heard her say no to his question, he looked back at the waiting group of friends and called her to go back to them. They both started walking towards the rest of the company in silence. A while later he broke the embarrassing silence and explained his identity. "I am Jun Mingdao. We are all from Qingshui Village and Guiyang Town. We came with the entourage from there. We had fifteen people in the beginning but we got separated from the rest and fell behind."
"Wei Zhiruo. I am from Jinghai." The girl named Zhiruo gave her name. She bent down and Jun Mingdao looked at the White cat which suddenly appeared out of nowhere with some surprise.
"Are you lost too? We have the map with us so we know where to go next. Do you want to come with us?" Jun Mingdao hurriedly offered.
He felt the girl would reject the offer as most of them were either injured or unable to continue walking. The trial was still ongoing and there were still three days left before the final deadline, till which time they must reach the next assembly point or get disqualified. It was difficult to imagine their company of four injured people walking safely all the way in such a short time! Their dream of immortality…wasn't it obvious that they could no longer continue? If not for this girl, today they might have been eaten away by the wolves and no one in the village would ever discover where their bones were left behind!
"Is it okay?"
Jun Mingdao heard the unexpected answer and grew hopeful instantly. He happily reassured, "Yes, yes! Definitely! You are so strong it wouldn't be difficult for you to reach the next spot in just a day. We can share the map with you if you need it. You saved our lives; you are our benefactor! You don't need to accompany us if you just want to know the route—"
"No, it's okay. I am not in a hurry to reach that spot. Thanks for the pill by the way. It really helped." Wei Zhiruo shrugged off his polite words and agreed to his proposal. She didn't know anything about the so-called trial or the meeting points, so joining a group was the safest bet.
They both soon reached the small gathering. By now the boy called Tan Juxian had collected the corpse of five wolves and was bandaging the broken arm of Song Hua. When he saw the new girl and Jun Mingdao coming together he called out loudly, "Brother Jun! Did you take a healing pill? If you need a spare, I still have a couple in the bottle."
"No, no. I already took one." Jun Mingdao replied sitting down. He rolled his sleeves and showed the healing wounds. "They really heal so fast. It's just Song Hua who is the most badly injured. Ling'er is still unconscious too. Save some for her."
"There is some more." Tan Juxian reassured him. "And she…"
"This is Wei Zhiruo. She lost her way but doesn't have a map like us. She will join us to reach the next point." Jun Mingdao introduced. He pointed at the boy bandaging the wounds and said, "He is Tan Juxian, and the other two are Song Hua and his sister Song Meiling. Tan Juxian and I come from the same village but Song Hua and Ling'er are from the town. We all signed up for the trial together and formed a company."
"You are strong." Tan Juxian abruptly said and blushed. "I mean, do you know martial arts? You must come from a Jianghu family."
"No. I am from Jinghai." Wei Zhiruo replied puzzledly as she didn't know what Jianghu meant.
"Wei clan from Jinghai?" Song Hua suddenly interrupted.
Wei Zhiruo looked at the heavily injured boy who only had one eye intact, and replied, "Yes. Do you know my family?"
"Yes," Song Hua replied straightforwardly. "I am from a branch family of the Song clan. Our main house is in Jinghai so I know. Why didn't you join their delegation? Their group has been allowed to be accompanied by bodyguard slaves. They are comparatively safer."
"I came alone without telling my family." Wei Zhiruo said. " I don't want to meet an acquaintance."
"Oh." Everyone shared a look of understanding with each other and ceased to continue the topic. "Your cat?"
"Yes. His name is YueMarr."
"Yue...mae'er?"
"YueMarr. Just call him Marr." Wei Zhiruo added.
With the small talks out of the way, the group started doing the required tasks. Jun Mingdao rose up and dragged down a wolf carcass and cut out the flesh and stored it away in a clean cloth. He did it cleanly for all the five corpses and even tied away a bundle of wolf fur.
"We need to go away from here. The smell of blood in this place is too heavy. You carry Ling'er and I will support Song Hua." Jun Mingdao explained to everyone and soon everyone was on the way towards the brook that Wei Zhiruo explained she knew the way to.
"I just came from there. I was going to sleep when I heard the howling." Wei Zhiruo explained.
They walked slowly. With so many of them drained from days of walking and hunger with no good food to eat and now severely wounded —their snail-like speed was all too natural. When they reached the brook, they started a campfire and soon sat beside it roasting the cleaned wolf-meat.
"Here." Tan Juxian offered the meat to Wei Zhiruo. She looked at the well seared meat of the wolf and shook her head.
"I don't eat meat." She explained.
This statement seemed to come off as very strange to everyone but no one offered her meat again. Wei Zhiruo took out a green fruit and started munching at that hard and sour treat which numbed her tongue. She took a bamboo container which was used to hold water and chugged it. Song Hua observed her doing all that.
"How old are you? You don't look old." Song Hua asked.
Wei Zhiruo looked surprised at being asked such a question but still replied half-truthfully —"Me? I am seven."
"Seven?" Jun Mingdao looked surprised. "You are the youngest in the group after Ling'er. Will it offend you if we call you junior sister Zhiruo?"
"No, it's okay with me."
"Then Junior Sister Zhiruo, don't hesitate to ask for anything from us. Although you are very strong, we might be able to help you with something." Jun Mingdao laughed. He looked very pleased with this new addition to the team. Others hummed to show that they agreed.
"Song Meiling is five, Song Hua here is nine and I am ten. Brother Jun is the oldest in our group currently— he is twelve." Tan Juxian explained further with a frown. "The Immortals seemed to not want to take anyone younger than five so only Ling'er came. It's good that they weren't allowed."
"It's really good that they weren't allowed. But the immortals must know about the content of this trial so they know better not to allow them to come to die. Otherwise, it's murder." Jun Mingdao agreed. "Who would have thought that even the first trial is so hard! I don't know whether we can survive the next two trials."
"There are more?" Wei Zhiruo asked tentatively.
"You don't know about the whole trial?" Tan Juxian who was busy gorging down the wolf meat looked at her bewildered face. "Oh yes, you ran away from home, right? They wouldn't have explained the details to you. The Immortals in the initial assembly hardly tell us anything. Don't worry, your brother will tell you everything!"
Wei Zhiruo just nodded as she was really puzzled. She didn't even know what the trial was for, let alone how many stages were to it!
Tan Juxian controlled his excitement at being useful and then began to explain in detail the different stages of the trial. "The first trial is climbing the mountain. When we climb up and reach the top then we will enter the Gate of the Immortal mountain. Then the next trial will judge our mind and Spiritual roots. Although we have already been checked for the spiritual root, the final test will still look at our roots again."
Song Hua looked up at them and added, "The second trial is most likely to be an illusion test or climbing the Heavenly Ascension Stairway, or both. The illusion tests our mind's firmness and the stairs our will. Only those who climb five hundred of the thousand steps will be allowed to enter the sect."
Everyone became relatively serious.
Wei Zhiruo raised a brow at this and then asked, "What spiritual roots do you all have?"
This new topic seemed to be not a bad one so the others hurriedly exchanged their own spiritual roots.
First Song Hua replied, saying— "I have two spiritual roots: wood and fire."
"That's really good, do you know, junior sister? All the Alchemists have these two roots. Once Song Hua enters the sect, he will surely become a disciple of a sect elder who are alchemists!" Jun Mingdao proudly showed off. "My roots aren't as good but with due diligence I think I will achieve success. I have three roots: wood, metal and water."
"I also have two Spiritual roots. One is wood and the other earth." Tan Juxian explained. He had cooked yet another huge chunk of flesh and was busy biting at it with furious intensity.
"Ling'er is the best amongst us. She only has a single root of fire and will definitely become the sect's inner disciple before any of us. Maybe even a real disciple of one of the immortal masters!" Jun Mingdao once again explained.
Wei Zhiruo looked down at the sleeping face of the smallest child in the group who had deep tooth marks on her neck. She looked up at others who were busy eating meat as if they had been hungry for weeks and weeks and easily surmised what had happened to this group from their battered state.
"Thank you... junior sister." Song Hua closed his eyes as he leaned against a boulder. He whispered softly, but his words reached her easily.
Song Hua was really very, very grateful to this stranger who had suddenly barged in and saved their lives. They knew what strength they all had. They had been desperately fighting with no hope and now, just look at them basking in fire and eating meat —it felt dreamlike.
"You don't have to fret over it. I would have saved anyone else if they were in a similar fix. So don't feel so burdened. And you are going to lead me to the gathering spot, so it's a fair trade." Wei Zhiruo munched on another tooth numbing sour fruit and replied nonchalantly.
"For us it's a great help, junior sister." Song Hua said and then seeing that she really didn't want to talk about it smiled slightly and then picked up his sleeping sister's head over his lap. He rubbed her hair looking peaceful. "We —my sister and I are the only surviving members in our family. Ten years ago, a great disaster struck our family. None of the clansmen survived. My mother single-handedly brought us up but three years ago, she died because of a fever. If my sister died today...I don't know what I would have done...so I am really, really grateful to you." He raised his head. If he could, he would have given her a heavy kowtow, but he refrained from embarrassing junior sister.
Wei Zhiruo didn't reply to this. She looked at the fire ablaze, and then rubbed her fingers against the cat lingering in her arms. She met those ruby eyes and smiled into them as if they had shared a secret talk.
"Thank you, junior sister Zhiruo." Jun Mingdao rotated the meat that was being barbecued and looked at her blushingly. "I am the only boy child in my family. My parents are old and there are small sisters to support. If I get into the sect then I can earn enough gold to give as trousseau for my two sisters. But it's hard. We would have died today if it was not for you. On my two sisters behalf — please accept my thanks and I, although it's difficult to repay the debt of saving one's life, I will pay you somehow! One day." He seemed to be seriously making a pledge of some sort. But Wei Zhiruo didn't stop him from doing that to ease his mind.
"I too am really grateful." Tan Juxian added after he saw others talking as such. "Though I don't have any family members like others, I am really grateful to you! When we get into the sect I will look after you and will never let others bully you! If I succeed, that is...ha, ha!"
"You are being too polite." Wei Zhiruo could only shake her head at them. Jun Mingdao rubbed his neck in embarrassment and then burst into laughter.
"Yes, you are right. Don't worry junior sister Zhiruo, we will not try to be a burden on you."
"Don't think too much." Wei Zhiruo replied. "How far is Jinghai from your place?" She changed the subject.
"Jinghai? I think it's a month's ride away? I have never travelled there myself but in the town, there are many who usually come from there to trade food. And in recent times there's been many merchants coming and going from there." Jun Mingdao replied.
"There were many disasters everywhere…so the merchants come quite regularly to get our town's grain. Our region has remained quite safe from natural disasters so it's not surprising why they do that." Tan Juxian added.
"Is there really a team from Jinghai in this trial?" Wei Zhiruo asked. She stood up to find a close enough place beside the fire, amidst the nearby boulders to lean against for the rest of the night. She found one not too far away and settled down. Marr followed her steps.
"Yes —a group of twenty people. But they are...families of the immortal lords and some are even delegates from the capital —a few companions of the prince and such —so they don't take the usual route for trial. They are exempted from it. They only need to appear in the second trial and final ones where the checking of the spiritual roots takes place." It was Song Hua who replied this time. He knew better about the region called Jinghai. After all, almost half of the exempted trial takers belonged to that place. Big families who were linked to cultivating families, great merchants and ministers. Everyone was linked somehow to Jinghai.
Not many actually knew the existence of the immortals. Only those who were secretly examined for spiritual roots and were found having them could actually be told about such reality. Townsmen, village people —there was hardly any distinction in the ignorance about this matter. But once someone knew they had something like a spiritual root and could join the world of endless greatness and power —who in their right mind would refuse to join?
Many died in the first trial. How many could return from this rat-race and let slip the secret of the immortal cultivation? Not many. He knew and he felt that once someone was told of the reality of the cultivation, he was accursed with a disease that will not let them go away until their death! Looking down at his sister he felt his assumptions were true. A sweet, thoughtful childlike his sister was so blinded by greed that she let go of every wise advice and begged him to join the trial —what else could it be but that plague like greed for an untouchable world?
"Oh, is that so? Exempted…" Wei Zhiruo repeated.
"Yes…" Song Hua replied in a whisper.
The small talks ended and then everyone started concentrating on easing their breath.
Song Hua looked at the new girl. He didn't understand. How could there be someone like this in this world? He thought deeply —if he had enough power and skill to run up to the top of the mountain, why wouldn't he hurry up? If he did lose his way, if he stumbled upon a group of badly wounded people who were on the verge of death —why would he help such a group and especially when he clearly knew they were all competitors? It could only be ignorance.
Because she didn't know that there were only one hundred tokens to get an entry into the sect? One hundred was just the initial quota. Out of this sixty was already reserved for people of higher standings —those offspring of cultivators and even imperial delegation members. And the rest of the token...these tokens could be snatched away by killing...people. If anyone fails to snatch or get one before entering the mountain top, he too will get disqualified.
On the day of the gathering, he heard the loud announcement that said —"There is no eternal good and evil in this world. If you can survive, you win. The token is your opportunity, your chance. Will you give it away to others on a silver platter? No, right? So, in the world of cultivation, you all should remember this as the first rule of the world, that is the law of survival of the fittest. The best survives and the weak die. Don't be the weak."
Although none of them had any tokens right now, less competitors were always a good thing in such games, right? Even if they died, it would hardly affect this girl —in fact, it would be better if four more people died and she, as a result, is able to secure a position in the hundred people! If it's not ignorance, what else is this?
Or maybe not...he looked into her washed, watery clear blue eyes and felt that he was too smudged in the mud of bitterness. She was clearly a very clearheaded girl who didn't look like she would jump into 'heroic' acts out of impulsiveness or other intentions.
He looked down at her sister's frowning face and thought more deeply. Maybe there really are such good people in the world...who don't do things for any intention? And weren't his own parents just like this in the past? How had he himself become so pragmatic that he couldn't see the goodness of heart without thinking of deeper conspiracy? Why did this girl's ignorance appear like a weakness that he could manipulate? He wasn't so lowly, was he?
He smiled mockingly. After living in the world full of adults with bad-intentions — aunts who are constantly coming to grab lands, uncles who are ready to sell them for petty profit and maternal grandparents who wouldn't even bat an eye if he and his sister were killed right in front of them and would even help their sons and daughters hide the corpses to save them from going to prison; how else would he see the world?
It's good that he left everything behind. This was a chance for both of them. He will not die, neither will he let his sister die.
And he will also not lose his faith in goodness. He didn't want to be a smelly rat dripping with sewer water who knew nothing but evil. Immortal cultivation, was it? What survival of the fittest and no good and evil…! Bullshit! How could the world have no rights and wrongs? The Immortals think like that, but he, a clear-headed mortal, shouldn't feel the same. He has personally experienced so much evil that his heart was suffocating in them! That was why, he was also willing to believe there was neutral, indifferent goodness as well —which didn't stem out of calculation and intentions!
This trial...he must win this trial. A place in the one hundred winners. No, five places. Brother Tan and brother Jun, weren't they also good, well-intentioned people? They could have left him and his sister behind and gone with the rest of the company, but they unconditionally supported him and stood with him who was thrown out of the group by calculation of his cousin. He was framed and everyone knew that —but it was just these two people who stood on his side.
"It's getting late. How about I guard and you all take a nap first? I will wake someone up after some time for their turn to guard." Wei Zhiruo suggested seeing the drooping eyes of everyone who had finally cleaned after themselves, having had the dinner and rested for a couple minutes.
"Okay. I will go next." Jun Mingdao replied.
Soon everyone arranged for their turns to watch for others and determined the duration for the next person to wake up and change place to guard and the rest soon fell asleep.
Song Hua watched over his sister for a while, heard the crackling fire and then nudged a little closer to the boulder. When he fell asleep, Wei Zhiruo was still watching over the fire with no intention to rest.
"Good night, Marr—" He heard a soft whisper but felt he dreamed it. And then darkness came over him.