On the grassy plains behind a large rock Wei Tou was looking at the Hannabi’s back, as she was peeking from behind the rocks, watching the fight.

Wei Tou heard frequent explosions followed by silence, then a small interval later it started to bombard like crazy.

Hot winds blowed on the plains, as the temperature of Wei Tou’s surroundings increased, the scent of the grass was replaced by the smell of the charred wood and burned meat.

All these changes happening around him, were making him anxious and curious at the same time. Curiosity got better of Wei Tou making him want to watch the fight, he looked at Hannabi and as her attention was in the fight so he sneaked past her and what he saw was fire swirling around in the shape of cyclone and he could make out the shape of her sister in the middle of swirling cyclone.

Wei Tou saw all surrounding vegetation and trees were destroyed, there was nothing left not even ashes.

Wei Tou drew his attention back to his sister, when he noticed her hair had turned red, they were no longer black and she held a red sword, her sword glowed like it was molten metal but it remained solid.

She didn’t looked wounded or even exhausted. On the other hand her enemies were in tatters, their condition wasn’t looking good.

There were three of them with their clothes burned at different places and out of those three, two were badly wounded they were on the ground kneeling with their weapons down but the third one was in a better condition, he was still aiming at his sister with his large bow. He also wore noble attire, must be someone from a prominent family just like his.

Next second his sister disappeared and so did the bow man, while the heads of the other two badly wounded men fell as they turned to ashes.

Movement of his sister and bowman were too fast for Wei Tou to keep up with, still he could barely trace the outline of the bowman but his sister was almost a blur.

She appeared again but this time she was warily looking towards a certain direction, while the bowman was kneeling on a single leg, supporting his body with a long bow.

Then from the direction his sister was looking at, “ looks like I was found. There goes my plan to surprise you, what a bummer”.

Wei Tou looked at his left from where the voice came from and he saw the shadow of the giant rock was starting to ripple and soon a head appeared wearing a conical colorful hat, the man had no hair on his face and before he could present his whole body, fire rained on him burning everything, even the rocks were smoldering.

Surprisingly the man walked out from behind the rocks without any wounds or burns and he had a lots of small colorful snakes floating all around him in circles.

Unexpectedly, the man disappeared and a lots of snakes flew in a straight line with astonishing speed to where Wei Tou was but they were all turned to ashes halfway and the next second he saw his sister standing in front of him while engaging in a physical fight with the snake man.

Wie Tou found himself surrounded by the fire cyclone, which maybe his sister had raised to protect him from the snakes but the intense heat and the loud explosions going on near him, made Wei Tou dizzy.

The heat kept on rising and soon he found, it was getting hard for him to breathe, his lungs burned while his eyes dried from the intense heat.

It was all very disorienting for him, as he lost his balance and landed on all fours.

That’s when a snake poked it’s head out of the ground and launched itself towards Wei Tou, before the snake could even reach the Wei Tou it was already in her sister’s right hand. She released intense red flames but instead of getting turned to ash the snake was absorbed. Her eyes widening in surprise, as she severed her hand with her sword.

He watched her hand fell to the ground and it was rotting at visible speed. Turning all black, her skin dried and the blood that flowed out was thicker than it should’ve been.

“7 petal lotus fire poison, very difficult to cultivate but astonishing results. All that labor was worth it.” said the snake man.

He was getting ready for another speech, when his sister attacked him with her sword and at same time she deflected an arrow which was aimed at her head, it exploded right infront of her face.

His sister’s speed kept on increasing and so did the snake man’s, while she launched fire darts with utmost accuracy towards the bow man.

The bowman frantically tried to avoid the bombardment but failed miserably. The bow man tried to approach Wei Tou but he couldn’t, as soon as he moved towards Wei Tou the bombardment multiplied. Neither was he able to dodge all the fire darts, as they exploded in his vicinity greatly wounding him nor was he able use his bow, all he could do was run.

The wounded bow man seeing no way out of his predicament threw his bow as he made his final mad dash towards Wei Tou, unexpectedly for him the fire cyclone rose up from the ground and swallowed him whole, while he was caged, lots of fire darts were launched at the center blowing the bowman to smithereens.

Then the cyclone rose again this time covering his sister and the snake person along with it, and when it dissipated there was a charred body of the snake man, he didn’t turn to ashes like the rest of her enemies. His sister stood there looking exhausted, her red sword started to melt before it fell to the ground and disappeared.

She started walking towards Wei Tou, her face stoic. Wei Tou felt heartbroken looking at her severed arm but there was no visible expression on her face. Wei Tou almost believed her to be an immortal, he has never seen her in pain nor has he ever seen her happy. He thought maybe her cultivation has reached to a point where she doesn’t feel any pain.

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Her sister pulled Wei Tou in her embrace with her left hand, that’s when Hannabi came from behind and stabbed the dagger on her right shoulder. Her sister turned around dropping Wei Tou to the ground, she held Hannabi’s neck lifting her off the ground.

“Give me one reason, not to crush your neck right now.” She asked.

Wei Tou could feel the rage in her voice. Hannabi was shaking like a leaf while her face slowly turned red.

“I .... I was forced, Meng clan holds my family as hostage. They also told me that they have an antidote to the poison on the dagger.”

“ Do you really believed that they’ll let your family live?”. Hannabi didn’t replied, she teared up

“They sent the fingers of my new born sister, what choice do i even have.” Wei Tou’s sister looked at hannabi for a minute before she kicked her in the stomach.

Hannabi flew like a cannon ball, breaking several trees in it’s wake. His sister embraced Wei Tou and started running at frightening speed in a straight line towards the forest.

Wei Tou watched the sun going down and the moon was up in the sky, her sister had run for an entire evening.

As they proceeded deeper into the thick jungle, Wei Tou couldn’t even see the sky due to thick vegetation. It was dark still his sister kept on with her frightening speed.

He doesn’t know after how many hours, his sister come to stop. Her breathing ragged, she was spent. It took her a few minutes to stabilize and then an intense heat rose from her body as a red sword appeared again in her left hand.

With the light to see now, Wei Tou found himself standing in front of a cave. Her sister walked in, before commanding Wei Tou not to follow her.

Then came the sound of bombardment followed by an animal’s roar which he never had heard. After killing whatever was inside the cave his sister walked out, ordering him to go inside and wait.

Inside of the cave was so dark that he had to rely on the wall to keep moving, he couldn’t even see his hands. Wei Tou walked a few steps and sat down, supporting his back with the wall.

He was a bit scared of the dark but due to exhaustion, his fear was soon replaced by drowsiness, his eyes heavy. He tried to stay awake but was unsuccessful.

“Tou, come on eat” he was awakened by his sister’s calling. She was sitting in front of the campfire, holding a plate filled with food. She placed the food in front of him and sat down beside her. Wei Tou looked at his sister and asked “where’s your ?”.

“I don’t need to eat” she replied, Wei Tou eyed him suspiciously, this wasn’t normal, she loved to eat meat.

His sister noticing Wei Tou’s gaze, sighed. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t at last she sighed again.

After Wei Tou finished his meal, he looked at his sister. Trying to contemplate, how to start asking about mother and father. And the biggest question “why”, why were we attacked?

Wei Tou may not be smart but he wasn’t dumb either. But before he could ask, her sister spoke. “ I know you want answers, but I don’t have them.”

“Many clans were involved, which is only possible unless an even greater power forced them to move and our family doesn’t have anything of such value, not that i know. Maybe they were after our bloodline but we are new clan with no background in cultivation, it’s almost nonsensical.” she sounded frustrated.

“ Out of all the powers involved, there were two clans that i recognized that were involved in the massacre of our household, Meng and Zuo, we were neither their freinds nor their enemy. And I’m pretty sure that my own sect was also involved.” She spoke through her gritted teeth, her fist clenched when mentioning her sect.

“the firepower that they brought was enough to wipe out our roots, mother blew the whole mansion to make a window for both of us to escape. That’s all I know.” she said while taking a deep breath.

Wei Tou sat there in silence, he didn’t know what to say or how to react. Upon mentioning mother he started sobbing, he felt angry and very small at the same time.

Rather than waiting for him to calm down, his sister handed him a ring. “This is a storage ring you must already know this but you won’t be able to use it unless you are able to exert your internal qi.”

Then she asked him to sit in the meditative posture as she held his both hand, while correcting his posture. She started to instruct Wei Tou “Close your eyes and tell me if you feel anything”.

Wei Tou felt large amount of heat forcefully making it’s way through his hands towards the body which was not a pleasant sensation, he wanted to open his eyes but remembering his sister’s words he endured the discomfort and concentrated on the heat inside his body, he felt his spine getting hotter after which the heat left through his another hand.

His sister ordered him to try and accumulate the qi, using his nostrils. So he tried and when he really focused and concentrated he could feel something similar to the qi but he couldn’t move it. He tried a few more times but to his dismay nothing changed and then he opened his eyes, looking defeated.

“Don’t be discouraged, most children below the ten years of age are unable to cultivate, their focus and concentration aren’t enough to bend the qi to their will after all it’s an external force, which is why cultivators internalize the qi by accumulating it in their body and in process making it a part of their body. You are five, so this was expected but don’t drop this exercise, practice it daily. The more you practice the sooner will you be able to move the qi. This exercise is taught at the age of six, I’m just teaching you a bit sooner.” she explained.

Then she continued “I’m doing this to get you the feel of qi or it will require a lot of meditation to feel this energy and that will be a waste of your time.”

Two thin books appeared on her hand, she placed them beside Wei Tou. “These books are on the basics of cultivation.” she said.

She kept on talking, while looking at Wei Tou “After you’ll be able to use your qi, you’ll be able to access the storage ring.”

Wei Tou felt something was wrong, so he interrupted her and asked “why are you telling me all this, are you going after them?”

She took a long breath and explained “ I don’t know if I will survive this night. I’ve taken all the antidotes that i had with me and i also have consumed a few concoction made from the precious herbs that I had brought from the home, it would be for the best if I survive but there’s a chance i may not”.

“Then why don’t you rest, you can instruct me on qi later” Wei Tou said hastily.

Her sister’s expression turned steely, she spoke in a firm tone “ do u want my effort to be wasted, I was forced to leave mother alone because of you. I wanted to fight at the cost of my life but i had ran away like a coward so that you can survive. And what if i couldn’t make it to daybreak, do you want to become the food of the wild animals or do you want to live as a mortal for the rest of your life”.

“There’s a reason I’m explaining these things to you, do you think I’d wanted to die than live.” She was angry, after forcing herself to cam down.

She spoke again “ So will you listen to me or not”. This time Wei Tou didn’t made a sound, his eyes teared up after the scolding but he didn’t cry.

He listened to his sister explanation about qi, the area around the cave, the location of the river and she gave him several bags of food.

“so make sure to live in the forest until you’ve reached the second stage of cultivation initial element and when you decide to go back in the civilization don’t use your real name, if you haven’t reached the fifth stage of cultivation true element then don’t even think about revenge, live a normal life instead. You have always been a smart kid Wei Tou I’m sure you’ll be able to live well but i should still say this’ always observe and never act before thinking.”

“you may very well be the last person of our Wei bloodline, so be careful. I’ve already taken care of the dangerous animals around the cave and have setup an array formation that only you can pass through, the array should last up to two years, so try to accumulate the qi within these two years and if you can’t then you should start finding some other place to move, probably a bit smaller than this cave and one more thing never wear the storage ring until you have reached the third stage in cultivation, keep it hidden.”

“You may not find the variety but the you’ll find the fire element exercises until the fifth stage inside this ring, so you won’t have to worry about exercises” Wei Tou kept listening and when her sister had relayed all her instructions, she told him to sleep.

But he didn’t move, his sister looked at him for few seconds. This time in a gentler tone she said “ come here lie on my lap, i don’t want my younger brother to see me in pain”

He moved towards her as she placed his head in her lap and started caressing his hair gently.

He tried to stay awake but drowsiness took him over. And he woke up when sunlight shining at the entrance of the cave, his sister’s left hand was on his cheeks.

He held her hand it felt warm, he removed it gently.

He rose from her lap and looked at her, from the little sunlight coming inside the cave he saw his sister’s face had turned black, her whole body was turned black.

He called "sister" and broke down.