Who knew this would happen, Wei ling was flamboyant, she liked showing off her achievements. But her greed to stand on top of the rest brought troubles to her clan, jealousy, envy and hatred were the emotions her peers had for her and when they saw her in midst of flames, they fueled the fire and the few friends that she had held no power to help her in troubled times.

She was a born fighter and believed in blowing things up, there isn’t any permanent problem just her explosiveness isn’t enough and her instincts answered to her when she needed. She was a genius, gifted with almost everything a warrior could want but she never imagined that even her extraordinary powers that she was so proud of would lead to downfall of her family and the violence that she always turned to would not be helpful. She was weak, weaker than her enemies and she couldn’t forgive herself for that.

She remembered her father’s words “ Being a peacock midst ordinary birds will only make you a better target”. She used to correct her father that she was a phoenix not a peacock and will burn everything to cinders but it was too late when she understood baby phoenix are still vulnerable to hunters and even more if it wasn’t shielded by great powers.

The sect she relied on, turned on her. Her all friends tried saving their own hides. She didn’t blame them, but she was angry nonetheless.

She knew that even royal family had made its move, she wasn’t exactly sure what else powers were involved but these all predators were after her bloodline.

These guys were consistent in pestering her for marriage, wanting her as their concubine and after Wei Ling’s constant rejection and a couple of accidents later, here she stood before her wounded mother, being called for an emergency meeting and she was here alone being forced to attend. She knew something was fishy and there must be some kind of plan that her mother must have cooked, after all she knew her mother very well and after her mother started talking about revenge she understood where this conversation was heading to and she was in no mood of listening to it.

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Wei Ling wasn’t an unreasonable person but the basic element which she chose to build her foundations on couldn’t have been worse, she already was weak to her emotional outburst but the things only got worse because of the fire element which she had strong affinity with and this choice led to her having a more bombastic temperament than normal, similar element to her mother but unlike her mother whose emotional state was always serious and calm, Wei Ling was similar to explosion and rage, she was inconsistent with her extreme emotions and this volatility made her more impatient and more of a headbutting brute.

She preferred violence over reasoning but because of the respect she had for her mother she didn’t interrupt, she was able to precieve her mother’s intention but those damn enemies were massacring her whole clan.

And everyone in the clan knew that except for her mother no one in this clan could force her to do their bidding not even the patriarch of the clan.

Wei Ling’s mother was in no mood of giving Wei Ling any chance to disrupt her, even when Wei Ling’s eyes turned orange indicating she was getting angrier, instead she tapped a place on the map as she continued speaking.

“After going through various options with elders we all agreed on the forbidden forest, it has highest possibility of keeping you alive, after coming to the conclusion that fleeing would be a very difficult task and staying alive while hidden would be even harder. So this is the best shot you got and we decided to bet on it, it’s our only hope. Hoping for the best is all we could do, as we burden you with our expectations.”

She just didn’t stop there as she moved onto explain reasoning behind the plan

“ It’s not very hard to predict that there won’t be any safe place while you are fleeing, you’ll be hunted down on the run and these small cities even though outside the empire are still heavily influenced by them, so our safest bet is to flee to the forbidden forest where everyone will be vulnerable and you have the highest chances of survival there. They might follow you initially but finding you in the forest without disturbing the spirit animals will be difficult and the spirit animals won’t be leaving them alone.”

“This is the the place where you’ll lay low for few years, so the powers outside can calm down a little and after that the question arises where you’ll return to?” Her mother’ voice didn’t even flinch while speaking of this, she behaved as it was all natural. Wei ling’s eyes didn’t leave her face as she kept staring at her and her mother continued.

“ To tell you the truth we don’t have many options, our friendly noble clans won’t be coming forward to help but they might as well attack so it’s better to stay away from them, as we all know human greed knows no limit. Your sect is also not suitable as they have already sold your information to outsiders and they might be involved in this assault as well. Let’s not even consider justice faction, they’re not blind to what’s happening here but still no help has arrived and maybe those outside of our gates are their subsidiaries.”

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“Now there are only two options remaining, the demon faction- there’s a reason why everyone strays away from their path, it will be a heaven sent gift if you went there. They’ll swallow you whole and won’t even spit your bones.”

“ So the only choice left for you is asura faction, these strength obsessed lunatics are the only one who don’t care about the background of others nor are they scared of anyone. If you are able to enter their area of influence, you’ll be able shielded from all the existing powers. No power dares to make a move in their territories, they’re avoided like plaque and for people on the run their territory is the safest place to be and knowing your talent for cultivation you might even make it into their faction. The only problem is that, their headquarters lies in the east and reaching there will be difficult in such times. That’s why we asked you to lay low in the forbidden forest, grow your strength and do whatever you want after reaching asura faction.”

“Even though our cities are outside the empire, staying or traveling in these cities is not safe for you right now, all of these cities are under the influence of the empire. They have eyes and ears everywhere, you will not be able to keep yourself hidden and you high chances of getting caught before you even make it to the asura base, elders think that our enemies may have already predicted our move of running to aura faction and have already prepared for that, so our safest bet is the forbidden forest. Our whole clan is not running away only two members are and they wouldn't be prepared for it.”

“So you either hide in the forbidden forest in north till this cools down and make your way towards the asura faction or you can even try walking it’s borders to no man’s land, no one’s gonna follow you there. The forest is a very hostile territory and so is no man’s land. There live beings which are very vicious and powerful, not many people can make it out alive but you are strong, you just have to steer away and not cross their paths. They won’t be hunting you in particular so there you have highest chance of surviving and the forest is so big that no one will be able to find you.”

Wei ling stood there listening as her mother explained her about the escape route but it only angered her and the hole on her abdomen was just making it worse for her to control herself. She wanted to explode, she was going mad just standing there doing nothing, she needed an outlet but her mother had pulled her away from this fight to explain the importance of revenge but she wasn’t very keen on living any longer than needed.

She wanted this nightmare to end, rage had consumed her reasoning. Neither she felt pain nor she feared all she was hungry for was blood.

When she remembered her missing father and her fiance, the young lings of the clan that had been kidnapped or killed, her little brother which she almost lost and now this assault to exterminate the clan from it’s root.

She couldn’t look ahead like her mother wanted to, because in the future she thought of was where none of her loved one lived terrified her. She didn’t want the revenge for her fallen family members instead she preferred being with them till her last breath.

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The elder and Hannabi were also in the same room with her mother, elder who was also her mother’s closest friend was also trying to talk some sense to Wei Ling but it was all going on top of her head. At last her mother asked the elder for some privacy while giving her few instructions. After which the elder busied himself in collecting all the artifacts and cores lying in the room.

Wei Ling’s childhood friend Hannabi also stood there quietly listening to all the discussion going on in the room but she didn’t spoke a word, she just stood there looking all fidgety. Wei Ling’s mother paused for a few seconds to look at Hannabi with an scrutinizing gaze and then she again continued speaking to Wei ling but her mother also sent a mental note to Wei Ling “ your friends Hannabi’s acting all weird. You should probably go separate ways after leaving the clan.”

Wei Ling did listen to her mother but she didn’t got the context of that not for her Hannabi was childhood friend and also the only one who came to help of all her friends. Wei Ling also felt bad for involving her into this mess. She didn’t even think that her mother’s note had a different meaning.

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When the elder had collected all the weapons and was moving them out of the room, her mother looked towards elder “Overcharge the weapons and separate the cores. I’ll be out there in few minutes to place the cores in the array, get the preparations done.”

The Elder just nodded and walked out of the room with a determined look after which her mother brought her attention back to Wei Ling.

She looked deep into Wei ling’s eyes and finally spoke the words Wei Ling was waiting for “Any Questions that you wanna ask regarding this plan ?”

And Wei Ling being Wei Ling, almost yelled raising her voice “ Whom am I running away for? For you or for revenge? Have you even thought, what I would go through when being alone in forest living like an animal? Why do you want me to flee knowing the amount of pain it would cause me?”

“ and what revenge are guys you even going about, how do you expect me to bring down an empire? Where do you expect me to build my forces, in a forest? Listen to your self for once, every advice that I’ve been told to follow, does that even make sense? All this just looks like a way to elongate mental and emotional pain to me.”

Her mother let Wei Ling vent herself but she still looked deep into her eyes, she was always serious but now her tone became grave “ You are only thinking about yourself but have you ever thought about Wei Tou, you want to die but can you see him being tortured by the enemies for his blood. If you can then just go ahead and sacrifice yourself or just take him out of this hell hole, I also don’t care about revenge but i want my children out and that child doesn’t deserves what’s coming for him if he stayed.”

Wei Ling was shocked stunned, yes Wei Tou he almost slipped out of her mind. She would do everything to keep him safe but what about the clan and the enemies outside?

Wei ling just stood there and went silent.