The silence stretches out for far too long, then the aura of Xian Lu moves, each step audible despite the distance between us.

I carefully move qi through my meridians as I enter into a stance from The Roars Of The Ruinous Dragon. I can’t move from my spot in front of Ai and risk her being spotted. And The Roars Of The Ruinous Dragon reflect that as a technique designed for holding one’s ground as a warrior.

The steps filled with power come closer to me, and I can tell when she goes below deck. Shivers go through my body as my breath becomes uneven.

I’m afraid of her. The sheer depth of her spirit frightens me. I want to hum in order to chase the fear away, to remind myself that death is an old friend, not something that I fear. But if I hum, it will draw attention to us and I can’t do that.

Her spirit comes closer to me and I feel the true darkness of the unfathomable depths. An ancient and vast feeling, unlike anything I’ve felt before. Just darkness, without light.

My grip tightens around my sword as I forcibly even out my breath.

She stops outside of my door, and the vision caused by her spirit recedes. The door opens.

Xian Lu is a strong looking woman, with scars crossing a face weathered by the sea. She has a strange kind of beauty, imposing and demanding of my attention. A patch covers one eye, the visible eye shining an emerald green. Her hair is cut short, just above the shoulders, but it seems to have a mind of its own, pushed by a wind that doesn’t exist, here, below the deck of the ship.

As I see her, I know that she is not in Core Formation, no, she is far beyond that, on a level equal to or above the Matriarch of the Flowing River Sect.

I raise my sword, breath on the edge of my lips to hum a song for the battle I know I can’t win.

The woman snorts and the ship rocks, knocking me off balance and into the wall. I keep a hold of my sword, leaping back up to slice at her. She easily blocks with a dagger.

I start to hum, the bloody battlefield replacing the wood of the ship, but the ship rocks again, knocking me into the bed and knocking my breath out of me.

The illusion dissipates as I gasp for air. Xian Lu turns to a terrified looking Ai. “Oh. Not what I expected. Not what I expected at all.” her voice doesn't carry the same weight it did when she was on the deck of the ship, but qi still infuses her words. Her words are not to be ignored, as they carry that terrifying depth with them.

She turns back to me, her expression catching me off guard. It’s a thoughtful expression, not an aggressive one.

“Do you have the book then?” She asks, raising an eyebrow.

I freeze, knowing full well that Shia swallowed the demonic book that made Ai what she is. I ignore that thought, and focus on the fact that I do not have the book. With excruciating slowness, I shake my head and force out the word. “No.”

“A shame. What great treasure that would be.” She says, her eyes looking between Ai and I. “Instead, I only find a demon trapped inside the body of a little girl.” The woman snorts, “Whoever read the pages of the book did not read them correctly.”

She turns to me, pausing. She takes a step forward and I consider striking at her with my sword, but decide against it. She hasn’t really fought me yet and I doubt I’d land a hit on her anyway.

She stares deeply at me, frowning. “You look familiar. Have we met before?”

I shake my head, slowly standing to my full height. I sheathe my sword, knowing that I’m outclassed. The shaking of the ship had been caused by the ocean itself through her qi. Even if I managed to somehow defeat her, I don’t think the ship would survive. I bow, fist into my hand in a martial bow. “I don’t recall meeting you, senior.”

She looks me up and down, her gaze catching on the flute case at my waist. “Oh.” Xian Lu smiles, her face twisting with menacing light. “I see. It seems I did find a treasure after all! But she wouldn’t like me touching you, would she?”

I stay quiet, still bowed. She wasn’t really asking me a question, simply speaking to herself.

“Follow me. You can bring the demon girl with you.” Xian Lu turns around, laughing to herself.

Again, I consider striking at her while her back is turned, but I know it to be suicide. Instead, I motion to Ai, who runs to my side. I walk behind Xian Lu as her steps echo with power through the ship.

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On the deck of the ship, every sailor is kneeling with their hands tied by ropes. My gaze searches the crew, eventually finding Sun and Lu Kun. Their eyes are closed as they lie on the wooden deck of the ship, blood flowing from their wounds. For a moment, I think they’re dead, but the slow rise and fall of their chests tells me that Xian Lu didn’t kill them.

Finally, my gaze lands on the crew of the other ship, and I know that any thought of fighting them was foolish. Every single pirate from the other ship is clearly a cultivator, with the weakest among them being a young man at the Sixth stage of Qi Awakening. The pirate’s ship is hooked to us by a wooden ladder and a series of hooks.

“Captain Xian Lu!” A middle aged man with a missing ear comes running to the woman I’m following. He stops a few steps away as Xian Lu turns to him. “The ship has spices and wine in its hold, the crew of the ship has offered no fight and fully cooperated.”

“Excellent!” Xian Lu says, clapping the man on the shoulder. “Look and see what treasure I have found!” She waves back to me and Ai.

The man frowns, looking at us both. “They don’t look like spirit stones to me? Are you hoping to ransom them?”

Xian Lu laughs as she walks past him to the front of the deck. “That would be a waste. No, I found something far more valuable! A young scholar in the dao of music. You should’ve seen the illusion she tried to weave around me, quite impressive from what little I heard. Almost had my blood pumping with a small tune.” She steps up onto a bucket that had been turned upside down, the entire crew focusing on her. “What do you say?” She asks, the full attention of her qi and spirit on me. “Willing to play my crew a tune? We’ll let you go on your way after, searching for a treasure that is long gone is a fool’s game. And I may be a fool, but I like spending my time where it’s needed.”

I study the strange woman, wondering whether or not she’ll honor her side of the bargain. Something had changed when she recognized me, but I’m not sure what. Her presence no longer scares me as it did.

After a moment, I nod, pulling my flute from its case. I move to the center of the ship, close to the spot where I’d played for the crew just yesterday. My gaze lands on the unconscious duo, still breathing. With a closer look, I realize that neither of them are seriously injured, just knocked out. All of their wounds are superficial.

I turn back to the crew of pirates and tied up sailors. For some reason, who they are doesn’t matter to me as I step in front of them, instead, I’m filled with a sense of energy. I’m playing in front of a crowd. All of them are here to listen to me, and even a cultivator as powerful as Xian Lu will stay silent for my music.

I can’t help the small smile that comes to my face at the that thought. I close my eyes and put my flute to my lips.

A long note plays out, an illusion of wind moving with the note as it blows through every cultivator here.

The note ends abruptly, the attention of the audience focused on me.

I open my eyes and truly play.

It’s a piece of the deep and the unknown. The darkness I feel from Xian Lu’s aura exemplified through my music. It’s dark, menacing, and powerful.

Then it stops.

And it’s light, a playful tune. Two dolphins swim through an illusory patch of water, catching the eyes of every sailor as they play and dance.

One of the dolphins jumps into the sun, then crashes back into the water. And with the splash, the music turns dark again.

A reminder of what rests in the deep, what sailors tell stories of. The leviathans that kill without a thought.

When I finish, not a soul moves, each person caught in the moment, trapped by the illusions of my music.

Xian Lu is the first to move, rising from where she’d been resting against the railing. She is obviously pleased by the piece, even if I feel that it isn’t as good as I could make it.

“I expected nothing less from the daughter of the Lady of Flowers.” Xian Lu says, making me stumble slightly as I put my flute back into its case.

I’d only heard that title once, an old friend of my mother’s had called her by that name when I was just a child.

I look at Xian Lu, who smiles mischievously. “Well, time to be off! There’s loot to plunder and sects to be bothering. I wish you luck on your journey, young one. No pirate will bother you until you reach your destination, you have my word.”

The pirates leave the ship in a matter of minutes, their crew expertly traveling over and disconnecting their ship from ours. Xian Lu’s eyes never seem to leave me the whole time, her thoughts unreadable.

The sun has only dropped slightly by the time they’re gone, leaving me with an anxious captain, a nervous Ai, and two unconscious cultivators who so valiantly tried to defend the ship.

Everything about the encounter with Xian Lu was strange. First, someone had told her where to find this ship, thinking that I had the demonic book. Not even my own sect know that I’m here and I trust Shi Da, she would never give me away.

Then when Xian Lu got here, she trusted me instantly when I told her I didn’t have the book and seemed to recognize me as the daughter of Lady Lin.

How had my mother known a powerful cultivator like Xian Lu? I know so little about my mom, and the only person I could ask is now across the sea from me.

The sound of the two boys waking distracts me from my thoughts. Sun is the first one up, clutching his head and squinting his eyes in the midday sun.

I’m leaning against the sail’s post, right next to him, my flute rolling between my hands. Ai lays down with her head in my lap, fast asleep despite the action of the last hour.

Sun turns to me with an expression of shock, “We lived?” He asks hopefully.

“I’m not dead yet.” Grumbles Lu Kun from beside him.

“We lived.” Sun says again, shocked.

“This makes five times.” I tell him, hiding my smile with my sleeve.

He looks at me with confusion before his brain catches up with him. “I- this one doesn’t count! They didn’t try to kill us in the first place!”

Lu Kun grunts as he moves into a sitting position. “What happened?” He asks, shielding his eyes to look at me.

“We met the Queen of the Pirates.” I tell him. “And we lived through her mercy.”