Han Xifeng had lived in the forest for only a year. Then the immortal smiled one day, a rare thing. That was the first warning. Then, the immortal sent her to “train more” in the mountains. She felt as though she was being abandoned at the time, the voice inside of her convincing her of it ceaselessly and maddeningly. She tearfully asked the immortal if she was being abandoned. The immortal shook his head frantically and explained further.
“In this mountain, the one behind the utmost front one, there lies a taller mountain.” The immortal looked at the child, wanting to see if she understood. The child nodded her head.
“And in this mountain, a stronghold lies.” He said seriously. “It’s the stuff of legends, this stronghold. There are many treasures in it, and many ghosts, also. You must pass their trials to get a single treasure.”
Xifeng nodded, only more disinterested. She was not interested in any treasure, and she was equally also not interested in uselessly adventuring for some. The immortal had plenty, and after a time, the initial excitement of the treasure wore out. She wasn’t a hoarder like her parents are– or were.
“But, if you are lucky, there will be someone already there.”
Her ears pricked up at that. Someone? A friend, perhaps? A new rival? Finally, it was getting boring living in seclusion. The entity beneath her heart squirmed uncomfortably once more at an enemy. She smiled to herself and nodded eagerly.
“This person is someone who is supposed to be very strong. Politely ask them for a fight; royalty is usually picky like that. No matter if their kingdom is fallen or not, he still probably has dignity. You don’t need to wait for their answer, though. If they are smart enough, they would have already sprung into battle without answering. You’ll get a lot of enlightenment.”
Xifeng didn’t hear the last part of the sentence. She was already out the door.
She got to the mountains in half the time it would take for a normal person and was not disappointed with the result. A giant set of stairs greeted her. Though the ice bit at her fingertips and gnawed at the heels of her less-than-warm boots, she still liked the familiar scenery.
She smiled. It was like the training the immortal always gave her. She went up the stairs, and was almost halfway; she was so distracted to finish her half that she bumped shoulders with someone.
Someone? In these mountains?
She quickly grabbed their wrist before they could just pass by her. She opened her spiritual eye as her master taught her to. Their cultivation level was just Body Forging 1? She scoffed to herself. Not possible. Her eyes shifted quickly to their lower half. Not with that amount of qi pooling in their dantian.
She felt her hand quickly being smacked away, and the person in front of her squaring up. She laughed to herself. That would do nothing. Just let me look at you more, she thought and probed further.
Her eyes widened. The spiritual root of this person was exquisite. Nature’s art, she thought quietly to herself, With a spiritual root like that, they might have an affinity with 3 or even more elements. And then she went to their meridians. Beautifully crafted, and efficient. It’s like an engineer drew them.
She greeted them and let her hands fall to her sides, relaxing for the fight that she knew was imminent. It was only a matter of time.
“Hey. Fight me.”
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Xie Qi thought it was fine since he had been reading and building his enlightenment of martial arts little by little throughout the 4 years he had been conscious in this world; he thought he was strong, and the ghosts knew he was strong— but he had been too vain. Too complacent in his efforts.
Or perhaps this child simply was a greater prodigy than Xie Qi. Xie Qi faintly regretted not checking their spiritual root and cultivation stage before he fought them.
As soon as they fought, there were no gentle beginnings. The child had unleashed a barrage of fast attacks, each one diverting attention from the other. Step after step, each one increasing in speed and its ability to confuse Xie Qi.
It was as though the child was a dice with an infinite number of faces, that kept changing, kept evolving; and rolled lightning quickly. Xie Qi tried to grab their arms, to no avail; and decided to release his ki, and control it to envelop him for defense. The child frowned but did not stop their attacks.
Xie Qi dodged and dodged, and took hits only when it was necessary. And there were a lot of necessary blows. Xie Qi could feel his chest bruising, and one of his eyes beginning to swell.
“Haha! Why won’t you fight back?!” The child laughed mockingly, feinting an uppercut before throwing a right hook.
Xie Qi didn’t answer, simply craning his head and stepping back slightly to dodge the blow.
“You’re boring.” The child frowned, before driving the shin of their leg into Xie Qi’s side.
He evaded the best he could with the arts that he inherited from Xia Tai. But the child was faster, and even though it was by ever so little, they made it feel like Xie Qi was trying to escape the reach of the gods.
Patience. Patience was the only thing keeping Xie Qi from going mad and possibly losing the fight right now. Xie Qi held enough patience to look for the opening, any opening— no man or woman in this world was an impenetrable fortress. He stifled the adrenaline running in his blood. Adrenaline was a great booster, but not without a price. And foolishness wasn't a price he could afford.
Xie Qi spotted it. An opening, and in the middle of their torso, no less. He let the ki flow through his veins as violently as they could, reinforcing his iron bracers. He finally dealt a blow on the left side of their torso and taking advantage of their inevitable flinch, caught their arms. He pulled, with all of his strength, and slammed the child to the floor.
What he saw before he blacked out was the child turning their head around ever so slightly, and though Xie Qi expected nothing of begging or mercy due to the arrogant nature of the child, he certainly didn’t expect a sudden, wild grin spreading across their face, despite the pain they should have been feeling at the moment.
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Xifeng had never come across a person that could be on even terms with her in battle. The immortal had completely overpowered her. And even though she had started fighting spiritual beasts, a few arrogant cultivators only two months ago, she hadn’t lost or retreated in any of them. But just now— She thought for just a moment, that she was about to really have an engaging fight. She watched the child she had just fought sleep silently on the paving of the stone steps, the violent ki in their body evening out in an instant.
And she had never come across someone that fainted midway through a battle, either. She had just begun to lift herself off the ground before the person’s head began to spin, and they collapsed, hands still gripped tightly around her wrists. She had to pry their grip off of her. For how smart the person seemed, and how strong; the girl couldn’t help but think to herself that they lacked the basic stamina and vigor a martial artist should have.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
But she had to admit, the kid hit hard and well. Xifeng checked her body and found at least 5 broken ribs, a sprained wrist and ankle, a bruise forming below her chin, and a red mark quickly becoming apparent on both her wrists from the abnormally strong grip the person exerted.
Thinking about it now, she couldn’t help but feel sort of bad about the entire predicament. Her? Fighting one of her peers, a child like that? And the way she asked for it was also mildly rude.
She ignored the little voice twisting violently, enclosed within her heart. Enemy. Enemy. They are not someone who you should consort with. Kill them while they are like this.
Xifeng couldn’t help but think the voice that spoke to her at times was a bit of a downer, no matter how many times they helped her before. When she pulled herself from the ashes of her razed town, the voice ignited in her like an ember. Its sheer willpower is what kept her alive on the trek to find the immortal. Regardless, she ignored the voice like always and propped the person up. She carried them, slinging them on her shoulder like a towel. They were oddly light, for how well they fought. Could it be that they were a girl, like her?
Xifeng shifted the body of the person a little bit so she could see their face, really see it. She had only glanced at it for moments before she immediately asked for a fight, which made her feel she was too blithe about it.
She gasped faintly at the result.
Ah. She thought blankly, dumbly; she was brought to silence at the utter sublimity she saw. Something else popped up in her head, but something spoke louder. She must be a girl. How could she not be, with beauty like that?
It was evidently apparent that the girl Xifeng held over her shoulder right now was beautiful. Possibly one of the few facts the universe made fundamentally simple and obvious, like one added by one, or that every living thing sought to survive. The cold shock of her beauty made Xifeng lurch forward, almost tripping clumsily on the next step she was about to take on the stairs.
Xifeng rejoiced in her mind that she had not looked at the girl before or during the fight, because if she did, she would have simply lost outright. This beauty, even for royalty, definitely isn’t normal! She must have some sort of immortal blood passed down through her family, or succubus blood. Xifeng observed the girl’s beauty more closely as she walked up the stairs, trying to be focused on two things at the same time.
The girl’s features were finer than Xifeng’s by far, and perhaps even more handsome than her immortal big brother. Hair that seemed ground and spun of the finest ebony bound into a neat ponytail, brows gently, subtly arched like in the statues of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy. Not only this, but her face was one that sculptors aspired to capture in stone and poets struggled to describe in words. But instead, it seemed not made of stone, but fine, delicate china, paler than the ones that the immortal displayed in their house back home.
Xifeng was sure that though it looked like porcelain, if she touched it, it would have the texture of cold silk hung to dry in a snowfield. Soft, and velvety to an extent.
Xifeng’s eyes spun to the girl’s lips, which seemed so lightly made and crafted by the gods that they seemed more like two sultry petals of splendid peach, frosted with pale white from the cold. They twitched ever so slightly in her sleep.
The girl’s brow furrowed ever so slightly, and Xifeng gulped. The voice inside of her grew silent, and a cacophony of warring feelings twisted and lurched inside of her instead. She felt a spring of dislike, perhaps envy— Xifeng herself had not grown into her own beauty just yet, and not so well either. She felt contempt directed at herself; how could she bruise such a face? How could she fight such a visage?
But then, there was something else she felt, something that beat at her heart and tugged on it. Xifeng felt moved. It invoked a feeling in her that she had not felt since she had pulled herself from the ruins of her home; a feeling someone felt when they perused an excellent art piece adorned by some painter or cut by some sculptor. If the girl was to be a work of art, she was one that was more profound than any painting or sculpture she could find in the immortal’s lair, be it visualization technique or otherwise. Xifeng felt so moved by the girl’s beauty that she was almost reverent, almost pious to the gods for the first time since the gods had decreed the fate of her brother.
She felt the breath leaving her lungs, and this was what honest breathlessness was, and she would never know it from any other scenario again other than simply looking for the first time at the girl.
Xifeng was so brought to her feelings that she had to sit down. She released the girl from her shoulder and lay the girl beside her, waiting for her to wake up as Xifeng took her breath back, and regained herself.
She didn’t know how long it took for the girl to wake up, but as soon as she did, Xifeng patted her on the back and asked her if she had any injuries.
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Xie Qi didn’t know at all why he woke up to the child he just fought asking him if he was “alright," and if he had "any injuries." He was clearly not alright. They had a spiritual sense, just like him. Couldn’t they see the 3 broken ribs and 7 bruises forming on his figure?
He furiously rubbed his eyes of the weariness and turned to rebuke them as rudely as he could, but stopped. Ah, he thought instantly. I didn’t get to see this guy’s face. So I’ve been fighting a boy.
Xie Qi didn’t know how ridiculously wrong he was. Still, Xie Qi continued his inaccurate thoughts further and stared closely at the boy’s visage. Xie Qi felt the sudden surprise spring in his heart like a sudden burst of water at the boy’s striking appearance.
Every feature of the boy spoke of both sharp adroitness and gallantry. His brow was straight and seemingly formed by a skillful artist’s single stroke of the brush. His eyes, sharp like daggers, and slightly narrowed with pupils seemed to be painted with a verdant green lush of leaves ground into ink and painted in a perfect pair of circles. The boy’s shoulders were broad and square, and his face was eerily handsome as if it was a cursed, beautiful mask carved out of choice bone.
His hair ran like streams and waterfalls of ink, flowing even below his shoulder. He had oddly long hair for a boy, but Xie Qi supposed that it was just a traditional hairstyle in this day and age. Xie Qi felt a sort of disdain rising like bile in his throat looking at how far the boy had developed. He seemed like someone his age, but Xie Qi had never grown so well and attained such handsomeness before, even in his last life. Xie Qi was sure that when the boy grew up further, he would be an avid lady-killer. Xie Qi was even willing to bet on it.
Drowning in the boy’s elegance, Xie Qi simply answered; “..Yes, I’m alright. Better than ever actually.” He said, brushing the matter off. “Slightly ashamed. It seems like I’m the only one who got wounded.” He muttered quietly, but the boy heard it anyways.
The boy looked at him strangely, brows furrowing. “Are you blind?” He asked indignantly, but sounding rather genuine. “Look.” The boy raised his chin to reveal a large bruise forming under his chin from being pushed onto the pavement. Xie Qi noticed that the boy's Adam's apple hadn't formed yet. “I’ve got a sprained wrist and a sprained ankle, too. And 5 broken ribs.”
Xie Qi winced, eating his words. “I’ve only got 3. And a few bruises.”
The boy rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you’re really good.” Xie Qi wanted to explain himself; he wasn’t bragging, but the boy didn’t let him finish.
“My name is Han Xifeng.” The boy said, formally introducing himself in a polite manner that didn’t seem to sit right with Xie Qi. He wasn’t used to such politeness, ghost, mortal or otherwise. Xie Qi felt that his voice was also a tad bit high, even though he was only a child. Xie Qi also didn’t understand the name; what kind of parent would name their son a girl’s name?
Xie Qi shifted to sit more comfortably, looking at the boy named Xifeng closely. “Xifeng? That’s a rather girlish name.” He commented observantly.
Xifeng looked strangely at Xie Qi, folding his arms and evaluating him silently. After a while of judging Xie Qi, he said scornfully; “That’s because I am a girl.” Xie Qi felt icy, pure shock for the very first time.
“Oh.” Xie Qi could only say in return, still a little bit shocked. Well, it suited him-her well. She was certainly as dexterous as a phoenix. “My name is Xia Song.” He spoke again, after a bout of painfully awkward silence. Xifeng wrinkled her brow. What kind of a parent named such a beautiful daughter ‘Song?’
“Song? Now that sounds like a boy’s name.” Xifeng remarked teasingly, planning to make a joke to ease the heavy atmosphere. It was Xie Qi’s turn to look at her strangely.
“But I am a boy.”
Xifeng felt the heavens themselves falling down and the earth crumbling to pieces inside of her heart. She looked, in shock for a while at Xie Qi. She was so shell-shocked that she couldn’t speak a single word. “You. You, you– you’re?” It was simply impossible. Fundamentally unfeasible. Out of the question, unspeakable. Not even the gods themselves could have possibly made such a mistake in giving a boy such a beautiful visage. The gods seemed to be as amoral as she first thought.
She was so shocked, in fact, that she sat agape for about 10 minutes to recover from the cold revelation. After both of them recovered from their initial shock, they started their conversation anew.
“I want you to be my sparring partner,” Xifeng commanded, regaining herself. Xie Qi felt oddly that he couldn’t deny her, or wasn’t supposed to. Xie Qi simply nodded, not even bothering to put up a fight. This Xifeng was strong, and a good rival for the future. He needed to grow more, and someone to grow together with. This path of revenge would be lonely, but they would be lonely together, at least.
But he had a question to ask before that. "Why me?" Xie Qi asked, raising his eyebrows.
Xifeng looked at him as though he was stupid. Then she cast a glance over the mountain range that allowed them to see the curve of the world. She made a point of using her spiritual sense to scour the whole area, and Xie Qi shivered upon feeling the thick gaze of her qi wrapping around him. After a few minutes of searching, her spiritual gaze relented.
"If not you, then who else?" Xifeng said arrogantly, her eyes narrowing in frustration. "I see no other person from the height of this mountain range that's nearly as worthy."
Xie Qi didn't speak for a while. Then he chuckled, his lips curving. It was the first time he had ever found something funny or absurd. "Alright then.” He answered, something growing warmer and warmer inside of his heart, swelling with heat in contrast to the frosted snow all around him, and an odd feeling of joy. He was unfamiliar with the feeling, and couldn’t describe it nearly as well enough.
The two had never felt so terrible and yet so happy before, with their ribs broken, their lips chapped and scarred, and their limbs sprained and possibly broken also. In their utter joy in finding a worthy rival and dissipating the loneliness they didn't know they had, they began to talk more. About their movement techniques, about their training, but beneath their friendly talks, they looked at each other with shrewd gazes that were amply veiled. They looked at each other, calculating the chances that this person too, would betray them.
It was a sight enough to make the gods laugh with a mix of amusement and nervousness. A viper with a porcelain face and a tiger slowly growing its fangs; who knew if they would get along for long enough not to rip the world apart?