Chapter 31

A Father's Greed, a Daughter's Resolve

Leo just barely managed to open his eyes before he fell to the side, entirely exhausted and paralyzed. His entire body ached, though, fortunately, it only lasted for a moment. While he lay on his side, re-examining his decision to seriously cultivate, Milky and Blackie walked up to him and started licking his face. It tickled quite a bit, and yet he couldn't even properly laugh due to paralysis.

They eventually got bored and sauntered away into the bushes, just in time for his paralysis to wear off. Sitting up, he quickly chugged a cup of fruit juice, revitalizing himself.

Looking up at the clear, blue sky, he let loose a sigh and stood up, stretching. His bones creaked like floors in an old house, causing a ripple. Seeing that the night was fast approaching, he stretched for a moment further before he executed the footwork and raced toward the pond. However, halfway there, he stopped and turned back, having forgotten the buckets for water. Even here, he was a bit absentminded, it seemed.

**

Yue stared rather hollowly at the signboard hanging above the arched entrance--Lan Clan, a rather important name within a hundred miles or so. Past it, however, it was just one of the numerous mid-level clans all struggling for resources and connections. It used to hang over her like a ashen cloud spitting chains instead of rain, binding her. Now, however, she felt a certain level of freedom, knowing this would be the last time she'd take a step past this point.

"Good morning, Miss Yue. Has your trip been well?"

"Ah, Miss Yue! You look lovely today, too!"

"Hm? Ah, it's just you. Where were you? Father's holding a banquet tonight. He's invited Young Master Mue over. You must attend."

Most people ignored her, some greeted her, and one informed her of what she feared--her younger brother, Xae, the Clan's brightest star.

Since his birth, she did nothing but love him with all her heart--but it was for naught. The shower of praises that he lived within all his life had morphed him into someone disconnected from the rest of the world. Over the years, Yue even grew resentful of it all--in many ways, demonic whispers within tempted her with the false truth that he'd stolen their parents' love from her. But he did nothing except be born talented. After all, he was just fifteen still--just a child.

She merely nodded toward him and went back to her small abode tucked away in the eastern corner of the compound. She had no maids or butlers or attendants to care for either her or dwelling; as such, dust had piled up over nearly two weeks that she'd been gone. Ignoring it all, she merely reached for the small coffer she'd stashed at the far end of her wardrobe. That was where she hid a few bits of jewelry she hadn't sold yet as well as a reserve of around 500 Qi Stones.

While far from any considerable wealth, it was very doubtful whether her Master had a stone to his name, and she still had things to buy on the way back. Putting it away into the ring, she was just about to leave when she felt a presence appear in front of the door. She recognized it immediately: it was her father.

The doors were flung open carelessly, and the man walked in, holding true the gravitas of someone at nearly the Peak of Avatar Realm. He looked as he always did--falsely dashing, having used Qi to suspend the loss of hair for over a decade now. He'd put on his favorite, silver robes and a scarf made out of demonic wolf's pelt, his grandest possession.

"Where were you?" he asked coldly. No greeting, no asking whether she'd gotten hurt on the outside... but she knew better, by now, than to expect affection from him.

"Grandfather died." she replied.

"Oh. Yes, they informed me. What of it?"

"I went to try and retrieve his body."

"Did you?"

"No."

"Might be better off that way," he said. "We may finally be able to shed the vagabond reputation that his presence gave us."

"..."

"What?" he frowned at her silence. Yue had stayed silent her whole life, never uttering a word to either him or her mother. She was a good daughter, a proper, obedient child. But watching the callous way in which the man talked about his own father, something cracked inside of her.

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"He was your father," she said rather calmly. A mere second latter, immense pressure descended upon her, pressing against her shoulders and nearly pushing her down to her knees.

"Hm? You endured that? How--wait!" he exclaimed abruptly and appeared right in front of her, grabbing her wrist. She felt a strand of alien Qi shoot through her meridians, and though she tried to resist, it was futile. "How... how is this possible?!! Your, your Spirit Roots--" he looked at her, aghast, with a complex concoction of emotions in his eyes. There was joy, sure--if ever a trace of it--but it was mostly shock... and jealousy. "Heaven Roots!! Where did you go?! Tell me now! Ha ha ha, Lady Luck has finally blessed my Lan Clan! Tell me, dear child, how did you change your roots?"

"... no," Yue yanked her arm back, biting her lower lip. There was greed in his eyes--he saw her likely as a mere solvent, means to excise the Clan's debts and propel his own name further.

"No? What do you mean 'no'?" he frowned, his expression chilling. "Humph, it must be Demonic Possession! A True Demon must have possessed you to keep the lucky opportunity for itself!"

"Stop! Just stop!!" she exploded, batting his arm away. "What do you mean a Demonic Possession?! Do you see my eyes bleeding ashen?! Did you notice even a trace of Demonic Qi in my meridians when you inspected me? Enough with your sanctimonious tongue, trying to hide your greed!"

"Lan Yue!" his voice exploded like a bolt of thunder, a violent burst of Qi shattering her house into thousands of pieces. She felt the energy hit her directly and push her back; it was so powerful that she was forced to vomit blood, still mid-flight, before barely managing to stabilize on her knees some fifty yards away. "How unfilial! You are my blood! How dare you disobey me?! Even if I ordered you to walk into the fire for the Clan, you should do so with a smile on your face!"

"Why would I be filial to a man who hasn't done anything in his life to earn it?" Yue clutched the feather between her fingers inside of her robes, but she wasn't planning on using it. If it turned out that her Master was telling the truth, and that the feather could unleash an attack of an Earthly Immortal, the entire Lan Clan would disappear in the blink of an eye. And however much she loathed her father at the moment, she was unwilling to destroy everything because of it. "I've returned to say the final goodbye. I'm leaving the Clan, and unless you are willing to defy the Heart and kill me, there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"Humph, ungrateful wench!!" he cursed, drawing out a sword from the scabbard. 'Thunder Bite', as her father called it, shimmered and twined in the rays of the sun, drawing Qi within a mile towards it. It was a Sky-Tier Weapon, one of the better ones, with a faint trace of spirituality. "How would slaying a True Demon who possessed my daughter and made her go mad be defying the Heart? Either submit, or be purged!"

"..." Yue fell silent, staring at the eyes of a man who had nothing but anger and greed in them. Her own father. She couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. However, even with that, she knew that her chances of running away were low. Nonetheless, if she could at least leave the Clan's grounds and bait her father out, she might find a place where using the feather wouldn't harm anyone else. Even so, with her cultivation at merely Mid Core Formation, eluding someone at nearly the peak of Avatar Realm was simply fantasizing. Still... she had to try. "Purge me, then, bedeviled monster wearing human skin."

As soon as words faded from her lips, she shoved Qi into her feet and executed a footwork technique--not the one that her Clan taught her as her father could easily see through it, but the one that her Master taught her. She'd practiced it on the way, despite her Master's warnings, and could now endure it for full two minutes without passing out. Naturally, even just using it for thirty seconds meant that she'd have to recover for at least an hour afterward, but it was better than dying.

She became a blur, and barely managed to glance back and see a streak of thunder land where she was, shattering the afterimage she'd left behind. Her heart froze--though she saw the murderous intent in his eyes, there was still a part of her which held doubt that he'd be willing to kill his own daughter. But that attack... were she to have received it, it would have undoubtedly killed her.

There was no room for doubt any longer--that man, if he ever viewed her as his own blood and worthy of life, had long since ceased to do so.

She routed to the rear of the Clan's ground, executing the nameless footwork technique and realizing something was off--despite her not moving that quickly, her father was falling behind. Looking over her shoulder, she saw his raging figure covered in bolts of thunder dementedly swing the sword but to no avail. None of the streaks came even close to hitting her.

By the time she bounded the Clan's walls and exited the compound, only fifteen seconds had passed, and she'd already created at least a thousand yards of a distance. Sensing that something wasn't adding up, she temporarily ignored it and dashed forward like mad--the nearest city was about sixty miles to the northwest, and if she managed to reach it without being caught, even her father would be unable to do anything.

Thus, she ran with all her might--thirty seconds into the sprint, she glanced back yet again and noticed an extra oddity: she could no longer see her father. She'd sprinted some two miles from the Clan's compound, and now he was merely a blurry dot in the distance. For a moment she considered that he was merely putting on a show and was letting her leave, but that was impossible. Ultimately, there was only one explanation: the simple footwork that her Master gave her, the one she thought was merely good for body and Qi training, was far more complicated than anything she could have even dreamed of.

She didn't dare ponder on it further--not because she did not want to, but because she wasn't nearly clever enough. As she stepped into the nearby forest, she decided to stop using it--her legs nearly immediately gave out, though she did her best to endure. In case her Father caught up with her, she'd have to use the technique immediately. However... there was only silence. There were no blasting thunders signaling the man's arrival, and looking at the sky, it was clear and blue. One way or another, it seemed, she'd managed to get away.

"... what the hell is that footwork?!" she pondered aloud, once again needing to re-examine everything she knew about the man who'd passed it down to her.