Veronika opened her eyes to the sight of a magical sky glowing with vibrant white puffy clouds over a background of rich blue and pink color. Yellow and magenta streaks passed through twinkling stars. As she glimpsed to one side, she saw bits of gold-bronze relief panels rising high into the sky. She nodded with understanding when she faced a benevolent yet devilishly handsome young man, in soft silks and white cotton robes, with a sword in one hand and a lotus balanced in the other. She was facing the statue of Wu Chen in her soul library.

“Right.” She groaned as she stumbled to her feet, from her sitting position. And stepped toward the statue.

Did she ever learn anything? She was once the great and mighty immortal cultivator called Wu Chen, who held the skills men envied, and handsomeness woman had drooled over. But being Wu Chen or Veronika Shepherd, she was still making the same mistake.

The surfaces of the twelve relief panels transformed to show a recap of her recent days after being revived into a new body. They surrounded her in a short burst of scenes: waking up in a technological waste dump, seeing System externally with the snow wolf, meeting a biodroid named Scot, having a stand-off at Junkyard Town’s gates with Creed, Fast Food Tavern people, many skirmishes with her own kind who were determined to kill her, Simone frantically working on the terminal of a massive bomb console and System running a hack to disarm it.

At the head of the enemy forces was Yan Hun. The betrayal she felt from this person was still vivid. She had trusted her the most in her past life only to be stabbed in the back. And now, the current Yan Hua was still able to do the same thing. Although, maybe she did learn something. She knew she couldn't trust the woman of this time, and she was able to survive her stab wound.

“I will get my justice.” She vehemently spat out her oath and yelped when the light and serenity of her library was fading to darkness, wiping away the scenes to return the reliefs to their usual images. But they too, were fading from view.

A gong rebounded around the space, which was a warning of collapse.

If she didn’t rebalance her emotions, she would be spiraling into a void. She dumped herself down on the floor in a meditative pose and began to rearrange the thoughts in her mind, scattering the lingering images of betrayal so they were ordered in a balance with those of friendship and achievement. After a time of rebalancing the array of her memories, the darkness cleared to return the soul library to its typical energy levels.

“Life is an infinite loop of learning and understanding. Sometimes the crossing of each other can get knotted.” She spoke the words of her old master aloud and turned her attention to one of the twelve reliefs in the cella.

They were virtues and practices for the sword: interest, desire, patience, persistence, gain, loss, pride, will, honor, deceit, love and fear.

She was staring at the relief symbol that represented persistence. It was an image of a mouse at the start of a vast and complicated maze, where holy cheese could be seen at the far end but was unreachable. Especially when the maze was constantly shifting to form a new array. But the mouse didn't look disheartened, rather it was determined to reach the cheese, no matter how many times it failed. As long as they could get up, they would keep running the maze.

“Persistence, huh?” Of course, that is what Veronika needed right now to hone in her sword. There were too many reasons to give in, but also many reasons to not.

But if she didn't keep trying to find a way, people would most likely die in droves, and she would never fulfil a promise that saw to the restoration of a soul. She still wasn't sure if the soul she had bargained with was truly kind, but this soul showed persistence.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Accepting the virtue to hone into her sword, she passed through the vestibule to enter into her library. Previously, she had been able to gain a first level core skill of Static. But she felt she had yet to hone this skill tacitly. She sat cross-legged on a lotus symbol that hovered slightly above the floor, and began to meditate.

A memory of her eight-year-old Wu Chen self appeared before her, playing out the scene. It was the moment Wu Chen had finished eliminating the toads with his rusty sword. He and his master were standing on the edge of a swamp pond.

“Persistence,” his master had said with a proud expression.

Veronika's memory zoomed in on the image of this master's face.

He appeared as a healthy and handsome young man despite his silver, silky long hair, which flowed freely over his shoulders and down his back against his drab-gray long robes, bearing no markings or colors of a sect. His robes were so long they covered his entire body, so only his bare hands and feet in flax-woven sandals could be seen. A conical, woven-flax, do'un hat shaded his head and most of his face.

Looking up at this tall man from Wu Chen's height, he could see the man's wise-green eyes twinkling with a smile for his student. Wu Chen had felt honored to be the Grandmaster of the Light Sword, Xiao Che's only student.

“Remember, Little Wu, these toads weren't evil. We released the evil from them, so their souls can be free. That's the Light Sword's true meaning.” Xiao Che tenderly patted the boy's head.

“But these toads were eating people!” Wu Chen frowned, not understanding. The toads were evil to begin with, so what would change in them.

“Because a will was making them. This will was not their own. Toads just want to grow and live in the swamp with the basic needs. We freed them from this foreign will forced upon them.” Xiao Che calmly explained and nodded when his Little Wu was forming an understanding.

The wise young man calmly stepped away from the swamp pond's edge, like he was gliding, and headed deeper into the shady woods. Wu Chen hastily followed after him...

The memory faded until Veronika only saw her soul library again. A tear slid down her cheek with respect for her beloved grandmaster. He had been a father to her when she was Wu Chen. She wondered if he was watching her within the Spirit Shadow Realm, feeling some disappointment toward her demise. But she shook her head.

Disappointment or not. She had a chance to do some good in this new world and future. And she felt the stirrings of the old life were interfering with her current one.

“Yan Hua. And now, maybe, forced will.” Veronika frowned as she recalled Khyslaka's words about being dominated.

If some power was truly being released that was slowly corrupting the will of another, she had to stop this.

She slipped deeper into her spiritual sea. The realm where her spiritual energy was converted into her soul lifeforce, and vice versa. Her spirit self explored the vast landscape of lush green meadows giving haven to brightly colored butterflies and birds, clear blue skies and wise tall trees that sheltered small creatures. Her soul power had been honed to nature and light, so her spiritual sea would reflect this.

An uneasiness crept into her soul heart, when she glimpsed a foul, black smoke in the blue sky. It was an odd sight and not one that gave her comfort. There was a corruption in her spirit energy.

“Of course. I was damaged by an alien thing.” She sighed and slipped further into meditation to cleanse the energy.

After some intense focus and meditation, the black smoke faded, and the blue sky could only be seen. She nodded and called upon the Static spell, which appeared as silver columns of sigils bathed in light. The columns encircled her being as she meditated to form a deeper understanding of them.