"I'm not." - Lin Si, 11, while arguing with her master
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7 years ago…
"You're too proud." Her teacher reprimanded her, swatting her over the face with a small whip-like stick. "Get yourself together, you aren't all that."
"Heh." Lin Si spat out her tongue playfully "If I'm not a genius, then explain what happened today!"
She got another whack on her face. Her master was always merciless, and two bright red marks, almost cutting her skin to bleeding, now painted her face. He didn't bother hiding it from her parents, and although they'd considered taking her away from her master…it was also true that she'd finally become more well-behaved since they left her in his care.
"If you are that skilled, why are you proud of defeating just children?"
"Ah, so I'm just that strong? I should take on people over 40?" she asked, innocently. Her master seemed to call anyone under 40 a child. She got another wack.
"No!" Her master glared down at her. "If you take too much pride in your skills, what if there comes a day you don't have them?"
She stopped to think for a moment, "What do you mean, don't have them."
Her master strode past her, turning her around, to gaze down at the village below them.
"What if one day, you break your legs, and are unable to walk, or one day you get blinded, and are unable to see? Wouldn't you lose this very strength that you take pride in? What are you when you lose your martial strength?"
Lin Si grew silent. She was a naughty brat, but she was only naughty because she had long since found out how to outsmart those around her.
Her master sighed. "Not only that, once you become proud of your skills, you will grow complacent. And when you are complacent in your training, you will never advance."
"But.." She considered for a moment. 'What if I become the strongest in the world? What if there is no strength greater than me? What if I've reached the pinnacle of martial arts?"
She felt her shoulder squeezed, glancing up to his greying beard. "Child, there is no pinnacle of martial arts. It is an endless mountain, without a peak. Yes, you can turn around and enjoy the view at any time, stop your tiresome trek upwards, but never think that the path has finished just because you can't see the way up anymore."
"So…I'll never be strong enough?"
"You…Lin Si, will never be strong enough." He sighed, almost sadly, then patted her back. "But you will become stronger each day."
Current day…
The battle finally ended, Xu Tianwen holding one of his arms, now limp, finally falling to his knees, admitting defeat. "This new generation," he grinned, self-deprecatingly. "Really is better than the last, isn't it?" So it wasn't that there weren't 5 heavenly kings anymore…It was just that a true emperor had arisen, and had driven out all competition. He finally understood. His eyes flashed, a small curve came to his lips. It seemed…He had more heights yet to climb with his martial arts, having stood at the peak of master for so long, he finally felt his bottleneck loosening.
Lin Si glanced at both, while Xu Tianwen was gasping for breath, legs shaking, sweat perspiration beading on every surface, Li Junlong just stood there, his hand as steady as before, the only signs of fatigue were a couple drops of sweat that trailed down his brow. And yet, Lin Si could tell from his qi, this fight hadn't been easy, and a small tear was left on his sleeve from the battle. The man had lower cultivation, but his skills were so unique, they were hard to track. Li Junlong couldn't remember how long it had been since someone had been able to touch him.
He nodded to Xu Tianwen, acknowledging his strength, not opening his mouth for a moment, perhaps to avoid breathing too hard. Then, before he could turn away, he finally spoke. "You, since you lost, could you answer a question of mine? If you need more compensation to answer, my riches are at your disposal."
Xu Tianwen hastily agreed. "Yes, anything, ask away, sovereign."
"Do you know the location of any lihuo flower?"
Lihuo flower? One the rarest most deadly flowers in existence currently? To tell the truth, it used to not be incredibly rare, each bush producing five every 10 years after that, but was used to concoct such powerful poisons, that back in the chaotic period, people had harvested them almost to extinction, since they could only grow in certain conditions and took over a thousand years to go from a sprout to blooming. Also, there was a time when the great emperor Licheng had gone around burning all the bushes that grew in the volcanic highlands, until not a trace remained.
Xu Tianwen quickly shook his head. "No, I know nothing of them." Lin Si recognized the shake from when he was apologizing for losing.
"Hold your tongue, let not a word of this get out, unless you wish to taste my blade again." Li Junlong dismissed him, and Xu Tianwen bowed his way out. It seemed the mighty Wulong was truly gone, to only exist in the pages of history books.
Lin Si waved him away, handing over a couple of dried cakes and coins before he went.
Li Junlong glanced over at her curiously, he'd finally caught his breath completely back and was considering why she was still standing here. "Didn't you come together?"
"Ah," Lin Si lit up, waving her hand dismissively, "No, no no, I was just busy with working on some things, and so we ended up through a series of circumstances to hold the same plaque…"
He was completely uninterested in her jabbering. "One fight for one plaque." He stated promptly.
She decided to avoid mentioning she'd already bought one previously, and instead took out the letter. "Actually, I'm not here to fight, I was sent here by my father."
She handed him the letter, he sheathed his sword to take it hesitantly, eyes scanning across the signature. She reached over to help him open it, and he stepped back avoiding her. She scratched her head, embarrassedly, "just, um, open it, to see…"
He glared at her a little. She cringed. Ah, this was so awkward…
She finally explained as he opened it. "In the past, my grandfather and yours were actually good friends, and they had made an agreement that their descendants should marry one another, just, they both only birthed sons in their lives, and so the promise got passed down to the grandchildren…all the proof is there, the signed document, before heaven and earth between my grandfather and yours…
He read through the document, it seemed what she was saying was true, it was even stamped with the seal of his family. But…
"So, you came here to marry me?"
She scratched her head, glancing him up and down. He really was quite handsome, a little too rugged, tall and built for her usual taste, but, well, he was quite pretty still. "...yes?" weirdest marriage proposal of her life, stupid father, making her come out here to do the work for him!
"And you expect me to just accept?"
"...yes?" I mean, it was an agreement by his grandfather, and don't they say he values family very much?
"Scum." She heard a ruthless word muttered under his breath, his mouth curving into a malicious expression, he lifted his eyes slowly to send a smoldering glare at her. His black eyes burrowing deep into her soul. He dismissively crunched up the precious document, tossing it onto the ground, and then kicking it for good measure. "Get lost, I won't marry into a family of cowards like yourselves."
What? Well, she wasn't exactly expecting to be paraded with joy at her proposition of marriage, but was she THAT bad of a partner he had to reject her like this?? She quickly scrambled to grab it, he was turning away, with a simple "leave."
But she stood up slowly instead. "What if I don't?" Who was he to tell her what to do anyway?
"Leave." His voice came out louder, darker, maliciousness coating every breath.
She was used to ignoring people's mental breakdowns with her mom and sister, always emotionally unstable individuals. "No way, bro, I'm not leaving, not until you give me a good reason you want to break this promise! It's not like I have a choice either, this is just the agreem-"
Suddenly a flash of sword energy was flung her way, she barely leapt out of the way, sliding several feet. It slipped by her sleeve, but she noticed it wasn't quite to killing potential, merely a bruising warning.
"What, did you ju-"
"Leave!" He snarled, his eyes filled with dark energy, becoming almost whirling vortexes of power, his entire body was shaking in rage. Wow, she considered, was he really mentally breaking down, her mom had been like this once…it was to either avoid them…if you didn't like them and wanted them to keep it stuck inside them forever, or obnoxiously insult them, make that boiling energy burst out, and leave them a better state of mind when you left.
She decided to choose the latter today. He was hot after all.
"Ha," she drew her blade arrogantly in her right hand, she doubted she could take him without it. "You, a sniveling ant, want to drive me out? Let's see if you have the ability." The light of the sun glinted off the blade, a blade, pure white, made of soft, milk jade, an absolute treasure, but also a very fragile existence. Her qi flowed into it as easily as if it were her own toes. It felt good to finally take it out after so long.
Li Junlong hesitated for a moment, was it worth making another enemy? Didn't he have enough but…this Lin family, hadn't they already become enemies the day they had betrayed his father? The day they left them to suffer, surviving by the skin of their teeth!
He no longer hesitated. He knew she was strong, no one weak could have dodged his previous move and with his years of experience, he never let down his guard. His rage burned, his qi boiled, and so he lunged forward, let the fight commence!
Lin Si had already watched his movements and martial style, Li Junlong had fought 11 fights in a row, the last one a powerhouse, Lin Si was refreshed from a good sleep that night, Li Junlong was dumbed with rage.
The fight was completely in her favor, and yet…He was this strong???
Their blades met, and light flashed out, neither backed down, not even a millimeter. Her eyes glowed brighter, his darker, she dipped backwards, sliding his sword to the side, and instantly their standstill was broken, blades flashing, each cut swifter than the last. Her blade slicing the air so quickly so finely the wind was barely stirred, as if merely leaf and passed through it, and yet the power that they carried with them, could slice through solid stone, and so it had to, as his blade, each carve of it, rendering the wind immobile, the air stopped, the sound like claps of thunder, the places it left, still alit with his qi. Her blade didn't back down, and neither did his, both their breaths became quicker, their feet swept farther, her grin spread wider, his frown grew deeper.
He suddenly surged with energy, his full strength came out from an unexpected move toward her lower body, the jump in power threw her out of her momentum, necessary to compensate her lack of body strength, forcing her into a retreat. She trotted backwards swiftly, but the wall quickly greeted her back. He followed close, keeping step with her, his large strides easily outdoing her quick ones. It was hard to compete with his control of her space, with the extra length of his arms and legs, but as the wall approached her back, her grin only grew wider, her eyes fiercer, she suddenly leapt backward, away from him, her feet traveled up, slamming into the side of the wall, she leapt off it, lifting herself to new heights, the qi flew around her, and for a moment she was massless, merely a cloud floating in the air, and then, she forced it to descend, the wind whipped around her, gravity joined in with her qi, a magnificent arch of strength, descending onto his large blade. He met it with confidence, but it wasn't easy, blood forced out of his mouth from churning qi, his ankles dug into the ground, sliding back half a step.
But what she didn't expect was, rather than back down or take a moment to recover, he immediately swapped his defense for offense, without a break, and little to no regard for his own body and the damage it would cause, recklessly forced his qi back down, rolling it out, has blade blurred in her vision, slashing at her maliciously in her moment of relaxation after landing a big blow.
She felt it coming, reacting with flick of the body, side stepping it with a tricky movement, however, he didn't hesitate for a moment and kept pushing the offensive, another wave of blood came out of his lips, but this time she was running out of room and ability to dodge, the previous move had already put her in a difficult spot but…there was a chance, with his reckless maneuvering a weak spot revealed itself for the first time during the fight, on his right side, her blade changed direction, ready slide under his blow and clobber him into his place, but…right in the corner of her eye, she suddenly saw a movement of white. Without taking a moment to think, since she didn't have that moment, no one had that moment in a fight, she gave up on the weak point, tanking the blow completely-something she normally would never do.
To tank a blow from an opponent, especially a man, usually meant an injury and maybe loss for her, not to mention this man, his qi so refined it cut though steel like soft tofu, and stone like water. The domineering strength of his qi was not easy to take head on, it cut straight into her own qi, forcing it down, back, away, qi that threatened to rise above everyone, and force them to their knees assaulted her. Her own qi, born merely from the wildness and gentleness of nature, of chaos and peace of the world, intertwined destiny, was completely, unequivocally unprepared for this assault, thrusting her body into disarray, instantly drawing blood up her throat as well, incidentally with a small gape of her lips, letting it dribble out of the corner of her mouth. Not only did she tank the direct hit, she tanked every single excess power that surrounded it, completely negating it. Negating it to nothingness. Nothingness. The absence of nature.