"What are you all staring at?"
In the end, it was Bai Fanxian who cracked first. She turned back to question the girls whose eyes were fixed on her, all shining bright.
"Lady Heroine... you're incredibly strong."
One of the girls standing closest answered, and her sisters all nodded along. Bai Fanxian swept her gaze across every child there. Not a single one showed any trace of fear.
"Aren't you afraid of me?"
"Afraid? Why would we be?"
At first they tilted their heads, puzzled. But when their eyes drifted to the massive pit and the body of the powerful-looking man lying inside it, who might have been alive or dead, they understood what Bai Fanxian meant.
"Lady Heroine... we weren't raised in a beautiful world."
The girl's eyes turned somber, though a faint smile still crossed the corner of her mouth, entirely natural.
"If we don't kill, we get killed. If we're not strong, we can't protect anything..."
"That's something every one of us learned for ourselves since we were children."
"We don't even have time to grieve for the friends we've lost. Besides, we know what you did was to protect us. To protect this place from greedy hands. So how could we ever fear or hate you?"
The answer, coming from so many young mouths at once, made Bai Fanxian understand.
These children were like she had once been.
Half this dimension already lay under the rule of demons and monstrous beasts. War and loss were ordinary things they had faced since the moment they opened their eyes to the world. Judging their actions by the logic of a peaceful world would hardly be fair.
"I understand."
Bai Fanxian nodded lightly. Before she could say anything more, one of the girls stepped forward and met her eyes with unmistakable seriousness.
"Lady Heroine... there's something I'd like to ask."
"What is it?"
She did not refuse outright, and that alone was enough to fill the girl with hope.
"I want to grow stronger... would you teach me?"
The moment she finished, every disciple of the Goddess Alchemy Palace standing nearby pressed forward at once, faces eager.
"Me too!"
"Can I as well!?"
"...If it wouldn't be too much trouble."
"Count me in too!"
Watching her junior sisters' earnest faces, Su Lin drew a deep breath. She stepped forward to face Bai Fanxian directly and clasped her hands in respect.
"Lady Heroine... all of us want to gain more strength, even knowing it would be asking too much of you..."
"Sure."
Before Su Lin's careful, deferential words could finish, Bai Fanxian cut her off with an easy nod. The girls all lifted their heads, unable to believe what they had just heard.
"I said sure. Truth be told, it's something I already meant to do."
"Really!?"
"Mm. Starting tomorrow morning, anyone who wants to train can gather here in the square."
Before she turned to leave, she added,
"After this, bring me a full account — income, expenses, what treasures remain, and a list of every technique you've all trained in."
"Understood!... Huh?"
Su Lin, who had only just accepted the order with a dutiful bow, found herself confused a moment later. She watched Bai Fanxian's back as she walked off toward the ruined Forbidden Palace, unable to make sense of her own reaction.
Why had she agreed to Lady Heroine's order so easily?
Lady Heroine had helped the Palace in more ways than one, true, but handing over information that confidential to an outsider was hardly appropriate.
"...Is she an outsider?"
She did not know why, but deep down, she did not quite believe that.
Because in the end, her own two feet had already carried her off to gather every scrap of information Bai Fanxian wanted, all the same...
.
.
.
"Xinjia, Xinhong, get up already."
"Mm... senior sister, I'm still sleepy..."
"Didn't I tell you to go to bed early?"
Mu Xia stood in the junior disciples' dormitory, letting out a weary sigh. Last night, the girls had been so excited that it was nearly dawn before any of them settled down to sleep.
"Up to you all, then. Senior sister Su Lin and I will just go train with Lady Heroine, the two of us alone..."
That seemed to do the trick. Every girl who heard it shot upright out of bed, sleepiness forgotten entirely. Dark circles ringed their eyes, but the sparkle in them was unmistakable.
"No fair! Wait for us, we're coming too!"
More than a dozen girls who had been sleeping together scrambled to wash up with astonishing speed. Before long, every disciple who wanted to train that morning had gathered in the wide square.
But strangely, even after waiting more than ten minutes, there was no sign of Bai Fanxian. Instead, two small figures came walking in together.
"...Um, little Grandmaster, would you happen to know where Lady Heroine went?"
Even though the girl before her was younger, Su Lin, who had witnessed yesterday's events and seen Tang Yeye's power firsthand, did not dare risk being impolite. She clasped her hands and asked the little girl, who was still rubbing sleep from her eyes, with careful courtesy.
Tang Yeye yawned hugely. At this hour, she normally would not even be awake yet. Groggy and swaying on her feet, needing her older sister to hold her steady, she looked nothing like the girl from the day before.
"Mm... my lady's still busy."
Apparently, ever since Bai Fanxian had received the Palace's full records yesterday, she had been poring over them again and again with a furrowed brow, all through the night.
"In that case, never mind, then..."
"But my lady said sister Hui'er would train you all instead."
With that, she pointed to the other little girl standing beside her, who offered a faint smile in response to the many eyes that had suddenly turned her way.
"I'll be in your care."
"Um... we'll be in yours too."
One sweep of her eyes told Hui'er everything — these girls, both senior and junior, still doubted her strength. Fair enough, in a way. She had not had the chance to show off the way Tang Yeye had yesterday, so it was only natural that the Goddess Alchemy Palace's disciples still had their doubts.
"Well then, shall we start with some light exercise?"
"Light exercise?"
The girls all tilted their heads, confused. What they wanted to learn was powerful combat arts, and yet what this child was proposing was nothing more than a warm-up.
"Let's just say — whoever can keep up with this morning's little workout, I'll teach you my lady's own combat technique. How does that sound?"
Before making the offer, Hui'er had already confirmed it with Bai Fanxian. It had been Bai Fanxian's own wish to pass the "Supreme Fist Arts" down to the Palace's disciples. How much anyone learned would depend entirely on their own determination and effort.
"Lady Heroine's own... technique?"
Their eyes all lit up at once. Not a single girl there could resist an offer that tempting. Tang Yeye, still half-asleep, jolted fully awake the instant she felt her sister's qi shift.
"...I think you should all reconsider."
Tang Yeye called out the warning, but by then not one of them noticed the faint smile tugging at the corner of Hui'er's mouth. The group, some thirty strong, followed the little girl out through the Palace's front gate, the Dragon Queen gliding along above to watch.
.
.
.
"Yeye, wake up."
Tang Yeye, who had dozed off leaning against the stair railing, was roused by a gentle shake. She rubbed her eyes and yawned wide, looking left and right before realizing it was her older sister Hui'er who had woken her.
"You're back already?"
"Mm. Let's go eat."
"Huh... but wasn't there morning training...?"
The little girl craned her neck to look past her sister. What met her eyes was the wide square, quiet and empty, without a single Palace disciple in sight.
"...Did they all go somewhere?"
"..."
Strangely, Hui'er did not answer, offering only a faint, mysterious smile. Since the little girl did not understand and had no intention of wasting time trying to, she sprang up, stretched away her stiffness, and turned to go find Bai Fanxian for a morning snack instead.
But just then—
Thud!
A figure came stumbling in through the Palace's front gate, swaying unsteadily on its feet before collapsing to the ground in complete defeat, gasping for air. It was Su Lin, every trace of her usual poise gone entirely. She crawled straight to the pond nearby, scooped up water to drink in thirsty gulps, and doused herself soaking wet, past caring who was watching.
Before even a minute had passed, the gate opened again. This time Mu Xia walked in, faring no better than her senior sister. She made straight for the pond, collapsed beside her, and lay there breathing hard.
"Sorry, Yeye, looks like breakfast will have to wait a little longer."
Hui'er turned to Tang Yeye as she spoke, then walked straight to the Palace gate and pushed it open. What met the little girl's eyes were dozens of junior disciples, collapsed unconscious across the ground, while overhead the Dragon Queen kept flying in without pause, carrying more of them in her mouth and claws.
"Little Red, are they all accounted for?"
"Mm... those were the last two. Not one missing."
The Dragon Queen set down the two girls she recognized as Xinjia and Xinhong. They were in no better shape than the rest.
"...Looks like only two of them made it through this time."
Hui'er murmured, turning to head back inside. Tang Yeye, who had been watching the whole scene from the side, could not hold back her curiosity any longer.
"Little Red... what exactly was sister Hui'er's 'light' exercise?"
"You really want to know?"
The Dragon Queen looked uncertain whether she should even say it, but under the girl's insistent stare, she swallowed and answered, something strange caught in her throat.
"..."
"...Ten laps running up and down the mountain."
"Whoa... that's rough."
"...Without using any qi."
"...Huh?"
"..."
"...And on top of that, she had me pile Sage-level pressure on them too."
"..."
"...That's 'light'?"