[Yuexi's POV - Three Months Later]
The rock crashed into my chest, knocking me off the cliff.
I fell thirty feet before my body remembered what Elder Bai had drilled into me for twelve weeks: panic kills, cultivation saves.
Golden light exploded from my hands. A platform of pure energy materialized beneath my feet, catching me mid-air. I landed on it, breathing hard but alive.
"Better!" Elder Bai's voice echoed from above. "Your reaction time improved by two seconds. Now get back up here and try again."
I flew back up using the energy platform—something that would have been impossible three months ago. Now it was as natural as breathing.
Elder Bai stood at the cliff's edge, another rock already in his hand. Behind him, the sun was setting over Hidden Peak Mountain, painting everything gold and orange.
"I thought we were done for today," I said, my muscles screaming with exhaustion.
"We're done when I say we're done." He threw the rock without warning.
This time I was ready. My hand moved, and a blade of golden light sliced the rock in half before it could hit me. The pieces fell past me into the clouds below.
Elder Bai's weathered face showed something that might have been approval. "Good. Your control has improved significantly. Three months ago, you would have died from that first fall."
"Three months ago, you wouldn't have thrown me off a cliff," I muttered.
"Three months ago, you were a ticking bomb waiting to explode." He walked toward me, his staff tapping against stone. "Now you're merely dangerous instead of suicidal. Progress."
He wasn't wrong. The wild, uncontrollable power that had threatened to tear me apart was now... manageable. Not tame—I doubted it would ever be tame—but I could guide it. Shape it. Use it without destroying myself.
"You've reached Foundation Establishment stage," Elder Bai continued. "Most cultivators take ten years to get here. You did it in three months because your Divine-grade roots absorb spiritual energy like a sponge absorbs water. But power without wisdom is just destruction waiting to happen."
"Is this the part where you give me a lecture about responsibility?" I asked.
"No. This is the part where I tell you that your father is coming here tomorrow."
My blood turned to ice. "What?"
"Lin Bohai hired trackers to find you. Apparently, he's been searching for three months." Elder Bai's eyes were sharp. "They found this mountain two days ago. I let them report back to him. Tomorrow, he'll come with guards and cultivation masters to 'rescue' you from the 'evil hermit' who kidnapped his beloved daughter."
Rage burned through my veins, hot and fierce. "He sealed my cultivation for eighteen years, and now he wants to rescue me?"
"He wants to control you." Elder Bai's voice was hard. "A Divine-grade cultivator in the family would be valuable—if that cultivator is properly broken and obedient. He's coming to take you back and seal your power again. This time, he'll make sure the seal can never be broken."
Fear mixed with the rage. "You can't let him—"
"I'm not letting him do anything. You are." Elder Bai met my eyes. "Tomorrow, you'll face your father and everyone he brings. You'll show him what you've become. And you'll decide what happens next."
"I'm not ready—"
"You're as ready as you'll ever be." He turned toward the house. "Get some rest. Tomorrow, you stop being my student and start being a cultivator who makes her own choices. Choose wisely."
He left me standing on the cliff, my heart pounding with fear and anticipation.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow I face him.
I barely slept that night.
When dawn came, I stood at the edge of the mountain, waiting. Elder Bai sat behind me on a rock, silent and watchful.
"They're here," he said quietly.
I felt them before I saw them—twelve people climbing the hidden path to the peak. Their cultivation energy pressed against the mountain like a heavy weight.
Father led the group. Behind him walked six guards, three cultivation masters wearing expensive robes, and—
My breath caught.
Qingwan was with them. Looking beautiful and worried and completely fake.
They reached the summit and stopped when they saw me.
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
Father stared at me like he'd seen a ghost. I didn't look like the scared, powerless girl anymore. Three months of brutal training had changed me. My body was leaner, stronger. My eyes were harder. And the golden energy radiating from my skin made it clear I wasn't hiding anymore.
"Yuexi," Father said, his voice carefully gentle. "Daughter. Thank the heavens you're alive. We've been searching everywhere for you."
"Have you?" My voice was cold. "Or were you hoping I'd died quietly so your secret could stay buried?"
His face twitched. "I don't know what lies this hermit has told you, but—"
"Elder Physician Bai didn't tell me anything I didn't already know." I took a step forward. "You sealed my cultivation when I was a child. You stole eighteen years of my life. You made me believe I was worthless when I had Divine-grade spiritual roots. Don't stand there and pretend you were searching out of love."
"She's been brainwashed," one of the cultivation masters said. "The hermit has poisoned her mind against her own family."
"I poisoned nothing," Elder Bai said lazily from his rock. "The girl figured out the truth on her own. I just kept her alive long enough to do something about it."
Qingwan stepped forward, tears streaming down her perfect face. "Sister, please. I know Father made mistakes, but he loves you. We all do. Come home. We can fix this together."
The performance was Oscar-worthy. If I hadn't spent eighteen years watching her fake emotions, I might have believed her.
"You knew," I said quietly. "You knew about the seal. You helped him keep me weak."
Her tears stopped for just a second. Just long enough for her mask to slip and show the calculation underneath. Then the tears started again, even heavier.
"I was a child! I didn't understand what Father was doing!" She reached toward me. "Please, Yuexi. Don't let this elder turn you against your family. We need you. I need you."
"You need me powerless and obedient," I corrected. "Not the same thing."
"Enough of this." Father's voice turned sharp. "Yuexi, you're coming home. Now. As your father, I command it."
"You're not my father." The words came out hard and final. "Fathers protect their children. They don't cripple them. You're just a man who saw a valuable tool and decided to break it rather than let it shine."
Rage flashed across his face. "You ungrateful—everything I did was for this family! You think I wanted to seal your roots? I had no choice! Your power was too great! If the sects had discovered a Divine-grade child in our household, they would have taken you! Used you! At least with the seal, you were safe!"
"Liar," I said softly. "You sealed me so Qingwan could be the talented daughter. So she could marry into power while I scrubbed floors. Don't rewrite history now that it's convenient."
"Master Lin," one of the cultivation masters said quietly, "perhaps we should try a different approach. The girl is clearly hostile. We have the suppression talismans ready—"
My power flared instinctively, creating a barrier of golden light around me. "Try it," I said, my voice dangerous. "See what happens when you attack a Divine-grade cultivator on her teacher's mountain."
Elder Bai chuckled. "I do love a good fight. It's been boring up here."
The cultivation masters exchanged nervous glances. They'd heard the legends about Elder Physician Bai—how he'd once killed a Demon Emperor single-handedly. How his medical knowledge made him nearly immortal. How angering him was a death sentence.
They were right to be nervous.
"This doesn't have to be violent," Father said, though his hand moved toward something in his robes. "Yuexi, be reasonable. You're twenty years old with barely three months of training. You can't survive alone. You need family. You need protection."
"I need nothing from you."
"Really?" His eyes narrowed. "Then you won't care that your precious Shen Tianzhao is getting married in two months. A grand wedding. The whole province is invited. Qingwan will become Lady Shen, wife of the Heavenly Sword Sect's heir. And you'll be... what? A hermit's student hiding on a mountain?"
The words hit harder than I wanted to admit.
Tianzhao. Getting married. To Qingwan.
Of course he is. What did you expect? That he was waiting for you?
"I see that hurts," Father said, satisfaction in his voice. "You have feelings for him, don't you? Poor Yuexi. Always wanting what you can't have. Always dreaming above your station." He took a step closer. "Come home. Let me seal your power again. You'll be safe, comfortable, taken care of. Isn't that better than this painful existence?"
Something inside me snapped.
"You think sealing my power again will make me safe?" I laughed, and it sounded slightly unhinged even to my own ears. "Father, you have no idea what you're dealing with anymore. I'm not the scared girl you threw away. I'm not weak. I'm not powerless. And I'm definitely not coming home."
My power surged outward, making the entire mountain shake.
"Last warning," I said quietly. "Leave. Now. Don't come back. Don't send more people to find me. Don't speak my name again. Or I'll show you exactly what a Divine-grade cultivator can do when she stops holding back."
"You wouldn't dare attack your own father—"
"Try me."
The golden light around me intensified until everyone had to shield their eyes. The air crackled with energy. Rocks lifted off the ground, floating in the pressure of my cultivation.
The cultivation masters grabbed Father and pulled him back. "Master Lin, we need to retreat. She's too powerful. If we fight here—"
"She's bluffing!" Father struggled against them. "She won't—"
A boulder exploded ten feet from him, shattered by my energy.
"Next one hits you," I said calmly.
They ran.
All of them, including Qingwan, scrambling back down the mountain path like demons were chasing them.
Father looked back once, his face twisted with rage and something that might have been fear.
Then they were gone.
I stood there, shaking with adrenaline and leftover anger, my power still crackling around me.
"Well done," Elder Bai said. "You didn't kill anyone, but you made your point. I'm almost proud."
"Almost?"
"You're still too emotional. Anger makes cultivators sloppy." He stood up. "But emotions also make you human. A balance you'll need to learn."
I turned to face him. "What happens now?"
"Now?" He smiled. "Now your real training begins. The Foundation Establishment was just preparation. It's time to teach you combat techniques, medical cultivation, and how to survive in a world that will want to either control you or kill you."
"And after that?"
"After that, you go back to the world and make your own path. Face the people who hurt you on your own terms. Decide what kind of cultivator you want to be." His eyes gleamed. "But first, we have work to do. And Yuexi? When you do return to civilization, you'll need to be stronger than everyone. Because your father was right about one thing—the sects WILL try to control you. The demons WILL hunt you. And that boy you're thinking about? He made his choice when he agreed to marry your sister."
The words hurt, but I knew they were true.
Tianzhao had chosen his duty. His sect. His engagement.
He hadn't chosen me.
Good, I told myself firmly. I don't need him. I don't need anyone.
But late that night, lying in my small bed, I couldn't stop seeing his dark eyes. Couldn't stop remembering how he'd stood between me and the Demon King. How he'd said I was worth protecting.
Stop, I commanded myself. He's getting married. Let him go.
A knock on my window made me jump.
I opened it cautiously, power ready in my hands.
A bird made of silver light sat on the windowsill. It opened its beak and spoke in Tianzhao's voice:
"Yuexi. I know you're training with Elder Bai. I know you probably don't want to hear from me. But I need you to know—this marriage isn't what I want. It's politics. Duty. Uncle's orders. But I can't stop thinking about you. Can't stop wondering if you're okay. If you hate me for not stopping them from taking you away. I'm sorry. For everything. And when you're ready to come back... I'll be waiting. Even if I have no right to ask. -Tianzhao"
The silver bird dissolved into light, leaving only his words echoing in my mind.
My heart hammered against my ribs.
He was thinking about me. He didn't want the marriage.
But he was still going through with it.
Duty over desire. Politics over people.
Just like Uncle Shen had taught him.
I closed the window and turned away, angry tears burning in my eyes.
Fine. Let him marry her. Let him choose his sect over everything else.
When I go back, I'll be so powerful he'll regret that choice for the rest of his life.
It was a promise. And a threat.
And I had every intention of keeping it.