Feeling the sun warm her face, Guo Xiaorou eyebrows fluttered as she opened her eyes. For a few breaths, her mind was blank and heavy.
Then yesterday came rushing back, and a dull ache bloomed behind her temples.
She had been traveling with a small group of cultivators who approached her to team up. After they entered the swamp forest and explored for a while, they found a Qi-Sink Clayfruit. And before anyone could even step close, an ugly spirit beast had burst from the trees.
The pressure it exuded made Guo Xiaorou's heart drop. Early Qi Condensation at least. They stood no chance against it. Her first instinct was to retreat, but someone had suddenly struck her from behind, making her stumble forward and fall hard into the mud.
By the time she forced herself upright, the spirit beast had already locked onto her.
Its tongue lashed out and wrapped around her neck.
Guo Xiaorou reacted by slamming her sword between thick roots to hold herself, bracing with all her strength. Its tongue then started to tightened, dragging her a fraction at a time. She did not dare fumble at her belt. Instead, she grabbed the silver thread tied to her sword and snapped it around the toad's tongue, binding it and restricting it from tightening further.
But the thread demanded constant control. One hand had to hold it, and her Qi had to keep feeding it.
Then she smelled it.
A foul, sickly stench pouring from the toad's body. With every breath, her limbs grew heavier, her thoughts slower.
She screamed for the others to help her.
Only to see them snatch the spirit fruit and flee without glancing back.
There was no time to process betrayal. The only thing in her mind was a simple, brutal truth.
If this continues, I will die.
Guo Xiaorou had never felt fear like that. Her senior sisters and her master had always been there, always shielding her from the worst of the world. Now, with the miasma gnawing at her strength and her neck trapped, panic eroded what little calm she had left.
So she shouted. To anyone. To nothing.
She did not truly expect help to come.
Yet moments later, a figure appeared.
Guo Xiaorou barely saw what the stranger did. Only that the person darted in front of the toad, then away. And the pressure around her neck suddenly loosened before she heard a shout, distant and muffled.
Her mind was hazy. Her hands were shaking. She was barely holding on.
She used one of the talismans her master had given her, killing the toad.
Then she turned toward the stranger, and saw them frozen in place.
And just as Guo Xiaorou's finger lifted to strike again…
She fainted.
"Well, well. Had a good sleep?" A voice reached her from somewhere nearby.
Guo Xiaorou's eyes snapped toward the sound.
It was the same person from her blurred memories.
Awkwardness flickered through her, and she almost didn't know what to say, until she noticed them holding her belt and sword, with her hands and feet bound by her own silver thread.
Her face paled.
"Wha… what did you do to me!"
Yue Rin looked like she hadn't slept at all, yet her eyes were bright, almost amused.
"What do you mean, what did I do? I saved you of course, and you tried to kill me. You should be grateful you still have a head." Yue Rin replied, chin lifted, voice haughty.
Guo Xiaorou opened her mouth to argue.
Instead, a choked sound came out.
Her eyes brimmed.
Then tears started falling in earnest.
"I'll tell my master," she sobbed, words tripping over each other. "I'll tell her and she'll grind you into dust! I will… I will… wah…!"
Yue Rin stared, dumbfounded.
At first she thought the girl was faking it.
Then she saw the tears soaking the girl's lashes and how her shoulders trembled like she'd been holding it in for too long.
"Hey. Hey! why are you crying?" Yue Rin blurted.
Then a thought struck her mid-sentence.
Master?
Guo Xiaorou pointed shakily at the belt. "You… you defiled me, didn't you? You even took my belt off! Wah… how can I marry senior brother in the future!"
Yue Rin went rigid, then nearly jumped.
"What are you even saying? I didn't do anything to you! I only took your belt so you couldn't reach your things and try to kill me again! And look, I'm a girl too!"
She yanked back her hood to show her face and hair.
Guo Xiaorou stared, sniffled, and seemed to calm, only to burst into tears again.
"I heard… I heard girls can still do it with girls too… wah…!"
Yue Rin's expression cracked.
Alright. This is getting annoying.
She wasn't here to babysit a stranger. Instead she spoke what she'd rehearsed in her head all night.
"Listen. I swear I didn't do anything to you. In any case, since I saved you…" Yue Rin's eyes narrowed. "Don't you think I deserve a reward?"
Guo Xiaorou wiped her eyes, forced herself to breathe, and slowly gathered her dignity back together. She also noticed she didn't feel… anything wrong, the way her senior sisters had once whispered about in scandalous warnings.
She could believe this person, at least for now.
"Shouldn't you untie me first? I feel more like a captive than someone you saved."
Yue Rin scoffed.
"And what makes me trust you won't attack me the moment I untie you?"
Guo Xiaorou's expression turned a touch pitiful. "I apologize for attacking you after you saved me. My mind was light headed at the time. I barely recognized you."
Yue Rin hesitated. The girl had looked half-dead yesterday. And right now she was stripped of her belt and sword.
What can she even do?
So Yue Rin stepped closer and bent down, hands reaching toward the binding.
"Are you fro-"
Guo Xiaorou's eyes sharpened.
A thin pulse of Qi slipped into the silver thread.
The knot responded.
It loosened as if it had never been tied by anyone in the first place.
Before Yue Rin could even process it, Guo Xiaorou lunged.
Both hands clamped around Yue Rin's throat as she pinned her to the ground.
Yue Rin's eyes widened in shock.
Guo Xiaorou leaned close, voice low and furious. "You think I don't know how backstabbing rogue cultivators are?"
Yue Rin choked, anger exploding in her chest.
"You!"
She drove her fist up into Guo Xiaorou's face.
Guo Xiaorou grunted and shifted, giving Yue Rin enough space to gulp air. Yue Rin followed with another punch, spitting the words like poison.
"You bitch!"
Guo Xiaorou's eyes flashed. She hit back.
Her fist slammed into Yue Rin's face, rattling her skull against the stone. Yue Rin's vision swam for a heartbeat.
Guo Xiaorou scrambled up and dashed for her belt.
Yue Rin shook off the dizziness and surged after her, even activating Falling Leaf. The burst of speed in the cramped shrine almost betrayed her. Her foot slid on damp stone, her shoulder grazing a broken pillar as she forced herself to angle away before she slammed face-first into the wall.
Guo Xiaorou snatched the belt and turned, before screaming.
Yue Rin was already there, practically in her face, lunging in the air with both arms spread like she was going to grab her.
They collided hard and crashed to the ground, the impact knocking the breath out of both of them.
Yue Rin, now on her stomache, recovered first.
She spotted the belt near their hands, yanked open a pouch, and grabbed a talisman.
Guo Xiaorou regained control a heartbeat later, saw what Yue Rin was doing, and dopped herself onto Yue Rin's back. Her arms locked around Yue Rin's neck in a brutal hold, and she started strangling.
Yue Rin clawed at the arms, but couldn't pry them off.
She rolled, trying to crush Guo Xiaorou beneath her.
Guo Xiaorou refused to let go.
Gritting her teeth, Yue Rin rolled until she faced the sky and rose just enough to shift her weight, then dropped backward.
Guo Xiaorou's head cracked against the stone.
Her grip loosened.
Yue Rin sucked in air and twisted free, coughing.
But Guo Xiaorou recovered fast. Too fast. She spotted the silver thread within reach, snatched it, and hooked Yue Rin's legs.
Yue Rin went down again.
Guo Xiaorou climbed onto her stomach and, with quick, practiced motions, looped the silver thread around Yue Rin's wrists and wrenched her arms overhead, pinning them in a harsh A-shape.
A smug smile curled on Guo Xiaorou's lips.
Yue Rin smiled back.
Guo Xiaorou's smugness faltered.
Yue Rin's fist unfurled.
A crumpled talisman appeared.
Guo Xiaorou rolled off instantly, reacting on pure instinct.
A lightning arrow flashed through the space where she'd been, crackling with sharp power.
Yue Rin began to push herself up, ready to grab her sword from nearby.
Then she saw something she wished she hadn't.
In the chaos, she hadn't paid attention to where the talisman flew.
Since It didn't strike Guo Xiaorou, it had traveled past where she was and slammed into the statue.
"Uh oh."
The lightning didn't explode.
It was swallowed.
Sucked into the statue like water into sand.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the shrine answered.
A circular wave of Qi burst outward from the statue, silent and absolute. Dust and grit shook loose from the ceiling and rained down. The air itself seemed to ring, a low vibration that made Yue Rin's teeth ache.
The wave hit like a giant hand.
Both Yue Rin and Guo Xiaorou were thrown into the walls. Stone crumbled under the impact. Pain lanced through Yue Rin's ribs, sharp enough that her vision flashed white.
She managed to throw her arms up and protect her head before she slammed down.
Groaning, she forced herself upright.
Guo Xiaorou had been knocked unconscious.
Yue Rin let out a breath, thinking, At least it didn't outright kill me.
She grabbed her backpack and sword, then walked to the belt lying on the ground. She opened the talisman pouch, fingers hovering.
Then she stopped herself from taking anything and closed it.
Better not mess with her things. If her master comes after me, I'm finished.
And I was dumb enough to show her my face… with this unique hair.
Instead, she found and took out the entry token before she picked up the belt and grabbed the girl's sword and the silver thread from nearby. Walking back to Guo Xiaorou, Yue Rin dropped her belongings on her.
Yue Rin felt her anger hadn't been vented enough, so she went out of the shrine, scraped her boot in the mud, returned, and planted it against Guo Xiaorou's face. This time, hard enough to jolt her awake.
Guo Xiaorou blinked, confused.
And froze as she saw Yue Rin's dangerous smile and the token in her hand.
"Goodbye."
Yue Rin crushed it.
Light burst out from it. Guo Xiaorou and her things vanished.
When the shrine finally went quiet again, Yue Rin stepped in front of the statue and bowed once, stiff and respectful. Then she gathered her things and left.
Next time, even if she couldn't sleep well, she would never help anyone again.
Ever.