“Take a minute and reflect on how you feel. What made you act the way you did?”

Little Spring pursed his lips. Then we sat there in awkward silence for several minutes.

What? Did he think he could outwait someone who’d lived a thousand years? Ha!

He clutched his sleeves. “You say that this sect will be our home. I can see how happy you are here. I mean, even though it’s been difficult getting this far, you’ve shown everyone here what I’ve always known. That you’re a strange eccentric genius.”

Well, I was a genius, so I’d let the ‘strange’ part slide. I nodded for him to continue.

“Every place I have ever called home I’ve left behind.” He’d said this as if emphasizing the loss of something more than a simple building.

“I... I’m worried that you’ll leave me. When Liu ChuHua said that she would replace me... It was... I couldn’t help but imagine her beating me and taking my place. When she fought me, it was like I was fighting to keep you.”

Damn. This silly kid.

I didn’t know exactly what he’d been through, but I knew that his mother had died leaving him completely alone.

He’d been doing so well over this last year that I hadn’t thought about how that would make him see me — the only person in his life he could treat as his family.

But even if I wanted to tell this kid that I would always be by his side, I didn’t want to give this child such an empty lie. Not when there were already enough things I was keeping from him. Besides, this universe was already beyond unsafe. Even in a sect like this one, they taught young children how to fight. Not as some kind of fucked up bullshit, but for their own protection.

Frankly, it wasn’t a situation I liked, but given my current position, there wasn’t anything I could do about it. And the last thing I wanted was to take away a child’s power to defend themselves just to keep them ignorantly happy. Which meant that I needed to get a little real with this little protagonist.

“In the thousand years that I’ve lived, I haven’t seen anything stay exactly the same. When we enter the sect — and we will enter this sect — our circumstances will change. But that is not a bad thing.

“As we both make new friends and enemies, we’ll likely grow apart. However, that too is part of growing up and living life. And by the time it actually happens, you’ll probably be the one interested in going out by yourself and gaining experience.”

I had zero doubt that this kid was going to crave adventure.

Little Spring scowled at me as if to say that he definitely would not.

“Look, I’m your older martial sister, not your master. As ingenious as I am, I cannot teach you everything you need to know.” The kid chose to study immortal cooking for fuck’s sake. “There are some things that you can only learn from the people here.”

His lip trembled.

It had zero effect on a thousand year old monster like me. Besides, I wasn’t finished.

“That said... In this life, no matter how much time has passed — and unless you choose otherwise — I will always be your older martial sister. Even if we grow apart, that will never change. I’ll always be on your side when you need me to be.” I even had a rule.

He nodded and swallowed. His eyes looked a little watery, but he wasn’t about to weep. Which was ideal because I still hated dealing with crying brats.

I smoothed his hair back. “No one ever said that growing up is easy.”

It might have been my imagination, but the kid looked more determined than ever. Though what he was determined to do, I had no clue.

“Now, tell me what you did wrong in your last fight.”

He straightened up, then looked a little sheepish. “I allowed my emotions to get the better of me. And they were used against me.”

“Correct! Liu ChuHua used that against you, drew you into a position where she could get up close, and she attacked you with a very special poison dagger. After that, I had to give you a temporary antidote. Which won’t work for more than a few days. If you get any more injuries, it might exacerbate the poison. So don’t get injured!”

“Yes, Sister Lin!”

I grinned. “Good.”

Honestly, I wanted to keep lecturing the kid for a couple more hours on how dumb he’d been and how — if the situation gets dangerous — he should give up or risk dying, but we didn’t have that much time.

Little Spring frowned. “Ah, Sister Lin. I don’t think Liu ChuHua was trying to use my emotions against me on purpose. I think she really wants to be your younger sister.”

I flicked his glabella. “It doesn’t matter whether she did or didn’t. What matters is that it worked once. You can’t allow it to work a second time or our enemies will use that weakness against you.”

“I’ll try not to let it get to me again!”

I hoped he would be able to. Unfortunately, overcoming psychological weaknesses was rarely that simple.

“Now, let’s go see who we’ll be fighting next.”

***

As we exited the tent, Liu ChuHua ran toward me from the Medicinal Qi cultivator, who’d taken care of her.

Little Spring stood in front of me, but I sidestepped him and waved him back. This was another young cultivator I needed to have a little chat with.

“Fairy Lin!” She looked like she was about to break down.

I sighed. “What do you want?”

“I...”

“Are you here to apologize for stabbing and poisoning Little Spring?”

“P-poison?!”

So she didn’t know. “Where did you get that knife?”

She bit her lip. “I really had no intention of poisoning him.”

“Whether you meant to or not, it still happened.” I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow. “And I don’t think you understand how truly infuriated I am with you.”

Frankly, the only reason I didn’t beat her ass right then and there was because we were in the middle of a tournament. She was also only 7-8 years old. Just a dumb kid who didn’t know any better.

Didn’t make me any less pissed.

She gulped. “What can I do to make it up to you? Please don’t hate me!”

“You can start by telling me where you picked up that dagger.”

She grimaced. “That’s not easy to say.”

“Why? Did you promise not to say anything?”

“No! It’s just, I can’t remember the face of the person who gave it to me. They’d said that they were my fan. And that they understood how much I wanted to show you how deserving I am. They explained that Little Spring and you always use protective talismans. Then they gave me that knife and said that it would be the only way I could win against either of you.”

As I suspected. Someone was working against me. They must have added the poison to the knife and not told this girl about it.

Frankly, even if it was a member of Fairy Verdant Bamboo’s faction, they technically had done nothing against the rules.

She bowed deeply. “Please don’t be upset with me.”

“Fairy Lin versus Zhang WeiWei,” the referee called.

I sighed. “Someday, after I make it into the sect, we’ll talk again. Perhaps I’ll have forgiven you enough by then to continue this conversation.”

Then I walked onto the stage. I stopped in front of the bodyguard and the referee.

Zhang WeiWei’s black eyes glared at me. “I have to win.”

I smirked. “So do I!”

With a flourish, I took out my sword.

He frowned and pulled a couple of throwing daggers from his wrist sheath. “You don’t understand. My master needs to be avenged!”

I chuckled. “Tell you what, if I win, I don’t mind avenging your master in your place... that is, if Zhao XiuYing wins her next fight.”

His face turned red. “You didn’t see the humiliation my young master endured!”

I rolled my eyes. “With how messed up the ground was? I don’t need to. Besides, what makes you think you can win against her?”

“Even if I can’t possibly beat you, I still have to try.”

There were two types of servants who entered the sect. Those that would inevitably choose to go their own separate way, and those who stayed incomprehensibly loyal to their original masters.

This guy was the latter.

Apparently, the Zhang clan ran their guards through one hell of a brainwashing program.

Well, if he wanted to get his ass handed to him, I’d gladly help him out.

The referee yelled, “Fight!”

He bolted forward, then started zigzagging, closing in on me.

This wasn’t a bad move to use against most cultivators in Qi Condensation. It was a shame that he was up against me.

Using the smallest amount of Sword Qi I could for this move, I said, “Hundred Cuts!”

A spray of tiny sword Qi slices hurtled across the arena to reach him.

His eyes widened. He made a hand seal and used a movement technique just as the Qi was about to reach him. But I’d studied his movements all throughout the fights. I already knew where he was going to land. So I threw out a spiritual palm to intercept him.

He barely had time to widen his eyes before he was pushed to the ground. He struggled and spat out a mouthful of blood.

He was trying to grab something from his spatial ring, so I stooped down and pulled it off his finger. Then I put my blade to his throat. “Surrender.”

His face turned red.

“Fine.” I lifted my dainty foot. “I had hoped you’d make it easy on me since I’m not sure I can control my strength properly. I hope I don’t turn your head into a cracked watermelon.”

“I-I surrender!”

“The winner is Fairy Lin!”

He got up and spat another mouthful of blood onto the floor.

I grimaced.

The bodyguard looked me right in the eye and said, “I hope you remember what you said at the beginning of this fight.” Then he awkwardly trudged back to the enclosed area where I’d healed Little Spring. Probably to go check on his young master.

Why did I feel like I just signed myself up for an unwanted burden?

***

When I returned to the waiting area, I stood in front of Little Spring and crossed my arms under my chest.

“Remember, you’re still technically poisoned. Don’t work yourself too hard and don’t get hurt again.”

“Yes, Sister Lin!”

“That said, never give up easily.”

“Of course!”

“Treat this as a life and death situation.”

He sighed, obviously exasperated. “I understand.”

I just watched him get poisoned and almost die not too long ago. That short lecture I gave him earlier wasn’t nearly enough to vent my frustrations.

Meeting McTraitorFace again didn’t help.

The referee stepped onto the arena floor again. “Little Spring versus Zhao XiuYing.”

The two kids stepped up to their places across from each other.

Little Spring had his sword out and Zhao XiuYing held her massive fan.

The two taciturn kids didn’t speak or try to smack talk. They simply stared at each other and waited. Honestly, it was a bit boring. And it scratched at my already irritated nerves.

“Just start it already!” I called.

The referee looked at me, flabbergasted.

Then, as if to get on my nerves, he waited another entire minute while staring at me before saying, “Fight!”

Ass.

Icy Tsundere Fairy started off with her classic icy wind move, but Little Spring had experience dealing with that type of technique.

As the stream of icy wind nearly blew him over, he stabbed his sword into the ground, pinning himself in place. Then he delivered a spiritual finger to poke at her weak point — her literal Achilles tendon.

Unfortunately, Zhao XiuYing stepped out of the way of his palm attack. But she couldn’t keep using her icy wind technique. Not at the sixth layer.

It was at that point that Little Spring ran up to her in a snaking pattern.

He slashed towards her head. She held her fan up to block.

With a flourish, he used a special move that I’d taught him — quickly changing directions and attacking a lower body part. Unfortunately, he took too long to reach her ankle, giving her enough time to drop her fan down and block.

Considering that she didn’t have a long break, she probably hadn’t replenished all of her used up energy.

The two exchanged several more blows in quick succession.

The girl kept hitting the same spot on Little Spring’s sword and freezing it.

Damn, this kid needed to gain more experience.

Little Spring frowned. He finally noticed something off and tried to get her to hit a different part of his sword, but her aim was too good.

He jumped back and sent a blade of Qi toward her. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in the mood to let him get away because she chased after him.

A few more strikes later, and Little Spring’s weapon cracked.

His eyes grew wide. She used a powerful fan attack to hit the blade at just the right spot to break it in half.

I winced. Well, there was a reason I taught him more than the sword.

I expected him to drop his weapon. Instead, the brat stared at his messed up blade, eyes wide. Seriously, the fuck was he trying to do?

If it were me, I could still fight with a broken sword, but this kid hadn’t had that experience yet.

Icy Tsundere Fairy didn’t allow Little Spring to recover. She attacked his temple.

The kid just barely managed to parry with the remaining part of his blade.

“It’s over.” The girl smirked.