That young man was, of course, Shao Tianlan, and judging by his appearance, it looked as if he had just undergone strenuous training. His face was dripping with sweat and he had a generally dishevelled appearance. There was also some distorted light around him as if he were emitting a great deal of heat.

Fortunately, he had a towel at hand, which he used to wipe his face, and a comb to straighten up his hair. After a little adjusting, he was looking presentable once more, though, the young ladies present would say he looked a little more than just presentable.

“Someone looks happy,” said Fang Yijun. “Did something good happen?”

He walked over to Tianlan and handed him his hexagonal jade, transferring control of the abode and its formations back to its owner.

“Is it that obvious?” asked Tianlan with a beaming smile on his face. “I just had a small breakthrough with my breathing practice. I feel like I’m close to something.”

Fang Yijun and the other Fang Clan juniors offered Tianlan their congratulations and shared in his joy.

As such, the one person who didn’t join in stuck out like a sore thumb.

“Tang Zen? What brings you here?”

“She’s here to-”

“I can speak for myself,” interrupted Tang Zen.

She stood up and walked over, stopping when she was a few metres in front of Tianlan.

She then pointed her sword at him.

“Shao Tianlan. I challenge you to a duel!”

No one noticed the light leave Tianlan’s eyes after Tang Zen’s declaration, and given that they had the full context of why she was there, they didn’t immediately think of how it could have been a problem.

So when Tianlan’s smile disappeared from his face and his eyelids lowered ever so slightly, they were left confused.

“Are you sure that you want to do this, Tang Zen?”

Tang Zen gripped her sword tightly, also confused by Tianlan’s sudden seriousness.

“I’m sure.”

Tianlan shook his head and let out a deep sigh.

“Very well then.”

The moment he opened his eyes again, Tang Zen felt her body tense up as if it were being bound by rope. Her grip on her sword loosened, and even as she desperately struggled to maintain her hold, her body refused to listen to her, causing the sword to fall to the ground.

Disbelief written on her face, she shifted her gaze from her fallen weapon up to Tianlan who hadn’t moved from his original position.

‘Those eyes!’

They were the exact same eyes she had seen before. Cold eyes devoid of empathy. Eyes that viewed her as something lesser. Eyes that made her feel…

Powerless…

“Admit defeat,” he said while taking a step forward.

But that wasn’t something she was willing to do. She wanted to fight against those eyes. Those inhuman eyes.

The last time, she had been too afraid to move. But she was a different person now than she was then. This time, she would do everything in her power to defy them, even if it meant destroying herself in the process!

However,

This time, the choice was out of her hands.

No matter how strongly she willed her body to move, it didn’t obey.

Tianlan took another step forward, and the constriction grew stronger, such that even breathing became strenuous.

“Admit defeat,” he said in the same impassive voice.

She would not!

Even as her veins made themselves prominent and her chest tightened, she refused to back down.

Before his third step could land on the ground, he disappeared, reappearing again behind her.

Try as she may, she couldn’t turn her head to face him, but that was the least of her concerns. Shortly after he appeared behind her, she felt her knees buckle, sending her to the ground, leaving her in a kneeling position. Her right hand then moved to the fallen sword and gripped it tightly, causing pain to shoot up her arm. She watched as her left hand joined her right in pointing the sword to her own stomach.

Her arms trembled as the sword relentlessly approached, threatening to pierce her abdomen.

“Admit defeat.”

Tears fell from her eyes as she continued in her attempts at resistance, but after a certain point, she truly began to fear she would die today if she didn’t do as he said.

“I yield!” she said. “I… I yield…”

As soon as she spoke those words, all of the restraints she felt were lifted and the pain similarly faded away. All that remained was the dull ache of her right hand.

Even though that was the case, her tears continued to flow. She was so angry that she didn’t know what to do with herself. And, realising how pitiful she must have looked gasping for air as she was, she couldn’t help lowering her head in shame.

“See yourself out,” said Tianlan as he sent a command to his key.

Tang Zen turned to take one last look at Tianlan and clenched her fists when she failed to raise her sight above his mouth.

She couldn’t even muster the courage to look him in the eye…

***

As she walked down the road to her abode, Tang Zen’s tears continued to flow, no matter how many times she wiped them away with her sleeves.

She had felt powerless before, so that aspect of it wasn’t anything new, but to have control over her own body forcefully taken from her...

It was terrifying.

And worst of all was that, even after all the blood, sweat, and tears she put into improving herself, she still couldn’t do anything under the gaze of those eyes.

It was exactly the same then as it was now, and the thought that she wasn’t any closer to her goal crushed her.

“Maybe what they said was right.”

Both her brother and the Fang Clan juniors. Maybe she just wasn’t in the same world as those who she sought to surpass.

Her hands trembled.

She didn’t want to believe it. She didn’t want to give in. But the evidence very nearly stabbed her in the gut.

There were people in this world who she would never match up to. And no amount of effort would change that.

All she could do was to accept it.

She continued to walk, stepping past her gates and down the walkway to her front door, which she opened, entering her abode.

She closed the door behind her and leaned back onto it.

Her legs gave way, causing her to slide down to the ground where she buried her face in her knees.

“Have you felt this way all this time, Brother?”

——|——

It was the day after the incident. Tang Zen, her brother, and both of their parents were waiting anxiously for the report.

“I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do for him,” said the doctor. “His somatic nervous system appears to have been damaged. And without the use of some extremely rare medicines, the likes of which cannot be found on our lower continent, he will remain paralyzed from the neck down.”

Her mother couldn’t contain herself after hearing that news and was immediately reduced to tears. Tang Zen herself also had watery eyes that threatened to spill over at any moment.

It was her father and her brother who remained relatively calm, the former embracing his wife in an attempt to comfort her.

“Is there anything we can do, doctor?” he asked.

“Hmm. Even I don’t know the specific medicines that would be able to help. I’ve only heard that there are such miraculous medicines in the greater world. But if I were to point you in a direction, then I would say the Merchant Guild is most likely your best bet. I hear they’re based in the upper continent and that resources trickle down from there on occasion. They may be able to procure the necessary medicines if you’re able to pay the price.”

Tang Zen gritted her teeth. The Merchant Guild was the last organization their family wanted to deal with.

“Is that the only way?” she asked.

“I suppose it would be difficult for your family like yours to afford their services,” said the doctor as he rubbed his chin. “The only other way I can think of is for you to go to the upper continent to search for the medicines yourself. But in order to do that, you’d either have to be powerful enough to survive the journey through the firewall or you’d have to join one of the three pillars and enter through their means. Both of those are easier said than done.”

“Thank you for your time, doctor,” said her father. “We’ll be taking our leave.”

“I wish you all the best.”

Her father bowed and helped his wife up, then signalled Tang Zen to push her brother’s wheelchair as they left the doctor’s office.

The four of them returned home, the mood heavy. And for a long while, no words were exchanged between them.

Over the next few days, the family went to see as many doctors as they could in hopes that one of them would notice something the others didn’t, but the prognosis remained the same.

Their only options were to either accept their new reality or to seek out the rare medicines. The former wasn’t something they were willing to accept, but the latter would be a monumental undertaking. Of their able-bodied members, Tang Zen was the only viable option with her youth and potential.

However, she was a delicate young lady who had grown up dreaming of being a dancer like her mother. Where would she get the strength and talent needed to enter one of the illustrious three pillars?

Nobody thought it could happen.

But on a certain day, she showed her brother a side of herself that he had never seen before.

He, who had already given up, could see that she was still full of hope as she implored him to teach her his sword art.

At first, he only agreed to teach her so she would stop bothering him, but she never let a day go by without learning something from him, and over time, her talent began to shine through.

She wasn’t bad with the sword at all. Far from it. And more than her talent, what he found special about her was her sheer determination. Even as her delicate hands were made rough and calloused by her training, she never hesitated to pick up her sword.

One day, watching her pour her heart into her training, he thought for a moment that if it was her, then maybe a miracle could happen.

And at that moment, he put on a rare smile.

“Zen’er.”

She, who was deeply focused on her sword forms, didn’t hear him the first time.

“Zen’er!”

She stopped her practice and turned to look at him, smiling when she saw his smile.

“What is it, Brother?”

“Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something, Zen’er. Not even yourself.”

——|——

Tang Zen lifted her head and wiped her tears away before slapping her cheeks.

“Stop being so pathetic, Zen’er,” she said to herself. “Brother’s counting on you. You can’t let anyone bring you down!”

With renewed vigour, she stood back up, exhaled a long breath, and prepared to resume her training.

But that was when her key activated, informing her that she had a visitor.

She reached her hand into her inner pocket and retrieved the key to see who it was, and when she saw Shao Tianlan’s form in the projection, she involuntarily tightened her grip on it.

What did he want? Wasn’t it enough that he had humiliated her in front of so many people?

Her hands trembled, but she refused to run away this time.

She sent her qi into the key, opening a communication channel between herself and the receiver outside her gate.