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Chapter 24: Within the Darkness

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It was dark.

Yet in this darkness, there was light. A dim light was coming from high up, illuminating the place down below. Within this dim light surrounded by darkness, something was wiggling.

Like a bunny, wiggling.

"Uhhh, oww…"

Yet it seemed to be a human, a human child.

From its voice, the child seemed to be a girl. Rubbing her head, she groaned in pain. Opening her eyes, she could only see darkness all around. Her fingers held her eyelids, making sure her eyes were indeed open. Somehow, a feeling like something like this happened before flashed within her mind.

"Eh, where am I? So dark… Ah, my head, what happened?"

She recalled some time ago.

She was running along the hallway, trying to see if there was anything interesting in the airship. She found some bars, shops and even gambling den, but she had no interest in these. There was one place she had interest though, a place called Entertainment House. Entertainment, huh? Must be fun…

Or so she thought…

Unfortunate for her, she was barred from entering.

"Why's everyone allowed in, not me? Not fair!"

She protested, but the guards had no sympathy for her. With steel-like face, and cultivation two stages higher than her, they had no problem blocking her path. She could not bypass the guards even after trying to sneak in ten times.

"Damn brat, go elsewhere to play!"

Frustrated, the guard-in-charge kicked her out.

"Your sister, child abuse! You, scarred eye, this princess will remember you!"

Whimpering in pain, she pointed her fingers to the guard, turning away filled with annoyance. Observing her with scrutiny, the guards thought, she finally gave up.

Yet just as she walked away, she smirked.

‘Hmph, since getting in through the front door was not possible, why don't I go in through the backdoor? A place so guarded like this… there's always a backdoor!'

Her mind got into working. If I was the designer, where would I place the backdoor? Moving in a little deeper through the ship's path, she went into what seemed to be a room for the crews. Inside, she noticed a hidden compartment. Thinking that it might be the secret passage, she struggled to open it.

Uuuuuhh---!

After struggling for awhile, gritting her teeth, she managed to open the heavy metal lock. As her success filled her with ecstasy, she quickly put her head in…

And that was before she lost consciousness.

…

She rubbed the back of her head. Clearly, that part reached the bottom first.

Why would this same part reach the bottom first?

"…Again?"

It seemed she had again fallen into a weird place. Looking up, it seemed the place she came from was quite high up. By the side of the place up there, was a set of folded stairs. It seemed anyone coming from there should have unfolded the stairs first before stepping in. Barging into a place she had no idea of, how stupid!

So she criticized herself.

Oh well, thinking about it, it was not really high, just around ten meters or so. With her cultivation, she only needed a stepping stone… or a stepping-whatever-thing to get up there. As long as it was around four meters high, she was confident she could get her hands on the stairs.

Looking around, there were indeed many stepping stones— Erm, boxes piled around.

"Hm? Is this place for boxes?"

Each of the boxes was not high, just around two meters. She could move some, but to lift even one was a problem. All of them seemed too heavy for her.

"Damnit, so irresponsible! Think of delicate creatures, will you! Why put so much weight in a box!"

Looking around again, she had an idea. Why bother piling up a box onto another when there were already some piled up? How silly!

Again she criticized this girl, erm, herself.

She tried to move some of the piled up boxes. Unfortunately, most of them were too heavy. Searching around, finally, she saw just two boxes piled together. Trying to move them, she felt like that was it. These boxes… were meant for her!

Shifting them a little bit, she pushed them apart from the other boxes, enough for her to fit herself in between, and started to work. Clearing the way, she began pushing. As she did, she heard a little cry from behind her.

Wuuu-

"Hii—"

Feeling rather cold on her neck, she jumped, only to hit the boxes around her.

"Ah, g-ghost?!"

She cried, feeling as if her life was being drained. She had heard of Yin-element ghosts residing in cold, dark places. These ghosts loved to drain the life of their victims, eating their flesh afterward.

"Oh, honorable ghost! T-this Xiao Mei had b-been a good girl…! Please don't eat me, wuwu…"

She started to cry, begging in all honesty.

"My meat doesn't taste good… I only bathe twice a day… Plus I didn't bath at all today, so it's really smelly,"

Wuwu...wuu...

The ghost's cry continued, seemingly had no sympathy for her.

"… Stubborn ghost, I said don't eat me, you'll get diarrhea!"

She raised her voice, prompting the cry to stop.

"Ah, so you understand… If you don't mind, Xiao Mei will take leave now…"

"Wait, i—is someone out there?"

"Huh?"

A human speech? Realizing something was unusual, Xiao Mei tried to find the source of the voice. Moving closer to the boxes, she braved herself to speak nearer to it.

"Hello? I think I could hear you Miss Ghost, but…"

"T-there's someone? Hey, could you… help?"

"H-help? Help with what, Miss Ghost… I can't even see you now…"

The voice from the boxes seemed a bit weak, as if it had not eaten for quite awhile.

Realizing such fact, Xiao Mei had the urge to run away. From the voice alone, it seemed the weak ghost sounded quite friendly... Yet from the stories she heard, one should never trust what a ghost said. Ghosts should never be trusted, nuh-uh! That was her view on ghosts. While someone might call her racist, discriminating, human-supremacists, ghost-life-matter… Hmph, she did not care.

Better safe than sorry!

Soon, she could hear more voices.

"…S-sis, who're you speaking with?"

"It seemed someone's outside, we'll be saved!"

"S-someone? H-help us, please save us!"

Hearing so, Xiao Mei's face paled.

She had heard about a legion of hungry ghosts piling up together, calling upon the kind-hearted one to help them. Relying on sympathy, the ghosts would lure the unsuspecting victim to their trap, then ate him or her to their heart's content.

Relating that story to her situation, she stepped back a bit.

Then a bit more…

"Um, I'm so sorry, Miss Ghost… I have a really strict Ancestor, you see… He'll spank me if I'm late… S-see you later,"

Later my ass! I'm never coming back!

Hearing she was about to go away, the so-called Miss Ghost had a fright.

"W-wait, little one… Kind one, please help! We… Me, I'm not a ghost here. Is outside dark too? We're trapped here and haven't eaten for—"

"Ahhh!!!"

"W-wait, don't leave us—"

Hearing the words ‘kind', ‘help', ‘trap' and lastly ‘eaten'… That last word was her breaking point. These words triggered her to relate more to the stories. Listening no more, Xiao Mei pushed the two boxes forward.

In her frenzy, she found her strength doubled. While the boxes seemed heavy at first, now they were nothing. Still shouting, she jumped over the boxes and made a second jump all the way to the door she found. Head hit the opened door bad, yet she ignored the pain completely, rushing all the way through, back to safety…

"A-A-Ancestor! Save me~~"

"Hm?"

Up on the deck, An Shan was just about to return to the cabin when he heard a familiar voice. While he had sealed the main function of the earring, it still could transfer to him information should Xiao Mei was threatened, or felt threatened.

Since his earring was ringing, he tapped it.

"ANCESTOR!!!"

A loud boom invaded his ear, he jerked sideway towards Ru-er, jolting her. She caught him, excusing herself as her face turned red. An Shan stabilized himself, quickly tapping his earring again. Face pale, he regretted activating it.

"Dear?"

"It's her, she's making trouble again,"

"Already? It's barely an hour,"

"She shouted, calling for help, aii…"

Now he knew better than to activate the earring.

It was clear to him, she was in no danger. Should she be, the earring would have sent an entirely different signal. In this case, it was triggered by Xiao Mei's psychological insecurity, not a true danger. An Shan, however, had never met such an irregularity…

Well, Xiao Mei was the youngest person he lent this artifact to anyway.

"Let's go,"

Urging Ru-er, they returned together into the cabin.

She was afraid, deathly afraid.

Years ago, her mother loved to tell her ghost stories, making sure she was wary of the dark. While she had not heard such stories for some years, the feeling she felt when she remembered them, lingered. Whenever she thought there was danger in the darkness, she would always turn tail and run.

As she was running towards her cabin, a sleek figure was walking towards her. Accompanied by a lady in yellow, his presence… To her, he was her savior!

"Ancestor!"

Pa!

A loud slap could be heard in the hallway, yet as people around came out to look, there was nothing to see…

"Uhh,"

Having her slightly bigger butt up, Xiao Mei lying face down, her cheek on her bed.

Looking at her ancestor, she had teary eyes, as if she had just faced injustice. Not only her ancestor did not listen to her, he spanked her butt again!

Ancestor, you're not an S, are you?

If not, why did you spank me again?

"Ancestor…"

She cried out in a whimper.

Seeing Xiao Mei had suffered enough, An Shan finally explained;

"Alright, listen Mi-er, the reason I punish you was…"

He explained why he did so. Xiao Mei had shouted so much, calling out to her ancestor that she almost burst his eardrum out. In addition, she did so in a situation when she was not in any danger. Thus, An Shan had to administer some punishment.

Usually, he would hear the one in question first. However, for Xiao Mei, she had broken her promises.

"W-what promise, ancestor… I didn't break any…"

"Well, how are you supposed to address me? That's your first broken promise,"

"Ehh,"

Remembering what he and aunt Ru explained to her before, she realized her mistake. He was supposed to address him as dad, yet in her frenzy, she simply forgot.

"An— ehem, dad, I only make one mistake, huu, you also did that before…"

"Yes, I did… but I didn't shout, and it was in this room. Think about it. If this one mistake of yours made bad people conscious of who I am, or who we are… what kind of danger do you think you'll put ourselves into? If, let's say not me, but you or your ‘mother' is harmed, don't you think that's quite a grievous mistake?"

"E-eh…"

"Didn't you say I could depend on you to keep your lips sealed? It's not even been a full day yet,"

"U-umm,"

Xiao Mei could not refute, just nodding her head.

Thinking about it clearly, what her ‘dad' was saying fit her mind. It was fine now, but later in Wang Nan city's territory, would they not be in a rather hostile environment? The risk would be increased multiple folds. Even she could comprehend that, thus she realized how heavy her mistake was, and how light she was making of it before.

"And, didn't you promise to stay put, and out of trouble? Just now you told me you want to rest, yet what did you do behind my back? That's your second fault,"

"Ehh,"

She soon realized it. To her, doing something against her elder's wish was her second nature. She felt absolutely no guilt doing so!

"What if someone kidnapped you, and threaten us with your life? What should we do then, do we give in to their demands? Do you think they would just demand candies, trifles? How much do you think your life would be valued at?"

"T-that's…"

"Your life is priceless!"

"Eh, eh…"

She stuttered. It was quite hard for her to imagine being so. Back in the sect, whenever the elders reprimanded her, she always had many excuses to use, so much so the elders spurted blood and almost had heart attacks. The elders dealing with children's punishment had their hairs turned white from all her excuses…

Yet in front of her ancestor, she had no idea how to!

An Shan's explanation was easy to understand. Her faults now were minor, and while he could just let her be, he wished to make use of this opportunity. He knew Xiao Mei was a natural troublemaker even back in the sect. Thus, when she told him she just wanted to rest in the room, he had doubt. Still, he let her be, not even barring her from leaving the room. He actually knew she would create a problem later, he was just wondering how soon.

What kind of problem she would make, he was not sure, but he was confident he could manage. It could very well be a good chance for him to fix her attitude little by little. This time her fault seemed minor, so it was important for him to dramatize it a little. And the fact that An Shan put emphasis on the value of her own life, made her unable to make light of it.

"D-dad, I… I just want to look around, and play… I never—"

Still, she had a problem accepting her fault, no sense of guilt could capture her, nuh-uh. Seeing the girl still did not feel any sense of remorse, he shook his head. Pondering a bit, he finally sighed.

"Mi-er, I trust you, you know…"

"Eh, d-dad… why you sound so… sad?"

"When you say you want to tag along, and not going to create trouble, I believe you. How many of your uncles protested, you think? Listen, I want to give you a chance, thus I ignored everyone's concern and allowed you to come."

"O, oh… this…"

"It's only the first day, and yet you… You already break your words… They said you can't be trusted, your words can't be relied on. I ignored their advice, I want to prove them wrong… I trusted you,"

"D-dad,"

Still addressing An Shan as dad, yet she felt something piercing her heart. For her to hear that her fearsome ancestor, respected and admired by many, actually trusting her…

"Yet you just prove to everyone that they're right about you? That you, your words, cannot be trusted?"

"T-this,"

"I trusted you, yet you make me lose face,"

"Ehh, dad…"

"Forget it. It's not your mistake, it's mine. I'm an adult, yet I trusted you… My mistake,"

An Shan sighed, full of regret.

Before she could defend herself, he made it all clear – He did not push the blame on her. Instead, he blamed himself. In his voice, there was a trace of loneliness, as if he had just lost something valuable. Something he treasured, yet he entrusted it to bandits… Could he blame anyone but himself?

Could he say he did nothing wrong?

Hearing him blaming himself, Xiao Mei could not refute anymore. Turning to Aunt Ru for help, she only got herself a look of pity. So instead of excuses, she began to think whether she was truly innocent, free of any fault. As An Shan was turning around, he took out his turtle shell. While the room was not so big, it ought to be enough to grow it to be large enough to fit him.

"Xiao Ru, look after her while I… Hm?"

Finally remembering something important, he turned to Xiao Mei with his all eyes all shut.

"Mi-er, what made you scream so much actually? There's no danger around,"

"Ah! That's right, An— Em, dad, th-th-there are… ghostssss!"

"Haa…?"

Hearing her nonsense, his sleepy eyes opened half-way.