Earlier this morning, while Fengli was out in the woods, two young servants, Zhanzhan and Annu were busy sweeping the floor in warrior’s barracks. Even though they had already done that yesterday, and they are going to do it again tomorrow, it was one of the sect’s major rules that buildings designated for cultivators must be kept in pristine and well-maintained condition at all times. It was, after all, a place where warriors blessed with the power of manipulating qi were trained and honed their abilities. And it was not a servant’s place to complain or question that….

"It’s a pain and I’m so sick of it!”

Exclaimed Zhanzhan, frustrated, then stomped the wooden, planked surface of the floor several times to make her point clear.

She was part cat, part human, but you wouldn’t be able to tell if not for her black and white tail and distinct cat ears. Just like Fengli, her beastman genes were relatively tame and didn’t distort her physical appearance too much. Nonetheless, her cultivation base was still far below that of regular humans, much less special ones capable of manifesting a golden core, cultivating it and making miracles happen.

However, while the tomboyish wolfgirl was bitterly jealous and angry at the unfairness of life for as long as she could remember, her feline friend simply accepted this situation as the natural way of the world. This is simply how things are, were, and always will be, and there is no use getting worked up over things one cannot change.

This meant there was use in complaining about things that could be changed, such as their -inhuman- workload and work hours. At this rate, she’s going to have back problems in 10 years, and turn virtually disabled in 20! She’s never going to marry, and she will die alone, living off scraps and donations of whatever kind-hearted person decided to share some change with her!

While Zhanzhan was busy vocalizing the terrible future that awaits her, her ram-horned companion was quietly working, not caring to pay much attention to her ramblings. He was sweeping the floor rhythmically, not looking up and not responding, seemingly hyperfocused on his task. Yet even Annu’s patience had its limits, and finally, not being able to take the constant complaining, he spoke up

“Don’t fret over it”, he said, trying to maintain the usual soft tone that bordered on whisper “You’re exaggerating needlessly, and besides, hardship is a trial and patience is a virtue”.

“What are you, a monk? Did you spend too much time with Fengli, are you trying to cultivate as well?”

“D-don’t be catty”, he said, blushing slightly and turning away.

But before Zhanzhan had a chance to make fun of his puny attempt at making a pun, a sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway, and they quickly went back to work, pretending the conversation never happened. From the opposite direction approached a teenage girl, several years older than they, but still clearly not quite an adult yet. She was wearing a traditional robe of the sect, with a red ribbon tied around her right arm, which distinguished her as one of the cultivator warriors training directly under the guidance of master Lan.

Her hazel eyes glinted with determination and resolve, and she marched resolutely forward with purpose. The two looked at her, as she passed.

“She sure looks energetic”, whispered Zhanzhan, grinning as she walked past. Her hair was pulled back in braids and hung loosely over her shoulders. She seemed to have heard it, as she turned around immediately, and looked directly into the catgirl’s eyes. Zhanzhan thought she’s gonna die right here and there, but instead, the young woman asked “Do you know a servant by the name of Fengli?”

That was the first time Zhanzhan spoke to Bai Lianfei directly. Although she saw her training in the gymnasium and spar with other warriors on many occasions, there was no need for the esteemed granddaughter of master Lan to talk to lowly servants, and they never got to know each other well. There was a certain invisible barrier separating two hills, not a magical one, but metaphorical, and the cultivators and their furry servants lived in two separate worlds that crossed only on occasional and rare occasions.

Of course, they knew Fengli, they were friends. They looked at each other, confused, then nodded.

“The master wants to see her. Tell her to go visit him as soon as possible”. Then, without a word, she turned and strode away in the direction of the library, beyond which meditation chambers were located. This particular woman was known to be fond of cultivating inner martial arts, rather than external ones such as sword fighting, and spent a significant amount of time just meditating in solitude. Some looked up to her for her diligence, while others despised her for such asocial behavior.

Annu and Zhanzhan looked confused, not having the slightest clue what was going on. Annu shrugged his shoulders then turned to look at Zhanzhan, who was also dumbfounded, before turning to continue sweeping the floor. In the end, the Bai Lianfei’s words were just a personal request, not an official order, therefore they were free to tend to it at their leisure after they finish their current assignment. If they didn’t, it’s their heads and not the young lady’s, that would be on a plate once the servant supervisor saw the floor in less-than-pristine condition.

Sweeping and wet-wiping the adjacent corridors and the hallway took a couple more hours. By the time they finished they both felt rather exhausted, and frankly speaking, wished they never talked to that accursed woman in the first place. But, curious as to what is the reason for master Lan’s search for their tomboyish wolf friend, they decided to tend to go look for Fengli after all.

They split in the following way: Annu took to servant quarters to look for his canine friend. She was, frankly speaking, unlikely to be there, but perhaps some of the other servants there happened to see her, and he intended to ask around. Despite his introverted personality, he was known to be very smart and reliable and was moderately well-liked, even among his seniors.

Meanwhile, Zhanzhan left for the Chenfei village, which she was a native of. Therefore, she knew everyone of prominence, as well as every nook and cranny of the settlement. Today was Fengli’s day off, so it’s not unlikely she’d chill at old man Mo’s food stall, or perhaps play along the river bank. At any rate there is no way the locals didn’t see her!

However, no one in the village saw the tomboyish wolfgirl since early morning. After asking around for a while, and failing to get any legitimate info, Zhanzhan gave up, grabbed a piece of pastry and went for a lengthy cat nap on a nearby oak tree. Her job was done, and no one could say she didn’t try!

Fengli was also nowhere inside servant quarters, not in the vicinity of the servant hill. Unlike Annu and Zhanzhan, the wolfgirl grew increasingly distant from other servants in recent times, and her reputation shifted from “the crazy tomboy”’ to the “tomboyish recluse”. Thus, none of the other servants knew about her whereabouts, and the sheepboy’s search was for naught.

Nonetheless, the mutual efforts of Zhanzhan and Annu did not go without consequence. Soon, rumors started circulating.

“Perhaps the old master got sick(in the head)?” suggested someone.

“Perhaps she did something very bad and is going to be punished by the master himself?”, speculated someone else.

“Perhaps it’s just a misunderstanding and they are looking for some other Fengli?”

“Could this be…forbidden love!?”

Gossip and speculation started circulating like a storm and soon reached the warriors, too. The village and twin hills were thrown into a state of mild upheaval, as the locals, starving for drama and excitement, were all too eager to imagine ever wilder theories and stories explaining Fengli’s disappearance and master’s interest in lowly servants.

However, the only cultivator who actually knew where she was and could explain her “disappearance”, was absent at this time of the day. His name was Wang Shunji, and by some coincidence, whenever Fengli was missing, so was he. Fortunately, as servants usually don’t interact with warriors, and villagers don’t meddle into the affairs of Shuangshan, no one was able to notice this concurrence of circumstances.

At the young age of 17, Shunji was already considered the most accomplished of old master Lan’s disciples. He established a cultivation foundation before he could even read and write, and manifested a golden core shortly after that. His combat talent was also unprecedented, and in addition to his skill with almost every weapon available in the school, he also had several physical advantages. At a height of 185 centimeters, he was already much taller than almost every other male warrior in the sect. He also had a well-toned, athletic body, that he build with little effort and no special diet, that he enjoyed showing off to the ladies on numerous occasions. Without doubt, he was an exceptional man, destined for greatness. There weren’t many who could or would challenge these claims, and frankly speaking…

….he was feeling quite bored. The other students were all such try-hards, and they only thought about rules and self-improvement. No play and all work made them look at least 10 years older than they really were, or so he thought. So rather than meditating, or pointlessly repeating weapon drills, he developed a habit of sneaking out of gymnasium and warrior lodgings, and strolling around nearby woods, taking care not to be noticed and not looking for anything in particular. Today was no different.

He wasn’t the only one. There was a young servant girl who seemed to have a similar hobby. Just like him, she used to sneak outside the village during her days off, and to that end, sometimes even straight out ditched work or pushed her responsibilities on others!

….However, she was not exactly like him, merely bored out of her mind with rural life, and not knowing what to do with herself. On the contrary, she had a goal, a passion, and a purpose- whenever he felt like secretly following her, she always headed towards a nearby cave and diligently swung a wooden sword for hours nonstop, clearly trying to imitate the martial form of the Shuangshan. At this point, he didn’t even need to trail her anymore, because he knew exactly where she’d be anyway.

Too bad for her, she was a furry. There was no point in her working herself to death like that, because she will never go beyond just establishing a basic foundation, her hundreds of hours of training are equal to one for any moderately gifted human sect apprentice. What a waste of youth! So he made it his personal life goal of his to discourage her from doing such foolish things, through the means of setting up ever more elaborate pranks and traps in her wake. In time, their relationship became quite intimate, or so he imagined.

Today, as usual, she was swinging the sword in the cave behind the waterfall. He knew its gonna take a while, and frankly speaking, didn’t want to alert her to his presence, so he brought a book from the one and only library in hundreds of kilometers and, sitting leisurely on the tree, took his sweet time reading it, only occasionally disturbed by high pitched “haa! Haaa! Seeei!” screams from whenever he imagined Fengli hit the imaginary opponent or finished a combo sequence. Arguably that was more interesting than whatever boring reading the sect library had to offer.

And boring it was. Some fictionalized record of some immortal’s life and eventual ascension to heavens several centuries ago. Immortality was a legendary goal of all cultivators, a perfect state of equilibrium where one’s mastery over the force of life itself becomes so complete, he transcends death and humanity. The individual in question led an utterly boring, virtuous life, denying himself pleasures of life at every occasion, sticking to an honorable code of conduct, and straying from all kinds of addictions and pleasures of the flesh. In the end, his efforts were rewarded, and he ascended to the heavenly realm where gods and other such saints lived, leaving the worries and sins of the mortal world behind.

This was supposed to be some kind of inspirational tale, but for the young man reading it, it portrayed the most wasteful and pointless life one could possibly imagine. He’d rather die than become this kind of “immortal”!

At last, when the sun was already lowering onto the horizon, the wolfgirl came out of the cave. Her hair a hot mess, her ears dropped down, and a rather disheveled expression painted on her face. He knew what she was thinking-no matter how hard she tried, she could never reach the level of humans and cultivate like them. However, once she thought she could…and frankly speaking, he did too. Several years ago, out of morbid curiosity, he made the mistake of giving her some cultivation lessons and teaching her basic weapon moves.

But soon enough, the truth became apparent. She might, eventually, become a skilled fighter, but nothing more. Frankly speaking, her imitation of cultivators was just elaborate self-harm, and it was quite painful to watch. So, for the past two years, Wang Shunji kept telling her to give it up and find some other hobby, and she, in turn, kept ignoring him and trying even harder…and becoming even sadder and burned out in the process.

Fortunately, he knew just a way to cheer her up!

He decided to trail her, and see if he can change that facial expression of hers to something brighter. As usual, he’ll pull some stupid prank on her, and they’ll banter afterward! But he must be patient and wait for the best opportunity…now then, patience wasn’t his strongest side, but when it came to bullying this particular person, he had almost too much of it!

Walking along the shore of the river leading to Chenfei, she would sometimes stop and throw a stone in the water, sometimes kick some dirt, sometimes chase a frog. Her mind was disheveled, and her guard was down. That was a perfect moment! He took a deep breath, focused his qi, summoned strong neutral force in a spherical aura between his palms, then directed it towards unsuspecting furry. The Qi blast sent her flying and she fell all the way into the river’s stream.

Oops!

For a moment, he was seriously worried. Did he overdo it? He only wanted to push her a bit and wet her, then laugh at her and maybe talk a bit. His cultivation base was strong, but his lack of self-discipline led him to sometimes lose control like that. If old man Lan or his granddaughter saw it, they’d lecture him to no end, a mere servant girl or not!

However, shortly afterwards she emerged from below the surface of the water and started swimming back to the shore. He decided to make his presence known to her. “Good job, you can do it!” he said in a mocking tone, “I hope next time, you won’ get thrown into the river by -accident-.” He made sure to accent that last part, then quickly turned away and walked back to the village swiftly. Frankly speaking, he was feeling a bit embarrassed and thought he overdid it this time, but he was too proud to admit it, even to himself.

Passing the food stall, he bought some fresh bread from old man Mo. “Stalking that poor servant again?” asked, or rather stated, the old geezer. Nothing can escape him, huh? Well, whatever. “On the sect”, said the young man dismissively, regarding the payment for the snack, and made his way back to warriors quarters.

As Wang Shunji was walking up the hill leading to sect library adjacent to cultivator lodgings, Annu was walking down. Having finished his job of telling everyone about Fengli, he thought there is nothing left to do but to rendezvous with Zhanzhan and see if she found her. Lost deep in his own thoughts, as the sheepboy often used to, he almost bumped into a young cultivator walking uphill. If Annu was a certain wolf girl, this incident definitely wouldn’t happen without being mocked, tripped, or otherwise bullied by Shuangshan’s top student. Alas, no matter how he looked, this particular servant’s overly deformed sheep-like face was utterly uncute. His animal blood was just too thick, and he looked uncanny! There was no fun in bullying someone like that!

“Excuse me,” asked Annu, “have you seen a servant girl with gray wolf ears and short, fluffy, waggy tail? Her name is Fengli. The master has been looking for her.” Annu didn’t know about the ordeals his friend suffered at the hands of this young man and asked him just like he would have asked any other stranger the same thing.

This question made the warrior a bit uncomfortable. Did that fool get in some serious trouble again? Still, he didn’t let it show and answered with a casual shrug.

“No. Sorry”. That seemed to have fooled the sheepboy quite well. Annu shook his head and resumed his journey down the hill.

After he was already out of sight, Wang Shunji turned around and quickly turned in the direction of the servants hill. No helping it, he will be the one to inform Fengli about that. Since he knew she’s coming back from her little hiding spot, she’ll probably arrive at servant quarters soon. Returning that boring book can wait.

He pondered what is it that the old master could want from her. Despite playing the role of a bully, he actually quite honestly liked that girl and felt responsible for her since they had a bit of…uhh…history, so to speak. In fact, he was well aware, that he’s partly to blame for her interest in cultivation and martial arts, but the feeling of guilt is not something he found particularly enjoyable, so he brushed the unpleasant memory aside and continued his leisurely stroll towards servant quarters.

…….

The waiting took a bit longer than he expected. The sun is setting! What took her so long? He’ll get back at her for that!

He sneaked up behind Fengli and scared her good. Her reaction was priceless! Needless to say, this didn’t win him any favors though, and after conveying his message he quickly got away, chased away by a litany of insults. Now then…he had the last laugh, so to speak, now to return that boring old tome to the library and call it a day. He glanced at the paper cover. Despite Shuangshan being established by dated old geezer, and centered on dated old teachings, no funds were spared in establishing the school, and its library was equipped with new style paper printed volumes, rather than old bamboo tablets that still gathered dust in some of the more isolated and undeveloped areas in the north. However, no matter the method and material, if the contest of the book were boring, it was only as good as fire you can make out of it.

Of course, he didn’t intend to burn it. The librarian was the scariest person he ever met in his life, and aside from whatever meaningless punishment the sect would apply to him, he would no doubt be mercilessly banned from borrowing anything else from the library ever again. What would he do then? Steal books to kill boredom? He’s above such lowly acts! Despite Wang Shunji’s notorious breaking of almost every rule that was set in Shuangshan, he considered himself a man of honor, and even aspired to eventually succeed old master Lan when he finally moves on to the next life. Who else but he is deserving of that!?

Well, there are a lot of people who actually come to mind as possible candidates. The school was established twenty years ago, which made him a second-generation trainee. There are a lot of possible candidates for succession from among the oldest students, who, even though aren’t nearly as talented as him, make up for it with the sheer time they spent in the sect, and the connections they made in the meantime. The corrupt old geezers! Power and ability should be the only deciding factors, thought Wang Shunji bitterly, gritting his teeth.

Then, even in his own generation, two people who can be considered near his level of strength and capability came to his mind. The first one is his best friend, ranked 3rd in power, Ming Libai. He’s talented but in every way inferior to him. A natural born follower, so to speak. If he were to be chosen as an heir, he’d certainly step back and recommend Shunji instead!

And there is also, Bai Lianfei, that holier than thou granddaughter of master Li! Way too serious, way to strict, and a total suck up, as well. When she isn’t training she’s spending her time with the old man, perhaps facing herself as his right hand of sorts? Bah! All work no play makes her boring, and rather unpopular with the masses. Weeell…succession isn’t exactly a popularity contest, but you know, if a person is wildly liked and recognized as legitimate, the opposition won’t dare to speak up, right? And he’s definitely more popular and well-liked than her, so he’s got that covered.

He did, however, feel a bit of concern regarding her power. He knew her ever since they started training in the sect, and growth past two years has been…slightly concerning. What could have caused it? Well…

Once again Shunji felt a sting of that unpleasant guilt he hated so much, so he quickly changed the subject. Whatever comes, he’ll win for sure. Now then, hurry up to the library before it’s closed!

At first he started running at a regular pace, then as he got more and more lost in his delusions, speculations, and ruminations, he got faster, and faster. Faster than any regular human could ever sprint. Unwillingly, by daydreaming far and wide, he entered a semi meditative state and lost awareness of his surroundings, his breathing, and the flow of qi inside his body.

Wang family’s natural aptitude was towards manipulating the element of metal, and that aptitude manifested itself in various performance-enhancing or reducing buffs and debuffs that its practitioners were capable of applying to themselves, others, or specified area. In this case, he was semi-consciously using the surrounding life energy to push the air in front of him while producing wind at his back, and simultaneously strengthening his tendons to allow for withstanding greater speed and weight pressure. He did it so many times, it came to him without any mindful effort. To him, controlling qi was as natural as breathing, and he didn’t quite understand the struggles of those who need to train and cultivate for a long time to achieve similar results. If one were to see him here, he looked like a chaotic human-shaped tornado, making its way from one hill to another, a sight as curious as it was bizarre.

And someone observed him, indeed. A pair of cold eyes, and pale, unmistakably feminine hand resting on the handguard of a long sword, which was attached firmly to the side of her hip. Her mouth twitched in disapproval as she saw the usual troublemaker run around without dignity befitting of the Shuangshan school again, but there was nothing she could do about it, not now. She turned around, her dark, braided hair fluttering behind her, as she walked in the direction of the main training building.

Even a day before the tournament, Bai Lianfei would not stop training until late at night. She just finished her secluded meditation training and was leaving the library building. Honing her mind and body, reaching for ever greater heights of spiritual cultivation, as well as pushing herself and others to the highest moral standards, has always been her way of life. And she also believed it must be the way of life of anyone capable of cultivating one’s qi, else they become complacent and corrupt. Irresponsible cultivators such as Wang Shunji are time bombs, disasters waiting to happen. It’s not a matter of if, but when.

Yet Lan Caolu has been so lenient with the likes of Shunji and good for nothings who followed him. Instead of installing discipline and penitence, he allowed them to develop at their own pace. No matter. She will win the upcoming tournament, and prove once and for all the power of virtue over raw talent. She will humiliate the good for nothing before the crowd, and hopefully, install some sense into him.

There was no denying it-his raw power and talent vastly exceeded even hers. She lost against him during last year’s tournament, and that left a bitter taste of defeat. However, she turned this taste into fuel, into motivation to train harder than ever for the past year, willing to overcome her shortcomings with pure effort.

She must not fail the upcoming trial!