The known world was separated into three regions. Of these, the central plains were the most populated and civilized. The endless grasslands were very fertile and could sustain intensive farming and herding, and the winters were mild which allowed for production whole year long. Huge cities were built, and in between them, countless tiny villages sprinkled.

Forests were a rarity. For one, these lands were never rich in woodland. For two, explosive population growth over the course of the past century saw most of them chopped down, their wood used as construction materials to build homes for aggressive urbanization. The game was also hunted down to near extinction, and along with the regular animals, all kinds of spirits and magical critters that were known to occasionally live alongside the native wildlife.

This was the age of man, or so did the sects proclaim.

Therefore, it was quite surprising for Fengli and Annu when, fearing detection and traveling along one of the lesser roads leading south, they encountered a fairly untamed patch of woodland. There was a small spring hidden in depression, its existence concealed by countless birch trees native to this region.

And within that spring lived a magical carp…

“Not for long!” exclaimed Fengli, and drew her sword, her mouth salivating at the sight of a huge fish with its scales glittering unnaturally in countless endlessly shifting colors…

“Wait, this carp looks weird…” pointed out Annu, his brows furrowed suspiciously “perhaps it’s toxic? I wouldn’t eat it….”

However, Fengli would have none of it…after all, there wasn’t a toxin that couldn’t be killed by cooking…so she swung her sword vigorously….

…only to withdraw it just as it was about to hit the target.

“Oh, forgot.” the sword she took from Yawei’s armory was a fine, double-edged blade. However, since it was made out of iron…drenching it in water was probably not the best idea.

After all, they didn’t have any conservation oil, nor paste, nor any other substance that could be used for weapon maintenance. If it rusted they’d have to find another sword.

Thus, they endeavored to produce a makeshift spear. Here one of the countless knives Annu borrowed from the hidden chamber became of use- although his initial logic was having an easily concealable weapon they could smuggle into a place such as Kiyi, it did its job even better as a tool of craftsman.

And soon, Fengli had her spear. Frankly speaking, she had no idea how to properly use it, but it couldn’t be very different from…a rather embarrassing incident from last year flashed through her mind, and she cringed involuntarily. Oh no, this time it was gonna be different!

She stealthy approached her target, the spear raised how above her head. The carp eyed her out from the side, then from the other side, its body still glimmering with glamorous glamour as if it was trying to ask her “Little lady, do you really want to do that?”

The answer to that unspoken question was, of course, “Yes Yes Yes!” and soon enough the spear hit its target…

….or so it should have been. But instead, it just splashed in the shallow water, and the fish disappeared!

As expected of a magical carp, it was now swimming freely behind her, as if mocking her with its very existence.

“Take that, jerk!”

However, the creature refused to meet its end, and continued teleporting there and back again, while a teenage wolfgirl stumbled after it, her movements becoming more erratic and clumsy, and her clothes soaking wet.

No wonder this creature was still alive- it was literally unkillable!

Meanwhile…Annu was busy setting up camp. Since he figured they won’t be getting fish for dinner today, he’d boil some oats and make porridge. Hardly a nutritious meal, but you gotta work with what you have.

“You want some, too?” asked the sheepboy their 3rd companion, who joined their party in the very same village they parted with Fuhei.

It was an ass. Also known as a donkey in some parts of the world.

The donkey said something unintelligible in the donkey language and turned its back on him, communicating clearly it has no taste for porridge.

In truth, they wanted to buy a horse first, but there was a slight problem with that plan- neither Annu nor Fengli (or Wen Fengli as she liked to call herself when no one could hear her) knew how to ride or take care of a horse. So they settled on a donkey, and used it as a pack mule(donkey) to carry their equipment- something Annu, who so far had been bearing the greatest burdens, was very grateful for.

“This entire spring will go to hell in five minutes!” shouted Fengli, enraged, and pointed towards the sky. A small black ball of energy manifested over her finger, threatening to consume all the light and everything around….

And then it disappeared.

“Ouch” an audible shout of pain and frustration followed.

This sometimes happened. She’d try to summon an explosive force of unparalleled destruction…and then a sharp pain in her forearm followed, her focus broken and gathered energy dissipating just as quickly as it appeared.

“That’s why I told you not to do it before we find your family. You’re probably doing something wrong…” mumbled Annu from over the fireplace, his eyes fixated on a porridge. The amulet he requisitioned from Fengli was hidden safely in the backpack, and he was positive she didn’t touch it once since they left Kiyi, which put his mind at ease.

….what he didn’t know is the reason why Fengli agreed to hand it over to him so easily was that it didn’t really matter whether it was physically on her person or not. As long as the mysterious, round object with a shape of a heart engraved in the middle of it was nearby, she could feel it tethered to her very soul whenever she entered a meditative state. The black sun within her was slowly but steadily growing larger, and her grasp over her newly found power was crystallizing.

For example, over the course of countless trial and error experiments, she discovered she can manifest small black holes of energy without much effort. Although the very first time she summoned one, on that faithful day in Kiyi city, she modeled it after Wang Shunji’s qi blast, its properties were in fact vastly different.

For one, it was whole black.

For another, if fired successfully and actually managed to hit its target, it exploded with destructive force…instead of just pushing the target away like qi blasts ought to.

In that case, it’s good she failed at projecting it this time…if she actually managed to summon one and shoot it at the pond…there probably wouldn’t be much carp left to eat.

Resigned, Fengli came back to the fireplace, eager to warm up near the flame. The donkey, seeing her approach, started screaming as if it had an asthma attack. For some reason, it always had a rather emotional reaction whenever she was nearby, but it wasn’t certain if it was so because it liked her or hated her.

“Maybe it doesn’t like canines…” speculated Annu, and imagined a tragic backstory where a pack of wolves ate its family when it was a kid or something among these lines. Nevermind that wolves and other predators were even rarer in central plains than magical creatures, such as the multicolored carp swimming rounds in the pond, overjoyed at having survived such a tough call.

“If only I could manipulate elements…” muttered Fengli through the closed teeth, still not being able to get over such loss “then I’d just freeze the entire pond and the carp with it! Or boil it!”

Alas, she couldn’t manipulate the elements. Her qi expressed itself in what appeared to be the purest form of energy.

Which was very unusual. Well, a yaren being able to control life energy was already unusual, but the fact she could do the more difficult thing- express that energy in its raw state- but couldn’t the easier thing such as giving it elemental expression was in its own right unheard of in the cultivation world.

She could, however, levitate small objects. She focused her mind, and imagined countless starts over the dark vacuum of space- that was her cultivation foundation- and a mighty black sun in the middle of it all, threatening to swallow all with its overbearing presence. The longer she stayed there, the brighter the stars got, and the darker was the sun….

…and all that to slowly, slowly levitate a bowl of porridge towards her hand.

Success!

“Haha, did you see!? Did you see!?” she couldn’t contain her excitement.

“It would be faster if you just used your hands…”

“Hands are for the weak!”

This statement made no sense. Perhaps it wasn’t supposed to.

Anyway, they got over the travel plan so far…

Their destination was the orphanage located on the southeastern border of the middle kingdom, a series of steep cliffs and ledges called “The Scar of the Land” that separated the central planes from endless bamboo forests sprawling beneath.

Whoever decided to build an orphanage in such a location must have been crazy in the head- for the cliffs were hundreds of meters high, and if some kid fell off, that would spell certain death. Yet not only was the orphanage built there, eventually, a small village grew around too.

The orphanage was quite a special place in that it accepted both yaren and human children. And about 10 years ago, during the time of intensive yaren raids into human territories in an ongoing border conflict, the number of such orphans grew exponentially- and Wen Fengli was one of them.

Of course, no one knew her as Wen back then. Even she didn’t, until Lan Caolu appeared 6 years ago, and took her away, telling her all he knew about her past…

In other words, if anyone knows where her hometown is, it’s probably the people who brought her there. After all, it was rather unlikely a 4-year-old girl made the journey on her own- and in the middle of warzone! Fengli didn’t remember anything from her early childhood, but the owner of the orphanage should. And if she didn’t, surely there would be some records or something….

More importantly! The wolfgirl was looking forward to reconnecting with her childhood companions, the two siblings who were not unlike water and fire to each other…and also good friends of hers. When Lan Caolu took her away, she promised them she’d come back when she became a cultivator in her own right- and what a coincidence, she is one now!

As she was daydreaming about her glorious return, her tail started wagging involuntarily and her ears begun twitching. This was one of the unpleasant side effects of being yaren- one just couldn’t hide their true emotions very well.

…..

And the very next day, as soon as the sun rose over the eastern horizon, they said goodbye to the carp (Fengli gave it one last wistful glance) and the pond, and the birch trees, and onwards they set out, traveling towards the rising sun.

“In the east…” started Fengli, trying to converse about something, anything to keep the boredom away “there is an ocean. I know, because whenever the weather was very clear, I could see it far away, a blue line over the horizon….”

Ocean, huh. In the past, people thought that the endless body of water in the east marks the end of the world. However, in recent years, some merchant expeditions discovered islands far in the east, and low-intensity trade was established.

Annu thought it would be very nice, indeed, to see the ocean. Or perhaps even travel it, and visit these farawy islands. He didn’t regret leaving Chenfei. But…he was worried.

Worried about Fengli. Although she seemed back to normal now, it wasn’t so that day in Kiyi. He feared that if she continued using that weird power of hers, she’d cease being herself…

But in that case…he would just have to bring her back. He swore to always be there for her, and not let her own power consume her.

Unaware of his dark thoughts, the wolfgirl kept mumbling about faraway lands and epic adventures….

……

It was already late October afternoon when they reached their destination. The cold wind was blowing over the cliffs, and the faraway multistory building surrounding an inner courtyard came into view. That was the Plum Blossom Orphanage, as its full name went, named so after the species of tree that was rather uncommon in this part of the world.

And just as Fengli said, around it were several dozen houses, that all together could very well be classified as a village. A rather wide stone road led to it and from it, leading along the edge of the cliff northwards, which suggests that this location wasn’t as isolated as Annu imagined.

As they got closer, Fengli suddenly ran, leaving Annu and the donkey behind. Stumbling and struggling, they finally caught up with the woflgirl, who was now standing alone in what looked like a small center of the village. There was a well and a small paved plaza, and it looked like a place that would be quite lively around this time of the day.

If there was anyone left alive, that is.