I sat in the garden behind my house, in the corner of the small training ground my mother often used. Legs crossed under me, I practiced my breathing exercises, circulating my Chi through my body with each breath. It was something I hadn’t done seriously in years, but recent events made me reconsider slacking off on it.

After only three days back from the hospital, my daily Chi training had allowed the rest of my injuries to heal completely. Furthermore, the amount of stored Chi within my body had increased quite a bit as well.

Xinyi had returned the day before and probably would have been here with me, but she was currently under assignment from my mother. The household had gained another freeloading guest, the homeless girl who Xie Jie had tried to possess. While I had thought she was a small child, maybe seven or eight, she was actually almost thirteen. She was exceptionally small for her age, and I doubt anyone would think she was more than ten. Her personality didn’t help this, she was, to put it as nicely as I could, an immature brat.

Which is why Xinyi was now attempting to force them to properly bathe themselves, a shockingly difficult task.

“Hey, get back here!” I hear Xinyi’s voice shout from within the building, I guess it wasn’t going so well. “Bai Cai… you still need to wash your hair!”

The sound of porcelain breaking echoed out to the yard, and I could only imagine what priceless vase or plate they had managed to break. It was becoming increasingly difficult to meditate here, so I decided to give it a rest for now.

And then the door burst open and a small, wet child barreled into me so hard we both went tumbling to the grass. Bai Cai’s forehead cracked hard against my chin, leaving me stunned underneath her.

“B-Bai Cai! Don’t go outside like that, a girl needs to have more dignity!” Xinyi rushed out behind the younger girl, her wet body covered in a small towel.

I stared up from my position on the ground, unable to move with the weight of the girl on top of me. She rubbed her forehead, sitting on my torso with her legs straddling me. Thankfully, there were walls around the back garden, as this was a rather… compromising position to be in with an underage girl.

She was completely nude, bath water and soap dripping down her small, flat chest… and from my position under her there wasn’t much I couldn’t see. I wasn’t particularly interested in women under my own age, but I still felt a bit bothered by this event.

Xinyi’s towel barely covered anything, and… while on the ground, it really wasn’t very effective. I avoided looking as much as I could, but if I averted my eyes too strongly, she would realize herself… and I’d rather not have to deal with the fallout from that.

“I’m not going back in there, you’re going to get soap in my eyes again!” Bai Cai whined, still not getting off me. For some reason, the two seem to have forgotten I was even here.

“I… That won’t happen again… you were the one who moved then anyways!” Xinyi grabbed the younger girl and dragged her off me, heading back into the house.

I sat up, breathing a sigh of relief that they seemed to have ignored me. But as I was dusting myself off, a very red, blushing Xinyi came running back outside, still in her towel.

“Z-Z-Zen…” she stuttered, staring at me. “Did… did you see…”

“Urgh, my head… what hit me?” I hold my face with one hand and pretend to stumble away, disoriented. Hopefully, I could convince her I was knocked out by Bai Cai’s charge, and get off without any issues. “Xinyi? Shouldn’t you be watching Cai or something?”

She looked at me like she doesn’t fully buy my act, but she bows and returns to her duties without making a fuss. Seems like I had survived… somehow or other.

It sure was getting crowded around here… and why were they all girls?! My mom was one thing, but adding these two on top of it was practically killing me. When it was just me and mom, the amount of times I walked in on a half naked women changing, or just getting out of the bath, or whatever other compromising situations were possible… well, it wasn’t zero times, but it was certainly not as often as it was now.

“I don’t remember becoming a homeless shelter.” I said, entering the living room. My mother was fixing her hair in front of a long mirror. She looked over at me, a lace hair tie between her lips.

“Do you wanna throw a little girl out on the streets while she’s still possessed by a cursed immortal blood demon?” she asked, tying her hair back into a low ponytail. “He’s sealed for now, but who knows what would happen if she was threatened, she might still be able to access those dangerous abilities.”

“You may be right, but surely there’s another strong warrior who could take her in and protect her, does it have to be us?”

“Is that really what you want, Zen?” she sat down on a lounging sofa, crossing her legs. “I can send her away to an associate’s, if you really need me to.”

It wasn’t, I knew this was the best option for her, I just wanted to vent a little.

“... Just try to make it quieter when I’m training, I can't concentrate.” I replied after a moment, heading into the kitchen.

I grab a piece of plain bread, then head outside. I lean against the front wall of our house and begin to eat said bread in relative peace and quiet. After a short while, Bai Cai emerged from the front door and slowly walked over to me.

I looked down at her, but she averted her eyes and didn’t speak up. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking, so I was left staring at her.

“Need something?”

“Umm… that other man who… helped save me.” she squeaked out a nervous voice. “H-His name is Lei, right?”

“Mmm, what do you need from that idiot?”

“D-Does he… have a girlfriend? O-Or a betrothed?”

Her actions started to make more sense then, I could get at what she was saying now. It felt weird, looking at something aiming their affections away from me for once.

“Nope, that guy’s completely hopeless with women.” I reply to her quickly, taking another bite out of my bread loaf.

“R-Really?!” her eyes lit up, a new sense of hope filling her expression.

“Yeah well, good luck with that.” I continued.

“What does that m-mean?”

“Just that… you know, he likes… bigger women.”

I probably shouldn’t have done this, but I pointed towards her smooth, washboard like body. She froze stiff, her eyes stuck between shock, anger, and humiliation.

“W-W-W-What are you looking at?! Pervert!” She hid her body, wrapping herself with her arms. God, I was so tired of this shit already.

“If you didn’t want me to look, you shouldn’t have shoved your naked body in my face this morning.”

“Ah!” she blushed heavily, finally piecing together the chaotic events from before. How she hadn’t realized until now was beyond me. She started to cry, collapsing to the ground. “I… I… I can’t be a bride anymore!”

“How old-fashioned are you? Most guys don’t care about that anymore, Lei certainly couldn’t care less about that kind of thing.”

“Really..? He doesn’t?” she sniffed, her tears calming. I picked her up off the ground and patted her head.

“If he did, he wouldn’t keep going after… my mom.” I felt like I was going to puke just saying those words, and I regret even thinking them. But, that seemed to resolve the problem, so we were able to move on.

Later in the day, while sitting in the living room, I saw Bai Cai run up to my mother out of the corner of my eye. She stared at the adult woman who towered over her, then ran off crying, saying “How can I beat such a powerful rival!”

I wish I could tell you Cai, I really do. But it seems that in all aspects of life, Xuan Yan truly was unbeatable. A peerless martial god with a peerless body, what an unfair existence.

In the afternoon, I returned to my training. This time I focused on my technique. My use of the Crimson Dragon Arts had been sloppy at best, due to never practicing them. I’m sure that with more training, I could make what little I knew more viable if I were to be attacked again.

I won’t have a repeat of last time, watching helplessly as someone I cared about was injured, possibly even killed before my eyes. I needed to get stronger to prevent that from ever occurring again.

Sweat beaded off my forehead as I went through the basic motions of my father’s style, again and again. But something felt wrong, my movements were off. They didn’t flow together the way they were supposed to. I had learned them from my mother, not my father, and she had only repeated what she’d seen, so maybe I misunderstood something at the base level.

I stopped, resting my sword against the wall next to me. Grabbing a towel I had brought with me, I wiped the sweat from my forehead. I crossed my arms and stared at the sword, trying to think what I was doing wrong.

But it just wasn’t coming to me, I had no idea why it wasn’t working. I was about to give up, when Xinyi walked out of the house and spoke up towards me. She bowed deeply to me, something I hadn’t expected her to do.

“Please, teach me the proper forms of the Crimson Dragon School!” she begged, her head practically touching the ground. “I… I don’t want to be a burden any more, but I keep becoming a liability… I hate ta admit it, but I’m not strong enough on my own!”

So, she was feeling the same way I was. I bet at home right now, Lei was thinking the same. Our close proximity to the top, legendary heroes of the country made our lack of ability stand out all the more. Something had to change, especially with this darkness that had been looming over us recently.

Something moved in the shadows, something ominous and threatening. And I would be damned if I was gonna sit back and let it happen, powerless to stop it.

“Sorry, I don't really have proper training in it either, my father disappeared while I was a newborn, remember?” I replied to her, as honestly as I could.

“Oh… I see, that… makes sense I guess.” she sounded extremely dejected, and I couldn’t help but feel responsible for it.

“So shall we go to my grandfather’s monastery, and start over from the beginning together?” I ask her, sheathing my blade on my hip.

“Huh?”

“I said, let’s go train at the monastery that maintains the Crimson Dragon School’s martial arts.” I repeat myself, but she still looks confused.

I hold out my hand towards her, and she takes it with only a minor hesitation. She didn’t even understand what I was talking about, but she trusted me completely. I wasn’t sure if I was worthy of something like that, but it was good to have now.

“Shall we go pack our things?”