Gina glanced into the lake once more, then at the waterfall near its center. Her tiny canines bit on her low lip as if she were balancing the scales of danger in her head. Fate is never a patient beast however, as a familiar voice made the decision for her.

“There she is! Quickly!”

Gina jumped into the lake. The clouded water rushed to cover her body as she swam with all her strength to that silver island. Her ears twitched after receiving the sound of splashes behind her. It didn’t require her to look back to know the group jumped into the water after her. Water splashed and yells sounded until Gina managed to reach the platform. She reached onto it and pulled her body ashore.

“Gina! There’s nowhere to go, give up and come back with us!”

Elric remained at the edge of the lake yelling to Gina and his men. His fists were clenched and his nerves were taunt. While chasing Gina, his team ran into various traps along the way. Nothing dangerous, but annoyances that amounted to more than natural. Pitfalls only a few centimeters deep that tripped them up, pebbles the size of acorns littered the ground at corners that stole traction from them, stalactites breaking off that nearly killed one of them. The situation was just too odd.

His gaze remained fixed on the drenched Kitsune. The girl’s clothes were a mess, torn all about with skin showing. He was sure there were cuts until their chase moments ago. How did she heal them?

“AHHH!!! Senior Elr-.”

The cries of his men sounded out drawing Elric’s attention from the drenched girl. Within the lake, he found his men struggling to stay above the surface of the water. Each was a strong swimmer, so he felt confused at the situation. The water was too cloudy for him to make out anything below it, however it didn’t sound like they were being attacked by an animal. As if broken from whatever dragged him under, one of the men resurfaced with fear across his face.

“There’s something dragging us under!”

The man screamed out while circulating his qi. He sent an empowered fist into the water, tearing a cavity into his immediate surroundings. Despite being able to see the lakebed for a moment, the man gasped in surprise as there was nothing to see. Everything appeared normal. The water closed in around him, recovering the space that was rightfully its own.

Rather than deal with the unknown, the man escaped as soon as he could, leaping from the lakebed to the shore in one swift movement. The effort it took him forced blood from his mouth. It was clear the mountain was applying a pressure to him as well. Not much later, another three guards escape the water only to return to Elric’s side.

The clouded lake returned to stillness, yet there was a distinct lack of two guards. Their locations, an obvious mystery that instilled a fear deep into the men. Elric released his anger.

“Dammit! Girl get your ass over here! You already killed two of your seniors! You want to add more?!”

Gina hadn’t been paying attention to Elric. Her focus was entirely on the clouded lake. When she swam through it, she felt something pass by her in the water, yet even as it touched her, she felt a sense of comfort rather than danger. In fact, just her presence on the island somehow felt correct. After Elric yelled to her, she regained a little confidence in herself.

‘At the very least, this mountain doesn’t seem to want me hurt.’

Her simple thoughts motivated her next words.

“Bring mother and father here. I won’t go back with you. If they don’t come, I’ll just run away. You won’t be able to stop me, not up here anyhow...”

Elric clenched his fists from broth humiliation and anger drawing blood in the process. He gritted his teeth together while sending a probing gaze to the water one last time. Despite two of his men disappearing, there was still no sign of either them resurfacing nor what attacked them.

“I hope you don’t regret this, Gina. You could have been married off as a trophy, living your days aways in peace and relaxation… The moment Sect Master knows you got the sacred mountain’s blessing, your life will be over. It’ll be worse than it was up to now! Is that what you really want?! Come back with me. We’ll ignore what happened up to now! I can make up excuses for your seniors’ disappearances.”

Elric held an expectant gaze. His attention wholly on the drenched girl across the lake from him. Her calm exterior only drove his mentality further to hell. He knew the situation was bad for him. 13 years of hatred, all levied against this girl. Who told her to be born to the sect Master and first wife? Who told her to acquire a unique skill? Who told her to be born next to his generation and most of all, who told her to be talentless?

“I don’t know what’s worse… The idea you think I’d ever trust you, or the fact that you think I don’t know about the plan to make me a cultivation furnace. If that Solarstar sect prodigy is known for that, then I’d wager he killed another ‘wife’. I gave you your orders. Go get the sect Master or his first wife. If you’re lucky, he won’t kill you on site the moment you tell him I escaped from you… or the moment you tell him you left me alone in the mountains after I gained the sacred mountain’s blessing.”

Elric’s nails dug in and he clenched his fist harder. He couldn’t think of a way to get the girl back in a timely fashion. By now, her escape should be known to the rest of the sect meaning he’s on borrowed time as far as recovering her goes. If the mountain wasn’t pressuring him, he could just use his qi to cross the water, however as he was now, the pressure would either drop him into the lake, or whatever was in the lake could catch and drag him under.

“Fuck!”

He exclaimed. He turned around and exited the cavern with the other guards. The new found solitude dropped Gina to the ground. Her ears reached for the fading steps of her enemies and as they faded out, she felt her heartbeat settle. Left alone in the cave with only the sound of the waterfall and heartbeat, Gina turned introspective.

Despite her claims, she wasn’t actually confident that she obtained the sacred mountain’s ‘blessing’. Something did happen, and it certainly benefited her, however she couldn’t see a ‘blessing’ attached to her soul in any way. All she understood was that the surrounding qi was supporting her in some fashion or another. It moved with her, but not by her will. It healed her, however not by her command.

She only felt as though the qi were injected directly into her. To a certain degree, it scared her. What kind of being would be capable of directly injecting qi into another living being and supporting it even while that energy were inside that creature? Such legends were beyond her knowledge. Without any clues within, she turned her attention outward.

Her eyes tracked over the clouded lake, hoping for any hints about what lay within. It remained tranquil, as if the earlier raucous was nothing more than a dream. Her ears trained on every potential sound while drowning out the waterfall behind her, yet the cavern were as silent as one would expect.

“Hello?”

She reached out in hopes for a response.

“Is anyone there? Can you hear me?”

The prevailing silence answered back. Gina felt a mixture of frustration and helplessness. How was she supposed to play this? Her bluff would only extend as far as the entity behind the cavern would be willing to help. Without coordination, how was she to barter with the sect Master once he arrives? Should she run? Her original plan was to escape over the mountain, should she go back to that?

Her thoughts spun in circles, each time coming back to the same conclusion, the same one she came to even when planning in isolation. Her escaping across the mountain would be temporary at best. Without a core or talent in cultivation, her future would likely end up as someone’s cultivation furnace. The martial world isn’t kind enough to take in a talentless stray like her without severe consequences.

In the end, should she take her chances here? Though the plan was thought up on the fly, it couldn’t be too far fetched as the entity helped her once before. Even if it intended to use her for something, the results couldn’t be worse than the outside world. Her mind settled and her eyes flared with determination.

She inched her body to the edge of the silver island, her bronze toes dipping into the clouded water millimeter by millimeter. Her brazen attitude surprised even herself as her fear was cornered by her excitement. The waterline reached her upper calf, her foot no longer visible through the occluded depths. The water remained warm, unnaturally so, as if it were regulated by something.

Gina stood with her legs in the water, still glancing around the cavern and hoping for a change of some sort. She didn’t have to wait long as the qi started condensing around her. She felt something slender brush against her legs, caressing them as one would a pet. The sensation wasn’t disgusting to her, rather she found it comforting. Each brush imbued small amounts of qi into her body sending shivers up her back, yet despite her patience, the entity never showed itself.

She took a seat at the edge of the island, looking into the depths of the cavern. She sat there for hours, her attention both wandering at times and focused at others. The caressing of her legs never stopped, occasionally wandering around and between her toes, other times her ankles. Despite those probes though, the entity never seemed to engage her further. While the massage was fine and all, Gina found herself wanting something more. Her body heated up, however she didn’t understand what it meant.

She once again became introspective, and to her amazement she found she gained a level. Not only that, she found the qi spiraling in her dantian, its density far exceeding what she once had before. Beyond a doubt, she was only days away from forming her core. No wonder her body was heating up, she was nearing the stage of refining her mortal body. Gina remained focused on her dantian until a sudden burst of qi in the surroundings brought her back to reality.

Her attention fell onto a swarm of qi bundling up against itself on the island. Every second it coalesced was a degree larger Gina’s eyes grew. By the end, she found herself looking at a phantom image of a wolf. It’s silver fur, transparent and defying gravity, rustles with a non-existent wind. Its visage wavered as if struggling to maintain its corporeal form.

The wolf took uncertain steps, closing the distance between her and it. Her ice blue eyes gazed into a pair of silver orbs that stared back. As the wolf stood before her, its back reaching her shoulders in height, its head twisted to the side as if in curiosity. Gina reached with a cautious hand to touch it, however the wolf wafted out of existence upon contact.