When the sun sank into the horizons, behind the staunch mountains which constituted the scene, the entire world was extinguished into darkness. Unlike the previous night, the moon was not up and about — her shapely form hidden by the heft of drab gray clouds. Under the net of nightfall, the synchronized breathing of the Village of Orphans resounded through the air as they meditated, their faces hushed as autumn.

Qiu’yue slept still, curled up and sucking her index knuckle. The lotus mark had faded, submerged underneath her own pale skin. The girl slept gently for a few before waking. Her earthen eyes were tired so she rubbed at them. In a stupor, the girl yawned and called for tea, lost in her dreams. With her head bobbing as she seated herself on her bottom, the girl suddenly cried for her mother and father, and she stuffed her bunched fists into her eyes.

“Can you stop crying? You’re disturbing me and Meili; we’re trying to meditate, unlike a certain spoilt brat.” Jang-Guo stood up and marched himself to where Qiu’yue was. The boy grabbed the girl and lifted her easy into the air. He scowled and threw the tear-stained girl onto the ground, whom Senior Sha caught as he shot up from beneath the ground.

Meili looked at the exchange with sunken lips. She plucked a white clover from near her and began to dismember its petals one by one.

“Jang-Guo, that’s enough,” Cai said with sharped tilted brows. He seized the bald boy’s arm. “Do not forget what Yun Division Leader Meng told us.”

Jang-Guo shook Cai’s grip off him and walked back to Meili. He cuddled her from behind, though his piercing hawk eyes never left Cai.

Senior Sha placed the girl on her own feet. He asked the girl how she felt. She responded that she was well, fantastic even.

Cai walked over to the girl and whipped his queue around his neck. He asked for Senior Brother Sha to step aside. In front of the uneasy girl, he demonstrated his strength:

It was an explosive strength. There was no other way to describe it. All other words were mere derivatives, specifics, of that raw explosive intensity; that simple fierceness of gravity’s plunge; that suddenness of Spring love; and that overwhelming pressure of ancestral edicts.

One moment, there was stillness, emptiness. And in the next instant, a tsunami of force, a barrage of ten thousand fists, had assaulted the target, carving a hole in the pit of the soul with intent alone, and immediately the fist would be back in a rest position — as seamless and impromptu as the creation and dissolution of the Supreme Ultimate, Taiji.

And that force was just experienced second-hand by Qiu’yue. The girl had blinked and in that frame of lost time, Cai’s fist was stopped a centimeter from her nose. The discharge of wind slashed at her coldly, and she felt scars form despite no blood having been shed. Stupidly, the girl even fell backwards after the display of strength has concluded. Her entire body shook, as if the last of the onslaught of that tsunami had not yet dissipated from the fiber of her soul.

Senior Brother Sha looked confused at the junior brother. “Junior Brother Cai, what was the point of that.”

“Do you remember what happened today?” Cai asked the girl. He slapped the girl out of her hysteria. And then he slapped the other cheek to shake her of the tears. “Answer me.”

Both of her cheeks quickly swelled into plums. Senior Brother Sha gasped at Cai and then shook his head away from Cai. The younger boy merely presented the palm of his hand to the senior brother and pointed at Qiu’yue.

The girl nodded as she kneaded both her cheeks. As she did so, it was evident that the bruising was already becoming much better.

“Brat, do you want to learn what I just did and get revenge?”

The girl nodded furiously with wide eyes.

“Well, you can’t.” Cai responded as he flicked the girl’s nose. “That was the price to save you. And, yes, you did almost die. Do you know what you can learn? Meili’s set of skills: her soft-fist boxing. Of the people here, only she studies the soft-fist.”

The girl looked terrified. She even clutched onto Cai’s clothes. “I can’t, big brother. She hates me.”

The boy pulled back his neck and pulled the girl’s paws off his being. “I dislike you too, and I still taught you.”

The girl shook her head and stomped her foot. “Big brother, you don’t really hate me. Your eyes don’t hate me. But whenever I catch a glimpse of Big Sister Meili’s eyes, I feel cold. She hates me.”

“Then make her not hate you,” Cai said and then left the girl, dashing away to resume meditation right next to the twins.

Qiu’yue spun around, her hair catching against her face. She implored Senior Brother Sha. “Senior Brother Sha, teach me how to burrow underground. Tell me I don’t have to go over there.”

The older boy scratched his head and looked away with an airy laugh. “Well, little Qiu’yue, what Cai said was undeniable — it was the truth. The only person you can learn from is Meili.”

“Why can’t I learn from you?” The girl screamed. She yelped when she noticed Meili observing her outburst. Qiu’yue looked away and peered into Senior Brother Sha’s droopy eyes.

“If you learn from me or Cai or Jang-Guo, you will die. The external martial arts are all about explosive strength. If explosive strength is applied to you, your body will burst like one of my pimples.”

“Senior Brother Sha,” the girl cried quietly. “Big Sister Meili hates me. She really hates me.”

The boy rubbed his neck and looked around the field before placing a hand on the girl’s head. “Little Qiu’yue, if you want to live, you are going to have to learn how to fight. Only Meili can teach you that.”

Before Qiu’yue could respond, the older boy had burrowed himself down into the ground. He emerged next to Cai and hastily began meditating.

Jang-Guo scowled at the two other boys. “Don’t you try anything funny around Meili, you hear?”

Meili sighed and wrenched herself away from her brother’s hold. She drifted toward Qiu’yue like mist. Little Qiu’yue ran — tearing through the field. But how could a girl barely at the first stage of cultivation, and a girl inexperienced in all matters of life, compare to Meili? Overtaking Qiu’yue, the older girl appeared in front.

In a single moment, the earth was overturned with the heaven. Suddenly, Qiu’yue face was absorbing the essence of the earth as Meili laid on top of her restraining her arms in a cross formation.

The older girl leaned forward and whispered, “I hate you. I really hate spoiled rich brats like you. But I’m also going to teach you. However, in the event that my training kills you…”

The girl did not continue her thoughts. Rather she got up off Qiu’yue. Meili walked deep into the forest, her hair trailing behind. Her voice echoed, “Are you coming or not?”

Feeling the killing intent in her words, Qiu’yue quickly got up and threw herself into the depths of the forests in chase of the senior sister.

“Shouldn’t you go follow her?” Cai asked.

“Are you mocking me right now? My sister can take care of herself, better than me in fact,” Jang-Guo responded and puffed his chest out.

“I mean, to stop her in case she has one of her mood changes.”

“Mmm,” Jang-Guo closed his eyes. “If you worry about that brat so much, why don’t you follow her?”

At that, Cai sighed and also returned to meditation.

Author's Note: I keep posting the chapters after midnight lol. A short chapter today. Definitely short...I usually take like a few minutes spacing the paragraphs; today I took a few seconds. Much Apologies for the Short Chapter *bows*. Thanks for reading as always though.

P.S. I've been watching Bahamut the anime, and I feel like it's the Seinfeld of anime. Nothing much ever really happens in the episodes but it's so interesting and it feels like 5 minutes has passed when I have already wasted an hour watching it.