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TIAN FOUND HERSELF BACK IN HER SECT.

The girl cast her gaze around the rows and rows of houses. These buildings had tiled roofs, slanted and poking off the ledges. They stood tall and sturdy— unlike the flimsy wood house Tian had lived in. She remembered staring for cycles and cycles on end at these structures from the edge of the sect, envying what they had.

Now, she just looked on with disdain. Hatred. Fury. The girl was now a Blossom. She wasn’t nearly as strong as the sect elders who were Florescence, but she could at least hold her own now. No longer was she a mere Bud. She’d become a Bloom, before surpassing even that into a Blossom thanks to her master’s training.

Tian was ready to get into a fight the moment she landed here. However, as she took on a defensive stance, a leg bumped into her and continued on. Blinking, she watched as one of the sect elders brushed past her without care. He didn’t even regard her or acknowledge her existence.

“What is…?” she wondered aloud.

In her daze, she forgot the events of just a moment ago. The girl didn’t remember the Vampires chasing her across that unending forest before running into that terrible replica of a person who tried to trick her. Then she stepped back and saw the sky.

“The Heavens—” Her eyes went wide.

There were no arched gateways hanging above, illuminating the world with their light. It was empty. Barren. She saw a clear sky before looking back down below at her sect. Her mind reeled as she recalled everything that had happened after she was separated from her master.

Again, she had temporarily forgotten everything that was important. It was like there was something here, in the Sixth Heaven, that messed with her. Beyond just obfuscating her senses. It tried to trap her— convince her that she wasn’t hounded by illusions.

The young Blossom fought against it as she inhaled deeply, meditating and calming her mind.

“This isn’t real,” she said to herself as she passed a few more members of her sect. “None of this is real.”

There weren’t just elders, but other young children around her age. They huddled together as they always did, not including her in their conversations or games, speaking quietly just out of earshot as if they were gossiping about the girl. One of the boys in a nearby group glanced her way and sneered. Tian met his gaze and… shuddered.

“What…?” She stared into his hollow eyes. He tilted his head at her as she took a step back, then he turned back to his friends and laughed.

Tian tried to parse what she saw. The boy had looked so… ghastly. As though he had been malformed. Like a mix between that uncannily perfect false person and the Vampires that had chased after her. Stumbling, she swept her gaze around the alien faces as they went about their daily lives.

The entire village looked vaguely in resemblance to the Liufan sect. Yet, when she focused her eyes on any one thing, it looked… off. How the corners of a building were slanted. How the brows on an elder’s face didn’t fit perfectly right. How the haphazard pattern on the cobbled walkway somehow seemed carefully placed.

The girl tried her best to avoid looking at anyone or anything for too long, because it would reveal all the discrepancies which were just wrong to even stare at for her. She only stopped because she heard a warped voice.

“Well, if it isn’t Tian,” a girl said in varying intonations. At first, it sounded like it was happy to see her. Then it grew soft— almost condescending. Finally, it settled on a neutral pitch and continued, “What are you doing here?”

Spinning around, Tian came face-to-face with three familiar girls. Lihua, Xiaomei, and Chun. The three perpetrators for most of the bullying Tian had faced in the sect. Or, rather, three figures who looked like them. They looked more alive than the other fake people Tian had seen so far, yet it was still clear that they were deformed copies of the original.

“W-what…?” Tian took on a defensive stance as she cleared her throat. “What do you want?” she said, louder this time.

“What do we want?” Xiaomei asked— in Chun’s voice.

Chun chuckled monotonously. “We should be asking you that. Shouldn’t you be back with your mother, far away from the sect? We don’t want to catch the Phoenix Plague from either of you, Buds.”

Tian glared at them. “I am not a Bud, and I don’t care if you’re an illusion. Don’t you dare disrespect my mother.” She spoke warningly as the trio approached her.

They walked slowly. No— it was like they were gliding on the ground. Tian’s eyes darted around, making sure she wasn’t being encroached from behind. Only Lihua, Chun, and Xiaomei came closer. It was Lihua who replied.

“Big words coming from someone who can’t even sense the Dao,” she said mockingly. “What are you going to do? Cry at me?”

Lihua raised a hand, reaching for Tian. The girl immediately reacted with the thrust of her palm.

“Stay away from me!” Tian yelled as she knocked Lihua back.

Xiaomei and Chun rushed to aid Lihua, attacking Tian and shouting, “How dare you—”

But the newly-ascended Blossom sidestepped their attacks and struck them with two consecutive kicks. They went flying and crashed into each other, landing in a huge pile. Tian smirked as she looked at the three girls— albeit fake copies— tangled up with each other, unale to even process what happened.

“I’d have much preferred doing that to the real thing,” Tian murmured to herself.

She dusted off her robes and turned to leave them behind, only to pause as she saw every head in the false sect facing her. A single bead of sweat trickled down Tian’s neck. She met their faces. Each one slightly off in a different way. She knew what was going to happen next. And, all at once, they charged her.