Tall grass rushed past Labby’s form as she ran through the field, following the faint scent of the lightning Qi.

Lunar and thunder Qi swirled in her core as she ran through the fields of the outer sect, heading beyond its boundaries and further up the peak. A place even her Great Master wasn’t allowed to enter.

A pill remained clutched within her mouth, as the boundaries of the outer sect peaks began to shimmer and appear in the distance. A wall surrounded the higher peak of the inner sect, the Qi within the air rising with each step she walked closer.

Purple lightning crackled around her as she paused, to sniff the scents carried across the air currents, and the little trails of Qi that brushed past. When she had been nothing but a common rat, she’d mindlessly followed a similar trail to find a gap within the wards to cross through.

The task to breach the inner sect ward was much more formidable, but she too wasn’t the common rat that she used to be either.

The Qi shimmered an invisible barrier preventing entry, but Labby soon found a small gap within the boundaries of the walls. With a squeak of delight, Labby rushed closer, squeezing through the gaps as she made it past the walls.

Qi hit her nose with a myriad of new smells. The tinge of the moon was brighter here, even during the day, and the touch of lighting Qi crawled upon her skin. The air filled her with energy, as her mind began to clear out more so than ever before. So this was the fabled inner sect.

“L-bby. W-ere are -ou?”

Labby froze as she heard her Great Master’s voice come from their bond. The voice was broken and wavering, hindered by the wards around the inner sect. She could feel her Great Master’s concern, as he tugged at her bond calling for her.

Labby almost turned back without thinking, to rush to her Master’s side but something held her back. Her Qi wavered in turmoil, her core shuddering as she heard her Great Master once more.

“Labby?”

He asked, the concern in his voice growing. Labby felt her heart shuddering. Her Great Master was calling her back, he was worried about where she’d gone. Would she refuse his call? Refuse her Great Master.

Labby looked towards where she sensed her Great Master’s voice, sending a brief link of her thoughts back, enough to reassure her Great Master that she was alright. She squeaked to the empty air, bowing her head in apology as she turned back and began to head further within the Inner Sect.

The last time her master had been in danger, she’d been too weak, unable to help him. She watched helplessly as her bond with her master had crumbled, his voice fading and his Qi vanishing from her, and she’d been unable to do anything.

Labby had sworn back then, that she would never let that happen again. And for that, she needed to be stronger. Even if it meant going against her Great Master’s wishes sometimes.

Labby felt her Qi still. She had made her choice.

With renewed speed she rushed through the inner sect’s grounds, following the stronger than ever trail of Lightning Qi.

The foggy and misty peaks rushed past Labby as she walked up the path. There was no one within the inner sect peak who wasn’t a cultivator, and all of them were cultivators far above her in realm.

Labby kept her Qi hidden and confined. It was an act that came innately to her, ingrained in her very nature to hide and slither unnoticed. A nature she’d been trying to go against all this time, leaning on the impulses caused by her lightning Qi.

She didn’t wish to be a mere rat, she was Labby! A name she took even against the wills of the Qi. And she refused to settle for the fate that was preordained to her kin.

The lush grass and stone path uphill gave way to a manor. Labby climbed up the walls, walking through the gaps in the stone as she jumped in with a squeak, almost dropping the pill she carried in her mouth.

Arcs of lightning swirled near the entrance in a magnificent display of delicate formations, but Labby’s attention was somewhere else entirely.

A field filled with various spirit herbs lay in front of her, with a scent stronger than almost any other that she’d smelled. It called Labby towards itself, to gorge upon this delicious banquet.

Labby shook her head, bringing her focus back. She couldn’t get distracted now, she had a mission to complete!

Squeaking the temptation out of her heart, Labby ran further within the large courtyard, and into the manor that remained near the peak of the sect. The Yan manor.

***

Qi swirled in Yan Yun’s dantian as she meditated within her chambers in quiet. Li and Lei sparred outside, under her instructions, honing their skills as Leiyu watched over them. Yan Yun had no intentions of lending a hand to the boys any more than she needed to, and from what she’d seen so far. The boys didn’t need any either.

An arc of lightning lashed around Yan Yun, striking one of the many silver needles struck into the ground itself near Yan Yun. She took a breath, calming her distracted mind once more, as she focused on the insight she’d gained.

She’d asked Zu Ri to provide her with some silver needles which she’d then layered around her chambers into the earth in a five headed marker, within which she sat to meditate upon the words she’d seen from Lu Jie that day, and the things he’d shown her.

Lightning Qi churned in her core, as she cycled her Qi, carefully sensing how it moved. Lightning Qi was volatile, and unstable, and lightning cultivators ill tempered and impulsive. The path of cultivation for them was often a balance on the needle’s edge to temper their Qi, without taking the edge off its bite.

It was often not the brash cultivator of lightning that people feared, but one as calm as a still lake, waiting for the right moment to strike with all their might.

All her life, Yan Yun had believed this balance had come as a product of exercising restraint, and deep meditation. To hone her lightning, tame it, and channel it with absolute control, to not let the Qi govern her, but to govern the Qi instead.

Yet, a spirit rat had managed to show her a new path. A path consisting of not Yang, but Yin lightning. She hadn’t believed such a thing existed but the rat had mingled two separate paths together into one, that of the moon and that of thunder. A balance within the Yin and the Yang.

Just like Lu Jie had, with Gu and Qi.

Yan Yun clenched her fists, as another strike of lightning lashed out, hitting the silver pins. She took another breath, calming her mind furthermore. The events of the tribulation and beyond had left her with shaken beliefs of the world.

She wondered if she was befriending a demon, waiting to strike at her from behind for being foolish enough to trust it. The pitch black eyes with pure white pupils that Lu Jie had gained came to her mind, as a shudder crawled up her smile. Yet at the same time, she remembered the embarrassed smile he’d sent her way.

Regardless of her wishes, the oath still held true, and she feared summoning a tribulation upon her head lest she say the wrong words about Lu Jie. She didn’t fear for her survival, but her cultivation may forever be set back and the thought was enough to hold her lips even with her doubts.

Yan Yun should take a break. She is unsettled.

Yan Yun opened her eyes, stopping the channeling of Qi in her dantian as she watched Leiyu fly within the chamber and rest on her shoulder.

“Li and Lei?” she asked quietly.

“Ran away. Leiyu let them, pesky brats that do not show any respect,” Leiyu replied with a scoff, flapping his wings as he preened.

“Let them be. Their foolish arrogance will only come to bite them later. Arrogance without the strength to back it is just the ramblings of a fool,” Yan Yun replied.

“Indeed, but that is not why Leiyu came here. What bothers Yan Yun so? The boy Lu Jie?”

Yan Yun turned to look at Leiyu as she raised her hand, gently brushing his feathers. She knew the younger Leiyu would’ve never let her do any such thing, but even her spirit had found his arrogance tempered at the sight they’d both witnessed.

“How can I not be? A tribulation at the 4th realm. A boy possessing demonic abilities, and two cores who returned life to a crippled man, with knowledge never heard of even in our clan’s archives? There aren’t many stranger things than him that I’ve seen.”

“Leiyu hadn’t taken Yan Yun to be a liar.”

Yan Yun clenched her fists at her spirit’s words, a pang of pain stabbing her through the chest. She closed her eyes, cycling her Qi as she sat in silence for a moment.

“I’m… envious. He is a boy with no special background, with nothing to his name, yet he performs strange miracles never seen before. But despite having summoned a tribulation at such a young realm he just- lives so freely, as if not bound by the chains of society. I’m envious of Lu Jie. Of his freedom, and of his desire to grow. When did I lose mine? When did it all become about surpassing my grandfather?”

“Leiyu cannot answer that. It is an answer, Yan Yun must realise for herself,” Leiyu spoke, flapping his wings. “Yan Yun needs to think over what she wishes to achieve in her life. What her purpose and Path are.”

“I wish to be free,” Yan Yun spoke, yet the words rang hollow. It was her desire, to be free of her grandfather, to be free of the burden of a prodigy, but it was not why she cultivated.

“A talk for some other time. We have an unexpected visitor,” Leiyu said, as Yan Yun sensed the tiny ball of thunder and lunar Qi outside her chamber’s window a moment later. She sent a thin strand of Qi, opening the entrance as a grey furred rat stumbled in with her white lunar crescent on her forehead and a pill in her mouth.

The little rat shook her head, before turning towards the two of them and crackling with purple lightning.

“Labby wishes to learn how to fight!”