The teacher was really upset seeing how children these days becoming more rebellious and ungrateful with their life now. He thought to himself, "If only you guys were born before this village even existed, you would not be complaining."
Before the Light village which they lived was even founded, the area was once occupied by the Dark Lotus before driven back towards the east where their capital is. Back then, it was only 140 years after the start of the war.
Mi looked at her uncle who was walking towards the tree where she stood and said, "You didn't have to help me you know." Her voice was a bit unclear, but her uncle can see that she was upset.
"Everyone does not care about me, so why should you!" Mi finally could not hold in her emotions anymore and screamed. Then said to herself while tearing, "Why am I even here..."
From a young age, Mi was mostly separated from the rest of the clan mainly because of her hair. The Order of the White Blossom also known as Bai Mei Hua had a long history with the Heileren or Black Lotus who were constantly fighting for almost two hundred years.
"If you are going to keep acting like that, there might actually not even be a place for you in this life," her uncle placed his hands on her shoulders and spoke. He did not want to insult her, but more importantly to tell her to stay strong. "Don't worry, there be a one day where you would find something that will be meaningful to you."
"Yes... Uncle Yuan," She slightly hesitated before reply wiping the tears off her eyes. Then started to speak mockingly, "I guess it's time to beat your students up." Mi tried to act tough and brush off the misery she felt using it as a motivation to go against her pears.
Fifth teen minuets have passed, and the students were all in a huge panic. Some even fell and got dirt all over their uniforms. Strangely enough, most of the students did not even seen their teacher in action besides practice when learning the basics. The unknown was something many people fear letting their imagination to cause havoc. They were all around the ages 12 - 16 but they were still treated as children for how little they knew about life.
After everyone finally lined up in pairs, most people already knew that they were done for. Their teacher was once a soldier for the Order and being a soldier was something many people desire. Some did it for glory, a few did it for benefits, but a lot did it because they wanted to represent their people. Yuan Qiu Liang did it to protect their village which only just established 27 years by his great grandfather before he was born. Now 53 years old, he only wants to pass down skills for the future.
But there was a main reason why they knew it was hopeless to win, they only been training for a month and a half. Mi the other hand had been training twice as much because she had no school but most important her peers cannot corporate with her, so she had to be privately taught. They gritted their teeth and stared at their teacher with Mi by his side. The students can't help but wonder why does Mi always on the teacher's good side
"Now, let us begin," Yuan Qiu looked at his students and said while pointing at the first pair. He did not pity them because he believed they were old enough to understand what to do and what not. In fact, he sees Mi as a great role model and a fantastic student who constantly strive to get better, but to bad no one can see that.
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"Looks like were up first, ready Lin?"
"Yea Ling"
The two twins looked at each other with confidence. Unlike most of the class, they personally have been taught by their father whenever they had time. The twins were ranked the best of the class which many envied. Some boys even have a ranking for beauties in their class and surprising enough the twins took the top one and two causing other girls jealous.
Just when the teacher pointed at the twins, Lin went to her right and ran towards Mi and Ling went to her left and ran towards her teacher. Mi and Yuan were 6 meters apart and 24 meters away from the line of students, so they had to cover a good distance to reach their target. Moments later Lin decided to ignore Mi and help flank their teacher after all they thought Mi was still useless.
When Mi first came to learn the basic control of her hair, she failed miserably for several days. There was a saying that first expression is everything, but it didn't mean it could not be changed. What they did not know is that after a month and a half Mi already mastered basics which many of her peers have yet to do.
Mi saw Lin deciding to ignore her made her a bit angry. Mi then decided to dash towards Lin to cut off her path. Meanwhile Lin and Ling grew out one long one-handed sword and increased their speed, but moments later Lin panicked after Mi suddenly got in front of her.
"Move out of the way," Lin yelled as she swung down her sword from above.
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Mi finally gotten in front of Lin and grew out a pair of daggers with on in each hand. She completely ignores what the other party was saying and swung from under with her right hand to meet the sword. As the swords met, Lin's face went pale as she saw her sword cut clean in half like butter and lost balance. Mi took the opportunity to kick her in the stomach which finally made Lin fall heavily against hard rocky ground.
After Lin fell, Mi turn to Ling who halted while staring at her crying sister. For the first time, the students were terrified of Mi and unexpectedly thunder roared. There was a large storm heading their way and everyone took the opportunity to skip class and away from their punishment to go home. Then the rain started lightly raining leaving Mi, her uncle, and the twins.
Lin who was laying on the ground was still bursting in tears, while the other sister went over to grab the other half of the sword. Ling gave the sister the other half of the sword and both the parts were fused back to her hair. Ling then carried her sister on her back and then walked over to teacher.
"Teacher Yuan has yet to dismissed class yet... Are we allowed to leave?" Ling was staring down at her feet waiting for her teacher's reply.
"You can go home now, practice is canceled." Yuan replied with a calm and respectful manor and watched Ling carrying Lin home and then added, "You should go home too."
"I'm just going to stay a little longer." Mi replied while looking down at her two black daggers.
"Your daggers look beautiful you know," Yuan spoke softly while writing down the student's names that ran home before he even announced that they could go home. "Don't stay in the rain for too long, or your mother and father will not be happy if you get sick," Uncle Yuan said before he started walking towards the village.
"My black hair still scary right?" Mi questioned herself while having her daggers merge back into her hair. After that she went back to the tree she was leaning and sat down hold her knees and feet together like a child rolled up in a ball.
Then rain started pouring but Mi was already asleep and crying for a bit. Being hated by her peers for her entire life, and only cared by her uncle and parents was hard. All she every wanted was to have friends and other people to talk too and enjoy. She kept saying one sentence to herself, "Why can't I be normal..."
Back at her village's temple which was her home, her father and mother started to get worry about where she was. They looked outside at the pouring rain wondering where she could be. Mi's father just recovered from a bad flu not that long ago and everyone around him prevented him to go outside to find his only daughter in fear of getting sick once more. After all, Mi's father is the now the head of the Liang clan that is in control of the village.
Mi's father was getting tired of waiting and rushed up stairs and unlocked a door.
"Ray, you might was well do something good for once and help me find my daughter. She was probably last seen by the training fields south of here." Mi's father said as he opened the door.
"Fine, Fine" Ray said with a lazy expressing as he slid open window and jumped out into the rain. Then he jumped down one floor after another since he was 3 floors up originally before he finally landed on the ground.
The father felt a sigh of relief when he finally has someone go look for her daughter, but a moment flashed in front of his eyes.
"He doesn't know who my daughter is or what she looks like...," Mi's father's face turned pale. Knowing people in the village treated his daughter differently was already troublesome to deal with but sending someone that never met her or seen her he felt he just made a mistake.