There is perhaps an influence that her elements had on the speed of her cultivation.
In the years that Tian Leiji has known to cultivate and was taught by her mother who still thought her too young for all this, she has never one felt that thing that everyone called bottlenecks.
If one were to contextualize it then, it would be somewhat like in a game, you start off as level one. Only a little bit of leveling later, you find yourself as level twenty while everyone else were grinding at level five.
Perhaps, she had thought once, while scribbling her thoughts down on a piece of paper, that her elements had something to do with the ease and speed of it. And so Leiji started thinking about how to test this hypothesis out. Now, with Light around, she could start trying to find the answers.
Tian Leiji had started to seriously cultivate and waited until she had ranked up once before taking a look at the incense stick she had left to burn. It was about a third from finishing.
Then, she did something that could only be met with panic in the other world and sealed her own elements, the lack of it feeling like a gaping hole in her chest and soul. A tendril of ice cold fear and panic gripped at her heart and Leiji couldn't help it when she got up and rushed towards wherever Ling Hongyun was at that moment.
The experiment could wait.
'Little boy,' the concern warmed her heart, Hongyun asked in worry after feeling the pulses of panic and fear. 'What happened?'
'I…' Leiji opened her mouth from where she had lunged at Hongyun and hugged him and was currently facing his chest. Did she trust Hongyun enough to tell him about this?
She did.
'Let's talk inside,' Leiji told him haltingly, feeling…she felt stable, like whenever she was with…
Hongyun raised a brow and didn't question it any further.
In the other world, there was something people called Balance Partners.
That world was entirely dependent on balance, but it was strong enough to handle the balance tipping over a bit. An example of what this meant was, of the Negativity Emperor/Empress was stronger than the Positivity Emperor/Empress, then the amount of positive aligned elements would awaken in children. The Balance Emperor/Empress was in charge of keeping the balance of the world
Balance Partners were to keep a person balanced. Often, that meant that the two partners were opposites in personality and temperament, but other times, it meant that the two people were similar and therefore would be able to understand each other well. This was relevant, because the more they get along with each other then the easier it would be to balance each other.
There were two types of Balance Partners. Fated and Found, both of which explanations should be easy to guess.
Fated Balance Partners were indeed arranged by fate. Or, the past world preferred to say that the world itself had arranged such things and because the world loved its inhabitants, it would not mean any harm. Found Balance Partners on the other hand, find each other and are deemed partners by the world after having a stable relationship whether it be family or friends or even lovers.
There were some partners that were even rivals. Keeping each other balanced in whatever they had a rivalry for. It sometimes felt unhealthy, because it was so very easy to develop obsessions in their world.
Why it was so easy to develop obsessions? Well, because as long as it didn't bother anyone too much or was harmful to the individual and their surroundings then it was just generally seen as motivation.
Leiji realized back then, with an odd amount of calm, that Hongyun was her Found Balance Partner. Looking at it, it felt so obvious that it would come to this.
Lightning, with determination not to make the same mistake she had in the past life, spilled to Ling Hongyun everything. The fact that she had been reincarnated, explained elements and how they worked, what elements he had. Perhaps it was the nerves that finally caught up to her, but Leiji hesitated when explaining Balance Partners.
Hongyun, with patience Leiji would almost call uncharacteristic, took a deep breath and gently pat her head.
Leiji inexplicably flushed at that, not expecting his reaction.
It was when she finished explaining that he finally asked in a considerate blank tone and expression. 'Am I your Balance Partner?' She replied in the same tone and expression, not wanting to be thought of as crazy, 'Yes. My found Balance Partner.'
Perhaps what she had told him had been too much and Hongyun needed time processing it or he was contemplating whether or not to dismiss it as a crazy person's ramblings. They both stayed silent for a long while before he sighed and told her succinctly, out loud. "I could hear a lot of what you were thinking, little boy."
He doesn't say anything about not minding and Leiji smiled.
"I have always had suspicions." Hongyun starts, finding something imaginary and wrong in the way Leiji tied her hair and making her face the other way while untying the ribbon that Lu Yanhei had given her. "You never block anyone out from your thoughts and what you want to say and the only one with an established enough bond to hear it…"
That would be Ling Hongyun. Not Lu Yanhei, because they couldn't disagree enough at times. Light, well, Lightning had killed her family in the last life of course there would be some resentment no matter what. Tian Lanbing, forget it; she would understand such things in a few years perhaps.
"You think about things that don't make sense." Ling Hongyun seemed to hesitate a bit, he was treating the ribbon with a little too much courteousness. "Unless what you said earlier was true."
Leiji sighed and shook her head. Of course, out of all people, Ling would be the first to figure out.
She leaned back and enjoyed being able to do so.
After they had returned safely and not dead, the Bai family had oddly stepped up and suppressed any news of their return. It was an odd thing, especially when Bai Qiafei simply asked Leiji, several days after that and Bai Shaoxue having gotten him to visit, to explain what in heavens did he do because this was not normal. Especially with the Tian family that everyone knew and didn't like.
Leiji had simply shrugged at that time.
The sight of her mother staring down the head of the Bai family was odd though and Tian Leiji decided not to ask. It was just another thing that her mother did, nothing to worry about at all.
But it seemed that even the Bai family had spies, because news about it was soon leaked.
Not even a week after that happened; some guys that Leiji did not recognize came knocking at four in the morning. Ling Hongyun was out doing whatever and Light was roomed with Tian Lanbing, Lu Yanhei giving her this murderous smile whenever Leiji even mentions getting up so early for people who never announced a visit.
Leiji kept them waiting for half an hour in spite, taking her sweet time in putting on clothes and properly taking care of her hair.
It wasn't the slightest bit polite, but so was knocking at someone's door at four in the morning without prior invitation or announcement. Yes, Tian Leiji was salty about that. She didn't want to get up a full hour before she usually does, who would?
She glared at the two in front of her, trying to make them disappear and somehow she would be in bed and all this was some really weird dream. The younger one, probably about Hongyun's age, smiled, trying to appease her but even Tian Leiji could feel that he was apprehensive of how scary a seven-year-old's glare could be.
Good. Let him sweat.
The older one, the one who looked to be in his late-forties, stroked his way too long beard that Leiji just itched to shave off.
"Is there a reason for honored guests to have visited this humble Tian household?" Leiji spat out, deciding that talking as slowly as one does to a child is enough insult to them. Well, to be fair, she was much older than the both of their ages combined and multiplied several fold in the last life.
The old one chuckled humorlessly, wrinkled eyes setting upon the irritable child. 'This child, since when has the Tian had him? And they didn't even appreciate him, instead infuriating this…monster enough that they got wiped out. It was a good thing that what the one his grandson wanted wasn't in this child's blacklist.
The Tian had been right when they said the child was a monster.
They just did not understand the type of monster.'
"We of the Huang Family grieve for the loss of Old Master Tian and his sons." He told the monster of a child. "However, we wanted to make sure that all arrangements are still in place. Surely the Tian Family will not turn back on us after only changing heads?"
"What arrangements?" The elder, Old Master Huang did not so much as blink at such a rude inquisition. The younger one beside him, however, did.
Huang Rushan glared and his hand flew to the sword strapped onto his waist when he froze like time had stopped. Old Master Huang beside him froze imperceptibly too, before he continued as if things were normal. Rushan sweated, wondering what or who was suppressing him so thoroughly. He looked at the child who was nearly eight-years-old and thought immediately, 'Impossible!'
"If you may be so lenient on my grandson, Family Head Tian, please be. He is still a child who is learning." The silver-haired child harrumphed and took back that aura of his. Huang Rushan flushed, the embarrassment and humiliation creating a core of resentment. Why did his grandfather say that?
Then, he revised the series of things that had happened and realized.
He was truly an idiot. How could he not recognize it?
"Discipline your children better, Old Master Huang." Said person only smiled in response. He hummed noncommittally and changed the subject. "Where were we again?"
"I believe you were informing me of the arrangements of the Tian and Huang Family my predecessors had made." The child—no, Huang Rushan couldn't underestimate him anymore. Not after that display—told them, in a tone that implied he had completely no interest in them. This was odd, considering who they were.
"Ah, of course. Forgive this old one; he has such a unreliable memory at times." Rushan wondered just where his indomitable and terrifying grandfather went. What was with this helpless old man act? "Of course, my grandson has asked that our families be tied by marriage. Tian Languang—,"
Old Master Huang was cut off there, the table splintering to pieces.
"No." Rushan wondered if he would ever meet any child quite as terrifying as this Tian Leiji. That glare alone could freeze hell thrice over. "Absolutely not. End of discussion, now leave."
"You! We've been courteous enough, brat!" Huang Rushan couldn't help but stand and shout at the monster child.
"Tian Languang—and any living being for that matter—is not a pawn to use in politics! If you want to marry her, then court her properly and gain permission from all her family members!" Tian Leiji shouted at Huang Rushan and he couldn't help the flinch from his angry stare. "I don't care what repercussions you are threatening on this household, I, Lu Leiji, have never been a part of this family!"
"You—!" Rushan glared with all his might, unable to stand it.
Languang, Light, he really did love her. How dare this child get in the way?
"She's eleven," Tian—Lu Leiji growled out and it was somehow the most terrifying sound Rushan has ever heard.
Still, he grits his teeth and glared hellfire at this child. It was logic that stopped him from attacking. This monster of a child was strong, stronger than him by a long shot and he could feel it. Doesn't mean that Rushan liked the feeling, however.
Old Master Huang, who had been silent for a small amount of time, stood and rushed some one-sided pleasantries before taking his grandson outside of that manor.
"But, grandfather, why?!" Huang Rushan glared balefully at this grandfather of his.
"You don't understand yet." Old Master Huang told him slowly, then whispered, "That monster had the cultivation of an Aurora Noble, but the aura of something I couldn't fathom."
Rushan's heart constricted painfully at that, the fear catching up.
"It would do good that we do not get anywhere nearer his blacklist, Rushan."
"…fine."