At dawn, the head monk took a deep breath and buried his grief. Last night, he had determined that if this girl was all that was left of Han Meilan, he would take care of her to his best ability. The only problem was her rashness. Just yesterday, she had strained her body more than was recommended. If she continued along this road, she would truly end up harming her own body.
Worst comes to worst, her cultivation would become crippled.
He sighed and walked towards the girl's room.
"Hello?" he knocked on the door.
"..." There was complete silence.
"Hello?" he tried again.
"..."
"..."
In that moment, several scenarios ran through Ma Liaowen's head. (What if she ran away? Did her pursuers catch up to her? Could she have been killed?)
He shuddered at the thought of the young girl lying in a pool of blood. He had just promised her mother that he would protect her, and she was already dead….
"Venerable One, will you be coming in?" a voice asked.
"Ah-" he opened the door….
Thankfully, there was no blood, no bodies. Instead, the young girl was swaddled in blankets and barricaded herself into the corner of the room. Who knew why; Liaowen shrugged inwardly at her actions.
"So you have decided to come back, Venerable One," the girl smiled.
"Ah, yes, I have."
"If I may introduce myself, I am Ruan Shanqiao."
"So your mother married into the Ruan Clan…"
"Yes," the girl smiled slightly. "I heard from my father that even you, her childhood friend, was unaware of his identity."
"The Ruan Clan was eliminated?" Liaowen frowned. There was no way that anyone didn't know the might of the Ruan Clan. They were an eccentric family that spanned over the entire continent. While most members of the Clan stayed a secret, the most powerful branch, the main branch had always been present in the Capital City of Xinghe Kingdom. Rumors said that in the main branch, even the good-for-nothings could defeat Ninth Rank Cultivators. And to add to their influence, they had fulfilled the requests of a variety of people, including the newly crowned Emperor of the Shadow Palace. For such a force to be annihilated within a night… It was an incident that would spark controversy and fights across the continent.
"Yes, the main branch has been eliminated," Shanqiao's eyes glistened with malice. "It was obviously the work of our closest aides."
Ma Liaowen looked at Shanqiao with the intention of asking the million questions swirling in his head. However, she looked up him with a firmness that whispered, 'Do not ask more.'
"I am merely here to retrieve my belongings," she explained. "Is there anything my mother had sent the Venerable One in recent years? She was quite adamant that I searched for you."
Liaowen paused. "I do have something that fits your description. I'll go get it."
As Shanqiao watched the head monk retreating back, her usually neutral mouth quirked up into a slight smile.
'He's much too nice, like mother had said…'
As she thought about her mother, a bitter look replaced her expressionless one.
'For all the hardships my Clan had to go through, I will repay our offenders with an equally difficult hardship.'
Despite her heart wanting to repay her enemies a million times over, her rationality merely demanded an equal payment: no more no less.
"Here it is!"
As the head monk walked in with a small chest, Ruan Shanqiao snapped out of her thoughts and returned to the current place and time.
"Is this all?" she asked speculatively as she poked at the lock on the chest.
'How was she supposed to open this lock? She was neither lockpicker nor cultivator…'
"Ah, there was also this letter," Liaowen handed a worn out letter to Shanqiao.
She took it gratefully and tore it open.
"..."
"..."
"Hmmm…."
"Do not feel bad if you're unable to open it," the head monk consoled. "I was unable to decipher the letter as well-"
"No!" Shanqiao shook her head indignantly. "I'll open it."
She slid over to the chest, straining her chest injury.
"Ssssh…" she hissed as the pain ripped through the rest of her lethargy.
"Stay still, I bring it to you. You must not strain your injury-" Before the head monk could even finish his sentences, the young girl had already reached the chest.
Ma Liaowen inwardly shook his head. This could have been done after her injury had healed to a certain degree. If she continued her actions, she was likely to rip open her injury again… Why must she be so stubborn.
"If you keep neglecting your body…" he opened his mouth to scold her gently. "You might really run yourself into the ground. You'll become unable to cultivate. If you can't cultivate, you won't be able to protect yourself. Considering your current situation, you must be able to protect yourself. So, you shouldn't be strainingggg your injury like that, you rabbit?!" His voice rose several tones as he watched the girl, white as a rabbit, bring her arm to her mouth, straining her injury once more, and bit her hand.
"Shanqiao!"
A bandage was immediately thrown onto the self-inflicted wound. As the head monk tried to wrap the injury, Shanqiao appeared to be doing the exact opposite.
"Stay still, you stubborn rabbit!" he exclaimed in worry as he used Yuan energy to fix her hand.
"Huh?" Shanqiao looked up in surprise and shock.
'Did he just call me a rabbit? When had I become a rabbit?' she thought to herself. It was as it seemed. The words of Liaowen had gone in one ear and flowed out the other. So the first time he had called her rabbit, she hadn't noticed it and, as a result, did not comment on it.
Her actions up to this point was to ensure that at least one drop of blood would land on the lock of the chest. The letter from her mother had read, "Yuan steel is broken by bloodline."
In other words, only the blood from Ruan descendant would be open the lock.
"Venerable One," she nudged the monk slightly. "I unlocked the chest."
"What do you mean?" Ma Liaowen sighed inwardly. He was becoming incredibly anxious from the girl's rash actions.
"Look."
Shanqiao simply took off the lock on the chest and opened it.
"Good," he smiled at her. Then, he muttered, "What are you going to do if you end up severing your qi?"
"My qi?" the girl looked up. "But, I'm what they call a good-for-nothing, Venerable One."