When Shanqiao opened her eyes, it was already dark outside.
The expression on her face darkened when she realized that the Han Family heiress had disappeared. That girl was definitely someone to beware of. Not even an iota of trust could be found in her. Thankfully, she was still alive after their encounter. She had been made painfully aware of her own weaknesses. Her protective arrays were unable to hold back a Sixth Rank cultivator.
In the future, she would fight many cultivators of lower and higher cultivation levels. Not only that, in the nearer future, when she arrived at the Huangshan mountains, it was likely for her to meet with Ninth Rank spirit beasts and higher.
"What should I learn next?" she muttered as she started flipping through her memory. Save for a few arrays she had gotten incredibly confused with, she had been able to commit the rest to her memory for efficient use.
After several minutes, she came to a decision. If she remembered correctly, the method of attacking and defending utilized by most other people was quite inefficient. Cultivators had more brute force than she would ever have by training her body. Her attack should be based on speed, surprise, and counter-attacking.
The techniques best for this style of fighting were the Ninth Cloud Transcending Steps, Rippling Water Form, and Basic Counterattacking Arrays.
The look in her eyes shined with glee as she started with the Ninth Cloud Transcending Steps.
First, she calmed her mind and released all tension in her body. Then, she slashed a short pattern with her bamboo sword. She was careful to accelerate the air by turning the sharp edge of the sword into the air. As she stepped forward in a series of odd steps, she found herself accelerating at a fast speed.
"Huhu- ah!"
Shanqiao tripped mid-step and nearly tripped as her foot caught over empty step.
"Oops…"
She pulled off another series of steps and found herself not accelerating through space. She remade the array and started speeding through the meadow. The grass tickled her ankles as they waved slightly at her speed. Quickly she created another array and she accelerated faster. The process continued three times over, but on the sixth time, she was unable to succeed.
"Hmm…" she stopped and sat down to ponder over her failures. According to the description, the Ninth Cloud Transcending Steps were powered by moving through each array. For every complete array that she was able to pass through, she would speed up. However, in the case a complete array could not be formed before she passed through it, she would have to stack up the arrays from the beginning. The same was true when she tripped over the specific steps. So, her latest failure was due to her sword didn't move fast enough to complete the array before she stepped through it…
Meanwhile, in the trees a shadow watched Ruan Shanqiao as she practiced the Ninth Cloud Transcending Steps over and over again.
"Interesting," Han Ruoxi remarked as she watched the odd steps and slashes of the wooden sword. The sword appeared to be made of bamboo and together with those odd steps accelerated Shanqiao to a speed faster than a Seventh Rank cultivator.
"Young miss," an attendant approached the Han family miss.
"Yes?" she smiled brightly. Despite her cheerful smile, the servant shivered in fear. "Do you have news about the Ruan Clan?"
"Yes, I do."
"..."
The servant lifted her head to see her lady smiling brightly at her. She shivered. Though the young miss was the most lenient within the Han Family due to her agreeable nature, she had personally seen the miss' temper at work. She was worse than a devil when she was angered. Thankfully, she was gifted by an easily appeasable and indifferent nature.
"The Ruan Clan?" Ruoxi asked again.
"Ah, yes, apparently the entire main branch located at the Capital City of Xinghe Kingdom has been wiped out."
"Is that so?"
"..."
"The main branch is the brute force behind the Ruan Clan. It appears its annihilation has something to do with competing internal forces within the Clan before its demise," the servant continued. "In addition, with the slow crumbling of the ruling neutral force known as the Ruan Clan, many major powers will move towards aggression against each other, especially the nations occupying the West sector of the continent."
"What about the Shadow Palace?"
'Huh?' the servant once more looked up to measure the depths of her miss' mind. "The Shadow Palace?"
"It is well know that Sima Moying of the Shadow Palace have strong ties with the Ruan Clan. Will he make a move?"
"As of now, he has not made a move. It is likely that he does not yet know of the Ruan Clan's matters. It appears the Xinghe Kingdom is suppressing the news from spreading."
"The Ruan Clan got caught up in the major power shift in the Imperial Palace at the Xinghe Kingdom," Ruoxi remarked.
"..."
"Did you suppress news of Ruan Shanqiao's survival?"
"There was no need. It seems the Imperial Palace believes she is dead."
"That makes sense, no one is pursuing her," Ruoxi fell silent once more.
"Young miss?" the servant tested the waters.
"Delay the news of the Ruan Clan from reaching Sima Moying," she ordered. "If it reaches his ears, make sure to deliver the news of Shanqiao's survival to him. Make sure that he understands that she is under the protection of this miss."
"Yes."
"I don't want his interference," the smile on her face dropped for a second before it came right back up. "Also, Yiyi, you don't need to be so scared of me!"
The servant Yiyi blinked for a couple seconds in confusion before rushing off.