She just sorta stared at the words dumbly. Never had she imagined she would see English words in this world. At least not English words that she hadn't written herself. What in the world was this?
She was confused, excited, and anxious all at once. She wasn't sure how such a thing was possible but she also felt a bit of fear. Was she having some kind of breakdown?
She frowned. She didn't feel as though she'd reach her mental limit.
She stretched out a hand to touched the carved words. It looked like something very sharp and very hot had been used. She could see scorch marks. She looked in the direction the arrow was pointing at and couldn't stop herself from walking there. Her was beating fast. She really wanted to meet someone else from earth. How great would that be?
Even though her little steam bun was so cute and she really enjoyed taking care of him and playing with him, he was just a child. She would absolutely carry all of his burdens but he was completely unable to understand her troubles and carry any of her problems for her.
She moved cautiously forward. Following the arrows deeper into the forest.
She stopped at a particular tree. There were a number of carvings there each one had four numbers
2002…
2007…
1992…
2010…
2017…
There were a dozen more. She was shocked because she knew what these numbers stood for and she also understood the implications. This clearly signified that she wasn't alone here.
Her eyes stung a little… she blinked several times and looked up to the sky. She was crying to hold back her tears unsuccessfully. She closed her eyes and then just let the tears fall. She felt so relieved that she couldn't even express the relief. She'd thought she was alone here but this was proof that that she wasn't. She wasn't alone at all.
After a moment or two to allow her to feel her feels she pulled herself together and then using her finger she summoned her fire Qi. It wasn't strong enough to use in a fight but it was enough for writing on a tree.
2020…
She looked at her year for a long time. Questions started revolving in her mind. Time was likely still turning on earth. How were her parents dealing with her death? What about her little brother? Her friends? While she looked at her number she thought about everyone that it signified everyone that she'd left behind. They mourned her as they thought she was gone, but she too mourned them because she wasn't. She still existed and was suffering from the loss of their presence in her life.
She closed her eyes for a moment then looked at the number one more time before she turned away from it and continued following the arrows.
After about a hour of following the signs she finally reached what looked like the final sign.
She'd found herself in-front of a mountain. She looked at it curiously and then looked around in general. She didn't see anymore signs or instructions.
The mountain was enormous and it went from one side to the another as far as the eyes could see.
She walked around a bit and then came back to the spot she'd originally arrived at. She was sure there weren't clues that she'd over looked. she'd looked very carefully.
That was clearly on purpose but why? She pondered as she continued to inspect the wall.
Was it a test?
She thought that might be very possible. And the thought made her frown.
Did that mean that if you couldn't pass the test they would let you in. That thought was truly ugly. To be given hope one second and to have it almost immediately ripped from you the next felt very cruel. It made her question the person in charge. What type of person were they?
She released her Qi to examine the wall more thoroughly. Her eyes were almost immediately drawn to what appeared to be misshaped rocks. They appeared to be apart of the mountain at first glance but through her Qi she could see that they absolutely weren't. She walked over and looked at one of the rocks. She raised her hand to touch the rock. Her hand was of course covered in her Qi for protection.
She ran her fingers across it and found that it was warm. The area around it was cold.
She tilted her head in thought.
This obviously meant that the rock was doing something. She took a moment to search through her memories to look for some answers. She found that the previous owner did have some knowledge about this.
It was called rune array.
Special rocks made out of various materials were gathered and inscriptions where inscribed on them. Based on the intention of the inscriber and after pure core Qi is infused the array can be activated.
Although she had some basic knowledge she did know how to make arrays or how to break them. But at least bai Mei Li understood it a little.
She continued touching it and pouring in her Qi trying to understand how it functioned. Though she was a psychiatrist she was also a detective, investigating was apart of her nature that was why she'd chosen to become a profiler instead of a clinical psychiatrist. She wanted to help people as well as understand how certain members of the population could be so cruel. She wanted to understand why certain people could completely lack any empathy and remorse.
Looking at the rock for a moment she considered then she closed her eyes and injected some spiritual energy. She didn't have access to much as she was only in the third realm right now but she did notice that she could exploit much more then the previous owner could. She wondered if it had something to do with the fact that she had come from a different world.
She understood what other more experienced practitioners would use would be this core Qi. A single drop of core Qi was worth more than all normal Qi in her entire body. She lamented on the fact that she was a long way from being able to create any core Qi. She'd relied on her memories to discover how to access her spiritual energy at all.
As her energy sank into the rock it felt like time stopped. When she opened up her eyes she found herself in a beautiful field. There was grass and flowers everywhere and a lovely willow tree in the middle. Off to the side was a old courtyard. It looked old and worn out. Time had not been kind to it.
Bai Mei Li was confused. She didn't understand what had just happened. How did she get here?
She looked about again her beautiful brows furrowing.
"Who are you, you're not that brat."
Bai Mei Li was startled. She immediately started looking around more intensely. The voice had sounded as though it were right by her ear, but it obviously wasn't.
"I asked who you are." It said again. The voice was very sweet and very soothing. It had a special quality to it that could make you instinctively lower your guard. It had the opposite effect it made her more alert. The feeling the voice gave her was sickly sweet the power was unfamiliar but the manipulative tone was all too familiar. How many mentally unstable narcissistic psychopaths had used that tone with her.
She sighed.
The tone didn't mean the person was a psychopathic killer but it usually always meant the person was up to no good.
"My name is Bai Mei Li. Who are you.?" She said and asked straight forwardly.
"I didn't ask your name. I asked who you were." The feminine voice asked sounded slightly annoyed.
An impatient narcissist. Awesome.
"Well I'm certain most people wouldn't be able to understand the answer to that question. However it appears that you aren't normal by any stretch of the imagination so I'm certain that you'd understand." Bai Mei Li said with a gentle and honest smile.
The voice snorted delicately. "What in this world wouldn't I understand."
"I am a profiling Psychiatrist specializing in investigations." She spoke again with the same gentle and honest smile curving her lips.
"…"
(Edited)