Jun Sheng, after putting the last rune stone down, pressed her palm against a slab of stone on the wall of the room. Under her palms, a faint golden light glowed with a blue undertone ringing it, signifying her career in cultivation. In this world, the basic-known levels of cultivation have two tiers that separates all cultivators, a gap that doesn't just take perseverance to fill.
The low tier consists of red, orange, yellow, green. The middle tier goes on to cyan, blue, violet. And the upper tier; white and black
There may have been even higher levels than black, but even in the past three hundred years no one had ever even reached black. Nonetheless the peak of it. But to whichever level of cultivation, a ring of that level's colour would tone the cultivator's own mana - in this case, Jun Sheng's mana is golden.
As a cultivator progresses through each level, the ring's colour gets progressively darker. However there is the exception of the cultivator wearing magical items which can hide their essence of magic, or their essence all together if the cultivator specialised in hiding their magic.
Pei Yi, still overhanged and dizzy, leaned on the wall. She stared dreamily into the distance with her lips slightly parted.
"Come here….Please."
Pei Yi walked over to where Jun Sheng pointed obediently, still with a dreamy expression.
At this, Jun Sheng shook her head silently, but on thinking about how 'stable' this kid is now, she smiled at herself. And of course at Pei Yi's childish behaviors. Jun Sheng stood behind her and muttered an inaudible chant under her mouth. A piece of rune paper burnt up and instantly, a door appeared in front of them. Without a word, Jun Sheng stepped in, and Pei Yi followed naturally. It was….peculiar. There was just a void of nothingness, but it felt like it had fitted everything in itself. The space was filled with light and whiteness, not blindingly, though.
Jun Sheng held her hand out to Pei Yi who stared down at it quizzically. Resting upon her palm, a humble stone laid. It had a smooth and shiny surface, but wasn't very magical, to be honest. Pei Yi gingerly held out her hand and rested on Jun Sheng's. The contrast was immediate. Pale against tanned, soft against calloused. Jun Sheng felt sick.
What kind of girl is this?
And no, she was not sour at all. Hmph ok, maybe a little. Jun Sheng eased the sour ripple of feelings and spoke:
"Fix an image of where you live in your head along with your address."
"....Wait, you do remember where you live, right?"
A sigh of relief escaped her when Pei Yi nodded her head.
With slight exasperation Jun Sheng looked at the girl who just closed her eyes and clutched her hands together in a prayer position and by doing so she also held one of Jun Sheng's hands, as it held the stone.This girl….just vibed the good fairy…
And boom, in that moment of kjghjlsf, they were standing in front of Pei Yi's house.
''Well,'' Jun Sheng thought,
At least she didn't teleport to the palace. It would cause a lot of trouble for her to get back, as the stone needs to cool down.
"Atch-chu!" Welp, they forgot the cloak.
For the gazillionth time tonight, Jun Sheng rubbed her temple as Pei Yi stumbled towards the house's front door.
Pei Yi strode forwards when she felt a force pulling her backwards by the neck. With effort she looked back to see a hand clutching the back of her collar. Jun Sheng with a pained expression.
"You might want to go back by the back door. Just saying."
Ah. That might be it.
And so, Jun Sheng watched the girl going round the building and started to climb one of the walls.
"...Do you literally not have a back door to your yard?"
"M-m, I don't think so but brother Yu comes this way all the time,'' she spat accusingly.
Jun Sheng stood, watching her in befuddlement, ''I'm concerned.''
But who's she to comment? She just shrugged her shoulders and watched Pei Yi struggle, yet seconds later, Pei Yi plummeted on to her yard. Jun Sheng puffed out a sigh while a scorny sneer was buried beneath the snow. Jun Sheng turned around although a flurry of wind and snow hit her, causing her eyes to shut and when she opened them again, she was back, alone, in the room. She quietly walked out and, putting her hand on the ominating places, she turned the lights out, one by one. With a slight creaking noise and a soft thud, her bedroom doors closed and she retreated behind her shutters.
Now that no one was here, a little tiredness finally had their chance to show up between her brows. She rubbed her temples and stood up straight from leaning against the shutters of her doors.
Jun Sheng walked to her cabinet and took out the medi-pack. Placing a basin of clean water on her bedside, she stripped off her clothes quickly but carefully but as she did that, soggy strips of clothes finally showed that they had been sabotaged by blood. The fabric seems like it has turned a shade darker, if possible, than black.
Slashes struck across her back and thighs, with smaller cuts spread all over her slightly tanned body. And where there wasn't, old scars marred her smooth complexion. She tended to all her wounds with care and ease as if she's done it many times before. Under only the flickering candle of a light, her eyelashes cast out a patch of shadow under her eyes which hid pain. Her hands could not have been steadier as she wrapped the bandage around in light layers.
The corners of her mouth were slightly curled down since there goes the warm bath.
Poof.
The light went out as the first line of a light blue sky appeared on the horizon. The 'Do not disturb' sign outside her door sat quietly as the room went silent.
A scrunched up duvet lay in the middle of the bed, with a hump underneath curled into the shape of a ball, weakly bobbing up and down as the lonely animal beneath fell into a light sleep.
The lingering scent of snow on oak was all that was left of that obnoxious night; A night of deep dream for some, yet a night of insomnia for others.