Within the village many villagers noticed signs of smoke within the forest, they followed the mans footprints towards the cave and found his burnt corpse with wounds that looked to be from wolves.
Since Ki erased her tracks before leaving she left no traces of herself but she did put droplets of blood on the ground and some on a nearby tree.
This showed that the man had been ambushed by a wolf nearby the tree and made his way towards the cave after turning to scare it off with his torch that had been lit on fire.
He then tried to bandage the wound and lost consciousness and accidentally set himself on fire during his poor state of blood loss.
The disguise was not perfect enough to fool a real investigator but it was enough for the villagers to accept as the final outcome.
They all put out any small remains of the fire and buried the man within the forest before reporting the news to the village head.
The matter was quickly pushed aside because it was the first death within the village for some time, there were traces of being attacked by an animal and the person who died was an outsider with unknown origins.
A problem arose within the village after the death of the man, the threat of the wolves towards the villagers became more well known.
Ki had guessed would happen next and it was something she hoped for.
The panic caused by the incident led the village chief to come forward to negotiate building higher walls or defences around the village.
Agnes agreed the the request after hearing about the sudden death, the incident reminded her of a discussion she had with her granddaughter about the villages safety.
The village is mostly surrounded by trees and mountains, various beasts live within the forest but they mostly kept to themselves unless disturbed.
When an attack did happen to the village in the past the family would hire someone to lessen the numbers of predators within the forest area.
Normally Agnes would do the same but her granddaughter frequently warned her that there could be criminals or bandits who may try to plunder the village or there may be a large animal attack.
The ones who would have to deal with the aftermath would be the Bombyx family so it would be best to strengthen the defences.
Since her granddaughter was taking action to make the family business take a step forward then she needed to also make some changes to the way the family usually handled things.
Agnes immediately began to make preparations by contacting builders to start planning the building of the walls and then placing the large wooden gates at points where the roads connect to the village.
Ki stood with a wooden sword in her hand held by her waist, her arms were straight and the swords blade was facing upward.
The size of the blade went from the length of her wrist and the tip of the blade stopped below her earlobe.
Confirming the size was suitable for practice, Ki nodded. "It's crafted just to my specifications. I needed a one handed longsword that is not too light while the width of the blade is the size of two fingers. Now I can begin my practice and begin to find my own path with the sword so I will just begin with the basics and make adjustments as I go." [1]
Ki had already written down and drawn several martial books and scrolls that were more orthodox styles according to her memory before putting them into the families treasury.
Ki kept the blood sect martial arts and the other unorthodox methods she collected to herself, the styles or forms could be used but not the Qi arts and evil techniques as they should not be widely spread.
After gaining familiarity with her palm arts her body had already reached the stage where she could practice using a wooden sword so she requested one be made.
The basic sword forms she began to practice mainly focussed on the control on the blade, cutting and deflecting rather than piercing as a focus.
In her previous life she focussed too much on assassination based techniques which did not help to protect her body and often risked her life during combat to wound and kill the enemy.
Now she had the experience from all the life and death battles so could make up for flaws in her technique while practicing the basic sword forms.
Ki held onto the hilt of the wooden sword with her three bottom fingers while her index finger and thumb held onto the guard of the sword.
She began with a thrust form by pointing the tip of the wooden sword forwards then straightening out her bent arm and then continued to add a pointing form by flicking of her wrist downwards when she straightened her arm until she reached the limit her wrist could stretch without causing herself pain.
Ki then held the guard of the sword with her thumb and index finger while loosening the grip on her three other fingers on the hilt according to the inside outside circle form.
She then moved back into position with a straightened out arm holding the wooden sword to make a motion with her sword creating inside and outside circles further using the strength and flexibility of her wrists.
Ki then did a reverse circle movement or the uppercut form which made more use of straightening and bending her elbow and turned her body to give the body clearance of the sword.
In this form Ki used her three lower fingers to grip the handle of the sword to keep control of the blade, completing this motion Ki could feel that the purpose was to make use of and train the unused parts in the lower wrist further.
She then went on to practice an inside to outside cut with her palm facing downward the turned her palm upwards to cut from outside to inside.
Her waist turned in motion with her arms movements and her wrist remained loose so that her movements weren't stiff.
Ki then moved her body to make the sword move in a flat circular motion above her head while turning her waist to follow the movements.
Sometimes she would practice the movements and then add a cutting motion from the previous form upon bringing her arm down before returning the blade back above her head to complete a flat circular motion. [2]
Most of the forms mostly helped to increase her wrist, arm and waists strength and flexibility which Ki found to be suitable for what she built a foundation upon during the three months of training.
The movements Ki was most familiar was the thrusting form which primarily focussed on piercing the enemy while she would need some time to familiarise herself with the other forms movements.
Luckily she had been practicing the snake and palm forms so she had a lot more control over her body and was flexible enough to make best use of the forms.
All Ki needed was time to adapt to the forms and be able to change between them for their intended purpose in combat, luckily she had a lot of previous battle experience so could use her experience to remove any unnecessary movements or correct parts where she revealed an opening for the enemy to take advantage of.
All basic martial arts begin with the basic forms and movements, they are further adapted and refined during combat or after gaining inspiration.
Intermediate and advanced form martial arts are made from improving the basics one step at a time until the user reaches the status of a master.
The master then can display all of their power or more than the intended power with the techniques and then create a style most suited to the user.
Most people would feel strange practicing a different style than they were used to but strangely Ki felt more comfortable and free upon using these forms, they seemed to be very compatible with her character.
The Ki before the loss of her family was originally very free willed and energetic as a child, upon returning to the past she began to discover more about the origin of herself and the importance of the basics once more.
Perhaps in this life she would be able to make greater leaps forward in her martial arts and break through to the mystic realm which she struggled with during the later stages of her life.
[1] https://youtu.be/WUmT1SN8J04 mainly Jian style blade techniques I want to base her martial arts on since she prefers to use a thin sword.
[2] https://youtu.be/AUhPZaqQniU