"Lan Yan`er?"
The name was familiar to Qing Shui, memories surged in his mind as he attempted to associate this name with reference to his recollections. A picture of a slender and beautiful young lady; a bright pair of eyes, with a elegant demeanour, adorned with a dainty mouth and dimples in her cheeks. A perfect picture of loveliness, akin to the budding beauty of a young rose, appeared in his mind.
Despite her looks, she was an inordinately proud person. The reason why Qing Shui found her name familiar was that, they were both 15 years old, yet one was a genius capable of engendering envy while the other was known by everyone in the region to be a trash. Qing Shui had only met her by chance, and had remembered her because of her reputation. She was reputed to be one of the top few heaven defying geniuses in the region. Her talent was only preceded by Qing Clan's genius, Qing You! And thus, she was the pride of the Lan Clan.
The Lan Clan is one of the biggest clans in the Qing Village, it could be considered the next largest clan, second only to the Qing Clan. In terms of talent, the 3rd generations of the Lan Clan was even a cut higher when compared to the Qing Clan. After all, the Qing Clan don't really have that much 3rd generation disciples.
The Lan Clan had always wanted to replace the Qing Clan as Village's protector, changing the name of the village to the Lan Village, so they spared no efforts to painstakingly nurture their 3rd generation disciples because they were the one who carried the hopes and ambitions of their clan.
"Bei Bei, is Qing Hu's injuries very grievous?" Qing Shui asked concernedly, with a frantic tone in his voice.
"Not that grevious.. he only suffered external injuries; bruises to his face and body. After he lost the fight, he didn't dare to show his face and chose to hide in his room to avoid embarrassment." Qing Bei giggled slightly as she thought of Qing Hu's actions.
"Still laughing? Why are you laughing?" Qing Shui questioned, in reality, after ascertaining the situation, Qing Shui also felt it was kinda funny, hiding to avoid embarrassment because he got beaten up.. However, losing to Lan Yan`er could still be forgiven, as it was somewhat expected.
Qing Bei suppressed her laughter, her exquisite face revealed an expression of abashedness, this made Qing Shui felt slightly confused but he soon knew the reason why.
"Brother said he had fallen in love with Lan Yan`er" Qing Bei groaned. Qing Shui felt very hilarious at the way this little cutie sighed. After all, in Kyushu, people tend to mature earlier, at 16, one could be considered an adult, and could marry and give birth.
"Because he got beaten up, he fell in love?" Qing Shui was slightly bewildered.
"Hmm, it seems that Qing Hu still have not got over that little brat?" Qing Shui knitted his brow and mused lightly.
This time round, it was Qing Bei's turn to be bewildered.
"Shui gege, you are the same age as Lan Yan`er, why do you call her little brat? It feels weird, as if you were older than her." Qing Bei look at the always indifferent Qing Shui as she asked.
After his body transformation, Qing Shui's personality also underwent a huge change, after all, he was an adult, only at that time his body frame was small. It was only after he could cultivate the Ancient Strengthening Technique that he stopped being so despondent. So from young, the Qing Shui that Qing Bei knew had always been indifferent and confident. At the very least, this was what Qing Bei knew of Qing Shui's personality.
After know that this matter was not so serious, all the tension palpably eased from Qing Shui and he breathed a sigh of relief. Qing Shui knew long ago that Qing Hu was in love with Lan Yan`er, As a descendant of a large and luxurious clan, despite the fact that Qing Hu was only 14, he already knew something about the feelings between man & woman, and the passion experienced when shared in joint union.
Although Qing Hu was young, he had a very definite mindset and knew what he wanted, when he first started to court Lan Yan`er, he was rejected many times. After all, a girl matures slightly earlier and plus the fact that she was older than Qing Hu by a year. In Lan Yan`er eyes, Qing Hu was only a little kid, it was only after she got pestered almost to the point of insanity, she decided to give Qing Hu an ultimatum.
"As long as you can defeat me before I got married, I would marry you, with no regrets."
Qing Hu didn't really think so much about it, in his heart, even if he could not defeat this woman, he still wanted to marry her, so he agreed and brought up the idea of a spar, which resulted in him getting beaten up black and blue all over his face and body. After all, the differences in the level of cultivations could not be made equal with the burning passion of love!
That was the first time Qing Hu got beaten up by Lan Yan`er, and also the first time, when Qing Shui knew of her existence. Compared to Qing Hu, Lan Yan`er was carrying the reputation and name of the Lan Clan's heaven defying genius, Qing Hu knew that marrying her was even more difficult than ascending the heavens!
This incident was half a year ago.
After which, in this half year, Qing Hu and Qing Bei had begun to learn the basics of the Solitary Rapid Fist from Qing Shui, Qing Shui could sense that within the myriad stances of the Solitary Rapid Fist, there was traces of Tai-chi. The Solitary Rapid Fist specialised in extreme close combat, after all, there were plenty of weaknesses and acupoints on the human body, the truth behind the Solitary Rapid Fist is to aim for the weak points of the target and achieving death with a single strike.
"Brother went to find her for a spar voluntarily, but he still lost." Qing Bei mentioned helplessly
How not to lose? One was at the realm of Martial Warrior, 5th Grade versus the other at Martial Warrior, 7th Grade. Qing Shui shook his head and grinned.
"Shui gege, the Solitary Rapid Fist that you taught us was extremely formidable, it's just that the cultivation level of my brother was too low when compared to her, if he was at the 7th Grade as well, he could have effortlessly defeated Lan Yan`er.
"Oh, why do you say that?" Qing Shui excitedly asked. Qing Shui knew that the martial techniques of Kyushu could be divided into 4 realms; Hou Tian, Xian Tian, Legendary, Divine. Each of these 4 realms could be further classified into 4 grades; Huang < Mystic < Earth < Heaven!
Qing Shui had once heard Qing Yi mentioned that the Blue Lotus Art of the Qing Clan could be classified as a Hou Tian Realm, Heaven Grade technique, while the Lan Clan's family technique, Ice Sealed Swordplay could be classified as a Hou Tian Realm, Earth Grade technique. Then… what about his own Ancient Strengthening Technique? What realm and grade does it belong to? Qing Shui didn't know.
Qing Shui only had the chance to use the Solitary Rapid Fist against the golden direwolf, he had not fought with a human being yet, so naturally, after he heard Qing Hu could use the Solitary Rapid Fist which he learnt only for half a year to fight against an opponent of 2 grades higher, Qing Shui was very engrossed in finding out all the details of the fight.
"Initially, Lan Yan`er did not even held my brother in any regard, I could see that she purposely held back, only utilising the strength of the 5th Grade to fight against my brother on equal grounds. May be in her mind, fighting against someone who did not know any martial techniques and only recently broke through to the Martial Warrior, 5th Grade, there was no need for her to reveal her true strength. Using her fingers in place of her sword, she grossly underestimated the battle strength of Qing Hu and almost suffered defeat in 3 moves. She was forced to retreat and at that point, her whole of her arm was numbed.
After listening to Qing Bei, Qing Shui could deduced that Qing Hu had targeted Lan Yan`er's You Chi acupoint [1], located on her arm.
"After which, Lan Yan`er dare not underestimate my brother any longer, she immediately unleashed her true strength and used a martial technique that was obviously a much higher grade than Qing Hu's Solitary Rapid Fist. My brother could only manage to block a few of her moves, eventually ending in his defeat!" Qing Bei said.
"This may not be a bad thing, this incident would temper Qing Hu's state of heart, possibly, this Lan Yan`er would end up being the motivation behind Qing Hu's desire to be an expert.
Qing Shui gently patted his forehead as he thought about his future. He was not bothered by the Lan Clan in the least, if he could not even handle a single Lan Clan, how would he even manage to walk out of this remote region, how would he even challenge the top experts of the Kyushu world? How would he be able to stand tall on his feet when facing those established sects and clans with deep roots and backing of an entire millennium?
If he wanted to seek redress for Qing Yi, at the very least, Qing Shui would definitely need to clash with one of those established clans!