Lee Chun Hua sighed as she looked over the great river. Across the river, the black forest swayed with the blood soaked wind, and the white desert sand glistened like distant stars. No matter how powerful a man could be, no matter how strong, and no matter how far they had walked in the path of cultivation, they still feared the unknown. Chun Hua would rather let the vile mad woman residing in her soul roam free, than blindly fight a losing battle against some harrowing monstrosity that resided within the river.
Then somewhere in the nearby caverns underneath the hills, a loud rumble could be heard, and a wave of pure Qi energy burst forth.
"A Qi geyser?!"
Mu Yan Zhi raised a brow in confusion. There was no Qi on the Trial Ground making cultivation impossible. However, Lee Chun Hua knew very well how Qi geysers worked, making her eyes widen and her mind lapse in thoughts.
*'How can someone freely use such an amount of Qi energy here?'*
*'Who is that person?'*
*'I have to get that person on my side'*
"Its a person, Senior sister Mu."
Mu Yan Zhi blinked twice and rubbed her ears.
"Say what?"
There was absolute no way that a single person could contain so much Qi energy. With an exception of Lee Chun Hua, who was almost not even human, and Xin Minxia whose questionable cultivation methods converted her Qi to yin energy despite not being at the Nascent Yin Realm, no other human body could contain so much Qi without bursting.
"Junior sister Chun Hua? Who the hell is that?"
Lee Chun Hua let out a small smile and stood up from the small hill she was sitting on.
"Let's go find out"
***
Park Ju-Hui slowly opened her eyes to see a beautiful woman sitting some distance away from her position. The last thing she could remember was being cleaved in two.
"I... I'm alive?... or are we both dead..."
She could also remember the benevolent heroine who had saved her. Nyakumi, who was still busy examining her sword, briefly looked up and spoke with a cold voice.
"I don't die easily."
"I see..." Ju-Hui slowly sat up and rubbed her head. Her legs were intact, and her arm that she had seen being cleaved out, was back in place.
"You're a healer?"
"I'm a dual awakener."
The young woman shifted her platinum colored hair to reveal a pair of completely white eyeballs that had no pupils. Park Ju-Hui flinched and shuddered at the sight.
"You're blind?! YOU'RE BLIND?!!! How the hell did a blind person survive a full month in the Trial ground?!"
People who had two working hands, two working legs, and two working eyes could not survive the horrid ferocious monsters that roamed the Trial grounds, but someone who could not see had survived? It did not make sense at all. No matter how strong a person could be, being unable to see was one of the three most ultimate disadvantages of all time. However, the young woman simply chuckled lightly and rubbed her left eye.
"Who says that I'm blind? I can see your black hair, I can see your bloodstained blue robes, and I can see your sandals, the left one has a cut from the monster teeth, and the right one is torn on the bottom. Normally, I'd have cleaved you in two for calling me blind, but I'll pardon you this time since you're the first human person I've seen in a month. What's your name?"
Park Ju-Hui gulped and froze on the spot from the pressure she had begun to feel from the blind - no, the visually impaired woman with the ability to see somehow.
'This person is powerful.'
Anyways, she cupped her hands and made a low bow till her head touched the floor.
"M-My name is P-P-Park Ju-Hui, w-what's yours, Noona?"
Nyakumi smirked and began glaring at her sword once again. From the Korean drama she had fancied since she had been a child, 'noona' should mean something like older sister.
"I'm Nyakumi, the Blind Blade. If we're going to survive this hell, then we'll need to try to get along."
Park Ju-Hui nodded, she did not miss the fact that the other young woman had said 'we' either.
"W-We're in an alliance, right?"
"...of course."
***
Lee Chun Hua and Mu Yan Zhi slowly trailed their way through the hills until they arrived at the caverns. A nauseatingly heavy stench of blood permeated the air, but neither women minded too much. Lee Chun Hua had seen a fair share of dead people in her life, and Mu Yan Zhi was literally a secret assassin for the Blazing Valor sect. Lee Chun Hua studied the torn apart human remains and sighed.
"It seems like the work of a humped demon."
The humped demon. That was not its real name, but merely an alias that the survivors of the Trial had come to call it. What else would one call a creature that varied from seven to thirteen feet in height, a hunch back with long spikes, and an eerily smiling head within its vile mouth that was covered in rows and rows of razor sharp fangs. Calling it a demon was even an understatement. It was the lone creature that no one could escape from, no matter how strong you were. Mu Yan Zhi looked at the torn apart bodies in profound disappointment.
"If it was a humped demon, then wouldn't the person have released such a burst of Qi to try to save themselves? We all know how the humped demon is, so isn't it best to just leave now? Come on, junior sister Chun Hua, the person is most probably dead by now. Don't do something stupid and let's go"
Lee Chun Hua hesitated, then turned around to leave. Mu Yan Zhi was right, it would be very stupid to go into a cavern where a humped demon was probably enjoying its feast. But then she closed her eyes, and the stones on the floor began to lightly shake.