As the hour of the competition drew near, a group of women, seven in all, walked along the busy streets. They chattered loudly and cackled heartily as they passed through, reeking of alcohol and perfume in equal measure. Their exquisite fur coats hanged loosely off their shoulders to let the cold winter air cool down the heat of their intoxication, revealing the rich silks they were wearing underneath. Their hair was tied up into fashionable curls and held in place by hairpins of jade and gold.
In the center of the group, the youngest of the bunch was practically attached at the hip to the oldest, a woman a few years past thirty. The girl's dark hair remained loose and straight beneath a hat of wool, and her coat was the only one that covered her body in full. Her equally dark eyes glinted with cunning, and every now and then, she pounced at the opportunity to entertain the woman leading them all with a clever word or a well-placed joke. That young girl was none other than Shao Luli.
Beneath her thick outer garment, a hint of black silk would occasionally peek out past the sleeves of her outer attire. The two of them wore matching robes.
Though their giggling procession took up most of the road, the people gave them the wide berth they wordlessly demanded without a single complaint. Carts and horses steered towards other lanes to stay out of their path. Even the Kunlun Sect's disciples kept well enough away. The streets around them had eventually become all but deserted.
But they spotted something down the clear road that gave them pause. Their laughter ceased, their eyes widened.
Walking towards them from the end of the street was an outlandishly tall woman in a white robe. Long golden locks flowed down her shoulders, and her equally golden eyes were aloof as she approached without paying them much heed.
The women threw glances back and forth between their leader and the stupendous person boldly walking towards them. They were at a loss for how to proceed, and waited for the one at their center to make a judgment call.
"Girl," The woman clad in black exclaimed, "What have you done with your hair?"
She laughed, and her compatriots swiftly joined her. The tall one had stopped, acknowledging the centerpiece of the group with a confused stare.
Emboldened by the remark, it was Shao Luli who heckled her next. "What are you doing? Get out of the way. Don't you recognize who this is? You're so disrespectful!"
When her words were met with visible confusion, another woman decided to take her turn. "As a woman and martial artist yourself, or at least that's what I presume, how could you not recognize one of the world's premier female martial artists, Unrivaled Heroine Liao?"
"Which part were your presuming, sister Xiaofan?" Shao Luli quipped, prompting hooting and laughter.
The golden haired stranger's brows shot up. She finally began to speak. "Really? Of the whole world? So you're even better than the Five Venoms Devil?"
Their incessant chuckling had instantly ceased at the mention of that title.
The Unrivaled Heroine held a steady smile. It acquired the subtle notes of restrained politeness. "I have nothing but admiration for lady Ouyang. She is an icon to women all over the world. I do not dare to present myself as her equal; she is my esteemed senior. Though it is very unfortunate, lady Ouyang and I are of different generations, and she has remained withdrawn from the world for many years now, so there has never been a chance for us to meet, let alone compete."
"Huuuuh..." The golden haired woman sounded out. Her tone communicated an exaggerated disappointment. It made Liao's mouth twitch in irritation. "So that's how it is."
The group grew wary, befuddled by her strange reaction. They looked to their leader once more.
"It's interesting of you to bring up her title." The woman said. "Are you perhaps acquainted?"
"We sure are." She replied easily, resuming her walk towards them.
"Then could it be that you are one of her disciples?" Liao asked.
"I would rather swallow a poisonous toad than become her disciple."
The girls gasped at her words. Only their Unrivaled Heroine remained composed.
"You do realize..." She said, taking off her heavy fur coat, "That you can't lie or jest about such things, for if your master were to find out, she would make brutally short work of you, right?"
Shao Luli readily grabbed hold of her discarded garment before it fell. A sheathed sword had been strapped to the back of it, which, along with the coat, the young girl kept in her arms.
Heroine Liao stepped forward. Their mutual approach had gradually slowed and ceased entirely long before they had gotten close to one another. The two began to circle each other like a pair of wary predators.
"I don't lie." The giantess replied.
"Whether you said it in jest or not doesn't matter. I really do admire lady Ouyang. By insulting her you're insulting our entire community."
As they took measure of one another, the other girls whispered. "Why is sister Lan starting trouble with this person? She doesn't know who she is, does she? What if she's dangerous?"
Shao Luli answered her concerns. "With appearance as remarkable as hers, if she was someone of any merit, we'd have heard all about her already. So clearly, she can't amount to much. And she obviously can't be lady Ouyang's disciple when she mouths off about her like that in public."
The others had readily taken her words as truth.
"I wonder what misfortune brought you to this mountain." Liao Lan mocked. "You seem a little old for the tournament. Oh, I know! You must be exotic entertainment for the hairy monkey running this sect. My, now that I look at you more closely, you've somehow even dyed your eyes! What a spectacle you are."
Her yellow brow curled. "Are you perhaps not a member of the Kunlun Sect?"
"Surprised I don't have any kind words to spare for that ape, aren't you? Of course I'm not a member!" Liao Lan scoffed as though the very insinuation was an insult.
"So then why are you here?" She asked.
"I signed my disciple up for this cruddy little tournament, of course." Liao Lan gave that information away without any hesitation.
"Should you really admit that so openly?" The woman's ready words continued to surprise the golden haired stranger. "If Tan Huan finds out that a participant has conflicting loyalties, aren't you worried that your disciple will get disqualified?"
"Hah!" Unrivaled Heroine Liao laughed. "I'd like to see him try! If that fool kicks up a fuss over his own hapless vetting, he'll lose all face, and his sect will too! And when my disciple inevitably wins, only more humiliation awaits them."
"You speak so boldly. Perhaps you're stronger than the sect master, that you're so unafraid of him?" The blonde asked.
"Surprised, aren't you? Do you find it unlikely because I'm a woman? Did you think you could disrespect me just because you were one of He Yong's toys?" Liao Lan hid her lips behind her sleeve. "Well, I've lived long enough to know that it does happen. For some reason people just keep making that mistake. I've almost become understanding of it. So that being the case, if you kowtow to me a few times and apologize, I could let you off easy. Call me mother from now on. Go on, don't make your mother wait, hurry up and kiss the snow beneath my feet. Better embarrassed than hurt, don't you agree?"
"Wait a minute!" Shao Luli suddenly exclaimed. "I do know who that is! I heard she's been terrorizing the restaurants below the mountain, stealing food from them every day! The Hungry Yellow Fairy, they call her!"
The girls once again erupted into laughter. Only Liao Lan had remained relatively composed, though her smile stretched itself to its limits.
"You poor girl." Liao Lan cooed. "Maybe I'll treat you to some crumbs after you're done."
"If even someone like you is stronger than the headmaster of this place," The tall woman said, "Then the man himself must be remarkably pathetic. How does he even control this sect, I wonder?"
Her words plunged the girls into silence. Liao Lan's smile was gone without a trace. She exhaled with a long sigh. The alcohol left her body through her misty breath.
"Since I'm your senior," Liao Lan spoke as the scented mist was dissipating, "I'll let you have the first blow. It'd be embarrassing for me to show the Hungry Yellow Fairy any less courtesy than that."
The Hungry Yellow Fairy chuckled. "From the way I see it, it's me who should be letting you have the first blow. In fact, I don't think it'd be even remotely fair unless I let you have, I don't know, perhaps a hundred free strikes? What do you think? Or would you like a few more?"
Liao Lan was in no mood to quibble. Her eyes glinted with a cold light when she saw the Fairy haplessly draw too close to the outer wall of a house during their incessant circling. "Such arrogance from a fool who won't even mind her surroundings! There's no escape for you now!"
She lunged at her golden haired foe, leaping across the entire street in a single step, a single moment. Her fingers flew like arrows, each one aimed at a vital pressure point on the tall woman's body. Their two figures, black and white, blurred beyond recognition.
The girls intently observed the action, but they struggled to understand what exactly it was that they were witnessing. From the two whirling combatants they could only hear the sound of something hard striking the stone wall behind the blonde stranger, again and again, in such rapid succession that woodpeckers would be put to shame. It was like a machinegun was going off.
As she was unloading with her volley, Liao Lan began to sweat. It was not a question of overexertion; she, too, was struggling to understand what was unfolding before her eyes.
Not a single one of her countless strikes were able to land true. Her foe's feet seemed rooted firmly in place, and yet she still couldn't touch her as she weaved back and forth. Her fingers brushed against silk and hair but met only stone.
Her patience eventually ran out. She turned her body and tackled the woman with her shoulder. Finally, the Hungry Yellow Fairy was forced to shift her footing. She smoothly slipped Liao Lan by, untouched.
Unrivaled Heroine Liao smashed into the wall and a section of it crumbled on top of her. Liao Lan stared, wide eyed, at the garden past the wall as bits of stone washed over her.
"Sorry, I lost count after twelve." The stranger behind her said. "What do you think, was that about a hundred? I think it was. Or would you like to start over, make me count it properly this time?"
One of the girls in the crowd finally gave voice to her disbelief. "How is she still standing after the 108 Heavenly Strikes?!"
Reality began to dawn on Liao Lan. She slowly turned around, a warm smile on her face.
"Senior pulled a very devious prank on me." She cupped her hands and bowed. "I would like to apologize for any misunderstandings between us."
The onlookers drew deathly pale. Neither the cold nor their intoxication could keep their cheeks flushed as they witnessed the inconceivable.
A strange smile rippled across the face of the Hungry Yellow Fairy. "Well now, what should I do with you...?"
Liao Lan shuddered.
"Shao Luli!" She suddenly exclaimed, so shrilly that it had startled the girl in question. "Come here!"
The young girl approached on unsteady feet, as if in a daze.
"I recall you uttered a few rude words. You're young and had too much to drink." She said, even as the young girl was the only sober one among them. "Kowtow to the senior and apologize."
"Bu... But ma-..." The girl stuttered.
"Now!"
She did as the woman ordered and pressed her forehead against the ground. Liao Lan promptly followed her into the snow and the two remained there, unmoving.
"Liao Lan pays her respects to senior!" She declared. When there was no reply, she tried to peek up at the tall stranger to take measure of her reaction, but her peculiar smile had told her little.
She finally spoke. "I once let someone go free after he raised his hand against me. It's lingered on my mind ever since. So this time, I think I'll make a proper example of you."
"P-Please..." Liao Lan tried to plead, but the Hungry Yellow Fairy paralyzed them both by striking at their pressure points. She took out the rope she usually used for sleeping and tied them up to the two branches of a tall tree. She had also relieved the Heroine of her gold and silver.
As the Fairy left, she warned the onlookers. "They better still be there when I come back."
...