Chapter Three
Tang Ruo's eyes slowly opened up and she blinked, groaning at the splitting pain in her head as she forced herself to sit up and glanced around.
Oh, so I'm not dead, just at this godforsaken place.
*Ding, congratulations host! For obtaining the Calamity Heart Sutra—layer 1! You'll have to discover it's abilities yourself, good luck host! And please keep up the good work!*
She smiled as she stood up and glanced around once again before her smile soured.
Well, we need a new home…this is just…unlivable.
Grabbing hold of the only thing there that the original owner had ever cherished, a small box…she turned around and walked out of the wood shed.
She rushed past a huge tree on her way out but stopped, confused as she slowly retreated past the tree again…if she could remember correctly, there didn't seem to be any tree there yesterday when she got back.
Glancing up, she found red eyes staring at her with a mixture of amusement and mischief and she jumped in fear as she let out a small squeak.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, her voice carrying and his lips quirked up slightly but otherwise he showed no other emotions.
"Why do you live here?"he countered her question and she fisted her fingers, her eyes narrowing at him as she took him all his beauty and her breath hitched.
Well, look who the heavens created like a fucking immortal!
"I live here, well…lived…I'm out to get a new room today," she said and he gave her a funny look.
"You lived here? In this pest infested trash? I didn't know the great Azure Thunder Sect was this poor!" He asked and she narrowed her eyes at him, taking offense.
The original owner had treated this place as her sanctuary and no one was allowed to insult it.
"Why don't you go to your Crimson Flames Sect and live there huh? Did you come here to show me how empty it is? If that's what you came here for, then you can go…I've seen enough already in one go," she takes her eyes all over him just to make the insult stick and sing and his eyes widened but before he could say anything, she gave him a sour look and skipped away.
Glancing up as she passed through the gates leading into the sect grounds, she found some disciples learning how to fly the sword at the Sword Grounds and bit her lips in envy, wishing she could also do that.
*If you train the Calamity Heart Sutra, you can easily do that a lot more faster than these foolish disciples!*
Really? She perked up and the system responded again.
*Of course!*
She quickly rushed up to them and waved with a huge smile on her face but they each gave her sour looks before many of them began to walk away.
"Hello? Can you teach me how to fly the sword?" She asked a kind looking male outer disciple who flushed pink at her bright smile and stuttered out.
"I…okay," he replied and she almost squealed, good job Tang Ruo. She mentally gave herself a thumbs up as the male outer disciple stared at her expectantly.
"What is it? Is something in my face?" She asked, touching her face and he shook his head.
"Where is your sword?" He asked and she felt some kind of ding go off in her head. That was eerily true, where exactly was her sword?
That's right, Tang Ruo never went to the daily Sword Selection at the Cold Realms because she wasn't allowed to go ....courtesy of her senior brothers of course and that evil bitch, Tang Yanli.
"Uh, can you lend me yours for a minute?" She asked, scratching her head awkwardly and the male outer disciple smiled before passing her his sword.
It felt so..she wobbled at the weight and went stumbling forward with a small cry of alarm. Why was it so heavy? They didn't make it look so heavy in movies!!
Soon, she eventually got the hang of it and although it still strained her arms to hold, she was fairly comfortable lifting it and holding it for a short while.
"I….really don't get what you're trying to say. What mama and qi?" She scratched her head again with her sword arm and the male outer disciple pinched himself discreetly as frustration bubbled up within him.
"It's alright, you don't have to leave it in one go. I'm still getting the hang of it too, maybe tomorrow?" He asked, wishing he could escape being this dumb disciple's teacher.
"Alright.." she deflated, her eyes filling with sadness as she returned his sword to him and turned to leave and his heart squeezed before he called out.
"The Sword Selection at the Cold Realms today is an annual one, this is when every single type of swords are open for those who still haven't made a bond. You should attend," her eyes brightened at that and she turned around with her smile back in place.
"Thank you," she pulled out a qi refining pill from her space and threw the small jaw at him before she dashed away, towards the hall where the Selection was being held.
The boy opened up the jar without anything in mind and then his entire body stiffened as he smelled the scent emanating from within it.
This was a scent he would recognize anywhere, it was the same pill he had been wanting to purchase for quite a while now but had no funds to do so.
"Sister…you le—"he turned around to call her back but found her nowhere to be seen. Where had she run off to? Oh yes, the Selection.
He quickly packed up and set out for the place.
As soon as Tang Ruo rushed into the Mediation Hall, she didn't stop even when the disciples there started talking and laughing when they saw her—she rushed to the front and came face to face with her senior brothers and Tang Yanli preparing to go through the portal that had already been opened.
Their eyes widened when they saw her and she realized with a small pang of sadness that they had been healed. Too bad.
"Tang Ruo, what are you doing here?" Lu cang exploded at her sight and she gave him a funny look before stepping forward to enter the portal as if she hadn't heard anything at all.
"Tang Ruo, stop there this minute!"Han Ziye appeared before her and she stopped to stare at him, no emotions on her face as the entire place went silent.
"Get out of my way," she simply said and heard gasps as whispers began to fill her ears.
"Will you look at that, Ruo Ruo has grown wings! Not surprising since she has no means to fly a sword," he added the last part as some sort of insult but she only cocked her head at him in confusion.
"Was that meant to be an insult? If it was then you failed, quite badly. How do you even pass the annual assessments with such dumbness?" She was genuinely curious about the answer but instead— she pushed past him and continued for the portal as laughter filled the hall.
Even the other disciples from different other sects laughed at Han Ziye and he felt his charming face flame up in embarrassment.
"Tang Ruo, get bac—"
"Stop screaming, my ears are almost bleeding. And stop trying to stop me, Master is not even doing that and you all are trying to do so. Are you trying to say you don't have any respect for our master?!" She asked and heard them all suck in sharp breaths.
Heh, good one. She mentally patted her shoulders before she retrieved a Frostpulse fruit from her space through her bag and began to eat the sweet fruit.
She knew she had gotten them the instant she mentioned their master because in every cultivation book she had flitted through, they all respected their masters even though they were all bad and evil.
Yeah, she knew that was stupid but hey, she wasn't them and they weren't her right?.
Yeah, that like doesn't make any sense.
She stared at the pulsing portal before her in wonder as she raised her hand to touch it but before she could, her entire body felt like it was grabbed by invisible hands and she cried out in alarm as she was pulled straight into it.
Snapping open her eyes when she didn't feel that pull again, she came face to face with a white expanse of land, for as far as her eyes could see.
Snow was even falling too and she was getting unbelievably cold.
Outside, the Mirror of Myriad Destinies portrayed the exact place the portal had spat Tang Ruo out and everyone gasped in shock.
That was the Glacial Oblivion, a part of the secret realm where no one dared thread into and wards had been put up to stop anyone from going there so many years ago due to the massive loss that place has caused.
No one walked into that place and came out alive.