To describe her current mood, An Fei was fuming. She had never felt so angered, so towering with wrath ever before in her now two lifespan’s worth of experience.
If she were to be described as a candle wick, then her fury would instantly char the wick into a pile of ash residue.
“Yang Jian, that despicable bastard! He dared, he dared, he dared!?!!”
The young girl sat atop a tree’s stump, her orchid hanfu spotless and immaculate compared to the carnage that had been inflicted to her surroundings.
On her lap curled an adult snow-white fox with three fluffy tails soft as heavenly silk, and a black raven perched upon her left shoulder.
The young girl’s appearance was ordinary, but it was considered an absolute beauty to her immediate environment. Wherever An Fei turned her gaze around, all she saw were the remains of a high-impact concussion bomb’s explosion.
Uprooted tree roots lay scattered across the ground, the thin tendrils crudely torn away from their natural habitat within the depths of the earth.
Stones had been pulverized into dust, and the plants into unrecognizable powder of numerous colors and shades.
Carnage.
But however entertaining observing destruction could be, it did nothing to alleviate the young girl’s bitter heart. An Fei rubbed at the base of her ribcage with the first knuckle of her right hand, using the physical comfort to slowly but surely calm her utterly agitated mind.
Just thirty minutes – no, an hour ago, she had stood atop a transference array in Tianfeng City.
Having wrestled back her twin butterfly swords from Yang Jian’s hands, angered a Commandery Princess, and utterly humiliated the Hundred Clan Coalition of Great Yong, An Fei had wanted to test the operations of the transference array.
Seeing the mysterious engravings occupy the entirety of the elevated platform, the young girl had not felt confident that it could propel her several kilometers into the air to reach Jiang’an. Perhaps it was because An Fei had never received a proper education on talismans, arrays, and formations, she had attempted to test its operations through the dumbest yet most effective method in recorded history.
…that was to infuse spiritual essence into a spiritual artefact and observing the following processes.
Thus, she had attempted to do so, using the blade of the taijijian as the medium as she hated pain. The young girl had stabbed the blade into the central crevice of the transference array, infused her spiritual essence… then nothing happened.
Her spiritual essence couldn’t even pervade into the transference array’s engravings nor the elevated platform, as though it simply didn’t exist. And yet, the transference array activated on its own.
The white light that emanated from the engravings was alien and unforgiving. The instant that it made contact with her body, An Fei found herself unable to move her eyes.
She could only stand in place as numerous symbols and characters arose into the air to wrap around her body at a blinding speed that made it seem as though she were being draped in ribbons of light.
Then, directly below her feet, two words had emerged.
Jiang’an.
The words had been engraved into the transference array at the start, yet the young girl witnessed a copy of the words manifest before her, constructed of the same white light as the remaining characters. From the rate in which her body was covered by the ribbons of light, An Fei had assumed that the words, “Jiang’an”, would be attached to her forehead.
That was indeed the case, for the floating words shifted towards the young girl’s forehead after a brief moment of indecision. However, trouble had ensued at that immediate moment.
Yang Jian had thrown a dagger into the transference array.
At first, An Fei had not assumed it to be a big deal. The small dagger had stabbed into the wooden platform near the outer rim of the glowing engravings, and just moments before its activation, a large battle had taken place.
Swords, halberds, hammers, axes, tonfas – many weapons capable inflicting more damage than a dagger had stabbed, slashed, and cut at the transference array as well as its elevating platform.
Nonetheless, the young girl was unaware that though arrays were resistant to physical impacts prior to being activated, experiencing such interference during operation itself was a wholly different story.
Three breaths of time later, the majority of the white light illuminating the transference portal vanished. They had been pulled towards and stored within the small dagger, as though the dagger were a powerful magnet collecting iron scraps.
The ribbons of light wrapped around An Fei dissipated by a large margin, and the remainder shifted its color from a bright white to more of orange. Yet that was not the most aggravating change.
Just centimeters away from her forehead, the words “Jiang’an” morphed into “Bei Tang”. The number of words present remained the same, yet the magnitude of the implications were sufficient to drown An Fei several times over.
Jiang’an was several kilometers in the sky above Tianfeng City.
Bei Tang was a Great Empire located across from Great Yong in a general assessment. To get to Jiang’an from Bei Tang, one would have to cross several hundred thousand kilometers if travelling in a straight line – which was often impossible to do so.
But before she could say anything, she was whisked away into the air by the transference array. Before she could say anything, a pair of arms had wrapped around her body into a tight embrace.
Then, the pair were hurled across the Shattered Star Continent, thrown into a primitive jungle that seemed relatively uninhabited save for a few awkward youths.
After that…
An Fei became the first human, high-impact concussion bomb.
“So?” the young girl glared at the handsome man who had been discarded to the side.
“Why are you here?”
Wen Jiu’s lips twitched at the young girl’s annoyed and furious remark, and remained silent until he was certain she had disengaged her anger.
Then, whilst remembering the utterly soft and heavenly sensation against his arms and chest, the handsome man began to speak.
“You seem to be lonely, so I decided to follow you. What if you got into trouble, who would help then –“
Smack!
Wen Jiu took a deep breath as he moved his clenched palm from his countenance, the twitch of his lips increasing as he realized that a small copper coin had been hurled at his nose. The Young Master pouted his lips and attempted to explain, but was cut off by the cutthroat An Fei.
“Getting me out of trouble?” the young girl scowled.
“I think you’re here to get me into trouble! Speak, what did Yang Jian want you to do after he distorted the transference array? Kill me to silence the event?”
“Brother Yang would never commit such despicable acts! He is of righteous character, and upholding of justice!”
“Then people of righteous character and upholding of justice would steal the possessions of a mortal girl, poison her, and attempt to kill her numerous times to silence the incident? Not only that, but cast his greed onto her as well, seeking only benefits without their price?”
An Fei’s sneer became more pronounced, and the taijijian besides her quivered slightly within its sheath. The more the young girl was forced to recall about recent events, the more rage built up within her heart.
She was so close to returning back to Jiang’an!
She had suffered for approximately a year and a half outside of the Flowing Wind Residence, and her closest chance had been utterly decimated by Yang Jian!
She had been so close to ending this miserable chain of events that had been caused by the hands of the Empress!
“Just what do you all want…” the young girl burrowed her head into her knees, her hands clasped over her forehead.
“Young Miss? Is something the –“
“Just what do you all want from me, always having to block me at every turn!!!”
An Fei screamed to release the pent-up frustration within her lungs, feeling a minute satisfaction at observing the birds take flight to avoid being bombarded by her rage.
The young girl turned and was about to thoroughly interrogate Wen Jiu regarding his true intentions when a young man dressed only in baggy pants rushed into the massive crater.
The young girl immediately went on alert when she saw the three-meter long staff clenched within the youth’s left hand. Her hands flew to the taijijian’s handle, prepared to draw at any moment.
Alas…
“___, ______?”
“Ah…?”
Daughter? Old?
And what did he mean by follow?
