The door cracked open and Gaia walked in—she hung her robe on the door and walked to the small table. "Lady Lian'er?" She called out while placing two rabbits on the table.
No answer was returned.
Gaia's chest tightened slightly and she walked into the connected room—in her mind, thoughts were sporadic, shifting from Lian'er having went back to the Sect to get herself killed. But as soon as she entered the room, her fears and worries were instantly washed away as she saw Lian'er sitting on the stool staring out into the forest beyond the window with a serene look on her face.
"Lady Lian'er?" She called out.
Lian'er snapped out of her trance and looked at Gaia, the corners of her lips tucked upwards into a smile. "Oh Gaia you are back, how was hunting?"
Gaia smiled back. "Hunting was good, I managed to catch rabbits for stew tonight." her smile faded a bit. "It has been a couple of weeks, what are you going to do now?"
Lian'er's eyes shifted from Gaia to the snow-covered woods. What am I going to do? she hummed. She had put thought into that before but she was clueless. It was ironic, she was hailed as once in a lifetime genius, a prodigy yet when it came to her own self, she was drawing up blanks. "I don't know, maybe I should go back and find answers, why did Qingye do that?"
Gaia was not surprised by her answer, she had expected her to say that—what her brother did was outside of character, now that she was thinking about it. Everything seemed too aligning to be a coincidence, first it was her mentor, Yuanchen getting banished, then master Tiang's death and Qingye's ascension to Sect Master and Juin his advisor? something was definitely up in the Sect.
"Well come and let's make stew. Daylight is nearly gone, we need to hurry." Gaia's downcrested face was quickly lit up and she whirled on her heel changing her direction to the kitchen.
Lian'er smiled and got to her feet. She followed behind Gaia, half-forgetting the thoughts that had pillaged her mind earlier.
Crunch the snow sank as footsteps trudged through it and in the forefront—spearheading the group was Qingye cladded in white robes, on his head was a flaming crown.
The Scabbards—for the past weeks have been searching for Lian'er and Gaia and after weeks of futility, they had managed to locate them.
Qingye's eyes stared at the cottage that was neatly tucked in the trees and he raised his hand—the Neuro-Qi flowing through his implants ignited and above his palm formed white flames that had an effect on the snow and the surrounding from their presence. The flames coiled around and formed a sphere that was towering over the trees and he hurled the sphere at the cottage.
Lian'er who was chopping the vegetables raised her head—the cottage was extremely hot, too hot for even the stove that was burning across from her. Something was off and her detection of Neuro-Qi suddenly went wild. "Ice Shield!"
The ambience in the cottage became cold and a shard of ice covered both her and Gaia just as the cottage caught fire and exploded in searing hot flames that hugged the ice shard she had created from all around—Her eyes laced with Neuro-Qi peered through the flames and she saw Qingye, Baihan and three others standing in the clearing.
She looked at Gaia. "They are here."
Gaia's face looked grim, she understood what Lian'er was saying when she said they. Master Qingye. Her stomach sank as she got a good look at the attackers—in addition to Qingye, Baihan had joined them and they had other people. She knew that they were not getting out of this unscathed.
She stole a glance at Lian'er who was focusing on her brothers. Good, she hasn't noticed. She knelt and bit her hand and placed her finger on the snow allowing the blood to bleed on the snow and connect her Neuro-Qi to the established lines hidden beneath the snow.
After she was done, she got to her feet and held her weapon. "Lady Lian'er, I'll handle the three, you talk with your brothers." She did not wait to hear what Lian'er's reply was and took a step to the side, her sword unsheathed and held in her right hand.
Qingye's eyes tracked Gaia and he beaconed the other three to attack her while he and his brother faced their sister. "Sister, join us, there's no need to shed blood."
Lian'er spat on the snow. "You disgust me, you spineless wimp." She pointed at Qingye. "Why did you kill father? After everything he did for us? And you—" Her finger shifted to Baihan. "You in cohorts with someone who killed your father in cold blood?"
"Father died cause he was weak." Baihan spoke, articulating what Qingye was about to say.
Lian'er's hand dropped to her side and her head lowered causing her hair to hide her face. "Weak you say?" She whispered as she clutched her hands into fists—the temperature dropped extremely quickly causing the fire crown on Qingye's head to shatter from the cold making it sold—cold winds whiplashed around intensely coating everything in ice. "Let's see if you are as strong as you claim!"
With a grind of her teeth, Lian'er caused the frosting winds to solidify and create shards of ice that had the width of the tree barks to spike up from everywhere—the attack forced Qingye and Baihan to jump in order to dodge—Lian'er's body blended in the ice and she traveled across the length of the shards she was spontaneously creating and materialized before Baihan.
She punched Baihan on the chest sending him crashing into the trees and covering him with a slow yet spreading ice.
She turned her attention to Qingye who was surrounded by multiple fireballs—Qingye hurled the attacks at Lian'er and the latter raised her hand creating a mirror of ice which tanked the attacks leading to steam being created—Qingye took the distraction and turned it to his advantage, his hands formed a bow and arrow of fire and he shot it at Lian'er.
The arrow pierced through Lian'er's shoulder causing blood to leak and her to wince in pain.
She distanced herself from Qingye as multiple fire arrows followed her, exploding whenever they touched anything in their path having different attributes to the first one which only pierced Lian'er.
Lian'er's foot landed on the snow... Or so she thought cause what she landed on was not snow, but something thick and Obsidian. She looked at her stuck foot and cussed at her lack of awareness—she had stepped on Baihan's ash and couldn't move.
She raised her head only to see a massive fireball searing the ground as it approached her.
Gaia who was dodging attacks from the three glanced at her side and saw Lian'er was trapped. She stabbed her sword on the snow and clasped her hands together. Forgive me. A lone tear escaped her eye and Neuro-Qi burst out of her, creating a blanket over the vicinity—the blood she had set earlier connecting and the snow glowed red as an intricate symbol much similar to the one Juin used when he banished Yuanchen appeared.
The light shrouded Lian'er whose eyes widened. "What are you doin—" Her speech cut short as the light consumed her and it shot at the sky before it vanished and Lian'er was gone with it.
With Lian'er gone, Gaia raised her hand in defeat.