An Hao watched from the Wen Long Academy walls as An Jian and Li Zhao battled it out in the arena below, impressing even the top kung fu masters in attendance, the fight went back and forth with "oohs" and "awes" as impressive attacks went back and forth.
An Hao's father looked at her with sadness knowing his daughter sacrificed her own greatness to save An Jian, never to practice kung fu at that level again.
An Hao seeing her father pitying her, said "Don't feel bad for me father, I am so happy to see baby Jian so strong and vibrant. I have absolutely no regrets" Her father patted her back, proud he had such a good daughter, beyond being the top student of medicine she was also beautiful with many suitors, and without being good at kung fu, he was glad he didn't need to worry about her dying on the battlefield.
An Hao watched for a little longer waved back at An Jian, when An Jian wave at her excitedly after the match. She then told her father she wanted to go study further and left. She had found a manual that might lead to her regaining some of her internal power. This wasn't really important to her, as she was fine with being a regular person, but a week earlier on the streets, while picking up medical supplies, a man was beating his wife in public. The crowd gather and some tried to stop him but this man knew internal kung fu and couldn't be stopped. An Hao herself who still knew kung fu moves but didn't have internal power to truly make it effective, tried to intervene but with one kick, she flew back on the ground unable to get up. The man then ignored her and beat his wife to death in front of her. An Hao had never felt so helpless watching the injustice occur right in front of her, she vowed to cure herself and regain her internal power.
The manual that might cure her was actually known to her for quite some time, but she never made an effort to go find it, as there was a catch. It was delving into dark internal arts, one didn't cultivate the energy from within but stole it from the living, fueled by fear and despair and even sexual energy.
An Hao walked back and forth thinking about it over and over decided, maybe if she only used the dark internal arts to drain only despicable people like the wife killer, there would be no harm. Why be weak and defenseless unable to help others when she could drain the energy of these despicable people and contribute to the betterment of society.
She caught a wild rabbit that she would practice the energy drain technique on. She had also planned to eat the rabbit afterwards not taking a life for waste. She gave a prayer of gratitude for providing a rabbit to sustain her. At the beginning, not much happened the rabbit would just stare back at her in amusement as An Hao placed her hands clutching the rabbits head. After a week of this, the practice paid off and An Hao could feel the life force of the rabbit drain out of the rabbit and into her own body. The spark of internal power she hadn't felt in a long time was suddenly there. She had planned to eat the rabbit if it worked, but the rabbit turned into a dried husk, unappetizing almost like it aged and rotted instantly. She brought the rabbit to a beautiful meadow and buried it there praying for it to reincarnate as a beautiful maiden.
As the sun went down, she would sneak out into the city. The man who had beat his wife to death, was punished by 50 lashes of caning and paid a small fine, but was already back home living in peace. She decided he would be her first human draining. From just draining the bunny alone, her lightness skills had already return. She leapt over the wall into the small courtyard and peaked into the window seeing the man lying there. As she enter the room, the man suddenly woke up "Who is there!?".
She attacked trying to get her palm on his face, he defended and fought back, but this time because she too had some internal power, he couldn't easily over power her. An Hao being one of the most competent martial artist before saving her sister, she easily countered and out maneuver the man and got her palm on his face, instantly she could feel the life force draining away from him into hers. His body turned into dried shrivel husk before her. An Hao looked at the body and spat on it, then took up a piece of paper and wrote "God does not like wife beaters" and slapped on his shriveled face.
She leapt over the wall with ease even easier then last time, full of energy she grinned satisfyingly.
After An Hao studies each day she would head into the city to try and pick up on the latest gossip on who did what crime and how they were punished, here she could see there were many crimes where the punishment seem severely light. With some investigating she would find where these people were and at night break in and turn them into husk. Sometimes leaving a message like "Servants are also human beings" for the man who killed his servant for forgetting to remind him of an important meeting.
She became the boogeyman of the city, people warning each other not to be despicable or the "Lich of the Night" would come for them.
One day while An Hao was studying, An Jian knocked on the door and asked to come in. An Jian approached and said "I can feel a weird energy in you, it seems you have internal energy again". An Hao looked at her and said "Don't be silly", An Jian persisted "Maybe you should try an internal kung fu move, I swear I can feel it". An Hao looked at her and grabbed her by the cheeks and said "You know I can't practice kung fu again, my internal energy is now with you". An Jian touched her sister on her stomach and said "I can feel it, I'm not lying". An Hao seeing An Jian wasn't going to leave her alone smiled and said "Ok let me try it then" She rolled up her sleeves and punched in front of her using no internal energy. An Jian looked at her and said "Are you even trying". An Hao laughed "Yes this is all I can do, you are getting on my nerves a little, giving me hope like that". An Jian felt bad and said "Sorry sis, this energy is a little different from normal internal energy, maybe it can't be used for kung fu". She stared at An Hao again and finally broke the silence "Sorry sister, I didn't mean to get your hopes up, I won't mention it again" and dejectedly walked out of the room.
An Hao smiled thinking "maybe I will tell her one day"