Silent Hollow forest, Verdant Moon Kingdom
Hua Shiming came later than expected. She had thought he would arrive within a few months, a year at most. Yet six long years passed before he finally appeared.
In those long, quiet years of waiting, Hua Zhenlan prepared tirelessly. She wove layers upon layers of protection — intricate offensive and defensive formations, detection arrays, barriers, and hidden traps. Every stone, every tree, every inch of her surroundings was turned into a shield or a weapon, all for the sole purpose of keeping herself and Chi Xianyan safe when her brother finally came.
Knowing her cultivation would be far below his and that he would not come alone, she had no choice but to rely on strategy and preparation. Cultivating the dark arts would have offered her power, but it was a line she refused to cross—unless the situation became truly desperate.
So, she poured everything she had into both protection and teaching. From the moment Chi Xianyan could hold a stick, Hua Zhenlan began training her—not just in swordsmanship, but in survival. Foraging, water sourcing, navigation, shelter building… every skill that could keep her granddaughter alive if the worst happened. Though she could not guide her in fire elemental arts, she ensured Chi Xianyan would never be helpless.
Hua Zhenlan was a practical woman, and most of these lessons took place deep within the forest she had come to call home. There, she hunted beasts to sell their parts as she taught Chi Xianyan, using the profits to reinforce her formation network and maintain their humble sanctuary.
Years of quiet repetition dulled her sense of time—until one early morning while she was sorting the parts of her recent hunt, the air shifted. A faint tremor rippled through the ground beneath her feet, followed by a flicker in one of the outer detection arrays.
The formations she had so painstakingly carved into the earth… had been triggered.
Hua Zhenlan stood up has her expression darkened.
"He's here," she whispered.
Quickly, she ran to the other room calling out Chi Xianyan.
A ten year old Chi Xianyan walked out, scratching her eyes from being woken. But seeing her grandma face, all the sleep disappear. She has never seen her so panicked and her grandmother has done a lot of dangerous things for their survival.
Hua Zhenlan pulled her by shoulder and said in a low tone. " You know all those things we've been practicing — now is the time to put them to use."
"Grandma, Is your brother here already." Chi Xianyan asked scared, it was obvious she knew the truth of what happened. Hua Zhenlan was not sure how things will turn out, so it was better if she knew the truth if she ended up alone in order not to run into the Chi Family or Her brother people.
As Hua Zhenlan was about to respond, when they heard a rugged voice from outside. "Hua Zhenlan, come and greet your brother –it has been far too long we have seen each other".
"Go through the tunnel, you know the way to the other side. Ration the food and reduce the amount of traces you leave behind. Just like I taught you." Hua Zhenlan said, bringing out a ring "before you go, take this ring. All of the things your parents wanted to share with you is here –including the movement technique and your father's sword, remember what I told you about the sword. After today you would be able to learn the movement technique and climb higher. Remember never let anybody put you down, never let anybody tell you are not good enough. You must be somebody, because the worst you can be is a nobody fulfilling no purpose. Your parents sacrificed everything for you and I'm about to do the same, don't let that be a burden. Let it be a motivation that you are special and you are worth it. If we could we would do it again because we love you ...from here to forever." Hua Zhenlan said in tears as she hugged Chi Xianyan tightly before composing herself.
She continued "now go, remember don't come out under any circumstances. The trail leads to Azure Sky kingdom, make sure to avoid all the beasts territories on your way. When you get there keep a low profile." Pushing her into a hole in the floor before stumping her feet making the floor return to how it was before.
"Zhenlan, if you don't come out I would have to come to you. You think all this little toys can stop me." Hua Shiming said, since there was a barrier he could not spread his divine sense to see what his happening in the house. But he assumed his sister was planning something big that is why she was not out yet.
"I'm coming in" Hua Shiming said as he took a few steps forward, he stopped when he saw her come out of the crudely built house.
"See I told you, your little toys can't stop me" he said smugly, as the men behind him laughed.
Boom
The laughter abruptly stopped, as everyone looked at the far right where a pool of blood that used to be a person was. Immediately all of them became vigilant, spreading their divine sense to the limit to check their surroundings so as not to activate the formations by mistake.
"You were saying?," Hua Zhenlan laughed heartily. "It seems like one of your little friends activated the offensive formation."
Hua Shiming face turned red from embarrassment and anger.
Ignoring his reaction, Hua Zhenlan looked around before raising an eyebrow as she asked Hua Shiming, "Brother dearest, are you looking down on me." Her voice was soft but the murderous intent in it sent chills down their spines.
She continued with a slight smile as she looked into his eyes, "I can see five of you .... Well four, but I don't see any sovereign. It can only mean you are looking down on me."
"Send a sovereign?, do you think sovereigns are fruit that you pluck on trees, even in the entire sect there are only two sovereigns. Do you think you are worthy of the patriarch or protector coming to you personally?" One of the men retorted, but Hua Zhenlan ignored him and kept staring at her brother as if she wanted to see his soul.
"I ...I told them about the problem that the movement technique hard, plus they thought you using the technique is a trap when they discovered you were in this backwater land you are staying, since there should be almost nothing that can threaten you in this place. Putting all this together, along with the fact that crossing over is very dangerous —we already lost five people before we got here, they decided that sending a sovereign was not worth it. Moreover the sovereigns were busy. Zhenlan, you know I won't disrespect you like that." Hua Shiming quickly explained, even he didn't know why he explained himself like that but his younger sister has always been scary.
But Hua Zhenlan didn't listen past the first line, she space out and started murmuring something until she looked at Hua Shiming again.
"You told the Whispering Lotus sect about the problem of movement technique?." Hua Zhenlan looked like she wanted to burst.
"I had to, anyway just give me the technique so I can leave. I will just tell them I saw the technique on your corpse or something." Hua Shiming replied, his body shivered a little.
"Impossible, the patriarch ordered us to bring her back if we found her alive." One of the men barked.
"You want us to let the killer of the patriarch son go." Another responded.
"Know your place Hua Shiming." A third added.
" *Sigh*, give me the technique. I'm sure we can come to a compromise, I don't even understand why you would kill your husband." Hua Shiming said solemnly.
"Who made you say the movement technique fault, was it your stupid wife. I know she is the one that controls you like a puppet." Hua Zhenlan said angrily. She was not really angry at the fact that he told them the technique flaw, infact them knowing reduced the target on her back but she needed a reason to vent.
"Su Xianli did not make me say anything. Give us the technique and just follow us back gently, I will try to have Su Xianli beg the patriarch on your behalf." Hua Shiming tried coercing.
" You think he will forgive me just like that for killing his idiot of a son. Though, he had like five last time I checked and he doesn't care about them. Lin Haoran was very smart, so he was his favorite. The only reason that bastard is not here today is because he has found someone to replace him." Hua Zhenlan replied.
"Zhenlan, stop making this hard for yourself, if you come gently you might get lucky Patriarch Lin would take you as one of his concubines and you would have many children for him. Think of what you are putting your brother through" Hua Shiming persuaded.
"Apart from the fact that I would rather die than let that fat pig near me —he is the only one sick enough to touch his dead son's wife. You forfeited your role as my brother when you joined the Whispering Lotus sect in the killing of our parents and exterminate our sect. I knew you were jealous when father handed over the movement technique to me as the next keeper, you just had blabber about it to that manipulative bitch —Su Xianli. If you want to know why father didn't give you, this is why. Because you are weak, dumb and gullible, he knew it would be lost if he gave you. I knew you were not the brightest but never in a million years would I expect it to be this bad. You pathetic excuse for a man."
"Zhenlan, I'm sorry."
"What!!." Everyone present were surprised when they saw Hua Shiming fall to his knees clutching his head.