Soldier Keep On Marching On

Chapter 2 - Rockabye

Qiuyue Meiyi was a woman of fairly tall stature. She was 5 feet, 11 inches tall and was fairly slim, with wide hips and an average sized bust. She had lightly tanned skin and short, straight black hair that reached just above her shoulders, with brown eyes, a small nose and light pink lips. She also happened to be a cultivator. A powerful one at that, though no one actually new that. Her cultivation had a very wide range and was not limited to simply the use of a sword or spiritual weapon. 

Both of her parents had been former senior disciples of the Quishan Wen Sect before defecting and going rouge after they had decided to get married. They had been well versed in many types of cultivation and had also been fairly powerful. They had managed to train her enough to form a golden core and cultivate it to an average level before they were hunted down and killed by a small army of senior wen disciples sent after them by the Wen sect leader of that time. The wens had not known of her existence though, so her parents were able to send her away before she was discovered and killed, or even worse, taken back to the Wen sect as a prisoner or slave. 

She had been left on the streets with nothing but a few of her parents belongings and the clothes on her back, but continued the journey her parents had begun after becoming free of the Wen sect, travelling as a rouge cultivator all over the lands of China. She travelled far and wide, meeting many different people who taught her to hunt for her own food, to play instruments for fun and for cultivation, to use, write and create talismans, make medicines, poisons and healing potions, and cultivate her core to be much, much stronger than before. Eventually, she became a powerful adult, able to stand on her own two feet and rely on her own powers to protect herself. 

She had many weapons and instruments that she used to practice cultivation. Her favourite to use though, out of all of the weapons and items she had in her possession, was the fan gifted to her on her eight birthday by her mother, with her Father's pipa coming in at a close second. The items contained memories of her parents, her beautiful loving family of three, that brought joy to her heart and mind even in her darkest times. 

At the age of twenty eight, she chose to stop travelling and returned to the lands where she was born, settling down in a small remote village on the border between Yunmeng Jiang and Quishan Wen. Within the next year, she built herself a medium sized cottage in a small clearing in the backlands of the village, deep in the woods and nestled safely between the shrubbery of the mountain side, with a large garden full of flowers, trees, fruits and vegetables for her to eat, along with whatever animal she managed to hunt.

Ten minutes away, just to the north of the cottage, was a beautiful waterfall, with clear waters that never froze no matter how cold the temperatures got. It would stay warm even during the toughest winters and could be used as a healing springs because of the way spiritual energy flowed through the spring. Not that far off, just about a five to eight minute walk away to the west of the cottage, was a clear stream, that widened as it went further into Yunmeng Jiang territory, eventually joining the main Yunmeng river. She often hunted fish in that stream and used it as her main source of water, as it had the purest flow of water compared to any of the other nearby rivers. It was in this river, seven years later in the middle of the night, that she found a small boat containing a newborn baby.

Qiuyue Meiyi had been cleaning and tuning her pipa after spending hours practicing it earlier that day, when soft but sharp cries hit her ears. The cries sounded far yet close by at the same time. She had quickly decided to follow the cries to see if there was anyone who needed assistance. Worry rushed through her as she got closer and closer, the cries becoming louder and making it apparent that they cam from a baby and not an older child or teenager. Once she parted away the last of the hanging branches and shrubs leading to the river, her eyes immediately landed on the small boat floating stagnantly on the shoreline.