A Drop of Blood and A Crystal Tear

Ch-8

Wei Wei didn't wish to enter the capital as soon as the city came into her vision. She had been warned of the dangers of the capital by her father and uncles many times. Not to mention the hidden dangers in form of the political opponents of the Bei family, but also hidden experts who were waiting to strike. Before she ascended to the nascent core realm, she did not want to face these dangers. So, she searched for a place near the capital with an ample amount of spiritual energy. 

She wandered for hours before coming across a dilapidated mansion. The gates and walls were covered in dust. The lock was so rusty that it looked like it would crumble with the next gust of wind. She knocked against the door, albeit she was afraid that the gates may fall upon her. 

"Is there someone here?" She asked out of formality. When no reply came, she pulled at the lock. As expected, it broke. She gently pushed the doors and entered the building. 

The place was abandoned. Huge cobwebs swung across the ceiling of the corridors. The grass in the garden was overgrown, as were the other plants and trees. 

"This place may not have had many visitors in the past few years, but it does not seem to have any dangers here. I've decided then, I'll stay here and cultivate until I breakthrough." 

Wei Wei prepared before going into seclusion for a few weeks. She gathered herbs from the surrounding forest, stocked up on food supplies, and practised her sword forms every day, at dawn and dusk and midday and midnight. 

Today was the last day she would step out before going into seclusion. She performed her stances with her sword, flowing gracefully into each movement. A slight smile graced her face as she felt the familiarity of the moves. The power surging through her meridians, the blood gushing in her veins, and the slash of her blade, everything felt like reliving a memory of something she had done a thousand times. 

She stood up straight once she was done, returning to her starting stance, as her methods demanded. With a mere thought, her sword disappeared in thin air and quietly settled on her wrist in the form of a bracelet. She picked up her basket of herbs and trekked back to the manor. On her way inside, she activated all sorts of protective arrays and formations which she had been setting up for the past month. A faint golden glow shone through the layers of arrays as she shut her door and activated the final formation. 

She closed her eyes and sat in the lotus position and began to absorb the energy from her surroundings. 

*-*-*

"Your- Young Master! Young Master! Where are you?" 

A voice called out among the trees. 

"Young Master, please don't make things hard for us anymore. Come back, we have to return to the capital today. Or else your father will have our lives. Young Master!" 

"Will you shut up?!" Another voice shouted from behind him. "Young Master already instructed us not to follow him. Neither are we allowed to look for him. As for his father's side, he will deal with it himself."

"What if he runs into danger?" 

"With his level of cultivation, there are not many people who will prove to be a problem for him." 

"You don't live in the capital, you won't understand." The former scoffed.

"What do I not understand, Officer Yu?" 

"Everything. You know shit, Beauty Hao." 

"Yu Ban Shan! Don't think that you can fool me with this pathetic act. You may care about Young Master, but the reason you want to rush back to the capital isn't him or his father's wrath."