MDZS: Still Lament Prologue

Chapter 1: Bai Mudan (White Peony)

Although it was not the first early afternoon where floral nature blossom their petal wings to celebrate the end of the winter coldness, a white peony glowed delicately on the front of her yellow chest garment; the peony, 'Sparks Amidst Snow,' and the golden silk patterns on her small embroidered garment reflected magnificently against the suns ray. On her small six year old forehead, a miniature yet noticeable vermillion dotted mark was placed from birth to symbolize the action of opening doors towards wisdom, aspiration and to shine the vermillion light upon the world. On her small back, and towards the left side of her shoulder, even though it was forbidden to be seen by all, the mark of the female empress; the Phoenix was engraved hovering over a red lotus from her birth. Her voice was like a playful child who had yet to explore the wonders of the cultivation world and while she walked along the stone paths with her elder brother, Jin Zhuqin stopped to gaze upon the bushes of white peonies.

"They are even more white this year Zixuan ge ge (elder brother Zixuan)." Little Zhuqin commented and grabbed onto her elder brothers hand to pass on the excitement she had felt that moment.

"That is right."

Jin Zixuan, The only legitimate son of Jin Guangshan who is the current leader of the Lanling Jin Sect in the top four cultivation clans. Known to have a beautiful appearance in spite of his quick to anger personality at a young age and only ever shows his soft demeanor towards his little sister, Jin Zhuqin. Because of his beautiful appearance alone, he is known as the male princess of Lanling Jin.

"However I get a feeling that the whiter they are, the more they will be left stained with red." Zixuan openly said with a kind yet unforgiving monotone of voice.

Of course, Little Zhuqin knew her elder brother did not mean harm to her own sense of excitement those few seconds but she knew he only meant the truth for as she knew; the cultivation world was a competitive place. Even her own mother, was quite a handful for the Lanling Jin Sect and the Gusu Lan Sect; ranked second in the top four cultivation world.

"Red?" asked Little Zhuqin, knowing the color to represent blood in all knowledge.

"Nothing pure can stay for as long as there is still evil in this world. For something so innocent, there will always be wickedness lurking within." Zixuan replied with the same monotone voice while he clutched gently onto his little sisters hand.

As Little Zhuqin began to feel the tense atmosphere squeeze the living loquats (a type of yellow Chinese and Japanese plum that is also known to be as 'Pipa') out of her, she thought of picking a few white peonies and bringing them to her mother, Lan Yunlin, who resided in Jinxing Tang or Golden Stars Hall.

"Zixuan ge ge, why don't I pick some peonies for my mother? Would you think she will like that?" asked Little Zhuqin as she began to walk over to the flowers.

"I would think that you have already learned your mother does not appreciate your efforts Qin er. Based on the number of attempts she had on you for the past three years, would that not already alarm you of how dangerous that woman is?" Zixuan plainly said and looked at Little Zhuqin to have her realize the danger her own mother would put her in.

Little Zhuqin was baffled and did not want to clearly hear the somewhat rude opinion her elder brother had to say on her own mother. However, the 'attempts' Zixuan had reminded her was true; Yunlin, Little Zhuqin's own mother, had previously tried to murder or even assassin Little Zhuqin for the past three years. Of course, before her mother became a crazed assassin and began to lust for Little Zhuqin's father's attention, Lan Yunlin had quite the behaved beauty herself back in Gusu Lan as the youngest sister of Lan Qingheng, who was the current leader of his respected clan.