Prophecy Of The Stars

12. BUILDING UP STRENGTH

Free from her problematic siblings who were now in seclusion, Wan Huang had all the time and peaceful environment in the world to practice her skills and cultivate.

Their days started with breakfast, after which both would proceed for  cultivation.

Wan Huang cultivated,  and practiced pill refining inside the Red Jade Palace, whole day and night occasionally coming out to have meals and to take bath.

Yaoyao cultivated in her room, with the earth element cultivation manual that Wan Huang gave her.

This became a routine for both of them.

Wan Huang's master visited her frequently, and would take her to pingxin mountains, where demonic beasts ran amock. After persuading, requesting and begging her master for a long time, she successfully managed to take Yaoyao with them to battle the  demonic beasts.

The demonic cores of these beasts, were a rich source of essence Qi. The essence Qi could  boost the efficiency of pills, when used in it and could also be absorbed directly, to facilitate cultivation.

These battles improved their physical stamina, endurance and fighting skills, making them stronger.

Occasionally, both of them showed their heads out and put up an act in their courtyard, to convince the Wan family how miserable their life is, to avoid any suspicions.

...........

Inside the cultivation hall, Wan Bei was skimming through the pages of the second stage cultivation manual for wood elemental attribute.

She ended her cultivation this morning, as she rose to profound EARTH level 3 and stage 2 for wood and fire elements, in her ten months of seclusion.

Since she jumped three levels in a short time, she needed to stabilize her core and the spiritual Qi in her body. She decided to end her seclusion and return back to Jade Tide Sword Sect, so that she can stabilize her foundations.

Feeling proud of her talents and innate abilities, saw herself becoming a disciple of the Celestial Jade Sect.

Everyone in Chang'an praised her as a fairy for her beauty and a prodigy for her talents. She had the cyan aptitude core which was  extremely rare in whole of East Yue Continent and had the gift of dual elements, making her an upcoming pill refiner.

But her cultivation rank was always behind that of her cousin sister, who had a blue aptitude core. This made her jealous of her cousin sister.

Even when she became a guest disciple of Jade Tide Sword Sect, she couldn't surpass her cousin, who studied directly under her father without joining any sect.

Wan Bei has always put up the guise of  a gentle and beautiful girl to hide her jealous and insecure self.

Wan Bei got the news that this time both her cousins, Wan Chun and Wan Chao would participate in Celestial Jade Sect selections. Unwilling to lose, she resolutely decided to adopt all means to improve her cultivation.

She left the hall, reported her decision to Wan Jahao, who happily agreed to her request and immediately made arrangements to escort her back to Jade Tide Sword Sect. She packed up, all the while thinking about ways to raise her cultivation and stepping above her cousins.

She had another motive in going back  to the Sect. The Sect had a wide collections of various pills, dan pills and rare cultivation manuals. She needed these resources to rapidly jump up the rank. Given her popularity in school, it won't be difficult for her to obtain it.

None of the family or her friends knew about her true nature, and still worshipped and adored her. She was extremely careful in sculpting her perfect image and never left a crack in it for anyone to catch on.

In the last month of spring of the year, Wan Jie and Wan Bao came out of seclusion.

There were only five months left, for Celestial Jade Sect selections and Wan Jie was now at profound EARTH level 4 and Wan Bao was at bottleneck phase of profound QI stage.

Wan Jahao made arrangements for them to go along  with Wan Chao and Wan Chun to train outside.

Everyone were busy with their private affairs. None of them remembered  the punishment for Wan Huang was long over, nor did they perceive the  great changes happening in that courtyard.

Thus Wan Huang and Yaoyao led their lives peacefully,  moving forwards steadily on the road to cultivation.

In first month of the fall, the seventh month of the year, Wan Jie and Wan Bao returned from outside  training.

Supervised and taught by their uncle, the training was quite arduous. With sunken cheeks and panda eyes they returned home. The training yielded results. Wan Bao now entered the profound EARTH stage.

Two days later, Wan Bei came home. Now at profound EARTH level 5, she was praised endlessly by her colleagues and family. The siblings  trio retired to rest and recuperate.

A month before, the Wan family patriarch came out of his five year seclusion. Stepping into the profound HEAVEN stage, level 1, he pulled up the reputation of Wan family in whole of Chang'an. To celebrate this happy event, Wan Jahao ordered for a banquet to be prepared.

Within a week, the banquet was arranged. Representative of Chu royal family, other aristocratic families of Chang'an,  government officials, rich business people all took part in it.

They all extended congratulations to the patriarch and presented gifts. They also praised Wan family for raising genius and talented children.

Everyone in the family participated in the banquet except for Wan Huang who was forgotten and Wan Fang who was away from home.

Wan Huang didn't bother about the banquet as she was busy training hard.  She was at  profound EARTH level 4. She never planned, to run all the way up to the top. She focused on strengthening and stabilizing her core and physical strength when she climbed each rank.

Out there, everyone were enjoying the banquet. Here, Wan Huang was pondering over a serious problem.

She was planning to take revenge on Yan wangyin and her minions, for the mistreatment she and her mother suffered. Somehow, master saw through her plan, and deterred her from taking immediate actions, revealing the truth about her lineage. He didn't utter a word more, no matter how much she pestered him.

She started to question xiufeng, who sadly knew nothing about her. His ancient memories were sealed and he currently didn't have the power to unseal it. Now his first memory about her was that, she was a Wan family member, daughter of Wan Jahao.

Left with no other choice she turned to Yaoyao, who initially hesitated, but later obediently spoke everything she knew about her.

But the conversation was a futile attempt to know her lineage as even Yaoyao didn't know who Wan Huang's parents were. She was only tasked with staying by Wan Huang's side and protecting her.

With the realisation that she was not related to Wan family, Wan Huang modified her plan for revenge which now included the whole Wan family. She decided to wait for the perfect opportunity, to set her plan in motion.