'Deep in the heart of the Wenzhou Mountain there lies a crystal clear lake. Inside that lake there is said to be an ancient water Dragon who guards a pearl that fell directly from the heavens.

Sealed there by a martial God from the south, he is said to lie in wait for a strong willed person of pure heart. Whoever sets the mighty Dragon free shall control him and the pearl until the end of time.'

'Pure of heart? Really?' TaiFeng thought, climbing the steps that lead up to Wenzhou Lake.

After coming across the book in the library she set out for Wenzhou Mountain first thing in the morning.

After four long hours of riding on her sword she arrived at the entrance to the lake.

Her ultimate weapon was the pearl.

You see, items from the heavens are loaded with pure spiritual energy capable of weaking and/or eliminating dark and resentful energy.

However, often times it's much too pure for mere mortals to weild on their own. Hence them being heavenly items.

But with the help of the soul of a thousand year old cultivator to keep the energy in check.... It was doable.

There was just one tiny thing bothering TaiFeng.

What if she wasn't pure of heart?

She wasn't the most moral person when she was in her world.

Her search history was testament to that.

And she had lied to so many people in this world about her past and a ton of other things.

None of them even knew her real name!

Would that be considered wrong?

It wasn't like she was lying for evil reasons. Most of these lies were necessary for the greater good of things.

But would the Dragon see things from her point of view?

She certainly hoped so, otherwise this would be a wasted trip.

Finnaly reaching the top, she looked out at the view.

".....Is that it?"She said, extremely underwhelmed at what she saw.

She was now face to face with a partially dried up lake filled with murky stagnant water.

The surroundings were covered with weeds, and it was completely overgrown.
Not even in like an 'abandoned cool temple' kind of way.

It just looked like an extremly neglected park.

"Please tell me I'm missing something here." She said examining the surroundings.

'This looks like the remnants of a path or something like that.' She thought, looking down at her feet.

Going closer she slashed away some weeds to reveal a small slab of stone with some words carved on it.

Look upon the dark mirror and break the void. Trust yourself and go forward.

"....WHAT THE FRICK DOES THAT MEAN?!"

"Uuuugh, okay mirror, mirror. I don't see a mirror anywhere. Are mirrors black? I've heard of them, but that's like a goth people thing isn't it?"She muttered, pulling at her hair.

"Okay void, what is a void? Good question, what is a void, what do voids usually look like? Have I ever even seen a void? What even classifies as a void? Trust myself, that's real helpful."

Crouching down to look at the water, she sighed.
"Your trying to tell me that there's a mystical Dragon hidden in this filthy water?.... This water is black....Its dark... Really dark."

Looking at the water she realized it was abnormally dark. Even if the lake was stagnant and unkept, the water would most likely be brown with some shades of green. Not as dark as her sense of humour.

She had seen many bodies of stagnant water, and they almost always had the same things in common.

Number one, they would be covered in water insects. There wasn't a single bug in sight.

Number two, the water surface would be covered in dead leaves and other invasive plants. There wasn't a single leaf or piece of moss on the surface.

And number three, stagnant water  always smells.

"Break the mirror?" She said, putting a her hand into the water.

She couldn't see the other end of her hand. When she pulled her hand out it was completely dry which confirmed her suspicions.

'Okay, this is some Pirates of the Caribbean stuff, huh.' She thought, smirking as she stood up.

"Avast me'hearties!" She yelled, falling face first into the water, eyes firmly shut.

"... It appears....that I'm not drowning."

Opening her eyes the sight took her breath away.

"Now that's more like it!" She said, immediately running up the stairs to enter the pagoda.

Inside she saw a single blue pearl resting on a stand.

She stopped in her tracks when she heard an earth shattering roar.
Appearing from out of nowhere was a magnificent blue dragon.

"Um, hi! You don't um, you don't  know me, b-but I kind of need that pearl over there. I'll return it, I promise you!.. I'll just borrow it for for a while. If your cool with it that is." She stuttered.

To say she was intimidated was an understatement. This was ten times more terrifying than her sword illusion. And this was real!

"Master, the pearl belonged to you the moment you passed through the void." The Dragon said in a booming voice. Coming closer and closer to TaiFeng until there noses were almost touching.

Without even thinking she put her left arm out to touch it.

"Use it well." The Dragon said before bursting into a pool of water. The water filled up the pagoda, until TaiFeng was fully underwater.

Holding her breath and panicking she looked around and saw a light above her head.

Swimming upwards she broke the waters surface and was now inside the lake.

Swimming to shore she saw that the lake was now crystal clear and surrounded by beautiful flowers.

Opening her hand she saw the blue pearl resting in her palm.

"Zhishu." She said holding her sword.

"I think it ends here."

Vibrating in understanding, a gold light started flowing out of her sword and into the pearl.

Engulfed in the light, golden embellishments started forming around the pearl, until their was a beautiful hairpin resting in her hands.

Tightly securing it in her hair, a twang of pain invaded her arm.

'I must have pulled a muscle.' She thought massaging her arm.

The flight back to YueYang was long and tiring. She almost dropped out of the sky a few times on account of almost falling asleep.

When she finnaly got back she just wanted to rest, but it seemed that fate had other plans for this.

"Sect Leader Qian!" Gao Song, Gao Liang, YiZhang and ChenHe yelled.

"What's the bad news now?" She rolled her eyes.

"The Wens sent a invitation for an indoctrination." YiZhang said, handing her a red envelope.

She woke up quickly after that.

'Its two whole weeks early. Why hasn't Wen Xu burned Cloud Resseses yet?' She said eyeing the contents of the letter.

Inside the letter it stated that all major sects were to send there heirs to Qishan for an indoctrination.

Reading the letter over again she smirked.

"Boys, pack your bags. We're going to Qishan." She said handing back the letter.

"We're really going?!" They all shouted.

"I'm serious here. We have no choice but to go. And since the sect doesn't have any heirs, I've got to come with you all." She said, smiling.

She was hoping that they would send her an invitation, because that way she could help all the others defeat the Xuanwu Slaughter.

And she was NOT going to let Wei Ying get locked up in a dungeon with a giant dog.

Going to her study she immediately sent talismans to everyone telling them to bring fake swords and concealed daggers.

After hours of two way communication with everyone via talisman she went to bed.

Taking off her robes her eyes went wide at what she saw.
All along her left arm was a Dragon tattoo.

"...That's new. But unfortunately, I'm far too tired to freak out right now, so I'll lose my shit in the morning." She said blowing out the candle and lying down in bed.

At this point, she had seen it all and was just unbothered by evrything.

So what if she had a tattoo? Her hanfu would always cover it anyway, so it's not like anyone would see it. She just didn't have the energy to be shocked anymore.