Five years later

"Look, look, look!"

"You can see the light from all the way over here!"

"Someone is ascending!"

"What are those small dust particles flying around? They look kind of orange."

"Don't be stupid, they're not dust particles. It's just very far away. They're flaming paper cranes. It must be Lin Jinghe who's ascending."

"Lin Jinghe? Lin Jinghe of the Desert Sect? The light has reached us from the desert?"

"The deserts? Wow, what a spectacular ascension."

"Lin Jinghe is not even that old. She's only in her mid-twenties."

"Each generation surpasses its predecessor."

The last sentence was said with a sigh. Cui Yanbo listened from her quarters to the people chattering just outside about the spectacular ascension.

Lin Jinghe... Yanbo hadn't seen her since that first cultivators' conference. Ever since, while her shifu hadn't technically ignored her, he'd seemed to put some distance between them, and she fell from favor. Other disciples used this as an excuse to tease her, and her shifu seemed to even turn a blind eye to that.

Yanbo smiled bitterly to herself. What friendship? It was just a promise made between a foolish teenager and an adult who felt too sorry for her. Whether Jinghe even remembered her, and that little paper crane she'd given her ten years ago, was a good question. Now, ascending to the heavens, she would have an immortal lifespan, and the week that they'd spent together would truly become just a blip on the timeline, undeserving of any spot in her hall of memory.

Even so, for Yanbo, to meet her idol, her role model, once, and spend time with her for a week and earn her praise, it was enough. What more could she ask for? With that, she closed her eyes and continued her practice.

After a while, a knock sounded at her door. "Yanbo?" A gentle voice came through.

Yanbo's eyes blinked open, and the door slowly creaked open, Yunhai's eyes peeking through the crack.

"Yanbo, you only come home once in a while, you should spend more time with family instead of just practicing so obsessively. It's good to take a break once in a while." Yunhai advised, and Yanbo stood.

"Mn." She answered, and followed Yunhai outside. The rest of her family were all chatting around a table in the main hall. Although her parents had been angry when Yanbo had first come home and forbid her from leaving the house, gradually, as they realized Yanbo had been able to cultivate even without those rituals and that she hadn't come across big troubles while she was in the Du Clan, they allowed her to go back, giving her the freedom to travel back home on holidays, which was a bigger relief than Yanbo had expected. She hadn't known how much she'd missed her family.

Her other two brothers had been relatively angry at Yunhai, as well, but they gradually came to accept the decision as well, even training with Yanbo in their time off. Yanbo didn't show her full skillset whenever training them, afraid that if they got suspicious, then she really wouldn't be able to return to the Du Clan to continue training.

Quickly enough, her stay at home came to an end, and she traveled all the way back to the Du Clan alone, as her parents hadn't wanted to spare either of her three brothers from their training in order to send her. Yanbo was flying over the no-man's land between the Plains Sect and the Mountain Sect when clouds started to roll in and a rumble of thunder grumbled in the distance. With a sigh, she dropped back down to the ground and put her newly forged sword back into her sheath before continuing on foot.

What bad luck. Every single time she'd made the trip, it seemed that the heavens prepared a deluge, and this time was not an exception. Using spiritual powers, she erected a barrier and walked on foot in the increasingly muddy land all the way to the Du Clan.

As she entered the wards and had only walked a few strides towards her quarters with her bag on her back, a herd of disciples surrounded her.

"Who is it?"

Yanbo felt rather exasperated. After leaving for less than a month, all the disciples didn't recognize her anymore?

"It's that Mountain Sect kid that got in with the Clan leader." Someone whispered.

"Without an entry pass, one cannot enter."

"I'm a disciple of my shifu, Du Qingqiu." Yanbo stated.

"Without an entry pass, one cannot enter."

"What is all this fuss?" A voice came in the distance, and Yanbo recognized Du Yucheng. "Who is it?"

"It's me." Yanbo called out to Yucheng.

"Ah, it's Yanbo. Why are you all blocking her way, then? Since when couldn't a disciple leave and enter freely?"

"New orders from shifu, we're increasing security around here." Someone informed him.

"Security refers to outsiders. Is Yanbo one? She's been here for over five years. Is this how you show respect to your seniors?"

Yucheng was slowly increasing in power and responsibility, preparing to take over the position of Clan leader from his father.

"Let her in, let her in. Go back to your duties." Yucheng ordered, and they all reluctantly walked away, muttering amongst themselves.

"You got a sword." Yucheng observed. "Have you named it yet?"

"No." Yanbo answered. "I'm still thinking."

On this trip back, her brothers had gone up the mountain and arranged for a spiritual sword to be forged for her. It was a matter of time anyways, but due to the fact that the Du Clan was reluctant to forge any good weapon for someone not of their Sect, let alone an insider of their Clan, Yanbo had never gotten one, so she could only go back home and ask for one.

"Have I missed anything?" Yanbo asked.

"No. Well, I suppose you were able to see Lin Jinghe's ascension."

Yanbo twitched slightly at the name, and then nodded.

"What title are they giving her?"

"Some 'Goddess of Justice and Equity' or something. But do you want to hear something interesting?" Yucheng prompted, and Yanbo turned her gaze to Yucheng, interest successfully piqued.

"In the heavens, she forged her own spiritual weapon, a dagger. It has a sharp blade that burns red hot, but what's special about it is that it refuses to hurt anyone she loves." Yucheng said in an almost gossipy tone.

Yanbo's hand came to the wing of the paper crane inside of her robes.

"That's possible?"

"Sure! Of course, why not? There are all sorts of special weapons that can target special things. I don't see why a dagger with a spirit wouldn't be able to pick and choose who to harm and who not to harm."

Yanbo stroked the wing of the paper crane, the movement familiar. It was truly lucky that the paper crane had the protection and healing abilities of her spiritual powers, or else she would've already rubbed a hole in the paper crane.

"For that reason, some people have started to worship her under the name of the goddess of kindness and relationships and all sorts of whatnot." Yucheng finished.

"Mn." Yanbo hummed distractedly. For a moment, as they walked together in the direction of the clan's quarters, Yanbo wondered whether or not if she placed a finger on the blade of the dagger, would the dagger draw blood?

***

As Yanbo got older, misfortune seemed to strike more often, as if frustrated that she was still alive. At first, it was just the deluges and severe storms whenever she traveled anywhere or stepped out of her house just one step. But then, it became pesky monsters and ghouls that seemed to pop up everywhere, all not particularly deadly, but really annoying and tiring her out. Occasionally, she'd even come across something that was quite dangerous, like a particularly resentful water spirit who'd forced her to fight over water, something she wasn't that skilled with, or the strong fire spirit who'd burned her multiple times and proved resistant to her metal and fire-based attacks.

As a result, she began even more obsessively practicing, wishing with practice all of her weaknesses could go away and she would be able to do the things she wanted to do instead of fighting desperately for her life.

Yanbo's second brother warned her multiple times not to practice so hard, but when she didn't listen, he took to organizing activities and walks and forcing her out of her room whenever she visited home in order to get her to take breaks from practicing.

One day, Yunhai and Yanbo sat shoulder to shoulder, both meditating, when Yanbo suddenly clutched her chest, a burning feeling spreading from the inside to out, feeling like it was crushing her lungs and her other internal organs. Yunhai opened his eyes immediately, asking her what was wrong, putting his fingers to her wrist to take her pulse. Yanbo thought for a moment, trying to think what had gone wrong.

"Backfire." Yunhai whispered suddenly, taking his fingers away as if he'd been burned. "Why is there so much fire-based spiritual energy in your body?"

"My shifu told me I have a strong affinity for both metal and fire. I've been practicing both ever since." Yanbo coughed, her head pounding, her chest squeezing tightly.

"Your body can't handle all of that spiritual energy, not to mention that metal and fire don't cooperate that well in the first place." Yunhai said. "Quick, get rid of all the fire-based spiritual energy, otherwise you'll be burned up from the inside."

Yanbo shook her head, sweat starting to bead on her forehead, jaw clenched. "No." She said with great difficulty. "This is what I got through hard work and practice... I can't... I can't just get rid of it."

"Stop being silly!" Yunhai exclaimed, a flash of anger showing for the first time in a while. "What's more important, your life or your cultivation? If this goes on, your cultivation foundations will be ruined, and you won't be able to leave your fire-based spiritual energy or your metal-based spiritual energy. Quick!"

Yanbo shook her head stubbornly, taking gasping breaths now, forcing herself to calm her heart down, but it continued to beat erratically, almost as if it wanted to pound out of her chest.

Suddenly, Yunhai sat behind Yanbo, putting his hands to her shoulder blades, and with a deep breath, began to draw. Yanbo was too busy feeling the burning feeling in her insides subside to notice the fire-based spiritual energy slowly leaving her body, and her breaths slowed.

When the pain became bearable and slowly faded into something unnoticeable, she turned around to thank Yunhai, but before she could even open her mouth, his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed onto the floor.

"Yunhai!" Yanbo called.

Yanbo rushed over to Yunhai, taking his pulse. It was chaotic, at times slow and at times fast, and his forehead was already beading with sweat. Yanbo could vaguely guess at what was happening. Yunhai, in a fit of desperation, decided to draw all of the fire-based spiritual energy from Yanbo's body in order to stop the backfire from wreaking havoc on her, but in result had caused his unprepared, metal-based cultivation foundations, to be burned to crisp and completely gone to waste. His breathing was quick, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

"Help!" Yanbo screamed. "Someone!"

A few moments later, Yanbo's two brothers burst in, followed closely by her parents, and they all knelt down around Yanbo and Yunhai, one kneeling on the ground, the other lying, clearly unconscious. Yanbo's eldest brother took his pulse while her parents questioned her what had happened.

"I suffered backfire, so Yunhai took all of the fire-based spiritual energy from my body in order to quell it." Yanbo answered. Yanbo's third brother swore.

"That idiot, didn't he know it would be incompatible with his body and immediately ruin his foundations? At this rate, his body is going to be burned from the inside out."

Yanbo shook her head. "That won't happen. Let me take it back. I can take it." She said, pointing her finger at Yunhai's chest, trying to draw the fire-based spiritual energy out of him, but nothing happened, and it continued to stir and circle in his body.

"Why won't it work?" Yanbo said, panic seeping into her voice. "Why won't it work?!"

Yanbo repeated the motion, trying harder to draw the spiritual energy out of him, but nothing came out, not even a wisp of heat. "Why won't it do anything?"

"Yunhai has blocked you from taking it back. He predicted you would try it." Yanbo's eldest brother said, a grave expression on his face, mirrored by her third brother.

Yanbo panicked. "Then what do we do? How do we get it out of his body?"

"We have to wake him up and get him to release it into the earth on his own."

"Okay." Yanbo said, trying to calm herself down. "We need to wake him up. How do we do that?"

Yanbo's eldest brother put a hand to Yunhai's chest and muttered a spell. When it didn't work the first time, he muttered it again, and finally, Yunhai began coughing, his eyelids slowly lifting.

"Release the fire-based spiritual energy from your body, quick." Yanbo told him. Yunhai seemed to move sluggishly, but still, the fiery-red colored spiritual energy streamed into the earth, heating it underneath him, seeping from his body in a steady stream. Yanbo started to slowly relax, but all of a sudden, Yunhai coughed, and coughed, and finally heaved up a large mouthful of blood.

Yanbo's eldest brother took his pulse. "This is bad." He muttered, and cast another spell onto his body.

"What's happening?" Yanbo asked, out of breath.

"The energy is messing up his internal organs, his foundation has pretty much gone to scraps already, and his body is getting weaker and weaker." He answered.

Yanbo grabbed Yunhai's arm and shook it. "You have to hurry up!" She said urgently.

The stream of fire-based spiritual energy, instead of quickening, calmed to a slow stop, drifting into wisps and then into nothing.

"What are you doing?!" Yanbo shrieked.

Yunhai mustered a small smile, sweat dripping down his face, but managing to still look quite kind and calm. "Don't panic."

Yanbo felt Yunhai's instructions were very stupid and not self-explanatory. How could she not be panicked in such a situation?

"Who knew our Yanbo was so talented? With no cultivation foundations, she could cultivate to high levels in both fire and metal." Yunhai said, giving her a weak grin.

Yanbo immediately pointed her fingers at Yunhai's chest and began to draw again, and this time, she was able to draw the burning hot spiritual energy from his body, and with a violent, shaky stream, she slowly took everything back, feeling it start to circle in her body. The fact that Yunhai did not protest at all should've been a warning sign to Yanbo and everyone else, but they all were worriedly staring at Yunhai and Yanbo, wishing that Yanbo could do it quicker, hoping that Yunhai would be able to recover. Yanbo felt the wisps of hot spiritual energy start to circle around rapidly, jumping all over the place, and she coughed into her mouth and tasted blood with her tongue.

As always, there was nothing that Yanbo could hide from Yunhai, and his smile immediately faded and he sealed up his spiritual power, preventing Yanbo from taking anything else.

"Stop fighting!" Yanbo protested. "Stop! Let it go or let me take it back! Stop fighting it!" Yanbo was on the verge of tears, the panic that had calmed slightly earlier returning in full force.

"No need." Yunhai said with a smile. "If only I could've been as much as a prodigy as our Yanbo... you'll have great roads to walk in the future, don't be too bogged down by this."

Yanbo shook her head repeatedly. "I don't want to hear that kind of discouraging talk. There has to be a way, tell me, how do we save you?" When Yunhai wouldn't answer, she shook the shoulders of her eldest brother. "How do we save him?!"

Her eldest brother's fingers were still on Yunhai's pulse, and his expression was grave and never changed.

"Yanbo, look at me." Yunhai said with a kind and warm smile. He suddenly coughed out a mouthful of blood onto the ground, and some of it splattered onto Yanbo's boots.

"Just remember one thing, okay?"

"What is it?" Yanbo said.

"This matter... all that's happened today... I don't-" Yunhai's voice seemed to be lost in his throat, and he coughed up another mouthful of blood. "I don't-" He started again, but then his eyelids drooped and his hand dropped to the floor, and Yanbo froze. The air seemed to freeze around her, too, everything ceasing to move for a second but also for eternity. It was like she was the only person there, watching her beloved brother, who had taught her when no one else would, who had sent her to the Plains Sect to study, who would've done anything for her, truly doing everything for her and making it his last act.

She vaguely heard crying and screaming, shouts and words, but all of it faded into a blur, everything was a blur in front of her eyes, she only felt the wisps of spiritual energy stirring inside of her, red hot, burning, like they had been lying in wait for her weakest moment to eat her alive. She felt burning hot, like she was going to burn to ashes and fly away with the wind, but at the same time, she felt cold, so cold, and a series of images flashed by her mind's eye. Her eyes were closed, but she didn't remember closing her eyes. When had she closed her eyes? Had she closed her eyes?

She saw blurry images flash by. Her brothers, when they were young and practicing together in the courtyard, her brothers, older and teaching her some tricks and helping her build her strength, and Jinghe, her exasperated tone as she told her, "your stubbornness will be your downfall someday," but then her surprised expression as Yanbo grabbed a flaming paper crane, and the way it hadn't burned her palm and instead settled down, almost as if it was getting comfortable in the hands of the person who it'd chosen to be its new owner.

"Yanbo." Jinghe's voice echoed in her mind.

"Yanbo." Yunhai's voice echoed in her mind.

Their chorusing of her name seemed to form a storm, a tornado, that swept her up in it, wrenching her away and making her fly up high in the sky, or perhaps low, underneath the ground, she didn't know where she was, how high she was, until she suddenly saw Jinghe's smiling face, reaching out with a hand towards her.

"Come back." Jinghe said with a smile. Yanbo reached out her hand, but from behind her came a tinkling sound, and a silhouette emerged, surrounded in flames. It reached out its hand and suddenly grasped at the front of Yanbo's robes, pulling something from her body until it left her so empty. Yanbo screamed for the first time, letting all the fear and anger she'd been feeling that day around ten years ago out, but it didn't stop as she felt her essence, something that was innately a part of her, being drawn out of her body and taken away.

"Yanbo."

"Yanbo."

The voices echoed in her mind again, and she covered her ears with a weak cry. "No. Please, don't. I don't want it. I don't want it. I don't want it. Don't!"

"Yanbo!"

Yanbo's eyes opened to the ceiling, adjusting in the darkness.

"Yanbo. Are you awake?" Her third brother spoke softly.

Yanbo merely looked at him expressionlessly.

"Good. You were having a nightmare." Her third brother sighed. "You had a fever after... you had a fever. And then you kept muttering names, and then you suddenly began screaming and I had to wake you up."

Yanbo said nothing. She looked around, and found that she'd been laid to rest in her own room. Yunhai... Where was he?

Yanbo suddenly sat up straight, startling her brother. "Where is he?"

"We've already buried him."

Yanbo swung her feet out of bed and prepared to go find him. He couldn't be dead, right? There was still a way for her to save him, if she could just draw all that spiritual energy that was burning him from the inside out. She tripped slightly and crawled forward to the door before she stood up, clutching the wall, her knees weak.

Yanbo's eldest brother caught her shoulders. "Don't go outside."

"Why?" Yanbo protested. "Yunhai is outside. We still need to save him. We still need to... to save him."

Yanbo's eldest brother shook his head. "It's too late, Yanbo. His pulse has long gone and there's no more breaths."

Yanbo shook his head over and over again, backing away from him as if he was poisonous. Taking the chance, her elder brother gave her a sharp hit on the back of her neck, and she passed out again.

Yanbo awoke, this time, to screaming and shouts and an argument. She turned her head and looked to the side blearily, to find her third brother crowding in the doorway.

"Don't!" He said sharply. "It's not her fault. You can't blame her. Yunhai made his own decision. Let her rest!"

"Not her fault my ass!" A shrill voice screeched. "Who's is it, then? Yunhai's? How could he have known in the beginning that that... that bastard would be so greedy for power that she'd try to practice both metal and fire-based cultivation?"

Yanbo stood shakily onto her feet, swaying on unsteady legs, and tottered to the doorway.

"What's going on?"

Her voice only enraged her mother further, and she forcibly pushed past her third son and gave Yanbo such a hard shove that she stumbled to the ground and hit her head. She didn't cry out there, only lowering her head meekly.

"You bastard! You... you useless piece of crap! When you ran away and caused us so much worry, we didn't say much, because you'd run away to learn. But now your rash actions have cost us a son! Can you pay it back? Can you afford it?"

Yanbo raised her head slightly, then held out a hand. She gathered all of her spiritual energy on her palm, and it burned bright, like flickering flames, and also held the heaviness and steadiness of metal.

"What are you doing?!" Her third brother panicked, rushing past their mother. "You can't disperse all of your spiritual energy! This was what our brother worked so hard, lost his life, for you to keep!"

Yanbo wasn't listening to her brother at all. Instead, her gaze was fixed squarely on her mother's face. Her mother seemed a little surprised, but then it hardened and she sneered.

"Don't try to threaten me. You've already killed my son. You want to kill me, too?" She said, sounding hysterical.

Yanbo looked at the spiritual ball of energy, her entire foundation in her hand, and then, with a grunting cry, she slammed her hand into the ground and the spiritual energy all spread out from her hand, heating the ground and causing it to shake for a moment before everything went calm. The flaming paper crane seemed to shudder a little before it flapped onto Yanbo's shoulder, rubbing her cheek, almost as though it felt sorrow at Yanbo's decision and understood her despair.

"Yanbo!" Her third brother shouted. "Why are you all so stupid? None of you know to do anything smart! All of you only know to act on your emotions, what you feel in the moment, and never know to plan for the future!" He gave Yanbo a slap, and she took it, and after a pause, he immediately began apologizing, tears streaming from his face.

"I've already dispersed all my spiritual energy and destroyed my cultivation foundation. This was the reason that Yunhai died, and it will never hurt anyone ever again." She got on her knees and kowtowed, banging her head onto the floor as if she still hadn't punished herself enough. "May I please visit Yunhai's grave?"

Her mother was breathing heavily, and her eyes seemed bloodshot. "Get out! Go away! I don't want to see you ever again!"

The bangs of Yanbo's head on the floor slowed,and she looked up to her mother, her face vulnerable and childish, even thoughshe was a fully grown, young woman. When her mother said nothing else, sheslowly stood up, and, bringing nothing with her, she walked past her mother andexited the house. As Yanbo left, her mother's entire body trembled, and herhand reached out behind Yanbo's back for a moment before it dropped and wasfilled with grief.