Rain fell down from the sky, soaking into her hair, pelting her cheeks, and every step she took felt so heavy, so slow.

"Yanbo!" Her third brother ran out in the rain after her, her eldest brother following. "Stop! Come back! Don't listen to her, she's just grieving. She doesn't mean it. You're her daughter! How could she not want you? Come back, Yanbo."

Yanbo continued walking, each trudging step as heavy as the previous, the mud sucking in her boots slightly and making it even harder for her to pick up her feet.

"Yanbo!" Her eldest brother ran in front of her and blocked her way. "Come back. Don't leave. Where will you go, if you leave? Without any spiritual energy, you have no way to maneuver your sword, and you can't travel far on foot. There's no one around here for at least a few days on foot."

Yanbo ignored him, continuing to walk. Her eldest brother caught her arm, but she merely took her arm out of his grip and continued walking, every step a punishment, every step a reminder of what she'd done, of what her greed for power had done. As they kept hounding her, Yanbo finally stopped.

"I'm tired." She said. "Let me go."

That was all she said, and her brothers slowly came to a halt and watched after her with big eyes, watching every trudging movement, every drag of her foot, all seeing the defeat and exhaustion in her stance.

Her eldest brother went to knock her out, but she dodged swiftly and kicked him away. Even though she'd gotten rid of all her cultivation, she couldn't get rid of her martial arts, but it was weaker now, without any spiritual energy backing it up. Her brothers finally realized that they couldn't do anything about it.

"When you're ready, come back. We'll convince Mother." Her eldest brother said. He had no idea whether or not Yanbo heard it, because every step was the same, weighed down with a hundred thousand years of grief.

Yanbo walked for three days and three nights, powered by her pure will alone, eating nothing, drinking nothing, her facial expression staying the same, almost as if she was meditating, reflecting on what had happened, what she had done, and reiterating to herself how it was all her fault.

She had probably already left the bounds of the Mountains Sect and was now wandering about in the mortal realm. Her family lived towards the edges of the Mountain Sect in the first place, so it was no wonder that she crossed after three days of walking.

Her head was beginning to pound. At the beginning, it was unnoticeable, but as she continued walking, every step began to get more and more excruciating, more and more difficult, and she became more and more conscious of how much her head hurt, and how much she wanted to stop.

But Yanbo continued. Because she knew if she stopped, then she would have to start thinking about where exactly she was going, and she would realize that she really was homeless. She couldn't return home, she didn't have the face or qualifications to return to the Du Clan, given that she'd already destroyed her foundations and dispersed all of her spiritual energy back in the earth, causing the mountains to quake and the floor to burn hot. She didn't have the energy to appreciate that it showed what level of cultivation she had achieved, that when it all was released back into the world, it caused even the mountains to quake in mourning, as if they were aware that a rare talent was giving up.

The rain had stopped after an hour on the first day, but it was starting up again now, the gray clouds gathering overhead, thunder rumbling in the distance, before the fat drops began falling down, this time gentle and sorrowful. Yanbo continued walking, one foot in front of another, her legs trembling, her knees weak, until she reached a town. As she walked through the small streets, most people walked a wide circle around her, wary of her battered appearance and wondering where she had come from, and if there were people chasing after her.

Finally, her knees buckling, she collapsed at the mouth of an alleyway. The rain continued to fall, dripping into her eyes and slicking down her hair, hiding the real tears that mixed with the cool, gentle rain that fell like a piteous caress on her face.

She leaned her head back against the wall. If she was ambushed by people, sold on the market, if she was rescued and nursed back to full health, if she lived or died, all now rested on the hands of fate. They would decide whether or not she deserved to repent for her crimes with death. Her body shivered, then burned white-hot, and she felt weak and exhausted all over, and she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to get warm, and then loosened her collar and tilted her head up to the rain, trying to cool down. The only constant was the rain, which continued to caress her face. She thought she saw bright flames circling around her, trailing from the wings of paper cranes, and a concerned Jinghe hovering above her, hands smoothing over her neck and chin and feeling her forehead, but when Yanbo reached out, the illusion dissipated and she caught nothing. She smiled bitterly to herself and closed her eyes. If I die or live, let it be. I have no wish to twist fate anymore.

***

There were vague mutters around her, talking about something she couldn't hear clearly, but all she remembered was that her head hurt very much, pounding as if it wanted to escape her skull. Her throat burned, and she opened her eyes with great effort, looking around for water.

"You're finally awake." Someone said, and the conversation abruptly cut off. "You must be thirsty. Here, have some water."

Yanbo saw a pleasant-faced, middle-aged nun holding out a bowl with some water in it. She vaguely felt a bit of suspicious arousing due to the kindness the nun was showing her: she'd rescued her, brought her back, and now was caring to her personally. What for?

"Don't worry, since I've rescued you, I have no need to poison the water, right? Here, I'll drink some." As the nun said so, she drank a mouthful and swallowed. Yanbo observed weakly for a few moments, and when nothing life-threatening happened to the nun, she took the bowl with both hands and swallowed it all down, the cool liquid soothing her parched, dry throat.

"Thank you." Yanbo said, looking away awkwardly. A boy who was sitting beside the nun began asking her questions curiously.

"Where do you come from? Are you one of those mysterious cultivators who live far away from mortal society? How did you end up so weak that you were lying in an alleyway? Do you have enemies chasing after you? And that paper crane, that flaming paper crane, it was really cool, it didn't even go out under the deluge of rain. I think it was keeping you company. It can even fly on its own. Where did that come from? Can I get one? Is it really expensive?"

Battered with a deluge of questions, her head began hurting immediately. The woman sitting next to the boy, probably his mother or elder sister, told him off.

"The poor girl's just awoken, and you're giving her so many questions. At least ask them one at a time." She said after pinching him sharply. The boy pouted. Yanbo suddenly thought that this was all very funny. Never in her life had she been addressed as "the poor girl", at least after she began cultivating at the Plains Sect. Everyone had always secretly feared her, and some despised her for her early success, but no one had ever pitied her. But nonetheless, she had ended up in such a state, and she didn't have anyone to blame but herself.

Suddenly, then, she thought of Yunhai, and any trace of amusement vanished instantly, and her expression seemed to wither like a plant and she stared wordlessly at the ceiling.

"Huh? What happened to her? It looked like she just died or something... but she's clearly still breathing. What happened?"

The nun patted the boy on the shoulder gently. "It seems she has some private matters that she doesn't want to tell us. If that is so, we will not ask. Let her be for now, and I'll bring her some medicine later, if you want to chat with her. There are still other people we need to tend to."

With that, the three people who had been surrounding her left her alone to her thoughts, and she closed her eyes, feeling very tired and not wanting to move at all.

She was told that she slept like that for a week, but she didn't notice the time passing, only that she felt that she was thirsty, so she finally made herself sit up. The nun noticed her and finished delivering food to another person who had taken refuge here.

"You've finally gotten up." The nun said with a smile. "You must be thirsty. I have some water. If you're hungry, we have some bread."

"Where am I?" Yanbo asked. Her voice came out dry and croaky, completely unlike her own. She took a drink of the water that the nun gave her.

"This is a temple north of the Longnan town."

"Temple to whom?"

"Lin Jinghe, goddess of kindness, justice, and equity." The nun answered. "All of the people here today are people swept in from that big storm, all the homeless on the street, all that got stuck outside. And you... you were sitting at the mouth of an alley, burning with a high fever, and you kept muttering two names over and over. I couldn't really hear them. But anyways, I brought you back here to help you recover from the fever. If you're homeless, you can stay at our temple and help work here, and we'll provide you with meals and a safe place to stay. It's nothing too glamorous, but it's better than starving out on the streets."

While the nun had been going on and on, Yanbo had been looking around, and at the back of the temple, there was indeed a statue of Jinghe, and it must've been done by someone who'd seen her in real life, because it was done quite well, most of the details accurate. They didn't fully capture her cool, elegant, and calming aura, though.

How funny it was, Yanbo thought to herself. She'd walked so many circles in her life, and they'd all traced back to this Lin Jinghe. As she gazed up at the statue, she felt a sense of wistfulness and sadness, and she wished that Jinghe was here so she could talk with her, chase away her boredom, and untangle the mess hiding inside of her heart.

"Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?" The nun said.

"Go ahead." Yanbo said with a sigh. It was bound to come sooner or later.

"Who are you? Where are you from? Do you have enemies chasing after you?"

"My name is Cui Yanbo. I'm from a small town at the bottom of the Mountain Sect. I don't have enemies chasing after me."

"Then... are you a cultivator?"

Yanbo paused. "No." They will not have me, but I will forever have them.

"Ah. I thought, because of your uniform..."

The nun had originally wished to prod Yanbo into answering her unspoken question, as she felt too embarrassed to ask anymore out loud, since the general rule of accepting refugees into their temple was that there were no questions asked and everyone was treated the same, but Yanbo made her feel infinitely curious, so she couldn't help but ask.

Yanbo, staying silent, either did not pick up on that cue for her to speak or did not care. It was more likely the latter. Instead, she looked around the temple. It wasn't the grandest of temples, but it wasn't completely shabby. It looked relatively warm compared to the bitter pains of the outdoors. Besides, she didn't have a cent on her. Where else could she go?

"I will stay here and work here, if you will have me." Yanbo made a decision.

The nun seemed rather happy that another was joining her, and she smiled. "That's great. There are a lot of people here today, and with just me serving everyone, it's been too difficult to make ends meet. You'll be a really helpful addition. And when it's not storming, it won't be as lonely anymore."

Yanbo looked at the nun with tiredness. She was aware of the kindness that the nun was extending her, aware that she was supposed to be grateful, but whenever she looked at the nun, all she saw was a stranger. She wanted to go back home. She wanted to go see her family, to see her friends, the people she knew and recognized. But how could she go back home? Where would she put her face, then?

At last, she forced herself to nod once to the nun, and she began helping give food and water out to the people lying on the floor on straw mats.

Finally, after a couple of days, the temple cleared out, leaving just Yanbo and the nun, worn out after serving everyone. After everyone left, Yanbo sat down to meditate and to practice before she remembered that she had destroyed her cultivation foundations already, that she had been cast out here by her own mother just because she had been too greedy. In order to distract her thoughts, she asked the nun for chores to do, and within a week, the temple became squeaky clean, with several days worth of incense refills and food stockpiled. But Yanbo still couldn't stop thinking about it.

And day after day, after completing the daily chores that the nun had assigned to her just to ease her boredom, she would turn around in circles, making the nun dizzy just watching her. She was careful to make clear to her that she would not ask Yanbo what her personal troubles were, but she was always open if Yanbo wanted to talk about them, but Yanbo never did talk about them, instead wearing a complicated and bitter expression every day.

Finally, the nun couldn't stand it anymore. "Can you read?"

"Yes." Yanbo answered, not paying it much mind.

That day, when the nun returned from town, she brought with her a couple of stacks of books. "This'll give you something to do. I didn't know what you'd like to read... so I bought a bunch of novels."

Yanbo was slightly impressed by this, and she nodded and thanked the nun for her thoughtfulness. The nun smiled.

"Even if you can't tell me what's bothering you,watching you in such torment day by day doesn't feel good, either."