After the coming-of-age ceremony had drawn to its close, Xiao Yan's life was at last allowed to ease back into a gentler rhythm. The days that had once been packed, one after another, with a full and punishing regimen of cultivation now lay emptier by more than half, and he had time at last to draw an unhurried breath.
The Foundation Liquid he had brewed from the herbs purchased some time ago had at last been drained down to the very dregs. Yet Xiao Yan made no move to buy more. He had now set foot upon the eighth grade of Dou Qi, and at such a height the precious liquid had grown well-nigh worthless to him, its once-mighty effects reduced to barely a whisper.
And with the fading of the Foundation Liquid's strength, Yao Lao had not reached for any other pill to push the boy further along. Instead he bade Xiao Yan relax his mind for a time and let his spirit settle. The road of cultivation, the old man was fond of saying, was one that demanded both tension and release held in balance — one who strained and forced without respite risked, more often than not, carving a crooked path for himself in the end.
In these easy, carefree days, however, Xiao Yan — so accustomed to his tight and grinding schedule — found his very bones beginning to itch with idleness. There was nothing for it but to while away each day in Xiao Xun'er's company, wandering here and there, and now and again stealing away to the back mountain to practice his Dou Techniques.
It went without saying that Xiao Yan had once more become the focus of the entire clan's attention. Wherever he went, respectful and even fearful gazes followed like shadows at his heels, and the string of deferential titles called out to him at every turn set him marveling, in a quiet way, at the sheer distance between the welcome he'd once received and the frosty contempt of only a few short years past.
. . .
*Boom!*
Deep in the verdant, awning-shrouded forest of the back mountain, a figure moved with all the swift agility of a wild ape, weaving and dodging through the obstacles that littered the ground, until at last, with a muffled thunderclap, a fist laden with ferocious force slammed into the trunk of a tree a good two or three inches thick. Cracks splintered outward, the trunk groaned, and with a snap it sheared clean in two.
Dodging nimbly aside as the toppling trunk came crashing down, Xiao Yan vaulted onto a dark boulder and swept his right palm toward the clothes he'd hung from a low branch. A surge of suction snatched them up and drew them neatly into his waiting hand.
He wiped the sweat from his brow, blew out a long breath, and began, layer by layer, to draw on his garments.
He had no more than settled the last of his robes into place in a soft rustle of fabric when his brow suddenly furrowed. He narrowed his eyes, peering out past the edge of the forest, and let out a low, cold laugh.
Brushing a few dead leaves from his shoulder, a mocking smile playing at the corner of his mouth, Xiao Yan strolled out of the woods with an air of lazy indifference.
Beyond the treeline, warm sunlight spilled over him, and it seemed to melt every bone in his body into butter. He squinted a moment, letting his eyes adjust, then tilted his head and fixed his gaze upon the figure perched upon a great boulder not far away.
The sun traced the slender lines of the young woman's body, teasing out a striking, alluring silhouette. A pair of long, shapely, impossibly beautiful legs gleamed in the light, drawing the eye again and again.
Xiao Yan regarded Xiao Yu with a cool, unbothered stare. Cradling the back of his head in his folded arms, he sauntered slowly up to the foot of the boulder and looked up at the cool-faced young woman above him. His gaze lingered for a moment, quite deliberately, upon those elegant long legs. Then he sniffed and said, flatly: "Pretty legs. No need to show them off."
One short, careless sentence — and Xiao Yu's cold and haughty face flushed a livid iron-blue in an instant.
Her full chest rose and fell with quick, shallow breaths as she ground her teeth together. "Do you know why I've come for you?" she demanded, icily.
"To give me a beating?" Xiao Yan drew back his hand, rubbed his nose with studied offhandedness, and asked with a faint, careless laugh.
"Your one punch put my brother in the infirmary. He's still lying in bed, unable to move." Xiao Yu's beautiful eyes blazed with hatred as she glared at him. "Since you struck so viciously, and I am his elder sister, I cannot simply let him swallow that beating in silence."
The corner of Xiao Yan's mouth tilted into a sneer. "So, you mean to say — under those circumstances, I ought simply to have stood there like a post, and let his fist shatter my own arm into splinters?"
Xiao Yu pressed her red lips together. Her lovely eyes remained fixed upon him, stubborn and smoldering with undiminished hatred.
"After he'd broken my arm, I suppose you'd spare a minute's silent pity for the poor wretch, and then be done with your conscience entirely — never once troubling yourself over whether I might be a cripple for the rest of my days. Ha. I'll give you the very same words as before: other than shielding your kin with complete and utter blindness, what is it you can accomplish, Xiao Yu? I detest women of your sort more than anything under heaven. Your brother is a human being — and so, by every right, am I!" He was growing angrier as he spoke, his young face flushing red, until at the last he was all but spitting the words out. "That empty head of yours is only good for bobbing along behind however much you shove between your ears!"
"Xiao Yan, you little wretch — shut your mouth!" Her face cycled through shades of white and red, and at last Xiao Yu screamed the words out, driven past all endurance by his final barb.
Watching her face go crimson, her eyes practically spitting fire, Xiao Yan clicked his tongue with cold satisfaction, his heart brimming with a vicious pleasure.
Xiao Yu drew in a deep breath, forcing herself slowly back from the brink of fury. Then, with a single smooth motion, she sprang from the great boulder, her long, beautiful legs folding and landing her on the ground before him. "Whatever else happens," she ground out between clenched teeth, "I am not letting you off easily today, you little wretch." Her left foot stepped forward, her lithe form cutting a striking curve through the air — and her right leg, with a sharp whistling of displaced air, lashed out savagely, aimed with vicious intent between his legs.
Seeing her attack him outright, Xiao Yan hurled a curse in return and sprang hastily back several paces, narrowly dodging that coldly lethal leg.
"Hmph. However great a genius you may fancy yourself, you are only at the eighth grade of Dou Qi. Today, if I don't teach you a proper lesson, you'll be prancing around as though you owned the very heavens." Seeing him dodge again and again, Xiao Yu laughed coldly and set both her long legs to dancing like a hurricane. Kick after kick, lash after lash, she whipped up gales of wind that tore at the dead leaves strewn across the ground.
The strength of a Three-Star Dou Warrior, as it turned out, was indeed far beyond anything Xiao Ning had ever been able to bring against him. Swept back by such ferocious, relentless offense, Xiao Yan found no room for even a moment's counterattack, and could only retreat and dodge.
Stumbling and scrambling away from the murderous rain of her legs, Xiao Yan's young face nevertheless remained utterly calm. His eyes narrowed, and sharp as whetted steel, they searched without cease for an opening in her guard.
He brought up his arm to block yet another whistling overhead strike, and winced at the sting that shot through it. It seemed Xiao Yu was not, after all, a complete fool — she was holding back, taking care not to use her full strength against him. For all the savagery of her assaults, they could do no more than bruise his skin and flesh — a mere beating, not a crippling.
Watching Xiao Yan retreat in confusion, a note of triumphant delight crept into Xiao Yu's smile. She rose onto the lightest tips of her toes and flung herself forward once more.
But this time, as she pressed her attack, her lovely face abruptly changed. The boy who had spent the entire exchange in wholesale retreat suddenly seemed to transform before her eyes — from a meek, docile lamb into a wolf at bay, desperate and deadly. His hands curled, and from between them a ferocious surge of suction seized her, dragging her off balance and pitching her body forward.
The instant she began to lean, Dou Qi surged and gathered desperately in the soles of Xiao Yu's feet, digging for purchase. But before she could root herself, the suction vanished as abruptly as it had come — and in its place came a brutal, reversed shove of force.
The yank and the push, following upon one another in a blink, robbed Xiao Yu of her balance at last. Staggering backward, she toppled, and landed squarely on the ground.
For a long, startled moment, Xiao Yu seemed too astonished even to rise. And by the time she had shaken herself to her senses, a figure had descended upon her like a tiger upon its prey — and pinned her hard against the earth.
His face scraped and bruised, his body aching from the whole vicious exchange, Xiao Yan let out a sharp hiss of pain. But his hands had seized both her wrists, thumbs driven down hard upon the pressure points at the hollows of her arms.
"Since you wanted so badly to play rough with me," he rasped, teeth bared, breathing hard, "then today I'll show you exactly what sort of man you're tangled with!"