Power wells up within me as I clear the final meridian point.

  “Remember Yi. Don't fight the energy. Let it flow uninhibited.”

  I nod as sweat begins to bead on my brow. The air around me crackles and my hair stands on end. The scent of ozone stings at my nose.

  As I sink into meditation, dark smoke-like clouds take shape around me and strike out with thin tendrils of pure electricity.

  Each shock is greater than the st, but as this is only the first cultivation stage, it's little more than the buzz of static.

  With a low rumble the little clouds fade away.

  Is it odd if I thought they were a little cute?

  Like fluffy electric sheep.

  I look down at my hands in wonder, flexing my fingers.

  “I've done it. I've reached the body tempering stage”

  I whirl around and meet my grandfather's warm gaze.

  “You've made the first step into the world of cultivation! You stand among many who seek after eternity in an endless chase for the very stars above. You'll do well I think.”

  A small smile rose to grandfather's lips.

  The pain in my left arm had already faded to a distant memory, taking with it the thoughts that I may never escape, and the fears of being trapped here forever.

  I would escape. No matter what it took. I had already reached the first stage of cultivation in only a few weeks. With this speed, Hàorán would be no obstacle to me!

  BAM

  I almost leapt out of my skin as a sound like an explosion went off upstairs.

  I looked over toward my grandfather and gulped.

  “What was that?”

  Grandfather frowned, and rummaged around in a pocket within his robe for a moment, before pulling out a little jade slip. The room was just barely dark enough to see it glowing lightly.

  “Well I’ll be damned… the bastards came.”

  “Huh? Grandpa, you know what that was?”

  Slowly grandpa Chen's lips spread wide in the first true smile I had seen.

  “The sect. They’ve come. Usually, they have a promise not to interfere in missions. Whether you succeed or fail is none of their concern, just don’t drag the sect into it, but somehow, for some reason… they’ve come!”

  As if in response to his excmation, the Door to the basement steps was bsted clean off its hinges, shattering against the far wall.

  “You look like crap old man”

  A tall thin figure stepped carefully down each step arriving before our cells.

  Grandpa Chen smiled in relief.

  “Peak Elder. Never have I been so happy to see your smug smile. And who are you to call me old?!”

  Robed in Deep blue, and sporting a noticeably smug grin stood our savior. He walked with a bounce that gave him a child-like air, and it wasn’t hard to tell that despite his aged appearance, that this was a man who loved life dearly.

  “Elder, if I may ask. How did you know we were here?”

  “Little shū yí informed me she had a dream about prison cells, and noted that despite her dreams being less clear than usual, she could definitely make out one detail for certain. The fat face of a certain pill alchemist.” “I knew you had left to track Hàorán down, and thought things might have gone awry. Shu Yi’s visions are never unimportant. I’ve learned to pce some store on her words.”

  It was all I could do to follow the rapid back and forth. The kind of push and pull that only longtime friends can have. We were… saved?

  “Ah, I’ve been rude it seems. You would be?”

  The peak elder turned to look at me. His smile unnerved me slightly as it never changed or shifted, and it didn't quite reach his eyes.

  I bowed slightly, csping my hands. The man's aura was stifling.

  “That is Yī nuò peak elder. My

  granddaughter.”

  All at once the dreadful pressure I'd been feeling lifted as if I'd only imagined it.

  “You're granddaughter? She looks to be around the same age as you said your daughter was….wait”

  An odd look crossed over the man's face as he slowly shifted to look at grandpa Chen.

  “Surely your daughter didn't… not at such a young age surely?”

  “Just what is going through your head, peak elder?! She's my adoptive granddaughter.”

  “Ah, that does make more sense!”

  The old man let out a hearty ugh. The rapid change in personality scared me a little. Perhaps this Elder was the unreliable type?

  “Cough, anywho. Rescue yes?”

  “Umm… yes?”

  The peak elder ughed again, before grabbing the bars and urging us to step back before effortlessly ripping the entire wall out. He scratched at his chin for a moment as you could see the anxious sweat dripping down his forehead.

  “Bah! Who decided to make the cells this weak anyway eh?”

  It was all I could do to keep smiling respectfully and avoid facepalming like there was no tomorrow.

  With this however, the suffering I’d been through had come to an abrupt end. I was escaping this pce, and no one was left to stop me.

  I dashed forward, flying out of my cell and up the steps toward air unpolluted by the smell of rot and suffering. Hàorán would meet the Dao one day. I would make sure of it, but I was yet still too weak to defeat him.

  If my grandfather had failed with many more years of cultivation and experience both, then who was I to cim I had even a chance. But while it may not be today, the day would come.

  As I stepped out from the basement prison I was met with a somewhat clearer scent. This time of smoke instead of blood. Sunlight shined down on the remaining walls of the home that had once kept me trapped within them.

  A fresh wind blew through the smoldering ashes of this prison, both to me and my loving mother. The earthy scent of freedom.

  At st.

  And as I walked away toward the towering distant trees, it did not fall beneath my notice that there were no bodies left in the house. Hàorán had likely escaped.

  But his day would come. Punishment would be swift, and it would. Be. painful.

  “Keep your neck clean… until next we meet.”