Prophecy Of The Stars

32. LITTLE GIRL, AM WAITING FOR YOU

To keep the Wan family under their control, the emperor issued an edict for marriage and bestowed Wan Bei with the title- Princess Rulan.

The wedding was set for eight months later, in the first month of winter of the twenty-seventh year of the emperor Chu Tian Fan's rule in Chang'an.

The Wan family was surprised by the sudden decree for marriage.

Wan family had yet to receive news of Wan Bei's progress so they were kept in dark about the true motive of such a sudden declaration. They were ignorant to the fact that the letters she sent all were intercepted, altered and then sent to the Wan family.

Betrothal gifts were sent from the palace that was carried in twenty carriages. News about an impending royal wedding flashed through the streets secretly fueled by some forces working in the dark.

Marriage edict along with news of recent talks in the streets of Chang'an reached Wan Bei. Rage filled her heart but she still maintained a gentle face and received the edict.

Her friends and followers surrounded her and congratulated both Wan Bei and Chu Tianyin.

Chu Tianyin let out a sigh of relief now that things were firmly under his control. He expressed thanks for the wishes he received, all the while pretending to be surprised by the sudden decree.

Before today, Chu Tianyin's previous predicament affected his training,  whereby he reached a slump unable to advance.  Now that things have all returned to its original place, the ominous feeling he had in his heart was eliminated.
..............

Twenty days passed by as usual for all inside the sect.

But inside the confinement chamber, Wan Huang barely held on to her life after twenty days of torture.

Today was the last day of her punishment. The pain she suffered for the last twenty days, cruelly reminded her again of the fact that she could not trust anyone but her in this life.

Being kind and merciful to the enemy means being ruthless to oneself.

In her previous life, she trusted two fiends who reaped her life.

This life she became stupid and relaxed her guard which allowed others to harm her. It was her fault.

It doesn't matter if she did or did not do something, she would always be plotted against. This was what she realized after suffering through the torture.

She steeled her heart and swore to protect herself. She swore that she would inflict the same pain upon those who calculated against her. With this she went into a daze, her mind became foggy and she closed her eyes.

Suddenly her spiritual core stirred, and her meridians swelled up. The last round of punishments began and the lightning bolts started to hit her. This time there were no new wounds formed on her body, nor did any blood was spilt.

The bolts of lightning were mysteriously absorbed into her body. More accurately, her spiritual core, which pulsated and rotated exuberantly.

With each strike landing on her, brownish crud like substance was pushed out of her body through her skin.

As more and more grime was excreted out, spiritual energy condensed around her core, rushing through every single veins, meridians and bone. Wan Huang remained in a trance to notice this bizarre incident.

Nor did the jail keepers notice this anomaly.

According to them, she was just a mediocre young cultivator whose spiritual energy was sealed. She wasn't worthy of their surveillance.

Who knew, later in the future they realised with regret, If, only if they had been a little bit more serious in their duty they might have preserved their lives.

The simmering green-blue colour around her suddenly flared into azure blue colour and the eighth lightning bolt struck her - profound Earth Level 7.

Ninth bolt-  profound Earth Level 8.

Tenth bolt - profound Earth Level 9.

The last lightning bolt struck her with a violent pack of energy.

Energy, with much power that it directly transcended the bottleneck phase, propelling her cultivation to Profound SKY level 1.

Entering the new domain of cultivation, Wan Huang's body was energized, greatly curtailing her pain but her mind was listlessly wandering in an unknown space.

Xiufeng's jaw was about to fall off from his skull, witnessing the aberration.

In the past few days, he helplessly watched her writhing in pain. He drowned himself in self-blame for not cultivating properly. He blamed himself for not protecting her properly. He was overcome by grief watching her pale and lifeless body suffering such torture day after day.

And then, suddenly, such a thing happened.

He was delighted by the surprise that came out of misfortune. He was joyful, excited and God knows what all emotions surged in him. He just wanted to hug her and cry in relief. So he waited for her to wake up.
..........

Far away, in a foreign place, two men stood facing each other.

"She's back?." The black-robed man asked, his voice trembled to betray the complex emotions he was trying to hide.

The white-robed man faintly hummed in reply. His face remained emotionless but the faint light of hope and excitement emanating from his eyes were as clear as day.

"Is she fine? Is she happy? She..." The former stumbled for words.

"She needs to walk this perilous path. It's her fate. You and I cannot help her now. She needs to move along this path alone until she reaches here. She will arrive soon, so you should begin the preparations."

The latter threw out his words and disappeared in a blink. The black-robed man lingered in the room for a while and left.

"Little girl, I am waiting for you."
...........

Wan Huang came out of her stupor after a few hours. The last thing she remembered was the pain that ran through her body after being tortured by those lightning strikes.

Then, she found herself amidst the fog which was so thick that she could not even see her own hands or feet.

Sensing the dense spiritual particles in the fog, she sat down and meditated. After a while, she felt her ranks rising and it stopped at the profound sky level.

Wan Huang opened her eyes. She felt odd.

For the things around her, in the faint flickering light, even the tiniest detail about them entered her eyes, like the cobwebs in the dark corner of the roof and the dust that settled around the small broken table, discarded at the corner.

She could hear the voices of the guards gossipping outside the chamber, the shrill chirping of grasshoppers

She examined herself and noticed that just the surface wounds remained on her body. Her pain was long gone, she was perfectly fine and filled with energy.

She took out the jade pendant her master gave her. This pendant could mask the real cultivation of the wearer.

She adjusted her cultivation to profound earth level 6-her previous level.

She chose to hide her true cultivation level to avoid unnecessary attention and troubles. If anyone came to know about her true strength, she can't be sure they will have no intentions towards her. As the saying goes, a big tree attracts the wind.

She communicated telepathically with Xiufeng and assured him. After everything was said and done, she waited for the doors of the confinement chamber to be opened.