Time dashed, and night followed like a thief.
I had run low on exhaustion and doubt.
In their place, hope bloomed but for someone in my situation, hope was worse.
Hope made you reckless.
Hope made you believe you had something to lose.
I pressed my back against the cold cell wall.
It smelled of death and despair, radiating an air designed to break the strongest hearts and wills until one lost the will to live entirely.
My heart pounded like crazy like a flood was invading my body.
I had to control my breathing.
If I didn't, the tightness in my chest would break me.
The 36,000 souls came in handy when I lost control.
Thinking of Makena.
The blood. Everything I'd done to get stronger.
Knowing that any moment, a Meridian or Chakra Bloom could come and take her away it was killing me in my chest.
I studied the guards and moved in reverse, making sure they never saw me.
I passed through tiny cracks that only half starved slaves like me could fit through.
I knew my enemy and their patterns.
They were careless no cultivator aside from Chen Ping would show up in these ruins.
Shift breaks. Changes. Lazy ones always with food in their mouths.
One guard scratched his nose. Another yawned.
A third's eyes drifted closed, and he forced them open.
I moved like invisible wind before his lazy eyes opened.
I tapped and pushed the wooden door slightly super quiet, using just my fingers.
Luckily, I'd oiled the hinges beforehand for this silent sneak in.
She was too alert like she was ready for an attack any second.
Her feet dangled above the floor. Blankets rumpled behind her. Golden hair fell in messy tangles across her perfect face.
Her eyes turned toward me the moment I entered.
She still had that golden, cute aura that gave me hope and a reason to survive all this hardship.
The reason I pushed myself to become better.
"Finally. That took you ages and a millennium."
"Stop exaggerating, Makena."
I quietly closed the door behind me. It reminded me I was still a slave.
Timing guards' patterns. Shift breaks.
Slipping through cracks just to see her.
But I reminded myself it was temporary.
I wouldn't go down like my dad.
She tilted her head, and I could see her full beauty unraveling.
She was dazzling. Mesmerizing. Her lips had that pink color.
I picked out a Meridian blade from the gold diamond on my face the door to my pocket dimension, even as a mortal.
It was the standard height of all ordinary swords, but ten times more powerful than any sword of the same level.
I'd killed and refined eleven evil cultivators to make this blade. Totally worth it.
She looked at the sword with awe.
"Little ghost..."
"Take it. This is for you.
You already broke through to Pulse Awakening.
And you've got manuals you either stole or were granted by the Daoist Master."
She looked at me with gratitude and love. Then an expression I couldn't read.
"I have something to show you. The sword came at the perfect time."
"What is it, Makena? Why do I get the feeling you've been hiding this from me for a long time?"
"I found something too."
She reached under her mattress and pulled out an old, nasty, ancient looking manual.
The leather cover was eroding, wearing out.
"The Sword Empress Manual," she said. "A guard hid it to sell it for a hundred million spirit stones.
He was gonna sell it and make a fortune, live a comfortable life. I guess I'm a dream blocker now."
When she opened it, I saw pictures of women in inhuman, impossible poses. Swords tracing arcs of light through the air.
Pictures on how to pose, stand in all directions with the blade.
Fight without losing balance, creating openings to counterattack.
"How long have you had this?"
"Three weeks. Sorry for hiding it.
I had no sword, and with our predicament, it would've been too much asking you to help with one.
I wanted to surprise you. So... surprise. I've been learning without a sword for so long."
"Okay. Show me what you've learned."
She stood in a magnificent Chinese combat style.
Light landed on the Meridian blade, and she looked completely different as if she'd never been a slave, never been in chains.
She positioned herself with her hand on the hilt.
Her feet were shoulder width apart, knees bent.
"Sword Empress First Stance," she said, waiting with the blade.
She was still. Barely moved. But I sensed the fluctuations. A pressure. A weight. The way the air feared to touch her.
"Where did you learn it?"
"I read and mastered it. Practiced." She stared at me. "While you were on your killing spree and stealing crystals."
"How many nights now?"
"Twenty three? I've been here twenty-three nights with a wooden sword, practicing. While you were getting crazy action."
She was stronger than me in a special way not raw power, but something deeper.
"Okay. Teach me the next one, teacher."
She lowered her sword in surprise. "You wanna learn?"
"Yeah. I wanna learn and understand the sword arts like you.
Become one with my weapon. So we can fight our way out and escape."
She was quiet. Thoughtful. Then a spark lit in her eyes, and a malicious smile spread across her face.
"I will teach you."
"Okay, I change my mind now"
"Second Stance: The Striking Serpent."
Her movement was super fast my eyes couldn't keep up.
Her blade sliced through the air like a silver arc. I heard it echo.
Not the sound of metal cutting air it was air screaming as it was torn apart into bits.
She pivoted on her heels.
The sword came in vertical and horizontal slices that could sever my head clean off in one strike.
"Third Stance: The Falling Petal."
She dropped magnificently controlled, not a collapse or a slip.
Her body folded into itself.
The blade swept low, carving invisible lines through the space where my legs and tendons would be.
She spun 360 degrees, rose, and slashed.
"Fourth Stance: The Rising Moon."
The blade came up in a vertical arc, forming a moon rising with six star slashes rotating around the attack.
She was outlined and showered in crimson silver light.
The sword had become an extension of her hand like she was born holding it.
She paused to catch her breath.
Her breathing was unstable, her heart pounding like crazy.
She'd pushed herself beyond her current capability.
"So far, this is what I've learned.
There are twelve more stances.
I need lots of time. But sadly, we have a lot less of that. In ninety days, I'll be married off."
"I won't let that happen, okay? I'll get us out before that happens. You've got nothing to stress about."
"Let me demonstrate something."
I copied her movements exactly as I'd seen them.
But I was way off not fluid, not like water. Off balance.
But thanks to my killing spree, my precision and speed were a lot better than Makena's.
"Wow. You're not bad.
I guess I never have to worry about you being left behind or too slow."
She took the sword back. When our hands touched, I felt sparks of love.
"Teach me to survive too," she said.
"I will. Outside these walls.
When I don't have to hide and pass through cracks with my thin, skinny body.
I'll teach you to survive, and we'll escape before the wedding day. We train and work hard like crazy, okay?"
"Okay. I trust you."
I gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. Then moved to her hair, her neck, down to her breasts.
I turned her around, massaging her breasts slowly while kissing her neck.
I gave her medium hard doggie strokes while holding her mouth to muffle her moans.
Our bodies merged and intertwined for an hour until she fell asleep.
I dashed back to my cell.