The Jade Dagger of Kunlun

The Seamstress and the Thief

Mo Yuans second trial for the pair was a little more harsher than their first and this one would give Ye Hua a taste of misfortune which they all had to experience at least once, and being his first real trial, Ye Hua would learn much from it as well as Si Yin.

Once again the pair took the potion that would take their memories before he bound their powers, then taking them to a small pool which he kept at the back of Kunlun Mountain, they both jumped into it.  

The pool itself was a re-birthing pool, similar to the one held in the Celestial Heavens and overseen by Lord Pua, though thanks to the divine energy that saturated the Mountain, his pool was just as effective and the Celestials and one Die Feng ensure was used regularly by his juniors.

Now watching on as Si Yin jumped in not long after Ye Hua left, Mo Yuan returned to his study to write out the three monthly report for her mother.  He did not hold back with his concerns, and nor did he sugar coat anything.  But he did make it clear he wanted her to continue her learning under him, while at the same time learning from herself and her own actions via her trials.  From there, he then gave her a thorough briefing of the trial her daughter was experiencing and what he expected her to learn from it.

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Trial two.

Discarded at birth for not being the son her parents desperately wanted, Bai Qian found herself raised in an orphanage, though as she got older, she was eventually moved into a sweat shop at the age of seven where she worked for the Emperor in exchange for her keep.

Given so little to eat and forced to work up to sixteen hours a day if not more, her small tired body began to wither from malnutrition and abuse.  But she was a hardy girl who kept her head down and her mouth shut and just did as she was told.   Sometimes the overseer would give her a little extra for being good, but it was never enough to take the pangs of hunger that followed her everywhere she went.

For twelve years she laboured day and night just to keep herself alive, while watching on as many of the other children died or were thrown out for disobedience.  She had no friends, and nor did she attempt to make any, her only desire in life was to leave when she was sixteen and make a life for herself.

She was an accomplished seamstress, so she had an honest skill to carry her through the rest of her life, and having also learned the art of haggling for cloth with very little money, she knew she would be able to support herself in time. 

She held no malice or anger at her fate, she merely accepted it as her destiny, one that she was grateful to the Emperor for.  Had she not been given the opportunities she had, she would have died a long time ago.

And so her sixteenth birthday came.  Given a small bag filled with a few coins and a change of clothing the doors to the large factory she had lived most of her life in, were thrown wide.  Saying farewell to the woman who had shown her a little kindness, she stepped out into the busy throng of bodies and left with a head full of dreams.

Ye Hua on the other hand was born to a prostitute.  Growing up rough, his days were spent scouting the wealthy and pick pocketing whatever he could get in order to sell it or swap for necessities.  A bright boy with a good head for numbers, he also learned to keep his mothers ledgers, so if a client ripped her off, he knew about it.

From the tender age of eight, Ye Hua was not only managing his mothers books and bringing in a little money of his own, he was also heading his own small street gang of boys who he taught the tricks of his trade.  

"Taking from a pocket is like watching a fox.  If he is alert to you, its ears will perk up, just like a man.  If he senses you are near, he will automatically put his hands in his pocket and hunch his body up.  You will not get near him." he said having lined his young potential boys up into a line.