Remembering You For Eternity

2.1 Dormant Magnolia (1)

No males -- normal or cultivators alike, peasant or royalty -- would be foolish enough to offend a Ping sect's cultivator.

The female cultivators were mostly virgins. Their cultivation path and teaching of martial-art did not allow the practitioners to have any physical relationship with a man. After all, males generally possessed yang energy.

Although it was the norm to keep the balance between yin and yang, Ping sect cultivated in extreme yin. To have a yang qi staining a Ping sect's cultivator's yin qi, it would cripple the practitioner's cultivation, burning all their long-years of hard work to nothing. Then, they would have no other choice but to be banished from the sect and live as normal humans, never able to cultivate anymore.

Few cases had happened before. Some women chose to abandon their cultivation and left the sect to satisfy their worldly and fleshly desire.

Ping sect also accepted disciples that were no longer pure maidens. But at most, these females could only be martial-artists. Their qi -- that had been stained with a yang energy in the past -- could no longer be purified to learn the most powerful and secretive cultivation art of the sect.

Nevertheless, to be a martial artist was still a salvation for this women. Their past was usually less than flowery -- having been raped and abused, or thrown aside by their loved ones. To be able to cultivate -- albeit only to a limited level -- gave them enough power to at least continue living and defend themselves.

In some cases, even to exact revenge.

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Although Zuo Empire flourished with bountiful resources, there were always some decrepit places which the gods seemingly forgot to bless. The lavishly living royal rulers of Zuo also disregarded these places to be anything of importance.

A rundown village located a few thousand li outside a secluded valley, was such a place. It could not even be called as a village anymore, as the previously very simple structures that a few-tens of people had called home were now burnt to the ground.

The village had just been pillaged by bandits, not leaving any breathing body behind. What the bandits actually managed to plunder was anyone's guess, as the village was hardly a top choice to gain quick riches.

A female Sage and her aide -- a female Enlightened -- walked steadily, passing the many lying corpses that were partly covered with ash.

Both women looked no older than their late twenties, despite both being considerably a few handful more years older than how they looked.

The Sage's name was Zhu Hong(4). She was one of the five Sages of Ping sect, having attained her current cultivation level three years prior.

The Enlightened was Ju Huang (5). Although technically she was Zhu Hong's shimei of the same generation, she had been stuck in her cultivation level for the past decade. Zhu Hong was one of the more talented individuals, to have attained the highest cultivation level known to man - the Sage - in her considerably young age.