There was hardly any issue attaining the cultivation stage of Martial-Artist for YuLan and the other girls who were admitted at around the same time. Over the past years, they had steadily stepped into the cultivation path, became Establisheds, and steadily progressed to be Martial-Artists. While most of them became novice Martial-Artists, YuLan, Xiao Zi, and Zhen Zhu soon advanced their cultivation to be mid-tier Martial-Artists.
Although it sounded simple and still within the same rank, normally it involved long years of secluded meditation and training, to advance from a novice to a mid-tier. It would become even more difficult to progress to a high-tier Martial-Artist. At the moment, only Cao Lu tethered at that level, continuously and diligently training to prepare herself for the Enlightened rank. This could happen years later, or even decades. Only time would tell.
Nevertheless, as Martial-Artists, the girls were now eligible to be taught the most basic but incredibly useful skill for a cultivator.
Zhu Hong and Hu Lan were the two Sages in charge of teaching the disciples the way of qing-gong (1).
However, although initially everyone was excited, soon they found out that this light-step lesson was probably one that the teenage disciples hated the most, considering the method the two Sages used.
Every end of day, when dusk approached, this was the time the yin lake brimmed with the purest of yin energy. At this time, the Sages summoned all of the disciples to gather on top of a hill overlooking the lake.
Every dusk, Zhu Hong and Hu Lan drilled the same theory over and over again towards the disciples.
"You must not let your mind think faster than your inner-qi flow. As soon as your foot touches the air, make the energy pool beneath your first steeping foot, then to the other, then re-do it all over again. It must be as thoughtless and natural as breathing."
"Now that you know how to regulate your qi, you have the capability to do this. This will become second nature to you in time."
"The air has substance. It is extremely light, but with proper regulation of your inner-qi, it could very well be as hard and steady as the ground. The idea is to make your fleshly body lighter than the invisible substance we normally call air."
Then the Sages ruthlessly asked each and everyone of the teenage girls to jump.
They planned to keep doing that until everyone of them was capable of flight, and not plunging into the yin lake below.
For the new Martial-Artists with unsteady and mostly unpurified qi, this was torture. Although it was not as painful as when they were first admitted into the sect, at their current cultivation level, they were still incapable of fully protecting their body from the freezing property of the yin lake.
For many nights of the months, the girls could only do the single thing normal humans would do: step one foot off the hill's edge, then fall straight into the water. Then they would spend the rest of the night meditating inside their rooms, trying to stabilize their qi that had been attacked by the yin lake before.
In short, it was a daily torment for everyone, apart for YuLan. As she did not feel the slightest discomfort being submerged inside the yin lake even for the longest of times, she thought that she should just concentrate on actually flying.
"When there is no fear, one can focus on the task at hand."
"Flying. Should be easy, right?"
For the umpteenth time – she no longer counted – she took the leap of faith off the hill, and free-falling into the lake again.
Even as her feet touched the water surface -- just like many nights of months before -- she groaned in exasperation. If she had not actually seen the various Sages, Enlighteneds, and even Cao Lu flying around like there was no care in the world, she would think that she was going crazy.
As she hauled herself to reach the edge of the lake and faintly heard another splash behind her, she sighed.
She should count herself lucky. At least for her, not only she did not feel any pain, her robes were also never wet.
The yin lake still thought of her as its own.
Cao Lu was by the edge of the lake, extending her hand towards YuLan and Xiao Zi, who had just fallen into the lake as well. The latter's eyebrows were knitted in discomfort, and her teeth were chattering. With a pull, Cao Lu assisted to lift both girls off the water.
"You see, it took me almost a year to figure it out. And I felt so stupid for even trying to figure it out." Cao Lu laughed lightly at the two girls who clearly had vexation written all over their faces.
Two more girls were hauled off the water, one of them was Zhen Zhu – Sage Xiang Ya's disciple.
Everyone – sans YuLan – was shivering and looked at Cao Lu attentively.
"The key is just as Zhu Hong Shishu and Hu Lan Shishu have told you. Hence why they keep repeating it again everyday."
"Do not let your mind think faster than the flow of your energy."
"In fact, do not think at all!" Cao Lu glanced at YuLan, "This, more than anyone else, applies to you, YuLan shimei. You always think a lot. To reach the Dao, is to attain nothingness. The same principle applies to qing-gong. You cannot reach nothingness when you keep thinking."
Cao Lu then left the girls to ponder about the meaning for the rest of the night, where YuLan joined her friends in meditation.
Normally, they could be in the state of nothingness during meditative state. From the look of it, they had to start applying the same state of mind – state of emptiness – outside meditation.
It was easier said than done, but over gradual time, it became a habit.
Just like the Sages had said before – it must be as thoughtless and natural as breathing.
Over the next few dusks, Zhu Hong and Hu Lan were very pleased to see that some of the girls managed to take extra steps hovering mid-air. They still fell into the lake in the end, but it was no longer the mere jump-and-fall like so many evenings before.
Three full months later, the outer-disciples at the other end of the lake saw a stream of teenage girls – the new inner-disciples that they had not seen for years ever since they were initiated – flying unassisted. Some were more wobbly than the others, but everyone finally succeeded mastering the art of qing-gong.
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As females, they were still bound by the law of nature, including puberty that marked them entering the preliminary state of adulthood.
Soon, all of them had their first menstruation.
YuLan blankly looked at the bright red cinnabar mark dotted on the inside of her elbow, that had just been bestowed onto her by Zhu Hong.
It was again, a practice that she had only seen in movies in her past life; and even then, she did not believe the effectiveness of a red dot to prove someone's virginity.
Fate was truly funny – who would have guessed that she would ever have the opportunity to be marked as well.
The red cinnabar powder used by Ping sect was made by Sage Hu Lan. It was derived from a normal crushed stone, mixed with a venom of a breed of poisonous red spider, and the water of yin lake. Once applied on the skin, the cold property of yin lake's water, and the purified venom blended with the female cultivators' qi ..
When a female engaged in a sexual relationship with a male, her yin energy would be contaminated with the male's yang energy. As yang energy was warm by nature, the male's qi would enter the female's qi stream and ultimately melt the concentrated cold red-cinnabar mark.
In short, if the cinnabar mark disappeared, that meant the female cultivator had lost her innocence to a man.
Zhu Hong gripped onto YuLan's hand tightly soon after the red cinnabar mark was dotted on her,
"Lan-er. You must not lose your purity. You have a bright future. Your qi is that of a pure yin, none of your ancestors had it before. It will be very easy to master the secret-arts of Ping sect with your innate talent and your qi disposition. Do not throw your future away for a man!"
YuLan saw the raging fire and hope inside her shifu's eyes.
She could not do anything but to stay silent.
She wanted to find SongLi in this world. Thus, she must stay as a disciple of Ping sect to strengthen herself so she could roam the world to look for him. What good would it be just to search blindly without being able to protect herself?
But after she found him, wouldn't physical relationship be the next thing she would crave for?
She was certainly not an asexual person, nor was she a prude nun.
Even if SongLi's incarnation was to only be half as attractive as he used to be, YuLan would most probably still eat him clean.
The red cinnabar mark, was bound to disappear one day.
She sighed heavily inside her heart. Ping sect had become her new family, her friends, her new sisters. Zhu Hong acted like a motherly figure that always thought of her best interests.
But YuLan could not let go of her tie to her past, especially towards SongLi.
Even her Dao path was linked to him. Only when she sank deep inside her own mind, focusing her whole existence to his memories – only then could she find her state of nothingness. Because in her perfect world, he had to exist. Nothing else mattered, not even her chance of attaining immortality in this cultivation world.
She knew. She would be disappointing Zhu Hong in the future.
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It had been ten years since YuLan set foot inside Ping sect. Although she did not know her exact birth date, she was slightly more or less, fifteen years old.
The island where Ping sect cultivators made their home was pretty expansive, however having spending so many years there, one was bound to get bored. There was hardly any other living beings, apart from the cultivators and the cranes. Even the yin lake was devoid of fish.
However, the water bodies that extended from the lake, to the small streams running through the sect's many buildings, hosted a peculiar life form. A serpent-like small creatures made the streams their home.
The creatures were normally food for the cranes, but it was also used by Sage Hu Lan as medicinal ingredients. The serpents always made their way to the banks of yin lake to lay eggs at the end of their lives. When the eggs almost hatched, the water brought them back to the small streams. The hatched serpents would spend their lives, mated, or getting eaten by the birds, then do the cycle all over again. It was truly a mundane - somewhat sad - existence. Perhaps that was why YuLan was pretty fond of the serpents. Although she had been reprimanded a few times before by her seniors, everytime she came across a serpent almost being eaten by a crane, she would save it.
(YuLan and the small serpent)
Amongst her peers, she became a weird girl who constantly talked to serpents.
"Ah-Lan!" Xiao Zi called out to the girl who was yet talking to a small serpent. YuLan hastily released the animal and flashed a smile at her childhood friend. She knew Xiao Zi hated snakes.
"Is it almost time to leave, Xiao Zi?"
Xiao Zi had also grown into a beautiful young maiden at nineteen years old. Although she was really small in stature when she was younger, her current physique was lithe and womanly. This was also attributed to her cultivation and her cleansed meridians. The cultivation way of life tempered the girls' body to be in the best state they could be.
(Xiao Zi, who has truly grown into a Mei Zi - "Beautiful Purple")
"Hn." Xiao Zi nodded, still looking at the spot the serpent had scurried away to. She truly did not understand the fascination with slimy snake looking creatures. Finally, she just shrugged. If there was one thing Xiao Zi knew about YuLan, her younger friend was different. Perhaps it was due to YuLan's difficult childhood that made her somewhat weird, though mature beyond her years.
"DaShijie and ah-Zhu are already waiting by the edge of the lake. And you really should start calling me ah-Zi, ah-Lan!!" Xiao Zi squinted her eyes in chastising manner.
YuLan laughed and walked alongsige her friend, "Sorry, ah-Zi! Old habit dies hard."
In her previous live, she had never called her friends and loved ones that way. Her mind drifted away for a bit as she remembered the people she had cherished in her past life. Her china doll, Xiao Hui, even the two scholars, and her Jing family. Feeling sad all of a sudden, YuLan quickly shook her head to take her mind off the distant memories.
She had truly been looking forward to this particular day, and she should be feeling the excitement instead.
When all of the girls could fly confidently and had attained the mid-rank of Martial-Artists, the elders decided to let them leave the sect to go to a certain place, under supervision of Cao Lu.
YuLan, Zhen Zhu, and Xiao Zi were to accompany Cao Lu. This was because the trio were the best in their cultivation amongst their peers of novice to mid-ranked Martial-Artists. Cao Lu herself almost broke-through to be an Enlightened.
This time, they had to head north, to a barren land beyond a mountain range at the far end of the continent.
The land of Yanshi (2) was supposed to be completely barren, desolate, and untouched by humans. However, it had a precious asset: there was an ancient rock formation, almost cave-like, though much bigger in size, that had been frequented by cultivators specializing on sword-arts for as long as history could tell.
In the labyrinth-like formation, forces of nature and pure qi energy circulating there gave birth to some of the strongest crystals and metals known to man. Although the path leading there was arduous with rough terrains and uncivilized settlements, the crystals and metals were some of the most preferred substances for the cultivators to be their swords' blades.
In fact, Tian – the strongest blade used to be owned by the late Sage Shuan Yi – was also made of one of the crystals he had obtained there.
Because none of the Sages of Ping sect would be accompanying the girls, they had also contacted the two other major sects for co-operation. After all, Wu Shan sect and Hui Lin sect also had their own teachings that utilize sword-arts. With the absence of the elders, the representatives from the three sects would be enough to guide and protect their younger martial-siblings throughout the journey.
En-route, Cao Lu would meet with Shen Wei of Wu Shan sect, and Zuo BingTan of Hui Lin sect. The trio were the DaShijie and DaShixiongs of their respective sects. Although they already had their own swords, they were responsible to ensure safety of their shidis and shimeis, especially when the mission involved them obtaining their swords.
The trio had done similar journeys in the past to obtain the material needed to make their swords, assisted by either their seniors or their shifus.
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Notes:
(1) I previously referred to the light step/fly skill as "xing-gong" when it was introduced in 2.6. But then I started using qing-gong (lol), from now on, this is the term I will keep using.
(2) Yanshi means rock.