Kairi could hear multiple voices speaking at once. She felt extremely heavy and worn out. She struggled to open her eyes and found a set of gentle eyes staring down at her. She blinked multiple times until her eyes finally adjusted. An old woman turned away and cried out to someone, "She's awake!"
Kairi's eyes followed the lady and noticed right away that she was in a strange room. Everything was practically carved out of wood or bamboo. If she didn't know any better, she thought she was in some sort of ancient Chinese era.
Maybe it was all a dream, Kairi thought to herself. She pinched her cheeks and found that it felt quite real. She then tried to recall the last of her memories. She had lost all hope when she got the call that told her she had once again been rejected for a position as an accountant. She had been poor most of her life and filled with nothing but bad luck. Her parents had divorced at a young age and her mother was barely around.
Even at age twenty she was found herself jobless and on the verge of becoming homeless. Somehow she ended up at an extremely old shrine. It was there that she prayed for heaven to take pity on her and help her get rich so she wouldn't have to suffer anymore. The next thing she knew, she was sucked into a pillar of light and found herself here.
She struggled to get up and felt something different about herself. She could feel a strange sensation at the pit of stomach. It swirled around within her and the moment she thought about it, a warm sensation erupted from her stomach and traveled throughout her body. Almost immediately, she began to feel better.
"What's going on...?" she thought. She pulled her arms out from under the silky cover and gasped. Her arms were much smaller than it used to. She looked at herself and realized her entire body was different almost as if she had shrunk.
Jumping out of bed, she searched for a mirror and found a circular polished metal plate that reflected the room. She rushed over and gaped at the reflection before her.
She was no longer herself. A young girl no older than ten years old was staring back at her. She had a petite nose and full lips. Her complexion was pale like the moon and a pair of light eyes stared back at her.
"Wha... what's going on?" she cried only to gasp in horror. Her voice was a strange bell like tone but what surprised her even more was that she was speaking a completely different language.
As if things couldn't get any worse, images of the girl in the reflection flashed over and over in her mind.
"Are these the girl's memories...?" Kairi thought. First she saw the young girl being thrashed about by another girl who looked similar to her.
"Xiao You! Did you honestly think you can get away with embarrassing my mother?" snapped Feng Jiu.
"Jiu Er, she's already dead. If your father finds out about this, even he won't be as lenient," said Madam Feng.
"She's already dead. No one will find out," Feng Jiu hollered.
"No. Do not tempt the dead. I will have A-Gu take her into the forest and leave her body there for animals to feed on. When your father returns, we will tell him that she lost the battle with her sickness and has passed on," Madam Feng conspired.
"Fine. It'll be one less thorn in my side when Zhang Sheng Ge Ge comes," said Yang Jiu.
"Oh my..." Kairi could only gasp at the last horrible memories. The little girl was only ten and she was beaten to death.
What horrible human beings!
She wasn't sure what the two women were to the little girl but they definitely did a number on the little girl. Just as she thought this, the door flung open and the old woman she saw before walked in with an older man. She was sure the both of them were a married couple.
"Ah! Little one, you should not be out of bed! When we found you, you were covered in multiple bruises and scars. You must be in so much pain!" cried the old woman.
"Xiu Wei ah, stop. Look," the old man said as he eyed Kairi. Kairi felt uncomfortable as the old man stared at her.
According to the old woman and her memories, Kairi should indeed feel like she was on the verge of death but she felt just fine. In fact, if she were to take off her clothes to assess herself, she was sure she wouldn't find a bruise or injury on her.
"How...?" The old woman was unable to form any words as she stared at the young girl who had come back from the dead.
"Who are you...?" Kairi asked. She knew she should thank them but she didn't know how to thank people who she didn't know.
"Most curious," the old man marveled. "Little one, when did you start practicing cultivation?"
"Cultivation...?" That was a word that wasn't in Kairi's vocabulary nor in Xiao You's.
When the elderly couple saw the confusion on her face, they realized they had stumble upon a gifted child. They quickly explained that cultivation was the process of gathering the natural energy around them, then absorbing it into the body and turning it into spiritual energy
"Why don't you come sit down and tell all about yourself?" the elder woman suggested. Kairi had no choice but to oblige. She sat down with the old woman quickly introduced herself.
The old woman was Liu Xiu Wei and the old man was Liu Xing Yan. They were husband and wife and also Grandmaster and Madam of the village and Kairi was in and also the leaders of the Liu Sect. They told her that not everyone was born with a core but if they learn to cultivate the energy from within themselves then they could form a core. That core was what helps a person learn martial arts and even create magical pills that could bring one back from the dead.
With this explanation, Kairi couldn't help but keep silent. She didn't know what to say nor what to do. Before all this, she was just a twenty year old jobless nobody, who resorted to praying at a shrine for luck, and suddenly she's a ten year old genius?
"What is your name, Little One?" Madam Liu asked.
"... Xiao You." Kairi decided at the last minute to not tell them her real name. She wasn't herself after all. If someone who knew the real Xiao You came calling, she would have a hard explaining everything.
"Well, Xiao You. Do you know how you ended up in the mountains?"
It was now or never. She had hidden her identity so she might as well continue living as Xiao You until she completely understood her situation.
"I'm not sure. All I remember was I was beaten badly and then carried away. I don't remember where I came from or how I ended up here," Kairi replied truthfully.
"How horrible! Don't you worry, little one. Until you remember where you came from, you can stay here for as long as you like," Madam Liu assured her.
"Thank you, uh..." Kairi paused in midsentence as she wasn't sure what to call her.
"Just call me Grandma Liu," Madam Liu told her.
"Thank you, Grandma Liu."
Grandmaster Liu and Madam Liu left Kairi to rest and returned to their home. Their blind daughter, Liu Mei Er had been waiting for the news of the little girl who had been found in the forest.
"How is she?" she asked.
"She is completely healed as if she had never been injured at all," said Grandmaster Liu. He eyed his daughter and found that she had been smiling as if she had been expecting this.
"Of course she is. After all, that little girl isn't hosting one but two souls," Mei Er simply said. Both her parents stared back shocked.
"What do you mean? Did you see something?" Madam Liu asked. Mei Er had been blind all her life but despite her blindness, she had the ability to see things normal people could not.
"I noticed two auras coming from that little girl's body. The first soul has a fading weak aura. The other one is most strange. The aura from the second soul is different from everyone else here almost as if she was someone of a different world," she said.
"Could an evil spirit have possessed the little girl?"
"Not likely. Probably just a lost soul who entered the little girl's body by accident but the aura emitting off of her strange. Unlike everyone else whose aura is a golden color because of their golden core, hers isn't distinct. It's colorless yet it's bright," said Mei Er.
"I heard a rumor that the Council of Eden is looking for a girl of destiny who is supposed to appear during the full moon. This strange little girl happened to appear from a pillar of light during the night of a full moon. This can't be a coincidence," Grandmaster Liu stated.
"Lao Yei ah, she's just a ten year old girl. You aren't planning on handing her over to Eden, are you?" Madam Liu asked. She eyed her husband warily.
"Fu Ren, I'm no saint but I'm not cold hearted enough to send a ten year old girl to her death. When she becomes an adult, we'll tell her the truth. She can decided whether she wants to stay or leave," Grandmaster Liu said.
"She might not have that chance," Mei Er suddenly said. The elderly couple turned their attention on their blind daughter. Before they even had the chance to ask, Mei Er had already started to explain.
"The original soul isn't dead yet and as you know, a body can only host one soul. If the original soul doesn't die, eventually the energy between both souls will fight with each other until one is dead or until the body can no longer hold out. By then neither souls will survive."
"What will we do?" Madam Liu asked.
"For now, we'll just watch her. We'll deal with it then when it happens," Grandmaster Liu stated. As the three of them had suddenly decided this, Kairi was pacing back in forth in her room, wondering how what she was going to do from now on.