Ascension through the Abyss

Chapter 5: Lan Xiu

Lan Xiu stayed beside Ren's bed until his breathing became slow and steady. The healer had already changed his bandages, and the room smelled of herbs. Ren looked much more peaceful now, although the bruises on his face were still there. He looked so young while he slept that it was hard to believe he had gone through so much.

She gently brushed the hair away from his forehead.

"You always find a way to worry me," she whispered with a faint smile.

Ren didn't answer. Her eyes slowly moved to the pendant lying on the small table beside the bed. A long c***k ran across it. She reached for it and held it in her hand for a few moments. It felt no different than before, yet somehow it didn't feel the same. Quietly, she slipped it into her sleeve.

"I'm going home for a while," she said.

Bi Wen Hao was standing near the window with his hands behind his back.

"I'll stay here," he replied without taking his eyes off Ren.

Lan Xiu gave a small nod before quietly leaving the room.

The compound was still busy even though the sun was beginning to set. Some disciples were still training. The sound of wooden swords hitting each other echoed across the training grounds. Servants walked from one courtyard to another carrying food, while groups of disciples talked excitedly about the tournament.

A few people greeted Lan Xiu as she walked past. She smiled and greeted them back, but her thoughts were somewhere else. She couldn't stop thinking about the pendant. For sixteen years it had stayed exactly the same.

Today... It cracked.

She didn't believe it happened by chance. By the time she reached home, the house was quiet. Kai was still at the training grounds, and Wen Hao hadn't returned from the clinic. She walked straight to her room and gently closed the door behind her

For a long moment she simply stood there before walking towards the old cabinet in the corner of the room. She pushed aside a few folded blankets and pulled out a small wooden chest. Dust had covered the lid. She took a good look at it for a while before wiping the dust away with her sleeve. She couldn't remember the last time she had opened it.

Taking a slow breath, she lifted the lid. Only three things were inside- A neatly folded white cloth, an empty wooden box, and a small round metal disc with most of its markings worn away by time.

She ignored the metal disc and picked up the cloth instead. The moment her fingers touched it, memories she had buried for years came rushing back.

It had been winter. Snow covered the Blackwood Forest, and she had chosen the shorter path home before nightfall. Halfway through the forest, she heard a baby crying. At first she thought she had imagined it.

Then she heard it again. She followed the sound until she reached a small clearing. Luo and behold a baby was lying there, wrapped in white cloth.

There was nobody around nor was there any footprints. Just the child.

What frightened her most wasn't the baby. It was the snow. Snow fell all around him, yet not a single snowflake landed on the cloth wrapped around his body. She stood there for what felt like forever battling with her self. Every instinct told her something was wrong. But she couldn't leave a baby there to die.

She bent down, picked him up, and held him close. Without looking back, she hurried home.

Lan Xiu looked down at the cloth in her hands. It hadn't changed at all. Sixteen years had passed, yet it still looked almost new. She had shown it to tailors, travelling merchants, and even a few cultivators who had visited the Bi Family.

None of them had ever seen anything like it. She slowly turned it over. There was a faded symbol which is still stitched into one corner. She still didn't know what it meant.

The pendant was broken. She didn't know why. But it scared her. Her thoughts drifted back to Ren. Not the baby she found in the forest. But the boy she had raised. She remembered teaching him how to walk, and how excited he was after opening his First Meridian.

She remembered waking up before sunrise many mornings and finding him already outside training alone. Even after years of failure, he never stopped trying. People laughed at him. Some even pitied him. Even Wen Hao slowly stopped believing he would ever catch up.

But Ren never complained. Every time he fell, he stood up again and continued training. Many nights, after everyone had gone to sleep, Lan Xiu cried quietly by herself. Not because Ren had failed. But because he refused to give up.

Now everything was beginning to change. His Third Meridian had opened. She looked down at the pendant resting in her hand, wondering if it had any connection to Ren.

For just a second... she thought she saw a faint light inside the c***k. She blinked but nothing was there or maybe she imagined it. She carefully folded the white cloth and placed it back inside the chest. The empty wooden box went in beside it. Then placed the old metal disc back where it had been. Once she was done, She closed the lid and slowly pushed the chest back into the cabinet. Some things were better left hidden.

At least... for now.

She rested one hand on the old wooden chest and closed her eyes.

"I only wanted you to grow up like everyone else," she whispered. She wiped the tears from her face and quietly left the room.

The chest remained hidden in the darkness. But deep inside, Lan Xiu knew that whatever had been buried for sixteen years... had finally begun to wake up.

What Lan Xiu didn't noticed was that, the worn metal disc inside that chest suddenly gave off a faint glow... before going dark again.