The red fairy rolled her eyes, “Enough showing off. Since the girl is only at the first stage of qi condensation, limit yourselves to the power output of the tenth stage of qi condensation.” The gray-haired woman smiled with a twinkle in her eye. “But of course, please do not refrain from exhibiting your true strength.”

The disciples did as the woman commanded. With the ocean of qi dispersed, the Village of Lost Orphans were all able to breathe easier. Senior Brother Sha helped Qiu’yue up. She was quite pale and her left hand would not stop shaking. Yun Leader Meng tossed Senior Sha an Eight-Herb Recovery Pill, which Sha fed Qiu’yue. The girl’s complexion instantly gained color and painted her cheeks red like a pair of lanterns. Her breathing also slowed and she herself felt filled with strength, standing on her two feet.

Seeing the child has recovered, the Yun Leader situated the rest of the Village on the branches of the Tree of Ten-Thousand Fire Blossoms. Senior Sha who was afraid of heights chose to remain on the ground. Once the red fairy situated herself amongst the colorful blooms of the tree, she snapped open her fan and announced with a smile, “Match begin!”

“Little girl, let’s set some limits on the fight,” Da Gui said as he unsheathed his simple sword. The young man plunged the sword into the earth and drew a 3 meter by 3 meter ring around them. “This is to ensure fairness. After all, we can move very fast over long distances, and you can’t. With a ring this size, even if I can cover the entire distance in a single breath using qi, I can probably do the same just by sprinting. The ring will also ensure you do not simply run around stupidly.”

Hearing these words, Qiu’yue nodded with puckered lips. “That makes sense.”

Gui Fa squinted her eyes and shot a look toward Da Gui. Yun Leader Meng noticed that furtive action and frowned. She gripped her fan tightly.

The three stepped into the ring.

“Gui Fa, rank 100 in the inner sect and of the Yun Division. Remember my name, brat,” the young woman greeted with a nod. She pulled out a bag of holding and from the bag of holding she retrieved a bright yellow umbrella with colorful ribbons at the end.

“Don’t mind the Gu-gu, girl. This big brother here knows you will mature into a ripe peach one day,” Da Gui said with a smirk. He placed his sword perpendicular in front of him, the light glistening on the simple blade like it was the surface of a lake. “Li Da Gui, rank 89 in the inner sect and of the Yue Division. Now who do you want to face first?”

The girl shuffled her feet and fidgeted with her hands. After entering the ring, she felt trapped like a grasshopper. Even if she screamed, she somehow knew no one would help her. The girl swallowed her saliva. And she felt a cold wind assault her back whenever she looked past the confines of the ring, as if warning her to not even think of escaping.

She pointed at Gui Fa, “Umbrella Gu-gu.”

Da Gui bent over and clutched his stomach, tears flowing from his eyes, laughing. “You heard the girl, Umbrella Gu-gu. Please, go first.”

The young woman shot daggers at the man as he left the confines of the ring. Her face reddened to such an extent that her white makeup seemed to have melted off. “Brat, don’t die now.”

Gui Fa opened her umbrella and threw it into the air. She began to chant. Responding to the chant, the umbrella began to spin and the ribbons attached to the bottom bled into one another like a rainbow. Qiu’yue having never fought simply stood frozen in awe and confusion.

“Oi, brat!” Cai shouted. “Don’t just stand there! Go and attack her.”

The girl heard the older boy’s words but still stood there dimwitted for a moment. She shook her head in realization and charged at Gui Fa.

Gui Fa sliced her index finger open with her teeth as she continued to chant. She drew the character for Buddha (佛) repeatedly. The blood character coagulated into a solid mark in less than five breaths. The solid mark contorted into the form of a gigantic palm which measured one meter from the top to the bottom. Gui Fa thrusted the giant blood palm toward the girl. Despite being made of blood and being big, the palm swam through the air quickly.

Qiu’yue who was not used to fighting was unable to react. The palm slammed into her — pushing her back to her initial position — and flattened her into the ground. After the cloud of dust cleared, Qiu’yue laid in a giant palm-shaped crater.

The girl moaned and crawled up the hole. Her entire body was already bruised and cut. Her pants were in tatters and barely covered any skin below her knees. By the time the girl had gotten out of the hole, she found the entire Village, including the aloof twins, pointing at the sky and screaming at her to do the same.

The girl looked up and felt the urge to cry.

The red fairy fanned herself and smiled sadly, her eyes crinkling up. “Aiyah, that is going to burn.”

The umbrella which continued to spin in the sky had grown to encompass the entire 3 meter by 3 meter ring.

Amidst the colorful swirls of the ribbons, lightning danced as a storm was fostered underneath the umbrella. First came the downpour of rain. Then the wind began to blow, causing Qiu’yue’s wet hair to mat against her face and mouth. Finally, thunder rumbled and shook in anticipation.

Da Gui took a few steps back from the ring. He quickly glanced at Yun Leader Meng before looking at Gui Fa.

The lightning deepened in color until soon the bolts which dashed and ruptured in the cloud became purple.

Seeing this, Yun Leader Meng screamed and leapt into the air. “Gui Fa!”

However, it was much too late. The bolts struck the earth like a hail of spears, each as thick as a human boy’s arm. There was no escape from the onslaught. The storm decimated the ring and a blanket of dust made it impossible to see. When the storm stopped, the umbrella quickly shrunk back to its original size and flew back into Gui Fa’s bag of holding.

The ring which had been a luscious green field became a black desert. Amongst the desolate wasteland was Qiu’yue. If not for her cultivating to at least the most basic qi condensation stage, she would not even be in a charred state. The girl would be dead. However, perhaps death would be better.

Exhausted, Gui Fa fell to the ground. The sweat caused her make-up to smear and she appeared deranged.

The red fairy saw this destruction and she cracked her fists. The various ornaments holding her hair together scattered and flew like daggers, piercing Gui Fa’s hands to the ground. Meng Yue’s hair danced wildly about like a hive of hornets.

The Yun Leader slashed her fan at Gui Fa. The earth below exploded and dust scattered. Gui Fa hurtled into a tree and spat out blood. Da Gui who was near to the impact, plunged his sword into the earth and withstood the explosion, albeit with some minor internal bleeding. Senior Brother Sha ran over and helped Qiu’yue to her feet. Cai glanced at the two disciples and clenched his fists. The twins also looked at the inner sect disciples with disgust.

The red fairy landed with such force that she created a crater. “I wanted you to gauge Qiu’er’s abilities — not cripple her!”

Gui Fa laid battered on the earth. Her robes were obliterated, and it was more fitting to call them rags rather than robes. There was not a single place on her body that was not cut or bruised or punctured. Blood gurgled up her throat and spilled forth from her lips. She darted her eyes up toward her division leader, opened her mouth and then closed it. She shifted her eyes away from Yun Leader Meng’s gaze. “Junior Gui Fa is sorry .”

The red fairy slammed her foot down onto the ground and a rift tore open and it reached Da Gui, threatening to swallow him alive. “And you! Li Da Gui, why did you not stop Gui Fa? You two train often together. You must have known that the purple lightning clearly indicated a power output of at least the 5th stage of qi consolidation.”

The young man quickly tilted his head down. He kowtowed and did not lift his head.

The red fairy jolted her head away from the sight of the two and spat at the ground. She rushed over to Qiu’yue.

The girl barely breathed. It was never noticeable when a person breathed regularly, however, in the case of the girl, her chest was so still that she was indistinguishable from a corpse. Yun Leader Meng placed a finger against the girl’s nose and was met with the same weak response.

By then the rest of the Village had made their way down the tree. They all waited in silence. Cai clenched his teeth; Sha was on his knees and weeping; and Meili even allowed Jang-Guo to embrace her as hard as he wanted.

“Not good, not good,” the fairy grumbled. She blew her bangs away from her eyes and then slammed her hand down at her thigh. “Da Gui come here and drag Gui Fa with you.”

The disciple did so. Yun Leader Meng laid Qiu’yue gently onto the ground. She screamed at everyone but the inner sect disciples to stand back.

“You two have caused this, so you two will fix this,” she barked. The usual grace she possessed was gone, and a raging wrath has taken its place. “What we will now perform is called the Triplicity of Innumerable Lotuses Ritual. We must sacrifice three levels of our cultivation each, our vitality essence, and I will give her a tenth of my lifespan.”

The two disciples simply nodded. The orphans who heard this looked at each other in wonder. Senior Sha felt hope return to his heart.

Then the red fairy looked toward the children with a difficult expression. Her fingers kneaded her palms. "And the girl will be unable to learn any external martial skills or engage in the forceful styles of combat. Her body will become very susceptible to blunt blows and her bones will be more brittle than other cultivators; furthermore, a simple cut may fester or simply bleed much more. Though, her natural regeneration will be higher."

Cai opened his mouth to speak, but found Senior Brother Sha's hand covering him. The senior brother told the red fairy to proceed. Cai closed his eyes and tapped on Senior Sha's hand to let him go. He too nodded in confirmation. With difficult sighs, the twins also nodded.

The trio arranged themselves into the shape of a triangle and enclosed Qiu’yue within. All three of them sat cross-legged in the meditation posture. Gui Fa represented the Essence of the cosmos; Da Gui stood for the energy of the cosmos, qi; and Meng Yue embodied the Divinity of the cosmos.

Each of them chanted completely different mnemonics. The individual mnemonics were odd and disconcerting. Yet when layered over one another, a perfect harmony was reached. The longer they chanted, the more full the chord became.

As the trio chanted, the Village observed with incredible awe. Light flowed out of all of them in a triangular form. The triangular light overlaid over Qiu’yue’s charred body. Little by little, the triangles formed a lotus flower, becoming magnificent white petals. As the image of the lotus flower became clearer and clearer, the girl’s charred skin would flake away like rust to reveal white skin reminiscent of seashells, and her lips would become more full and redder than sunsets. Yet, as the girl was being reborn, the trio’s condition increasingly worsened.

Gui Fa who was already at the edge of death meandered in and out of consciousness. Her face became more pale than her white make-up. As she chanted, she could not help but shiver and clack her teeth due to the cold she felt. Her chest heaved in pain and distress.

Da Gui was only slightly better off. His toned body paled to the color of jaundice. His lips turned blue as his bangs turned an ashy-gray.

Surprisingly it was the Yun Leader who was worse off. Blood poured from her ears, eyes, nostrils, and mouth. Her nails cracked and shattered, only to quickly regrow causing intense pain. The gray-haired woman also had to constantly fight a want to arch her back from the immense pain, so as to not disrupt her qi circulation. As the ritual continued, the woman aged more and more as her already existing wrinkles deepened and new ones formed.

After the endurance of 4 incense burnings, the ritual was finally complete. A holy lotus hovered above the girl, shining with the brilliance of bell chimes. The lotus flower pulsed. Once, twice, and a third time. Then it bursted into the triangular lights which formed it in the first place. The lights seeped into the girl and when the last triangular light entered through her forehead, it left a tiny white lotus mark on the top of her brow.

The bodies of the trio glowed, though in different places. For Gui Fa, the spot above the crevice of her breasts glew and a lotus marked formed. However, it was much lighter than Qiu’yue’s and was almost invisible. For Da Gui, the mark formed above his navel and was a deep gold. For Meng Yue, the mark formed on her forehead, where the third eye was postulated to exist, and was a dark red, almost a pitch black.

The Yun Leader got up, almost falling to the ground a few times. Her legs shook and her hands trembled. She told the other two disciples to get up too, and for the both of them to go get some medicinal pills and training dan later.

“I am sorry for what transpired today. These two will be disciplined come this evening,” she said as sweat rolled down her face. She licked her lips. “Tomorrow, this will not happen. And of your conditions, I’ll inform you four after tomorrow’s performance.”

With that, the trio left the tree, each being propped up by the other. The Village of Lost Orphans watched them disappear. Then they looked at Qiu’yue who was now sleeping, hugging herself, with a smile. They all had on a somewhat difficult expression.

Should they be happy that the girl is alive? Or should they be angry at the obvious display of favoritism in such an environment? If one of them had been injured in the same way, would Yun Leader Meng have done the same for them?

The distance which Cai had sought to close seemed to have widened even further than when the girl first joined their small tight-knit family.

What was clear though was that boosting Qiu’yue to an acceptable level had became the new unspoken goal of the group.

Author's Note: Yeah, I'm sorry for the late-ish upload (12:06 A.M. ugh)...I also planned this to be longer too....I blame it all on my AP Lang Exam today. Knocked me right out. But that's all over now (Free at last!) So yeah, this is like 90% finished...I originally planned to feature Da Gui's fighting style as well. And some other stuff. I'll add it probably Friday...Thanks for reading, as always though. (I need to step up my game though...)