Wu Meiying sat at her desk, tapping her quill against a scroll of parchment.

The desk was a work of art. Ornate designs painted in gold flowed elegantly across the silver surface, glimmering in the sunlight pouring through the open entrance. She rarely ever used this desk, so it often sat in a corner, but she had brought it out today because she had something important she needed.

On the parchment was a list of ingredients, some of which were quite obscure like the hair of a unicorn’s main and flame dragon blood. The only place she could acquire ingredients like this was in the Heavenly Sword Sect.

That’s everything I need for the Manipulation of Heavenly Principles sealing array. The question now is whether or not the Heavenly Sword Sect truly will be willing to give them to me.

Wu Meiying was not an expert at sealing arrays, but she knew several very powerful sealing arrays that would prove quite useful in her current circumstances. The problem was the ingredients required to make the ink were quite rare. Unicorns were already an endangered species across the Nine Heavens. The only reason she even knew the Heavenly Sword Sect had them was because she had looked into the future and saw a vision of Zhe Dāozhe giving them to her.

As she continued to stare at her parchment, someone entered her barrier. She turned her head and frowned when she felt the presence. Standing up, she made her way toward the entrance and opened the door before the other person could knock.

It was Head Elder Jiànkè He. His hand was raised as if he was just about to knock on the door. Wu Meiying smiled at him, though she was immediately on guard.

“Head Elder, it’s rare for you to come see me. Has something happened?”

“Something has happened, yes,” Head Elder Jiànkè He said, voice grave. “I need you to come with me.”

This is… a show of force.

There was no reason for the head elder of the sect to come and get her. She was important, but she was not an elder nor powerful enough to have a man of his stature come for her. This was the sect’s way of showing she couldn’t escape. Did that mean their trust in her had diminished?

Wu Meiying did not immediately respond, but instead searched the timelines to figure out what was happening. It only took a single instant. Instead of looking forward in time, she went backward. Several blank spaces within the timeline assaulted her, but she pushed through to try and make sense of what was happening. All she saw were several brief glimpses of the past.

It’s no good. I can’t make sense of this.

Since she couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing, she instead looked into the future and watched the meeting that was about to take place. What she saw made her grimace.

“Does this have something to do with Elder Yan Huo?” asked Wu Meiying.

The head elder smiled, though there was no mirth behind it. “You are quite astute. Can I assume you saw that through a vision?”

“If you wish. We should be off now.”

“Yes.”

Wu Meiying followed Jiànkè He to the meeting hall, which was already filled with the sect’s elders. Even Zhe Dāozhe was there already waiting. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, and she wouldn’t get the chance to either, since everyone went quiet the moment they arrived. One thing Wu Meiying immediately noticed was the lack of Yan Huo, Mei Qi, and Zeng Huan--another one of the inner court elders.

“Good, you’ve both come. Let us get this meeting started,” said Zhe Dāozhe. He didn’t give anyone a chance to respond and began right away. “Yesterday, we received a report that the Yuan Peninsula has been destroyed by a horde of magical beasts. The Yuan royal family is dead and the city they lived in demolished. We do not know when they arrived or how. Reports claim that it was like they appeared from thin air.”

His words were enough to stir the council.

“How could this happen?”

“I want to know where those magical beasts came from! There’s no way they could have arrived from the Da Continent without warning! Someone would have seen them!”

“Yes. It’s very strange. The report said it was like they appeared out of thin air. What does that mean?”

Wu Meiying let the conversations wash over her as she struggled to maintain her thoughts. The Yuan Peninsula was destroyed. She hadn’t seen that when looking into the future, which meant it was one of the blank spaces she had seen. Her enemies had a large hand in the nation’s destruction. The question she had to answer now was how they had done it.

“Wu Meiying, can you tell me what happened?” asked Zhe Dāozhe. He was not asking her what she thought had happened but asking her about what did happen, which meant he still had faith in her ability to predict the future. That was good, at least.

But what should I say? I can’t see what happened because my vision is being blocked, and if I tell them about this, it will affect my standing among the Heavenly Sword Sect. Once they begin to doubt my abilities, the power I have right now will be taken away.

She didn’t care about power and never had, but she needed it right now to accomplish her goals. The Heavenly Sword Sect was currently the only force on this continent that could help her. She simply could not afford to let go of this power right now.

She closed her eyes and pretended to search the timelines. What she was actually doing was using her own thought process to create the most logical scenario to explain what happened. She took everything she knew about her enemies, compiled that knowledge together, and used it to play out the most likely scenarios that happened.

“They used a summoning array to summon magical beasts,” she said at last.

“A summoning array?” one elder asked.

“Those do exist, but who could do something like that? And on such a grand scale?” asked another.

“It is perfectly possible to create a large-scale sealing array like that,” Wu Meiying said, causing everyone to grow silent. “Sealing arrays of this magnitude require a lot of chi, which is why they’re not used very often. No one on this planet has enough chi to activate one. However, that can be fixed if they used the life force of several strong cultivators.”

“Are you saying our people were used as a sacrifice to activate the sealing array?” asked Jiànkè He.

Wu Meiying nodded. “Yes.”

Nobody spoke for several seconds, but it wasn’t long before they exploded, and what they said at this time was not praise for her ability, but insults.

“And did you not think to tell us this would happen in advance?!”

“If you had let us know this was going to happen, we could have prepared countermeasures! Now our disciples are dead because of you!”

Several elders stood from their seats and slammed their hands onto the table as they hurled abuse at Wu Meiying, who remained calm in the face of their accusations. This was how it always went when something similar happened. Humans did not understand how her powers worked. They assumed she could have fixed everything if only she would tell them before hand, but the future did not work like that. There were times when you could do nothing but sit back because attempting to change the future resulted in a worse future. However, to people who lacked any understanding into the Dao of Time, it was only natural to assume that she, as someone with immense understanding of time’s principles, could change it.

Fools, the lot of them. If I could change the future that easily, I would have saved the Wu Clan.

“Everyone, be silent,” Zhe Dāozhe said, and though his voice remained calm, it contained the power to shut up everyone there. He looked at Wu Meiying with an expression similar to those present, but he was smart enough not to react out of anger. “Can you explain what happened and why you didn’t say anything in advance? I would like to hear an explanation, if possible.”

“Have you ever heard the saying ‘the future is always in motion’?” asked Wu Meiying.

Zhe Dāozhe furrowed his brow and leaned back. “Yes, of course, but what does that have to do with this?”

“Everything. The future is always in motion. It is always changing. A single action taken by someone on the other side of the world can directly affect the future of someone here. We are all connected by the great Dao of Time. This means it is impossible to completely predict the future, and sometimes, attempting to change the future results in an even worse future.”

Wu Meiying laid out her explanation calmly, which served to settle down the people present, though many still looked angry. This was… frustrating. She had worked her hardest to engender trust with the people of this sect, but one incident had caused much of that trust to crumple. Even Zhe Dāozhe looked like he had lost some of his trust in her.

“So you are saying that if you had said something and we tried to stop it, a worse future would have resulted?” he asked.

She nodded. “Had you tried to stop it, the Heavenly Sword Sect would have been destroyed.”

While she couldn’t see certain incidents because they were obscured by her enemies, she could see the outcomes of certain decisions that had been made. Her enemies didn’t care about the Heavenly Sword Sect. Naturally, she had looked into the future and seen what would happen for each decision made during this time. Several of those futures had still ended in the sect’s destruction, but she had seen a few that did not.

“I didn’t tell you about what would happen because the sect’s destruction would be all but assured if I did,” she continued.

“So I see.” Zhe Dāozhe pinched his nose between his thumb and index finger, sighed, then set his hand on the table and nodded at her. “I apologize for doubting you. I had eyes but could not see. It seems I am still lacking in foresight.”

She shrugged. “It’s fine.”

Her words did molify quite a few of those present, but there were still a few that obviously no longer trusted her. She could do little about that. Anyone who did not understand the principles of time would never be able to fully trust her.

“You did not call us here just for this, did you? Something else happened?” asked Wu Meiying.

“Your preceptiveness never fails to impress me.” Zhe Dāozhe did not look happy by it though. He sighed heavily. “Mei Qi and Zeng Huan went to the Divine Moon Hall and Supreme Ocean Palace respectively. However, we have lost contact with them. I received a letter from the the other two sects claiming they suspect we’re the ones responsible for what happened. They are currently holding Mei Qi and Zeng Huan hostage until we can give them a suitable explanation.”

This doesn’t bode well…

Supreme Ocean Palace wasn’t such a big deal, but they could not allow one of their members to remain within Divine Mon Hall for a prolonged period of time. She didn’t know who her enemies were. However, when she looked into both past and future, the one subject with the most blank spaces was Divine Moon Hall.

“That is absolutely outrageous!” someone slammed their hands into the table.

“Do they think we’re some soft persimmons they can crush whenever they feel like it?! We cannot let their actions go unpunished!” another shouted.

While most everyone seemed to agree, the head elder snorted. “If you wish to make an enemy of two celestial sects, be my guest, but you will not do so as a member of this sect. The Heavenly Sword Sect is strong, but we are not so powerful that we can face two powerful sects at once.”

The Heavenly Sword Sect might reign supreme, but it was by a small margin of difference. Supreme Ocean Palace and Divine Moon Hall both had power comparable to their own. If they were to combine forces, it would spell the end of the Heavenly Sword Sect. The only reason they hadn’t done so already was because it would not be worth the damage they incurred trying to crush them. There was a very real chance the Heavenly Sword Sect could destroy at least one of the other two before they were destroyed themselves. After all, their powers might be comparable, but the Heavenly Sword Sect was still the most martial oriented among them.

“Why do they think we’re responsible?” asked Wu Meiying. It had just occurred to her that there should not have been a reason to suspect them.

“About that…” Zhe Dāozhe paused. He looked older suddenly. “One of the Divine Moon Hall’s spies said they saw Yan Huo crossing the border to Song Country not long after the magical beasts destroyed Du City.”

“His soul crystal is still intact?” asked Wu Meiying.

“It is,” answered Zhe Dāozhe.

There’s no way they would let Yan Huo go, which meant they are keeping him alive. I’m sure part of it was so they could use him this way. However, I suspect they did so to discover whether or not I’m here. Yan Huo took an oath under heaven to gift the Yuan royal family with pills when their mission was complete. He didn’t follow through since they were destroyed, which means his cultivation was crippled. He’s nothing now. However, because he no longer has his cultivation, the other oaths he took are null and void.

Wu Meiying quickly realized how dangerous the situation was becoming.

My enemies know I’m here. They won’t attack yet since they don’t know where Wu Jian is, but they will once they do. Before I met Wu Jian, I had lived for eons with nothing happen. Time was all I had. Now that I have been forced into this situation, I find that time is the one thing I lack. How vexing.