Yanyue's sat in a meditative posture, her eyes shut and her brows furrowed in concentration. Gently clasped between the palms of her hands was the Xue Family's Heart-Cleansing Sea Pearl, a gentle azure glow emanating out of it.

Yanyue cycled the pure Water Qi though her body, each successful cycle adding an additional building block to her rapidly stabilizing 'foundation structure'. It also made her shudder in delight, as years of impurities amassed across her cultivation journey were purified, making her skin smoother, her body cleaner and her visage free of blemishes.

Finally, her eyes shot open.

"E-Elder Sister Shadow?" Yanyue stuttered out upon being confronted by Shadow calmly standing in front of her. "H-How long have you been standing there?" She asked. As much as Yanyue appreciated her Elder Sister's ‘pure’ personality, her ability to skulk among the shadows without letting out the slightest sound was one thing she could live without.

"Half an hour," Shadow replied plainly, her expressionless yet beautiful violet eyes staring back into Yanyue's own.

"Uh...erm, why didn't you rouse me earlier?" Yanyue argued, a light blush coloring her cheeks. To have the strongest core formation disciple in the Sky Division wait upon her was an honor, but it was one she hadn't asked for.

"You were cultivating," Shadow deadpanned, rather matter-of-factly.

"I.... nevermind. So what did you need me for, Senior Sister?" Yanyue asked, trying to mask her meek nature behind a veneer of confidence . She had long since realized that she had to be direct and commanding whilst addressing her Elder Sister, even when it made her squirm on the inside, otherwise the intent behind her words would just flit past her.

Shadow outstretched her hand, a natural grace in her movements as she offered her a lift. Yanyue accepted her gesture, able to feel the raw, wiry strength contained in her Senior Sister’s deceptively lithe body as she was pulled back onto her feet.

“Let’s go,” Shadow let go of her hand, before turning around and walking in the opposite direction.

Yanyue fought down the instinct to ask where they were going, knowing that she was unlikely to receive an answer. Instead, she tried to think of what might have prompted this sudden intervention, knowing how much her Senior Sister cared for her.

Oh.

Yanyue realized that she had spent the last two weeks secluding herself in cultivation, not stepping out of Silveni’s Heirloom even once. From a sustenance perspective, Yanyue had everything she needed to live in the tower, but… that was not the real reason why she had ensconced herself in the safety of her fellow disciples.

Her Honorary Master, Yao Shen was still out of the sect on official duties. With his absence, she had fallen back to her tendency to seclude herself and avoid trouble. Dongmei Xue, the object of her fears and anxieties, still resided in the very same sect as her; still very much alive and in her prime. While an outright attack was unlikely and just her trauma exaggerating, there were other ways she could make trouble for her— like laying out a trap for her that would sully her reputation and force her master to abandon her.

As Yanyue walked through the streets of the Inner Sect she noticed the surreptitious glances and curious looks the other disciples gave her, but none lingered for too long when Shadow swivelled her head in their direction with uncanny accuracy.

She hadn’t realized that they had arrived at their destination until her Senior Sister, who was walking ahead of her, stopped. In a moment of clusiness, she ended up bumping into her back, which definitely did the job of snapping her out of her reverie.

“Look,” Shadow pointed out, unconcerned by her misstep.

Yanyue blinked away the embarrassment she felt, stepping to the side and looked in the direction her senior sister was pointing in.

An ancient tree rose to the heavens, it’s mottled trunk a melange of dull grey and radiant white mixed in with splotches of silver; the ethereal speldor only accentuated by the mark of centuries, if not milleniums. It towered over the Sky Division like a mighty giant, it’s expansive canopy shielding them from all that dare attack from the sky. Magnificient three-pronged silver leaves dotted the branches, their numbers as vast as the stars in the sky.

Yanyue had witnessed this scenery from afar many a times before, but never dared approach it, never this close. This was the domain of core formation cultivators that were practitioners of the Dao of the Wind, a right that disciples had to prove themselves in battle for. Only twenty cultivators were allowed to cultivate under the Sky Tree at a time, to give the Ancient Tree enough time to recover its Qi— this was an absolute rule, for each Sky Division Disciple had a certain innate respect for its magnificence, for one that provided without asking for nothing in return.

“Come,” Shadow grabbed Yanyue’s arm and began to walk forward.

“Senior Sister, this isn’t appropriate,” Yanyue protested softly, but there was no weight behind her words— like every disciple of the Sky Division, she too desired to experience the Sky Tree from up close.

Anticipation blossomed in her heart, replacing her anxieties and assuaging her fears for now as they went closer and closer.

In the blink of an eye, they were standing next to the tree.

Shadow sat down. A fidgeting Yanyue followed in her footsteps, mentally doing her best to ignore the other disciples who were giving them searching glances.

Pat, pat.

Yanyue’s gaze shifted to the sound, noticing that Shadow was patting her lap. A blush colored her cheeks as she understood her meaning, still not sure what Shadow wanted to achieve.

But she complied, trusting her Elder Sister with her wellbeing as she lay on her lap, the blush on her face only getting heavier.

“Close your eyes,” Shadow asked, her tone not betraying her emotions as always.

That suggestion, Yanyue found amenable— she really didn’t want to see the other disciples giving leering glances at her, or worse, mocking her.

“Do you hear it?” Shadow asked, her tone, in a rare change of form, turning softer.

Hear… what?

Yanyue focused at her hearing, unsure what her senior sister meant. Searching, she did not find the other cultivators’ making snide cultivators that her mind was projecting, and for a long moment she thought that her Senior Sister was making fun of her, that this was some elaborate, cruel joke.., until….

She heard.

The wind. It was the wind. It whistled and hummed, it rustled and howled, it roared, it sighed; somehow all at once. Somehow, when the dissonant sounds were combined, it resulted in a melody so beautiful, so divine, that her vocal cords had no hope of replicating it, not in ten years, not in a hundred.

It was the melody of the wind and it was the most beautiful thing she had experienced in her life.

A tear rolled down her cheeks, so moving was the performance.

“When I was new to the Sect,” Shadow began, the soft touch of her finger wiping away the tear. “I used to cry a lot,” She whispered, her voice so low that only Yanyue could hear her words.

“Each time I cried, Master took me to rest under the Sky Tree’s canopy,” Shadow whispered. “And each time, I stopped crying.”

If Yanyue were to open her eyes in that moment, she would see a small smile resting on Shadow’s visage for a mere second, before it flitted away.

“I hope it brings peace to your heart like it did mine, junior sister.”