Chapter 206: A Lighter Heart
The wolf pup followed Jin LiJuan into the Martial Pavilion. At rank two, it was the size of a medium dog and continued to grow in size and strength each day after she fed it a rank one core.
In a way, it disgusted her. Beasts like it had killed her family. She wanted to see it dead, not getting bigger and stronger.
But as it grew so did she. At the current rate, she’d reach minor realm seven in less than a week. Eventually, she’d pass up Senior Brother and Senior Sister.
If she could find a way to keep tolerating the beast. A big if.
And even if she did gain that strength, it wouldn’t truly be hers, gained by her own efforts. It would be borrowed. From a beast. From a filthy beast.
Her hands trembled, and she tightened them into fists.
When she realized what she’d done, though, she forced herself to unclench them. She had made a commitment to herself to try to tolerate the beast, and she was trying. Truly. But the last three days had brought her no answers. Neither trying nor succeeding was easy. Every time she looked at the wolf, she saw her family being torn to pieces. Hate overwhelmed her heart.
She sighed, at a loss at what to do. At least for the whole of the afternoon, she’d have something else to concentrate on, something that would hopefully take her mind, temporarily, off her problems—Kang Lin had arranged a tutoring session with Pan Jiang.
Jin LiJuan had studied the sword technique that Master gave her, and she was making progress. But no one else in the sect used a sword, so none of them could give her one-on-one instruction.
She was very grateful to Kang Lin for setting up the meeting with her sect brother.
Upon climbing the stairs to the fourth floor with the pup bounding behind her, Jin LiJuan found the Poison Claw Sect member waiting for her. “Pardon, Esteemed Cultivator Pan Jiang. I hope this lowly one was not late.”
“Not at all, Junior Cultivator. I came early, so I could explore your sect’s new Martial Pavilion. Your sect leader installed some innovations that are quite interesting.”