Chapter 225: Anticipation
Yang Xiu had rarely, if ever, been so excited in her life. For one thing, she was flying. Actually flying. The ground below passed in a blur as she soared past on her glider, Yang Ru and Kang Lin trailing behind. Even though the experience had grown more common over the last few days, she still found it amazing.
The main reason Yang Xiu felt so exhilarated, though, was that she was going on an actual mission for the sect. One that involved danger. Her previous one had been to escort a bunch of juniors into the woods to process beast parts. There was nothing in the world more boring than processing beast parts.
Though not officially declared, the members of the Jade Chameleon Sect were her sect’s sworn enemies by that point. Their rivalry was like something out of a book. Any of those sect members who saw her would be honor bound to fight her. Which meant she could fight back. Really fight back.
So far, she felt she was coming along nicely in her martial pursuits. She split spars with Yang Ru about half and half. Against Kang Lin, Yang Xiu won probably three quarters of the time.
Spars were not true combat, though.
She’d acquitted herself well against beasts in her equivalent minor realm and had done the best she could when confronted with those above her, not backing down in the face of danger.
But she hadn’t faced any cultivators of a like realm with real stakes on the line. There was no chance that either her brother or Kang Lin would actually escalate to death stakes. At worst, minor injuries easily taken care of by the weakest of Healing Pills would result, and the rooms in the pavilion eliminated even those small concerns.
Yang Xiu wanted to experience actual combat against someone who truly wanted to do her harm and who wasn’t so far above her in realm that she had no chance to win. She wanted to test herself, to temper herself in the fire of battle.
She couldn’t help but be eager in her anticipation. Cultivation was about challenge. The heavens. Oneself. Other cultivators. Let her enemies be the whetstone to sharpen the blade she was becoming.
The mission also served a true purpose. Not that processing beasts didn’t. But if successful, the trip to Sixth Flawless Flowing City was the first step in making a major leap forward for the Rising Tide Sect.
Though Yang Xiu wasn’t nearly the most knowledgeable person when it came to the world of sects and cultivators, she understood that her fledgling sect was quite deficient in its quantity of high-realmed cultivators. The advancement that qi sources could provide, especially when combined with all the other advantages Master supplied, was exactly what they needed to close the gap with the other factions.
She was determined not to fail.