Gao Zexian
In a costume shop, Li Lian and Xun Wei were in separate dressing rooms, changing into their chosen costumes.
Li Lian was the first to come out. She was clad in a fierce looking armour, beautifully designed to make it seem as though the armour was engulfed in flames. In her hand she wielded a sword with exaggerated dimensions, completely impractical for use, but it looked totally badass.
"Hahaha! I am Empress Li, who dares challenge me", she proclaimed.
Li Lian played her character well, pointing her ridiculously large fiery sword at Xun Wei.
"M-me", Xun Wei said nervously.
She wore a similar costume, but it had varying shades of ocean blue and tidal extrusions coming out of her shoulder pads and legs. She looked like she was a sea empress, a complete contrast to Li Lian's fire costume.
"Are we really allowed to be wearing these in the store", Xun Wei asked while whispering as if she'd get in trouble if she were heard.
"Yeah, don't worry about it, I already paid for them" she assured her.
Knowing that, she slowly walked around the store to test the waters then gradually started having fun with Li Lian in their new costumes.
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Li Lian always had a terrible reputation growing up, she was often referred to as "Crazy Lian".
Her obsession with cultivation had scared off all the girls in her age group, so she never made any friends when she was younger nor during the time she was in the sect. She never had a real friend, never, until she met Xun Wei.
Most girls, especially those that came from wealthy families, would never practice body cultivation. It was seen as being too masculine. Virtually no man in the higher class would ever marry a woman that was stronger than them. This is the reason why just about every girl in the Black Paradise sect were purely spirit cultivators.
However, Li Lian was different. She started body cultivating at the age of 9, and quickly broke through to the 1st stage of the body refinement realm before the age of 16.
Since entering the outer court, however, she only focused on her spirit cultivation and was able to reach the 1st stage of the spirit refinement realm in just over a year.
She believed that once she got into the Black Paradise sect she would find like-minded people there, but to her disappointment the girls she met hardly put any effort into their training at all, but just relied solely on their spirit cultivation pills.
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Clang!
Clang!
The sounds of metal striking metal resonated throughout the store, attracting a few curious gazes from all around.
Li Lian and Xun Wei clashed swords several times, each attack exciting Li Lian even further. She always wanted to practice with the sword when she was younger, but never found the time nor opportunity before becoming a disciple.
Xun Wei was much weaker than Li Lian, but she still blocked and redirected every attack with ease. She often clashed swords with Xiao Fang for training, so after experiencing his sword techniques first hand her eyes became well equipped to see flaws in Li Lian's form. To her, Li Lian's attacks seemed abnormally slow and almost childish.
Li Lian was eventually starting to sweat, so she prepared to quickly finish things up with her next attack. Her heavenly flames engulfed her body, but extended out to cover her armor and sword. Those that watched became ecstatic as they saw their fabled hero come to life.
Li Lian's hair, eyes, and hands burned fiercely as she released her spirit energy. Despite her whole body burning, her armour and sword were still perfectly fine.
"This is my single most powerful attack, any last words, villain?!", Li Lian announced.
"Wait, since when did I become the villain?"
"HAAAAA!", Li Lian lunged her sword into Xun Wei's stomach, while actually slipping it under her armpit.
Xun Wei played along and collapsed dramatically to her death.
Li Lian laughed victoriously for a little while, but then her expression suddenly became melancholic as she looked out to the forming audience.
"I have finally killed my only rival, my greatest enemy, but also, my oldest friend. Oh, poor heart, do not weep; we shall reunite once again upon your final beat; Farewell, lonely world, for my purpose is now complete; it's a pity to see, my victory, is still, my defeat". Li Lian collapsed dramatically next to Xun Wei's, as if to end a tragic play.
The small handful of people composed of both employees and customers watched with tearful eyes. They applauded their performance and Li Lian got up to smile and bow at them.
Xun Wei soon followed suit, but she was surprised that they managed to gather an audience at all, so she stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before following Li Lian's lead.
When they were done they changed back into their new beautiful clothes then left the costume store feeling like celebrities. Just as they were preparing to find Xiao Fang Li Lian heard a familiar voice call out to her, and it immediately soured her mood.
"It seems Crazy Lian still likes to play with boy toys, why am I not surprised", a girl named Gao Zexian said as she approached Li Lian.
Li Lian wore an ugly expression as she tried to ignore her.
"Who is she", Xun Wei asked Li Lian as they were walking away.
"I don't know, I've never seen her in my life. Maybe if we throw some change at her she might go away", Li Lian feigned ignorance.
"Li Lian, you b*tch. How dare you pretend to not know me!", Gao Zexian finally snapped.
"Oh, Sister Gao is that you, I could hardly recognize you with all that weight you put on. Didn't I tell you to stop binge eating so many spirit cultivation pills?", Li Lian said.
Although Gao Zexian wasn't at all overweight, Li Lian knew this was her greatest insecurity, so she attacked her where it hurt.
The only thing bad about spirit cultivation pills were the fact that they made people gain a lot of weight. Although, eating higher quality pills would reduce these side effects by a considerable amount, there was no such thing as a 100% spirit cultivation pill so there would still be side effects. Of course, it's nothing some exercise can't fix, which to cultivators came naturally.
The two girls fired insults back and forth at each other, each insult being even more harsh than the last.
Xun Wei slowly stepped away from the two, not wanting to be caught up in the crossfire.
Gao Zexian was fuming. She wanted to make fun of Li Lian, but was already falling victim to her poisonous tongue.
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When Li Lian was younger, many girls teased and called her names, but the stronger she got the more she fought back. However, the more she fought back the crazier she seemed. Eventually everyone started teasing her less and less in fear of invoking her fury. Almost naturally, after being called so many terrible things in her life, she became proficient in the language of roasting.
Although the teasing eventually stopped, her loneliness only got worse. As strange as it sounded, she almost missed being called names because at least then there would be someone to talk to. But one day she met Gao Zexian
Gao Zexian would always start the nastiest rumours. If she didn't binge eat so many cultivation pills, Li Lian would have made her regret everything she said by now, but alas she couldn't.
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Gao Zexian had just about enough of Li Lian's trash talk and asked the question she had been meaning to ask in the first place.
"I heard your parents spent an absurd amount of money just to have you become my big brother Gao Chen's concubine. Speaking of Gao Chen, have you seen him? He seems to be missing".
Li Lian grinned mysteriously. She didn't mind them telling them where to find his body. The sooner they did the sooner they could cancel the marriage. She thought as long as they didn't associate his death to Xiao Fang there shouldn't be anything to worry about.
"The last I saw him we were on a mission together before he suddenly disappeared. If he still hasn't shown up then he's probably dead, don't you think?"
"Stop spouting nonsense, do you think he could be killed so easily?!".
Gao Zexian knew they would always go on missions together, so she believed her to be telling the truth, but didn't believe he would die from doing a tier 2 mission.
"Why are you asking me such a pointless question. If he's dead then he's dead. If not, then you should be out there looking for him. There is no point in you talking to me about it", Li Lian shrugged then walked away.
"I'm not done talking to you!", Gao Zexian said as she fired a spirit attack at Li Lian.
Unexpectedly, her spirit attack was neutralized by another spirit attack that came from Xun Wei's direction.
"Attacking someone with their backs turned to you is dishonorable", Xun Wei said calmly, sounding almost like a true swordsman.
The reason why she was able to neutralize it was because Gao Zexian only put a fraction of her strength into that attack. She only meant to get Li Lian's attention, not to inflict too much damage to her. However, upon seeing Xun Wei's spirit attack her heart suddenly sank.
"Sonic fist... Where did you learn that technique from?".
It was at that moment that Li Lian and Xun Wei felt as though they were figured out. Xiao Fang had given Xun Wei Gao Chen's spatial pouch full of spirit attacks for her to train with. So the only spirit attacks she knew were the ones once owned by Gao Chen.
Xun Wei tried to play it off as if it were no big deal:
"Gao Chen gave it to me to practice as a way to pay off a favour he owed me. Tell him I said thanks the next time you see him", Xun Wei said.
Xun Wei wasn't a remarkable liar, but it was difficult to discern whether anything she said to be truthful or not because of how expressionless she usually was.
She didn't believe Gao Chen would give her his strongest spirit technique for any price or to pay for any favor, but she also didn't believe they had the strength to take him down either. She eventually nodded and convinced herself that Xun Wei was telling the truth.
After that she left, but not before gesturing with her two fingers that she would be watching Li Lian. Li Lian simply responded by sticking her tongue out at her, a simple but highly effective counter play that made Gao Zexian grimace before turning away.
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Xiao Fang and Chun Hua eventually caught up to Li Lian and Xun Wei, but not before buying a number of clothes for Little Hei.
"Did you both have fun?", Xiao Fang asked.
"Yeah! We saw a lot, ate a lot, and played a lot. We even managed to gather a small audience for our little play, you should have seen us!", Xun Wei seemed far more excited than she usual was. Coming from such a humble background, there were many things she had yet to experience.
Xiao Fang was happy to see Xun Wei this way, and knew exactly what she was talking about because he saw the whole thing. Though they knew he had great hearing, they didn't know just how good it truly was.
"Xiao Fang, be careful of Gao Zexian. We ran into her today and she was asking about Gao Chen. We managed to shake her off, but I believe she still suspects us", Li Lian said worriedly.
"I understand, I'll be careful", he replied simply.
They put their stuff away then went back on track, heading straight towards the Divine Sword sect without any more delays.