1 Alone

The spring wind stirred over the ninth peak, whispering gently through the trees. Leaves rustled as the wind blew, passing over loamy soil. Shafts of sunlight broke the canopy of leaves, growing more and more frequent until abruptly there were no leaves, and the Sun was clearly in view.

The wind slipped from the forest into the clearing, curling into a small vortex that lifted a few fallen leaves from their place... and dropped them on the woman who lay in the center of the clearing, fast asleep.

She seemed almost ethereal, at once a part of the world and outside it. Like the stars, hanging high over the land; they were always there, constants in a world of change, and yet always out of reach even for the mightiest of figures.

The leaves landed on her face.

She blew them off with a breath, then blearily opened her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was the smell of rain. Not in the air, and not on the ground, but on the wind. There too was the soft, small, but unmistakable smell of ozone. Of lightning and thunder. Of clouds and storms on the horizon.

Liu Luoyang sat up.

"System," she muttered absentmindedly.

[Obtain Daily Login Reward?]

"Sure," she replied dully.

A single pill dropped out of the air and into her hand. The sunlight glimmered off its pearl-white form, perfectly, impossibly spherical.

Liu Luoyang eyed it in silence, then tossed to the side. Just before it struck the ground, a small, almost imperceptible gap in reality opened and the pill fell into it.

It was almost a routine by this point. The System (which she still didn't fully understand) gave her a daily reward for existing, and almost without fail, that reward was utterly worthless. It had been a long, long time since she'd gotten something worth paying attention to.

She looked around at the forest. It was peaceful, of course. Silent and empty, of course. There had once been a boy here, playing and practicing and cultivating. A fond smile crossed her face at the memory. He had never stopped living out loud, a sharp contrast to Liu Luoyang's silent and steady demeanor.

But now he had gone down the mountain to wander the Realms. And Liu Luoyang was alone again.

Not that she wasn't used to it.

After all, she liked her peace and quiet... but today, that peace and quiet was destined to be broken. A sudden shout came from below, stirring a few birds from their perches amidst the old trees.

"Elder Liu? Are you there?"

Liu Luoyang sighed and stood, then took a single step forward. The wind blew again, and this time it passed unobstructed through the empty clearing.

"Yes?" she asked softly.

The man standing in front of her whirled abruptly, so fast he almost lost his balance. One hand dropped to the sword at his side--but quickly fell away as he realized who she was. "Ah, Elder Liu. You surprised me."

"Elder Qin," she said matter-of-factly. "What have you come to the Ninth Peak for?"

Elder Qin ran one hand nervously through his hair--which, she noticed, had started to gray at the edges. One might have thought that that was a sign of age, but, well, Qin Liuxian was a Spirit Realm cultivator, having transcended his mortal flesh.

It was probably an aesthetic choice. Perhaps the ladies in the sect had started liking older men?

"As you might know, Sect Leader Jing recently made a divination--"

"Who is this Sect Leader Jing?"

Qin Liuxian stared blankly at her. "The master of the Heavenly Mirror Sect."

"I thought his surname was Lin."

"Elder Liu, that was the previous master."

Liu Luoyang coughed and looked away. "What were you saying about this divination?" she asked quickly.

Qin Liuxian paused, reorganizing his thoughts. Then he continued, "Sect Leader Jing performed a divination, in which he predicted that a new age of talents was upon us."

"A new age of talents," Liu Luoyang said skeptically.

Elder Qin nodded fervently. "Yes. He predicted that so-called 'demonic geniuses' would appear like wildflowers, talents blooming all over the world."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"Well, Elder Jing made the divination fifteen years ago--which is why I assumed you'd heard of it. It's all anyone was talking about for the first couple years," Qin Liuxian explained.

"Fifteen years ago. That's not very long," Liu Luoyang said with a shrug. It was understandable that she had missed it. Once, she'd taken a nap that had taken twice that time.

Qin Liuxian eyed her in silence for a moment, then shook his head. "Anyways, the Sect is opening today to accept new disciples, and the Sect Leader has asked all the Elders to come to the selection venue to choose inheritors."

He paused. "If they're willing, of course."

Liu Luoyang opened her mouth to tell him her opinion on children--but stopped, for the System suddenly opened in her vision.

[New Mission: Accept a disciple with an Aptitude of 30 or higher!]

[Time Limit: 3 Years]

[Punishment for Failure: N/A]

[Reward: A Teacher's gift bag!]

She eyed it, then turned to look at Elder Qin with a grim glare. The man was sweating, his pale hazel eyes looking everywhere *but* her.

"Fine," Liu Luoyang said at last.

"Very well, Elder Liu. I'll inform the Sect Master of your refu--" Qin Liuxiao froze. "Wait, what did you say?"

"I said yes, I'll do it," she muttered grumpily. "And don't think I don't know what that old man is doing. Go tell the Sect Master to get off my back. I'm happy on my own."

Qin Liuxiao's gaze flicked past her to the empty peak... and her eyes darkened slightly, a murderous tint flaring within.

He smiled nervously. "Of course, Elder Liu. I'll be... er, I'll be off now."

"Go on," Liu Luoyang said.

He clasped his hands and bowed, then turned, and strode away across the air, silver light flickering beneath his feet as each step took him far farther than it should have.

She watched him go. Eventually, his figure grew smaller and smaller amidst the coiling mist of the Nine Peaks, until he was lost in the sea of clouds and sunlight. Liu Luoyang turned back to her mountain, looking up at its desolate forest and solitary peak, rising high over the valley below. Rising high over all things, for the Ninth Peak was the tallest in the mountain range, reaching up to pierce the clouds and the Heavens themselves.

And yet it would never touch the stars.

Halfway to the heavens; halfway above the worldly dust.

She gave a sardonic smile to nobody and looked away.

It had been a long, long time since the System had issued her a mission. It had also been a long time since it'd stopped bothering with punishments. It knew she would do what she pleased. And in this moment, in this single instant where she stood in solitude beneath a vast peak amidst countless grand mountains, clouds climbing their sides in spiraling rivers of misty white...

Liu Luoyang was alone.

The weight of eras seemed to fall on her shoulders--at that moment, she seemed less ethereal and more grounded. More earthly. An Immortal, fallen from the stars and the sky.

Her breath, normally smooth and vast and calm as the river of stars, caught, ever so slightly.

Abruptly, a sudden ding! drew her from her reverie. Another window from the System opened up; she stared at it blankly, before snorting in bemused amusement.

[Mission: Fall in Love!]

"Why's this mission still around? I thought I failed it ages ago," she complained, shaking her head and making her way back up the mountain.

The mission window vanished.