A Moment to Relax

A few hours ago.

"Master, I will be exploring the mountains again today!"

"Sure, be careful."

Shu Fanrong waved her master goodbye as she sped back to the mountains.

With a slight giggle, she made her way through the lush forest, disturbing the small animals that lived there.

She was extremely familiar with what routes to take and where to turn, heading in a specific direction.

Eventually, Shu Fanrong came to a halt in front of a massive cave.

The entrance was looming, the lack of light exaggerating its desolation. A wind howled from inside the cave, giving off a slight whistling noise.

Shu Fanrong toom out the torch that she grabbed from her master's hut and lit it up. With a cheerful hum, she waltzed into the cave.

This time, she walked at a snail's pace, having a hard time recalling where to go.

"Er, this is the big spike, so I need to go right? Wait, no, left!"

"Aiya, I've seen this scratch already. Am I going in circles?"

"A small puddle? I haven't seen this before! I'm in the wrong path!"

Despite being slightly challenged when it came to directions, Shu Fanrong continued on, her determination rising by the second.

After an hour or two of mindlessly wandering around, Shu Fanrong found a sign.

"Aha! This is the mark I made! I'm getting closer!"

The cave stretched on for miles, with Shu Fanrong leaving marks every now and then so that she could find the place that she wanted to go to. It was just that, these marks were so few and far between that she could not rely on them to guide her. As for making more marks, this thought hadn't popped up in her mind.

With a smile, she continued to travel through the cave.

Up till now, the cave only consisted of rock formations, stalagmites, stalactites and the like. There was also the occasional pond that was as small as a backyard pool.

However, as Shu Fanrong turned right with confidence, the scenery changed.

On the wall of a once desolate and damp cave full of nothing but rock, a small plant sprouted out of the wall.

As Shu Fanrong continued further, these sprouts grew more in number, and grew bigger in size. Eventually, even vines hanging from the roof of the cave appeared and a tad bit of grass showed up on the solid ground.

"Aha, I'm here!"

Shu Fanrong arrived at her destination.

Due to a few cracks in the ceiling, there was light from the sun leaking into the walls of the cave. Shu Fanrong put out the fire on her torch so as to not accidentally light any plants on fire.

Vegetation covered the walls of the cave, as well as grass and some herbs on the floor and vines hanging from the roof, especially those directly basking in the sunlight. The overwhelmingly green color combined with the moody lighting from the sun gave Shu Fanrong a refreshing feeling, something that the forest outside could never compare to.

The damp and humid air of the cave made sure to cool Shu Fanrong's head enough that she couldn't help but lie down in the middle of everything.

With a sigh, she relaxed completely and closed her eyes.

With a thoughtless mind, Shu Fanrong couldn't resist the recollection of memories flashing through her brain like a slideshow.

The last three weeks have been the most eventful Shu Fanrong's life had ever been. She went back to the moment her master had taken her in as a disciple with a smile.

And then, the moment when she killed her first beast.

She had always been envious of her father's strength, something that her small frame could never achieve even after she grew older.

The pure ecstasy that went through her mind almost made her shudder, thinking of how she could finally help her father out with hunting.

Of course, this wasn't the only reason, as beating stuff up had always been her hobby. To her, violence was second nature, even though she constantly got admonished for said behavior.

In the end, it wasn't strength she was after, but the "ability to beat stuff up".

The most jovial she had felt beating something up was when her father was on the ground, battered black and blue.

At that time, she couldn't think of anything much other than rushing in to save her father. However, looking back on it now, it was the most amazing feeling to see her father watching her with amazement seeping from his eyes. The opponents that her father could barely defend against, she easily beat up! How cool was that?

"Wah, if only master was there to see how cool I was!"

Her only regret was that her master didn't see her fight against the foxes. If he saw, he would surely be praising her with a stern voice, while hiding his true feelings. Her master was a prideful man, after all.

That was the reason why for the past week, she had been exploring the mountains, looking for an opponent as tough as those foxes. After she found one, she would then bring her master to watch her fight the beasts.

There were two problems, however. One was that she hadn't found any beasts yet of the same caliber as those foxes. This wasn't a huge problem, as she knew that the mountain range was massive, and she had barely explored a percent of it.

The second was more of a problem. Her master was stubbornly staying in the village! He hadn't budged once for the past week, insisting on remaining somewhere around the village.

Even though her master had given the reason that he was staying there to accomodate everyone that wanted to join the sect, Shu Fanrong could see that he had other concerns he didnt want to share.

"Hmph, stupid master! Doesn't want to spend time with his cute disciple!"

In the end, she couldn't form any resentment towards her master, and could only wait for him to tell her of his concerns.

If Shu Dashou was here, he would be a bit concerned as Liu Feng was quickly replacing his position in his daughter's eyes...