Lan You Nian took Zhang Lin and the others to Sunset City. This town, because of its distance from the bustling capital, still looked the same, a hazy ancient feel. Wu Qing Pavilion was in fact established in Sunset City. Wu Qing was established here to guard Medical Valley, to protect the family she recognized.
Deep within the forest, ancient trees towered, covering up the sky. Because the forest looked frightening and mysterious, so according to the local people, few people dared to enter this forest. Even if they dared to enter, no one ever came out. This piece of land was isolated from the outside world. There was a double barrier of the forest and the swamp. The dark forest was eerie and terrifying; outsiders hardly ever dared to set foot into it. Occasionally a daring person barged in. They would only be blocked again by a swamp. People’s instinctual survival wouldn’t allow them to enter the swamp so they completely lost the opportunity to set foot into this pure land.
Lan You Nian led everyone into the dark forest. She could sense everyone’s tension. Lan You Nian didn’t say anything to comfort them, only continued to walk in front of them without uttering a word. Behind her, everyone stared at Lan You Nian’s every step, afraid with one misstep, they will drown in this forest and become a skeleton.
When they reached the depths of the forest, they noticed a man standing there. He couldn’t be considered good-looking but his body was sturdy, a somber temperament, and slightly dark skin. He only needed to stand there to seem like a unique part of the landscape within this overflowing world.
When that man saw Lan You Nian, his grim face glowed with warmth and smiles.
Lan You Nian walked over to the man and smiled sweetly, “Second brother!”
Gui Er’s body carried a killing aura that was honed from training. However around Lan You Nian, he always became that simple-minded and foolish second brother. With just a smile, Gui Er’s somber mien became much more intimate, “Little junior sister!” His voice contained a love towards a younger sister.
“Second brother why are you waiting here?” Lna You Nian glanced at Gui Er’s thin brocade robes. It was always colder in this ancient forest. Although Gui Er’s body was healthy, as a little sister, Lan You Nian couldn’t help chiding him.
Gui Er snickered, revealing a mouth of white teeth, not caring about the little amount of clothes on his body, “I received a letter saying little junior sister will be coming so I came here to wait for you!”
Lan You Nian smiled, pointing at the several people standing at a distance behind her, “Them!”
“All here to train?” Gui Er asked, unsure. He saw Lan Wu and Lan Qu amongst them. These two were little junior sister’s servant girls. Little junior sister usually treated them very well. If they were injured or lost their live, he didn’t know how upset little junior sister would be?
Lan You Nian scanned Lan Qu and Lan Wu standing amongst a crowd of men. The two of them changed out of their favorite blue dresses and put on black men’s clothing. They seemed to possess a heroic aura, with no timidity in their eyes, only a deep desire to become stronger.
“En, there’s no need to be merciful. Treat everyone equally!” Lan You Nian walked over to the guards.
“In the next few days, you will be training. From the moment you enter this forest, the training will begin!” Lan You Nian stood with her hands behind her back, her posture mafr people believe in her even more than men, “If you don’t work hard here, you will very easily lose your life. I hope many people will come out of this training!”
“Yes” firm voices echoed, alarming the flock of birds in the branches.
Lan You Nian wore tight fitting black clothes today, her long black hair was tied back, making her seem like a real man. Without another word, she entered the training ground with Gui Er.
On the first day, everyone’s training was long distance running. Their track was the rugged mountain forest so the difficulty was increased. Most importantly, throughout the mountain forest, there were many well-placed traps. If they weren’t careful, they will fall into those traps and be injured. Fifteen people, adding on Lan Wu and Lan Qu, with a total of seventeen people, only one person was injured.
Night came quietly. Lan You Nian didn’t allow them to bring along rations. The problems of what they are to eat and drink, they must solve themselves. When these people saw their young miss who should be in You Nian Pavilion admiring the moon and playing the zither personally ignite a fire, hunt, and cook food, even leading them on a run all day without a single complaint, made everyone admire Lan You Nian even more.
Of the seventeen people, Lan Qu and Lan Wu’s situation was the worst. Both were women and neither of them had high martial arts. After a whole day, their bodies were exhausted. But from beginning to end, Lan You Nian did not say anything to help them. The two made effort and didn’t allow anyone to give them food. They dragged their exhausted bodies to search for food.
Everyone settled down in the forest to rest. Halfway through the night they were suddenly attacked. Gui Er led a group of people to attack Zhang Lin and the others. Zhang Lin and the others were all flustered but they fought with their lives. Lan you Nian just stood beside Gui Er, watching as the guards fought. This went on until the end of the night before the attackers retreated.
Lan You Nian handed everyone some emergency medicine, then flew up a branch to rest. As the others stayed still in their spots, they knew the sudden attack was part of the training. It must be said that everyone became more alert through the rest of the exercise.
In the days following, Lan You Nian trained with the others. What was different was that when they encountered difficulties or danger, she didn’t intervene. When sharp barbs poked through Lan Wu’s side and making it bleed, Lan You Nian who was standing beside her could have reached out a hand to pull her out, but Lan You Nian didn’t. Lan Wu was screaming from pain but she didn’t ask their young miss to save her.
In the end, Lan Wu used her own hands to grab onto the stones around the trap and climb out step by one. By the time Lan Wu climbed out of the trap, a layer of skin was worn away from both her hands, her fingers were scraped with big and small blisters. Lan Wu didn’t feel hurt because young miss didn’t save her. Instead, she laughed. Because she was a step stronger, a step closer to young miss.
The bloody from Lan Wu’s body still flowed but she still stood in front of Lan you Nian, calling out happily, “Young miss!”
Lan You Nian understood her happiness. She was even more moved by her loyalty but there was no change in her expression. She only handed a wound medicine to her and then went to rest. Afterwards, some guards asked Lan Wu, was she angry that young miss treated her like this? At that time, Lan Wu replied like this, “Why be angry? I am young miss’s servant girl. Whether it’s death or living, they belong to young miss. If young miss saved me, after I leave, I will probably die in enemy hands, who will save me at that time?”
Lan Wu’s words made people understand Lan You Nian’s intentions. To follow her, there would be many dangers along the road. If they can’t even pass this, then in the future, they can’t escape the word death. It was better for them to die here and save young miss from worrying about them.
You can say Lan You Nian is indifferent or that she is cruel, but you can’t say she is heartless because everything she did, when wasn’t it in consideration of these people?
At the beginning everyone were tired from this high intensity training. Their whole body was weak. However towards the end, everyone’s spirits became better. Their response to attacks became more skilled. Every one found their own tactic of living in the forest.
On the very last day, everyone’s spirit was tense. After several days of training everyone was changed from the inside out. The guards’ bodies more tough and strong while Lan Wu and Lan Qu lost the softness of a female in their brows.
On the last day, what met them was a fight they had never experienced before. In the previous times, although they were attacked by many people, but those people didn’t intent to kill. Today it was different. These people really wanted to kill them.
“See there? As long as you reach that spot, you can escape the pursuit. We’ll see the final results of your training!” Lan You Nian said and then found a clean area to spar with Gui Er.
“Second brother seems to have become stronger!” The corner of Lan You Nian’s lips was punched by Gui Er but her eyes was still full of intense interest.
“I said I will protect little junior sister. Of course I will become stronger”! Gui Er was a fair fighter. Although he ached for Lan You Nian, he didn’t throw the match.
Lan You Nian’s smile became more cheerful. She recalled that in the past Gui Er’s martial arts weren’t that good. One time, he saw her come back injured and his heart ached. He promised to improve his martial arts to protect her. She didn’t expect second brother still remembered.
The two enthusiastically sparred. Because they didn’t use internal force, they just used fists and feet, so it was hard to avoid some surface injuries.
Meanwhile, the others were still struggling. Some were injured under Wu Qing Pavilion’s pursuit. After a while, already half of them were injured. But what pleaded Lan You Nian was that they didn’t run to the area of safety. Instead, they depended on each other and didn’t give up.
Amongst them, there was one guard who was gravely injured. Now, not only couldn’t he help the others, he was starting to drag everyone back. To Zhang Lin, he said, “Leader Zhang, you guys leave! If no one leave, everyone will die. This will only let down young miss’s intention to train us!”
Zhang Lin didn’t give up. The others didn’t give up. Even Lan Wu and Lan Qu didn’t give up. The uninjured people dragged an injured person over to the place of safety. Because they must carry the injured people as well as defend against attack, many more people were injured.
Gradually one person, two people, three people, one by one, they ran to Lan You Nian’s indicated safe area. The last one to arrive was Zhang Lin. His body was littered with many wounds. But he did his duty as leader and led everyone to pass the training.
Lan You Nian and Gui Er finished sparring and stood in front of everyone. Every injured and uninjured person stood up, standing up straight, looking at the girl in front of them, their master, their young miss, the person they will follow from now on.
Every one of their skin were much darker. Only Lan You Nian’s skin was still white after fifteen days. They were different now. They were truly one of Lan You Nian’s guards.
“Congratulations, pass!” Lan You Nian’s exquisite face suddenly burst into a bright smile, that smile was clean like spring water, soft as it plunged through the heart.
“YAY! “AH!” exclamations of excitement resounded in the forest. It has only been fifteen days but they felt like several years have passed. However, it was all worth it.
