Despite all of Li Xiulan’s best efforts, when the day came at last she found herself with a pile of books still left on the floor, unable to have been read in time. Li Xiulan felt guilt weigh heavy on her chest as she packed a bag to bring with her for her stay in the capitol. She had spent far too much time on a few complicated books instead of focusing on quantity. Honestly, she didn’t know what she had been thinking. Why waste so much time on a worthless battle log from a war that happened over a century ago? Her future was on the line! Her dream!

She made a point of slamming the thick tome on the table. She glared at it for extra measure.

“I refuse to waste so much time again,” Li Xiulan told the book as she crammed more inside of her bag. “You might have ruined my chances, you know that? If the prompt ends up being about-” she picked up a book and looked at its title- “territorial sea creatures, and I didn’t have time to read this book because of you, I’m going to come back here and burn you to ashes, you hear me?” The book didn’t respond.

“Hmph. That’s what I thought,” she muttered, cinching her bag shut. She took one long look around her room, eyes running over the several overfilled bookshelves on her walls. “Alright… I think that’s all the books I haven’t read.”

Li Xiulan picked up the bag and hoisted it over her shoulder. The weight threw her forward, nearly pulling her head over heels onto the floor. She was barely fast enough to catch herself with nothing more than a gasp. Straightening up, she adjusted the bag on her shoulder.

A sudden knock on her door sent her a foot into the air and the bag nearly slipped from her grasp. She just managed to catch it before it was sent careening onto the floor.

“Xiulan? Are you ready to go?” Li Jing asked. From outside the room, she had heard Li Xiulan yelling at the book for the better part of the morning. Not only was she becoming worried for Li Xiulan’s mental health, but she also worried that they might not make it to the capitol on time at the rate Li Xiulan was going.

“Coming!” Li Xiulan called back. She glared one final time at the book on the table. “If I lose, I’m blaming you,” she told it. Once again, she was met with silence. She took this as a win.

As she exited her room, Li Xiulan found her mother in front of her father’s shrine once again. She looked away.

She walked outside where a carriage was waiting for them. There were two horses at the front of the carriage, both impatiently stamping their hooves. One of them caught sight of Li Xiulan and neighed at her as if urging her to move faster.

“I know, I know,” she replied with a laugh. She opened the door to the carriage and tossed in her bag. As it landed, it seemed like the carriage buckled a bit beneath its weight. She leaned back from the door to call after her mother.

“Mama, hurry up! We have to get moving soon!”

“Xiulan, come here and pray to your father first. Don’t you want him to bless you before the competition?” 

Her invitation was warm. Li Jing truly believed that Bai Chen would help. Li Xiulan, however, knew better.

“Bai Chen is a martial god, mama. Giving blessings like that is the job of a civil god.”

“You never know, Xiulan. Your father is quite a powerful man,” Li Jing retorted. Li Xiulan chuckled lightly.

“Even if he could, he wouldn’t. You and he both agreed to keep me away from the cultivation world, didn’t you? What on earth could possess him to help me?”

Li Jing had no response. She looked at the portrait above the shrine in exasperation.

“I’m sorry, my love. I’ll get her to speak to you eventually,” she murmured, too quiet for Li Xiulan to hear outside. For a moment, it seemed like the portrait grew brighter. Li Jing smiled. 

“Mama!”

“Coming!”

Li Jing left the shrine behind, closing the front door of the cottage behind her. Li Xiulan was already sitting at the front of the carriage, holding the horse’s reins. Li Jing sat beside her and took the reins.

“You can sit in the carriage if you’d like. You could read some of your books along the way,” Li Jing encouraged.

“Oh- are you sure?” Li Xiulan said hesitantly. “Won’t you be lonely on your own?” 

Li Jing waved her off. “No, no. Go study some more. You’ll need it if you want to win.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Li Xiulan’s mouth. She had to admit, although her mother was strict and strongly opposed her becoming a cultivator, she gave her every chance to win. There were many times throughout the month that she could have attempted to distract Li Xiulan. She could have refused to read and grade her essays. She could have stopped her from buying books. Despite her own prejudices, Li Jing was there for Li Xiulan every step of the way.

“Thank you, mama.”

Li Xiulan hopped down from the seat and entered the carriage. Pulling over her bag, she selected a book and began to read as the carriage started to move.

The journey to the capitol was not a short one. Li Jing had chosen to live as far away from the heart of the White Snake sect as possible. The village they lived in now was at the southwestern border of White Snake territory -- any further south and they would be in the Rose Dragon sect. The capitol was to the northeast, closer to a mountain range that marked the eastern border of the sect. The journey would take about two days by carriage if they went quickly.

Li Xiulan breezed through the books in her bag, building up a stack beside her. She couldn’t afford to read each one in great detail, so instead she skimmed each and jotted down the main points that she found. It wouldn’t be enough for her to win the competition if the essay topic was something covered in these books, but perhaps she could at least avoid making a fool of herself.

They spent the whole day on the road. When it finally became too late to continue, they stopped in a small farming village with a single, run-down inn on the side of the road. They got a room for the night and as her mother rested, Li Xiulan stayed up and continued studying.

The cycle continued again in the morning. Li Xiulan’s head was spinning from the lack of sleep. As she tried to read, the characters seemed to become worms trying to wriggle off the page. In her exhaustion, she slapped her hand down on the paper to get the worms to stop moving. Of course, she immediately realized that she had, in fact, slapped a book for no good reason. She sighed and put the book to the side.

She yawned. No matter how hard she tried, it seemed impossible to keep her eyes open.

You have to keep reading. The contest starts tomorrow afternoon! What are you going to do if the topic is in one of these books you failed to read?

Li Xiulan reached into her bag. Maybe the book she had been reading was just too boring for her. The composition of paper was not a subject she had particularly enjoyed reading about, after all. Surely if she found another book, she’d be able to read it all the way through without falling asleep.

There were not many books left. Most of them had been taken out already and now laid in the pile at her side. She dug all the way to the bottom of the bag, pulling out one of the final books from its depths. She read over the title and cracked it open. An In-Depth Analysis of the Battle of the Cranes.

This was going to be a very long day.

After the sun had already been down for longer than Li Xiulan would have preferred to be out, the carriage finally arrived at the city gates. Li Xiulan peered out of the window, trying to get a good look at the city. Although it was surrounded by a tall stone wall that circled the entire perimeter, some buildings were tall enough to peek out over the top. Banners decorated the wall with the symbol of the White Snake sect, proudly proclaiming that the city belonged to them.

At the entrance to the gate stood two armored guards. As the carriage approached, one came up to them.

“Welcome to Judian City. May I ask what your business is here?”

Li Jing smiled kindly.

“My name is Li Jing. My daughter is here to participate in the essay competition.”

The guard’s eyes widened slightly. He looked back at the other guard, who seemed equally surprised.

“Li Jing? As in the cultivator Li Jing? The one who worked with the great martial god Bai Chen?”

Li Jing simply laughed, waving him away.

“Maybe once, but that’s far in the past now. We aren’t returning to the White Snake sect. We’re only here to visit the city.”

The guard diverted his gaze to Li Xiulan, whose head was poking out of the carriage window. When she saw him looking, she tried her best to put on a polite smile. The guard cleared his throat.

“Of course, you may pass. If you don’t mind my asking… your daughter seems old enough to cultivate. Why don’t you bring her to the sect? They would surely accept-”

The guard stopped abruptly. He could feel eyes boring into his back, sending chills down his spine. He locked eyes with Li Jing once more. Although her face was still smiling, her eyes were cold.

“I’m afraid that’s not why we’ve come to the city,” she reiterated. The guard scrambled back.

“Of course, of course, please forgive me…” he muttered as he frantically opened the gate. “P-Please enjoy your stay.”

The other guard wisely stayed out of the way as the carriage passed by them. Li Xiulan pulled her head back into the carriage, but as they passed the guard, she locked eyes with him. She tried her best to send a message through her expression: Yeah, I wish.

The carriage rolled through the gates of the city, bumping gently over the cobblestone street. Li Xiulan leaned out once more to see the city as they passed.

Although it was nighttime, the city was filled with light. Lanterns adorned every door frame of every house, making the streets glitter. The houses were ornamented with wooden carvings and calligraphy hanging on the walls. People milled about on the streets, chatting and laughing with one another as they flitted around shops and merchant stands that were even more brilliantly lit than the houses. They had lanterns of different colors that washed the streets in a whole rainbow of light.

Li Jing chuckled as she noticed Li Xiulan practically hanging out of the carriage.

“Want to move to the front? You can see better from here.”

She stopped the carriage and Li Xiulan scrambled to her side. Li Xiulan had never left the small village at the edge of the sect before, besides to visit some markets in other small towns. She certainly had never been somewhere as bright and lively as this. A smile found its way to her face as the lights of the city reflected in her eyes.

Groups of young girls passed the carriage, laughing as they covered their faces with fans. They were carefree, wandering like free spirits, unaware of just how privileged they were.

This was what Li Xiulan wanted.

The comradery, the different cities, all the views of the world… she wanted all of it. 

Li Jing smiled at her.

“The city is much different from home, isn’t it?”

Li Xiulan nodded. “I can’t believe how bright it is. How can they afford to keep these lanterns on all the time? When do they sleep?”

“They’re used to it by now. The sun doesn’t govern the lands controlled by the White Snake sect,” Li Jing replied. Li Xiulan looked over at her.

“Oh, right! You used to live here, didn’t you, mama?”

Li Jing’s face remained calm, which surprised Li Xiulan. She had thought that mentioning her mother’s past might upset her, but she seemed to keep her cool.

“Yes, a long time ago. I trained at the Pavilion in the heart of the city.”

Li Xiulan raised her head and looked out in the distance. The Pavilion was famous for being one of the tallest buildings in Judian City, as well as for being the training ground for White Snake cultivators. Li Xiulan had dreamed of visiting for years.

When she squinted, she could make out the dark shadow of the Pavilion peering over the roofs of the homes and shops in the residential area. A surge of excitement ran down her spine. Someday, I’m going to make it there and stand at the top of the cultivation world, she thought.

Li Jing looked over at Li Xiulan and followed her gaze to the Pavilion. She sighed, knowing what Li Xiulan was probably thinking.

“To be honest, it was dreadfully boring there. The sect makes its top disciples follow a set of very strict rules. They control your entire schedule and even what you eat and the clothes you wear.”

Her words were lost on Li Xiulan.

“But the rules only make you stronger, right? It’s to make sure that you focus on improving your cultivation instead of getting distracted.”

“Well, yes, but-”

“Your daily schedule must have included sword fighting. And what about hunting? You must have been off slaying monsters and demons often, right?”

Li Jing did not have much to say in response to that. It was true that although the life of a cultivator was strict, it could be extremely rewarding to the right type of person. For her and Bai Chen, it had been everything they had ever dreamed of.

Even though they had loved and pursued cultivation devoutly, things had still gone very wrong for them. 

The two of them stayed silent as they moved down the street. Li Xiulan continued staring wide-eyed at everything they passed until they finally arrived at an inn near the test site.

The inn was large with much land around it, part of which was reserved for the caretaking of animals. The carriage was parked and the horses were led away to finally get some rest after their long journey. Li Jing and Li Xiulan retired to their room for the night, and Li Xiulan cracked open one of her final books.