Madame Ting was gone.
Qing Anna called out.
"I'm here. It would seem these tremors are causing tears in the earth, this fog most certainly doesn't help one be able to see what's in front of them. Use your magic if you can but...
Madame Ting's voice was becoming fainter and fainter.
"..an...ind...u."
"Dearest me." Qing Anna muttered. Should she consider this the start of her field activity?
Qing Anna stretched out her hands and a bubble emerged from the earth, she hopped onto it as it floated into the sky.
"I should have done this sooner."
Naturally, with the higher ground the mist cleared, the scene that lay before her was beautifully breathtaking, a sea of mist rolled down from the sides of the mountain pouring into the valley.
She floated up above the fog and rubbed at her bracelet.
"Could you make this easy for me and just show me where this princess is already?"
There was no response. Of course.
With all this mist where should she even begin to look? Hmm...
Qing Anna held out her hands and a ring of bubbles formed around her, she closed her eyes to focus. Slowly the bubbles began to rotate and within a dark vortex was created sucking up the mist.
At first, her efforts didn't seem to have many results, the fog was endless, it didn't matter how much she sucked up she still couldn't see much from here. She sighed and resigned herself to stopping when the earth below her shook.
Since she was in the sky she was unaffected by the tremors until a giant hand pierced through the mist straight for her bubble, Qing Anna flew higher, circling around the hand as it reached for her. Unintentionally as the hand passed through the ring of bubbles, the bubbles began to suck at it from all sides tearing its papery white skin-revealing black rotten flesh.
Qing Anna held her chest as she stopped to recover.
"Goodness, that startled me."
As the bubbles stripped down the hand to its barebones black flames engulfed it. But Qing Anna didn't have much time to watch what would happen. Her bracelet began to glow. She followed the light into the mist, where a glowing flower symbol remained.
Sure enough she found a princess clinging onto the side of the mountain, had she been attempting to climb her way out of here?
"Are you the betrothed of the Village Chief to be?" She asked that woman.
The girl only shot her a guarded look. She was a skinny beauty with a heart-shaped face and rosy lips but she had clearly seen better days. Her clothing was torn, tattered and her perfect white skin was stained by grime and blood.
"Who are you?!"
"I'm a helper sent from the Bai family."
". . ." She didn't answer. Skepticism and distrust was written all over her face.
Her bracelet kept glowing. It had to be her right?
Qing Anna created a bubble and sent it down to suck up the girl, she floated to the top of the cliff and set her down.
"You wouldn't have happened to run into your fiancee, have you? I had heard he went ahead with you. I'm just making sure we won't be contracted to retrieve anyone else."
KERPLOO-ISH!
Qing Anna sensed her bubbles exploding, the shockwave, sent out an air pushing outwards then quickly receding in like a tide.
"Ohhh, Madame Ting will be okay right?" She couldn't help wondering aloud.
Qing Anna kept the two grounded by submerging the bottom half of her bubbles into the earth.
Then suddenly her bubble was popped.
"Hmm?" She looked up in time to see a male holding a sword, the Princess had also been freed. As those two clung to each other, they watched on passively as the tide pulled her off the cliff at frightening speed.
She barely had time to process what just happened as her instincts took action.
Qing Anna shielded herself as she gravitated towards the center, she created a string of tiny bubbles that connected her bubble to a side of the cliff like a chain.
Her bubble shook to and fro from the shockwave before like a kite caught in a tornado, tossing Anna around and like a piece of laundry in a washing machine. Bit by bit her bubbles began to crack. When the force dissipated, the bubble swung like a pendulum, it collided into the wall of the cliff, pieces of the bubble shattered and an unconscious Qing Anna slid out through the opening of the broken ball and fell.
After the shockwave died down most of the mist had cleared and Madame Ting was able to find her way back in time to cross path with the first son Wei Bao who was returning from the mountain with his injured fiancee clinging to his side.
"You are back in one piece?" Madame Ting couldn't hide her surprise.
Wei Bao held Madame Ting with a passive gaze before looking to Hongyi.
"We're leaving."
"Where is your apprentice?" Hongyi asked Madame Ting.
"I saw her bubble carry you up the mountain through a clearing in the mist," Madame Ting looked to Wei Bao. "So I returned. Why is she not with you?" Madame Ting looked to the woman.
Wei Bao shielded her from view.
"We haven't seen her."
Madame Ting's eyes narrowed. "That's impossible."
Wei Bao studied Madame Ting who studied him in return her passive gaze slowly morphing to one of disgust.
"To think that you would refuse my goodwill so fervently. What exactly did you do?!"
"Was she a favorite of yours for you to get so worked up? This forest is a very dangerous place, she probably ran into a beast."
"All the beasts and spirits in this place are gone no thanks to her." Madame Ting whipped her head in the direction of his female companion who furrowed her brows.
"What do you mean?"
"That girl, she extracted the remains of the fallen monk!"
"Mei Er doesn't have that sort of power. She's just an orphan from the village." Hongyi explained.
"Then how do you explain the sudden disappearance of the forest inhabitants?!"
Wei Bao spat, his ink-black eyes sharpening. "I slew them all."
"You overestimate yourself!" Madame Ting spat back.
The two of them glared at each other.
While this showdown occurred.
Qing Anna was at the bottom of the cliff somewhere impaled by glowing spears.
Those spears in particular were transparent in color, as Qing Anna's body slowly slid down the spears vanished. And Qing Anna's blue glowing cyan blue eyes quickly faded back to Xanadu green.
(D-did you really have to stop my fall by impaling me like that?)
[I'm sorry, I can't deploy shields like you spikes are my specialty.]
(Then why didn't you just deploy them in a row sideways? )
[...]
(...)
[...This whole spike deploying thing is new to me okay? I only discovered I was able to use magic that one time! ]
(...Right. I'll cut you some slack.)
[Thank you. But you know, I'm still quite angry about earlier...]
At the recollection, one of Anna's eyes glowed a brilliant lime green while the other a cyan blue.
[(THAT MOTHERFUCKER!)]
[Is he fucking brain dead, why would he hurt someone that did nothing wrong?]
(If he is who I think he is, I might not be able to do anything. After all, he's my master's nephew.)
[Huh, what did I tell you? If you're not at my side, you're going to suffer the life of a commoner.]
Qing Anna sat up.
(It's not that bad. I don't care.)
Her whole body ached all over, even though the wounds from the spikes that impaled her hadn't even broken skin, the collision from the shock wave earlier were enough to make her dizzy when she tried to stand.
[But "I" care. Ha... should I ever meet that person his head will roll before my feet! My name isn't Song Lina if I don't kill him someday!]
(The Jade Mist Village is known for creating a lot of wonderful things, killing him would be a bit of a waste...)
[A prestigious group like that, there's no way they don't have any other successors!]
(My main point here is that it'd be more suitable trading with them than waging war don't you think?)
[Since when did you become so materialistic?]
(In this world training the body, and training the eye for good things, they're both a plus. There are a lot of things that can help cultivate the body aside from blood, sweat, and tears.)
[Don't be lazy and rely on those drugs.]
(I'm not!)
It didn't take long for Qing Anna to return to the entrance with her bubble. She arrived in time to witness Hongyi wedging himself in between Madam Ting and the assumed Wei Bao and his fiancee.
Madame Ting's anger receded a bit.
"Anna! Are you alright?"
Wei Bao's gaze sharpened and for a moment Anna could sense some faint bloodlust but it quickly receded. Why did he want to kill her for no reason? Psycho!
"I'm fine. I was careless. I ended up using too much mana..." She thought all members of the Bai family were trustworthy but it seems she was mistaken.
Madame Ting held her chest in relief. She held the child by the shoulders and looked her over.
"A pity, in the end, I wasn't much use today. It's only fair the reward goes to you."
[Damn straight.]
"Then," Madame Ting acknowledged Hongyi only.
"We'll be off now. Tell your Mother I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly."
"But the reward..."
"Just send it to me with a messenger later."
"Father and Grandfather won't let me hear the end of it if you do that. Please, take pity on me, Aunt."
In the end, Hongyi's helpless expression won the old woman over and she caved.
Everyone returned to the main house three days later, safely.
"The Bone Vanishing Well may have been a dangerous place but it was still useful gathering ground for resources... I can't possibly imagine this ending well." Madame Ting told Bai Ahnk who seemed even more agitated than usual upon learning that Wei Bao nearly killed Madame Ting's apprentice.
At first, it seemed like she was a respected individual who was obliged to perform errands but now it felt as if that wasn't the case. He was excessively generous to Qing Anna and even offered her a variety of expensive things which she couldn't possibly accept. (Edit: She caved when it came to clothing)
"How long will you allow that child to run loose?" Madame Ting asked before she left. "Having one loose canon is fine but two? Is such a person really suitable to lead the village, how long will you have poor Hongyi run around monitoring them?"
"... You should know more than anyone, Wei Bao's ability... he can't be killed so easily."
"There are two things that even the strongest martial artist is weak to, poison and curses."
Qing Anna who was browsing through a selection of fabric halted, her head whipping in the direction of the two.
Did she really just say that?