IT FEELS LIKE A DREAM

CHAPTER 2 – IT FEELS LIKE A DREAM

Xingjuan woke up with a startling headache; her whole body hurting and aching with pain. Her eyelids were heavy and numb, and she tried to make sense of her surroundings but then realized that she was in a carriage.

Xingjuan tried to clear her thoughts and to think of the reason why she was there, dressed like a noble lady with a thick veil covering the most parts of her face until it all came rushing back, exploding in her head like a hurricane, it hurt even more than she expected, she could barely breath properly. Despite her painful headache, her heart was hurt unparallelly at the memories that were rushing inside her mind.

She was in the same carriage that was supposed to take her to the palace to take her sister's place, but Xingjuan remembers quiet clearly that this had happen before and then she never went to the palace because it was this same carriage that led her to her own death.

The more her past memories flooded her brain, the more she realized what happened to her. Bittersweet tears burned her eyes and her lower lips trembled, she noted that she was alive again, but she had traveled back in time.

Xingjuan couldn't believe this was happening to her; her past life felt like a dream... like it never happened.

She noticed that presently it was daytime and could recall quite clearly that the ambush that led to her imminent doom had happened at night of the second day when she arrived at Yang Province. She was sixteen and young, but she had to go to the Yellow River so soon.

The General's manor was a bit far from the palace. The General's manor was in the Yin Province while the palace was in the central region, mostly known as the capital in the Yang Province. Both Provinces were miles apart and In Xingjuan's last life she remembered it took the carriage two days to arrive at the outskirts of the Yang Province. By morning, they would have entered the gates, but she didn't get to have the chance.

"Where are we now?" Xingjuan asked one of the guards following beside the carriage. They were supposed to protect her, but when the assassins came, they all fled faster than a leopard, although XingJuan doubts if they were able to make it far. To keep the kind of secret that her father General Mo wanted hidden would require silencing everyone involved.

"We are approaching Yue Valley. We will be spending the night there." He said and Xingjuan sighed a breath of relief.

If they spent the night at Yue Valley, then it was still the first day of her journey to the palace and she still had a chance to live, to escape such ill fate that befell her in the life she had just lived, the life that just ended so brutally, But she couldn't trust anyone presently with her and she'd have to escape on her own. She'd have to follow a different route from the one that the assassins planned to block and ambush.

She needed to get to Yang Province at all cost, then, she'd be safe from the assassins at the least. Xingjuan assumed at the least because she did not know what awaited her beyond the Yang Province gate.

Powers or no powers, she must leave by tonight, because she knew that they wouldn't expect for her to leave after all she was trash, someone who couldn't cultivate the most basic of techniques, she was so unlike her father, the great General of Tang Qin Shang Dynasty.

Xingjuan thought to herself that by morning, when they find her tent empty, she would be long gone. She just prayed that they don't send an Air Elemental Master after her or else she would stand no chance.

Just thinking about her last life and the way she died made her shiver. The rusted old ring on Xingjuan finger that her mother gave her began to shine. All these years, the ring remained well fitted on her last finger. As time went on, it seemed to her that the ring reshaped itself so that it could continuously fit that particular finger. But she wasn't really able to tell or be sure since she was always so skinny.

The rusted ring kept shining its light in the carriage. shocking her to no end, "What was with this strange phenomenon" Xingjuan was so thankful to the heavens that the sun was high in the sky, so outsiders couldn't notice its uniqueness. The ring that has never left her last finger beforehand suddenly flew out on its own. It happened so fast, but the next thing she knew, it was embedded in her forehead, it was scorching hot, the kind of heat it emitted was so much that Xingjuan wondered if a fire elemental could bear it non less her a mere mortal.

She wanted to scream but knew she couldn't, so she bit at her bottom lip harshly to the point that blood started dripping down. She heard buzzing sounds in her head and her brain was like it was being ripped out from her head, at the same time, she believed something was being melted into her, just like when a blacksmith melts metal in order to form a weapon.

After the ring melted into her forehead, it flowed into Xingjuan's bloodstream, the sensation all over her body was euphorically and she could actually see what was happening in her body.

The melted ring then flowed to her core where the mana was of a cultivator was usually stored, too bad no drop of mana could be found inside her body, she wouldn't be referred to as trash if she could accumulate mana. There was a black, hazy substance in the core where the melted ring substance flowed to, that black substance that was once covering Xingjuan core and had prevented her from storing mana all those years ago despite her vigorous training, seemed to be pushed out by the rusted ring which had now begun to take shape again. This time, it formed a large space, and in that space, there was a cauldron.

She couldn't look at the space well since she was in a state were pain was all she could register. In fact, she didn't even know when or how she blacked out.

***

"Mistress… Mistress!" Xingjuan heard one of the servants assigned to her call out repeatedly as she awoke from his deep slumber. "We are at the Yue Valley. The tents have been set, and you can go and relax now in yours." The servant, assigned by Xingjuan's father, added.

"Thanks… Wait, what? We are at the Yue Valley already?" Xingjuan asked, not believing what she just heard. "Yes, Mistress." The servant answered innocently.

Xingjuan wanted to curse at the heavens for doing this to her. The time that she was supposed to use for her plan to escape was used to sleep instead! "Are you okay?" The servant asked worriedly.

"I will be out soon, so you can leave." Xingjuan replied grudgingly. It wasn't the servants' fault but one couldn't blame Xingjuan for being in such a bad mood. Her life was on the line after all, and she didn't have the time to sleep.

Xingjuan was wearing one of her half-sister's annoyingly flowing gown that was decorated with heavy jades and jewels. She couldn't understand why someone will design a robe like this, It wasn't easy to wear at all and her neck was aching from the pain of all the overweight items on her head. Even her back was not spared from all the torture. Both her wrists were begging for mercy as well due to the bangles wrapped around them, only her legs were spared. She absolutely wasn't use to or comfortable with wearing such lady cloths even if she was one herself. she couldn't be blamed for this seen she had only ever owned a pair of male robe and she never knew what ornaments were until she was forced to dress like her sister, the legitimate and precious daughter of her the General's manor, Xingjuan knew that if she wore all those items, they would only slow her down while trying to escape from her approaching end, so she removed the ornaments decorating her long black silky hair and the dressed the hair simply in the form of a bun.

Xingjuan was well aware of the fact that she at some point will have to steal some clothes and change into them, then, when she approached the capital, she could change back to her sister's extravagant clothing. But she had somewhat forgotten that she carried her one and only robe, and this robe was expressly designed for the opposite sex, Xingjuan was more comfortable when wearing male robes but up till when she was to leave the camp she never recalled this fact and had to wear those robes that made her clumsy and trip on almost every occasion.

Tonight, was going to be a long night, Xingjuan mused and sighed deeply as well. She stepped out of the carriage and prepared to enter her tent for the time being but despite the fact that her body was still in the camp with the guards and maids sent to follow her to the palace, her thoughts where that of a person running into the endless darkness of the forest on foot, determined to change her fate, courageous and ready to face all obstacles that might cross her path.

Xingjuan knew she couldn't go far with the way she was now, "How far could a non cultivator get when be chased by cultivators" she knew it will be hard for her to escape the elementals that will come to seek for her life but she had no choice but to try, she couldn't just wait around to be murdered, As the cold valley breeze hit her, Xingjuan discovered something. Something extremely astonishing. Something life-changing. Something that was startling and utterly amazing, not to anyone else, but to Xingjuan herself