10

Classes were canceled for the rest of the day and the few days that followed since Shui Yang, Huo Ping, Lin Xue, Tian Ying and Yao Yue were punished. Instead, the other disciples were allowed to go to the city that stood underneath Yun Tian Di to wander off and have fun. The ones who were punished were forbidden to go, and were to be locked in their rooms to reflect on their mistakes.

Yao Yue tried to take that time to sleep, in hopes that she could ignore the pain that was coursing throughout her back. As a member from the Mo bloodline her body was considered to be delicate. If left untreated, any wound on the body could pain someone to death.

"Hello? Is this the room of Yao Yue from the Mo Sect?" a sweet feminine voice asked, knocking on Yao Yue's door.

She slowly raised her head in confusion, as she had never heard that voice before. "Who... who is it?" she called out as clearly as she could, wincing from her wounds.

"I'm Tian Ya of the Tian Sect, Tian Ying's older sister." the woman answered. "He asked if I could help take care of your wounds. May I come in?"

Yao Yue paused for a moment taking in the information before saying, "The door's unlocked."

The door opened to reveal a young woman of the Tian Sect who was holding a tray that contained a bowl of medical paste and bandages. She smiled at Yao Yue as she walked in, setting the tray on the table that was next to the bed.

"Miss Yao, how is your back doing?" Tian Ya asked as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

"It... it's fine," Yao Yue lied, attempting to smile back at her.

Tian Ya let out a small laugh, "You don't need to lie to me, as a doctor I know that members of the Mo Sect have the most delicate skin of all the other sects. We should probably get your wound treated before something bad happens."

Yao Yue nodded in thanks. "Thank you, Miss Tian."

"Just call me Tian Ya. 'Miss Tian' is way too formal, we're similar in age after all."

"Alright, then you can call me Yao Yue."

Tian Ya glanced over at Yao Yue's blood soaked back. "Are you able to take off your clothes?"

Yao Yue was about to nod, but then she suddenly remembered something. She attempted to get up only to fall back onto her bed.

She sighed and shook her head. "Tian Ya, do you think... think you could.. cut off my clothes instead?"

Tian Ya nodded, pulling a small dagger from her sleeve. She cut from the collar of Yao Yue's clothes and pulled them off of her bloody back. Underneath were bruised patches that covered her whole back, they were bruised so bad that they were actually bleeding a lot.

"So this is what A'Ying was talking about when he said that you took the effect of four hundred strikes onto your back." She winced, staring at the bloody bruises. "Yao Yue, you should love your body more, even if you felt guilty about A'Ying."

"Childe Tian didn't deserve to be punished for my mistake. I was the one who dragged him into this mess, I should be the one who takes the punishment for him."

"Yao Yue, you're a kind girl." she glanced around the room and spotted the jars of alcohol in Yao Yue's room. "May I use some of this alcohol to clean your wound?"

Yao Yue nodded as she grabbed a jar. Tian Ya pulled out a cloth out of her sleeve and undid the cover to the jar of alcohol, pouring a cup out. She soaked the cloth in the alcohol before turning over to Yao Yue.

"Are you ready?"

Yao Yue took a deep breath, before nodding. "I'm ready, please start."

*****

Yao Yue finally let out the breath she was holding when Tian Ya was finally finished with cleaning out her wounds. Her head was spinning and she was sweating profusely from how hard she was suppressing her cries of pain. After all, her brother always told her to never show weakness to anyone, otherwise they'd just harm you in the end.

Tian Ya set down the blood covered cloth and bloody cup of alcohol before grabbing the bowl of medical paste that was still on the tray. She scooped out some paste onto Yao Yue's back and carefully applied to cool paste onto her wounds.

"I'll come here every other day to change your bandages and clean out your wound." Tian Ya said, setting down the bowl and turning to grab the bandages.

As soon as Yao Yue saw that she was no longer looking at her, Yao Yue cast a spell onto herself. She closed her eyes, letting out a silent sigh as Tian Ya turned back around.

"Let me help you up." She carefully and gently helped Yao Yue into a sitting position before she began to bandage her back.

They were both quiet, until Yao Yue coughed. "Tian Ya, I have a question that I don't know if I should or shouldn't ask."

"Go ahead," Tian Ya answered, laughing a bit. "It's not like I'm of royal blood, there's no need for you to speak this way."

Yao Yue glanced down at her now healed finger before saying, "Do you happen to know what happened to the intruder that was captured the first night of lessons?"

She paused for a moment, before continuing with her bandaging. "Why are you asking?"

"No particular reason, I was just curious about it. It's been a little more than a week after all and I haven't heard anything about him."

"No, I don't know what happened to the intruder." Tian Ya said as she quickly finished bandaging Yao Yue and helped back onto her stomach onto her bed. "I'll take my leave, see you next time."

Yao Yue frowned as she watched her hurry away before slowly and carefully pushing herself up into a sitting position. Although she felt a bit upset about Tian Ya's attitude towards her in the end, she understood why she was acting this way. After all, she was an outsider and shouldn't be asking about the inner business of the Tian Sect.

She covered her mouth out as she spat out some blood, breaking the spell that she had put onto herself. At that moment, a mark appeared on Yao Yue's stomach through her bandages. It looked as if there was a part of a giant medallion embedded into her skin.

She glanced down before placing a hand over to cover it. "Don't worry, older brother." she whispered, as a spare inner garment flew over from one of her chests and draped itself over her. "I haven't forgotten my mission here. As soon as I am better, I'll find a way to get it done as soon as possible."