13

Warmth filled Yao Yue's body as she slowly began to awake. It felt odd and weird, since she could feel that the waters around her were clearly freezing cold. She began to open her eyes, to realize that she was back into the waters of the Yue Yi Lake.

"Oh, so you're finally awake?"

She slowly turned her head to see Tian WuLai sitting behind her, casting a spell on her back. "Sect...sect Leader WuLai? You..."

"The wounds on your back needed to be healed, otherwise you would have died from all the blood loss and pain. I aged up your wounds so they'd heal faster," he pulled his hands off of her back before getting up from the waters, "so that now that you're awake, you can go practice the Mo Wu Swordplay."

"Un.. understood."

Yao Yue got out of the waters, only to see that her clothes had been changed. The black outer coat of the Mo Sect she had been wearing before was now replaced with an older version of the Tian Sect. Her eyes widened at the sight, pulling at her inner garment to see that her bandages too had been changed.

"That Childe Tian of yours didn't feel comfortable changing you out of your bloody garments, so I did it instead." Tian WuLai said, noticing her actions. "Don't worry, I didn't take advantage of you."

"But you..."

He gestured to Yao Yue's stomach. "Are you talking about the Mo Ling-?"

She immediately rushed over and covered his mouth with her hand. Tian WuLai stared at her in shock while her eyes held desperation for him not to say any more. They stayed in that position for a moment before Tai WuLai shook his head out of her grasp.

"Okay, I won't say anymore about it," he turned away from her, "but you need to be more careful. Guessing from the heat radiating from it, there's a shard here in the Lake. If you and Childe Tian are able to master the Tian Jian Mo Wu Swordplay and escape here, I will return it to you."

Yao Yue's eyes widened at his words before she ran up towards the island, grabbing the swordplay manual and sword that laid down next to it. "Thank you so much, Sect Leader WuLai!" she bowed her head.

*****

Yao Yue stared at the manual in frustration as she sat on the ground, trying to read it. She was currently in a separate cavern with Tian Ying, who was practicing what he had read so far and seemingly working much faster than her across the cavern. Unlike her, Tian Ying had already read through and practiced about half of his manual already.

Letting out a dejected sigh, Yao Yue pulled out her sword and began to practice what she had read so far. But with her limited knowledge of actual swordplay, Yao Yue ended up just falling onto the ground, nearly cutting herself in the process.

"Your whole stance is wrong." Yao Yue looked up to see Tian Ying walking over. "Have you not wielded a sword before."

"Of course I haven't!" she got up from the ground and dusted herself off. "We, the Mo Sect, specialize in magic spells. I've never touched a sword before now."

Tian Ying stared at a moment before sheathing his sword, attaching it to his belt. He walked up to Yao Yue and picked up the Mo Wu Swordplay, reading a few pages. He then moved behind her, grabbing the wrist that was holding her sword.

"What are you doing?" she asked, glancing at him in confusion.

"Watch." He fixed her grip on her sword before guiding her hand in swift motions that matched the ones that were written in the swordplay manual. "Left foot forward."

Yao Yue obeyed his command, taking a step forward with her left foot. This continued, with Tian Ying moving her arms and commanding her foot work and Yao Yue obeying every single command and memorizing every move. But as he only read a few pages, it wasn't long until Tian Ying released her to have her practice on her own.

"Master these first before we work on the next few steps." he said, walking off to his side of the cavern again and drawing his sword to practice some more.

Yao Yue nodded, holding her sword up as she began to practice once more from memory. She closed her eyes, swinging her sword as if Tian Ying was still holding onto her. Her feet moved alongside her swiftly and gracefully, as if she had been doing this move for a long time. But then her sword clashed against something, causing it to fly out of her hands. She opened her eyes immediately, to see that it was Tian Ying who was now in front of her once more, pointing his sword at her.

"Your grip was too loose." he lowered his sword and picked up hers, handing it back to her. "Hold it like this." he showed her his grip on his sword, before taking a step back. "Try again, eyes open."

Yao Yue nodded again, slightly embarrassed with her actions before taking a deep breath and gripping her sword correctly this time. She then began to swing her sword, causing waves of air to cut against the cavern walls. Shocked by the sudden wave, she immediately dropped her sword as small pebbles began to fall onto the ground from where she had cut.

"How..." she gasped.

Tian Ying stared at the cut in the wall before picking up Yao Yue's sword once again. "Control your swings more. Again." he handed it back to her, "Remember how I guided your hands."

Yao Yue let out a small sigh mumbling, "This... will take a while..."