Her Past? The Upper Prefectures.

Li Sihan stared at the wreckage of the overturned carriage with an unconcealed rage and hatred that chilled her subordinates blood. See, the Grand Chief had never been much of an expressive person, even when she had still been in her original body. She was a very stoic faced personality who was never fazed at the direst of circumstances. Yet ...

Inside Li Sihan's mind she couldn't care less what her subordinates were thinking. The jarring scene of this carriage accident was doing things to her soul. Terrifying things. She seemed to be remembering a very dark memory, darker than the Boiler itself...

Li Sihan had always been Li Sihan. As in, the Grand Chief of the Si Lak Mercenaries had always been the daughter of the Li family! In her past life, Li Zhenming, Ren Ziming and her little sister, Li Silan had died in a carriage accident and she was the only one who had survived; because her cultivation spirit had awakened so she didn't easily die of blood loss. Walking away from that carnage scene had been the hardest thing she had ever done in her life. Now, the Scorpion Hall dared to remind her of her past...she knew Li Zhenming and Ren Ziming weren't dead because she had surreptitiously placed her imprint on them and would know... She would know if those damn bastards dare lay even as much as a finger on her parents...

"Mobilise the Trackers!" Li Sihan commanded, and Jun Ru used a special summon token to create the tear in space that only the Grand Chief was capable of doing to bring the Trackers over to where they were. Hearing that the Scorpion Hall had kidnapped the Grand Chief's parents, the Four Seniors accompanied them as well.

"Greetings to the Grand Chief!" They all went down on one knee. Li Sihan nodded. The Trackers rose and fell to work immediately without having anyone have to explain what they had to do to them. The three surrounded the carnage wreck and starting creating an immense complicated tracking matrix. Within minutes, what had started as three small strands of silver light had become a humongous network of crisscrossing, zapping, flashing, booming matrices.

"Done!" The three Trackers were covered in sweat, their faces pale. They had burnt a lot of cultivation esscence.

"We now have a location, Grand Chief!"

"Yes?" Li Sihan raised her head.

"Maoyang Mountain, Qinding, in the Upper Prefectures!"

"Hah," Li Sihan spat, "very well. Seems like I'm just going to wipe off this whole Upper Prefectures this time,"

*

Si Lak Mercenaries Headquarters

A wizened old man stood in front of the group of people upon the mountain. His loose robes fluttered behind him in the string breeze.

"Why have you summoned me, Grand Chief?" He croaked at the little girl in front.

"Open up the gateway to the Upper Prefectures," Li Sihan ordered.

"Has the Grand Chief gotten over the unspoken beef you have with that place?" The old man laughed. Li Sihan glared at him and he flinched, then laughed nervously again to cover his awkwardness.

"Of course. I'll open the gateway immediately, Grand Chief," he bowed obsequiously.

Turning around, the old man raised his hand towards the sky and seemed to be pulling something down. Slowly, a illusory transparent stairway started to drop from the skies. Beads of sweat appeared on the old man's forehead as he continued to make pulling gestures. By the time the stairway was halfway down, he seemed to reach a certain limit and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Ha, ha, ha," he gasped as he tried to catch his breath, wiping his mouth with his sleeve, "Grand Chief, this subordinate is getting too old for this. You should select another guardian for the gateway. I can't bring it any further down,"

Li Sihan turned down her lips.

"You're right," she sneered, "I'll select another gateway guardian," she stomped hard on the ground and flew into the air. Five blurs of light streaked after her.

"Grand Chief, be careful!" Xi Yun, the blur of light in front, cried out as the trials of the gateway started. Bolts of lightning started zapping around them as soon as Li Sihan stepped her feet on the first step. She avoided them dexterously, refusing at that moment to stop the stupid one by one climbing and simply kept on flying. After a while, the lightning stopped and a very dark mist fell upon them. Xi Yun, who was an old hand at visiting the Upper Prefectures, immediately advised the rest.

"Don't panic, just keep climbing!"

Li Sihan couldn't care less. She continued flying upwards at a very fast speed, with, she was quite surprised to notice, worry in her heart. Her mother was probably very scared. She could imagine her sobbing into Li Zhenming's shoulder, that is, if they didn't keep them separately... She increased her speed! Little Bun was also waiting for her at home, in the care of Tao He and a dozen other Mercenaries.

Deng!

Shwaa!

Had they set an ambush for her as soon as she arrived?!

"Hahahahaha!" A quite familiar laughter rang in her ears, "gotcha now, Si Lak!"

Li Sihan frowned. She reached out and touched the soft mass that had enveloped her. Zing! She pulled her hand back sharply as it stung!

"Hahahaha! Does it hurt, Si Lak?"

Li Sihan withdrew into her oasis. From her spatial storage she retrieved a small round object. Very small, even than her pinky finger.

"Si Lak! Hey, Si Lak! Wake up, are you dead already? That's not fun!"

Thwak!

As soon as Li Sihan opened her eyes she flung the object at the mass.

Riiiiip!

"Hey!"

Once free of the mass, Li Sihan scrunched her eyes in deep concentration. Riiiip! Another tearing sounded.

"No, do you think you can get to me that easily!" All the mirth had disappeared from the voice, "it's not for nothing I'm the Hall Master of the Scorpion Hall!"

"Guess you still want to lurk some more," Li Sihan shrugged, "where have you put them?"

"Who?" The voice growled.

"That couple you kidnapped from the mainland,"

"Ha! Guess!"

"Maoyang Mountain," Li Sihan rolled her eyes. She could almost in her mind's eye see old Scorpy's jaw dropping open. Whoosh! Since he was not bold enough to face her in a 1v1, she decided to go rescue her parents instead.

However... If it wasn't for her Space Tearing Meteor, wouldn't that old man have gotten her this time? Even as she flew she examined the small burn mark on her finger. For this, she would make sure to destroy in flames that pesky Hall! How dare him--!

She surveyed the jagged terrain with distaste. Yes, this was what she hated about the Upper Prefectures. It was bare and lifeless. Where was this Maoyang mountain?

Boom!

Another ambush?

About twelve black robed surrounded her in midair. Li Sihan was forcefully reminded of the time the Scorpion Hall and Yan Temple had jointly attacked her. However, she was not entirely unhappy about *that* attack, for it was what made her able to be reborn again! Whether it was rebirth or transmigration she was not even certain, but she was happy.

Not right now.

There was a stalemate as the twelve cultivators examined her reaction. Li Sihan was trying to probe their level of cultivation. They were Martial Sovereigns, real ones, not like those that had fought against Yun and Gu Yan. But she was not afraid. She was just a little worried that it would not be like the last time. The deja vu feeling was too much.

"Do you know what we want from you?" One of the cultivators eventually broke the silence with a hoarse grunt. Li Sihan turned to look at him.

"The cultivation formula with which you broke through to Martial Saint!" He suddenly shouted. Li Sihan rolled her eyes.

"Even if I gave it to you, would you be able to achieve what I achieved?" She retorted coldly.

"Si Lak, you are going to die today," another of the cultivators said, "why not do some good before you go to the underworld?"

Li Sihan snorted.

She raised her hand and automatically her assailants raised matrix shields. She chuckled derisively.

"Bunch of jumpy sooty bastards," she insulted them, "why are you so scared?"

"Hmph!" The first one suddenly launched an attack, "Soul Tearing Formation!"

The eleven others raised their hands and added their own cultivation essence to the towering formation which swelled and then morphed into a single silver arrow that shot straight at Li Sihan's chest.

She imbued her hand with cultivation energy and caught the arrow an inch to it piercing through her heart. She turned it around and threw it back at the assailants. They scattered in different directions as they avoided it!

"Tsk," Li Sihan snorted, "okay, next,"

"Don't be too arrogant!" One of the experts retrieved his contracted weapon and zoomed like a flash of light to battle Li Sihan one on one. The eleven others surrounded them back and started shooting different debilitating matrices and seals at her. Li Sihan raised a shield to deter the onslaught, and turned to whack the weapon carrying cultivator away with a blast on energy. He staggered back a hundred steps in midair before returning with a crazed expression again for another attack.

Boom! Blast! Boom! The seals and matrices being created by the others kept crashing against the infallible shield... Li Sihan waited till the first assailant was within whacking distance before whacking him again. This time, he coughed up a mouthful of blood, clutching his chest in horror. Li Sihan raised her hands and created a very technical matrix; one like which the two princes of the Phoenix Empire had probably employed to become cultivators. But this one was not an Essence Transfer Matrix; it was an Essence Absorbing Matrix. While the former might have, even though crippled, still left the victims alive; this one would ultimately destroy the life force of whoever was the unfortunate recipient as well.

"Activate!" Li Sihan shouted, and a round ring-like object was formed by the intertwining of the silver matrix strands. The ring flew up above Li Sihan's head and exuded, with a blast, a sparkle of light. All twelve assailants suddenly found themselves unable to move, and, to their horror, beams of white light started to pour out of their orifices and pour upwards into the ring. Eyes wide open with shock, the cultivators lost their lives in the most gruesome manner. Li Sihan raised her hand and snatched the essence absorbing matrix ring out of the air. With a hmph, she teleported.