Nine minutes past xin hour (noon for the English world) at the top of Vermillion Peak, a clap of thunder rang out.

Following that, heavy storm clouds rolled in to circle the mountain, blanketing it in a thick cover of shadows on the bristling summer day. Flashes of lightning flitted through the gray, accompanied by a low rumbling roar. A hot and angry breeze stirred the sun-parched blades of grass on the rocks, the few raindrops falling in its wake like heated spittle against an oil starved wok.

Moments later, the Heavens let loose a roar and flooded the world with curtains of rain. Multiple disciples were caught unprepared by the sudden deluge, their yelps mixing with the crackle of thunder in the air.

“A thunderstorm?”

“No, it’s tribulation! Heavenly tribulation!”

“By the Founder, senior sister’s done it again!”

“Another breakthrough? Didn’t she just finish one last--yowch!”

“Hurry, find cover before the lightning gets worse!”

Vicious bolts arced down from the skies, staining the sides of Vermillion Peak black with their repeated lashing. All of them were concentrated on the small cave at its summit, long barren from previous strikes. The force of their blows made the ground shudder and the straggling disciples outside pick up their pace--no one wanted to be caught in the backlash of the storm.

Further from the rainstorm was quiet and calm. Northeast in the woods of Azure Peak, the howling winds had petered to a gentle whisper made cool by the dense cover of trees. A faint, mist-like drizzle replaced the maelstrom, dusting the hair of a figure reclining in a tree. Lazy tendrils of hair flickered past her brow, caressed by the breeze that teased the strands and the ends of her sleeves. Dressed in pure white robes, she had the ease of a drifting cloud despite sprawling with crossed legs and bare feet.

Wu Lianlei (吴怜蕾) bit unceremoniously into the skin of a fresh lychee before squeezing the fruit into her mouth. Moments later, she spat out its seed in a beautiful arc to join its cousins in a growing pile on the ground. Her other hand flipped through a cultivation manual, the slender fingers holding open the book while her thumb paged through it expertly. When a sudden gust sent an extra splash of rain her way, she raised her right pinky, and a curtain of branches abruptly lowered to shield her from the spray.

“Mm...circulate the qi, then release it into the fingertips…” The voice repeating the text to herself was light and soft, a pleasant hum in the hazy afternoon.

“Five rotations for the five petals, energy channeled into the abdomen--” The voice broke off as the figure suddenly leaped into the air with book in hand. Seconds later, a thin layer of frost had covered the spot where she was sitting before spreading to freeze the entire tree solid. Simultaneously, the basket of lychees she’d knocked over with her jump went flying until bolts of blue light struck them in mid-air. By the time they hit the ground, they had iced over as well.

A young man strode into the modest clearing with hands folded behind his back. He too, was dressed in white robes, but the hems were embroidered with silver swirls. The right side of his face was covered by a delicate metallic mask accented with a long beaded tassel. He’d hardly reached the pile of lychee seeds on the ground when a thick vine burst through the earth beneath them and arched towards his arm. He sidestepped it neatly, skirted past a second vine lunging for his ankles, and kicked the third and fourth before they even touched his toe. Every step he took left ice in its wake that quickly spread to freeze the vines in place. His right sleeve flickered briefly; in the next instant all the vines had shattered into frozen fragments on the ground.

Still, the man didn’t budge, eyes fixated on the ice-covered ground as a smile played upon his lips. Another burst of wind went whistling through the trees, and then--!

A single vine shot down from the treetops, aiming for his neck!

The right sleeve swayed again. This time, the dagger hidden within its depths revealed itself briefly before it slashed through the plant, leaving it limp. Unexpectedly, a sword came flying forward in its wake, forcing the man to quickly adjust the weapon in his grip. With a clang, metal met metal as he blocked the longer blade with his own while it was inches from his throat. Ice creeped up the weapon before it too, was frozen solid and sent clattering to the ground.

The entire exchange lasted less than 10 seconds.

“Still so slow,” the man scoffed. He turned in time to see an ethereal girl descending from the treetops, her dress fluttering in her wake as she landed lightly on the ground. What might have been an angelic sight was ruined the moment she opened her mouth.

“Mental case! Metalhead!”

Arching a brow in amusement, the man rapped his knuckles against his mask. “Better a head full of silver than a hollow one made of wood.”

“Why did you come? I was minding my own business!”

“That’s why I was worried. Inevitably, my little junior sister will only get stupider if left to her own devices.”

“Li Hanlan!”

With a chortle, the man straightened up to speak properly. “Alright, enough with the histrionics. Master told me to get you; that hothead will join us once she’s finished frying her mountain.”

Wu Lianlei looked at him suspiciously. “Peak Lord Situ did?”

“Last I checked, she’s the only one I call master.” Li Hanlan (李寒蘭) took a quick step forward and tugged on Wu Lianlei’s hair before she could react. “Did you forget your brains in bed today?”

Wu Lianlei slapped his hand aside. “Can’t you just tell me to come like a normal person?”

“But I’m supernormal,” Li Hanlan insisted with a quirk of his lips. “Why would I put myself down like that, little junior sister?”

“Who’s your junior sister? I’ll pack my bags and quit the sect!”

“Alas, my little junior sister is pining for the secular world again. Snacking on lychees and lounging around, it’s no wonder her cultivation is so po--”

There was a violent series of cracks as five tree branches went falling on Li Hanlan all at once. By the time they reached his head, he was already five feet away, still laughing.

Wu Lianlei bent down to pick up her sword, sending a tendril of energy through her fingertips to melt off the ice. By the time she caught up to Li Hanlan, the rest of the ice in the clearing had vanished as well, leaving small puddles in its wake.

“Only you would have the gall to break branches off the trees from Azure Peak’s forest.” Li Hanlan was shaking his head.

“Who’s the one that froze a tree first?” Wu Lianlei shot back, reaching down to pick up the freshly thawed lychees and putting them back in the basket.

“I kept the ice from touching the wood, so it’ll be fine,” Li Hanlan hummed. “You, on the other hand, not only littered but lost your shoes--”

“Lychee seeds won’t hurt the earth,” Wu Lianlei cut him off. She paused to peel another lychee and plop the fruit in her mouth. “Turn around, I’m going to put on my boots now.”

“It’s not as if I haven’t seen your feet already.” Li Hanlan’s eyes trailed to the ground, where the neat white hems of Wu Lianlei’s skirt hid any sign of her toes.

“You’ve probably seen more toes in your life than a foot doctor.”

“Perhaps, but I don’t remember any of them as well as my little junior sis--”

This time, a shower of leaves engulfed him just long enough for Wu Lianlei to slip on her silken boots that she’d left beside the tree. Fortunately, Li Hanlan had been considerate enough to leave them unfrozen.

He brushed stray leaves off his shoulder and gave a snort. “You really treat these woods as your own.”

“They’re not exactly sealed off.”

“Most disciples would have reservations about touching Xun’s (巽) personal grove,” Li Hanlan tsk’ed. “Those with a modicum of tact, at the very least.”

“Stories are just stories.” the delicate girl before him gave a decidedly unimpressed look before stomping off in her robes. Or rather, she tried but ended up gliding gracefully away with butterfly steps. Li Hanlan marveled at the sight, then looked back at the broken branches behind. They were already growing roots and easing themselves comfortably into the earth. Although it was something he’d seen before, he still lingered to study the plants before the sound of fading footsteps had him hurrying to play catch-up.

--

East of Penglai and nestled in the clouds were the lands of the Skyedge Sect. Though modest in size, it was one of the oldest cultivation sects across Shenzhou continent. Three Peak Lords guided various disciples from the three tallest mountains within its grounds: Vermillion in the south, Black Frost in the north and White Jade in the west. The peak lord’s palace of Azure Peak had been unoccupied for the past 500 years, long enough for most people to forget that Skyedge Sect once had such a leader.

To meet with Li Hanlan’s master, the duo had to head for Peak Lord Situ’s quarters on Black Frost. Flying would be simple enough on any day, but they’d only be moving targets if they tried in proximity of the heavenly tribulation. Instead, they two had started down the mountain on foot to avoid the mess in the air. Another rumble of thunder shook the ground as they left the woods behind for the bare slopes in front of them.

“No one in the sect’s seen anyone advance so quickly through the levels.” Li Hanlan remarked conversationally as they walked. “Is your older sister so remarkable because you’re hopelessly ordinary?”

“What kind of nonsense logic is that?” Wu Lianlei creased her brows at him. “We’re not even blood siblings.” Although it was true they had lived and grown up together, their meeting was simply by chance in the streets, and neither had a ‘family’ except each other.

Wu Yelin (吴烨霖) was simply the kind of extraordinarily gifted, supremely lucky, and cheat infused main character one found in half a thousand of those superpower Chinese webnovels. She not only had Heaven-defying innate talent, but dual elemental affinities and a long-lost bloodline of an ancient clan that would come into play later in the plot. Combined with her eagerness to cultivate and hardworking attitude, she was nothing less than a xianxia genre monster. Within a decade, she’d be on par with her own master at Vermillion Peak, then take over as peak lord when her beloved mentor died from a tragic, character-building accident orchestrated by her own little sister.

Wu Lianlei was the resident white lotus and cockroach-tier villainess-turned-cannon-fodder. She was delicate and pretty, the most beautiful disciple in all of Skyedge Sect. She could cry on command and always dressed in flowing silks despite their impracticality in real-life battle scenes. And because her elemental affinity was Wood, the author had all kinds of excuses to give her flower-themed powers and pages upon pages of description of dancing petals and fancy idioms whenever she attacked. She was supposedly stuck in a love triangle with Wu Yelin and Li Hanlan, the senior brother who doted on and adored her. All three of them were core disciples of their respective peak masters, the only difference being that Wu Yelin and Li Hanlan were main characters while she played a supporting role.

Except....except things weren’t quite right!

Where was the doting and adoration? All Li Hanlan did was pick on her every other day and launch sneak attacks to disturb her peace and quiet! Last time they fought, he’d left her in bruises and nearly given her a black eye! All Wu Yelin did was spend her time in closed door cultivation to refine her skills! She’d hardly seen her senior sister since they joined the sect--in fact, Wu Lianlei was sure that Wu Yelin’s skin was even fairer and smoother than hers by now from staying in a cave! Sure, she was still making breakthroughs at astronomical rates, but what kind of main character did nothing but sit and meditate for years at a time?!

After transmigrating into the body of the novel’s annoying villainess, Wu Lianlei was ready to start fixing the plot and save her own skin, but she ended up doing nothing at all! The three months she’d spent in this body so far were like an especially long, genuinely abusive vacation that flipped between fighting with Li Hanlan and feverishly improving her own crappy cultivation levels so she wouldn’t die just a third of the way into the story.

Although she didn't get a chance to finish reading the novel, she was sure she was still acting in character. The only weirdos so far were the female and male leads. She'd gotten so exasperated with Li Hanlan that she'd once slipped up and dropped her "frail female fairy" act in front of him. Whether out of amusement or sadism, he'd never let her live it down, which was why she didn't bother hiding her exasperation now.

Maybe using ice skills so often froze a couple of his brain cells. A branch snapped beneath her boot as she held onto that thought.

“Little junior sister, be careful of splinters.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to share any I get with you.”

“How thoughtful. Does little junior sister have a crush on her senior brother?”

“I’ll crush you up and grind you into fertilizer!”

“How bold! Such an intimate expression of your feelings.”

“...mental case!” Wu Lianlei muttered before promptly shutting up. She had enough of fueling his sarcastic comments.

Behind her, Li Hanlan simply smiled beneath his mask.

-ooo-

 

• Entrance - Skyedge Sect
• White Lotus - Wu Lianlei (吳憐蕾)
• Senior Brother - Li Hanlan (李寒蘭)