Gao Mu spins on her heel and leaps with her face up and her arched back curving over a beam of light as if she were a pole vaulter. Her hands hit the ground first and let her turn her leap into a roll. She twists around and continues on her path, determined to make it through in the quarter second she has before the statue finishes turning. No longer is she chasing after An, she simply cannot spare the attention needed to find her. Perhaps the child is still in front of her, perhaps not but Mu cannot say. Her full focus is on the path ahead. With the difference between life and death measured in fractions of seconds she cannot stop, only maintain her momentum and hope she gets through completely before her luck runs out. Or her qi, for that matter.
Her focus always one step ahead she realizes just in time she’s about to be surrounded in a way that does not allow for any escape. She channels her qi straight from her dantian to the tips of her toes, hardening and strengthening her legs in a straight line to absorb her momentum and dampen the shock. Her upper body sways like an arrow as she slams to a halt, her arms spread to the side and a bright smile on her face. With widening eyes she continues on in a similar manner, moving as fast as she can before using her qi to take sharp turns, slowly maintaining more and more of her momentum as she does. Finally she understands what her master was trying to teach her during their sparring sessions. With every dash she further optimizes her qi usage, her movements becoming more and more uncanny as she seems to ignore the laws of motion entirely.
Suwan bends over laughing and grabs her sides whilst watching from the entrance, while her disciple is certainly improving fast she is now so focused on her personal progress she is no longer considering her progress within the trial. Zhi’s mind races trying to consider what she’s missed when her fellow disciple passes her in the completely opposite direction. She ponders the mysteries of the trial, deciding it makes far more sense for it to require one to double back at a certain point to find the right route than for Mu to somehow be heading diagonally towards a wall near the start for no reason whatsoever.
Zhi just hopes there is more than one path, she has enough difficulty as it is going through the increasingly deadly trial. The prospect of having to do it a second time makes her want to throw her arms up and swear up a storm. Especially given that she can’t see a way forward anymore.
“Huh, guess dat’s why she’s doin’ that.” Zhi mutters while scratching her cheek and beginning to look for a way back to find a different path. Were it not for the fact that sound is dampened within the trial Suwan’s facepalm would have resounded throughout the cavern. “One in three is fine. One in three is fine. We’re here for An anyway.” She tries to convince herself while rubbing the bridge of her nose. Diverting her attention to her least unsuccessful student, a thought that makes her groan, she watches the ten year old dart about like a fish in the water.
An’s movements come natural, almost instinctive. Like a hatchling taking to the sky for the first time or a koi swimming upstream her body knows what to do without needing input from her mind. It feels liberating and for the first time in her life she feels at home. A relaxed smile blossoms atop the taciturn girl’s face and her shoulders slacken while she darts through the trial with contemptuous ease, every step on her course seeming to open three new paths before her. Ducking and weaving through, over and under beams and statues alike her movements flow like water and the edges of her form seem nearly indistinguishable from the shadows surrounding her.
In fact, Suwan contemplates, there may not be a difference at all. While Immortal Soulfire had thrown the comment out as if it were obvious it is only once Suwan fits all the pieces together that it starts to make sense to her. An possesses a unique body constitution. The only reason she didn’t realize earlier is her lack of experience with such things. Other than Tai Yating she does not know anyone in possession of a constitution. Certainly she’s heard rumors of some of the more famed ones such as the Li to the north and the Bai within the western planes but she has never encountered either in her travels.
Much like the two famed clans, unique body constitutions are usually related to one’s lineage. For one possessing such a prized trait to live as a homeless orphan is nearly unthinkable which caused Suwan to write off most of the hints she’d seen as mere coincidences. Certainly it is possible for one to awaken a new constitution, lineages did not appear out of thin air after all, but such occurrences are rare and happen only in the most specific of circumstances.
The precursors to the Li lived both near and eventually atop the Everfrost Glacier for millennia before the venerable ancestor that would end up founding the clan was rumored to have ventured further north than any before him, refining and claiming many ice attuned treasures formed throughout the ages within the freezing temperatures that even immortals avoided. Some of the most outlandish rumors even claim he went beyond the northern wastes all the way to the plane’s edge but Suwan does not put much stock in such fables. Nevertheless the point stands, constitutions are rare beyond belief and even among them ones with few demerits may well be a needle within a haystack.
Suwan frowns thinking of the circumstances by which the girl might have ended up on the streets. Even if her family is truly down on their luck the chances of her becoming homeless at her age are minuscule, anyone known to have a constitution is gladly taken into another clan in order to be indoctrinated and merge said constitution into their bloodline. Given the sheer value of gaining such a benefit it is not uncommon for lineages with constitutions and little backing to be integrated into more powerful clans, either through their own will or depending on the constitution even by force and from everything Suwan has seen of An her constitution is powerful indeed.
The other possibilities aren’t encouraging either. The most ideal circumstance would be her possessing a bloodline that manifests with extreme irregularity. Some constitutions can skip generations, only showing up occasionally or vanishing entirely from a lineage in time. Part of the reason many clans are so picky with marriages is to ensure the advantages of their bloodlines remain as potent as possible. Careless unions can lead to bloodlines changing to the point their value is lost entirely, oft leading to clans becoming unable to learn their ancestors techniques and causing their downfall entirely. While rare in the extreme there certainly are precedents for long lost constitutions to appear once more after centuries or even millennia. She hopes this is the case for An since the other most likely possibility carries far more dangers with it.
There’s a chance her clan was exterminated. There are many tales after all of a clan being wiped out but for a single survivor. Her own tale is an example of such an occurrence after all. It is perfectly possible this is the case for An as well, albeit she has not heard of any recent clan massacres other than… the Zri. Her lip curls at that, mood rapidly deteriorating. Naturally it is possible there is a completely different reason. The girl could be from a hidden clan, sent out into the world to gain experience until she reaches the point where she can be welcomed back into their fold. Given that she did not spot any tracking artifacts on her however, or indeed, any possessions beyond the clothes on her back and the improvised weapons she still carries around everywhere, she deems this unlikely.
Especially given that no one has come looking for her yet, no, any virtuous hidden clan would have taken more care with their descendants, especially if they are hiding such a potent bloodline. Song or not, they would have dissuaded her from teaching the girl to prevent Suwan from skewing her path. Her brow furrows as she entertains the possibility further. The only way An could be from a hidden clan with such carelessness is if it were one that cared little for its progeny and simply scattered them around the world to survive on their own, any that stay alive and fulfill the needed requirements being taken back into the clan either through bribery, appeasement and wish fulfillment or more forceful means. Which begs the question of whether or not An would be aware of such a thing. Either way Suwan finds it unlikely she’ll be able to get answers from the secretive child, shadow affinities already lead to one being tight-lipped and she can only imagine how much more a constitution would increase such instincts. Deciding not to dwell on it she starts to move into the first trial, the young girl has already finished and Mu appears close to reaching the end too.
…No, she veered off in the wrong direction again. A sad laugh forces its way out of Suwan’s throat, somehow the petite warrior always manages to raise her mood at the right moment with one antic or the other. Shaking her head she casually saunters through the path she’s plotted out in advance. Taking the scenic route all three of her disciples have successfully finished by the time she reaches the halfway point. She takes care to advance in a way she is visible to her disciples as often as possible, showing them a glimpse of the power they too can attain in the future.
Moving with casual ease her pace remains consistent throughout the entire trial, not once slowing down or speeding up. Mu’s eyes widen when she spots her teacher yawning as if she were on a morning walk. She glances to the side to see how her fellow disciples are reacting and notes An’s eyes following Suwan even when she isn’t visible within the beams of light. At first she believes it a fluke or a prediction until she starts to flick her gaze back and forth between An’s face and the direction she’s looking. Her brow raises when she notices An does not lose track of the blonde even once. Looking at Zhi she notices the girl looks annoyed, her hands twitching like she intends to reach for something that isn’t there. Mu wonders what that’s about.
They all gulp seeing Suwan about to walk right into the final statue’s line of sight. Their mouths hang wide open when Suwan glares at the statue and it reverses course instead. With a smug smile Song joins her disciples at the entrance to the next trial.
“Well then, let’s move on shall we?”
