42 LingLing

Feng Tian arrives at he bamboo house as LingLing is returning from Myriad Cloud City. He rushes by her as she attempts to say hello. "Feng Tian..where.. ,she doesn't get to finish her sentence, only feels the brush of his robes as he hurries past ignoring her.

LingLing is curious as to why he is distracted and appears to be looking for someone. She considers it and thinks is he rushing to find that little fox girl. She quietly follows in the direction he is headed.

He sees Zhang Yu in the kitchen getting the teapot out and some tea leaves. Feng Tian thinks I should take some tea back with me and some food.

"Zhang Yu" Feng Tian stands in front of him.

"Feng Tian , he looks around, where is XiXi didn't you go to find herbs with her by the lake?'

LingLing is eavesdropping from a short distance away in the courtyard.{He took the little pest to Luminous Pearl Lake ? Steam is starting to form around her} where is she then, I would think she would be hanging on Feng Tian's sleeve. I can't wait to rid myself of that nuisance tomorrow.

"Zhang Yu we had a problem but I don't want you to be concerned. Zhang Yu drops the tea leaves in his hand and with concern grabs Feng Tian's arm and says"What happened? Where is she XiXi?"

She twisted her back when she slipped on some wet leaves, I didn't want to worsen it by using my qinggong to bring her back. There is a cottage by the lake{hut actually but it is fairly comfortable} She is resting comfortably, my Old Master is with her and is a medical genius. She is safe and being cared for by him.

"I want to go to see her take me there now."

Zhang Yu "I would but by horse it would take two days to arrive there. I think it would be wiser for you to just stay here, we need to go get supplies in Myriad Cloud City tomorrow.

{I don't want him to see the shape she is in, how would I explain it to him} I will keep watch over her and bring her back as soon as Yun Pei Shan says it won't aggravate her back to travel.

He can stay with her while we go to the city tomorrow also. She couldn't be in better hands. Yun Pei Shan gave her a pill to help her sleep, he said with rest in two days she would improve.

I will go back with a few supplies to make her food and tea when she awakens. I will return in the morning and we can go to Myriad Cloud City.

Zhang Yu sizes up Feng Tian, "I am of the mind I have no choice but to follow your plan. We need to ready ourselves for our journey {he is thinking, his eyes look worried, I think he is telling the truth. I don't feel any bad intentions from him} XiXi can be careless, I don't blame you for her injury"

While you gather the food, I will get a few things for her for when she wakes up. He goes to get her toothbrush, soap and a few other toiletries of hers.

LingLing doesn't make her presence known. She is trying to digest what she just heard and it is giving her stomach cramps. He is going to that little hut to take care of that fox girl?

My plans are ruined for disposing of that thorn tomorrow. I need to go to that hut and see for myself if she is truly injured or if it is a ploy to spend the night with Tian.

Is the Old Master really taking care of her? He never leaves the mountain unless it is for Yun Tai, Feng Tian or me. I couldn't be more irritated right now , she twists her sleeve and glares towards the kitchen. She decides not to delay and uses her qinggong to go investigate.

Her beautiful face is contorted in anger as her white robes flutter in the wind and she flies to the lakeside.

Meanwhile Feng Tian is walking to LingLing's room to ask if he could take a dress to XiXi. He knocks and there is no answer.I thought I saw her heading this way when I arrived, well I don't think she will mind she is a generous person.

He picks a pink dress with white lilies embroidered on the skirt{LingLing certainly likes mountain lilies he thinks as he packs it}.

Maybe I should borrow a hairpin also I think she lost hers in the water, He chooses a white jade hairpin with lilies carved on it{more lilies}

Once he is ready to leave, he reassures Zhang Yu that XiXi will be fine in a few days. He then tells him he will be back in the morning to travel to the city with him.

Ling Ling arrives at the hut to see Siyu laying outside the door.She has only seen him from a distance before, he is really quite magnificent she thinks. She wouldn't mind asking Yun Tai for him when she becomes Sect leader.

She pictures herself and the Panthera being an intimidating duo standing on the mountaintop of Cloud Mountain. A peerless beauty with a fearsome beast at her side.

But, for now she rather not come into contact with him so she sits on a branch where she can see in the window down below.

She cringes when she looks into the window, The Old Master is wiping XiXi's forehead with a cloth very gently.

The fox girl seems to be sound asleep, but Yun Pei Shan lifts her head to pour some thing from a bowl into her mouth. That pest seems worse off than Feng Tian described. Good, very good, maybe she will just die and save me the trouble of soiling my hands.

No, she won't die if Master is taking care of her, she might even come out of it in better shape. LingLing remembers when Yun Pei Shan saved her. She was a child being transported to Purple Dragon Kingdom as a slave.

Her tribe lived in the wilderness beyond the Great Divide, that's why her looks are considered exotic.

She has deep almost black eyes with specks of silver. Her hair has streaks of the azure blue color of her tribe. It serves as a striking contrast to her jadelike skin.

They are called The Azure Sky People. Now,very few of her tribe remain there because traders raid their villages for slaves. The women were taken to be trained as dancers because of their exotic beauty, to be put in brothels. The men were used as slaves in the mines.

She had contracted an illness as they passed through the Snow Plains and would cough incessantly. Afraid she would infect the other slaves, one day they simply tossed her from the caravan.

Yun Pei Shan had been traveling through Purple Dragon Kingdom after being at a meeting of The Twelve Great Masters when he found her.

She was curled up in a ball under a tree crying, trying to stay warm. He bent down and wiped her face, he recognized her as one of the Azure Sky People. It didn't take him long to figure out her situation, he fed her some medicine to help her stop coughing.

He then picked her up and used qinggong to take her to his home in Cloud Mountain. Where he nurtured and raised her alongside his other adopted child Yun Tai.

The Old Master was never gentle to her though, as he appeared wiping the fox girl's forehead. He had a look of gentleness she never saw towards her.

LingLing was snapped out of her reminiscing when she saw Feng Tian arrive , rush in the door straight to XiXi's bedside.

Why do they all care for that little fox girl?