Change doesn’t always come slowly

With the use of Qigong it didn't take her long to reach the area where the sound was coming from. She stopped about fifty feet away on top of a tall tree. She wanted some height so that she could see what she was dealing with.

What she found was a animal called a Yin Shu. This animal looked like a very big hamster. It was about the size of a horse and was considered a level two demon beast with meant that it was in the Qi mastery realm. She herself was in the Qi mastery seventh layer so she should be able to deal with this beast.

She watched it silently for a little while. It was currently feasting on a kill growling every so often as it ate. It looked like a very big hamster, It had four protruding teeth. The lower two were twice the size of the upper with made them a little over eight inches and they curved upward. The upper two curved a bit downward. There where also claws on it's lizard like feet. Everything on it from it's claws to it's teeth looked very sharp.

She calmed her heart and slowed her breathing. She reminded herself that she'd beat the Almiraj while she was injured and hadn't even been prepared. She could defeat this beast as well.

She took out that exquisite sword and in flash she appeared twenty feet in front of the Yin Shu.

The beast was startled but Bai Mei Li didn't give it much time to react. Instead she immediately gripped the sword in her both of her hands and appeared directly in front of the Yin Shu within half of a blink of an eye and slashed down on it's head. The beast went flying back and knocked into a tree. The tree toppled over and the Almiraj it was enraged and roared.

Bai Mei Li's brows furrowed. Although she'd made a direct hit and the force had blown the beast back it hadn't actually been damaged. It was now looking at her with blood shot eyes with bone chilling killing intent leaking out from it.

It charged towards her, it's hideous mouth wide open with the majority of it's razor sharp teeth visible to her. She quickly dodged to the side and brought the sword down onto its neck. It came crashing down to the ground. She couldn't see a wound because of it's fur but that was okay because she could tell that it wasn't injured. Her sense of smell was very good, and there wasn't a hint of blood in the air.

But that was okay she wasn't discouraged at all. This was practice after all. She was new to this and because she refused to just rely on memories to battle and protect herself she knew that she would have to learn bit by bit. She had complete faith in her learning ability. The old Bai Mei Li had given her a head start she just needed to make everything she'd been given her own.

She was about to slash again when the Yin Shu surprised her by suddenly turning its head and attempting to bite down on her arm. She released her left hands hold on the sword and stepped back while moving her arm out of it's biting range. But she didn't retreat too many steps back. Once her arm was out of danger she immediately pressed forward again slashing the back down against it's neck hitting it in the exact same spot as the last time. It roared again but Bai Mei Li wasn't worried. This Yin Shu still looked like a adolescent. It didn't appear to be young enough to still be with it's mother but it didn't look old enough to have mated yet so Bai Mi Li wasn't worried about it calling for reinforcement.

She continued to retreat and advance striking it in the same spot over and over again on it's neck with the intention of wearing down the defenses in that spot so that she could kill it. Using this strategy it was only a matter of time before she killed it.

Every attack was made only using the basics. She wanted the foundation in her swordsmanship to be stronger. She wanted these movements to be more than just the memory or the muscle memory of the old owner, she wanted them to be muscle memory that she created. When she claimed victory she wanted it to be because of her own hard work. This body… this life was hers now after all. And whatever she wanted… just like in her last life… she'd claim it with her own two hand, using her own efforts.

For now at least she was only focused on the thirteen basic moves of the Ch'uan sword technique. The thirteen movements were Ji, Ci, Ge, Xi, Chou, Dai, Ti, Dian, Peng, Pi, Jie, Jiao, and Ya. Bai Mei Li believed that without mastering these few movements she wouldn't have a strong foundation in her sword play and that it would also hinder her progression in the way of the sword.

She understood that the moments of enlightenment that the former owner had, but she somehow felt that if she just relied on that she wouldn't be able to advance very much farther as a practitioner. She herself had to understand the techniques and have her own epiphanies. She herself had be enlightened in order to get stronger, and to get stronger she had to move past her timid nature. The only way she could think of to do that quickly was to place herself in danger. Isn't that how it was always done in manhuwa or whatever? She hadn't read too many of them but there did appear to be a common theme of risking oneself to rapidly progress.

Well she was playing it by ear anyway. She didn't have any other better methods so this was as good an idea as any other. She never had any formal training so she was just trying to use a little risk and common sense to push ahead.

She dodged another attack but misjudged the distance and was butted into a tree. The impact caused her to cough up blood, but she didn't have any time to catch her breath because the Yin Shu was already attacking again. It mouth wide open wanting to bite down on her. She rolled out the way then quickly got to her feet again brandishing her sword. She was frowning now. Her internal organs had been rattled… it was quite painful, but she didn't have time to even process the pain properly. She struck down again but missed. It was hard to move with the same force once she was injured.

Her frown deepened. She couldn't accept that. If she was hurt did that mean that she would just slow down immediately. The chance of a fatal wound would only multiply.

She gritted her teeth and and fixed her stance and attacked. The attack still wasn't as strong as her original attacks for it was stronger then the last one.

She moved to the side and then once again struck that same neck area. At the same time she start circulating her Qi. She wanted to get better at healing herself during combat. That kind of skill was likely to mean the difference between life and death in bigger battles.

With her Qi revolving rapidly through out her body the pain in her abdomen slowly began to subside and her attacks became stronger and stronger. Her slashes and stabs were becoming swifter and swifter.

She carefully controlled her breathing and the way she positioned herself in her stances trying get back into position as perfectly as possible.

While the process might have taken longer then it should of because of her unwillingness to use any techniques she felt that she was gaining quite a bit from this battle. Her confidence in her protecting herself and Xiao Jun was certainly growing.

Thanks to her special clothing that were made with a built in defense she was able to take a few more risks then she would have been able to otherwise. She could risk being hit in order to come in closer and try to dodge the Yin Shu's attacks at a closer range so that she could respond faster. It didn't always work out the way she wan't too. Several times she'd been struck in the abdomen and her back. The Yin Shu had also managed to bite her leg so now she was limping.

Her Qi was revolving rapidly throughout her body as she healed herself as she fought. She forced herself to continue one with as little hesitation as possible when she was injured. She wanted to train herself to maintain her peak speed despite being hurt. Hadn't she always head that pain was just a state of mind. She was trying to make that reality for herself.

Although she didn't have any formal training she did have very strong will power. She was stubborn and she'd never been afraid of hard work. More than that, she had a very strong desire to live.

Now that she'd accepted that this was real and not some kind of dream or delusion she naturally took this life seriously. She was no longer in the modern times where there were laws that protected a countries citizens. She was now in a world where the strong ate the weak right out in the open. If you weren't strong enough to protect yourself well then you only had yourself to blame.

She had a very clear understanding of this place. If she wanted to live a peaceful life she had to be so strong that no one dared to threaten her, and there no short cuts this. She knew that there were plenty of women that thought to marry strong men and live under the umbrella of the protection. But Bai Mei Li considered this a false sense of security. It wasn't real because it depended on the mans affection. If you fell out of favor, well no longer had protection. Because of this Bai Mei Li had decided that she would depend on herself to ensure her own safety. That was the surest way to a long life.

It had taken a while but she finally had it on its last leg. She knew that patients and perseverance would pay of in the end.

"Sure enough hard work always pa…"

She wasn't even able to finish her sentence when all of a sudden something hit on the side. The force was it sent her flying several dozen feet in the air, she landed hard on the tree that hard been broke previously by the Yin Shu she'd been fighting.

For a moment she couldn't even breathe. She was bleeding profusely from her side. She coughed up two mouth fulls of blood and then tried to turn over and get up. Although her head was a bit fuzzy from the pain she was still clear enough to understand that it was impossible for her to stay down like this in the middle of a battle.

She gritted her teeth and forced herself back onto her feet. She held her bleeding right side with her left hand. She was focusing her Qi in that area trying to stop the bleeding. She looked over to Yin Shu that she'd been fighting only to find another there. It was bigger and it was tending to the smaller wounded Yin Shu that she'd been fighting.

Bai Mei Li was gasping for air as she tried her best to recover as quickly as possible. She put her sword in the ground and took out a recovery pill. She ate it and continued circulating her Qi around the wound. She knew she had misjudged the situation and didn't have much time and she needed to be as ready as possible to fight two of them.

(Edited)