3 First Sortie - Recovery

The first thing she saw when she got out of her tent was a man in thirties looking at her tent with some magical item. She was surprised... this man was beautiful. He had long dark ocean blue eyes and hairs, and his face was refined.

"Is there something wrong with my tent?" she asked after gazing at the man for some time.

"Greeting Junior Sister Xinxin," he said with a smile.

Xinxin had somewhat become immune to beauty. Cultivating cleansed one's imperfections, and correct one's features to become exquisite. So of course, with the level of the men in this sect, she had become blind already if she didn't have any immunity to it. Still, she recognized that this man was outstandingly beautiful, even for a member of the sect, but she overcame that easily and looked ahead.

"Greetings. As I said, is there something the matter with my tent, brother...?"

"I am Su Linshi, a Grand Master Rune Carver," he said. "I was looking t the runes and how they were made... sorry, did I disturb you?"

"Is there anyone who doesn't know who you are?" asked the Sixth Prince.

"I actually didn't," she said. "Brother Su, those runes can only be written with a celestial's blood, and by the celestial itself. They are meant to attack any hostile, and provide wide area protection against demons."

"Demons... I thought they were legends until the Crown Prince called us over here. Even now, I don't really realize that they exist for real..."

She removed her outer robe, leaving her shoulder and back exposed, and showed her injuries; They had an ominous color and smell, so Su's eyes opened wide when he saw the claw-like lacerations in her back.

"They are very real, Brother Su. And the wounds they inflict, unless you are celestial like me, or a Martial King, will rot your entire body and kill you. The creatures we fought were mere Demonic General, and yet, they were this strong already."

"I... I understand... Sister Xia, those wounds... won't they leave scars?"

"To obtain my first bracelet, I had to fight two demons, one of those bastards ate my arm, and as you see, it's back without a scar. Celestials have the greatest regeneration ability you'll see in the mortal domain, don't worry about me... how's brother Feng Zhelan?"

"His brother and the others are healing him. They said he should be back on track by the end of the day," answered Su Linshi.

"Good," she smiled. "Then I can take my breakfast before helping them."

She grabbed a spacial cube and got food out of it. With the amount of energy she used, she needed to replenish her whole energy, else she might fail to protect her sect brothers. As she was thinking about several matters, she ate the few full beasts she got out and took out several mores that she began to eat.

It's not until she noticed that everyone around her had stopped whatever they were doing and looked in her direction that she realized that she was eating all on her own. She blushed and apologized saying she didn't bring food that was suitable for regular humans with her.

"As a celestial, I eat food with pure qi concentration, but if you ate that while not being a saint, then you'd break your dantian and die..."

"And... you need to swallow all that to feel satiated?" asked Feng Shui, the physician of the sect. "How many times a day do you eat?"

"I usually can't eat. The smallest impurity in my food will make me sick for days if not an entire month. However, yesterday I used a great deal of my energy. I could just wait to replenish it on my own, but then... if a demon of bigger caliber was to arrive, I wouldn't be able to handle it. So I'm only eating to replenish my energy."

"So to say... you will only eat when you use lots of energy?" asked Feng Zhelan.

"Yeah, through yesterday's breathe attack wasn't my strongest, it was still a fairly high-level skill that I can only use trice or so because it damages my lungs. So I have to wait for them to heal before using them again."

"Sister... what's your... strongest attack?" asked the Sixth Prince. He was fairly convinced that this attack had to be her ultimate given the destructive power it had. Knowing there was another one, he felt like his view of the world was overturned.

"Should be my phoenix form's Sea Fire," she answered. She looked at the camp and the people there and looked at her hand. Right, the Celestial Cultivation was something she had before coming to this world. Her dantian adapted as she synchronized with the body, hence why she was a Martial Beginner grade 2 in a mere six months... she found out that the beasts she had a contract too were hibernating in her soul-space and she freed them...

The Sea Fire.

She looked at her hand, and almost felt stomached, that attack was nothing like any other... this fire would not kill the body, it would consume the soul... it was a sea of people agonize in the worst pain possible. She once used that on the battlefield, she was twelve... she could remember that scene as if it was just today... no matter how old she'd grow, there was no way she'd ever forget that day.

"Junior Sister, this attack, you've used it once, right?" asked Feng Zhelan who arrived near the campfire where she was. Her eyes had a hard time to focus but they vaguely went in his direction, and she made a small positive nod. "If it still stomachs you today just to think of the time that you have used this attack, how come you've used it? Did you not know the result?"

"Because back then... I was someone's daughter," she answered looking at her hand. "Well let's stop the chit-chat, I'm going to heal you. It will be easier to replenish our energy than to heal you anyway."

She got up, and she transformed into her White Dragon form, then she used her spiritual qi to heal his injuries. She used as much of her energy as she could regain by eating and sleeping until the next morning and then sat again.

Picking up food she ate again, under the amazed gaze of the men around. Brother Geng gave her a replenishing pill, and Brother Feng Shui gave her herbs that facilitated digestion, just in case, as he was unsure of how such a small body could store so much food.

Once she verified with her system that her brother was perfectly fine and saw that the other people were also healed, she grunted a few words of being careful, and before going back to her tent, she gave the plans of a wood necklace pendent who would grant them some protection against demonic and turbid qi, which would help them go through when they would go back to the forest.

"Junior Sister, may I ask you something?" asked the Eight Prince.

"Hum? What do you want to know?"

"Are you born in this kingdom?" he bluntly asked.

Everyone became tense around. That's a question they all had. Her knowledge and her battle skills were abnormal. Even in Qin women were trained to fight. Even those called tomboyish were still frail girls at the end of the day.

Xinxin smirked. Since they used the youngest of them to ask the question instead of coming at her frankly, she'd pull one on them to give them a scare. She grabbed her outer dress and removed, and showed her part of her shoulder that was just above the breast to close view of the Eighth Prince.

"As a Prince, you should be able to recognize the magical mark of the freeborn of your country, no?" she asked.

She did her best not to laugh aloud when the Eight Prince's gaze became unfocused, his face flushed, and his breath heavy. She felt a tiny bit guilty, for men of their era, that was definitely way too much stimulation. Especially for an unmarried youth like the Eight Prince. He nodded vigorously, and she put back her outer dress, then when back to her tent.

"Junior Sister... is... born as a free citizen in our country," he reported to the others.

"We could see that clearly too, you damn lucky brat," said Lord Feng Shui.

Wu Xieren turned toward them with a smug face, sometimes there were good sides to being the youngest, who knew today he could get a closer look to the one woman in this world that was stronger than most men? Anyways, because those old idiots didn't look innocent enough to their sister's eyes, they couldn't get the same privileges as him. Which he fully intended to take advantage of. That said, they didn't see the junior sister for the rest of the day. It seems that once she had used too much energy, she'd eat months of food and sleep immediately to digest it... a strange constitution.