Goals

'F-Fifty years...?'

Tang Soso's mouth started to quiver as this sentence crossed through her mind. Her small hands gripped the sheets of her bed while her head slowly drooped down due to the shock. Never had she thought that after dying, fifty years had passed since then.

'I... I didn't think that half a century could have gone by in the blink of an eye... does that mean that the world has already changed? My supporters and enemies back then... are they still alive? And wait a minute, then that bastard, Gong Ma...' behind her black blindfold, her eyes started to widen as she came to a realization.

Taking revenge on Gong Ma was one of the biggest goal and motivations for her in this life. Her unyielding heart refuses to accept the humiliating defeat she experienced back then.

Since she first came here, she had only thought that as long as she worked hard enough, with her young body and her previous life's knowledge, it would be possible for her to defeat Gong Ma, the monster who killed her in her previous life.

However... fifty years have already passed. Gong Ma back then was only in his twenties, yet by now he must have been around seventy years old. He must have gone through countless experiences throughout his life and accumulated countless knowledge that has far surpassed herself. Thus, her age and experience advantage that she previously had was gone. Even with a new young body that is full of potential, defeating that monster is not humanly possible.

'Then... d-does that mean that Gong Ma is immeasurably powerful now? He's a true prodigy that could defeat me even at the age of twenty, just how much has he grown since then? I... do I even have a chance at revenge anymore?' she pondered to herself.

Realization slowly dawned upon her that defeating Gong Ma might have been impossible at this point.

Her heart felt cold and empty for the first time.

Now that she knew that one of her major goals in this life was deemed hopeless, it was like the fire of motivation in her heart had dimmed by a considerable amount.

Tang Soso's head slowly drooped down and the atmosphere in the room immediately turned gloomy. The moonlight shined through the window of her room, revealing her beautiful frowning face. Accentuated with her pale skin glimmering with the moonlight, her figure gave out an enchanting aura like a small fairy that descended from the heavenly realm. If anyone were to see her like this, they would undoubtedly have an irresistible urge to give her a head pat.

'Ah... what to do now?'

...

But then at this moment, she suddenly felt a gentle tap on her shoulder that made her jump in her seat. Upon glancing to her left, she saw Old Jiang standing by her side, looking at her with a concerned expression. It seems that his suspicion has mostly subsided and now he returned to his usual self.

"Are you alright, Young Lady? You have been silent for a moment there, are you alright?"

[ I'm fine. ]

"Are you sure? You seem pretty shaken just then... do you want me to call the physician, Young Lady?"

[ No, it's really fine. ]

"..."

With that sentence, the room turned quiet for a brief moment. Although Tang Soso denied all of those, Old Jiang who was standing beside her did not buy any of it. Anyone who saw her expression would instantly know that she was upset about something, but he couldn't point out what it was or why.

But one thing he figured out was that Tang Soso was pointing out that she received techniques from the Divine Thief during her slumber.

'Is she perhaps upset that I'm acting hostile toward her after she revealed her new strength? I can't see any other reason other than that. Also, the Divine Thief... Hmm, he was a sinister man who killed thousands of people in the past and committed numerous crimes. But, he did not cultivate demonic arts, thus it should be fine for her to use something like that if what she told me was true.'

'Sigh, I made a mistake. I shouldn't have reacted like that toward her gaining a newfound strength, and now she's probably discouraged from improving her martial arts further...' Old Jiang faced palmed to himself. 

He had no idea that he misunderstood the whole situation. He has crossed the limits this time. As a servant, one shouldn't go against their master's order, let alone be pushy toward them. Nevertheless, he continued to console her.

"Young Lady, I think I get the point that you're trying to say. This memory that you gained during your slumber came from the Divine Thief, who possessed unparalleled martial prowess in the past. Although he brought numerous harm to the people, it wasn't the fault of his martial arts nor his strength, but rather himself. Also, there were no records that said that this man cultivated demonic arts."

He continued, "That's why you shouldn't be so discouraged by simply getting stronger using his techniques. Rather, this is an opportunity that only happens once in a lifetime, you should utilize those martial arts that you gained to the fullest. Forgive this old man for suspecting you, Young Lady. What you did was very good, there's nothing wrong with training in secrets, and you should continue to do so to ensure your safety..."

"But then again, what you want to do is up to you, Young Lady. Just know that as long as it doesn't harm the people, I will continue to support your choices no matter what it was. Every human has the freedom to make their own choice, everyone is free to do what they want to do."

"After all of this true heir situation is over, I wish you could live freely as you see fit..."

Old Jiang smiled at Tang Soso as he gave tons of encouragement to her, and she lifted her head toward him in response. But rather than a smile, a sigh of relief, or a nod, what she gave him was something else.

Tang Soso looked at him was a strange look of confusion and bewilderment, 'What in the world is this old man saying? Did he misunderstood something?'

"Then, I shall take my leave today. Good night, Young Lady..." saying that, he bowed slightly before quietly leaving her room. His head was facing up toward the sky and a subtle smile was present on his face as if he accomplished an amazing feat by saying that.

Tang Soso simply stared at his figure walking through the dark road of her residence and disappeared in the distance before lying on her bed. Her head faced up toward the wooden roof as if gazing at the brilliant night sky while pondering upon Old Jiang's words.

'...hmph. Live freely, huh?'

Well, to be honest, he has a point. Within all of heaven and earth, every living being is blessed with a life along with the freedom of choice. We are meant to live free and unrestrained, following the rules of heaven. There's nothing truly restraining you from following goals or rules if you don't want to. That much she knew...

Even before all of this happened, her initial goal was to become the strongest martial artist in the world. That's why in the past, she worked so hard to train herself every day, even to the point of resorting to stealing other's martial arts and elixirs in hopes of a slight increase in martial prowess. But then, situations changed and her goal switched from becoming the strongest to annihilating the Hao Clan. And when she finished eradicating the Hao Clan, her goal changed again and again.

Goals are a useful thing for someone to have, but it is not absolute. If she couldn't defeat Gong Ma, then so be it. There's no need to force herself into doing something if it wasn't possible.

The road of life is still long and full of surprises. If she couldn't complete one goal, there are still many other goals that she hasn't completed, and becoming the strongest is one of them.

'It seems Old Jiang was right, I shouldn't be too discouraged just because I might not be able to defeat Gong Ma. I also have many other things that I want to do in this new life... Well, thanks to that, at least I feel a little better now. Tomorrow will be a long day, and so is the day after tomorrow. I should get some rest....' she thought as the cold feeling in her heart subsided.

Unknowingly, a faint smile could be seen appearing across her face as her eyelids closed and her breath steadied. Without realizing it, she has fallen into a deep sleep...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Fhuaahh...

A yawn escaped Tang Soso's lips as she woke up from a long, comfy sleep. Her long eyelashes flutter as she slowly opens her groggy eyes with difficulty and her flailed limbs from her terrible sleep posture stretch, letting out a few satisfying cracks.

Everything was still dark outside, but she could hear the faint chirping of the birds along with the chilly morning air piercing through her loose robe. If not for her slightly impaired hearing, she was sure that those chirpings would be pounding on her ears, driving her insane. These Sichuan birds sure are lively... or maybe it was just on her residence. 

Judging by the chilly air, it seemed like it was still really early in the morning, around 6 AM.

'...hm? It's still this early in the morning...?'

Tang Soso slowly sat up as she refreshed her mind. It took her five minutes to fully sober up her head before she remembered what happened yesterday.

'Ah, that's right... I need to train today. It's still early in the morning though... Oh well, it should be fine. I'll just wait for the sun to rise as I train my physique...' she exclaimed briefly.

Immediately, she jumped up from her bed and landed on the wooden floor, before quietly heading to the bathroom right next to her messy room. 

After living for a few days, she had gotten the hang of the area around her residence. She remembered every interior and exterior of the residence as if it were at the back of her mind.

Basically, excluding the broken buildings around this residence, this building consisted of three rooms in total. One is Tang Soso's room, which is being used as a sleeping space as well as for a small storage area. The other is the kitchen which was used for cooking meals along with brewing medicines for Tang Soso. Then finally, the other room was the bathroom which was located at the back of the building, overlooking the scenery of a small pond covered in willow trees.

Each part of this building was solely made out of hardened wood that seemed to have been around for many years.

One might think that such a living space was too shabby for a young lady of a noble clan. But then again, it was due to the pressure of the elders that Tang Soso was forced to live like this. Also, this small space made it convenient for Old Jiang to clean since he was the only servant cleaning this whole residence.

Despite a few hardships, she was already grateful enough to be able to keep her life.

After she arrived at the bathroom, she quickly did her business on the toilet stool, before rinsing her face with the refreshing water next to the bath. She didn't want to bathe just yet, since she would be dirtying herself during training anyway, but she decided to keep the minimum hygiene to take care of her new body.

As soon as she finished cleaning up, she quickly left the building before finding a way to a field outside her residence.

This field was quite large in size and was surrounded by thick willow trees that would obscure the vision of anyone outside of this space. Tang Soso accidentally stumbled upon this field just yesterday when she was chasing Old Jiang and at that moment, she thought this field would be great for training since it was extremely secluded, making it perfect for improving her skills all while hiding from other heirs. The ground was also covered in grass which made her footwear less dirty walking on it.

Without anything else in her mind, she immediately stretched her body as she prepared herself for a long, hard physical training.

'Now, shall we start then?'

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Huff... huff...

'This... this is ridiculous!' Tang Soso shouted within her mind.

Right now, she lay at the center of the field, desperately gasping for air. Her whole body was drenched in sweat from top to bottom, and her robe now felt itchy and uncomfortable. All of her limbs were flailed around on the grass like a ragdoll character and they were shaking furiously due to the amount of exertion they had been pushed to do for the past few hours.

Just a few hours ago, she tried to do a few dozen laps of running around the field in hopes of training her stamina and leg strength as a good start-up. She thought that was an incredible idea for training her current weak physique, but unknown to her, it didn't go as well as she thought it would.

When she first started to run circling the field, both of her feet felt as light as a feather, as if she could fly at any moment. Tang Soso was amazed at this insane advantage of having a smaller body and thought that after just a few weeks of training, her Qinggong1 would have surpassed most veteran martial artists out there. But... she overestimated herself.

Just after passing the first five laps, she immediately felt a small fatigue weighing down her legs and her heart was pumping intensely just like any other exercise. However, after going up to ten laps, the fatigue from before became even more extreme and her heart was pumping so intensely that it felt like it could jump out of her chest. Finally, after hitting twelve laps, she couldn't hold it anymore and immediately collapsed on the ground.

Okay, maybe her stamina wasn't her best strength. But what about her muscles?

And so, she decided to do push-ups and squats. And once again, the same thing happened. Although having a smaller body gave her a massive advantage in movement, it certainly took quite a toll on her muscles. Her physique is indeed similar to a child's, she couldn't feel even a single tone anywhere on her body due to how small her muscles have become.

Just after doing a few reps, she could feel her fatigue intensifying and her heart pumping intensely. After not being able to hold on any longer, she dropped to the ground with a thud. The only difference was that now, her entire body felt sore...

Okay, okay, both are pretty terrible. But what about core muscles?

Tang Soso then decided to do a horse stance. Since ancient times, this practice has been used as a way to improve one's core strength and has been proven to be a good way to improve it. She thought this would be a good way to test her core strength.

And once again, she was severely disappointed with her physical capabilities. Just after maintaining the horse stance for twelve seconds, her legs immediately fell apart and she dropped back to the ground with a thud.

And once again, she tried many other exercises, whether it be stamina training, muscle training, full-body training, or everything that she could think of. None of them worked, and she continued to drop to the ground like a chicken trying to fly.

And now, she lay here atop the grass of the field, gazing at the morning sky. The sun has risen by a few degrees since she started training. It has been about two to three hours since Tang Soso started her physical and now all of her stamina has been completely drained. She couldn't even muster the energy to stand up. There's no doubt that any more body exercise for today would do more harm than good, thus she had no choice but to end the body training session for today.

'What in the world is this body? I know that she just came out of a deep slumber not too long ago and that she was poisoned, but why is this body so terrible? I thought things would be easier since this one's younger, but... this didn't go as smoothly as I thought.'

'Do I really have to increase the amount of daily physical training? Ugh, damn it, I guess I have to focus on my physique from now on. This weakness is unacceptable. If I want to win the true heir competition, I should at least have a body that could tough out a few punches!'

'But to achieve it in three weeks...? Uh oh...'

Despite staring at the bright blue sky, her pretty gray eyes were empty as she knew that doom was upon her. 

'The true heir competition... I'm doomed am I?'

...

...

...