Damned other side

Lee Chun Hua sat on a rock overlooking the great river and sighed in exhaustion.

"Fuu..."

This entire place was a death trap to fighter type cultivators. The beast populating these lands were unable to be hurt by weapons, and she was running out of Qi to fuel her attacks. There was some king kind of wall blocking her from cultivating, and she could not even absorb other people's Qi. All in all, it was a terrible situation. She had entered the Trial grounds with thousands of disciples, but now only nine people remained with her.

"Junior sister Chun Hua?"

Chun Hua looked up to see the light smiling face of a slightly older young woman with an injured shoulder.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?"

The black haired young woman shook her head and shifted slightly.

"Of course not, senior sister Mu."

Mu Yan Zu was one of the highest ranking disciples under the Blazing Valor sect. Her battle prowess was lacking, hence the injury on her shoulder, but she was an expert at assassination and espionage. The older young woman sat next to Chun Hua and also let out a long sigh while looking across the river. Across the river, there was an eerie black forest obscured by a black haze. At the far end of the forest, one could see a dazzlingly wide expanse of white sand. For a full month, Lee Chun Hua had managed to survive and take care of her fellow disciples. They had had to eat grass like animals, drank the morning dew that fell on the rocks, and run away when the terrifying demonic abominations came by. The annoying thing was that she could not even hunt. The vile abominations were practically indestructible to every weapon in their possession, and the things in the river.... Those things could not even be called monsters anymore. However, like all animals put in cages, she wanted freedom. If she was going to spend the rest of her days eating grass and living like an animal, a herbivore no less, then she might as well just jump into the river and end it all at once.

"No one died because of you, you know..."

Mu Yan Zu lowered her gaze and looked at the body of a few disciples being devoured by the frightening creatures. This time the vile creatures were in the form of gargantuan beasts with a humanoid body covered by feathers, and four bird like legs. It had six wings that spanned at least forty metres in length, and where its head should have been, there was a gaping hole covered in rows and rows of razor sharp teeth.

Lee Chun Hua sniffed and wiped her almond shaped eyes.

"Yes, but I...I left them on purpose, and I.. I'm just a terrible leader aren't I."

Mu Yan Zu did not agree to that and shook her head.

"Terrible leader? Tell me, junior one, how many sect heads can keep five hundred people alive for two weeks in a place with no food, no water, and is populated by unkillable beasts? People live, people die. You honored their worthless lives by letting then take their last breaths by your sword, you know. Because, of you didn't, then they would have died a painful death at the maws of the beasts."

Lee Chun Hua had made the decision of killing all the rest surviving disciples and climbing to higher grounds with the nine people she had formed a cohort with. Here, the creatures could not get them... for now, and she had a bit of respite. However, there was someone disturbing her temporary peace as they kept screaming within her head.

'Cross that river and leave this place now, me!'

'We will all die if we remain here!'

'Listen to me, damnit!!'

For some unfortunate reason, the wall blocking her from cultivating did not block out her other persona's voice. Signing in annoyance, Chun Hua dived into her soul realm with a frown on her face.

"What is wrong with you, me?! I told you not to speak until its nighttime and no one notices me gone!"

Her other half looked at her spitefully and tugged at her shackles as if testing their strength.

"You know, I ought to hit you sooner or later. The day I'm set free, that's going to be the first thing I do...."

"Go straight to the point! Why do you want us crossing the river. It's not like you to wish me dead, since you're going to perish alongside me if I do."

Chun Hua narrowed her eyes and glared at the shackled young woman. The other Chun Hua however, took out her pretty pink hand fan and covered the lower half of her face.

"I know something that you don't, and if you and your friends want to live, then I have conditions."

Chun Hua brushed away a strand of hair that was covering her face as she raised a brow in amusement.

"Really?, how can you, someone who has been stuck in the soul realm for about forty seasons now, know something that I don't?"

The other Chun Hua, however, seemed to find it funny.

"he he, you see, me, it is that very incarceration that made me focus more on ancestor Lee's tales. Having nothing to do for forty seasons, those spine shivering stories were my only form of entertainment, and I remember each and every word. Have you forgotten about the Mama demon bird?"

Chun Hua stiffened as the memories of Ancestor Lee's takes came into her mind. The memories, however, were broken and fragmented like a shattered glass mirror.

"Of course you don't have them, me, they broke apart when our soul was split. But, I have a greater part of them, you know...."

"What is your condition."

Lee Chun Hua was becoming impatient. The fact that her evil twin had more of everything than she did was really getting to her nerves.

But her other half chuckled with a sly smirk on her face.

"My condition, is that you will set me free in exchange for the information."