3 Brother and Sister Ⅱ

Near in sight was a river which was less than a mile from their cabin. Before they knew it, the boy and the girl had come to the riverside. The steamed cake in the girl's hand was still untouched.

She stopped, staring at the flowing river silently, " Brother has been working so hard for me these years…"

The boy touched her head gently,"Everything's gonna be okay."

"Hmm... " the girl nodded slightly, " if I were not your burden, your life would be okay."

"Little silly, you are my sister..." the boy smiled.

"Hmm... " the girl nodded again, "I'm your sister… If there is a next life, I'd still love to be your sister. My brother, take care of yourself... "

After her last words, the girl abruptly jumped into the river!

"No!!!" stunned for seconds like a statue, the boy cried and followed the jump off!

Actually he was a good swimmer because of frequently playing in the river in the hot weather, and should not have any difficulty saving her. But somehow when close to the girl, he felt the water around her deadly icy, which made his legs cramped so badly that he could not get her in time. And soon the girl was almost drowned and seen sinking into the bottom of the river.

"Sister!No!!" the boy roared in despair.

Whoosh!

At the urgent moment, a white shadow flashed down from the sky, flew over the water, caught up the girl by a hand and swept across the river, like a white swift!

All happened just in the blink of an eye. The boy saw a woman crouching on the riverbank and pressing her right hand on the girl's stomach.

The woman sported a white long Taoist formal dress, and a white veil covering her face. Her graceful, slender fingers were also as snow-white as the white lotus in the Heavenly Pond. A distinctive little cloud was embroidered on her right cuff.

A dim white circle of light was seen under the woman's right palm. Soon the girl spat out a lot of water.

"Thanks for saving her!" still in water, the boy knew that woman was saving his sister.

The woman in white waved her hand slightly, then the boy just felt a great force pull himself out of the water.

"Your name?" asked the woman in white.

"I am Wei Gaoyuan" replied the boy.

"And hers?" the woman in white nodded slightly.

"She's Wei Xiaoxue, my sister."

"Well," the woman in white replied softly, "your sister has a curious constitution, in other words, unless lucky enough, she would only live to be twelve years old."

"Twelve years?!" Wei Gaoyuan exclaimed. Her words was like a dagger to his heart.

The woman in white did not answer him, "I can save her."

"Really?!" Wei Gaoyuan was overjoyed, seemed to rise from hell to heaven.

"But she must go with me, acknowledging me as her master,"said the woman in white.

Wei Gaoyuan hesitated.

"Once she becomes my apprentice, the destinies of you brother and sister will be thoroughly different. Perhaps you will never see each other again. Therefore, I'll give you a moment to say goodbye to her," the woman in white withdrew her hand and stood up.

The struggle was shown on Wei Gaoyuan's face — If he replied yes, this might be the last moment of his life with his sister, how could he leave his only sister? If no, as the woman in white said, her sister would only get two more years of life, how could he be that selfish?

After a long time, Wei Gaoyuan made the final decision and gave a hard nod, "Please, save her."

"Well," the woman in white took out a scroll from her sleeve,"a secret scroll of Martial Arts for you, though just some fundamental techniques in it, it's enough for you to be someone in the world of mortals, if you can practice and learn it on your own."

( The World in the Sleeve: one of the fundamental Taoism Arts, which enables Taoists to put or store almost everything even the whole world in their sleeves.)

"Would I see my sister someday?" Wei Gaoyuan didn't give up.

The woman in white slightly shook her head,"In view of your talent, you will never, in all likelihood, be qualified to enter our world throughout the rest of your life."

Wei Gaoyuan clenched his fists. He was unable to argue for anything as the woman in white saved them two with effortless grace and her unbelievable power made him completely amazed.

"Well, time to say goodbye. Try hard by yourself," the woman in white waved her left hand, an invisible strength rolled up unconscious Wei Xiaoxue to her side. Meanwhile a silver gleam flashed out from a wave of her right hand and then was floating in the air in front of her!

"That's...!"Wei Gaoyuan was in a great shock. That silver flash was a flying sword!

Taking Wei Xiaoxue, the woman in white flew up, step on the one-meter long sword body. Then all of them turned into a strong white light beam, flew to the distant horizon and vanished in a flash...

It had been a long time before Wei Gaoyuan came to himself from astonishment.

A few years ago, when waiting for the easy targets to steal outside the tea house, Wei Gaoyuan overheard stories told by the storyteller inside many times. The Sword Taoists in the story could step on their swords and fly at a unbelievable speed in the sky like heavenly eagles; they could control the path of their swords' flight to chop off the heads of their enemies just as easily as pulling something out of their pockets.

He'd always thought it was just a story, but today, he personally met a true Sword Taoist. And his sister might literally become one of them. He could not help feeling happy for his sister while sighed that they two would no longer belong to the same world.

Absentminded, Wei Gaoyuan returned to his cabin in which the total silence got him a terrible feeling. Humble and primitive as it was, the cabin was their home; it was the place which he'd cared about most; it was the place which had once been filled up with her sweet "brother"; it was the place in which he would never be willing to stay for even one minute.

Wei Gaoyuan burst into tears quietly.

As night fell, he stood outside in front of the door of the cabin and looked up at the stars, imagining what that world might be like in the words of that woman in white...

Suddenly, a pillar of golden beam fell down straight from the dark sky, like a falling meteor, directly got into the top of his head in an instant before he could react. Then Wei Gaoyuan only felt everything before him went black...