The Jade Lily

Yu Hua woke suddenly jerking into a sitting position, pain swamping through like a tidal wave. Sweat gathering over her ghostly pale skin. She shivered uncontrollably as all the recent events of her past swamped over her.

"I Jung Yu Hua will kill Li Tian" Her vow was simple, but she felt something inside her stir as if her very words had bound her. She evaluated her body tentatively evaluating the damage. Her left arm was broken, her right shoulder dislocated, numerous cuts, bruises, and scraped, and her inner thighs were nasty shades of purple and yellow. Taking a deep breath, she turned to her side with her right arm below her laying her weight atop it and pulling her upper body before lodging herself back down on her shoulder forcing it back into place. She shuddered and breathed through the pain.

"These cuts and bruises will heal but…." She found herself cut off by her own growling stomach, reminding her she hadn't eaten in days. How could she even possibly be hungry at a time like this, she reprimanded herself. Sitting back up slowly she looked at her surroundings. She couldn't see much through the darkness. Yu Hua looked across the lake of water and could see the light shining from the hole she had fallen through.

It was a straight drop, even if she wanted to, she couldn't get back out that way. Yu Hua could vaguely make out three caves that came off the main cavern and the only one she could easily get to was behind her. Her choice feeling seemingly made for her she turned and looked at the leering cave entrance. She sighed and slowly stood and painfully trod towards the cave entrance.

'hmmm,' a breeze made its way through the cave into the cavern, though she could almost swear it sounded like someone sighing. Her pace remained slow and somewhat unsteady as the visibility dropped to nothing. Yu Hua's footing slowly became more stable until she was simply treading steadily. She felt compelled to move further through the cavern.

After some time, Yu Hua began to see a light that continued to get brighter the closer she got to it. She could make out carvings along the cavern walls that looked like her Old Auntie's talismans she used to sell. These were different though like they carried strange light with them that seemed to be the source of the illumination ahead of her. The closer she inspected them though, the more they looked like roots protruding from the rock wall in hundreds of different designs.

Nearing the end of the cavern she had been walking through she found herself in a daze. Yu Hua felt herself walking forward into the pale blue light, she found it odd that her eyes simply adjusted.

She took in a sharp breath as the scene in front of her unfolded. The roots along the outer cave walls covered the entirety of this larger inner cave. Pale blue light emanated off of them all around her. A few feet in front of her another cavern lake started its large expanse across the cavern. The water was crystal clear she could see every manner of life that teamed in the lake. The roots curved across the bottom of the lake in a beautiful fashion. She found herself entranced by the glowing coral, it was a multiple of hues and colors.

Yu Hua looked further up noticing large smooth rocks placed from the start of the lake all the way to the center. In the center sat a white jade lily, its surface sparkled with a translucent luster. The scene was made that much more magnificent by the waterfall that graced the back of the cavern, creating a frothy mist that surrounded the back half of the cavern and the lily.

She couldn't help but marvel at the sheer size of the jade lily, it filled the entire center of the large cavern. Yu Hua felt herself take a step forward towards the jade lily and found herself looking at an entirely different scene.

She felt herself running through a field in a dip in a valley. In front of she saw the same scene in the cavern but instead, it was settled in the sunlight cozy in the deepest part of the dip. Yu Hua was still running spinning in circles as if she were a little girl playing. She finally stopped in front of the tallest man she had ever seen. He wore elegant green robes that match his emerald green eyes. He looked only to be in his 40's but his hair was as white as the froth from the waterfall.

"Sir, what are you doing?" She felt herself speak though she heard a child's voice grace her ears.

Yu Hua felt her footsteps firmly on a cold surface, though she wasn't moving. The man looked at her and smiled. He pointed out at the Jade Lily and walked towards the lake in a slow leisure gate.

"I am greeting an old friend of mine." He answered with a calming smile. As he stepped on the stone in the lake.

"We have known each other for almost 1000 years now. You want to know a secret?" Yu Hua nodded her head vigorously.

"When I was a young lad not much older than you are now, I fell in this lake, well back then it was an ocean" His face softened, and his eyes glossed over as he remembered his childhood.

"What happened when you fell in?" Yu Hua's eyes got wide anticipating the man's answer. He smiled down at her.

"I was saved by a flower, the most beautiful flower I had ever seen…" He trailed off again looking off into the distance at the radiant Jade lily that seemed to be floating on the surface of the lake.

"She asked me a question that day, I didn't understand it, but I knew my answer right away. After that, she asked me if I would like to be her disciple?" His eyes saddened as if he had left out many details, in the recount of his tale. Yu Hua looked at him for a moment and hugged his leg, she felt like she was missing something. He chuckled down at the little girls' antics and patted her long black curls.

"Jade lily….I didn't understand you that day and now I can't fulfill my promise but maybe this little one can" Yu Hua blinked her eyes a couple times as she found herself standing directly in front of the Jade Lily. She found herself dumbfounded as she looked back across the lake and then back at the Jade Lily in front of her.

'Respect your elders, whether they be that willow in the yard or this old bag of bones you call your Old Auntie' She could almost hear her Old Auntie as if she were standing right next to her. Yu Hua took a deep look at the Jade Lily and bowed low if her strange dream had been real than this Jade Lily had been alive far longer than she could fathom.

"I don't know how this works.." She stammered off not sure how to talk to a flower, let alone a Jade Lily.

"Can I ask you about the strange dream I just had? That man he said he knew you since he was a boy" Yu Hua heard a shocked gasp in her head, fearful she stepped back a pace on the stone before catching herself.

"ugggh" Yu Hua grunted as a thick vine slammed into her stomach coiling around her like a snake. Swamped with pain from her previous injuries, Yu Hua limped over the vines coiled around her. The Jade Lily seemed to regain her senses as if she had been in a trance. Yu Hua felt as if her entire being had been searched by the Lily.

'You carry great pain with you, little one' Yu Hua looked at the Jade Lily once again in shock, how did a flower just talk to her. It felt like the words had sounded out in her own mind.

'Let me ask you a question, little one, If I were a fearsome beast what would you do?' Yu Hua felt strange about the question, of course, she would run, what else would she do? She felt as if she were being contemplated for a moment.

'but you did not run, you helped that fearsome beast' A memory of Yu Hua's childhood flashed in her head, she had been nine and run into a mountain lion with several cubs. The mountain lion had been caught in a hunter's trap and couldn't get away. Yu Hua remembered she had braved the mountain lion to let loose the trap and had several long gashes from a cub to prove it.

'You remind me of my master long ago' The voice she heard sounded steeped in sorrow. Yu Hua instinctively patted the large root that held her. The Jade Lily placed her back on the stone pebble and Yu Hua watched the large root return to the depths of the lake and return with a parcel wrapped in what looked like old cheesecloth.

'This is all that my master left with me that day, I was to wait and give it to one of his descendants that I deemed worthy, many have tried but you are the first' As the Jade Lily spoke the mist around her dissipated and the scene laid before Yu Hua's eyes terrified her. There were hundreds if not more of decayed bodies littering the back half of the cavern. She shivered at the site. She had never seen so many dead, not even during the death cold that had come through her village six years ago.

'Take this parcel and drink its contents, if you do, you will be able to seek your revenge' Yu Hua looked at the cheesecloth wrapped bottle, it held a red liquid that reminded her of blood.

"Is this….?" Yu Hua could barely get the words from her lips as she stammered. She could hear the Jade Lily's laughter filling her head.

'Drink the vile dear girl, then I will give you what remains of my essence so that you will grow strong.' Yu Hua glanced at the bodies once again and realized her choices were quite limited. She either drank this and whatever happens, happens, or she didn't and would definitely end up like those…

"What happens when I drink this?" She asked tentatively.

'Then you will be able to receive the last remaining god legacy left in this world' Yu Hua looked at her dumbly. What did that even mean? She was even more lost than she had been before. Yu Hua looked at the vile with a hard look.

"I'll be able to kill him?" She said lightly her resolve beginning to make a final decision here and now.

'without a doubt,' Yu Hua took a deep breath and downed the bottle of red viscous liquid. She felt as if she had swallowed a bowl of fire it seemed to fill every part of her. Yu Hua felt her skin start to dry out from the sheer heat boiling her from within.

'quickly now drink this' The Jade Lily lifted her root to Yu Hua's now hunched figure. Yu Hua lifted her mouth and consumed the small emerald green drop from the tip of the Jade Lily's root. As she swallowed it down it seemed to put out the fire within her and she felt it revitalizing her. Yu Hua felt as all her injuries healed. As the feeling began to slowly dissipate Yu Hua looked at the Jade Lily in astonishment.

'Now concentrate on your body feel the energy coursing through you' Yu Hua concentrated on feeling the energy in her body she thought it was an absurd request but she had just recovered from all of her injuries, who was she to say what was absurd. She finally felt something, it felt like silk fabric caressing her body from. The strand became clearer and clearer in her mind's eye.

Yu Hua found herself looking at an emerald green strand of energy coursing randomly within her body.

'Now imagine the energy rotating through you until you have absorbed the energy in its entirety' Yu Hua began to imagine the energy rotating through her. To her shock the green strand began to rotate within her continuously until she felt that the energy had become a part of her.

'Good, now look inside of yourself and find that energy again' The Jade Lily's voice seemed so far away now. Yu Hua did as she was told and keeping her eyes closed and tried to find the energy within herself. She felt like she was entering a world she had no idea existed, a world far more dangerous than the one she had already lived in.

Yu Hua found the energy within in her once again, she could only describe it by feeling. What she saw felt like the core of her entire being.

'That's your core, it resides within you, now you must train it to the peak and all that I request is that when you get to the peak of the heavenly god realm, rescue my master.' Yu Hua opened her eyes and peered at the Jade Lily to find that she had all but disappeared only a blurry image remained of her.

Yu Hua watched as a book appeared next to a small white seed, where the Jade Lily had once been. The book and the small white seed landed delicately in her hands.

Jung Yu Hua looked at the cover and read 'Spirit Tamer's Manuscript'. She sucked in a deep breath and marveled at the manuscript. The binding looked like leather, but it was gold in color and scaled. The pages felt like satin; it was as if it caressed her hand as she herself caressed the soft smooth pages.