He Lan's day

He Lan rose before the sun did and prepared for the day. It'd only been three to four hours since she'd gone to sleep but it was a familiar routine. Her room looked like it'd been washed everyday and never used. After wearing her immaculate maid uniform, she left.

He Lan soon arrived at Xiao Su's personal training center. She found Xiao Su sleeping on the floor near a pile of scattered papers. Since closing up eight days ago, Xiao Su had been living at the center. He Lan quickly got to work restoring the room to pristine condition.

She cleaned all signs of Xiao Su's previous day of training and finished organizing the papers into five piles, three piles that seemed related, one filled with stuff that was stand alone, and the last filled with what she couldn't understand. Finally, she striping Xiao Su, scrubbed her clean, changed her bandages and tossed(tucked) her into the freshly made bed. She left a set of clean clothes next to the bed and left with the near-empty pill bags.

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The sun was rising now and other servants could be seen going around. It wasn't necessarily that they woke up later than He Lan, rather most of them weren't cultivators so they did their work inside until the sun rose.

He Lan waited outside a huge building with lots of smoke of various colors billowing out of it. The smoke didn't get far however as it was soon purified by a formation in the air. A guard soon returned with a pass and told her the room number of the person she was looking for before letting her in. She thanked him and bowed politely before entering.

"You guys are really killing me here, how're you even going through so many pills so fast?" A big, sturdy looking man with handsome features whined after He Lan made her way to the room.

"Did you finish?" He Lan questioned, ignoring his complaints.

"You're no fun," the man grumbled before pointing at several pills on various plates. "You can fill them up over there," he said before turning back to tinker with his stove.

He Lan nodded and started meticulously packing pills into the bags. The man was Xiao Da, he was Xiao Su's nineteen-year-old cousin, a member of the fourth branch of the Xiao family, an apprentice alchemist, and a member of the golden generation, someone possessing the [Vigor] ancient ability. He was one of the few people who Xiao Su trusted completely, and one of the few that He Lan considered a friend.

They were currently in a small workshop in the Xiao clan's alchemy association. He Lan collected qi suppressant pills, concentration pills, blood congealing pills and healing pills for Xiao Su. The qi suppressants, healing pills and blood congealing pills were a standard order for her, but the concentration pills were a new addition. Of course, these weren't the same as the one she previously had, that one used several rare ingredients and hours of time to make one, these were more standard grade. The effects were many times worse, but it won out in terms of cost and mass productivity.

"How's she doing?" Xiao Da asked in worry when He Lan was paying him. Whether it was kinship as a family member or as another member of the golden generation who chose a profession outside of combat was unknown, but Xiao Da had always supported Xiao Su, so when her condition deteriorated to the point that she needed pills to function, she'd decisively told Xiao Da everything and asked him to keep it secret. He Lan didn't disapprove of this decision as she found Xiao Da trustworthy, facts showed they were both right to trust him.

"She's improving," He Lan said reassuringly. "Her injuries aren't as severe." She summed up the results of her morning visits. Xiao Su was improving the sealing method each time and the price was reducing with every re-edition.

Xiao Da still didn't look reassured. He Lan came to him for help when Xiao Su suffered her worst backlash and nearly died, he'd seen her state back then and it was only through both of them insisting otherwise that he hadn't alerted the clan. "Why does she insist on making life so hard for herself?" he asked bitterly.

He Lan recognized he was talking to himself more than her and left without saying anything more. Why did she do it? Why didn't she take the easy way? He Lan thought as she left the alchemy association. He Lan couldn't really understand it either. But one thing she did understand was that Xiao Su was willing to live, die and suffer based on rules she imposed on herself. After six years of being with her He Lan could tell that this was an intrinsic part of who Xiao Su was, the reason why didn't matter, a Xiao Su who didn't do that was simply not Xiao Su, hence, a truly foolish and unreasonable master.

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He Lan left the Xiao Clan compound immediately after dropping off Xiao Su's medicine. Arma city was the capital city of this region and had a large, bustling population. He Lan wore a generic maid outfit made of good material as she wasn't allowed to use the Xiao Clan exclusive outfit. No one dared walk too close to her due to the cold aura she produced.

She stopped by an old abandoned house and changed clothes. When she walked out she was dressed in pants, a baggy shirt and her neck length hair was now at her ears. He Lan's face was naturally androgynous to begin with, able to pass as a cold beauty or a cool dude, so with the change of clothes she naturally looked like a boy. As for her hair, she always cuts it at two different lengths, she only needed to tie the sparse long hair with a string and hide it in the thick short hair when she needed to shorten it. She'd learned this trick while growing up, boys and girls had different advantages and disadvantages when on the streets, she'd learned how to effectively use both roles to get her way.

He Lan soon reached a small compound housing group and entered as the guards bowed to her. Though it was small to her who was used to the huge Xiao Compound, it had more than enough room for a hundred people to live in comfort. A young man walking around glanced over at the sound of the opening gate and then immediately yelled "Boss!" ecstatically when he realized who it was. His loud cry caused many people to rush over and surrounded her, all of them crying out "Boss!" excitedly.

He Lan's brows wrinkled slightly as she was surrounded. "Enough," She said lightly while raising her arm.

They immediately halted and took several steps back to give her space. 'That was close! We got too excited, almost forgot about his mysophobia.' They thought while in a cold sweat. The last person to carelessly touch the boss spent two months in bed! They certainly didn't wish to repeat such an event.

"Good," He Lan said and nodded. "Anyone who wants training can meet me in the courtyard," She announced to them, sending another wave of joy through the crowd. He Lan's normal appearance gave off a harsh and uncaring impression, but in her male disguise, the same cold face and tone oddly came off as lackadaisical. Possibly because she still looks feminine while looking cool dressed as a boy, she gave off a more frivolous feeling, though no one who knew her would take that impression seriously.

They immediately got excited with the news. Results from a few hours of instructions from the boss was equal to days of their self-torture, they were happy it was their shift to watch the compound.

He Lan shakes her head and sighs. These guys, even small matters like this gets excited, their mood is always on full, she a little could not bear. "I have business with Li Qing, I'll be there in an hour." She said before heading to the house.

"Yes boss!" They all answered loudly. This is the influence that she started from the ground up. She already had experience running a gang and with Xiao Su's financial backing she was able to raise a decent group. Though their strength is nothing to speak of in Arma city, but she found some talented seeds, and providing for a rainy day is never a bad deed.

He Lan very much worried about Xiao Su's position in the clan. The many resources given every month, unlimited access to the library, the ability to have her personal servant enter the compound, plus all the other privileges might seem good, but there were too many questionable points for He Lan to feel comfortable with.

Firstly, the guards at the house were too weak, they were all at the human path grade and all a lower stage than her. The houses of the other elders have World Path experts guarding in abundance, if she snuck around there like she did Xiao Su's home she wouldn't even know how she died. Second, no one ever visits. Whether Xiao Su's mother is home or not, she'd never seen anyone else of the Xiao Clan enter that house, Xiao Su's grandfather needs to send a message to ask her to meet with him and even Xiao Da has never entered their.

Third, and most importantly, why was Xiao Su allowed so much freedom? For better or worse Xiao Su has the Xiao Clan's origin ancient ability [Limitless], it's different from Xiao Da, even if she wants to choose a different career path, for the clan to actually allow it is unbelievable. Even if she were to believe the clan simply meant to respect Xiao Su's wishes, it doesn't explain her upbringing. The talents in the clan receive special attention from the clan experts and are trained extensively and carefully, but Xiao Su, who possesses [limitless] and should, by all reason, be the biggest training priority of the clan, is almost completely self-taught.

If Xiao Su had proper guidance there's no way she'd have ever reached the state she's in. Even the fact that they've managed to keep her deviation secret is more because no one actively interacts in anything related to her rather than their ability to hide it. Something was clearly wrong. She prepared this influence so that if things went wrong, she could take Xiao Su and they'd start somewhere with this organization.

He Lan entered the building and began scrutinized the place. It wasn't as clean as she'd like, but it passed her minimum requirements. "LI Qing" He Lan called.

A bump could be heard in one of the rooms followed by some rustling, soon a lively woman in her mid-twenties walked out. "Boss He Cai!" The woman called out dutifully with a bow.

He Lan looked at her with some appreciation. Li Qing had strong managerial talent, she's been a great secretary for her and was the primary caretaker of the estate when He Lan was out, she'd saved He Lan many troubles. Her only flaw is her cultivation talent is nonexistent. Though her strength was weak, He Lan had assigned her two obedient aides that were at fourth and fifth rank of the human path to use as her arms and legs so it wasn't a problem. 'Those two seem to be out' He Lan thought, seeing as they hadn't responded to her arrival.

"Report," He Lan commanded.

"Yes!" Li Qing answered. "There's been no large changes over the last eight days, everyone's been working well and no substantial information has come in, the info from our informants are on your desk.

"Good," He Lan nodded and passed her an assortment of bags. "These are this month's cultivation material, allocate them as usual." She said before heading to her room. It was immediately apparent upon entering that this room was much cleaner than the rest of the house and was handled with impeccable care, leaving even her satisfied. Li Qing knew to keep her office spotless.

After entering she started going through the various letters sorted on her table. They were from various spies and informants that she'd collected through the years. Some of them were homeless, some of them were shop keepers, and others servants of various clans.

The Xiao Clan was far from the only big influence in Arma City. Ignoring all the various small organizations and clans in Arma city, there were three clans on a similar grade with the Xiao Clan. They were the Chen, Peng and Hao clans. The Hao Clan was commonly accepted as the strongest of the four, partly because the Xiao, Chen and Peng clan have been stuck in a frigid three-way war that caused them to lose many powerhouses over the years. Lately they'd maintained a fragile peace due to the threat the growing Hao Clan posed to the three of them. After the Human Path came the World Path, then the Six States Path, followed by the Spiritual Path. Twenty years ago, the Hao Clan's grand elder reached the Spiritual path, but the Xiao, Chen and Peng clans' strongest expert were still in the Six States Path, since then the three had formed a temporary treaty.

He Lan slowly managed to gain some informants in each clan, but that wasn't anything special. All powers in this city worth anything have informants and spies in the various groups, and the clans are aware of that too. That's why most servants couldn't get any important information. Still, some information was better than none. He Lan found it interesting that the Chen and Peng clan were also changing the format for their annual tournament as well. She wondered if this was in relation to the recent boom in ancient ability users. Just as the Xiao Clan had its golden generation, the Chen and Peng Clan had their Strongest Generation and Eighteen Stars respectively.

It was an interesting theory, but she vetoed it in the end due to the changes coming too late. The annual tournament had an age restriction of twenty and a realm restriction capping at the sixth stage of the human realm, any higher and you couldn't participate. Of the twenty-six golden generation members, only three were eligible to enter the tournament, counting Xiao Su, the other two clans were in a similar state, the changes in the rules would have very little impact on the three supernova groups.

He Lan was interested, but she didn't have enough information to draw any conclusions. She made a note for Li Qing to instruct the informants to pay more attention to this matter. After an hour spent going through information and leaving instruction notes for Li Qing, she went to the courtyard to train them for four hours.

After she finished that, she made went around the city visiting several businesses and groups that either belonged to her or were allied with her. By time she finished, night had almost fallen.

She changed her clothes back and quickly headed to the Xiao Clan Compound, she had to be back before night or she'd be locked out till morning. She checked in with Xiao Su and, upon seeing she was fine, left to a different training room. This was Xiao Da's training center, he gave permission for her to use it when he wasn't, which was most of the time, as he spends more time at the alchemy association.

She unsheathed two knives, one in each hand, and closed her eyes as she focused on her breathing. Preparation, organizations and alliances were all good, but she'd never forget about personal strength. She had organizations and alliances before, but she was still caught. Because she was weak, she couldn't stop their capture, she had to watch as her comrades were sold to different places, and even watch as the few sent to Arma city with her died covered in filth and disease. One knife began to glow red while the other turned glossy and glistened. She slowly opened her eyes and there was a burning resolve hidden under their cold surface. She'd never make that mistake again, she'd received a second chance and she wouldn't let anything be taken this time, she'd attain the power to retain all that she desired. With that purpose in mind, she swung her two knives.