Crawl out here!

"What's going on?"

"Those guards are no joke! Can you feel the aura coming off them?!"

"Look at the mark! The Nine Skies Lightning Eagle!"

"Bai Clan!"

"I think that's Bai Lifei!"

"He did you hear…"

A commotion broke out as Bai Lifei and company made their way through the bustling city.

Bai Lifei's aura kept growing more and more agitated as she seemed to see some young ladies pointing and speaking in a hushed voice.

"Bastard!" she shouted before increasing her speed.

His nonsense had even reached the common folks' ears!

"Sigh," Bai Ning could only shake his head and follow.

His niece had every right to be mad, how could she allow herself to be insulted like this?

The guards however were not as kind, one of them released his qi towards the two women making them loss conscience before following behind the rest.

Quickly they made their way out of the bustling city streets and towards the high-end residential area were nobility, rich merchants, and high ranked cultivators lived.

Trailing silently behind the Bai clan were a group of six individuals dressed in scarlet red robes.

All of them wore golden masks that covered their entire face. No openings had been cut for the eyes, nose, or mouth.

It made one wonder how they could see or even breath for that matter.

Although they were dressed the same one could clearly see that three were men while the other three were women.

Each of their golden masks had a different beast engraving.

"The Young Miss of the Bai Clan seems quite fierce, she won't actually kill him, right?" The largest of the three men asked, on his golden mask an engraving of a what appeared to be a bear.

"It's fine, I don't think she'll go that far. Besides, our mission is just to make sure that Bai Ning and Liu Jin don't go overboard," a woman with an elegant crane engraved on her golden mask replied while twirling a lock of her flaxen hair.

"For now, let's just keep watching from a distance," another one of the women with fiery red hair and an engraving of a leopard on her mask replied before heading forward.

She appeared to be the leader as the rest complied and followed behind.

::Liu Manor – Inner Courtyard::

A young man around twenty-two years of age could be seen getting dressed inside a lavish room. Standing in front a full-size polished gold mirror the young man seemed quite pleased.

He was dressed in luxurious ocean blue silk robes and draped in enough jewelry to put the mistress to shame. His robes were lined and trimmed with what appeared to be silverish blue fish scales. On his back a small circle containing the same fish scale pattern could be seen.

His hair tied was done in a neat bun and his eyes were clear.

To his left was a young servant girl in blue cotton robes.

She appeared no older than thirteen and was currently helping him adjust his white fox fur belt and golden jewel encrusted dagger.

She had straight black hair that reached her shoulders, and deep blue eyes that seemed far too dim for her age.

Her face was sweet and childlike as one would expect of her age, yet it was all too apparent the little girl was exhausted.

Liu Yu was preparing to head out into the city, he had been in a bad mood for the past few weeks ever since the whole affair with the Bai clan.

However, he had vented his frustrations and found himself a new young noble woman to pursue. In fact, she was the one he was preparing to go meet! Just as he was dreaming of the young lady, he felt small and unexpected a prick on his waist.

Pah!

"Ah!" the young servant girl was sent flying over three feet before falling.

Her faced bruised and her lips bleeding from the sudden strike.

"Be careful! What if you had damaged my clothes! What kind of impression would that make to Miss Xiao?!"

"Please forgive me young master, it won't happen again!" the young girl quickly started bowing and apologized.

"You're lucky I'm in a good mood! Hurry up and finish!"

"Right away!"

The young girl quickly made her way over and continued adjusting the belt. Her young master liked to wear his belt in quite an over-the-top way, it would take almost five minutes to have everything done just to his liking.

After finishing up, she quietly stood up and moved to the side.

Liu Yu inspected himself in the mirror before nodding approvingly.

"You aren't worthless after all."

"...Thank you, young master," the girl replied without much thought. It seemed as if she had grown accustomed to this treatment.

"Go and prepare my gift and get ready to leave. Also clean your face up, it would lower my status having a follower as unkempt as you around me."

"...Yes," the young girl quickly turned around and head towards her room within the servant's quarters.

It didn't take long before she made it to her small and damp room.

Inside was a simple bed and desk.

Nothing else.

She stood still for moment; her shoulders trembled slightly but that was all.

She wouldn't cry, not anymore.

No one cared.

No matter what she went through she had learned to hide her emotions.

Slowly she made her way to the worn-out old desk.

Pulling out the drawer she retrieved a small wooden box.

As she was opening the box, she felt the same sense of warmth she had when she first found this thing.

Inside the box was a tiny little 'tree'.

Of course, she only called it that because she didn't know what else to call it.

To her It looked like a miniature tree.

On the bottom was a single brown 'root' that led up into a thin and delicate hazel colored 'trunk', at the crown of the trunk were its 'leaves': thin, fluffy, and white.

They radiated out from the center as if beams of sunlight.

A while back, she had gone out to woods after getting some free time.

She wanted to take a break and find some peace and quiet.

Who knew then that this strange little 'tree' would be carried by the wind into her arms?

The moment she touched it she felt and overwhelming sense of warmth and comfort.

Then something magical happened, the small tree seemed to sense her and began glowing with the most beautiful emerald light she had ever seen.

She began to smell a strange but refreshing scent, looking at the small 'tree' she had noticed that it was giving off a faint shimmering green mist. The green mist gently flowed on her small hands, and then she saw something she would never forget.

All the scars and marks on her hands that she had gotten as punishment had stopped aching and within a minute all the scars had faded noticeably!

She couldn't believe her eyes!

A treasure!

She had found a treasure!

She immediately ran back to her room to hide it, fearing that she would lose even this.

The last thing in the world that she could call her own, the only thing that had given her the smallest sense of comfort.

That was ten days ago and luckily no one had noticed.

She sat on her bed and slowly took out the 'tree'.

For some reason she had been speaking to this little tree for the past few days.

Even though she promised she wouldn't cry at the end of the day she was still just a child. She wanted something...someone to seek solace with.

As always, the little tree seemed to sense her presence and started emitting a beautiful emerald light, from the light a faint mist could be seen. The mist appeared to guide itself towards the injuries on her face, a cool and refreshing feeling stopped the pain and although a faint bruise still remained the had bleeding stopped.

"Thank you," she called out to the little tree while gently holding it as if it were her entire world.

"Little tree, am I always going to suffer like this?"

She asked knowing there would be no response but still she asked.

"Little tree, you know lately...I haven't been able to remember how my parents or sister look...I try but..." as she spoke, she started to choke on her words. Slowly she calmed herself but just as she was about to continue a woman's voice boomed across the Liu Manor!

"Liu Yu! Crawl out here!!!"