A Question of Purpose

The test began.

Without fanfare or flourish, as the bell's reverberation faded between the mountains, the world suddenly changed. Ren Xiuxing looked around in confusion; the venue had vanished, and with it went the dusty earth, the elders' seating, the clan flags, and even the other examinees.

All that there was and all that he stood on was a narrow, winding path of smooth, featureless rock, floating over an endless abyss of mist. The path rose up, and up, and up, an endless road that vanished into the distant clouds high above him.

He felt... uneasy. Two steps to the side, and there was nothing beneath him. Nothing to catch him as he fell into the mist.

But there was nowhere to go, save up.

So he began to walk. And walk. And walk.

It was all he knew to do--all he had known since he was young. Moving forward, through mist and coiling fog, through uneasy steps and breathless wind.

Beside all this, and all that lay behind him, Ren Xiuxing entered the Path.

It was a long while later that he encountered his first challenge. He wasn't sure how far up he had come--the path lay before him and behind him, a hundred steps in each direction before all was shrouded in silver mist, thick with dewy humidity that beaded with cold droplets on his skin.

As he walked along the path, suddenly he paused. For along the path, along with the wind, there came the scent of camellia flowers. The mist cleared abruptly, fading to the side like the tide withdrawing from a shore.

There, standing before him on the narrow road, stood a beautiful girl in a pale tunic contrasting her hair; raven strands that tumbled down her back to her waist. A single golden bangle sat upon her right arm, which she held close to her side. Her eyes shone with moonlight as she stared at him... and he stared back, eyes widened in shock.

"You shouldn't be here," she said at last in a blunt, cold voice.

Ren Xiuxing shook his head, composing himself. Of course, she was an illusion. Why had he let a mere shadow shake him?

"And you aren't here," Ren Xiuxing replied. Yin Taihua couldn't be here. She was... was... in an immortal sect. Which immortal sect? Abruptly, strangely, he found he couldn't remember.

She took a step towards him.

He took a step backwards on the Path.

One after another.

"Why do you do this to yourself?" Yin Taihua asked him curiously, tilting her head gently as she looked at him. "You are talented. You could be a brilliant scholar, a great minister. A wealthy man. A man of influence and power. Perhaps even an emperor."

Ren Xiuxing stared at her mutely.

"You have perseverance, I'll give you that," the girl said coldly, walking towards him through the mist. "But why? Why are you so determined to chase in my footsteps? You know you'll never catch up. You know you'll never even start."

He swallowed and took another step back... and nearly tumbled off the edge into empty air. He glanced back. The spiral path was gone, leaving only a vast and terrible drop into an abyss of mist. He turned forward--and Yin Taihua met his gaze with her moon-lit eyes, standing right before him, her nose almost brushing against his. For a moment, they stood in mutual silence, their eyes locked in a contest of wills.

Then Ren Xiuxing looked away.

A slight smile crossed Yin Taihua's pretty face.

"What are you looking for?" she whispered. "What drives you, Little Star?"

"None of your business," Ren Xiuxing growled.

"Oh, but it is," she murmured, stepping back. "I am, after all, your fiance."

"Not anymore," he snapped.

She was silent for a moment, the mist swirling around her legs. Then she tilted her head and smiled. "Yes, that's right. You disobeyed your parents' wills and tore up the contract. Now you can't even leech off of me like they intended, Little Star."

Ren Xiuxing bottled his anger, jammed it in and threw it away. It landed in the corner of his mind, joined by a thousand other bottles.

"What're you here for?" he spat. "Just to taunt me?"

"No, no," she said, shaking her head innocently. "I just want to know... Why? Why do you want to walk the path of cultivation so badly? Is it so important to you?"

"Because I want to."

"You want to?" Yin Taihua snorted. "You just 'want' to? You are so much a slave to your desires that you would give up a beautiful life to pursue them? No, I know you, Little Star. You are not so childish; if you were, you could not have journeyed across all the Eastern Domain to seek out your immortal fate. So tell me. Why?"

Ren Xiuxing stared at her a moment, then shook his head and walked forward—only to be shoved back by Yin Taihua's aura. He stumbled backwards, nearly slipping off the abrupt end of the long Path.

He glared at her. "You won't let me pass?"

Yin Taihua smiled playfully and sat down, the pale stone warping into a seat beneath her. She crossed her legs. "Why would I do that? You won't even answer my simple question—I see no reason to grant you passage."

Ren Xiuxing saw red—but only for a moment before he funneled all that hatred away, locked it deep in his chest where it bubbled like molten lava. He took a deep breath and sighed, considering.

Then he spoke. "Better to burn then fade," he muttered bluntly, staring into the abyssal mist.

Yin Taihua nodded. "Better to shine than wither. I taught you that, Little Star."

"So will you let me pass?" he snapped.

She tapped one finger to her lips, looking at him thoughtfully. Then she shook her head. "No. Not good enough. Come on, Little Star. What are you afraid of?"

Ren Xiuxing took a deep breath. "...Fine. You want to know why I want to walk the Path of Cultivation so badly?"

Yin Taihua tilted her head, looking at him with a curious gaze.

"I... am not looking for glory, or power, or wealth. I'm not afraid of dying, and I'm not afraid of death," Ren Xiuxing whispered. "I just..."

He paused—and a thousand images flickered through his mind. The boys in the clan home laughing at him as he walked by, the men and women gazing down at him with pity, even Yin Taihua looking at him with sorrow.

"I just wanted to prove them wrong," he said... but even as he said it, even before the image of Yin Taihua standing before him shook her head, he knew it was wrong. That he was lying not just to her, but to himself. And in that instant, he realized what was his true path, his true reason for undertaking this long and winding journey.

He saw the Elders, pointing him back down the road with sympathetic gazes.

'You are not fated with the Thousand Swords Sect.'

He saw the clan elders, shaking their heads in disappointment.

'Your fate... lies with the mortal dust.'

He saw Yin Taihua, looking down at him as he sprawled in the dirt before her, pressed down by her aura.

'I'm sorry, Little Star. You were always destined to be nothing more than a mortal.'

Ren Xiuxing smiled a bitter grin as those memories bubbled up in his heart—the memories of everyone who had rejected him, pushed him away, or abandoned him because of his 'fate.' His talent. His destiny.

The world blurred as he felt his eyes sting with tears and raised an arm to wipe them away... and as he opened them once more, Yin Taihua had gone, as if she'd never been there at all.

Just a trick of the mist. A mirage on the road.

Ren Xiuxing took a step forward, tentative at first, then with ever growing resolve. The road was firm beneath his feet, and now he knew his path.