Kapitel 4: 1.3 Star Dancer
Tian He thought that her lotus blossoms were beautiful but compared to the ribbon dancer on stage, hers was nothing but a small star trying to compete against the glow of the moon.
The ribbon dancer stepped and spun on stage, her feet moving so fast, that at one moment, only shadows of her feet could be seen. Her light blue satin ribbons twirled behind her, making it look like millions of stars were chasing after her. She tossed her ribbons to her right, twirling them until it they looked like waves from the ocean. The lotus blossoms followed her every step and danced with her.
The other performers on stage did not fall behind, their sacred powers were also evoked, forming into many particles of light. Tian He saw fiery red roses, blue transparent lilies, green flutes and qins, and yellow drums. Each color represented an element, red for fire, blue for water, green for wood, and yellow for earth. They floated around each of their respective performers, glowing brighter each second as their sacred powers synchronized with one another.
Suddenly, she saw the dancer leap into the air, forming a perfect split with her legs, and tossed her ribbons in front of her. The particles of light in shape of lotus blossoms followed her, obscuring the crowds of its dancer, then in a burst of light, the lotus blossoms scattered and rapidly encased her, forming a giant lotus blossom, hiding the dancer within.
All of a sudden, the music stopped, the singers closed their mouths, and the instrumentalists paused in their movements. Nobody spoke or made any noises.
As the crowd waited with baited breath, unconsciously, Tian He grabbed her skirt in anticipation, keeping her eyes glued on the giant lotus blossom. The dancer did not let the audience wait long, after a moment, the lotus blossom started to open its closed petals slowly, the dancer inside was being revealed.
The music that stopped resumed, its slow tempo increasing at a fast pace, the singer's voice rapidly rising in octaves, all perfectly following the opening of the lotus blossom's petals.
The light blue satin ribbons were spread out to the dancer's sides, the lotus blossom beneath her feet glowed a bright golden, slowly carrying the dancer towards the ground.
When the dancer's feet touched the ground, she tossed the ribbons into the air, and the lotus blossoms followed her movements, scattering into many particles of light across the stage. Real life golden lotus blossoms started appearing, some of them on the ground, and some of them on the waters of the lake. The other performers followed suit and also unleashed their sacred powers, forming into real roses, lilies, wooden qins and flutes, and mineral shaped drums.
The music finally stopped and after a moment of silence, the crowd erupted in bursts of cheers. Sounds of clapping and shouting filled the air, the performers all curtsied in thanks, and dismounted from the stage.
Yu Yan and Liu Wei clapped fervently next to Tian He, but she couldn't hear them at all, her eyes remained on the dancer and didn't blink until she disappeared inside of a pleasure located nearby.
Tian He's body couldn't get rid of the feeling that she had seen the dancer somewhere before, but since she became sensible at the age of 3, she could look at something once and remember it indefinitely.
So, if it wasn't a problem with her memory, then maybe the original owner's memory? What is the identity of that dancer? How is it related to the original owner?
She made a mental note to herself to talk to Little Stars about this. In the meantime, she looked at Yu Yan talking excitedly about the performance to Liu Wei.
She could tell that although Liu Wei was nodding and occasionally adding his own comments, his eyes never left Yu Yan. She looked at the other passengers, noticing that some of the males were staring in her direction, but she returned her attention to the lake and paid them no mind.
The pleasure boat did not pull its anchor to leave, apparently there were several other bands that signed up to play tonight. She had no mood to pay attention to them, she wanted to hurry back to the academy and talk to Little Stars.
"Yu Yan, I feel a bit weary, I want to head back to the academy and rest." Tian He did not want to lie to her friend, but she felt that if she didn't figure out the relationship between that dancer and the original owner, she wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else.
Yu Yan looked worried, "Are you alright? I'll send you back." She came over to hold her arms, but she shook her head.
"I'm alright Yu Yan, I know you want to stay to watch the remaining performances, I can head back myself."
"But –"
"Yu Yan, although as first years, we're only allowed to attend the basic martial arts classes, you know my skills are way beyond that."
"She's right, three of me can't even match one of her, you should be worrying about the people who are unlucky enough to bother her instead." Liu Wei 'kindly' persuaded.
"Liu Wei!" Yu Yan punched his arms. Liu Wei pretended he was in pain, "Ah, don't hit anymore, your punches have gotten stronger recently, my arm is going to break soon."
Tian He shook her head helplessly at this 'couple' in front of her. "Alright, I'll be going now, be careful on the way back."
Yu Yan stopped 'abusing' Liu Wei, "Tian He, have a safe journey back."
"Take care." Liu Wei looks at her seriously for a moment.
Tian He raises her eyebrows, Heh, he does care after all. Tian He always thought that he was only putting up with her due to Yu Yan but seeing this, she realized she was wrong. They may have started out as just acquaintances, but getting along with each other over these past 2 months in a half have really changed their relationship into actual friends.
Tian He liked this feeling of being cared for, it was a different feeling from receiving care from her family members.
She nodded in acknowledgement to their farewells and jumped off the pleasure boat. Her feet landed gently on a nearby street and her figure disappeared into the crowd.
Tian He passed by many vendors and buildings, not stopping to look at any of them. She ventured deep into the alleyways of the streets, hoping to find an obscured place to have a chat with Little Stars. The academy was farther than she expected, and she had no patience to wait.
She finally found a small corner in one of the alleyways and decided that this was a good spot to start.
"Little Stars, come out." Tian He called out.
"Host~, you've finally remembered to contact me, I missed you so much." A transparent baby that glowed pink abruptly appears and starts hugging her in tears.
Tian He was about to back away from him, but the fluffy pink aura around him made her stop. It looks like I'm weak against cute fluffy things.
She 'pats' him gently to console him, "Little Stars, I need to ask you something, it's about the original owner."
When he heard she needed his help, he quickly swiped away his 'tears' and bravely announced, "Host, whatever you need to know, I'll do my best to answer you."
She swore that if he wasn't transparent, she would have stretched out her hands and petted his head. "This body is giving me the feeling like it knows that ribbon dancer. What relationship does she have with the original owner?"
"I'm sorry host, I don't know either, all the details of the mission are given by the main system." Little Stars softly says with a sad face.
Just when Tian He was going to swear out loud, Little Stars spoke, "But since I could only be seen by you, I can follow her and help you find out her identity."
Tian He was a bit shocked, why didn't she think of that before? Little Stars is the perfect spy! "Good job Little Stars, it turns out that you're quite useful after all."
"Yeah, of course I am. Hold on, I wasn't useful before—"
"Alright, Little Stars, you're the only one I can count on right now, I know you won't let me down." She waves her hands in a shooing motion, "Hurry and go so you can quickly return, I await your good news!"
Before Little Stars could reply, Tian He jumped over the roof and disappeared into the skies. Little Stars could only blankly stare at her as she ran away.
"Hmph, host thinks I wasn't useful, I'll prove her wrong." Little Stars makes a fist with his little transparent hands in determination.
Tian He flew across the rooftops in a hurry, she felt like she wouldn't be able to control herself if she starts unloading her complaints on Little Star's usefulness.
When she decided that she was far enough, she landed on the ground and walked out of the alleyways. The building on the sides of the alleyways only had two floors compared to the four to five story-buildings she saw when she first got off the pleasure boat.
The surroundings were quiet, only the sounds of the night wind and Tian He's footsteps could be heard.
Tian He didn't waste her time to guess the reasons for the silence, she needed to arrive at the academy before her friends, they would worry about her if they didn't find her there. Suddenly, she heard sounds of fighting in one of the buildings to her right, she quickly fled in the opposite direction, she has no time to bother about other people's businesses.
However, she didn't get far when she heard the strong wind behind her, a black figure was frantically rushing in her direction, he was trying to use her to draw away his pursers! Shit! He's gaining one me, she lamented at her bad luck for meeting someone who's strong enough to keep up with her movement skills.
I need to speed up, let's see if he can still keep up with me. Tian He unleashed her full power and jump on the rooftops, speeding away through the skies. Nowadays, as her dancing skills increased, and her body absorbed more of Heaven's sacred powers, her strength could rival some of the teachers at the academy.
She flew through the rooftops, going in the direction of academy. The pursuers wouldn't dare infiltrate imperial's capital most famous artist academy. However, soon she realized she guessed wrong, the black figure was still chasing her, and his pursuers were following tightly behind him.
Aren't they afraid that the teachers at the academy would find them? Oh wait, she had forgotten that Yu Yan said tonight the whole city would be out watching the many famous bands perform on the lake in the center of city, no one would want to miss it, and sadly, this included the teachers at the academy.
Damn it! She couldn't help but curse her bad luck again. She didn't think that the guards at the academy would be strong enough to handle the people behind her, all of them could rival the strongest teachers at the academy, especially the one leading his pursuers to her, she felt a powerful aura from him. Even if she erupted her full strength and fought head-on against him, she wasn't sure that she would win, at most it would be a tie.
She needed to come up with something fast. As she sped along the rooftops, she could see the many lantern lights in the distance, the lake! She'll get rid of them by swimming down shore, she remembered that the lake connected itself to a river, she'll be able to lose them there.
She swiftly changed directions, praying that the off chance that her pursuers wouldn't follow, but not even a second passed and her prays were defeated. She cursed the black figure for being too smart, it looks like he saw through her idea and wanted to get rid of the figures chasing him using the river too.
Suddenly, many powerful auras could be felt behind her, the figures pursuing the black figure erupted with more strength, it looked they also saw through her idea and wanted to catch the black figure before he reached the river.
Damn it! She swears that if the black figure ever lands in her hands, she'll pummel his face until his mother can't recognize him.
The lantern lights have long fallen behind her, soon she'll past all the buildings and reach the river. However, just as she heard the rapid waves of the river, the sounds of metal hitting each other were heard behind her. Now's my chance! She rushed ahead and plunged head first into the river, swimming along the currents.
Too Cold! She needs to go to shore before she freezes to death. Since the river splits itself into three paths, she went with her instincts and chose the one on the right.
Tian He didn't know how long she's been swimming for but her muscles were already aching for her to stop and rest. She was getting desperate because she swam for so long and still didn't see any shores.
Suddenly, she sees trees off in the distance, she has never been so happy in her life to see trees, she quickly musters her remaining strength and swims towards them. After she reaches land, she drags her tired body onto the ground and lays there, breathing in heavy gulps of air. She was exhausted.
After some of her strength returned, she gathered some of the river water in her hands to quench her thirst.
"Ah, That's enough excitement for one night." Tian He declares to herself.
Tian He left the river area and traveled into the woods. It looks like she was going to spend the night in the woods, it was too dark to see where she was going and the moon that usually provided light was blocked by the clouds.
She found a nice clearing and started a fire to warm herself. Since these woods were close to the city, she didn't have to worry about any huge beasts attacking her. After she was sure that the surroundings didn't have anyone else, she started to take off her wet clothing.
When she was about to take off her last shirt piece, she detected a nearby presence, she quickly stopped her movements and hid behind a tree, waiting for that mysterious presence to come. Soon, she saw a dark figure, he was wearing a mask and there were several wounds on his body. When he approached the fire, she instantly recognized who he was. It was the black figure that tried to use her to distract his pursuers!
She tried to recall if she said anything that had offended the goddess of luck before. Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a plop sound. The black figure had fainted, and blood was constantly seeping through his clothes.
She was in a dilemma, should she save him? But he tried to get her killed earlier. Before she could decide, she heard him calling out for help, it looked he had sensed her presence behind the tree. She covered her face with a cloth and walked out, since this expert had such strong assassins after him, her disguise will save her many troubles.
When she finally reached him, she was shocked by how deep his wounds were, she was even more amazed that he was able to swim in the rivers with such heavy injuries. Fine, since he was still able to survive after all that, she'll save him.
But first, she needs to vent. She extends her right leg and kicks him with one-tenth of her strength, turning him over twice on the ground. After satisfied with seeing the increase of blood flowing out from his wounds, she stops her actions, and retracts her foot.
"Hmph, that's what you get for chasing me." She declares to the unconscious black figure.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein