Life with Extreme Yin began with loss.
From the moment she became aware, her mother was gone, and her father carried the weight of a ruined spirit.
Neighbors and elders praised her talent and pushed her through punishing training, demanding she chase every limit her body could endure.
She never wanted it. She never wanted to live with pain either, but each small success lifted her father a little, gave him strength where there had been none.
That was why she kept moving forward.
As the years passed, the pain sharpened. Nights stretched into endless hours of silent begging for an end.
More than once, she imagined cutting her own throat to escape, yet the thought of her father fighting for her stopped the blade from finishing its path.
She tried to become everything he dreamed of, a warrior who would never fall, a princess worthy of her clan’s name.
The truth remained invisible to everyone. Wounds stung, but the constant fire under her skin was worse.
When she stood in silence, people mistook it for pride. The truth was she had no strength left to speak.
Holding her face steady so no one saw her break took more effort than a battle.
Extreme Yin hardened the body, but the real cruelty lived in how the training demanded the heart harden as well, simply to keep one foot in front of the other each day.
Then everything shifted. Her guarded heart opened the instant she knew someone have a cure.
Freedom hung before her like water to a dying traveler.
She could not threaten him. She could not kill him.
He refused to tell her, and there was nothing else she could do.
Empty of options, she crumpled into tears.
"Please... I need it."
It felt like a blind woman glimpsing light for the first time, only to have the vision ripped away and shoved deeper into darkness.
Wu Han stood in silence. He had seen begging before, and he understood the calculus.
He spoke without play now. His voice changed from teasing to cold and still. For the first time Luo Lan saw the person he really was.
"The truth is, I’m too weak to show my real skill," he said.
"If you want the cure, I need the power to make it. I can offer a temporary fix at foundation realm, enough to hold for a hundred years. For a permanent cure, you would need me at the nascent soul realm."
Plan A had been manipulation, forcing the Luo clan to give him resources while he did the bare minimum to keep them wanting more.
But since the other side had the skill to see through it, she had earned his respect.
That made them worth the effort of Plan B.
Negotiating a deal.
A dead man is worth less than someone close to dying.
The living will do anything to pay the price, even when the price is unbearable. Staying alive is hard, and people cling to it.
But stay alive and want freedom, and one can demand more than life itself.
He knew that too well to admit it.
Luo Lan watched the smile on his face and felt colder than any night from her living nightmare.
"Let’s make a deal."
An hour had passed, and the metal door still would not budge. Luo Chen, one of the most powerful men in town, could do nothing but pace in circles, waiting for it to open.
Maybe I trusted the wrong man, Luo Chen thought.
Luo Lan has never looked this well. Even the greatest doctors in the province could not do this. Who is this man?
The place was sealed. Not even Luo Chen’s senses could pierce what happened behind the steel. He had to wait.
The door shifted before he could bear another minute.
"Lan’er!" His eyes fixed on his daughter as Zhong staggered out, exhausted.
Luo Lan followed, smiling in a way he had never seen. Her usual pallor held a new pink flush like a spring bud waking to sun.
"I used most of my power, but she should be fine for now." Zhong’s voice scraped with fatigue.
Overcome with relief, Luo Chen dropped to his knees and kowtowed. "Thank you, Doctor Zhong! Tell me what you want, and I will provide it!"
"We will discuss repayment later," Zhong said, then looked at Luo Lan. "She will tell you what must be done. I need rest."
"Allow me to prepare a place for you. Our estate has the best cultivation grounds in town," Luo Chen offered.
"That would be welcome," Zhong replied. Luo Chen nodded and rushed up the stairs to arrange lodging, leaving Luo Lan alone with Zhong.
Luo Lan turned her eyes away, her heart pounding.
"Remember," Zhong said, his voice low, "your life or your lies. Choose carefully."
She nodded. They parted.
That night Zhong secured a reserved spot in the finest cultivation ground, where Qi hung heavy in the air.
The abundant Qi helped him stabilize after the strain that had torn him toward the fifth stage. It also restored his reserves and revealed the Luo clan’s secret.
So, the entire Luo clan was a cog in the machine that fed this place, he thought.
The formation and training facilities drove Qi circulation. Disciple activity pushed the currents until the town itself held condensed energy. With such a place, even untalented cultivators could rise fast.
No wonder their power never faced real challenge.
"If I could take it all," Zhong muttered, watching the Qi gather in his palm. The Qi here was thick enough to grasp.
With his arcane skill he could absorb it in an instant or condense it into mana crystals to use later when he found a more suitable body.
But a thief who reaches for more than he can carry will lose his hand, he told himself.
The deal he had made was enough.
Luo Lan...
Just the thought of her, the sinful snow sculpture of a girl, made his heart race.
Forget the old woman Wu Haoyu. Luo Lan was worth far more, but he would not pluck the unripe fruit now.
He would let it sweeten.
Think of that old woman, he decided.
It is time to end the game I have playing with the Wu clan.