Remembering You For Eternity

2.24 Preliminary (2)

In her past life, if someone were to tell her that one day she would be able to put her head where her ankle was – quite literally – she would just scoff it off. Although as Mia Simmons, she used to practice yoga for general well-being and deemed herself to be quite acceptable in her stretching ability, she was nowhere near as flexible as the Olympic gymnasts. Those gymnasts could do flying splits and tangle their limbs, just like a possessed girl would in an Exorcist movie.

However, who would have known, as Ji YuLan – and a pure yin maiden to boot – she would be able to do all those, and more.

Ping sect's martial art teaching was almost akin to a cultural dance performance. Well, if a dance could hurt or kill an opponent... .

She went through a few somersaults, high kicks, nimble twists of her waist and arms to get away from her opponents' reaching blades. After a few runs of complicated moves that would have sent her former yoga teacher bowing in complete reverence before her, Ji YuLan emerged victorious on her first day of the Enlightened preliminary fights.

She also had to contribute it to her current physique of pure yin countenance. It seemed to give her an enormous advantage in practicing sword art. Although she and Xiao Zi practiced the same moves, she could execute them nimbler and sharper than her friend could. She dared to think that compared to Cao Lu, her own moves looked even more aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, and more importantly, more acute and precise to fight an opponent.

During her training days in Ping sect, Sage Zhu Hong always berated her that her moves were too light. However her teacher finally could no longer be picky as everyone could see that YuLan always managed to finish her fights quickly, despite the outwardly soft-looking flurries of artful-looking martial arts she performed.

She would never have known how awesome it felt to be able to do these things. Especially when she always managed to maintain her perfect poise and with no fly-away hairs after each fight!

By the end of the sixth day, along with three other Enlighteneds and four Martial-Artists who had come out to be the highest ranking of their groups, she seemed to have gathered a few fans. Being one of the four Martial-Artists who had passed onto the next round, Xiao Zi also gained a few fan boys – some of whom she had even defeated in her previous fights.

"Zi-er." One of the young men who seemed to be in his early twenties, ingratiatingly called Xiao Zi's name in an affectionate manner,

"Let's get something to eat tomorrow before we move to the main arena?"

The young man was quite handsome, if not for the light red streak across his forehead – a souvenir from his fight with Xiao Zi. Despite being defeated by Xiao Zi and his place snatched by her to represent the last group of Martial-Artists to proceed to the semi-finals, he did not seem to feel aggrieved at all. Although his sect was less well known than Wu Shan or Hui Lin, with his grey tidy robe and his excellent physique, he looked elegant and dignified.

"Master... ummm," Xiao Zi exasperatedly tried recall his name,

"TianShan. Long TianShan. You can always call me TianShan-shiong." The young man patiently repeated his name, for the umpteenth time that day.

YuLan, who had been listening offhandedly to their exchanges, almost burst out laughing. What a wonderful name for a man. Long for 'Dragon', TianShan for 'Heavenly Mountain'. How more pretentious and haughty could a name be, more than this Long TianShan? His parent must have exhausted their brains to name their prodigal son, not willing to let go of any world-shattering meaning word to name a male.

"Right," Xiao Zi did not forget to roll her eyes towards YuLan, who sniggered behind her sleeves,

"Master Long, we are not that close that I could be bold to address you as a 'shiong'. And I know you have been telling me that you are... uh...," she paused and frowned, "'mesmerized' by Chun Ping Gu sect's sword art, and that you want to obtain a few pointers."