“You didn't have to do that,” Peng Chen said to her as he treated her wounds. “Or rather, you shouldn't have done that.”

  The bleeding had stopped, but she still felt a throbbing pain. He was the strongest opponent she had ever fought.

  To be fair, she had once fought and killed a parasite at stage 8, but that parasite had no fighting abilities or any Qi control. She succeeded because except for pure physical strength, parasite had nothing else.

  Here, however, it was the opposite. Yifan Wu had mastered Qi control to perfection, and his techniques were at an absurd level.

  “So I was supposed to let your sister be humiliated?” she asked, not quite understanding his train of thought. “Where were you anyway?”

  “Refusing to fight was her own decision,” he said harshly, continuing the treatment.

  “Just like that? Doesn't it bother you?”

  May couldn't believe that he simply didn't care that his sister had been publicly attacked. She knew he loved his sister, but their situation seemed complicated.

  “Of course it bothers me... But she has her reasons,” he replied, avoiding her gaze. “You should have respected that. Don’t meddle in the future.”

  May felt strange. Although she thought she had done the right thing, she was no longer so sure.

  “But...”

  “I've finished my treatment,” he interjected, not wanting to let her finish her sentence. May realized that he no longer wanted to talk about it.

  “You didn't have to,” she replied, seeing that there was no point in discussing it further. “The medics could have cured me.”

  “Haha, Yifan needs the medics' help more.” He said, standing up. After a moment, however, he paused. “Thank you anyway. So long, May.”

  He disappeared behind the door. May remained alone in a secluded room in the mansion. She got up and left as well.

  She heard loud noises. More fights were taking place in the arena. The spectacle of May's fight evoked enthusiasm and vigor for the battles. Blood was flowing like crazy. However, she didn't particularly feel like watching it.

  She returned to the banquet hall. It was practically empty. Most people were now watching the fights in the arena. Walking through the hall, she finally spotted Zu Chen. She was still sitting in the same place as before.

  Wait, had she not moved since then?

  Despite her doubts, May decided to approach her.

  “Zu Chen.” She began, moving closer. She didn't respond. May sat down next to her anyway.

  “About what happened...” She began to speak, but Zu quickly interrupted her.

  “It doesn't matter anymore. I'm not going to thank you for help I didn't want. But I don't condemn you.”

  May fell silent. Even though she was celebrating her birthday, it was certainly not a very gracious day for her. First, the conflict with her father, and then the argument with that idiot Yifan Wu. May didn't even try to understand how she felt. She couldn't put herself in her shoes.

  “But still... Why didn't you do anything? You're not stupid, you must have known that ignoring him wasn't a good option.”

  She didn't answer.

  May continued. “You're not weak... Even if you had fought for a minute or two...”

  “That's not an option.” She dismissed her shortly. “If you have nothing else to say, don't bother me anymore.”

  She heard hidden sadness and perhaps regret in her voice.

  Maybe I really should leave her alone?

  She sat with her in silence for a moment. She didn't want to walk away from her. She wanted to understand what was going on. Was she unable to fight? What other reason could she have?

  From outside, loud screams continued to be heard, but also howls of pain. Someone was getting a really good beating in the arena.

  “Aren't you going to leave?” Zu Chen finally asked. May looked at her intently and thought carefully about her choice of words.

  “The party is slowly coming to an end... Someone should be coming to pick me up soon, but... I'd like to find out what it was all about, really.”

  There was a brief pause between them.

  “May, apart from the members of my clan, few people know this, but... I refuse to fight.”

  “You refuse?” She was slightly surprised. However, she was a little happy inside that Zu had decided to open up.

  “Yes. I swore to myself that I would never kill anyone,” she said quietly, slightly embarrassed. “I also refuse to participate in any violence or fighting.”

  May was surprised by this. To be honest, she wasn't sure what to think. It was normal for a child to have an aversion to murder and killing, but... Was it possible to become a cultivator without it?

  “Just as I thought... You look at me like everyone else,” she said regretfully. “I shouldn't have said anything.”

  “No, that's not it. You just surprised me a little,” May said. “Can you tell me why?”

  “Why don't I want to kill people?”

  May realized that the question was rather stupid. On Earth, people would even say that asking why killing was wrong would be considered psychopathic, but here...

  “I kind of understand that, but... Why do you refuse to fight? You don't have to kill anyone after all...”

  “I have my reasons.”

  May now had little understanding of why her father seemed so adverse to her. May had no trouble imagining how the whole predicament had unfolded.

  “Well, it's a little unusual,” May began. “But there are a lot of non-combat roles in the sect. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.”

  The girl chuckled and looked at her with an icy stare. “That's where you're wrong.”

  “Am I wrong?” May was surprised. After all, there were other roles in the sect besides fighting. Medicines, the Formation , Pill Creation, and even Alchemy, which May herself wanted to pursue, were fields that did not require fighting skills.

  So she couldn't understand why that would be a problem. Although she had never heard of pacifist cultivators, she didn't see any reason why it would be impossible. After all, not every cultivator had to be involved in fighting.

  “Even for roles not related to combat, in our sect, you have to fight and kill,” she replied. “No one who cultivates can be unblemished. That is the way of things.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  May frowned. It didn't seem right to her.

  “ What do you mean? Although your attitude is, ahem, somewhat unusual, there are certainly many options available,“ she dismissed.

  “Perhaps for some, but definitely not for me. You see, May, there are people in the sect who expect certain things from me,” she said. After a moment, she laughed softly, not out of joy, but out of helplessness. “Don't think I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart. Quite the contrary. I refuse to kill because I'm selfish. It's the only way I can resist.”

  “For... selfish reasons?” May was surprised. The subject turned out to be much more complex than she had expected.

  “Yes. You probably thought I avoided violence because of some strange philosophy of mine? No, May. I believe that there are people in this world who deserve to die. People whose disappearance would solve many problems.” She spoke pensively. “However, this is the only way I can avoid destiny.”

  “Destiny?”

  “It's just a metaphor.” She got annoyed. “So I'm not as saintly as you think.”

  “Could you be more specific?” May asked, not quite understanding.

  “May. Do you know why I'm telling you this?”

  She fell into thought for a moment. Did she want to vent? Or did she trust her and want to share her feelings with her? No. May was sure it was neither of those things.

  Seeing that May wasn't responding, Zu Chen continued her monologue. “Because you tend to meddle in other people's business. Normally, I would never tell anyone about this, but in this case, I had no choice.”

  May was surprised. “What do you mean?”

  She sighed wearily and looked straight ahead with her expressionless eyes.

  “For some reason, my brother has taken a liking to you. Which unfortunately means that whether I like it or not, we’re going to be in contact with each other. That’s why I want to make things clear from the start.” She replied, speaking with unusual seriousness. “I told you all this so you would know. I am not a victim. I am not helpless. And above all, I don't need your help. I do things the way I want to.”

  “So, in short, I'm not to interfere in your affairs.”

  She nodded in agreement. After a moment, however, she sighed and continued. “So I kindly ask you not to do anything in the future. I know what your intentions were, but I don't need it.”

  Although she didn't fully understand, she simply nodded. If that was her wish, she had no right to interfere in her life.

  Suddenly, someone entered the room. It was a person from the Yun estate. May had said beforehand that she wanted to return early, that is why someone had come for her so soon.

  “Looks like it's time for you to go,” the girl said to her. “Goodbye. We'll see each other again at Cloud Academy.”

  She left the building and headed for the exit. The moon was already high in the sky, illuminating the entire estate. She gazed at it ponderously for a moment, but was suddenly snapped out of her trance.

  “You were talking to my sister.”

  It was Peng. She turned toward him. He was leaning his back against one of the marble columns.

  “Our goodbye didn't last long, did it?” May replied, still remembering that he had only recently said farewell to her.

  “Well, I wanted to be alone for a while, but as it turns out, I need to clarify something,” he replied, this time looking straight at the moon. May moved closer.

  “So?” She got to the point.

  The person from the estate who had sent for her looked at May uncertainly. She was already scheduled to depart.

  “Wait for me in the carriage,” she said to the servant. “I'll be back soon.”

  Having no choice, he left, leaving May alone with Peng.

  “Sorry, but I overheard your conversation,” Peng Chen revealed.

  May was surprised for a second, but quickly calmed down.

  I need to be more careful in the future. I didn't even notice that someone like Peng Chen was eavesdropping on me.

  She wondered why he had revealed this. She couldn't find any logical reason. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because the reason Zu is the way she is...” He said uncertainly. Then he pointed his finger at himself. “It's me.”

  The atmosphere became somewhat peculiar. Neither of them spoke for a moment. May cleared her throat a few times and only after a while did she speak.

  “Peng, please forgive me, but I'm not fond of beating around the bush. Could you just tell me straight up what's going on?”

  “Well, then, I'll just say in a nutshell what I have in mind. I want Zu to free herself from the prison she has created around herself.”

  “Speaking in metaphors is not very specific,” she replied reluctantly.

  Although she didn't mind the conversation, she didn't like the way he was behaving. He clearly wanted something from her, but was afraid to ask her directly.

  “Maybe, yet it accurately describes her situation. My sister... She needs help. Despite her words, she rarely opens up to others, but nevertheless, she spoke to you sincerely...”

  “Really? She didn't seem to be very friendly towards me,” May replied.

  Zu Chen seemed rather irritated by May's very existence. She wasn't hostile towards her, but it was hard to call her attitude friendly.

  “I never said she was friendly,” the boy replied quickly. “I said she was sincere. And that's something.”

  “All right. But I still don't know what you want from me,” said May, already slightly tired of the conversation. “I also don't understand why she's like this in the first place. There is something you are not telling me.”

  The boy did not respond. May already knew that she would not get any details.

  “You'll find out in due time.”

  Just as I thought.

  “How can I help you if I don't know what's going on?”

  “If you don't want to help, you don't have to. I have no right to force you to do anything,” he said, suddenly fixing her with a piercing gaze. “However, it would be rather strange, considering that you've already been meddling in our affairs.”

  Perhaps he was right to some extent. No one had asked for her help, but she had nevertheless come to Zu Chen's defense. However, she didn't like the fact that he was describing her attempt and good intentions as meddling.

  “Maybe, but I still don't intend to agree to something I don't understand.”

  “That makes sense. I can't tell you too much... But I can explain something to you. For a certain reason, Zu Chen didn't want to become a cultivator. She completely refuses to do so.”

  “She didn't want to be a cultivator?” May was surprised, repeating his words. “That's...”

  “Strange? Yes.”

  Logically speaking, cultivation had no disadvantages. Longer life, better health, strength, and power. Mortals could never achieve great things in this world. The natural order of this world was that cultivators stood at the top.

  Every mortal dreamed of becoming a cultivator. Whereas in the Inner Court, no one really had a choice. Every child of a large clan had to cultivate. That was just the way it was. Refusing to cultivate was comparable to a child on Earth refusing to learn to read or write. It was an inscrutable situation.

  “As I guess, no one was thrilled about that...”

  “Yes. What transpired was ten times worse than you can imagine. In any case, she ultimately had no choice and became a cultivator against her will.”

  “And then she decided to refuse to do violence.”

  “That's right. In this case, the situation isn't much better.” He muttered in a low voice, his hands falling down. “The reaction here wasn't very good either, to put it mildly.”

  “But why? After all, not all cultivators have to fight.” She asked sincerely, not fully understanding the problem.

  “Let's say you happen to have a fast horse. Any owner would use it for racing, or something like that. This is when though, the horse in question would say it doesn't want to race, and instead would rather plow fields for agricultural purposes. In theory, horses are involved in both, but it's a waste of potential. A fast horse should race, not plow fields.“

  ”You're comparing your sister to a horse?" she scoffed.

  “In this metaphor, both of us are horses,” he replied seriously. “And, in fact, that’s how I feel. Not like a living being, but like an object used for the owner’s purposes.”

  She noticed the sadness on his face. Appearances seemed to be deceiving. His mental state did not seem to be much better than his sister's. Most likely, he was just better at hiding it.

  After a moment's thought, she asked, “So your sister... Or rather, both of you, have something in you that makes you good at fighting?”

  The boy quietly nodded.

  “Can I ask for more details?” she asked hesitantly.

  “That's the very thing I can't tell you any more about,” he said, clenching his fist tightly. “But yes. That's why we've achieved so much in cultivation. And why we must walk the path of power and cultivation.”

  “But your sister doesn't want that. That's why she refuses to participate in the fights.”

  “Not exactly,” Peng Chen replied.

  “How so?”

  “These matters are related. But Zu has her own reasons.”

  “And you want me to somehow make her abandon her path?”

  “Yes.”

  “I refuse.”

  The boy snorted. “Why?”

  “If she's decided that, she must have a reason,” she replied, looking at him. “You want me to somehow force her to fight? Until I know what's going on, I refuse. Without knowing the underlying cause, I don't know if I would be doing the right thing. By doing nothing, I won't make the wrong choice.”

  “What if not choosing is the worst option?”

  “I don't know. But I can't choose blindly. I don't know what this is all about, Peng. Trusting you means betraying Zu. Even if you think it will be good for her, I'm not going to blindly follow you.”

  The boy fell silent.

  “I thought you were different.”

  “You were probably wrong,” she replied, turning away from him. “Goodbye, Peng.”

  Then she walked away and got into the carriage, which took her back to the estate.