Qi Yin was naturally a competitive person, who found it very difficult to turn down a challenge, especially one from her life long rival. After all, they had been competing since they were babies.

Qi Yang, well, "Lou" as he liked to call himself now particularly irked her. They were both highly regarded for their exceptional skills but they were very different on many levels.

He was what everyone called a natural-born genius while she was exceptionally gifted. What he could achieve in an instant, she had to spend days training to achieve. The most annoying part that had always irritated her was his lackadaisical manner towards everything.

It was hard to get him to be serious and even when he was serious, he still seemed to be playing around.

While he was lazy and playful, she was serious and dedicated, next to someone like him, it was natural she often felt inadequate growing up. So she worked harder than anyone else and still did today and did her best to ignore her playful brother, who enjoyed dragging others into his "fun" games.

This was the reason why she had been ignoring him all this time he had been coming to find her. She would not allow him to interrupt her training with "important" matters that were often not at all important. If not for this mysterious event, she would not have raced out to find that something serious had been going on during her training in isolation.

"If I win, then you end all this and return with me...right now." Qi Yin said as she bent from one side to the other.

"Not possible." Doctor Lou responded as he copied her movements.

"Qi -!"

"What do you want me to do? Kill them?" Doctor Lou swiftly interjected with a pout as he twisted his waist, "Can't do it...you know that~" Doctor Lou finished with a smug victorious expression to irritate his sister.

Qi Yin glared at Doctor Lou and then sighed and stopped indulging in his stretching game, "Forget it..." It was now pointless. He was right, there was nothing she could do now. She inwardly sighed in irritation.

{...I was careless...}

Doctor Lou also stopped and immediately protested with a pout, "Ah, but we were going to have fun for once!... Okay, how about if you win I'll go with you? Hm? It will be a lot of fun~..." He said as he went over and lightly nudged Qi Yin's arm with a sly smile, "Hm? How about it? It'll be just us two..like the old, old times~ Lots of fun!"

Qi Yin looked at him, completely unamused, "And what am I supposed to do with you? Out of my way!" She said as she moved to jab Doctor Lou hard with her elbow, he smoothly leaned back and she swiftly stretched out her arm, swinging it with full force, slamming it into his chest.

Doctor Lou fell to the ground before he could get a hold of himself, Qi Yin swiftly kicked him and sent him flying, crashing into an opposite tree.

"What did you do that for?!" Doctor Lou barked with a pout as he sat up.

"You deserve more for never listening." She explained as she condescendingly looked down at him, "Regardless, you are going back with me, since it is your plot you should go reasonably explain things yourself so I don't cause "chaos". I'm obliviously not the only one who would have noticed this..."

"Tch, true..." Doctor Lou said pulling his beard with a frown. He had been so focused on preventing chaos here that he had forgotten about what this event would do back home. He could already picture all the annoying faces with even more irritating questions bothering him. He honestly did not want to go, but then if he didn't who knows what his sister would go tell them. or worse, what if more meddlers come here to stupidly mess things up.

{...So troublesome! >_

Qi Yin left Doctor Lou alone to ponder over his newfound problems and turned back to Tung Mei, "As for you...Xiao Ying, return that body to its rightful place and report back to me immediately."

Tung Mei looked up her with a frown and swiftly protested, "But -"

"No buts about this! Do not make me have to come for you." Qi Yin warned, staring Tung Mei down.

Tung Mei pouted and then turned to Doctor Lou, "Pa -"

Doctor Lou promptly raised his hands up, "Don't look at me, I told you this was a bad idea. I don't even understand why you chose to go about it like this -"

"But you said -"

"I know what I said! But I never told you to do this, you decided not to wait for me and went ahead on your own. You've been learning to be stubborn recently, that Xing Xing is definitely a bad influence, I always tell you..." Doctor Lou mumbled as scrambled to his feet, holding his back. He narrowed his eyes at Qi Yin and then said, "Just listen to your beautiful, wise old - I mean, very young-looking brilliant aunt, the most brilliant too~..." Doctor Lou said smiling at Qi Yin, remembering that he was trying to be on her good side at the moment.

Qi Yin rolled her eyes and shook her head, "Don't pretend, you're the one always teaching her nonsense. How else would she get it into her mind to do something like this?"

"She's my baby, therefore, I can teach her whatever I like~...and unlike you, I let my students have fun~...sometimes, just sometimes." Doctor Lou finished with a little laugh, and then went over to Tung Mei, who was now pouting at the ground. He crouched down next to her and pat her back, "Ying Ying, don't be sad...I know you like Yong, but it's just that he's really not deserving, truly a blind idiot!"

"I told you not to insult Yong ge..." Tung Mei grumbled without looking up.

"Okay, okay, I won't...But you should look at things for yourself, you've been hovering around him all this time, but there still hasn't been any progress...Is it really worth it?" Tung Mei frowned and did not respond.

Doctor Lou sighed and then pat her head, "Just finish things nicely here and come home. We can forget all these annoying people and go on a great adventure, hm? I'll take you to somewhere you've never seen before. It'll be AMAZING! It's been so long since we did something fun~...I've truly been forsaken and forgotten for way too long. Father is very, very saddened by this~..." Doctor Lou sniffed and dabbed at his eyes but Tung Mei still did not mind him.

Doctor Lou sighed again and then stood up and turned to Ah Jin, "Look after her...and stay back to monitor things after. If anything suspicious happens again, alert me."

"Alright..." Ah Jin said with a bow.

"You're the only suspicious person here..." Qi Yin said narrowing her eyes at him, "Can't you just leave things alone?"

"You should speak yourself, you were the one always getting in the way. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had to bother with this circ.u.mventing route." Doctor Lou clapped back, squinting at her, "So this is technically your fault too."

Qi Yin frowned and looked off to the side, "I hope you know what you're doing..."

Doctor Lou blinked and then sighed, "You two can leave.." He said and with a swift wave of his hand, Tung Mei and Ah Jin disappeared from the clearing.

Doctor Lou then bounced over to his sister and linked his arm through hers as he said, "Let's go, don't worry, Xiao Ying listens to me. You know I raised her very well~ She'll show up...eventually~"

Qi Yin sighed but then she suddenly froze and frowned. She grabbed Doctor Lou's hand with a frown and went, "What happened to you?" There were trails of wiggling black vine-like things moving under his skin, going up his arm.

She was about to pull his sleeve up, when Doctor Lou snatched his arm back and went, "Nothing. I just accidentally touched something, something I've been working on -I was just careless. Nothing to fuss over~" He finished with a nervous laugh, "I'll deal with it later..."

"Touched what?" Qi Yin asked with concern.

"Don't know, don't remember, it's none of your business!... That reminds me, I wanted to ask you if you've been helping someone here?" Doctor Lou quickly asked, holding his hands behind his back and changing the topic before she would get more suspicious.

"Of course not. Unlike you, I do not play with the lives of others." Qi Yin indignantly responded.

Doctor Lou knit his brows, "I thought as much..."

"Did something happen?" Qi Yin asked with a curious eyebrow.

Doctor Lou let out a breath and went, "I came across some people here who used a power that held our essence...It wasn't me and I thought it couldn't be you...the only other person I know is dead...so do you think someone else from our clan survived?"

Qi Yin also knit her brows, "Hmm...I did feel something strange when I arrived here. It was for a brief moment, it was fleeting and oddly familiar. I had thought it was you, but now that you mention this, perhaps there's more to it...It is possible someone survived...but it's unlikely, it's been so long and why hide out here all this time?" She finished with a frown.

"That's what I thought too...but it did not seem malicious at all. I couldn't trace them either which meant they had to be quite powerful or very skilled." Doctor Lou explained and Qi Yin's frown deepened. Even though she would never praise her brother outright, something confusing him was very worrisome.

"Well, they didn't seem malicious or anything. I was just curious, the fact that I couldn't trace them makes it all the more interesting~" Doctor Lou said with a smirk, "Anyway, let's go before people start to panic and it gets too troublesome..."

Qi Yin glanced towards the capital and then looked back to the Doctor Lou, "I hope we do not come to regret this..." And with those words of warning, she was gone, just as swiftly as she arrived.

Doctor Lou glanced in the capital's direction as well, knit his brows as he clenched his fists.

{...This is the right path, I'm sure of it...It has to be...}