Reunited

prologue

"We don't have much time," a voice whispered, "her body is nearly cold. We either save the child or leave both of them to pass on." 

Choices... so many choices, hardly any time to process them. 

Two cultivators lay in the mixture of dirt and blood, hands reaching out for each other; he had not made it, though she was still fighting for the life of her unborn child. The sight was a gruesome one, though it was no surprise as to what demons could do once they overpowered a cultivator. 

"Baoshan Sanren, what should we do?" Another voice asked, and the elder in question let out a brief sigh. "If only she hadn't left... If only she had stayed on the mountain." Baoshan Sanren whispered, her words filled with heartache as she looked down on her former disciple that was running out of time.

Without much further thought, she turned to her two disciples who had reported the commotion to her and nodded. "Take them back. We save the child and bury the parents." Her dark eyes looked down to the two cultivators, blinking away the tears in her eyes. "They are owed at least that much -- they died bravely."

Once on the mountain, the child was saved -- a healthy baby girl, albeit smaller than most given how early she was born -- however the mother was not so fortunate. Baoshan Sanren could only weep silent tears as one of her best and most special cultivators was buried, her tomb next to her beloved in the Ancestral Hall. In Baoshan Sanren's own hands clutched the last thing that her disciple had in her own when they found her. A note with a name. Wei Xiaoying.

Cangse Sanren, a mother, a powerful cultivator, a wife. Wei Changze, a father, a brave cultivator, a husband. 

Over the years, the child grew under Baoshan Sanren's care. Her laughter constantly filled the mountain's ranges, the gardens never dulling or dying away, and as she was growing so did her spiritual energy. She had a determination at such a young age to do the right thing, to help those who needed it, to make her parents proud.

She had been to the Ancestral Hall so many times to pray to the ancestors, to visit her parents and tell them about her day, all the exciting things she had done with the disciples of the Celestial Mountain.

But good things must always come to an end at some point or another, because the young girl began to wonder what it was like beyond the mountain. It was a beautiful life, a very safe one at that, and she couldn't have been happier. 

But she often thought about where her mother and father came from, what they looked like, their day to day lives. She would spend hours kneeling in the Ancestral Hall, drawing their tombs. She had several scrolls lined up in her bedroom with each a more detailed drawing than the last. She wanted to capture the image so perfectly that should she ever travel among the real world, she would have them to look on and give her the strength to continue.

Baoshan Sanren took her on as her own personal disciple when she turned five, and her spiritual energy grew with each passing year. She taught her everything she knew, and by the time she had turned fifteen years old, she was one of the best skilled cultivators on the entire mountain. 

She helped and taught the younger children, helping them on their starts of cultivation, aiding those who fell behind. And though she was happy, she always felt like something was missing.

Little did she know how quickly that missing piece would be found.