Lin
They both stop for a while. Lin Sheng was wiping off the blood from his mouth and Lin Yu yan was just swiping dirt from her clothing, as if the fight didn't even happen.
"Funny because you fight just like mother… minus the blood part," said Lin Yu Yan, partially remembering the way her mother taught her how to hunt and survive the dangerous Unknown forest. "I don't ever remember you training with me and Mother."
"I watched from a distance… I hated the way father taught me so I learned from mother. I remember how you were struggling training with her…." said Lin Sheng, remembering the past. "Mother was right… she always knew you were more like father."
"I knew you were a momma's boy," said Lin Yu Yan, smirking. "You recognized me right away, even when we haven't seen each other more than half my life… what a weird brother I have."
"You-!" it surprised Lin Sheng. 'I don't ever remembering Yu Yan being this cheeky…'
Again, they charged at each other. Lin Yu Yan smiled a little. Han Bingwen noticed it, wondering why she is smiling so kindly.
"Wait… she was left alone at 3 years old…?" said Xie Rong. He looked at Lin Yu Yan as she was fighting with Lin Sheng.
"Doesn't that mean she was already training at age 1 to 2 years old...?! She was literally just a baby!" said Peng Ai. 'I could barely even stand at that age!'
"She was… at least that's what she told me," said Silver, remembering what she said when they first met.
"I was also trained when I was 2 years old. It could mean demon blood babies train very early," said Kenzhi, shrugging his shoulders.
Kenzhi is only 5 years old and is stronger then most of the people within the group.
"This is… kind of unfair…" said Xie Rong.
"What is…?" said Kenzhi.
"I mean… It's great you are strong enough to protect yourself but it's sad you didn't get to experience the life of a child," said Xie Rong. He's only 25 years old, still very young but he mentally matured when his first child was born.
"Yeah… that is a little sad…" said Peng Ai. "I mean I had to start fighting when I was 6 and I thought that was too young."
"But Yu Yan has been tortured for almost her entire life," said Han Bingwen. "Her body had to adjust to ways to make the torture less painful. It's no surprise her body became god-like and her mind became cold."
Han Bingwen looks at her as she moves swiftly to block Lin Sheng's attack. They look at Han Bingwen from the surprise statement.
'He really understands her…' they thought.
"Yeah… that's why she's strong," said Silver. "The fact that she still has the mindset to trust someone… it's very strange… but that's what makes her strong."
Lin Yu Yan and Lin Sheng landed a punch at each other's faces, making each of them flying a few distance away from each other.
"Anyway, father never visited that house?" said Lin Sheng, confused and not feeling angry, he makes a casual kick at her since they are still in the middle of their battle. 'Lin Yu Yan probably doesn't even know how father looks like.'
"Because… of this," said Lin Yu Yan. She dodged the kick and quickly grabbed a book from her space ring. "Mother kept a diary about father for me…"
The same book she got the information of the emperor killing her grandmother and how the emperor was trying to kill the rest of her family. Pulling out the book made him stop attacking her.
"What…? What is that?"
"It's a journal mother wrote about father. I don't know why she made it honestly because if someone else got their hands on it, we would be in a lot of trouble."
"What…? Why…?"
"I don't know. I was trying to find her about it. Which is why I stayed for a few days."
"Yu Yan… General Lu and your father fights like this…?" asked Xie Rong, wanting is the what Lin Sheng said was true.
Everyone was surprised to when they heard it but didn't ask because they were fighting. Her crew knew she can use some elemental energy. If Lin Yu Yan was this strong, imagine her father and mother.
"Yeah… That's why my grandfather was the First General of the Wang Empire and my father was considered a hero to the world," said Lin Yu Yan, not turning around. "This power is both a blessing and a curse."
"My grandfather was just going easy on me… I was utterly upset because I wanted to have a proper fight with him…"
Though Lin Yu Yan does hate her grandfather for letting the evil torture her, she does respect her grandfather for being a great general in the past. He was powerful but he got corrupted.
'I found it odd when I arrived here out of nowhere… I thought I was a good-for-nothing… seems like Lu Yu Yan didn't know what her potential either because of the unknown sickness she had until it was destroyed,' thought Lin Yu Yan.
"Whatever… I am an impatient person…"
Lin Sheng's eyes widen in fear and devastation, making him stop and think. "Y-you… you didn't…"
"Didn't what? Kill Grandfather? I did. I also killed Tian Tian, that b!tch and our dumb@ss uncle."
'She killed uncle, aunt, our cousin Lu Tian Tian and grandfather! Why are you just casually saying it like it was nothing?!' thought Lin Sheng. "Why!? I know they weren't the best but they didn't deserve to die!"
"AAAND THAT'S WHERE YOU ARE WRONG!!!" shouted Lin Yu Yan, not having her idiot brother tell her what's right from wrong. Lin Sheng was shocked. He never really knew her voice was so intimidating until now. Everyone else but Han Bingwen took a step back because her voice actually scared them.
"YOU left ten years ago. You weren't there."
"Still, you would have been safe-"
"I what...? No, It was never safe! I was THREE f*cken years old when mother and you left. I didn't know anything! I was just a stupid child in a house and barely getting by. They were going to find me eventually! I knew Titan Tian and she was family. Who else was I supposed to talk too? I didn't know anyone else!"
"But-" said Lin Sheng trying to think of a good reason.
"Shut up and listen for god sake!"
"..." Lin Sheng could see and hear the pain emitting from Lin Yu Yan. He closed his mouth and looked straight into her watery eyes, letting her know he is listening this time.
"Let me talk!" Lin Yu Yan said, you could hear her voice breaking.
Everyone was silent. Lin Sheng's crew was a little afraid to hear her story. Peng Ai and Xie Rong already knew part of it but it still pains them to hear her go through this.
"It's not like I want to talk about it because I really REALLY don't. Everyone here is going to pity me and I don't need it bullsh!t."
Lin Sheng stands there silently, taking every word in.
"You know… grandfather hated us. We weren't born from the woman he wanted father to marry. If he knew mother was from such a high status clan… we wouldn't be like this. That old man would be all over us, treating us like royals."
Their breathing relaxed, bodies calm down and minds are clear as Lin Yu Yan spoke.
"You left… their was no one who can protect me. I was a child, walking into every trap that b!tch of an aunt, Gu Wang Shu, made. Lu Tian Tian, who could have been a great person, followed pursuit because that's is what her mother did. Though I hate her too but we used to be family.
That day… when I got kidnapped and everything just kept going downhill…? I saw her cry in her room, wishing I would be saved, the night I escaped from them. I was really happy. But I was naive to think the sweet girl I used to know would be in her.
But… children follow what their parents do. WE see it all. Sometimes we do things unconsciously. She choose to follow and it had consequences. I mean look at us… Your fighting moves are so similar to mother's."
Lin Sheng eyes widen at that fact. His eyes still didn't leave her for a second.
"Those cowards tortured me every single day… lying that I would get to meet Father one day. Obviously, it didn't happen. They were never going to and it was impossible since father disappeared seven years ago.
Uncle just laughed, made fun of me, and even tried to kill me when I first walked into the Mo Pharmacy. Same like you… He saw Tian Tian on the ground and thought it was me who made her fall when all I did was moved out of the way."
Lin Sheng was feeling guilty.
And Grandfather… he did nothing. Just enjoyed the three of them trying to torture me. Funny because he knew it was wrong but he just let it happen..."
Everybody was silent. The fight has been happening for 15 minutes already and everyone was just silently watching now, distracted with the story she just had to say.
"No one has the right to tell me that these feelings I have, are wrong," said Lin Yu Yan, looking at Lin Sheng and looked at everyone else. Lin Sheng was silent. He was trying to think of a reason why Lin Yu Yan shouldn't have killed them but… that sentence made him stop thinking of a reason and start thinking of a way to make up with her.
"So… I killed them… But then something changed. Grandfather's and Uncle's eyes were clear as day, honest, and resolved. I had this hatred I held for them for so long… but disappeared with only one sentence on the day I executed them… and one sentence made me regret what I did."
There was a moment of silence before Lin Yu Yan said anything again.
"They told me to be happy... even after they knew I was going to kill them they wanted ME to be happy… Maybe if I did talk to them and made them understand me they would probably be alive… So… I'm doing it with you…"
Lin Sheng's heart ached. Han Bingwen remembered comforting her that day and always wondered why she cried about it when she knew that was the ending result.
"I don't regret killing them but I do regret not talking to them… I guess we really are family… not listening well and resulting to fights instead."
Lin Sheng goes and gives her a tight hug. Lin Yu Yan didn't know what to do. She didn't expect to have a hug in the middle of their battle.
In her past life, she was the older sister and had the responsibility to take care of her younger siblings so she understands the stress he might be under. But the hug was a warm one, a very very loving one.
"I'm sorry... For everything I've done… For everything I haven't done..."