It had been two days since the beast raid.
The village was quiet now too quiet. Smoke still clung to some rooftops, and broken charms fluttered in the wind like dead leaves.
Hu Yumei sat outside the healer's hut, listening to the elders argue in hushed voices. They thought she couldn't hear, but she heard everything.
She was listening, calculating. The voices on the other side of the rice-paper screen weren't meant for her, but their decisions could end her path before it even began.
"She's of age," Her great-Aunt Wang said, her voice sharp with vinegar and old authority.
"Aunt, my daughter is a little girl. She is in academy soon to be awakened, so let's not talk about it now.
"Seven's when decent families start planning ahead. You think you've got time? Hah. Girls aren't sacks of rice you can keep on a shelf. Even if she awakens, so what? Think she'll land some rare path and start raining Federation coins? Doubt it. She's a girl—they spoil easy. Better to sell her off while she's still got shine."
Her mother's silence was like a blade.
"She eats but doesn't earn. What use is she? You already have a cripple and a broken roof. Might as well trade the girl for federations coins before she turns wild."
"She's a child," Mama said stiffly.
"So was I when I married. Girls are as good as spilled water don't wait before it's too late. You're still young and can remarry. Have a son to carry the family name," her great-aunt spoke frankly and patiently, as if doing a good deed.
Hu Yumei scoffed and exhaled softly through her nose. That phrase again. Spilled water. She'd heard it too many times in her last life among others words.
The shape of patriarchy barely shifted— even in this backwards, half-modern magical world, even across lifetimes. How laughable."
They saw a skinny little girl, silent and different. They didn't know what else lived inside her.
She was not seven. Not really. Her body was, yes—but the soul within had walked longer roads, buried comrades, and bled under skies no child should see.
She remembered her final mission as a medic under grey skies, triaging wounded men with frostbitten fingers and a half-empty medkit.
She remembered the dull clink of syringes, the smell of blood and disinfectant, the white coats that followed war.
Before she was Hu Yumei, she had been a soldier, then a medic, then a veterinary surgeon, one life folding into another like pages in a blood-soaked journal.
No one else knew. And she meant to keep it that way.
"I've asked around," Great-Aunt Wei continued.
"There's a herbalist son in West Hollow city located in the F- safe zone. Not old he is a 2 star core F-class awakened low level herbalist. One eye is lazy, but he's got a good business selling herbs. His family offers 10,000 Federation coins, silk, and two healing serums."
"I'll ask her father," Ka Sanni said at last.
"You'd ask a crippled for permission?" Her great aunt Wang mocked.
"Watch your tongue." Her mother Ka Sanni hissed back in annoyance. Her great- aunt only huffed and left.
Hu Yumei pressed her forehead to her knees not from sadness, but to steady her thoughts. If they were already talking bridal prices, her time was limited.
Once matchmakers came, control would slip further from her small hands.
She would awaken her core. In this world, most began awakening between the ages of seven and eleven—and once awakened, no family could force a marriage.
Federation law protected awakeners. Hu Yumei was destined to change her fate. But for now, she had to train, grow, learn everything she could about this world… and watch in silence.
⸻
The wind had changed since the raid. The scent of charred wood lingered on village paths, mingling with the acrid tang of old blood.
The people of Qinghe knelt before loss, thanking the heavens for what remained.
Among them was Fan Yangwei, the father of this body.
He was a rare 4-star D-Class core dual-profession awakener—a Hunter and an Elemental Caller.
As part of his Elemental path, he also trained as a low-level Rune Master.
While these professions weren't rare individually, having multiple awakenings was uncommon across the these three provinces.
There had been others, but not many in the countryside.
With his power, no beast escaped him, and no trail went unnoticed. His professions alone paid quite handsomely, allowing them to live comfortably in the countryside near the safe zone boundary line.
Though the cities offered better protection with their high walls, staying within a safe zone was expensive—the cheapest rent cost around 5,000 federation coins a month.
Her "father" took jobs from the town's local federation center, clearing out contaminated magical beast zones and tracking the lost or missing. He usually left home for a few days to a little over a week, but rarely for longer.
But now, he was held together by bandages, grit, and stubbornness.
He lay beneath the mulberry tree beside the house, propped up on a lounge recliner. His left pant leg hung empty below the knee; the right side of his face was wrapped in linen, hiding the ruined eye. The beast raid had taken much—but not his pride.
"Don't fuss, woman," he muttered as Ka Sanni dabbed a cloth on his brow for the third time that hour.
She scowled. "You nearly died, Yangwei."
"A man dies once. I survived. That's what matters."
"You left me," she whispered.
He went quiet.
Hu Yumei watched from the threshold, arms crossed.
She'd chopped wood this morning, hauled water, sparred with the old training post out back until her hands blistered.
Finally, he turned toward her.
"Yuyu. Come here."
She obeyed without a word, kneeling beside him.
"You're training hard," he said low.
She nodded. "I will work hard to awaken a high purity core soon to take care of you and mother. Become strong enough to buy you a 6-star limb restoration serum and find a way to heal your magical beast.
Ka Sanni scoffed gently. "You think those grow wild?And you talk real big saying you'll heal your fathers magical beast and get 6-star serums that cost tens of millions of federation coin."
Hu Yumei pulled something from her pouch, an herb wrapped in silk, glowing faintly.
Fan Yangwei sat upright with a grunt. "Where did you get that?"
"In the edges of the safe zone near Dew Springs Mountain. By the white stream. I dug it up two days ago." He studied it closely, face darkening.
"This is… a six-star spiritual core plant." Her mother's voice trembled, stumbling over the words.
Ka Sanni gasped. "That could sell for millions of federation coins." Reaching for the herb slowly trying to take it from her grasp.
Hu Yumei smiled. " Tens of millions ."
Fan Yangwei exhaled slowly. "Heaven's mercy…"
He reached out, gripping Ka Sanni wrist. "Don't tell anyone—not even your mother woman ."
His grip was firm, but his hand trembled. Yumei saw it. For the first time, she glimpsed fear in her father's eyes—not of enemies, but of the cost of power.
"Hey!" Ka Sanni protested tugging on her held wrist.
He faced toward her fully, voice iron. "No one. Not a soul" giving her a hard stare before letting go of her wrist.
"Yuyu, go fetch your uncle. We'll need his help to get this to the old city Master quietly. He's the only one who might know how to refine it without alerting greedy dogs."
Hu Yumei nodded. "Should I take the plant?"
"No. Leave it here. Hidden. Go."
As she left, Ka Sanni crossed her arms. "Are we just going to pretend our daughter isn't of age? Girls her age in the next villages already have betrothal contracts lined up."
Fan Yangwei's one good eye turned cold.
"Don't you dare start with that."
"I'm her mother—"
"And I'm her father!" he thundered. "She is a child! Undergoing the process of awakening. This isn't ancient times, woman! It's against Federation law to marry off someone during their awakening years. Those villagers are uneducated and narrow-minded."
His voice sharpened, cutting.
"You want to trade our daughter's future to the third son of some 1 star core F-Class herbalist just because he has a healing serum and a few thousands of Federation coins? Hah?
I didn't know you were so cheap, Ka Sanni—trying to sell her off before she even understands what it means to lie with a man!"
He rose, fury simmering beneath every word.
"We don't lack money. I can still afford to raise her myself.
If you can't—or won't—then leave.
That's one less mouth to feed, and more for my daughter."
Ka Sanni flinched.
"You speak of contracts as if our daughter is a burden to be sold! We— No. You have no right—by law or by honor—to force her hand. She will be an Awakened."
"She's the only child we have—"
And she will remain free until Heaven chooses her path!" he snapped. "If I hear of you arranging anything behind my back, I'll divorce you on the spot and send you back to your parents' clan with a letter of household resignation."
His voice dropped to a low warning.
"Don't test me, Ka Sanni. She is on the path of awakening now. Her path belongs to her."
His voice cracked slightly at the end—not with anger, but grief hidden beneath pride.
Ka Sanni bit her lip and turned away, leaving the room in silence.
Hu Yumei stayed still, watching her mother's retreating back. Her chest tightened but not with pity. With longing.
Some part of her still waited for Ka Sanni to choose her, to fight for her not just birth her.