The morning light lit the temple in golden hues.
Rui walked through the corridors without her usual flair—no tossed hair, no exaggerated smirks.
Only silence, and whispers at her back like wind through the trees.
The monks moved like always, but their eyes lingered longer. Their steps were just a little quicker.
"Did you feel that disturbance last night?"
"Elder Sun said the demon princess was involved…"
"I heard something from the inner sanctum. Energy like I've never felt before."
Rui kept her head high, ignoring the gossips and sidelong glances.
Her blue eyes remained fixed ahead, carefully avoiding the meditation hall where Jin would be completing his morning prayers.
The fight from the night before clung to her, but It wasn't anger that moved her feet.
Inside the hall, Jin sat before the altar, legs folded, hands steady. He tried hard to concentrate but his mind wand kept wandering.
His eyes flicked toward the entrance again. And again.
But there was no flash of pink-gold. No dramatic swirl of silk. No Rui.
The silence pressed in harder than any mantra.
The cracked bead at his wrist throbbed faintly with residual heat and felt heavier than ever.
"She must be avoiding me," he murmured to himself. "I shouldn't have lost my temper."
Rui saw Master Tao standing alone in the courtyard, hands folded calmly behind his back. She exhaled slowly, grounding herself before she approached.
"Good morning, Master Tao," Rui bowed with uncharacteristic formality.
"I wish to be of service to the temple today."
The old monk turned toward her, eyes kind, though his brows rose with surprise.
"Princess, are you saying you wish to help?"
"Yes." Rui glanced at the monks nearby, busy with tasks.
"I'd like to assist with temple duties. Sweeping. Sorting scrolls. Whatever's needed."
Several nearby monks stopped what they were doing, staring openly at the demon princess with curiosity.
Tao studied her with his usual patient grace. "This is… unexpected."
"I know," Rui said, lifting her chin.
"And this has no relation to a certain young man with red-glowing beads?" Master Tao's eyes twinkled as he asked.
Rui's cheeks flushed, "I can exist perfectly well without Jin hovering nearby, thank you very much."
"I'm not some helpless, selfish demon."
"I never suggested you were," Master Tao replied gently as he stroked his beard.
"Very well, Princess. Your... assistance would be welcome.:
"You may start with sweeping the courtyard. Brother Chen will provide you with the necessary tools."
Rui beamed, bowing with surprising grace. "You won't regret this, Master Tao."
Few minutes later, Rui stood in the courtyard gripping a bamboo broom like it was a weapon of war.
Her sleeves were tied back with pink silk ribbons, and her eyes flared with determination.
Several monks slowed their sweeping to observe from a very safe distance.
"Sweeping huh?," Rui muttered, dragging the broom across the stone tiles with uneven force.
"How hard can it be?."
Kee Kee lounged on a nearby stone bench with a piece of parchment, lazily tallying marks with one claw.
"Form: erratic. Efficiency: questionable. Flair? Mm… seven out of ten."
"I didn't ask for your commentary" Rui snapped, attacking a stubborn leaf like it owed her money.
Frustration crackled around her fingers—literally. A faint pink spark danced across her knuckles.
Before she could register it, the broom whooshed into flame.
"Fire! FIRE!" a young monk shrieked, sprinting for the nearest water bucket.
"Unexpected ignition of temple property," Kee Kee said, smirking as he scribbled.
"Nine out of ten.
By midday, Rui had been gracefully removed from her sweeping duty and reassigned to the dining hall.
"Just a pinch of salt in each bowl," the head cook said, handing her a ladle and pointing to the pot of vegetable stew.
He walked away before she could ask more questions.
Rui stared at the bowl of salt like it had offended her ancestors.
"A pinch?" she muttered.
"That's terribly vague. Whose fingers are we basing this on? Monk hands or Demon hands?"
She picked up a fistful of salt with regal confidence and let it cascade dramatically over the stew like a blessing.
She made sure that each bowl received "enhancement."
When the first monks took a bite and their faces puckered like startled frogs.
Kee Kee perched nearby, smugly tallying on a scroll.
"Culinary disaster: eight out of ten. Monk suffering: exquisite. Faces? Ten out of ten."
Later that afternoon, Rui sat cross-legged among a ring of junior monks, her expression the very picture of focus, determined to at least get meditation right.
Or so it seemed.
As the minutes go by, her eyes drifted closed.
Soon, she was softly snoring, head tilted back just enough to catch the faintest breeze, and floating three above her cushion.
One monk peeked an eye open and immediately nudged another monk beside him.
A ripple of discreet stares spread across the hall.
At the back of the room, Kee Kee scribbled into the parchment, scratching another tally.
"Meditation failure: expected," he murmured, "Unconscious levitation? Unexpected bonus points."
By late afternoon, Rui sat shoulders slumped on a stone bench in the courtyard.
Kee Kee lounged beside her, reviewing his parchment of failures.
"I've managed to burn a broom, over-salt the entire lunch, levitate during meditation, and flood the washing area." She counted each disaster on her fingers.
"I was trying to be helpful." Rui sighed, burying her face in her hands.
"What was I thinking? I'm not cut out for... normal things."
"You're just a disaster in transition." Kee Kee patted her shoulder.
Before she could throw something at him, the stone beneath their bench rumbled.
A sharp cracking sound echoed through the temple grounds, followed by the unmistakable shatter of stone.
Rui leapt to her feet. "What was that?"
Master Tao appeared at the end of the corridor, his robes flaring behind him. His usually serene face was pale.
"The boundary ward was breached."
Monks sprinted across the courtyard, grabbing talismans, spirit seals, and armaments. Disciples raced to formation posts as alarm bells chimed from the watchtower.
Elder Sun stood near the barrier line, barking orders with grim focus.
"Prepare containment formations!"
"Something's coming through," a young monk shouted.
Through the rip, a dark shape slithered into view as seeped into the the temple grounds
It surged forward, dragging behind it coils of black mist and an aura of rot.
"A corrupted serpent wraith," Master Tao confirmed grimly. "Drawn to unstable energy."
Kee Kee squinted. "Gee, I wonder how that happened."
Without thinking, Rui stepped forward. "I'll handle this."
The corrupted serpent reared back with a shriek.
Its glowing yellow eyes locked onto a cluster of junior monks frozen near the base of the watchtower.
Then it struck.
A blur of rotting shadow and needle-like fangs shot forward, a screaming spiral of death.
Rui rushed towards them.
With a wave of her arm and a burst of pink-gold energy, she stepped between the creature and the monks.
Her chaos surged upward like a tide, flaring into a shield just as the serpent's fangs reached them.
BOOM!
The serpent slammed into the barrier with a loud. The impact sent shockwaves through the courtyard, but the monks behind Rui remained safe.
The serpent hissed, recoiling, steam rising where it met her chaos magic.
Behind her, the junior monks blinked in disbelief.
One whispered, "She saved us…"
Rui didn't hear him. She was too focused on charging her chaos energy.
Jin's voice echoed in her head: "Direct your energy with purpose, not instinct."
The serpent coiled again, ready to strike.
This time, Rui attacked it head-on.
Her feet moved quickly without any wild flares or exploding sparks —her aura flowed fluidly as her hands traced sigils of pink-gold flame.
With a shout, she unleashed a blast of refined chaos that slammed into the serpent's flank, forcing it to the ground.
The creature screeched and thrashed as its shadowy coils struck the earth, cracking stone and shattering a nearby lantern post.
"Behind you!" Kee Kee shouted, riding on her shoulder like a fuzzy lookout tower.
The serpent lunged at Rui.
Before it could land, a wall of blue light erupted in front of her, crackling like a frozen waterfall.
It was Jin. He stepped between her and the serpent, beads glowing bright around his wrist.
"You've been practicing," he said over his shoulder, voice calm even in the chaos.
"And you're late," Rui shot back, smirking.
Jin traced protective sutras while Rui flanked with rapid bursts of chaos flame.
Their energy danced in harmony: order and chaos, fused through trust and rhythm.
The monks regrouped around them, following Jin's instructions as he coordinated a multi-pronged seal formation.
"Containment ring on my mark!" he called out.
"Distraction incoming!" Rui shouted back.
With a bold leap, Rui launched herself off a crumbling statue base and landed on the serpent's back, driving a concentrated chaos blast directly between its glowing eyes.
The serpent roared in pain, rearing violently into the sealing circle.
The monks chanted in unity as blue and gold threads of energy snapped together like a cage.
The serpent shriek and twisted in agony as it was pulled inward, coiled and compressed into a small obsidian talisman etched with burning sigils.
There was a pause of silence.
Then cheers broke out around the courtyard.
Rui dropped to her knees, breathing hard but steady. For once, her chaos energy wasn't sparking wildly or leaving scorch marks.
Jin approached, offering a hand to help her up.
She ignored him, and got up on her own.
Kee Kee landed beside them with his arms crossed, tail swishing.
"Alright, fine. I'm impressed. That's going on the record." He unrolled his parchment and scribbled,
'Saved temple from serpent and looked good doing it, 100/10'