And so the days rolled on. There wasn’t that much aftermath to the tournament for me, other than Lin looking like she wanted to die when she was brought to apologise to me for her actions.

But… the tournament had only solidified my desire to leave. I started getting called into the sect a bit more often, for simple things, and each time it was stifling, as the novelty hadn’t quite worn off for the girls.

I didn’t want to have to walk on eggshells around people. For that I was grateful to Bailu and Seiyu—they never judged me. They never cared. They may not have been the smartest girls, but… they were my friends. My big sisters.

==================

I chewed carefully considering what I had put in my mouth… and then delivered my verdict.

“It tastes good. You’ve gotten a lot better.”’

“Yes!” Bailu cheered, and then hugged me. “See! Not far behind you, Seiyu!”

“But still behind.” Seiyu singsonged back. Indeed. Seiyu had gotten better at cooking quite a bit faster than Bailu had.

Still, the jab didn’t seem to diminish her spirits, as she stuck her tongue out at her friend. “We’ll cook dinner tonight, Young Master!” Bailu promised.

“Oh? Looking forwards to it.” I said.

If I had known what was going to happen later, I wouldn’t have been optimistic.

Because when I opened the door, I nearly fell back out of it.

“Would you like dinner? A bath? Or maybe… us?” my two idiots chorused, bowing low.

My eye twitched. For some reason the depraved people of Wa had already invented the naked apron.

“Big D.” I commanded, and my rooster hopped onto my arm. Both Bailu and Seiyu froze, suddenly looking a lot less mischievous.

“Uh, we’ll get dressed right away—” They began.

“Sick ‘em.”

My rooster meted out divine retribution— and managed to pull out a couple of their hairs.

===================================

Objectively, I could say my life was a good one. A great one, even. I got to be a Young Master, I got training from cultivators I never should have gotten. I was privy to secrets I should not have heard. I was taken care of. I met powerful people, oversaw tournaments, and acted as Tianzhe Minyan’s son.

I even went on a few adventures, pulled along by Chunhua, the bratty yet oddly earnest Young Mistress wanting to spend time with her fellow “descendant”.

===========================

Big D let out a call and pointed with his wing, his sharp eyes locking on to our quarry.

“There she blows!” I shouted, almost hysterically, as we shot towards a flying shark as big as an eighteen wheeler. I had stuck it with a harpoon tied to the ship, and it was dragging us along clouds so thick they were acting like actual water, moving faster than Chunhua could fly outside of short bursts. My knuckles were white on the rudder, as I used every ounce of skill to keep us from capsizing. I don’t know why I had agreed to this, but Chunhua had been adamant about hunting this maneater down.

“The beast shall not escape us!” Chunhua shouted, grinning. She was standing on the bow, her arms crossed as we were shaken like a dog. “I’ll skin it as a gift for Aunt Lili—and you can have the teeth!” Bailu and Seiyu were both flying beside us and slightly behind, but were content to let us handle things. “I’ll show you why I came in second in the tournament—”

“It's coming around! Hit it, you little idiot!”

“Eh?!” she screamed. “I’m not an idio—eeep!”

The shark had turned, and now all we could see was a massive maw, open wide to swallow us whole.

“We should have bought a bigger boat.” I groaned, as I grabbed another harpoon.

The ship was nearly shattered, but we ended up winning that day.

I made a necklace out of the teeth, and gave it to Xiaobao. She had been helping me recently, showing me some tricks of her own training.

==================================

And yet…everything here was a lie. A sweet lie. A lie that maybe came close to being true, as I spent more time with Minyan. I liked calling her aunt. I didn’t mind calling her mother, for everything that she had done for me. I didn’t know if she felt the same.

I could feel the sky calling louder with each day. The horizon seemed to be closer with each moment.

Thus did five months pass, and there was an anniversary. A year since my death, and my rebirth. A year and three months since Rou had first been sent to the Sect. It was an anniversary only I celebrated, in the sanctity of my own mind.

Gramps never sent me any letters.

===============================

Their Young Master was silent today, as he stared into the flames. Normally, Bailu’s Lord and Master was a vital force, his stamina impressive for his cultivation. He always seemed to be doing something, amusement dancing in his eyes.

But today, he hadn’t been. His smile was gone. His movements were lethargic. He hadn’t even reacted to either of them when they tried to get a reaction, inviting him to bathe with them.

It took them entirely too long to figure out that it had already been a year. A year since they had crashed into this island, and become their Lord’s servants.

Bailu could safely say she had thoroughly enjoyed her year of service. The Young Master was fun. He learned Seiyu’s language. He trained with them, and taught them how to cook. He acted annoyed by their antics and yet he never outright told them to stop. He moaned and complained but he treated them like they were truly like they were family, rather than his servants. Rather than the women who had nearly killed him.

With how they normally were… it was all too easy to forget how badly they had hurt him.

Was that it? Was that why he was so morose? Was he remembering a time before all this?

Bailu knew she and Seiyu weren’t the smartest of women. The heavens knew everybody told them that enough, even though they were always surprised when they found out just how strong they were. But she liked to think she was a bit perceptive, even though Seiyu was better at this kind of thing.

It was their actions that had dragged their Young Master out of hiding. And Elder Minyan had been hiding him. Now, he was basically a part of the sect… and he hated every moment of it.

Neither of them knew why he hated the attention so much. Only that he did.

And it was their fault.

“Young Master. Would you like us to leave you today?” Seiyu asked, putting voice to Bailu’s thoughts that it was them causing this reaction.

Their Young Master turned to them. He opened his mouth like he wanted to tell them something… before he thought better of it.

Though he trusted them… there was always one last barrier. Something small, and hidden, that last piece of separation between them. A secret, between him and Elder Minyan.

Finally, however, he spoke. “…Please stay.”

It was quiet. It was… lonely.

Bailu was on the log next to him in an instant, and Seiyu was the same on the other side. Bi De jumped up onto their Master’s lap, the rooster looking concerned.

Rou smiled at the bird, and ran his fingers through his feathers.

“What's the matter? Can we help?” Bailu asked, and her Young Master turned to look at her.

“It's nothing. I’m being dumb.” he lied to them.

It was something that was obviously hurting him. Bailu wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Seiyu did the same, and they stared into the fires together.

And then, Their Young Master spoke.

“Hey. I think I feel like dancing.” he told them.

And so they did. It was slow, rocking, almost, to something invisible.

“Bailu. Seiyu.” Their Young Master whispered. “I want to be free.”

Bailu hugged him tighter, her and Seiyu’s Qi wrapping around him protectively.

And there, that night, they witnessed a miracle, as their Qi linked. Supporting each other.

===========================

…I wanted to be free.

The embrace was warm. It was comforting, as we simply stood there before the saplings.

It was a sudden thing. A massive surge of Qi, as it suddenly exploded in size.

The Oak sapling twisted and curved, yet somehow condensed, as it formed the keel, a sturdy spine for the rest of the ship.

Teak grew from the spine, first in ribs, and then, they grew branches that looked like planks, crisscrossing to form solid walls, and a small cabin.

And finally, out of the center of the ship, the maple reached for the skies. The teak and oak wrapped around it, as it rose, tall and proud—and from it grew leaves. Great sheets of leaves that started green before deepening to a brilliant red, as the ship grew its own sails.

The ship rose slightly into the air, its roots slithering out of the hole in the ground, and forming landing gear as it settled back down.

I felt a connection immediately. A connection to the ship. I felt a touch. Excitement. Wonder. Curiosity.

My hand reached out, shaking, as I touched the hull. It was warm, and alive. Bailu and Seiyu were right beside me, their eyes just as wide as mine.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

And the desire for a name.

“Ningjing.” Serenity. I said, nearly without thinking, as my fingers traced the courtly characters into the side of the ship.

Maybe it was a bit too on the nose to a certain show—but that was what I felt, as I stared up at the ship. A ship with unlimited flight capability. A ship that could go anywhere.

And yet… I had been willfully ignorant. Or willfully blind.

Because I had spent every day wondering how I would leave on my ship… and not thinking about how, with how I had made this thing… the sect would never let me leave.

“Incredible.” Minyan said, seeming to appear out of nowhere. Her eyes were wide. Her veil was off. “You actually did it.”

Her voice was full of wonder and hope.

“We have to replicate this. Rou—you are confined to this island until further notice, so we may study this, and you, and find out what we were missing. Hopefully, in a couple of decades, we’ll have it. A return to glory.”

And just like that… it all truly came tumbling down.

I didn’t even get my first flight.

Maybe it was stupid of me, what I did next. But I felt an itching in my soul. A command. A demand.

I had to go. I had to go now.

===================================

I asked Bailu and Seiyu to go to town for me, because we were almost out of things for dinner. I planned to pack some provisions and just go… but my two idiots knew me better than that.

“Young Master. What are you doing?” Bailu asked.

I froze in the middle of packing, standing on top of the ship.

Bailu and Seiyu were looking at me, their heads cocked to the side.

“I’m going.” I said simply to them. Honestly. They deserved that much, even if they were going to ground my ass—

“Okay.” Seiyu said simply. “What else do you need?”

I stared in shock, as the Storm Wings smiled… and then joined me in packing.

“We’re supposed to obey you above all others. A bit of shoddy wording on the Sect’s part, huh?” Bailu said cheerfully.

…It was wrong. I knew she didn’t have to help me do this. I knew neither of them did.

But they did it anyway. We packed the ship to the gills, and I could feel the excitement radiating off Ningjing as we loaded her.

We cast off from the island, my hand on the wheel. Wind filled crimson sails, as we hauled to the north wind, blowing off the ocean below.

For a brief moment, it once more seemed like things would work out.

And then we felt it, the intent approach, as Minyan noticed what we were doing. Big D let out a warning cry. Bailu and Seiyu chuckled nervously.

Both of them turned to the sudden feeling of cold and ice. I felt my breath catch in my throat, as Tianzhe Minyan stood there, floating in the sky before us.

“Not even an hour ago, I tell you you’re confined to the island, and you try to leave?” Minyan demanded. “Is this how you repay me, for everything I’ve done for you?”

I swallowed thickly. The itching in my soul was getting worse. The panic at being grounded. The feeling that everything was going to be exposed, right here and right now… and yet, despite all that, I felt my heart grow calm.

“Yes. I’m thankful for everything you’ve done—but I need to leave.” I told Minyan. “I have to leave.”

Minyan’s eyes narrowed. “Is that so?” She asked.

“You’ve had your adventure. You have your story. You grew strong because you could spread your wings and fly… and now you’re going to deny me the same. If I don’t go now, you’ll never let me leave.” I replied. “I’ll stay on this island forever… as each experiment you do fails, because the ship needs something that you can’t give.”

Minyan flinched slightly, and her frown deepened. “Return to your island, Rou. The world is a cruel place. In the sect… you’re guaranteed to survive. I promise you, you’ll want for nothing.”

“Survive? Survive? That was what I've been doing for so long. Surviving. I don’t want to just survive! I want to Live!” I shouted. “I want to see it! This world, in all its glory and all its horror! I want to be more than I was. More than I am—a caged bird living on handouts!”

I could feel my Qi rising, resonating with something. I didn’t know what it was. Maybe it was the islands around me. Maybe it was with Ningjing.

It felt like wings. Wings to take me high above. Wings of Freedom.

In the end, it was one last gasp of defiance, from a man already defeated.

“Are you truly committed to defying me?” Minyan asked. Her power so vast I felt like I was drowning. “Bailu. Seiyu. Are you supporting this foolishness?”

That was when I heard Bailu snort, and Seiyu chuckle.

==========================

“Well. I guess we got enough out of our borrowed time, eh, Seiyu?” Bailu asked, as she cracked her neck.

Seiyu smiled at her friend. “A year was more kind than we deserved.”

Seiyu and Bailu had died a year ago. Minyan had nearly slain them on the spot. They had been saved only by the man they had nearly killed. It was the act of mercy and benevolence only a true Lord would think to have.

He brought them their time. But it was just that. Brought, and the heavens would always have those who had been fated to die eventually.

There was a word for what they were, in Seiyu’s tribe. Corpse warriors. The dead who had not yet died, carrying on until they fulfilled their purpose.

And their purpose was clear. To protect and serve. After all: duty was heavier than the sea, and death, as light as its spray.

Their Aruji’s eyes widened, as they stepped off the ship. “Wait, what are you do—”

Bailu’s finger touched their Aruji’s lips, silencing his protests. His eyes were full of worry. Of concern, as he realised what they were going to do.

She could see it in his eyes. He was fine with the consequences to himself for his defiance… but not if they were dragged into it too.

He was willing to stop his own dreams and ambitions, if it meant they would live on.

And that was exactly why he deserved this. Bailu winked at him.

“Good luck, Master.” Seiyu said simply. “Get as far away as you can.”

With their Qi, they pushed Ningjing away. The little ship was confused. Such a cute, dutiful child, who deserved to fulfill its purpose.

They turned back to Elder Minyan. Elder Minyan, who had seen their talent. Who had elevated them. Who had cared for them.

But all sweet things came to an end.

Bailu’s horns ripped free from her skull; her teeth sharpened into draconic tusks. Her fingers became claws, and a tail sprouted from her rear, coated in deep blue scales.

The Typhoon Wing’s bones let out sickening snaps as they rearranged. Bailu’s power flooded the world, as the child of a Dragon ripped loose the shackles around her ancestry, and became a beast of the heavens.

Seiyu was not the child of a dragon. A member of an old temple. She was a daughter of the sea—the people of Wa, and their wind-blasted, mountainous archipelago.

The sea was the one thing cultivators could never claim to tame. It was too vast. It was too deep. And in that darkness, was the primordial power of this world.

Seiyu cracked the dam, and let the Abyss in.

The full moon formed on her brow, as her eyes turned black. The luminescence of the deep formed on her arms, her chest, and her cheeks. She could see the things that lived in the depths. The titans. An eye as big as the Godship drifted past, uncaring of the ant that was using a drop of its doman’s power.

The heavens cracked. The sea surged. Seiyu reached out her Qi to Bailu. Her best friend. Her Sister. The person who she swore to live and die with.

They met halfway between them. They gave freely to each other.

The Heavens mingled with the Abyss, as the sky turned black with clouds.

“Sorry, Elder Minyan.” Bailu said.

“Forgive us, but we shall be betraying you now, Elder Minyan.” Seiyu agreed. “Even if we only last but a second—thats a second we’re helping our Young Master.”

And the Storm Wings let loose.

========================

In that moment… I realised they were willing to die for me. Just so I would have a few more seconds of freedom.

“No, don’t—!” I began.

And then the first raindrop fell. It was a barely visible streak in the sky. It clipped an island—one of the small, uninhabited ones.

A crater the size of a Volkswagen appeared on it, and punched the floating island down a full meter.

And then the rain turned into a deluge.

It put every war movie of massed artillery to complete and utter shame. Those islands around us simply disintegrated under the onslaught. Thunder rolled like a titanic drum. The wind howled like an enraged god.

For a brief moment I almost worried for Minyan. But there was no need to.

She still stood there, in the air, completely untouched. The artillery shells of rain directed towards her froze, then shattered into snowflakes. The sky above her was a peaceful, serene grey, like the day of the first snowfall instead of the churning cauldron that Bailu and Seiyu were making.

Bailu and Seiyu, seeing that their attacks were doing nothing, shot forwards. They spiraled around each other, their Qi feeding and drawing on each other in a massive wall of white shredding wind—

A hurricane.

“Enough.” Minyan said.

And the world was silenced.

The clouds dispersed. The rain all turned to snow. She plucked Bailu and Seiyu out of the air like unruly kittens—and then froze them both in blocks of ice.

My idiots had both lasted less than a second.

She left them floating there, as she descended, and I stood up, as tall as I could, to meet her.

We stood there for a moment, looking into each other's eyes. For the first time since I had seen her… Minyan looked old.

“Foolish boy.” She said, and I knew it was over.

===================================

How had things gone so out of control? Minyan wondered to herself, as she looked into Rou’s eyes.

Green eyes, that even now, challenged her. That even now saw her as an enemy.

It hurt.

Minyan, when she first met Rou, had known that she would never get attached to him. That had been something simple, to her mind. Rou was a boy that Shen Yu had asked her to look after, and that was all.

She met with him sparingly at first, and the boy had been polite to a fault. An acceptable ward. One that wouldn’t bother her too much. And then one day, out of curiosity, she asked him about his Life with Shen Yu.

The answer had indisposed her for the better part of half an hour.

She started visiting him more from then on. He truly was Shne Yu’s son, even if he did not have the man's blood. He was mischievous. He had managed to resist her face, and not fall into madness. He was dutiful.

And then he nearly died to the Storm Wings. She had originally just been worried because of Shen Yu’s reaction. She was not attached to him. But a slip up on her part had plunged them both into a lie.

That they were mother and son.

Some may have tried to take advantage of it—knowing that Minyan would never admit to such a damaging lie. But Rou had not. He maintained their relationship after the accident, even though he was… different. A bit more skittish, but paradoxically kinder.

He managed to take the Storm Wings in hand, and somehow won their loyalty, simply by being himself.

Minyan found herself coveting the calligraphy he had produced. She found herself offended that Dongmei would attempt to steal Rou away for Xiaobao. She felt annoyed, when her fairies lusted after the only male some of them had ever met.

She had been utterly furious when she found out what Lin had nearly done… until the rest of the story was presented to her, with Rou taking responsibility for misleading the poor girl.

It was then Minyan realised she was growing attached.

She was growing attached, and she found herself not entirely minding, as the days rolled on.

Maybe it was the way he seemed to be rediscovering their lost arts.

Maybe it was the way he laid flowers on her brother’s grave, when she had invited him to her home. It hadn't been at her prompting—she had left him alone, and had come back to him paying his respects.

“Your sister has been very good to me, and I’m very thankful for her protection.”

Maybe it was because he got his rooster to find out her birthday, so he could give her a gift. It was a simple thing, a carved stone pendant—yet it resonated with her all the same. She wore it in her hair tie, every day.

Maybe it was the way he made up a song for her, when they met in private on New Year’s Eve—For Old Time’s Friends, he called it, and sung it for her. It had been beautiful. He had not the best singing voice—but neither did Shen Yu, and it was pleasing to her ears all the same.

Maybe it was his bright green eyes and his wide smile that reminded her of her brother.

Maybe it was the loss hidden in his eyes, as he talked about a family butchered by disease.

Maybe it was the way he spoke of getting up, and walking forwards anyways.

Maybe it was when she had told him to show her his full power. He had fought bravely and intelligently, even slightly surprising her with his final move. Rou truly gave it his all, and collapsed.

She caught him, his head resting in the crook of her shoulder.

It had felt right. He had been too big, when she shifted him to carry him on her hip. It had probably looked comical.

But it had felt right.

Her visits went from once a week to twice a week to most days, even just for five minutes, to check on his progress.

She watched him with the Storm Wings, as they acted like siblings.

She watched him with his pet rooster, as they tended to the fields and the growing trees together. They made quite wonderful meals—better than Minyan herself could make.

She watched him as he occasionally trained with Xiaobao, when the woman worked up the courage to speak with him. Rou hung onto her every word, and called her Big Sister, much to the red haired woman’s delight.

She watched him interact with others in the sect. His look of exasperation as he ignored the obnoxious girls. How Lin fled from him on sight. How Seireishang twitched violently whenever she heard the word “flasher.” He joked with Liusei about taking care of children, and the older woman remarking that Rou reminded her of her husband.

“They both have beautiful eyes.”

She remembered waiting with Lili, her intent burning, as he and Chunhua came back from the Tyrant Skyshark hunt she had dragged him off on. The young woman looked sheepish, when they finally got back, while Rou had been utterly exhausted, and had teeth marks all over him.

Yet he had spoken with sparkling eyes about the trip to the hunting grounds, how the clouds had acted like waves, as they plunged into them after the man-eater.

She didn’t know when she started brushing his hair out of his eyes. She didn’t know when she started sitting closer to him.

She didn’t know when he changed from Shen Yu’s boy to her boy.

Time always moved strangely, when one got to be as old as Minyan. The years seemed like days sometimes, and that was fine—but every day now felt… worth something.

Even as she noted his discomfort. Even if she could tell he was yearning for something else. Everything would turn out fine.

In the blink of an eye, a year and three months passed after she first received that shock introduction; Rou had done it. He had completed the thing they had been trying to do for thousands of years. He had completed a grown Skyship. Even from just looking at it, Young as it was, it was everything she had dreamed of.

It had a soul. It flew under its own power. It would grow stronger and stronger as the days passed.

She had been so happy. Happy with her boy, for what he had accomplished.

And then, she received another shock.

Rou climbing into his skyship, defying her orders to stay. Rou, trying to flee.

She had been enraged. And yet… did she have the right to be?

He was right. Rou was a genius—something that Shen Yu had never recognised, and had luck beyond normal men. Confining him for as long as they needed to figure out the skyship might take a mortal lifetime.

Would Minyan have turned out the way she did, if she had been permanently stuck in the Sect? Would Shen Yu be Shen Yu, living in a gilded cage?

“Don’t just survive, Minyan. Live!” her brother commanded her, as he placed himself in front of the Spirit Beast. “Don’t be sad at my death! Laugh! Fall in Love! Climb as high as you can, for both of us!”

“Why do I cultivate? To live!” Her Master said, her rainbow eyes sparkling, as she took Minyan on her first flight. The First Lady of Soaring Heaven’s Isle was passion incarnate, despite her frozen looks. “That is what the bird taught us! To live in a world without limits, and see it all! And this, I gift to you, Minyan. Rise. without limits!”

“I don’t fight to survive. I fight to live! To be more than what I was yesterday!” Shen Yu declared, his grin manic as he faced down the demonic hordes. “The world shall hear me roar! I am Shen Yu! And I am here!”

“I don’t want to just survive! I want to Live!” Rou shouted, his green eyes blazing. “I want to see it! This world, in all its glory and all its horror! I want to be more than I was. More than I am—a caged bird living on handouts!”

He wouldn’t back down. He wouldn’t back down, and neither would the foolish Storm Wings.

Minyan.. Minyan wouldn’t have backed down either.

He stood tall and proud, ready for any consequences that might have come.

What a foolish boy.

A year ago Minyan wouldn’t have hesitated. In the space between heartbeats Rou would have been chained; the Entire Isle and every Lady would have agreed with her, and damn the consequences of provoking Shen Yu. She would have hardened her heart, and tried to find the secrets Rou now had.

Shen Yu knew him for but a short time. He could get another orphan to train.

It was cold and callous. It was for the good of their sect.

And yet she could hear Rou’s voice on the breeze, singing a song for every friend Minyan had ever lost. She could see him giving it his all, his eyes shining.

She could feel her thumb dragging along his cheek as he slept, a feeling that she had never felt before in her breast.

She stepped towards him, and he didn’t flinch as she grasped his chin, and angled his head down slightly. Almost like she was forcing him to bow—

And placed a kiss on his forehead.

Her boy was truly foolish.

============================