Chao couldn’t help but shake his head. Ziyou Ling had slapped him with all her Origin qi behind it. It hurt, but the humour in the madlander boy’s action hurt even more, for he was weak and still dared monopolise the yin that was rightfully Chao’s!

Chao liked Ziyou Yung, he truly did. That’s exactly why he did not want the Madlander boy to die a foolish death. The sooner his eyes opened to the realities of this world, the sooner he could move on with his life. Like Chao himself, as he now risked everything to strive for the heavens.

The forest was damp today. It had rained. As it did now, raining green feathers filled with malice. It smelled like bird droppings, disgusting and bloody. The carcasses of voidfiends hewn around amplified that. They were twisted by the violence that had befallen them. Broken bones, mangled limbs, and gashed flesh littering about the forest floor, their blood staining the ground a deep crimson, and their bodies glinting black in the faint light.

But more blood would be shed here today.

The dawn sky was mismatched with the bright noon outside, signifying the excess of Chaosfiend in the vicinity. Chao took out his rusty sword and popped some pills into his mouth.

His face morphed in pain and fury.

"I cannot accept this, Brother Yung," he roared. "I cannot give you what you want, Ling," he whispered. He wanted to feel pain today. And then bestow a million times that upon the monsters and men that stood in his way.

Chao slashed his sword straight into the heart of the Three-headed Marauder diving for his head. The bird screeched in anguish.

The fluttering wings of the stray flock of fiends raised the wind and leaves into a hurricane.

"Screeeeeeee!" they cried, diving at him like bats heading for death.

"Come!" Chao said again. He took out his satchel and popped all one hundred of the pills inside his mouth. The pain rushed up his veins as his sword hand slashed down.

The rusty blade cleaved apart the wings of three fiends. He spun, backhanding the fourth. Before the fifth could rend his exposed sides with its toxic claws, he snapped to the left and raised his leg. His kick sent the two fiends crashing into trees.

"Come!" Chao yelled. His eyes glowed red, and blood escaped his ears. His face bulged with veins working frantically to ferry the rampaging alchemic qi to his meridians.

It was painful, and he relished in the sensations.

Chao ran into the remaining fiends, making short work of them. He, a cripple, with pure talent and technique, could make both monster and men kowtow to his awesome might!

More fiends rushed out of the forest trees. A group of blood-red oxen, snakes with two heads, wolves that stank of moss. Chao welcomed them with a clasp of death, his sword severing heads from bodies, limbs from fingers. His fist cracking skulls into necks and brains. His kicks breaking backs, suffocating the remaining fiends to die a gruesome death.

It was painful, the fight was hard, but with each soul cleaved, his yang grew anew. The rush of the battle was far more exhilarating than the night with his Ling, as the erect peak in his pants throbbed with madness. Chao thought back on his physique, the so-called unknown Yang-type assimilation bloodline. The jade slips his parents left him had records of most Harmonious Heaven grade physiques possessed by his mother's clan. Most had the Bloodfire physique, which also used fiend blood to refine their bodies in alchemical ways. However, Chao knew his wasn't the case. Even the half-activated physique gave him superior healing, physical might, special vision, and a berserker-like battle instinct.

Perhaps it was mutated when the poison that crippled his cultivation 'assimilated' into his very being. Perhaps it was the horror he witnessed while fleeing with his parents across the continent of madness. Or perhaps it was just him, and he was that special.

For his talent was phenomenal. His virtue was heavenly. After losing that fight to Duan Louheng and being abandoned by Youjin Chun, he had once doubted his talent. He had cursed the final words of his grandmother as she rushed at the enemies daring to defile their Xuehou clan.

"You are the Daochild of Blood and Fire! Live on, and avenge us!"

Chao shuddered, the bloody bumps shivering up his spine. It was as if the heavens had helped him in the form of the most beautiful fairy alive.

The heavens helped him now too, and his latent talent was validated for only the corpses of his enemies to see. How else would these fiends know to place their heads in the perfect position to be decapitated by Chao's sword? It was as if the fiends were coordinating with Chao's dance.

They dodged in such a way that when Chao slashed randomly, they would dodge right into the sword's path. When Chao punched tiredly, they would expose their vitals in the perfect place to be shattered.

The elder from the Twilight Blood Palace had offered him blood from the Unfolding Heaven Order fiends stored in their most secret treasure pavilion. But he had told Chao that if he could hunt a strong beast by himself and deliver the final blow, his bloodline might assimilate 'more' than just the blood of the enemy. Records from the sect of past holders of such assimilation physiques testified to that.

So Chao rejected the offer. He would not be so weak as to live on charity. He would hunt the greatest fiend he could, with his own strength, and show Su Nanya that he was a true man, not a freeloading coward like Ziyou Yung!

"I am the Daochild of Blood and Fire! I will live on to avenge the Xuehou clan! Su Nanya, you are mine!" Chao roared. He wanted to feel hurt today. At least a thousand times more than the rejection Ziyou Ling felt as Chao had shattered her heart. He would be supreme; his will would not be denied. He would have the power of his heavenly talent actuated.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

And only the baptism of blood and fire could grant him that.

***

Ling stopped beneath the Dim Gold Hotel. Her eyes were puffy, with streaks of tears lining her bronze face. Her hair was a mess, and her clothes were damp. She had swum across the Dirt Stream to get to the market square, not minding the gawks of the spectators as she raced on of the merchant boats coming from the south of the kingdom.

The waterway was cleaner now, but not all of the stench had been removed.

So she stank. It was an accurate representation of her inner feelings. An extremely sleep deprived and fat looking young fella from the boat had offered her a wash-cloth to remove the filth, but what good would it do if it could not clean her soul?

She still took the cloth. It was pink and that was her favourite colour.

Ling climbed up to the second floor to the Dim gold hotel’s restaurant. She was famished.

The other patrons threw her annoyed looks, but no one called her out. The Madlanders would no longer be bullied. That was the decree of the Youjin clan, of the Fox Princess, even if her horrid stench was to blame here.

Ling wished she wasn't a Madlander. Maybe she wouldn’t stink so much then.

"C-Can I help you?" Xiu Jiujiu, the waitstaff she had always ignored, asked. The girl was shy, but that would not be a problem. She had talent after all, Unfolding Heaven grade talent that a certain dishonoured empress was trying her damn best to poach. Her future was all but set.

"I don't know," Ling said. "Is Ziyou Yung here?"

Xiu Jiujiu's eyes opened wide. She nodded like a rabbit nibbling on carrot. "H-He came back down and grabbed a bowl of grapes. Then ran up into Fairy Su's room." The girl was clasping the fabric of her waistbelt with tight fingers. And for a second, when she said 'Fairy Su', Ling sensed a strong aura of dislike.

After all, Ling was familiar with the feeling. It's when your lover or crush was stolen away by a girl with foxy ears and no clothes on her buttocks.

"You don't like her?" Ling blurted out.

Xiu Jiujiu recoiled as if she had stepped on a trap.

"You like Yung," Ling said with conviction. "It's okay. I don't like that fancy fox Princess either."

“Wa-wa-wa you can’t say that what if the honoured fox fairy’s scary maid overhears!” The waitress's face paled. She stammered out excuses while flailing her hands.

Ling had also heard rumours about the fox clan’s peeping habits, so she shut her mouth with a gulp.

Pa said they'll be going for the foxmoths in a few days. Before we leave for the sects. Ling stopped, coming to a sudden realisation. I don't want to be in the same sect as that bitch. Those bitches! Not Youjin Chun, not Su Nanya! Not that bastard Chao, that cultivation castrated stump. Hope he gets cucked!

"I heard you have the same physique as that bigshot Empress," Ling told the flailing girl.

It was as if all sound had gone dead, and Xiu Jiujiu fell silent.

"Too bad she made a fool of 'erself and walked out. Can I take a bath here? I can pay for it." Ling raised her arms, rotten riverweed still stuck to her skin. “If ye can, try an’ go with the empress. It’ll help you move on. I’m quite jealous of your awesome talent, you know that?”

"C-Come this way," Xiu Jiujiu’s voice had taken a low pitch and her amethyst eyes had turned into humorous crescents. Something about what Ling said must’ve sounded funny to the waitmaiden. She led the Madlander girl up a floor to an empty room. It was a fancy hotel after all, with every room having separate bamboo pipes to hoist up water.

Ling filled the wooden tub, opting to warm it up with heating runes. She offered Xiu Jiujiu some Westmoon Golds, but the girl vehemently refused.

Ling entered the water. Leg first, then thighs, and her body followed with a gentle plop. The hot liquid slowly burning in the wooden tub gave off a fragrance of flowers. There was soap by the side, floral engraved and made with herb oils and fiend fats. Ling picked up a bar and lathered it on her hand. It bubbled up fast. She took some crushed tea leaves and rice bran left in a ceramic container by the soap and mixed it with the foam. The scent calmed her down.

She picked up the loofah sponge and stared at her own foam-covered brown skin. She rubbed it, trying to get rid of the stains. Slowly first, then fiercely.

After half an hour, her skin was still brown. Glossy now, with a hint of redness from the aggressive scratching, but the brown colour was a part of her being exactly as the Swift-eyed earthen feline physique was. She would never be as fair as the insufferable vixen.

Ling wanted that milky complexion. She wanted a powerful clan. She wanted Youjin Chao and wanted their brats to be cute and white.

"Body cultivation is easier!" The teenage girl spat, throwing the loofah against the wall.

She exited the bathing chamber, drying her hair with leafy towels set aside for the guests. In the main room, Xiu Jiujiu was sitting bored by the window, hugging one knee up to her breast, and the other leg rocking slowly.

"D-Do you want to eat something?" the waitmaiden asked, standing up as Ling walked out.

"I'd appreciate that," Ling said. She rubbed her belly. Her abs were like men's, chiselled like stone. She wanted soft, spongy skin, not a wooden board. Her body would never bounce like jelly like Su Nanya’s did when Ziyou Yung poked it with his finger. In public. Those shameless prostitutes! How dare they judge me when they know nothing of manners! "I can eat a whole bloodhound." Ling breathed deep as she talked to the other girl.

Xiu Jiujiu made a face. "We don't serve dogs or cats here." She stopped. "Father likes them."

Ling sat down beside the girl. "If you go with the Empress, We'll not be sect mates in the future. As shame, ey? So we should get ta know each'n'other before that."

"I..." Xiu Jiujiu nodded hesitantly.

"Say it."

"The Flareful Empress has the same body type... umm... physique as me? They say she could teach me better, b-but she makes her disciples marry her eldest son. I don’t want that. S-So I won’t go. S-So we’ll still be sectmates."

"She what? Noble bitches are crazy I tell you. Yeah, I take back what I said. So now we gotsa get to know each other because we’ll be sectmates!”

“Hihi. You’re funny.”

“And that empress person left fuming," Ling said. Her hair was not as long as Su Nanya's. She didn't bother wrapping it in towels or slowly draining all the water out. “So maybe not going with her is the better choice. No knowing what cultivators with grudges will do. What if she takes her anger out on you because Yung humiliated her in public?”

"I know. But… She was so... beautiful," Xiu Jiujiu said with a dreamy look. "Perfect face, so pretty her hair. Her arms and legs were so... dainty. I want to be like that. I think I can. We have the same physique!"

"With Fairy Su's resources, she can find you a good teacher, no? She's sung as the fairest and daintiest maiden of the lands, after all."

Xiu Jiujiu let out a small giggle. The girl had this bunny-like look to her. Soft and innocent. Ling did not think she was naive, though. There was a dark part of her that surfaced at every mention of Su Nanya.

Like now.

"Dainty?" Xiu Jiujiu asked.

"You don't think so?" Ling said.

"Well..." The waitress put a finger on her lips. "I guess. I wouldn't know what men think. All I know is that her physique is not like mine, and I don't want to look like her."

"Why not?" Ling was bewildered. "You could have every man in the landbridge killing their parents for one look at your swaying hips. Which girl wouldn't want that kinda power?"

Xiu Jiujiu giggled again, and with her innocent baby-cheeks, she said the most earth-shattering thing Ling had heard all day. "Fat hips."