With a flick of her wrist, Huang Lei opened a royal purple fan, hiding every part of her face under her beautiful blue eyes behind its paper tin surface. The skin at the corners of her eyes crinkled slightly, an obvious sign that a smile was hiding behind her fan.
“It has been some time since we’ve last met, junior brother.” The young woman said as a greeting, bending her upper body forwards slightly in a shallow bow and giving the green eyed cultivator a nice view of her slender neck and cleavage, which he was completely sure was done on purpose. “Fate must have smiled upon both of us to bring us back together so soon.”
Yu Xiang chuckled slightly while mirroring her greeting, dipping a touch lower to show his respect. “I wouldn’t really call it fate, after all, it was just a matter of time before our paths crossed again. We are from the same sect after all.”
Huang Lei’s smile didn’t waver at his words and she merely echoed his own previous laugh. “That might be so, but being pulled together by fate makes our encounter sound much more meaningful doesn’t it?”
At her words, Yu Xiang couldn’t help but acquiesce, lest he said something that would make them both awkward.
The noble looking lady then looked away from him, gazing at his companions who were busying themselves by examining the clearing.
“Now, why don’t you introduce me to the rest of your group?” She said, clearly curious about his company.
“If you insist.” He said.
The first person he decided to present to her was obviously his one and only feline companion, who’d been waiting behind him while the two of them talked. A pair of grey eyes regarded the fan wielding inner disciple with curiosity, raising then falling as if searching for something upon her body.
“This is Lin Fen, we have been working together for years now and I consider him to be my most loyal companion.” The young beastman straightened his back at his words, his feline ears following suit to better absorb his words and his tail curling on itself without any conscious input from the young man himself. He preened in satisfaction at his ego being stroked, which made Yu Xiang smirk.
“However, don’t be deceived by his harmless appearance.” The young reincarnator continued, earning a glare from his long time friend. “He’s as devious as they come and an accomplished alchemist on top of that, so I would start double checking your food if you ever make him mad.”
Lin Fen raised his nose in the air, sniffing sharply in disdain of his words. “If you weren’t so dead set on rousing my ire so often that would not be a problem.”
“You say that but I’ve seen the way you smile when you’re making something in your cauldron to ‘punish’ me.” The young reincarnator replied, still smirking in amusement.
At that point the feline alchemist’s glare lessened, his thin lips twisting into a pout. “If you step on the tiger’s tail don’t be surprised when it is delighting in biting you.”
Huang Lei let out a charming peal of laughter at their by play, finding the back and fort uniquely amusing. It was rare to find such close bonds between cultivators. Most of them saw every other cultivator, sometimes even those from the same sect, as rivals or even obstacles on their path towards the heavens, which left most of them either alone or with barely anyone they could truly call a friend.
After Lin Fen, the green eyed cultivator brought the dark haired young woman towards the only other girls present, the redheaded duo looking at them curiously as they made their way over.
"She a friend of yours?" Zhen Yin, brusque as ever, spoke before Yu could say anything.
Before the young reincarnator could answer her question, his current companion stepped forward, at which point Yu Xiang just let them deal with each other.
"Indeed, I am Huang Lei, dear junior sister." The dark haired woman answered.
Yin gave her a once over, picking apart her choice of clothes and the many small decorative changes she had made to her inner disciple robes. "Well, I'm Zhen Yin." She said with a half smile pulling at her cheek. "And this is my cousin Zhen Ai." The darker haired redhead extracted her nose from the scroll she was reading, a different one from the text she had been perusing during their trip, then gave the finely clothed woman a jovial 'hello' before returning to her studies.
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One of Huang Lei's eyebrows rose towards her hair as she looked at the long haired redhead.
"Don't take it badly." Interjected Zhen Yin as she saw the noble looking woman's puzzlement. "She's in one of her moods. You won't be able to get her attention unless you tell her something about her current obsession, which is talisman creation."
Huang Lei hummed in acknowledgment. "Maybe later, then."
"Well then." Yu Xiang finally spoke up, feeling almost left out as they all seemed to ignore his presence. "Since you all know each other now we can move on to the rest of the people you still need to meet!"
Zhen Yin waved him off, an amused glint dancing in her eyes as she started dragging her cousin to the nearby improvised shelter, mimicked by Huang Lei, who gave a low airy laugh at his expense.
After that Yu Xiang dragged her to Feng Liu, who bowed deeply in a formal greeting, which made her even more amused than before.
Then he pointed out Su Rong and his two companions, which he still hadn't learned the names of, without walking up to them. She immediately realized something was going on between them so she didn't push and simply filed away the information for later.
Lastly, he turned towards the sole cultivator not dressed in the blues and violets of the inner disciples, which Huang Lei had been curious about but held herself back from asking about.
"Then last but not least there is Chun Dai, a core disciple. He's cold, stoic, and always right to the point. And that's about it as far as what I know about him goes." Yu Xiang said in a deliberately casual tone.
"Oh, and he is also working for Guan Hui Chen."
Huang Lei nodded distractedly before she froze completely, the last bit of information given to her by her new friend finally registering in her mind.
Her head turned mechanically towards the light haired young man, her eyes widened a bit in clear surprise, and the hand holding her purple fan fell down to chest her chest. "The golden prince?" She asked in unhidden surprise, her eyes searching his face for any sign of misdirection.
"The one and only!" Yu Xiang smirked, entertained by her reaction.
Huang Lei's blue orbs narrowed, a suspicion manifesting inside her brain.
Why would someone working for the golden peak sect's heir come here on such a lowly mission? A hidden space of such low grade would normally never attract someone like him.
Her narrowed gaze met Yu Xiang's emerald orbs, noting the spark of amusement dancing in his eyes.
"Something's going on here, isn't it?" She asked him.
The young reincarnator just kept his smirk on, all but confirming her suspicions.
With an expert wave of her upper arms, followed by a sharp twist of her shoulders, her decorated inner disciple robes loosened a bit, giving the taller disciple a clear and unimpeded view of the jade like skin of her shoulders and neck, and an even better eyeful of her curves.
She tilted her head upward, her lips parting slightly while she fluttered her eyelashes seductively at the young raincarnator.
A small step sideways brought her far more exposed body almost flush against Yu Xiang's body, close enough that his nose was invaded by the sweet floral scent of her perfume.
With a smile that could've sent forth a thousand ships towards bloody war, she stood up on her tiptoes, her lips inching agonizingly slow towards his, uttering a simple question in a low husky tone that would've made a lesser man fall to his knees. "Brother Yu. Is there something you could tell your senior sister right now? I would be so very grateful..." A deep, meaningful gaze into his own emerald orbs acted as the finishing touch for her womanly spell, waved with nothing but her own alluring beauty and the teachings imparted to her by the women of her sect.
Beset by the combined powers of all these deadly weapons, Yu Xiang could do only one thing.
He snorted derisively.
The beautiful woman's spell was suddenly broken, and the green eyed cultivator took a step backward, moving away from her alluring fragrance. "My apologies senior sister." He said, still smiling down at her. "But I can't say any more than I already have."
With an equally deft movement to the one she'd used to uncover her pale skin, Huang Lei reset her upper robes back to their original position, if not a touch tighter.
Her seduction skills had failed her in this instance, something that had obviously left her more than a bit displeased.
"Mmph!" The blue eyed woman sniffed out of her nose petulantly, looking away from him while her lips curved into an adorable pout.
She started walking towards the center of the clearing, where the other disciple had started to gather together, making sure to pass him by.
One of her dainty feet slammed against his own, making Yu Xiang yelp in more surprise than because of any real damage, though a slight sting made itself present on top of his foot after she stepped past him.
A sigh escaped the young reincarnator, who consequently turned around to follow in her footsteps, a sheepish smile spreading on his face and one of his hands arching back to scratch the back of his head in a nervous gesture.
For just a moment the green eyed cultivator wondered if she would be less mad if he revealed to her that he hadn't been as unaffected by her display as he'd pretended to be, easily proven by a light dusting of red that just now had begun to encroach on his face from his neck.
Probably not.