Explosions rocked the grounds around Tian Che Manor. One after another large stones flew through the air, embedding themselves in trees, paths, and few sent up pillars of water when they landed in the pond. Sienna was deflecting and returning boulders hurled by her father.

“Come on, Sienna! You’ll have to do more than that if you hope to win!” He continued to laugh like a mad man as he bombarded his own daughter.

“My opponents won’t be as cowardly as you!”

She dove under his next attack. Rolled forward. And launched herself at her father. Her bicep caught his neck and with the momentum, dragged him to the ground.

“See! That’s! How! You! Fight!” Her heavy breathing punctuated her words.

Before she had a chance to celebrate her victory. Sienna was turned head over foot and laid out on the ground. She could still see Heaven’s Scar during the day. Only now it resembled a washed out rainbow.

“Don’t get overly confident just because you caught your opponent off guard.” Kijin warned. “Next time you might end up with more than a couple bruises.”

The mountainous man chuckled as he got up. And with the same effort he would use to get dressed in the morning, he hoisted Sienna to her feet and dusted off her back.

He retook his starting stance, “Ready to try again?” He grinned.

The doors to the yard burst open as Sienna’s mother stepped out. “What in the world do you think you’re doing with our daughter?”

Her stern voice did not match her appearance at all. She wore a more mature version of her daughter’s own face, though her nose was slightly longer with a raised bridge. Sienna took more after her father from there.

Kijin was used to her scoldings, but he still tried to play it off as casually as he could. “Ah Rina, my dear wife!” He held out open arms. “Mother of my child! What brings you here?”

“Well I did come by to make sure my daughter was taking it easy before the festival. Only to find her father showering her with stones the size of palanquins!”

In her frustration her shroud fell away fully revealing her loosely braided hair. Despite looking, and acting, more mature than her husband. She was ten years younger, and she wore her age with dignity.

“Sienna, go to the Medical Guild and get some apprentice level elixirs to fix the damage your father has done.” She targeted the city lord with her words. “And then go take our guest and enjoy the pre-festival celebrations or something. I honestly don’t care what you do as long as you aren’t training.”

She fixed her cover and nursed a growing headache at the thought of her daughter’s antics. When she looked up at her husband, he attempted an innocent smile. The childish look clashed with the round wall of muscle that made up his physique.

“Don’t make me gather the other wives.” She pointed the now pale city lord towards his office.

Sienna skipped out on treatment, her bruises weren’t anything out of the ordinary and would be washed away with a bath later. Instead, she stood before Kamadra’s room and repeatedly pounded on it while drawing out her yell.

“Kamadra! I’m done with my training and I’m bored.” She slid down the door while continually groaning.

Kamadra emerged loosely wearing a bright cloak that kissed the floor. Their hair was a neat mess as if it was just barely brushed out of their face. And musk from multiple bodies wafted out of the room. It looked as if three other people were lounging back in the bed, the largest of the figures trying to hide his face behind the other two.

“Does it count as duo cultivation if there’s more than two people?” Sienna twisted her body away from the room.

“You’re always welcome to join if you want me to teach you.” Kamadra teased.

“Thank you? I’m gonna head to the courtyard, meet me there whenever you’re ready so that we can check on my friend.” She walked off half a step faster than normal.

“Sure! I could use some fresh air.” They took in the light as they stretched.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

In the end, Sienna went to the Medical Guild like her mother wanted. Well, close enough at least. The guild was actually one of several that made up the Scholar’s Hall. It was founded by the Hwang patriarch in order to focus the guilds on improving the lives of the citizens instead of competing with one another. Of course being one of the lords of Tianshan gives you some weight to throw around.

And aside from the Medical Guild, she only ever visited a small rundown building in a corner of the compound. It wasn’t officially part of any guild, no self respecting organization would allow one of their properties to fall into such a state. It was more of a private studio where the sole disciple of the Hwang patriarch did her experiments.

“Are you sure your friend is here? This looks like a hut that was just thrown together.” Kamadra asked.

A scream escaped the building.

“Yeah, she’s here.” Sienna sighed.

Kamadra hid behind her. “Are… are you sure? It looks like it might be haunted.” Concern washed over their face. “What if we get cursed?”

“Cursed by an idiot savant maybe.”

Sienna cracked the door before immediately stepping back and adding.

“Oh, but just in case. Don’t touch anything… especially if it tries to touch you.”

She then grabbed a statue that remarkably resembled Kamadra and dragged them in behind her.

The room was littered with random projects in various stages, and in some places manuscripts were stacked so high that they were likely supporting the structure. The smell of old paper and ashes invaded their noses.

“HEHEHE.” The laugh came from a plume of steam that peaked out over a random pile.

“I told you it’s haunted!” Kamadra screamed.

Sienna picked up a light scroll. “Wait here.”

A loud smack was followed by complete silence.

“Sienna! When did you get here, I didn’t hear you come in.” A high pitched voice sang.

“How are you supposed to hear anything with all that creepy laughing?”

“I was laughing?”

Kamadra stepped around to reveal a woman even shorter than them who was covered head to toe in soot.

“No!” Kamadra screamed. “How could you ruin such a beautiful outfit?”

Under the stains were barely visible geometric patterns that were once every color of the rainbow. But now, her outfit might as well have been gray to begin with. Even her head covering was weighted down with ash and threatening to fall at any moment.

“It’s okay, Duncan can make it look brand new like usual.”

“What about your head scarf?” They whined.

“Oh this was actually really good at keeping the soot out of my hair. Anyway, look I figured it out!”

Anjia held up a bowl with a talisman slapped on it. She closed her eyes and the script began to faintly glow just before the water came to a boil.

“See! I isolated the heat element of Master’s script and now it’s able to do this! And if you adjust this part here it’ll change the preset temperature. Though, there’s still room for improvement because if it gets too hot the talisman ends up bursting into flames. Maybe if I could make it out of a better material.”

She started to mumble to herself, occasionally they could make out things like. ‘No, that wouldn’t work.’ Or ‘that would only reduce the efficiency.’

When the front door opened again she was knocked out of her trance and raced to the entrance with her bowl.

“Duncan, Duncan. Look, I figured it out!”

“Mhm.” A cloud of ash billowed around his hand as he patted her head.

The dark skinned man wasn’t much shorter than Hyrua. But, next to Anjia he looked like a mountain. The green uniform of the Alchemist Guild’s gardeners only completed the look.

He knelt down and met her eyes before giving a thumbs up and nodding in approval. He then gestured to her clothes.

“Alright!” She sat the bowl down and started removing her dirty robes.

“What are you doing!” Kamadra shouted.

“Let her be, common sense doesn’t work on those two.” Sienna focused on separating items around the room that might cause a reaction.

“She’s right, Duncan and I have been together for so long that something like this doesn’t matter. And I trust you if Sienna brought you here.”

“That’s not what I mean.” They stammered. “Do you have any other clothes? You can’t just go around naked. Even my sect looks down on public nudity.”

“Oh, that.” She looked around.

Duncan opened a random cupboard and pulled out an another outfit that looked like what the original was most likely supposed to look like. Kamadra was right, the batik style robes were beautiful. The base color was deep purple with well thought out patterns. And the head scarf was supposed to be a lighter lavender with the stitching focused around the edges.

After she finished changing, Anjia gave her guest a graceful twirl. “See, all better now.”

“I still don’t know how he’s supposed to…”

Duncan pulled the freshly washed clothes out of a basin with several more talismans on the sides. He wrung out the spotless cloth and hung it over a drain that was most likely repurposed for this exact reason.

Kamadra took her by the hands. “You have to give me one of those!”

“The basin? I’m sure there’s another one-”

“Not that,” they cut her off. “The talisman. Fashion is great and all but having to wash all of your outfits yourself can get tedious.”

“I don’t know. Those one’s were designed by Master Goyohan. And I don’t feel comfortable giving away someone else’s work without their permission.”

“Well let’s go ask them!”

They were about to drag Anjia out of the hut when they crashed into Duncan. He held out a hand and helped Kamadra to their feet before shaking his head.

“You don’t talk much do you?”

“Only when I have to.” The depth of his voice shook Kamadra’s core.

“I see. Why can’t we go to your master?”

“He’s busy with festival preparations. It’s kind of weird actually, usually you can’t get him out of his office.” She responded.

“He’s one of the three lords that rules over the city. Your best chance to meet him is to make it to the finals at the festival.” Sienna finished her safety cleaning.

“Then you two are coming to help us train. I feel like you might have some unique insight.” Kamadra paraded out the door while gesturing for everyone to follow.