Bathed in the gentle morning light, Kai roused in a grand bed chamber. The ancient timber beams stretched overhead, whispering stories of past centuries. He sank deeper into the plush mattress, the warmth, and softness lulling him into a false sense of serenity. His tranquillity was short-lived; an involuntary stretch introduced his hand to a surprise - another's warm body.
He surveyed the scene and confirmed the undeniable; he was entangled in a sea of slumbering women, their naked forms painted with smiles of contentment. With a shake of his head, he scrambled to disentangle his hazy memories. His mind swirled with the echoes of the previous night.
A grand feast. A celebration of Lian Yue’s soulforging. The clinking of glasses, the shared laughter, the whispers of admiration directed his way - a clear indication of his prominence among the attendees. And perhaps, in the thick of the revelry, he had been too generous with the rice wine. A heat, separate from the morning sun, crept into his cheeks at the memory.
He extricated himself from the tangle of limbs, ignoring the soft moan from one of the women. His discarded robe found its way around his body, offering a semblance of modesty before he ventured out into the crisp morning air. The remains of last night were left behind, a bitter aftertaste on his tongue as he refocused his thoughts on the looming issue.
Closing his eyes, Kai cast his internal gaze towards his heart core. The sight that met him was as familiar as it was concerning; a golden mote persistently chasing a blood-red mote, each locked in an unending cycle. The white mote, a symbol of his past transformation, clung to the highest vertex of the golden octahedron.
During the height of the festival, a surge of power, as intoxicating as the rice wine, had coursed through him. It marked the birth of his new physique - a warm tide of strength, vastly different from the purifying wave of his previous white core. The revelation sent a ripple of dread coursing through him.
Trouble. I’m in trouble.
Awakening clarity dawned on Kai as he commanded a surge of pure, white energy toward his core. A stubborn resistance greeted him like an invisible hand had halted the energy mid-flow. An icy shiver of realization ran down his spine. How in the realms was he supposed to extract Azurewing from his soul space now?
His mind spun, stitching together the fragmented memories from the previous night. He’d gambled with various combinations of energies - white, black, and even his potent blood core power. Yet all attempts had borne the same fruitless result. His gaze strayed towards the bed, recalling the unintended consequences of those failures. A flush of embarrassment crept onto his cheeks.
Summoning a golden energy rush to his brain, Kai forced the world to yield to his pace. The memories swirled into focus now. Mere brute force wasn't enough - his transformation required a cocktail of energies, with the crimson blood energy as the primary ingredient, laced with sprinkles of black and purple.
His brows furrowed, a reflection of the internal storm brewing. It was a risky play, but he had no other choice. He began directing a stream of red energy, laced with pinpricks of black and purple, towards his heart core. But he kept a firm grip on the reins - he couldn't afford to lose himself in the transformation. Not yet. Not until he had gathered enough data with a clear mind.
As the crimson mote in his core began to bloat to twice its original size, Kai retracted his energy flow, pausing at the precipice of the transformation. The world held its breath with him, the silence only broken by the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.
Kai felt a surge of power coursing through him like a strong current in a mighty river. The sensation was intense and exhilarating, much like tasting a uniquely flavorful fruit for the first time – tantalizing yet overwhelming. His robe was unmade, leaving him naked. Any motes I’m touching when I transform get recalled.
His heart no longer pounded in his chest; his blood circulated in an unending, steady flow. The sensation was both peculiar and extraordinary. His senses seemed amplified. The minutest sounds were amplified, and he could perceive the subtlest changes in his environment. It was intoxicating but equally challenging; he had to concentrate hard not to get swept away in this symphony of sensations.
He rose to his feet with a smooth grace that surprised even him. It felt like he could easily scale the highest mountain or leap across the broadest river. However, he needed to distance himself from these tantalizing sensations. To achieve that, he summoned his soul crown, and in a blink, he stepped out of his physical form.
It felt like a sigh of relief, like retreating into a serene, shaded refuge after braving a sweltering day. He examined his physical form from the outside, noting all the changes. His eyes were now a solid shade of red, his hair had lost its wave and was poker straight, and his skin had a soft, radiant glow.
His features were unchanged but had a newfound sharpness, a more defined edge. He gave off a palpable aura of power and danger, resembling a majestic predator commanding awe and fear.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
A woman's voice echoed gently behind him, softly piercing the morning stillness. Kai quickly refocused his attention back to his physical form, instinctively calling upon motes to clothe him. They responded eagerly, a flurry of red lights darting from his chest, whirling around him before morphing into an inner robe of vibrant red, cloaked by a black outer garment adorned with intricate, embossed figures.
Acknowledging her, Kai murmured, "Yes." As he fastened his robe's hoop and bead closures, the physical world came crashing back into his awareness. Every single movement of his own body felt hyper-real, a cascading symphony of sensory input. The silkiness of his robe felt like waves on his skin, each fiber sparking a sensation. The air blended morning freshness and lingering traces of the night before, each scent detected with new intensity.
As he turned to look at her, every detail of the scene before him amplified. The woman knelt on the floor of the bed chamber, hastily donned in her attire. The sight was more than just visual; he could perceive the minute pulsation of blood in her veins and feel its rhythmic flow almost tangibly. A curious hunger stirred within him as his tongue grazed over his newfound sharp canines.
"Your disciple has arrived," she stammered, visibly trembling under his intense scrutiny.
The taste of the word 'blood' was vivid on his tongue, almost a physical presence. The primitive urge to dominate her surged, but he checked it, quelling the wave of hunger. His senses had heightened, but so had his self-control. He left without a word, his mind preoccupied with the arrival of his new disciple, the mere thought of which already introduced a new chapter of challenges and revelations.
Kai's new form tuned him into the world in a way he'd never experienced. He felt Meilin before he saw her. Her nervousness and anticipation were as apparent as if she had shouted them.
With a push of the courtyard doors, Kai strode out. Meilin stood by the fountain, but as she heard him, she spun around. Her gaze froze on him, and her eyes widened.
"Good morning," his voice rumbled out of him, more like a predator's growl than a greeting.
His voice caught him off guard, and Meilin's reaction was equally surprising. As if pulled by an unseen force, she fell to her knees, her head bowing low in submission. Her quickening pulse and clenched fists were visible to Kai.
He felt torn. There was a roaring in his veins, a primal urge to assert his power, to dominate. It was as if he had turned into a beast of the wilderness. But the man he was before was still there, wanting to be respectful and gentle.
His inner battle raged, but then, there was calm. Seeing her still, submitting to him, the roar in his veins quieted. Her acknowledgment of his power was satisfying, a strange, unexpected relief.
"Apologies, Meilin," he said, his voice softer, an attempt to ease her fear. "I'm battling some changes. I didn't mean to frighten you. Stand up, please."
But Meilin remained where she was, kneeling. He watched as her hands clenched and unclenched. Fear had her firmly in its grip.
"I...I can't, Master," she whispered, her voice trembling. Her white wings spread out behind her in a striking display. "Every time I try to move, a deep, overwhelming fear stops me."
Kai’s brow shot up at that. His mind spun up to explain it - perhaps a combination of his blood transformation and her having a blood core? After a moment of reflection, he knelt opposite her.
“We’ll figure it out together,” he began. He didn’t want to explain his primordial physique and constant transformations. He checked his core. The golden mote was about the size of his red one and would soon overtake him, ending his change.
“Have you completed your preparations?” he asked, looking at her throbbing pulse. Overwhelmed by a surge of instinct, Kai found himself drowning in the tidal wave of it. The powerful beating of Meilin's heart resounded in his ears, a tempting siren's song that provoked a strange craving within him. His attention was fixated on the pulsating vein in her neck. The realization hit him - he was drawn to her life force, her blood. The revelation left him in horror, his core shaking.
"Yes, Master," she spoke, her voice trembling, her heartbeats like a wild dance in his ears. She exposed her neck further, whispering, "I'm ready."
The predatory hunger within him roared to life, forcing Kai to wrench himself away from her. His body began to float in a surreal display of power, and he found himself smoothly gliding backward, retreating from her like a leaf carried on a breeze. He moved through the villa's halls, his body responding to his desire to be as far from Meilin as possible. He found a small unlit chamber and hid inside, pulling the doors behind him.
Safely ensconced within the seclusion of a dimly lit room, he sat, his enhanced senses amplifying every tiny noise. This was his reality until his transformation waned and his feelings returned to their normal state.
He stood, summoning his regular clothes. A quick look confirmed his heart core still had the red mote in the center. So, transforming doesn’t shift its position. Then what’s the secret?
He slowed time down and pondered the problem. How could he get his other transformation back? He couldn’t constantly be causing his disciple to shake in fear nor deal with his strong desires around her. He needed his white form.
Kai created some threads of thought to consider the problem, and when they came back, he started experimenting. First, he willed his spiritual intent to exchange the two motes, which proved futile. It wasn’t until he experimented with a combination of white and black energy together that he noticed a subtle shift.
He played around with the percentages until he found an exact match - the red and white motes switched places, his white mote now ready to accept energy. Kai hurried back to Meilin, relieved to have solved that problem.
When he returned to Meilin, she seemed her usual self. “I apologize for the inconvenience,” he offered, keeping the details of his ordeal to himself. “Now, I'm ready. Let's say our goodbyes and be on our way.”