The walk back to the main compound was filled with inane topics. Both of them were eager to distract themselves from the awkward emotions that arose from their conversation earlier. Having known each other for years, the two quickly fell into a comfortable banter, soon forgetting their inept attempts at flirtation and romance mere moments ago.
“How’s your little sister’s cultivation coming along? I heard she had recently undergone her breakthrough,” the Young Master asked.
“Lingyu’s doing fine. The breakthrough was a success. She won’t stop bragging about it, however. It’s part of the reason I have been spending so much time with you.”
Despite the harshness of her words, Lianshi did little to stop the proud smile spreading across her face. Feng chuckled.
“Thirteen years old, and already in the Second Realm. Your Sect’s disciples must be feeling the pressure to perform now.”
To be within the Second Realm by thirteen was quite an achievement. It was not something an ordinary cultivator from the Outer Provinces could easily attain, even with the resources afforded to them from being born into one of the four Patriarch Clans.
“Would that it be enough to satisfy the Elders,” Lianshi murmured angrily. “She was barely given a day to rest before her tutors started pushing her to learn the Sect’s Transformation techniques. A girl her age should spend more time sparring with the other disciples and getting to know her Sect. Instead, she’s caged up all day in the Technique Halls with those arrogant fossils, who love nothing more than to hear the sound of their own voices.”
Given her astronomic cultivation growth during her youth, Lianshi had the fortune of having her Sect’s best Elders personally guiding her education. The experience did not endear her to them, however. Their initial conceited attitude at being forced to mentor the child first changed into sheer astonishment at her rapid growth, before soon becoming increasingly bitter as the Young Miss’s ridiculous rate of advancement suppressed even their wildest expectations.
It was perhaps difficult to blame them for it. Lianshi’s cultivation had entirely eclipsed the elite standing and reputation that they had laboured so hard to achieve. They had witnessed a youth less than a fifth of their age blaze through the Foundation, Shaping, Tempering, and Nascent cultivation Realms in the span of a few years with outrageous ease.
Her ludicrous development had made a mockery of the decades of tireless labour each of them had dedicated to achieving the venerable status of a Nascent Realm cultivator. Little wonder that their narcissism and conceitedness would rapidly sour into resentment and jealousy.
“Lingyu is stronger than you think. Give her time. She will find a way to stand on her own,” Feng reassured his Fiancée.
“I know she will, but…” Lianshi sighed, running a hand through her hair. “I sometimes can’t help but think she’s suffering more now because of my success.”
Lianshi’s unprecedented and near-legendary rise to power gave her Clan no small amount of renown and fame. But this meteoric feat had also led to new, loftier expectations for her younger sister, Chen Lingyu, to live up to.
While Lianshi was no doubt proud of her cultivation achievements, Feng knew she hated the burden her path created for her younger sister. The people of her Sect compared the younger Chen sister regularly and unfavourably to her prodigy older sibling, and this placed unfair responsibility on the young girl who was, by all accounts, already an excellent cultivator.
Sensing her thoughts darkening, Feng tried to lift her spirits. He bumped his shoulder into hers, catching the Young Miss’s attention. “One prodigy for the Chen Clan is already more than enough. Leave some glory to the rest of us lesser mortals. It would not do for the Hei Clan to be so completely overshadowed by the Chen sisters’ splendour.”
Lianshi expression brightened. She laughed. “Perhaps if the Hei Clan’s Young Master had spent more time training instead of always being buried in his paperwork, he would be deserving of some glory.”
“Not all of us are so willing to readily abandon their duties as Clan Heirs, my dear Fiancée,” he replied with a deadpan expression. “Especially since this Young Master had to pick up your slack and finish your work for you. This upcoming wedding has quite a lot of details to look over, you know. Your handmaidens had been so worried at your irresponsibility that they have given me your paperwork to work on.”
“Oh. Aha, haha, sorry about that. I always get bored signing those documents.” Lianshi at least had the decency to look sheepish as she laughed, before she frowned. “Hey, how did you finish without my signature anyway?”
“I learned to forge it.” Hei Feng replied shamelessly. “I doubt the responsibilities of marital commitment would temper that free and stubborn spirit of yours. Since I foresee myself doing this regularly in the future after our union, I figured I might as well get a head start on my husbandly duties. The last thing I want is for you to feel caged by our matrimony.”
Lianshi went quiet after that. The Young Master glanced over, worried that he had somehow overstepped, but he saw the light blush on her cheeks and relaxed.
“Thanks,” she mumbled quietly. Feng chuckled.
“Anything for you.”
“Ahem! Well, since we are talking about you doing things for me, how about a reward for me winning our sparring matches just now?” Lianshi said, changing the topic before she got even more flustered.
Feng raised an eyebrow. “You want rewards for winning now? Even though your opponent’s cultivation is more than an entire realm beneath yours?”
“It is my right as the victor!” Lianshi replied without a hint of shame, dark eyes shining excitedly. “What is a victory worth without a reward?”
“Where is the worth in a victory if your triumph was assured right from the start?” Hei Feng huffed and shook his head in amusement. “Besides, if we are talking about rights to rewards, then I dare say I am more rightly deserving of one, considering the mountain of paperwork and the nights I had to burn through for you.”
“Boo,” she pouted, before facing away from him with an exaggerated huff. “You are no fun.”
Hei Feng rolled his eyes, before he suddenly leaned in to give her a chaste kiss on the cheek.
Her surprised squeak and subsequent blush were a pleasant sight. Given how her cultivation so completely eclipsed his now, it was far more difficult these days to catch her off-guard like he used to when they were younger. His gamble this time paid off, although he would attribute the victory more to their proximity and her unawareness than any real dexterity on his part.
“There. I wouldn’t reward you for winning fights that you are supposed to,” he said, enjoying the embarrassed look on her face. For all her talk, Lianshi was still very much a maiden at heart. “So instead, that was as thanks, for spending time with me.”
And as apology for earlier insult, he privately thought.
The Young Miss looked away with crimson cheeks. “Idiot. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? I know you were already busy, and yet I still insisted on your time.”
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“You are my fiancée,” he replied easily. “I’ll always make time for you. And besides, I enjoy my time with you far more than being cloistered within my studies signing paperwork.”
There was a moment of comfortable silence. The two of them leisurely walked side by side, content to enjoy the stroll rather than use their movement techniques to reach their destination sooner. The Hei Clan’s private sparring compound was a fair distance away from the rest of the Sect, secluded away in a lush meadow with specialised wards that prevented their more exotic fire techniques from spreading.
The air was quiet, the wind gentle and cool. Night had yet to fade, though its darkness was more comforting than oppressive. Brilliant spirals of otherworldly lights rained in undulating waves from the auroral Jade Clouds above, sneaking through the autumn foliage and giving the garden a dappled teal that was pleasing to witness.
Hei Feng looked at the cobbled pathway, paved with polished stones of deep blue that cut sharply against the soft golden sands of the garden; the beautiful flower trees and bushes that the Outer Disciples and Clan servants worked tirelessly to maintain; the dance of falling amber leaves that flitted past the couple as a gentle breeze blew through, the morning dew on their edges reflecting the kaleidoscopic beauty of the emerald sky-fire sea above.
A contented smile spread across the Young Master’s lips, his worries fading away before the vibrant hues of green and jade. He wished the moment could last forever.
Then the wind shifted. He felt a sudden lash of movement and a spike of qi beside him. Before he could react, a hand gently but firmly grasped his chin, turning his face to the side and tilting it upwards.
Eyes of dark amber seized him, a gaze beautiful and terrible in equal measure. His vision was robbed of the serene green, replaced instead with the cruel sight of lustful gold.
Lianshi leaned down and kissed him greedily. There was nothing chaste about it, not like the one he gave her earlier. Her tongue sought for his hungrily, her teeth biting down on his lips as her hands pressed him closer to her warmth.
Feng tasted sweetness — that of vanilla, honey, and flowers; a cloying silkiness that numbed his mind into pleasure as the aphrodisiac substances of her inhuman saliva coated his tongue. The woman’s venereous appetite coaxed the hunger within him to rise, but it failed to find satisfaction in her tongue’s caress.
This was not the sweetness he craved. Where was the rot, the rancid blood, the vomit-churning sweetness of decay-blackened carcasses and red Worms and that damnable Jade eye that stared and stared and stared and what do you want from ME—
Lianshi’s tongue momentarily retracted from his mouth and Feng came to his senses. Then, before the Young Master could pull himself together to stop her, the female cultivator — with her lips still on his — used her inhumanly sharp incisors to bite down and sever her own tongue.
Her blood, hot and impossibly sweet, rushed to fill his mouth. Feng instinctively drank it down, the qi-rich liquid setting his soul alight. He groaned into her lips, eyes lidded as a flush took his cheek.
Then, gently, Lianshi — with a new tongue already regenerated — pushed her severed organ down the Young Master’s throat.
If her blood had set his soul alight, swallowing her amputated appendage felt like pouring Spirit Oil onto a raging fire. His qi reserves were turned into a boiling maelstrom, surging with power and excess spiritual energy. His wounds — even the most minor of bruises and cuts — were healed in an instant.
When they finally parted, they were both breathing hard. Lianshi’s eyes were wide, as if she could not believe she had been bold enough to instigate the exchange. Her face was far redder than before, with a furious blush that reached all the way to her neck.
But beneath the veil of nervousness and embarrassment, there was a satisfied and elated glint in her eyes. And beneath even that, Hei Feng saw a craving and hunger for more that was only just barely suppressed.
She had given a part of herself. Now, her body yearned for something from him.
The two of them gazed at each other for a moment. The Young Master looked up at her. He was tall for his age, yet she was taller than him still by nearly another head. He was older than her by half a year, yet her cultivation was already leagues stronger than his.
Fourth Realm, Ninth Step.
He saw a flicker in the corner of his eyes.
Chains. Knives. Nails. Teeth. Was someone watching him?
He looked away. The moment he did, Lianshi broke off as well. Flustered, the Young Miss coughed into her hand, before shyly mumbling: “Reward. For your hard work.”
There was a pause. Hei Feng felt his fiancée’s nervousness spike at his silence, her embarrassed expression rapidly turning vulnerable as a hurried apology almost made its way to her lips. He forced himself to give a light chuckle before she spoke.
“If I knew this was the level of appreciation I would receive for doing your paperwork, I would have started doing so much earlier,” he teased. His hand reached up to tenderly cup her face, thumb briefly brushing her lips. Feng held Lianshi’s stare until the anxiety in those amber eyes faded, before pulling his hand back to lick the drop of blood that had trailed from her lips.
“Thanks for the meal. It was delicious.”
Her expression brightened. His heart ached at the sight.
“Liar.”
Her voice, again. The word echoed in his mind.
As if his current circumstances were not mockery enough.
“Ha! Don’t expect such generosity from me so often. I was just in a good mood, that’s all,” Lianshi huffed before stepping away. “You will need to work a lot harder if you want something like that again.”
Despite her words, the Young Master could see the delighted grin the Young Miss was hiding.
Guilt filled him. Before Lianshi turned away, Feng slid his hand into hers. “I will endeavour to meet this Young Miss’s expectations, then.”
The loveliness of her smile was such that it would have rendered any disciple of the Four Mountain Sects Group to fall for her instantly, if they hadn’t already. The two of them continued walking down the path, hand in hand with gentle smiles on their faces, the very picture of a perfect couple.
Yet, the moment Lianshi looked away, Feng allowed the smile to fall, just the tiniest bit. His earlier good mode was gone, like scattered ash. He tasted blood in his mouth, even though he knew there wasn’t any left.
~~~
Chains. Knives. Nails. Her head was on his naked chest, her teeth and tongue buried into his flesh. A set of human canines sought after his frantic heart.
He looked down, and saw a sea of red locks. A singular, emerald eye shone from beneath the scarlet waves.
Its dullness could only belong to the dead.
“How long are you going to keep sleeping, Zhong?”
~~~
“You are mine, and mine alone.”
Her voice, once more. One that he alone was cursed to hear. It rang in his head, over and over.
As he expected. It really would have been better if he and Lianshi had simply remained friends.
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Realms and Steps, Part 1
The progress of a Cultivator is typically split into nine sequential levels, called Realms. The first six Realms are often referred to — rather erroneously — as the ‘Mortal Realm’, for beyond the Sixth Realm lies the domain of Immortals. Consequently, those first six Realms represent the advancement level of the majority of cultivators that exist within the Empire. In ascending order, these are:
First Realm: Foundation Realm (Removal of Impurities)
Second Realm: Shaping Realm (Development of Meridians and Dantian)
Third Realm: Tempering Realm (Body Reinforcement)
Fourth Realm: Nascent Realm (Core Formation)
Fifth Realm: Spirit Realm (Realisation of the Soul)
Sixth Realm: Jade Realm (Dao Formation)
Each Realm is also split into nine smaller stages of progression known as ‘Steps’, which are numbered 1 to 9. Ascending each of these steps provides a noticeable boost of power within a cultivator, although the leap is nowhere near what one experiences when progressing between Realms.
The typical way of appraising a cultivator would be to first assess their Realms, before delving into which Step they have progressed to.
E.g. A cultivator of the Second Realm, Third Step, has progressed further than a cultivator of the First Realm, Ninth Step. But they are less developed than a cultivator of the Second Realm, Fourth Step.
– Excerpt from To Those Worthy of the Eternal Banquet