Chapter Eighteen - Closer Bonds

Nie Ruyi

https://i.imgur.com/xzisjky.png [https://i.imgur.com/xzisjky.png]

Nie Ruyi blinked into wakefulness sometime later, strange fever dreams haunting her even in her waking moments. Snippets of fleeing, terrified, through tunnels filled with sand interspersed with scenes of people talking, their mouths hidden by their hands but their whispers too loud.

Above her was the fabric canopy of the huge bed she'd been given when she first got to this strange world. The mattress beneath her was cozy and warm, which told her someone had lit the kang beneath it. She tried to twist, to roll over onto her side. A soft twinge of pain went through her, shoving a whimper out of her throat and into the frigid morning air. The shuffle of fabric drew her eyes to someone standing next to her bed, reaching out to help her.

The heat coming off their hands made her look up, and Lao Xiaojun peered back at her, even as he helped her sit up, bundling the quilts around her hips, to ward off the cold. He took a robe from the back of the chair, and slipped it around her shoulders, and she was grateful for the ward from the cold. He sat back down with little fanfare, letting Nie Ruyi look around the room. Song Fengling was there as well, sitting at a table, with paper spread out in front of him, ink brush in hand.

"How... How long have I been asleep?" She asked, her throat aching and her voice gravelly. As if realizing she might need a drink, Lao Xiaojun stood and went to the table. Picking up the teapot in front of Song Fengling, he poured a cup and brought it back to her. She sipped the luke-warm tea gratefully, before setting the cup gently in her lap, holding it still.

"You've been asleep for close to six hours. It is now early evening. The Evening Meal has already taken place, but Song-Shidi has saved you some food." He gestured to the table, but she couldn't see the food. Probably hidden behind his bulk. "How do you feel?"

"...Like I got run over by a truck." Before he could ask what a truck was, she sighed, "Thank you, for finding me in there. I... I can't believe I fell for that..."

"Then, she did trick you?" He asked, brow furrowed and voice gravelly, "How?"

"...She said that I was supposed to sit down and meditate and it'd help my cultivation. That she was going to go hunting while I did so. And then she just... walked away." She snorted, realizing how stupid she'd been. "I never should have followed her down there. Clearly, she was trying to haze me."

"...haze?"

"Trick. She clearly wanted to show me who was boss." Nie Ruyi rubbed at the bandages on her upper arm. Oddly, the entire area felt numb. She tried to move her fingers on that hand, only to find that it wasn't possible. "...Am I never going to be able to use this arm again?" She asked, fear bubbling up.

"You will. It is only numbed for now. He-shimei said that moving it right now would cause irreparable nerve damage. So she has temporarily frozen the limb." Lao Xiaojun explained.

"Oh. Thank goodness." She sighed, leaning her head back against the wooden wall of the bed. "I must have scared you. I'm sorry."

The thick brows on Lao Xiaojun's face twitched lower, and his mouth set into a stubborn frown. "You have nothing to apologize for. It was my duty to guard you from harm, and I failed in that duty. I should be the one apologizing."

"You couldn't have known she'd do something like that. Whereas, I should have been on the lookout for this kind of childish gambit." Nie Ruyi sighed, running a hand through her loose hair. "How are my puppies?"

"The... creatures you brought wi-" A crash interrupted Lao Xiaojun's report, drawing the attention of all three of the people in the room. Well, four now, as Cai Bingtian fell through the window frame and to the floor, scrolls scattering from his arms onto the floor.

"Ouch..." He mumbled, rubbing his shoulder as he sat up.

"Ah!" Song Fengling cried, jumping up from his seat and over towards the older disciple. "Are you insane?! Why would you sneak through the window into a lady's room!"

"Aya, aya, calm down..." Cai Bingtian groaned, and Nie Ruyi couldn't help snorting out a laugh as he picked himself up and began picking up the scrolls. "I just thought Nie-Shimei could use some reading material! I was on this side of the building anyway, and didn't want to go all the way around to go through the door. So, here we are!"

He stood, then, shoulders squared and scrolls thrust out in Nie Ruyi's direction. "I brought Nie-Shimei some of the best novels I've read so far. And a few basic cultivation scrolls too." His footsteps echoed as they brought him to stand at the still-sitting Lao Xiaojun's shoulder. He gently laid the scrolls and manuscripts down on the blanket next to where Nie Ruyi was sitting.

"Thank you, Cai-Shixiong." She supplied, picking one of the manuscripts up.

Flowers of a Broken King, huh. It sounded like the title of a torrid harem romance. Well, she'd give it a shot. "I don't suppose you'd know why your old friend would dump me in a frozen cave filled with monsters, would you?"

Cai Bingtian looked as if she'd just punched him in the gut. "I-"

"Please don't worry. I'm not blaming you. I just hoped to get an idea of her motive." Nie Ruyi corrected. She didn't want Cai Bingtian to become an enemy, after all.

"...I... It's probably my fault." He admitted, his face downturned and eyes lowered, "She's always been jealous of other girls who I show attention to. This isn't the first time she's played a trick on my friends. But it... it is the first time that trick hurt someone. I'm so sorry."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You-!" Lao Xiaojun surprised all of them by growling out the word and snatching at the shoulder of Cai Bingtian's robes. He jerked the man upright, and Nie Ruyi had the momentary thought that she should get up and stop them. "You knew she might do this?!"

"I wasn't sure! I tried to mitigate it. I was very careful!" Cai Bingtian's face didn't look afraid... It looked sad, and a little confused. "I don't think she realized how... well, weak, Nie-Shimei was."

"I told her." Song Fengling growled, over the din of the two bigger men. "I told her that Nie-Shijie wasn't able to cultivate yet. I told her that it would be a waste of time. She said she'd bring an item to make it useful. Did she even give you an item, Nie-Shijie?"

Nie Ruyi startled, having the attention on her suddenly. "...She gave me a robe? And... and a qiankun pouch with food and water. But... that was it."

"See! She knew what she was doing!" Song Fengling cried, and Nie Ruyi felt a stab of sympathy in her heart. Poor thing must have been terrified for her.

She reached out a hand to the teen, who rushed forward to take it. She used it to draw him onto the bed, and let him lean against her side. "It's okay. I survived, that's... that's all that matters. Plus, I have new pets." She smiled down at him, "Isn't that cool?"

"Those Sedimentary Sludge Hounds you brought back have been hiding in the top of your canopy since you went to sleep." Lao Xiaojun explained, pointing up to where there were, in fact, slimy blobs clinging to the top of the covered bed.

"Oh! How sweet." She smiled up at them, and felt along the edges of the bond they shared. All she felt was contentment. Good. "Has someone been feeding them?"

"I did." Song Fengling said, "I bring them bits of meat every hour."

"Such a kind boy." She couldn't help tugging him tighter against her in a hug. "They're very happy about that, I can tell."

"How?" Cai Bingtian chirped, leaning forward with eyes bright and full of odd excitement. Nie Ruyi raised an eyebrow in his direction, but his enthusiasm wasn't to be curbed, it seemed.

"Well... through the bond, I suppose." She answered, which led to more questions.

"What bond?" Song Fengling asked, a faint disgust lingering on his features. Admittedly, if she couldn't feel their feelings, she was sure she'd find the slime puppies to be a bit... disturbing as well. Eldritch monstrosity were the words that came to mind, honestly. Too many eyes.

"While I was in the cave, I found that if I focused, as you taught me," here, she paused to poke Song Fengling on the nose. The teen scrunched it up cutely and she chuckled, "I could feel where they were. It made it much easier to dodge them and hide. Once, while I was doing that, I went a little too far, and a connection formed. It's quite interesting, actually."

"...You mean, you connected to their cores?" Cai Bingtian asked, eyes round. There was a matching frown on Lao Xioajun's face as well. When she realized all three of the men in her room were staring at her like she was a second from shattering like glass, she frowned too.

"Is that a problem?" She asked, hoping it wasn't but not holding her breath.

"But that's..." Song Fengling started.

"Impossible." Lao Xiaojun finished, grabbing her wrist from where it sat in her lap. This pushed her a little harder into Song Fengling's shoulder, but the boy was built like a brickhouse, so he withstood it well.

"In theory, though, it can be done." Cai Bingtian murmured, rubbing at his chin thoughtfully. "I read a treatise by Wei Long that mentioned something similar."

"Wei Long is a hack." Lao Xiaojun muttered under his breath, which set her to a gigglesnort, and Song Fengling to grinning.

"Yes well, even hacks can be useful sometimes." Cai Bingtian retorted, before continuing. "He suggested that the Golden Cores of cultivators were in fact, a sort of Beast Core, specialized to humankind. If that were the case, then... well, like Cultivation Partners, or mated pairs of beasts, we'd be able to form connections between our cores, and those of a Beast."

"...Wait. Am I married to them now?" That was a disturbing thought, and Nie Ruyi wasn't sure she was happy with having it.

"What?!" All three men reeled back, disgusted by what she'd said, and Nie Ruyi flinched, confused.

"No." Song Fengling declared, leaning forward to comfort her immediately. "Not at all. Nie-Shijie is just as single as she was before."

Thanks, kid, Nie Ruyi couldn't help but think sarcastically.

"There are... threads." Lao Xiaojun said, drawing their attention back to where his fingertips touched her pulse. "Two stable connections. I assume they connect to the creatures in the canopy."

"Yes." Nie Ruyi agreed, "I'll have to come up with names for them... But... is it a bad thing?"

"They... seem to be strengthening your qi, actually." Lao Xiaojun's frown was growing deeper. Behind him, she could see Cai Bingtian pulling a brush and papers from nowhere (probably a qiankun pouch, hidden somewhere) and begin writing. Probably taking notes on the situation, if she'd judged his character right.

"So... I'm getting stronger because they're helping me?" She clarified, trying to parse what was happening. As if to answer the question, a great wet plop resounded as Nie Ruyi got a lap full of slime. The heavy wet thud of it forced a little wheeze out of her lungs, but it quickly reformed itself into a too-large dog laying on her lap.

"What was that for, you big goober?" Nie Ruyi huffed, but she wasted no time in petting the (softer now, almost jello-ish) spines flat against its head and back. "Did you want pets for helping me, hm? Ah, hey, that'd be a good name for you. Goober." She smiled, feeling something click into place.

At the same time Lao Xiaojun, who was still monitoring her qi, jolted. "What did you just do? Something... changed with the thread."

"Oh? I named Goober. I think it... Well, it feels a little more solid, our connection now."

"So... naming them solidifies the bond." Cai Bingtian commented absently, still rotating. "How about her core? Any formation?"

"Yes, actually. Her meridians are roughly mid-level qi condensation stage."

"That's impossible!" Song Fengling interrupted Lao Bingtian, which earned him a glare. "She wasn't even able to open her meridians before she left!"

"Well, it's happened." Lao Xiaojun groused. "And without the muck that usually accompanies opening Meridians, too."

Nie Ruyi had a momentary flashback to waking up covered in icky black tar that smelt absolutely foul. She'd washed that off very quickly in the freezing lake water. But she wasn't about to mention that to these boys.

Cai Bingtian squeezed his way in beside Lao Xiaojun, shouldering the younger man out of the way a little bit. He took Nie Ruyi's wrist from Lao Xiaojun too, which had the Sect Leader's brother scowling at him.

"Name the other one. I want to see what sort of spike your qi gets with each naming." Cai Bingtian was clearly of a scientific mind, measuring and guessing.

She called down the second puppy, then, which landed heavily like its sibling. She petted it until it resumed a solid-ish shape. "Hmmm... what shall I name you? ...Izzy, I think. It goes well with Goober." She chuckled when this got a round of twin chatterings. She felt the second thread solidify, and watched Cai Bingtian's eyes get wider.

"Huh. That's... quite a reaction." He murmured.

"It's nice to see I'm not the only one in awe." She said, "This might be worth talking to the Sect Leader about. Although... not right now. I feel like death warmed over."

At the odd look she got, she groaned, leaning back under the weight of her slime puppies. Even Song Fengling got pushed away a little bit to make room for her. "Let me rest. I'm not going anywhere."

Cai Bingtian chuckled, leaning back and letting go over her wrist. “Alright, you heard the Lady. Let’s let her rest.”

“A-Rong!” Song Fengling called, his weight leaving the bedframe, and Nie Ruyi sighed, letting her eyes slide closed. Footsteps sounded as the maid entered the room and others existed, but Nie Ruyi had already faded into the sleep her body desperately needed to knit itself back together.

https://i.imgur.com/xzisjky.png [https://i.imgur.com/xzisjky.png]