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Chapter 91: New Hopes [Interlude]
🕑 Added 2025-05-21 08:48:14 +0000 UTC“If you need help…”
“I’m fine! You idiot, if you try to come near me again, I’m going to hit you with this sword!”
“Okay! Just… try not to trip over again, alright?”
“I have a missing leg, you simpleton, and this naked blade doesn’t make for a good walking stick!”
Feng half-sighed, half-chuckled as he watched Yunjin clamber over a particularly large tree root. Despite her missing right leg, the Young Miss moved with a lot more vigour than she had displayed previously.
Ru Yunjin was still a ragged mess, but her wounds were gone. The stump of her right leg ended not as bloody ruins but as a cluster of beautiful spinels, lilac-red and positively malignant with venom.
Her eyes, through shadowed, were partially restored. One of them was still missing, but the other had been cured of its milky blindness and returned to a shade of its original lustre — steel grey, with a hint of a blue-violet shine. Small nubs of hair were already sprouting from her once-ruined scalp, their pale colours failing to hide their nourished nature.
Yet above all, it was her qi that spoke the most. Foundation Realm, First Step. No longer a worm, the Young Miss had awakened her soul to cultivation, despite the odds.
It was a fledgling step. Indeed, most cultivators would scoff at her achievement, for a Young Miss should be possessed of a higher standing at her age, even for one in the Outer Provinces.
However, Feng was well aware of what terrible power now nestled in her Dantian. Her earlier poisoning of him and the Plague Leech was no accident. If nothing else, the fact that she was able to hold onto the poisoned blade with no issues, unlike him, was another sign of her incredible potential.
She was going to grow into an unstoppable cultivator one day. No one would ever be able to control her again. She would be free to go wherever she wanted.
“What are you smiling at?” Yunjin’s voice broke him out of his thoughts. The Young Miss was scowling at him with flushed cheeks. “You keep staring at me and grinning like a loon.”
“Seeing you like this makes me happy,” Feng chuckled. Yunjin scowled and flushed even harder.
“You mean when I’m handicapped and struggling to walk over flat terrain? We need to work on your compliments once we get out of here,” she grumbled, limping away with her sword pressed against a tree root for support.
Where the God metal stabbed, death spread. The entire tree soon wilted and died within seconds.
Neither Feng nor Yunjin chose to comment on that.
“I look forward to your tutelage, then. We have our entire lives together for that,” Feng said casually.
Yunjin stumbled.
“You—!” She cut herself off, before sucking in a hissing breath. Her face was horribly embarrassed. “It is rude… to tease a lady about something like that.”
“Who said I’m joking? I fully intend to make you my bride,” the Young Master said. “We shall have beautiful children.”
“Children— No more of that!” Yunjin yelled, pointing a trembling finger at him. “In the first place, you are way too young for me! No talk of marriages until you are older!”
Feng grinned. “So you are agreeable to it after a few years? I'd better start planning the wedding, then.”
Yunjin tried to glare, but she struggled to meet his eyes. “Well, that… depends.”
“Depends… on?” he asked.
She sighed. “On how things play out from here.”
They were both nearing the edge of the Blighted Bog. Neither the pretty lady nor the Decaying Greyroots showed themselves, but the pair were close enough to the edge that they could navigate out of the swamp with minimal issues.
Night was falling. Feng wanted to reach a nearby village before the sun fully set, if possible.
However, fate would have other plans for him.
Halfway through their track, Yunjin suddenly stopped.
“We should alert our Sects to our position,” she told him. “No doubt they are still looking for you right now. If you shoot a fire technique into the air here, in this dark, they should be able to see us.”
Feng felt his heart speed up. “What?! No! Your Father—”
“Is not a fool. He will know what this means,” Yunjin cut him off, before reaching up to touch her chest. She tugged the robe aside a little, revealing the thick lines of glowing purple veins stretching from her heart. “If you actually take me away to your Sect, with me like this, he would take it as a declaration of war. And your Sect cannotsurvive him.”
Patriarch Ru was in the Jade Realm. If it came to a fight, not even Feng’s father stood a chance.
“I won’t let him imprison you again,” Feng shot back. “Worse, with the divinity in your Dantian, he might even kill you to take it.”
“He won’t do that,” Yunjin said calmly. “My father is many things: cruel, heartless, and maybe a little insane. But he is not stupid. Once he sees me, he will understand that this poison I carry is mine alone to cultivate. Should he try to extract it, he would only destroy me — and the crystallised Divinity — in the process. My father would not deprive himself of a useful tool.”
The Decaying Greyroots’ solidified venom was embedded into Yunjin’s spiritual system. It was impossible to extract without damaging both her and the precious gem together.
“That is a gamble. You are risking the freedom you have just gained for nothing!” Feng protested angrily.
“Not for nothing,” she said resolutely. “You will be safe. Take heart, Young Master. I am not being reckless. Putting aside your safety, the Decaying Greyroots Sect is still the best place for me to cultivate. Disregarding the ambient poison qi only found on this mountain, the library holds the secrets and teachings of my Sect’s poison technique. I will also need the Divine Arts that can only be glimpsed from within the viands of the Decaying Greyroots. There is no place else I can flourish except for here. As I am now, I can’t even control the poison leaking out from my skin. It will only get worse with each Step I ascend. If I leave now… I will just be bringing death to the world outside.”
“But you hate this place,” he argued.
“I do.” She agreed, before smiling. “But this is the place where I must stay if I am to grow strong. If I… If I am to become a woman worthy of staying by your side, this is what I must do.”
Feng did not know what to say. Yunjin sighed.
“Good grief, you are strange,” she chuckled. “Sometimes, you could act all dashingly heroic, fighting off horrific monsters or Dead Gods without fear. And then sometimes, you act like a child again, pouting at being unable to get the things you want.”
“I want you to be happy,” he whispered. “I promised you…”
“You did,” she nodded. “But let’s not pretend there is a better choice. My Father will find out what was stolen eventually, and the wrath he will bring if you spirit me away — while I carry this divine gem in my Dantian — is not a risk I am willing to take.”
The Young Master did not know what to say. Yunjin reached out — as if to hug him — but thought better of it and stepped away.
“You already did so much for me,” she whispered. “Protected me from things I never could have imagined. Gave me hope for living.”
The Young Miss touched her poison-filled chest. “Let me protect you, for once. I owe you more than I can ever repay. And I know how to keep myself safe, so long as I have this bargaining tool in my Dantian. I promise you, Feng, I willreturn to you one day, safe and whole. And when I do…”
She smiled. “It would be as someone worthy to walk with you on your Path.”
Feng hated it, but she spoke sense. He had kept up a facade of cheer, but deep down, he had been racking his mind on how he could save her. It was one thing to take her away from the Decaying Greyroots Sect when she was but a dying mortal, quite another when she had become the living Avatar of their diseased Dead God.
There was no other way.
“You are already more than worthy,” Feng whispered eventually. “You never needed to prove anything to me, not since we found each other in that shack. But it is your choice. I will never deprive you of it.”
The Young Master looked up into her eyes. Seeing her resolve, he buried his grief and smiled. “I will keep a space ready for you by my side. When the time comes, walk with me again. We will reach Mount Tai together.”
“Mount Tai?” she laughed. “My, my, aren’t you ambitious? But if it’s you… You might make it. It seems I'd better make full use of my time preparing, then.”
Feng braced himself before running forth and hugging her before she could refuse. She gasped and stuttered. The Young Master’s arms burned, but he only held her more tightly. Two heartbeats passed before he finally released her.
Rather than looking embarrassed or mad, Yunjin could only be described as being on the verge of tears again.
“Idiot, you are making this harder than it needs to be,” she choked. “You even got hurt.”
“I’m about to be separated from my promised wife for a while,” he shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant but failing with his quivering lips. “I might as well get something while I can.”
Yunjin half-sobbed, half-laughed. “Idiot…”
They spoke for a little while after that, of happy futures and promises, before Feng finally gathered his courage and fired an incendiary flare into the air.
Sect Disciples from both the Beheaded Phoenix envoys and the Decaying Greyroots Sect found them within minutes.
Patriarch Hei and Patriarch Ru soon arrived afterwards.
~~~
A day later…
“It is not often I find myself impressed.”
Ru Yunjin was seated kneeling before her Father, Patriarch Ru Dantong.
They were no longer in the Blighted Bog. Rather, the pair were within the main estate of the Ru Compound of the Decaying Greyroots Sect, seated upon a mat of delicately woven reeds within an open balcony. No more miasmic air, no more muck and disease for miles around.
Just sunlight, the clean air of the mountain top, and the sights of iliac splendour whenever one looked.
Yunjin had been given a day to clean and recover. Servants attended to her every need, as if her disgraced status of ex-Young Miss no longer mattered once she was returned beside the Patriarch himself.
Cultivators bowed at her when she walked the hallways. Most did so mockingly, but Yunjin did not miss how it was the Elders and Core Disciples who did so with the most sincerity.
They would have been the ones who could most acutely sense what now rested within her.
The man poured two cups of tea for them from the ceremonial tray — a curious sight, given it is normally the younger one who pours the drink. The Young Miss accepted her cup with a pose befitting of her station. The warmth and smell of the tea were unspeakably delightful after her time in confinement, but she held herself back from drinking.
She did not forget who had sentenced her to that wretched fate.
“The sword alone would have redeemed you of all your faults,” the man continued. “A genuine Divine Blade… I intend to thoroughly interrogate you on how you came across such a thing, but a weapon of such value is not commonly seen even in the richest Inner Provinces. You have done well in securing the artefact, especially since it could have easily fallen into the hands of the Beheaded Phoenix Sect.
Ru Dantong chuckled. “Even should I destroy their entire Sect to get the blade, they could easily give the weapon away to the Inner Provinces beforehand just to spite me. Or worse, perhaps used it to secure the alliance of Duke Kang against me.”
It took Yunjin considerable effort not to react.
“The matter of your cultivation was also an unexpected fruit,” the man went on, ignorant — or perhaps ignoring — the clenched fists beneath her robes. “I had investigated your progress after the end of your first month. Seeing as you had yet to awaken, I had written you off as a worm who had spat on my final generosity. How surprising to find myself mistaken, and how intriguingI find myself pleased by such unexpected fortunes. I am not a man who enjoys twists I do not foresee.”
Generosity? He called that torture… generosity?
Her Father sipped his tea. Though he appeared nonchalant, Yunjin could tell he was testing her.
She bowed respectfully, head pressing against the floor mat. “This one cannot express enough of her gratitude. It is only because of your wisdom that I now exist as a cultivator.”
“I need not tell you this, but given the number of maggots you had subsumed, the potency of your Dantian is unequal amongst your peers,” Patriarch Ru said. His voice held both command and threat. “Ensure that your cultivation reflects such potential. The resources of the Sect are at your disposal: secret texts, training disciples, mortal test subjects, even the tutelage of Elders, should you request them. However, should you fail to meet adequate expectations… Well, isolation training has benefited you well enough once, has it not? Who’s to say a harsher environment would not yield better results?”
Bile rose to her throat: a response not in fear, but in anger. Yunjin simply bowed lower. “This one will not fail.”
“We shall see.” Patriarch Ru’s tone was neutral, though Yunjin thought she could still sense his satisfaction at her supplication. “Now, in light of your achievements — and as a ‘gift’ of sorts, to celebrate your unexpected ascension — I shall grant you the right to request one favour from your Patriarch. If it is within reason, I shall see it fulfilled.”
Did he seek to indebt her to him? Perhaps it was not surprising. Her Father was not a fool. A tool is more useful if it is willing tobe useful, and not merely commanded to do so.
More than that, though the prideful Patriarch would never admit it, there was a part of him — just the smallest part, for now — who was afraid.
Because Yunjin’s existence was one that likely had no precedent in the history of their Sect — and, perhaps, even the entirety of the Outer Provinces.
A living Avatar of a Dead God’s will. What else could she be, for having survived the full Divinity of its malignant toxins?
And so, when Yunjin made her request, she did so without fear or hesitation.
“The Divine Blade. I want it.”
~~~
“So… You want to talk about it?”
Young Master Feng looked up at his Father, Patriarch Hei, who merely glanced back with a raised eyebrow.
The two stared at each other as the wagon they were in gently tumbled on, moving at an easy pace back to the Beheaded Phoenix Sect from the Purple Mountains via the Imperial Highway.
Feng sighed.
“My first girlfriend just got turned into the Avatar of rotting venom.”
Patriarch Hei considered his son’s words. Then — with wisdom worthy of the man’s age — he reached over and patted Feng gently on his shoulders.
“That’s rough, son.”
Comments
Jonathan with a G
I feel like the pacing is a little off. There's still the fight in the present day to get back to, having this more laid back concluding chapter in between takes away from the tension
