BWFoster78
patreon
Chapter 216 – How Did He Know?
🕑 Added 2025-03-15 03:03:08 +0000 UTCYang Xiu’s eyes were wide when she walked into the amphitheater. Hundreds of orbs, each a different color, floated above the open-air stadium. She’d never seen anything like it. She’d never even dreamed of anything like it.
Reaching out with her spiritual sense, she determined the orbs to be made of glass, but the light was produced by qi. Even more astounding was that additional qi was holding up each of the glass balls.
She’d only just stepped into the party and already felt like it would be a truly magical evening. From the reactions of her brother and the three Poison Claw Sect members behind her, they felt the same.
“It’s so pretty,” she said.
“It’s amazing,” Kang Lin said. “The qi powering the light and levitation of each of those ornaments feels natural, not like a formation. I’m positive that Master is controlling each of the hundreds of those decorations individually.”
Yang Xiu boggled at the thought. With a lot of practice, she’d managed to control the flights of five arrows at once. Six caused her to get a headache and lose her influence before they reached their respective targets. She couldn’t imagine the strength, concentration, and sheer quantity of qi it would take to manipulate hundreds at once, even if the purpose was only to keep them stationary.
The feat didn’t particularly surprise her, though. Master was, after all, unfathomable.
“Master Kang is a wise man,” Pan Jiang said. “He quickly recognized the power of Sect Leader Chao Su and made him a friend of the sect. His star will rise due to that decision.”
“It was the right thing to do.” Though Kang Lin’s words somewhat refuted her sect brother’s sentiment, her smile said that she appreciated the compliment given to her grandfather.
The next group to arrive was Zou Tian, practically dragging Wan Ai behind him, along with Bai Xinyi and a few others from the Alchemy Pavilion.
Yang Xiu snickered. The introverted alchemist’s worst nightmare had to be attending a party. Good for Zou Tian for making her come.
“Greetings, junior brothers and sisters,” Yang Xiu said. “Welcome to my birthday party.”
Yang Ru grunted loudly.
Ugh. Really?
“Welcome to the birthday party hosted in my honor … oh, and for my big lug of a brother, too.”
Zou Tian grinned, as did her hopefully soon to be sister. Her brother really needed to make a move soon. Otherwise, Yang Xiu feared that Kang Lin would return to Sixth Flawless Flowing City.
The shadow aspect user did raise his eyebrows, though.
“Birthday party?” Zou Tian said.
“You didn’t know the purpose?” Yang Xiu said.
He shook his head. “We were just told there was a celebration and that everyone should attend. What’s a birthday? I mean, I can posit the meaning from the name, but what’s the relevance?”
Yang Xiu explained about Master appearing in their sparring room, what he said about it being the twins’ birthday, and how disappointed he seemed when he realized it wasn’t something that anyone celebrated.
“He sure seemed excited when he left, though,” she said.
Zou Tian got a really puzzled expression on his face. “How did he know?”
“How did he know what?” she said.
“That you’d had a birthday.”
That question was a very good one. None of them could figure it out. None of them even had any theories.
Finally, Yang Xiu said what all of them were thinking. “Master truly is unfathomable.”
###
Yang Ru swallowed hard.
A group of musicians, some still just mortal villagers and some already sect members, were playing together. Zou Tian had dragged Wan Ai onto the amphitheater stage, and they were dancing slowly, really just holding each other while swaying. A few other couples had joined them.
And Kang Lin was looking at Yang Ru expectantly.
His eyes darted around. Master looked like he was in no hurry at all to serve that humongous whatever it was that he created so no help there. Neither was his traitorous sister any assistance. She just smirked at him. None of his juniors stepped in to save him either.
There was no help for it.
“Kang Lin,” he said, “will you dance with me?”
She hesitated, and for an instant, he thought she would refuse him. Most of the time, she was a normal, diligent, responsible, serious young lady, but he’d found that she had the oddest sense of humor that occasionally just popped up out of nowhere. He could see how she would have found it hilarious to practically demand with her eyes that he ask her and then say no.
Instead, her face reddened, and she coyly nodded her head. Could it be that she was feeling as shy as he was?
Though the two of them were growing closer in terms of talking to one another and spending time together, they hadn’t had much—really any—physical contact. Outside of sparring anyway.
To be honest, he’d more or less been relying on her to take the lead on the relationship stuff as she seemed much more capable in that area than he was. The fact that she was faltering actually gave him a jolt of confidence. She needed him to be strong.
He could do that. It was his whole reason for being.
Feeling much better about the situation, he took her hand in his and led her to the stage that was being used as a dancefloor. Once there, he took his cue from Zou Tian, placing one hand at her waist and another behind her back.
Like Yang Ru, she was not a stranger to working out, pushing herself to the limits to improve her strength. He felt her toned muscles and the warmth of her body under his hands.
It was … awkward. His heart was pounding. But at the same time, the feel of her was nice.
They didn’t really do much of anything that could be considered dancing, instead simply shifting their weight from foot to foot. Eventually though, the song ended, and they, somehow both quickly and reluctantly, separated.
“That was … interesting,” he said.
She nodded. “Yes, interesting.”
He had no idea what to do next. Dance with her again? Flee the dance floor? Kiss her?
He didn’t know where that last thought had come from.
A voice suddenly sounded from all around them. Master’s voice. It was at once a whisper but also loud enough for literally everyone in the stadium to hear.
“You know,” it said, “in some places, it’s traditional for the one having a birthday to receive a kiss.”
Kang Lin’s face reddened, and Yang Ru felt his own heat.
“Lean down,” she said.
He was, after all, a good three quarters of a foot taller than her. With his heart pounding even harder, he did as she asked.
Her lips, softly and quickly, met his, withdrawing almost as soon as she made contact. But that still counted. His first kiss.
It felt like the entire assemblage had been watching them, and everyone clapped. He’d never felt so embarrassed in his life.
Yang Ru glanced over at his sister, sure that he was never going to hear the end of it from her about what just happened, but she had her own problems. Several of the juniors had taken Master’s words to heart and were trying to approach her. She was too busy glaring them away to pay any attention to him.
Thank the heavens for small mercies!
###
Benton thought the innocent kiss that Kang Lin gave to Yang Ru was about the cutest thing he’d ever seen in his life. There was definitely something to be said for teenagers who didn’t grow up influenced by finding out more than they needed to know from social media and the internet.
And hey, the musicians and the dancing were a fantastic way to kill time until it was time to check in with Xun Wu, which was rapidly approaching. Best of all, Benton didn’t even have to plan it. The group had heard there was a party and brought their instruments.
Perfect.
Hmm. Speaking of which, Su’s memories contained snippets about cultivators using music to obtain certain effects. Benton would have to keep an eye out for the members of the musical group when they reached Foundation Establishment. It would probably be worth a few custom techniques to explore what music could add to his sect’s combat prowess.
He was always on the lookout for new pavilions. His sect’s strength, after all, lay in the high-quality cultivation methods and techniques he could provide. That advantage wasn’t just that his sect members could learn skills quicker and that those skills were more powerful than similar ones used by other sects. Another big benefit was that, with qi being almost infinitely malleable, he could produce a technique for just about any skill he could imagine. With all the points he was amassing, he could have sect members deploying attacks and skills no one had ever contemplated, much less heard of or seen.
As he was plotting his sect’s rise to power, Jin LiJuan approached him, holding the wolf cub in her arms. In fact, she held it close to her. From what he had observed, she normally held it as far from her body as possible whenever she was forced to carry it.
Once she got within several feet of him, she stopped, put the wolf pup down, and kowtowed. “Master.” Her tone and expression were very serious.
“Disciple.” He tried his best to match the gravity her face and voice conveyed, though he feared he failed miserably as he found her countenance to be simply too funny.
“This one has made some progress with what you directed of me, Master. My feelings for the beast are better. Some. I don’t hate it, anymore.”
“That’s good, Li’er. The better you get with that, the happier you’ll be.”
“I have already fed the beast six rank one spirit beast cores, Master. May I have permission to draw a rank two from the shop in order for us to advance?”
Hmm. After asking permission, he examined first her cultivation and then the cub’s. Hers wasn’t substantially different than the last time he’d checked, and he was pretty sure that the only way for it to improve at all was through advancing the beast. As for the creature, it was definitely on the verge of leveling up. A rank two core should easily push it to rank three.
From a cultivation standpoint, there was no reason not to grant her request, and she was showing some improvement with her attitude toward the cub. He did, however, think there was one simple thing he could request of her that would help her in the long run.
“Perform one task for me, and I will authorize the rank two core,” he said.
“Name it, Master.” Her eyes practically sparkled with desire. She was nothing if not ambitious.
“No. I want you to name it.” He barely kept a smile off his face. That setup had been just too good, and it was totally unintentional on her part.
“I don’t understand, Master.”
“Your wolf cub, Li’er. I want you to give it a name.”
“Oh. Oh!” She looked almost panicked at the thought. “I suppose that makes sense, Master. Give me a moment.”
Her little eyes and forehead scrunched up as she was obviously deep in thought.
So cute!
“Ganzou, Master,” she said finally.
Interesting. In English, the name would have been the equivalent of Chase, as it meant “to chase away.”
“May I ask why you chose that name?” Benton said.
Her little lips quivered. “Maybe if I can learn to like it, Ganzou will chase away the beasts that kill my parents every night in my dreams.”
Benton’s heart leapt into his throat. Before that child when to bed that night, she would have an array by her bed to quiet her mind as she slept, and he’d be giving her a Tranquil Mind technique to learn as well.
The poor thing!
Comments
Monus
Xiver, that's entirely missing the point though. The comment is about withholding important information from kids.
Keldra
Holy crap. Are people still hating little Jin LiJuan?
Keldra
"Before that child when to bed that night"... probably *went*
Xiver
One of the things about cultivator worlds that is hard to describe without being labeled grim-dark is the mental trauma that might be considered normal from constantly being exposed to so much death, violence, and class struggle. The birthday thing here is a good example, celebrating birthdays in a culture where a significant portion of people are killed off regularly would probably not be a thing. Who wants a yearly reminder of how many friends and family don't get to have a birthday this year?
Xiver
The counter argument here would be, plenty of preteens and teenagers got into trouble from knowing too little, but just as many if not more have been poisoned by easy access to pornography. I've met a lot of people who are confidently wrong about things they learned on the internet.
tonright
Yes, of course, but this one hasn't expressed the slightest violence, and was literally a newborn when she tried to murder it. If someone tried to do the same to a normal mundane earth puppy I would feel much the same tbh. The sapience is very little to do with why it is disgusting.
BelligerentGnu
"There was definitely something to be said for teenagers who didn’t grow up influenced by finding out more than they needed to know from social media and the internet." Yes, horny teenagers never get into trouble as a result of knowing too little.
BelligerentGnu
You do realize there's a difference between non-sapient spirit beasts who genuinely do, as a rule, violently murder everyone the come across, and people?
tonright
Just to be clear I'm mad/disgusted at the characters not the author
tonright
“This one has made some progress with what you directed of me, Master. My feelings for the beast are better. Some. I don’t hate it, anymore.” “That’s good, Li’er. The better you get with that, the happier you’ll be.” --- "Master, I know I used to hate this kind of person so much I attempted to murder this very one the instant it was born - and I'd have done the same to any other based entirely on them sharing a similarity with my parents' killer - but I don't want to murder innocents on sight anymore. Aren't you proud of me?" "Good job. Don't *you* feel better as a less racist person?" --- Good god. She still tried to like... murder a newborn and even now is celebrating still disliking but not wanting to kill a kind of person on sight like it is a good thing. She still doesn't get it at all. Yuck. Disgusting human. Why is Benton even bothering with her. *Is* it just that he's attached to her like she's his grandchild? Because she has expressed no redeeming qualities and is just the most violent bigot I have ever seen. You don't get gold star stickers and a pat on the back for leaving the Klan, Benton. It's the bare minimum to not be like that.
Kirisuk3
TFTC!!!
Random Nobody
This chapter was super cute
