Standing in a daze, Shen Zhengqiu struggled to process all of this information quickly but still got the basic idea of everything. She was having mixed feelings as she went to look at her finger which didn't have a ring on it anymore. A special characteristic of the Sect Master's ring of the Heavenly Moon Palace is that it fuses with the blood and it marks you in a form of a tattoo somewhere on your body. However, she has looked everywhere and she cannot find it, so she is rather confused.
Another bit of information that she got was that the Jade Skeleton had also given her something called a Rippling Snow Sword and it relies on the user to have a Pure Yin Constitution, and the Jade Skeleton's soul also said that they would have used it but due to their own circumstances they couldn't, which they thought was a shame. The sword is a mix between the path of the sword like how the Rising Sword Sect cultivates and also the cultivation of Yin, therefore this sword will grow with Shen Zhengqiu as she cultivates.
Rubbing her eyelids and heaving a sigh she collected the remaining few books and the flower to check them out later after a wash. Her back and crevices feel really sweaty and she is in dire need of a hot soak to feel better.
-
Returning to her room, she noticed that Lu Chunhua wasn't there currently. She was going to have a soak with her but she guesses she is busy elsewhere for now.
Throwing her clothes off to the side, she happily ran to the Hot Spring to bathe in it's Heavenly Waters.
-
Elsewhere, Lu Chunhua has been cleaning all day because the senior maids in the Bandit Mountain say that Grandmaster Zhen should be back in the next few days. She was also currently 12 years old, somehow. She has earned the envy of all the girls who arrived with her because she has matured unnaturally quickly. She is still smaller than Shen Zhengqiu by a little bit, but everything else is bigger. She truly lives up to the cuteness of a chipmunk.
With sweat running down the side of her cheeks, she was exhausted and ready to return to her room. However, she has been wondering where her Big Sister Qiu is as she told her she would be in the library but the last time she checked the library she wasn't there.
Opening the door to her room, she was very happy as to what greeted her but also a bit shocked. An immature beauty was busy slouching inside the hot spring. Her originally milky white skin had a rosy tint to it where her shoulders looked like the tips of rose petals, and her waist-length ebony hair hugged the water surface covering her most intimate parts. What shocked Lu Chunhua though was not her friend's beauty, maybe in part, but also because of two black tattoos that stood out on her body.
The most noticeable tattoo would be the the sword tattoo where it's hilt and handle extends from her neck till the sharp tip at the end just above a crevice at the bottom of her spine. Although the sword was merely a tattoo that was just as dark as Shen Zhengqiu's hair, it exuded an icy chill, like it is ready to strike it's enemies at any given moment. Once noticing that, she also noticed the tattoo on her friend's forehead when she turned around at her arrival. It was a crescent moon that was inscribed with tribal patterns and it added an elegant and otherworldly aura to her.
Shen Zhengqiu naturally noticed her friend gawking at her appearance, so she flashed a proud grin and shamelessly remarked "What? Has my beauty almost bewitched you again? Just wait till I mature fully!"
Lu Chunhua was knocked out of her dazed state at her friend's shameless remark, but she then pointed at both of the tattoos on her friends body and asked in bewilderment "Why do you have those two markings on you?"
Upon hearing what she said it only took Shen Zhengqiu a couple of seconds to realise she must be on about the tattoo that signifies the Sect Master position of the Heavenly Moon Palace, so she turned around to look into the water and noticed the mark on her forehead. If it weren't for her immaturity, her deep black eyes, long ebony hair and the crescent moon on her forehead would surely bewitch many men. But wait.. there are two markings?
She quickly searched through the information she got earlier from the Jade skeleton and couldn't find anything relevant until searching for a some time longer. She was also told that she would get a sword called the Rippling Snow Sword and that it would fuse with her blood and could be summoned on will, she almost forgot about that until she checked the information again. So with the similarities of how the ring fused with her blood, she can only assume she has some sword tattoo on her body somewhere.
Concentrating on the blood in her body by following the instructions given to her, she willed for the sword to appear in her hand. At the will of its owner, the sword appeared in her right hand whilst the original pitch black tattoo shifted into a blood-red. The sword was rather long but a perfect size for Shen Zhengqiu's body, she could also feel an icy chill as the temperature around her dropped sharply, however it didn't faze her in the slightest but poor Chunhua started shivering. The sword's blade was as white as snow but the hilt was as dark as the night sky and silver lines twisted around the hilt in a pattern that extended from a snow lotus. The snow lotus was similar to the moon, it stood out even amongst all the beauty surrounding it.
She really liked the feeling of this sword, it felt even more comfortable than the one she used to use for practicing, she imagined this is what a twin would feel like to it's significant other. Sending the sword back inside her she twirled around to face her friend Chunhua who was sighing in relief. "So where is the marking for this one?"
Lu Chunhua was mesmerised by her friends smile for a second and answered somewhat absentmindedly "Erm.. it's on your back"
Shen Zhengqiu was quite pleased with that, it would be easy to hide when her robes are on and nobody would question it if they couldn't see it. She also wouldn't worry about the crescent moon on her forehead as it has only been seen by the most intimate partners of the previous Sect Masters as they had their tattoos in shameful positions.