A servant's place in a Clan is always at the bottom.
You can't go lower than them in a Clan, but you can go lower than the other servants in the Clan.
Those at the bottom are either those that just came into the Clan or those that were punished into that status.
A pecking order between servants is inevitable, with the privileges tied to the type of work they did and the skills that they exhibited.
If they impress the Master or Mistress that they serve, that status is bound to increase in the eyes of the other servants.
With the Masters or Mistress's favor many doors open to them, but at the same time, they are also more likely to receive the ire of the one they serve.
The good they hope to receive and the bad that they receive depends entirely on the one they serve.
Still, unless they mess up grandly, those with favor usually stayed with the favor.
With all that taken into account, what about someone like her? Tao Fang wondered.
For the first three years that she served the Young Miss faithfully, she had always done her duty without any hesitation. She was always there when the Young Miss needed her for something.
Then her Miss was gone. Any favor that she had gained had gone with the wind and she had to start anew.
While it was not a good thing, to start from the beginning, it turned out it was not a bad thing either.
The new Miss she served was different. Very different.
The childish behavior was gone and what replaced was matureness, most of the time. There were times when such a thing could be speculated.
But the greatest change was the presence of the Young Miss. Now she had that draw that drew you to her. To her actions and as a result, you start following in her flow without being aware that you did.
By following that flaw, Tao Fang could now cultivate. It was not something that was given to her as a favor. It was not something that just anyone could gain. No, following that flow she had started on an entirely new road, one unique to her and just her, for now at least.
Following that flow that her Young Miss creates, she had learned the pleasure of the flesh, which was beyond enjoyable. She had learned to give out pleasure, in many forms.
And she had learned it all by spending the nights with her mistress.
But then came the time, when the flow shifted. She did not know about it then, and she barely did now, but when that time came, there was no going back.
If she had been found out, she knew not what would happen to her. Maybe she would be kicked out of the Clan. Maybe, a harsh punishment awaited her, or maybe she would be executed.
She simply did not know, and doubted, she would ever know.
If she had been a man and it was found out, then all three would happen, in the same order.
First, the man would lose any standing with the Clan he served. With that done, no one would come to his help. If they tried they too would be implicated.
Then would come the punishment. This had many forms but the most common was torture. This part did not need to be explained.
After that tho, if the tortured victim was still alive, he would be executed in front of everybody, as by them a rumor would have appeared. If it had not, the perpetrator would be executed first and then rumor would still appear, in some way.
Would any of those things happen to her, after all, she had done the one thing that any lady of any status dreaded the most.
She had taken the virtue of the Young Lady that she served.
Would she be tortured for that? Will she be executed as well?
That Tao Fang did not know. So far nobody spoke about it and neither had somebody learned of it, as far as she knew, now that months had passed since that time.
Now whenever she cultivated, she would remember that event at least once before she could return to peaceful Qi circulation.
And when it appeared, she could feel the slight jubilation that had come to her.
She, a servant, had taken the virtue of the Young Miss she served and she liked it.
No, like is a word too soft for it, she had loved it.
That feeling of empowerment that she felt as the Young Miss quivered on the dildo, as she now knew was the name of the tool, had first appeared at that moment.
After the many times she had done it with the Young Miss afterward, now she could and would recognize it anywhere and anytime.
The Young Miss had cried of how it hurt but after a time, she had begun to enjoy it. Unlike her who needed a few more sessions to truly learn what it meant to take a man inside herself or the tool that made them almost obsolete.
Every time she thought about that fact, she found it strange that the body of the Young Miss, who was younger than her by four and a half years, had it easier at the start than her.
Either way, after that had happened. Their schedule had returned to normal for the first month.
Aside from the two weekly visits that they always had, nothing changed much. Except for the fact that one day was dedicated to the Young Miss dominating her and the other to her dominating the Young Miss.
It was only in the seventh month after she had started to cultivate that things changed.
The Young Miss had started to seek her body outside of those two dedicated weekly nights.
At first, it was more of the same, but slowly things changed. The Young Miss became rougher and rougher as their pleasure increased.
In the eighth month, they had done it for the first time outdoors. In the night month, the same happened during the day. They had hidden from the others and pleasured themselves.
After every single one of them, she meditated. Her purpose was to separate the emotions from the memory and study the emotion that their actions had produced.
Every time she did that, she had to compare the two emotions and the actions that caused them. Which was stronger? Which lasted longer? Which had a deeper impact? How did the emotion behave? How did they make her behave?
And the most important of them all, how does she not lose herself in the extremes of both of them.
The deeper she felt and studied them, the more she felt that she was changing. The more she felt changing the more she felt leaving something behind.
She never knew what but that was what she felt.
Every time she circulated her Qi and had said Qi touch the seed in her head, she felt it was coming from there. At the same time, she felt that she was losing something from her body.
She had even mentioned it to the Young Miss, only to receive an answer she had no idea what it was about. It could be many things, like how a child lost its teeth and grew into adult ones.
Only in this case, how they grew depended not on what the body wanted but what her mind wanted.
The only thing that brought her solace was that the Young Miss told her not to fear the change that was coming and the transformation that it would bring.
When the tenth month came since she started cultivating, that feeling had reached its peak. And when it did, she knew that it had finished its germination stage, as her Miss called it.
What happened afterward, though, had bedazzled even her Young Miss.
Once the seed was complete, the seed had transmitted two things. One was its imminent need for more energy, which in this case was Vital Yin Qi, and the other was a simple question.
It wasn't a question, Tao Fang explained to her Mistress. " Miss, it's more like it's letting me choose in which direction it should grow. "
" And the directions are Domination or Submission? " Her Young Miss asked.
" Yes. "
" Well… that I did not expect. " She heard her mistress admit. " I had imagined it would just pop when it was done. Either way, what is interesting is that it only asked for two paths. Say, Fang, which path do you think suits you more? Domination where you start taking command of your life at the cost of everybody else's, or will you choose submission as the path of least resistance and let others dictate your life for you? "
Breaking away from the memory, Tao Fang began to ponder.
If she chose submission, then her life would not change that much. She would stay a servant to the Young Miss and if she cultivated successfully she was bound to live a longer and easier life.
But is that what she truly wanted? An easy life? If so, she could have avoided all this by staying a servant of the Merchants Association and not seeking something more. Not to mention the things she now knew and wanted. That resolution is already saying something about her.
Domination on the other hand is something entirely new to her. She may have experienced it in the bed with her mistress, but she liked it when she was the one in control. To bend the others open her knee and have them do as she asked. It brought her joy and euphoria every time it happened.
But was that who she truly was? Someone who would not care for the plight of others and only about herself. What will happen if she chooses Domination? Will she ignore and forget everybody she cares about, like her family?
Yes, they sent her to the capital to become a servant, but did they have much of a choice? They were poor and hoped that she could ease their burdens and she did when she sent the money she earned.
That still did not mean that she should ignore them now that she could. They were her parents, after all.
No matter how she looked at this. Both paths had advantages and disadvantages, but none of them gave her what she truly wanted. So what is it that she truly wanted?
It was when she finally asked herself that question that Tao Fang understood what she wanted.
She wanted to repay the Young Miss for all that she had done for her. She wanted to stay by her side, yet just staying by her side was not enough. Submission offered that part, she had experienced that path and now she wanted more.
Ever since she started sleeping with her, an ember had lodged itself in her heart and it would never leave on its own for she just liked the Young Miss too much to stay on the sidelines.
That and somehow she knew that she would disappoint the Young Miss if she chose submission.
Finally having figured out herself, Tao Fang stopped meditating and opened her eyes. Before her, she saw the Young Miss that had enabled all this for her and had shown her what it was to love somebody, even if they were of the same gender.
By her side stood Elder He. He had an inquisitive gaze that said I want to see what happens now and beside him were Lord Qiao and Master Gao.
They too wondered what would happen now.
" So have you decided on your path? " Her Mistress asked.
" I have, Miss. " She replied with conviction, that she had never before shown to anybody. " I chose neither path. I want both of them. "
Immediately she saw her Mistress smile with a knowing look. Seeing it, Tao Fang knew that she chose correctly.
" Good choice. In truth, it's the only choice. " Her Mistress said and explained. " Sometimes you need to give in order to take, and sometimes you need to take in order to give. Balance at its best is what Qi Cultivation is all about. " The Young Miss said and pointed beside her.
There she saw a small Jade bottle. Opening it she saw eleven pills containing Vital Yin Qi.
" I hope those are enough. They are of better quality than the first one you took. " The Young Lady said. " But we have no idea how much Qi will be needed for that seed to burst into life. "
Accepting the possibility, Tao Fang took a deep breath and took one pill.
Swallowing it was easy, and once it was in her stomach she probed it with her Qi. The moment she did, the Pill Art that was used to contain the Qi inside it broke.
A huge amount of Vital Yin Qi to the current Tao Fang flooded her.
Concentrating as hard as she could she circulated the incoming Qi. With the circulation of the Qi, the quantity that she gained fused with the quality that she had and with refinement sent it to the seed in her head.
Once she did, she gave her answer to the seed not by voice but by intent. To it, she declared she would not accept its option of only having one path. With her Will, she declared she wanted both.
The seed wanted to reject her choice but Tao Fang held on. As her Vital Yin Qi battered at the seed, she felt it lose ground a bit.
Soon enough, the Qi had been spent. A lot of it had been spilled around her body, so not much was spent on the seed itself. Due to that, she could feel the throbbing all over her body.
She opened her eyes to take another pill. Once it was in her mouth, the procedure was repeated. This time she was able to have more Qi batter the seed but it was going slowly. Much slower than her Mistress had assumed.
Soon the second pill was used up and a third was eaten.
Tao Fang was so focused on this that she did not notice the worrying figure that was her Mistress. Or a similar expression on the other 3 people.
" Taking so much Qi is a very bad idea. A few more and she will likely have her roots break. Are you sure about this, Jiao? " Yu Qiao asked his niece.
" Not really. " Yu Jiao answered her uncle. " But the Die has been cast and there is no taking it back. We will have to wait but I have a feeling that it will work. She is tougher than you think. " She said for them to hear, but deep inside she did worry.
Tao Fang has been with her since the first day she appeared in this world. Losing somebody like that would hurt her. It may not hurt her that much, but pain was pain no matter the grade.
The state of her body that was hurting her more and more, the flow of Qi that she was beginning to lose control of, and the still hard seed took every shred of Will she had. Her Mistress had told her that once started it could not be stopped, so using every shred of Will she held on.
When the fifth pill showed that it was not enough, she tried to take another one but when she did her right hand began to twitch, as if she was no longer in control of it. For a second she imagined that it was over for her, but the next second, she felt somebody put a Pill in her mouth and she swallowed it.
Having felt that she was almost beyond her limits, Tao Fang found the last scraps of anything she had and pulled on the Qi harder than she ever did, before that single moment.
Using that Qi she pushed it against the seed. Once, twice, thrice when she heard it, felt it.
Crack.
A tiny crack appeared on the seed's exterior. Seeing it, feeling it, and hearing it brought forth a bit more renewed resolve and after a few more cycles of Qi the tiny crack widened and a tiny hole found itself on the seed.
Contrary to what normally happens to a seed, here nothing came out. Instead what happened was that a huge suction force appeared. It started sucking all the Qi that was around its shell.
The tiny hole began to widen from the suction as even the shell went inside the seed.
Suck suck suck.
When all the Qi and the shell had been sucked into that unexplainable place, due to Tao Fang's weak perception it reminded her of a stellar formation that her mistress had told her about a few times.
Once all the Qi beside it was gone, that suction somehow latched itself to the Roots inside her body. It began to suck on them as if they were straws through which more of the juicy drink could be gained.
With it, the rampaging Qi inside her began to flow in one direction and relief overcame her bloated body and roots. Yet, despite how it should have brought her joy that it happened, Tao Fang had a bad feeling.
A very, very bad feeling, and in a quick inspiration she opened her eyes and looked at the last of the pills, and grabbed them. One by one she swallowed them. Much to the surprise of everybody by her side.
Once they all were in her stomach, she broke their containment and tried her best to circulate the Qi but soon after it became useless. The Qi just would not listen and if it did the suction was just too strong to go against.
Not long after all the Qi had been swallowed into that thing she could only feel was there. Yet it was still not done.
Once there was no more Qi present in her body, the suction strengthened and her roots quivered from the stress, and if they had sentience they would probably start begging for their lives, right about now.
It was also at that moment that Tao Fang felt another thing. The suction was not satisfied with just the Qi or her Roots but it wanted to eat her too.
A primal fear for her existence emerged as it did, but unlike what she imagined it would make her do, it only made her remember something.
It made her remember the time she had spent in that fake void that her mistress had her undergo multiple times. Compared to that fake void, this suction was nothing and whatever awaited her inside would not compare either.
Her resolve manifested, Tao Fang, collected her Will that was herself and gave herself to the suction.
In moments she was inside that nothingness that could not compare to the fake void.
Once more unknown, that was in front of her, transmitted to her by feeling.
Domination or Submission.
Realizing what it was, she declared her desire.
Immediately images of her past appeared. Images of every moment that she had lived.
They told her of what she experienced in them. Of their meaning and to what it all brought her too. It told her of what would happen if she continued and how the world would see her.
She knew the seed or whatever it was now, wanted her to break and choose only one side. It kept telling her that she could not have both.
Tao Fang's answer was simple. In one instance she gathered her remaining self and with it delivered a message.
" The wants of the World, matter not to me. I will do what I want, even if I have to stay a servant forever, as long as I am by the Mistress's side, that is fine for me. I will stay by her side no matter the consequences. Even if my feelings are not reciprocated, I will still want to stay by her side. "
With the message sent, something gave in. Only contrary to what she imagined would happen, happened. The suction increased in one instance so much that the unknown something devoured her, only she had not felt any ill intent behind it.
No, she had passed the test that she had no idea was even one, to begin with.
The next moment she felt another presence arrive. This one was grander beyond the grandest of things she could imagine. In front of it, she was not even a speck of dust.
That presence somehow split her in two. One half stayed with her, however, that was possible, and the other went to that unknown something.
That unknown something gained the other part of herself and a connection formed between her and that… Symbol.
Tao Fang considered it for one more moment that if she might have felt it wrongly yet no matter how much time passed, it remained what it was.
A Symbol.
A Symbol that was her, her conviction, and her future intertwined into one.
She had defined it now, and in return, it would define her in the future.
The future though could wait, for there was much to do in the present.
That grand presence deepened the connection between the symbol and her, but unbeknown to her, a commotion had appeared by her meditating body.
Of the four people present, three could feel and could recognize the presence.
" Another Dao's Descent. " Yu Jiao heard her First Uncle say. The descent of Reality had little on her if it did not directly descend on her. Never mind the fact that she had no Divine Sense.
" Qiao, you need to stop being surprised when it comes to Jiao's actions and their effects. " The oldest among them presented his advice.
" Ha, I know but… " He sighed and just stopped speaking.
" Uncle, you need to stop viewing this as something mystical to fawn over. " Jiao addressed her First Uncle. " What I call the Will of Reality is the Dao's Descent to you, but both descriptions leave out a very important fact. That fact is yes, the Will of Reality does descend but it's not mystical, it's a very basic thing of living. Think of it as a reflex. "
" Reflex? " He blinked a few times at the comparison and wondered.
" Yes, just like when you have that itch on your body that you just have to scratch to feel better. " Jiao explained. " In truth, we are barely insects compared to Reality. So when it itches its attention is momentarily fixed on that itch and it tries to scratch that itch away. Only the sentience of Reality works differently than it does for us. In its case, the itch is somebody's greater understanding of Reality that synchronizes with the Laws that it's made up of. The enlightenment is the hand that it uses to scratch the itch, nothing more nothing less. "
" Fascinating. " He Shoushan, the healer and oldest among them murmured. Yu Qiao nodded at the unexpected viewpoint being shared and focused on the event happening. Gao Junjie just stayed quiet.
While the three cultivators could feel the Descent, they had no idea of what was happening inside Tao Fang.
The seed that had turned into a Symbol, with the help of Reality at its side, began another attempt at suctioning up the Roots inside Tao Fang's body, and this time it was successful.
It ignored the trauma that said actions caused and gobbled it all up, without leaving a single thing behind in her body. After it was done eating everything, with the help of Reality it transformed the Roots in question.
Despite a year having passed of Tao Fang cultivating and transforming her Roots, she was not able to transform every single one in her body. She simply had too little Qi for that, and the majority of it was used on the main circulation that Elder He had helped her establish.
This time though, it was definitive. The Symbol accepted the Roots, changed them, and with help being given to it, it began to reestablish them back into the body.
Wherever it had ripped the Roots off, metaphysical canyons were left behind and now those canyons were filled back.
Little by little, they found their place but some places had changed. The Symbol somehow began carving new channels as the roots began to grow from the head back down the spine and torso of Tao Fang's body.
Millimeter by millimeter the roots grow but that somehow was too slow for Reality. It decided to give further hand by pulling on the Qi in the surroundings to speed up the growth.
That was easily detectable by the three gentlemen and only one of them still had a calm face.
Gao Junjie wondered what was happening inside the girl's body, but he dared not use his Divine Sense in fear that he might interrupt something. Patience was one of his strengths, so in time he would learn what was happening.
Time passed, and the new Roots finally settled in. With new branches where none were before, two new features manifested.
There where the Symbol stood, or better said in the place where the Will of a person resided, a hub-like structure appeared, and it was mimicked by a similar formation in the stomach, specifically where a Dantian of a Cultivator was usually present.
But what Tao Fang had was not a Dantian. No, she had its precursor and the only thing needed now was enough Qi for its establishment to proceed.
Once the roots were done, the Symbol began to use the Roots to pull in Qi from the surroundings and brand it on its own. Without the active involvement of Tao Fang, the absorption and flow were slow but it would keep doing it for eternity.
As a side effect of that passive flow, Tao Fang's body that had been ravaged by the ripping of the Roots began to heal, and quite fast at that since her Qi was based on Vitality.
Tao Fang on the other hand was still unaware of the happenings in her body and was infatuated with the deep connection she had with the Symbol.
She saw no definitive shape for the Symbol, it kept changing but some shapes resemble words that she knew.
Once she recognized them, the Symbol gave her a nudge in the right direction, so to speak, and told her to start using the Mantra that she had used from the beginning.
Listening, she began chanting the Mantric words.
Yin Spirit Vital Body Soul
At first, there was no problem but as she kept going, the Symbol interfered and began showing her a word. It took her a few moments to realize that it wanted her to replace certain words and their sequence.
Multiple do-overs and she found the order it wanted her to use.
Soul, Body, Vital, Spirit, Yin.
When she did that, she noticed a certain rhythm that came to her attention. She immediately recognized it as the flow of Qi that she got used to, only this one flowed differently from the one she knew.
It used different channels in some places but the most important part was that it felt far smoother than before.
After circulating her Qi for a while, she finally noticed a glaring obviousness that she ignored till now.
The details of her Roots that she had lost had returned and with them, she could envision her Roots, all the way to the tiniest part.
Happiness surged to her as she realized that fact and immediately threw herself at cultivating harder. The intake and flow in her body began to increase by huge amounts.
It felt like a completely new world and she kept doing it for some time before another pulse from the Symbol brought her out of her euphoria.
Focusing on her, it began to transform again into different words.
Meanwhile, outside her body, the Cultivators felt the Dao's Descent end and calm replace everything.
Tao Fang still stayed in a meditative pose and they did not want to bother her before she came out of it on her own.
When nothing happened for quite a bit, Yu Jiao made a move. She put a finger on her servant's forehead and used her Power to check what was going on. Being careful to not disturb her, Yu Jiao soon found the thing she had been searching for.
With relief, she retrieved her Power. " Looks like the gamble paid off. The seed has transformed into the form that I had wanted. I saw no apparent problem and she is cultivating right now. "
" Then let's leave her like that for now. Best she wakes up on her own. " Elder He suggested. " Can you estimate how long she will go on? "
" No. " Jiao denied.
" Then there is no need for us to be here since everything has passed. " Jiao heard her First Uncle say only for the other two men to agree. " I am sure you won't mind telling us more about what happened after she woke up? "
" Probably not. " Jiao agreed, with a maybe.
" Good enough for me. I will go and meditate a bit. " Her uncle said. " All this has made me more motivated to increase my cultivation. Take care of yourself, Jiao. " He said and vanished from the space he had been in.
" Take care, Jiao. " Elder He said and he too vanished.
Staring at the only man left, Gao Junjie raised one eyebrow at her. " You do know that just because I am living in a new house, it does not mean that this one stopped being mine. I have only lent you this one. "
" I have no idea what you're thinking about. " Jiao stared right into his eyes without flinching. " No matter what it was, know that it had never even crossed my mind. "
" I am sure it didn't. I will be leaving. Inform me of what happened to your gamble later. " He said and made his way the old-fashioned way since he had yet to enter the stage where he could fiddle around the showy way.
Nodding to him, Jiao made herself comfortable.
So comfortable that she had even taken a nap without Tao Fang waking up. Even when the night came and went away, she remained in the same meditative pose.
Even after another two days passed she had not woken up.
Multiple times Jiao had considered interrupting her, but ultimately decided against it. And thankful that she did, Jiao saw her servant open her eyes on the third day in the evening.
She had been having dinner when she noticed Tao Fang shudder out of her trance.
Eating slowly she observed her as it happened.
Tao Fang, on the other hand, had no idea of the time she had spent meditating so when her eyes gazed at her mistress, Jiao saw Tao Fang's face make a few expressions that wholeheartedly showed her inner thoughts.
Among those most were feelings of a positive nature, but there was one of confusion as well.
" Miss, what is a Diva? " Tao Fang asked her Mistress.
Blinking a few times Jiao was stupefied for a moment on how to reply. Once she did she laid down the bit of food she had planned on eating and took a sip of tea to rinse away its taste.
" I did not expect that word to come up. " Jiao said while thinking back to the creation of the seed in the first place. ' I dumped quite the vocabulary in it, but Diva? '
" Why don't you tell me how you came to that word? " She asked her servant.
" Ah, right. Miss, the Mantric words that you told me to chant. " Tao Fang explained. " The words have switched places and now it became Soul, Body, Vital, Spirit, Yin. Was that meant to happen? "
" Meant to? No. Possible? Yes. " Jiao answered. " When I made the seed I made sure it was flexible enough to be able to modify itself for the best possible result it could be. That way it would become a unique existence just for you. Hmm, since you asked what a Diva was, have the words changed? "
" Yes, Miss. " Came the answer. " I can use the normal ones whenever I want but there is a difference when I use the new ones. Not only are they ugh… stronger when I use them, but they also have a greater impact on my cultivation than the normal ones. So what is a Diva? "
Hearing the question, Jiao looked at the girl in front of her. She may have imagined it, but somehow she doubted it. ' Her gaze is far steadier than before and she is projecting a certain attitude in her manner and speech. If Diva is part of the Mantric words, then there must be a reason for it. I wonder if it appeared because she had that attitude hidden somewhere, or if she gained it because the word is influencing her. Or maybe it's both? '
" Umm. " Jiao considered her next words carefully. " Diva is a title and description at the same time. It's in the same category as Princess, Queen, or Empress. Back there, there were women who rose to fame and fortune on talents alone. The problem was they could not use the aforementioned words to describe them so Diva was invented. The reason it's in the same class as Princes, Queen or Empress, is that every successful person who makes it to the top develops a certain attitude as if the world belonged to them. The difference here is; that one was inherited and one was achieved. Does that help? "
Hearing the explanation, Jiao saw her gaze turn cloudy for a moment before she recovered only to nod but then shake her head.
" It makes sense in some way, but I do not understand why it can replace Vital? " Tao Fang answered. " From your description, I see no resemblance to Vitality in any way. "
Intrigued by it, Jiao spoke. " Tell me all the changes that happened? "
Tao Fang nodded and spoke. " Each Mantric word can change. Now they go like this; Soul-Incarnation, Body-Mortal, Vital-Diva, Spirit-Serene, Yin-Embody. "
" Ugh, Incarnation of a Mortal Diva's Serene Embodiment? " Interpreted Jiao of the things she heard. " That is far too mouthful to say. Let us name your Mantra; The Mantra of a Serene Diva. "
Tasting it a few times in the mouth, Tao Fang agreed. " I don't mind. It's a good name. "
" Good, since I usually am really bad with names. " Jiao sighed with relief as this one almost spoke for itself. " As for why Diva can replace Vital, I have a few ideas. Want to hear them? "
" Yes, Miss. " Tao Fang said. But there was a certain attitude when she spoke those words. Almost as if she had expected it to happen, deep down, at least.