Gossip is the number one tactic to spread anything among the population.
All humans use it. Whether consciously or not, all of them do it, and now a gossip craze has come into being in Zhongyang Feng, the capital city of the Azure Wind Empire.
No matter where you went in the city, there was no end to the gossip frenzy. It started with the commoners, reached the workers, then the servants, then the Noble born, and even in the Royal Palace, somebody gossiped about the same thing.
If they did not gossip, then they had the topic of the gossip in their minds. There was just no way to escape it, as everything was too fresh in their memories to not have it be expressed.
The lower class worked and spoke their minds, but as being used to doing mindless work, talking was the thing that kept them alive. They produced very few accidents, but if one dismissed them, then there was still some conflict erupting here and there.
Cultivators were the main concern regarding those things, as their arguments became heated. Ultimately those conflicts remained shaded as much as possible, as nobody wanted to be lynched by those supporting the other side.
However, there was no way to avoid every single mouth in the city, as those mouths whispered from person to person.
If the gossip burning through the city could be separated and put on paper, people would realize that all the gossip that occupied their minds could be split into four topics.
The first was the most common one. It stemmed from the outcome of the event a day prior.
The Prime Minister of the South of the Empire was bedridden.
His Soul Creation stage cultivation that had made him sit at the top of the Empire was lost, and if not for the Emperor's intervention at the end, he would have undoubtedly lost his life as well.
Few knew exactly what would happen to him, but everybody but children in the city knew that even if he left his bed healthy, very few doubted he would remain a Prime Minister for any stretch of time.
Someone from the Xia Clan was bound to replace him, especially as he and his son became the largest stains the Xia Clan had had in a long, long time.
Most knew that death would have been better for both of them. Then at least, they would not have to live with the shame they had brought to the Xia Clan. Some even debated, quietly, if Xia Renshu and his son Xia Jingjie would comit suicide to at least right some of the shame they had delivered to the Xia Clan.
Included in that topic was the ongoing retaliation from the Xia Clan and how that would affect things.
All that talked about it at some point in their gossip frenzy would utter the proverb ' When Giants flex their influence, it's always those beneath their boots that feel their wrath the most.'.
However, there was one ray of light in all of this. The Emperor's intervention had prevented the whole Empire from burning, so all who spoke of it praised the Emperor for his actions, even if he did not end all conflict.
The second most talked about gossip in the city was the very events that happened.
' When those at the top fight, Maps are to be redrawn.' was a familiar statement to everybody. It always came forth when battles of the distant past were spun into stories.
Now said truth slapped everybody in the face, especially those who did not have any cultivation.
Without the Royal Guard, there would be far less of the city standing than there currently was. In some places, houses had holes, and walls had been toppled over, but overall the city stood remarkably untouched by the conflict.
It would take some time to fix all those, but few would even notice the damage had ever occurred.
Included in that topic were the brave people who found Courage in an active disaster surrounding them and had watched everything happen, at least of the things their mortal eyes could follow and observe.
They were included in that topic as they were the ones that described how everything had undergone to those that did not see it with their own eyes.
Due to their numbers, variations of the events began to spread out. Overall, the theme and plot remained the same. What changed, however, were the details. And usually, it is the details that get exaggerated by those spreading the tales.
The third most talked about gossip was about Yu Liwei, his Tribulation and stage ascension, and the resulting display of power.
The Capital was and is a relatively safe place to live in. If trouble happened, it was usually resolved quickly. If not, it was either stopped by the patrolling city guard or the Royal Guard if it involved Cultivators of the higher stages.
Still, all those contained one thing in common. The power displayed by those Cultivators became but a firefly in the night sky. At least, it was that way when compared to what Yu Liwei had portrayed, even if 90% of the people talking about it understood nothing regarding cultivation and the amount of power they could use.
Yet, even for that remaining 10%, that did understand, it was hard to fathom the difference.
The difference between them and the powers that were displayed was enormous, even if you ignored the Fury of the Heavens or the Face of the Immortal behind the Tribulations.
None disputed that the Face belonged to an Immortal, and few even dared to disagree. So Yu Liwei became the center of it, but there was one topic that puzzled people even more.
The fourth most talked about gossip was about Yu Liwei's daughter, Yu Jiao.
She had always been a topic in the city if sparingly spoken about. Then she became the topic of the city about three years ago, and from the previous year, even more, rumors began to spread about her.
Now to those that had witnessed her giant representation in the sky cursing at the Immortal, even making deals with the Immortal for her own advantage, only solidified the fact that she was the reincarnation of an Immortal.
Because of everything she did the previous day, nobody would even deny that fact, and thanks to that, Yu Jiao became the fourth controversial topic to speak about, and it was for quite a few reasons.
On one hand, nobody would dare to speak badly of her on the off chance that she took a dislike to anything that was said regarding her, resulting in her using some kind of Mystical Immortal Arts to find its origin and snuff it out of existence.
On the other hand, her presence would and already had disrupted the political standings in the Empire. Without a doubt, because none knew of her intentions and desires.
None knew what made her tick thus it made her a complete unknown.
None knew what could set her off, but there was a sliver of good floating among the negatives regarding her.
Nobody knew who had spread it at first. Some speculated that it came from the chef and owner of a dumpling vendor or his old friend and worker. Those who could find the free time and had the needed money reached out to discover the dumpling chef and his worker to hear the most detailed story.
Now both the chef and the worker worked themselves to Death to deal with the influx of customers, but the smile on their faces did not disappear, no matter how long the lines were or how long the people waited for their food.
Multiple times the chef and owner had to send a runner for the much-needed ingredients as everything got used up that much quicker. Good thing money wasn't a problem as the chef in question in his newfound ingenuity recognized what was going on and increased the prices of his dumplings.
From them, the goodwill regarding Yu Jiao spread to the city. But the benignancy did not eliminate the fact that few knew how and what to do with her.
Usually, those of the same generation entered into conflict with those of the same generation. Few dared to overstep the bounds that kept them safe from the tyranny of cultivation stages, and now a little girl of 16 years of age cursed/played and made a deal with an Immortal.
Her display of power showcased her at the top of the Empire. But there was a problem with that obvious categorization, nobody knew her cultivation stage.
Those that sensed her only saw a mortal girl, yet she was no mortal. Hence all anybody knew was that her Power was different from anything they had ever seen previously.
In her staged duel with Xia Jingjie, before her true strength got revealed, she had mentioned the fact that she had designed her Power to better represent the Yu Clan as a member of said Clan.
Because of that statement, those that thought about her had one thing on their mind. If she could personalize her Power to better represent the Yu Clan just like that, what else was she capable of?
Now came the biggest problem for those in the upper echelons of the Empire. They had nobody in her generation that could display a similar amount of power, so she would reign over everybody else without anybody being able to stop her.
And those that could belong to an older generation, so if they stepped in, there was no doubt that they would lose a significant amount of face when engaging with somebody of a younger generation.
Yet, the worst part was that even if they could stomach said loss of face, they were unsure if they could win. Even if they lost, that was the least of their problems.
The bigger problem was the loss of their Soul of Qi. So losing their Soul of Qi as Xia Renshu had become the number one reason to avoid her under all circumstances.
Now anybody that could comprehend those facts had no choice but to agree on one thing. If they came across Yu Jiao, by any chance, they better treat her right, or the consequences would be great no matter if she was in the right or wrong.
As such, the collective rumor declared to tread lightly in her presence.
It said to treat her like Royalty, not that she was that much different from one. At least, not if you consider the fact that her Father, Yu Liwei, was probably one of the strongest Cultivators in the Empire right now.
Only the Emperor could fight him or the hidden Elders that retreated from the public to attain a higher understanding of the Dao.
With all those factors in place, a Title came into being, Yu Jiao the Princess of Jade.
Nobody knew from where the Title came or who made it up in the first place, but Princess of Jade slowly spread through the city, and all agreed that it fit her perfectly.
*
The same girl who attained the Title; Princess of Jade, was lounging with the female side of the Yu Clan with tea and cookies.
Yu Jiao did not know of the Title that was spreading about her nor would she care that much.
What she cared for was to tell a good and amusing story for her grandmother in this life, Song Jinjing, and the ladies that accompanied her.
"And so in his quirky and inquisitive nature, Bai Xiaochun decided to tackle the problem." Jiao narrated. "Using his Alchemical skills, he began experimenting to find a way to exercise the impurities from the Spiritual Incense Stick. After many trials and many batches of ingredients, he found a way. With more experiments, he found a way to turn the impurities into smoke and just swish it away from his workshop and out through the window."
"Like that, he continued to experiment and refine the process. The smoke he shoved away through the window. What he did not know, however, was that the smoke never went away totally. Instead, it began to accumulate in the sky, and over time the skies turned black and just stayed that way. Many of his fellow disciples and a few of his Seniors Cultivators knew something bad would happen. So they gathered in front of his workshop to stop his madness before it escalated into another disaster. Unfortunately for them, his position in the Sect made it hard to do so, so when they brought his teacher to stop him, it was too late."
"The transformation of the dark cloud had reached a critical point, and it began to rain down. The rain was not normal, but those that felt the droplets at first ignored it as it felt and behaved like water, but that was a fatal mistake. When it started pouring down, it displayed its true acid nature."
There Jiao stopped her narrating the story to build up more suspense to the conclusion.
Obviously, it was too much suspense for one young woman.
"Ah, what happened then?" Yu Lijuan hurriedly voiced her concern.
"Do not worry, I am getting to the best part." Jiao replied with a smile on her face. "Now as I said, the acid did not react with a person's skin at all, but what it did react with was any artificial physical and spiritual material in nature. In this case, it meant Spiritual Items."
"That does not sound so bad." Yu Lijuan added, not fully understanding the gist of it all.
"It does not, but you forgot something. " Jiao mentioned. "Unlike where we live now, everything in their place is full of Qi. Therefore anything they made was vulnerable to it, including their clothes."
"Wait, like all of them?" Qiao asked again, far too involved in the story to bother to check on her mother and grandmother's expressions as I told the story.
"Yup, all of them." Jiao answered with a chuckle. "The acid rain poured down, and their clothes dissolved, leaving them stranded and naked out in the open. It took a few seconds for them to realize that fact. The females began to screech from embarrassment and hurriedly used their own hands to cover their intimate parts. Males did the same, but they were males, so they had less to cover. "
"Ahh, I would die of shame if that happened to me." Yu Lijuan commented. Her face beat red as she imagined the scenario in her head.
"Haha, I am sure they thought the same for a few moments." Jiao added. "At least it was that way before one of the females began screaming BAI XIAOCHUN, I WILL KILL YOU. Like a reminder of who the main culprit was, they overcame their shame and put on other clothes only to realize that they too dissolved. Now full of anger and shame while hiding their intimate parts, they knew not what to do, at least it stayed that way until one of them realized that the lower the quality of the robes that they wore, the slower it dissolved."
"Seeing the way forward, they wore the trashiest of the trashiest robes they had and stormed into Bai Xiaochuns workshop only to realize that he was not there. The earlier cry alerted him of their presence, and he made a getaway. "
"And so began the chase across the Sect of fury bound disciples of both genders for Bai Xiaochun. I am sure you can imagine the humor of the chase scene while trying one's best to stay clothed, but for now, I will stop my narration."
Done with her story, Jiao picked up the cookies and tea and began to wet her tongue and throat.
Yu Lijuan, her mother Ye Ai, and Song Jinjing, the Matriarch of the Yu Clan, began to speculate and dissect everything that Jiao had narrated. Jiao smiled as their topic switched from one to the other, but ultimately it was the oldest in the room that addressed her.
"Jiao, let me ask you something." The old lady said. "When you presented that underwear to us and the seamstress, you mentioned that people were far more liberal about their bodies and appearance in your previous life. Now I am questioning how liberal you meant exactly?"
Jiao turned silent at the prompting question. She pondered on how to explain it when an idea came to her.
She stuck out her right hand in midair over the table, with her palm facing the sky, and two images appeared over it.
Both of the illusions contained a female. The one on the left wore ordinary black panties with a black bra to accompany it, but the other one was where her demonstration would be centered on.
"The left image you have seen once before." The Matriarch nodded, with the other two agreeing to her statement.
"The one on the right looks similar with its black color, but it is made of a different material. It's waterproof. By waterproof, I mean water won't infuse it as it does with normal materials. Leave it in the sun for a few minutes, and it will be dry." Jiao explained. "The one on the left is underwear for everyday wear, and the one on the right is called a Bikini. The bikini is made for public wear."
The older woman displayed shock as she imagined it.
Lady and Concubine Ai felt the same. But it was her daughter that was the most expressive.
"P, P, Public? As in ev, everybody can see you like that?" Yu Lijuan stuttered slightly and asked as her finger pointed at the right image.
"In theory, yes. But it was frowned upon if done blatantly in the middle of the city, or something like that." Jiao answered with a nod and shake. "Bikinis were made for those that wanted to visit the ocean and the beaches on those coasts. Exclusive Resorts were assembled to cater that brunch of tourism, and the people visiting the ocean to have a good time."
"Anyway, my point is that the bikini was invented for the exclusive purpose of 'Looking Good' and staying relatively dry whenever you want." Jiao commented on her past world.
"But, but, there is no difference? In both, the women are mostly naked." Lijuan argued her point.
"True. But there is a vast difference here that you do not see." Jiao pointed out. "One is made for casual wear or the bedroom, depending on style, the other is made with the explicit purpose to show off."
"But both show the same amount of skin?" Lijuan still argued with her view on things.
"True again, but it's not the amount of skin that is the problem. It is the mentality of the woman that wears those clothes that is important." Jiao explained. "To them, it's more embarrassing to be seen in underwear than in a bikini, even if the amount of skin shown is the same."
"That makes no sense." Still not giving up, Lijuan continued arguing. "Just thinking of being seen naked in any form makes me feel like dying."
"Haha, you may say that, but the cultural differences and traditions define what is appropriate or not. I am sure you would not say the same if the man were on the menu. Right?" Jiao smirked as the image changed into two random men from her memory.
Both of them had rather decent physics, with a nice proportion of muscle definition. But it was what they wore that glued the female eyes to them.
The one on the left wore a male version of the bikini, while the male on the right image wore very short boxer-style shorts.
Jiao silently observed as the female eyes glued themself to their whole bodies.
However, It was Yu Lijuan that turned red the most. The young woman had still to hold a boy's hand, much less kiss or try anything sexual.
Her mother and grandmother displayed less, but even for them, it was easy to see that the image of naked men was an intrigue, if not attraction. After all, both of them had only ever known one fully naked man, and they were their husbands.
"Lijuan, what do you think of them?" Jiao smirked as she asked. Her sudden voice startled Lijuan, and her stare broke. "Then again, even if you do not answer, your face tells me all I need to know."
"Eeee." Her hands hurriedly blocked the view of her face, but her small hands failed to hide her red face.
Jiao just laughed and enjoyed her reaction. Too bad for Yu Lijuan, as the more she tried to hide away the representation of her shame, the more the blood flowed to her cheeks and increased the shade of red on her face.
"Lijuan, come, there is no need to be that embarrassed. Open your eyes and take a look." Jiao smirked even harder. She enlarged one of the men into a life-sized version of the man.
"Open your eyes and take a good and loooong look." Jiao commanded.
Lijuan, still red from shame, knew not what to do. The words did make her open her eyes. Immediately her eyes glued themselves to the almost naked man. On the definition of his chest, his abdominal muscles, but when her eyes reached the bulge at the crotch, her mind could not tolerate it anymore.
Again, she hid her face, that beat red from shame. Yet, it was too late. The almost naked man had already imprinted itself in her mind, and the more she tried to resist its reminder, the easier it came to her waking mind.
"Come, Lijuan, there is no need to shy away. In the future, you will have to face a similar situation with a man of your own. Why not take another look?" Jiao nudged almost pleadingly with her suggestion.
"How about I remove the last piece of clothing on it, so you can see how a Real man looks when fully naked? Actually, why don't I go the extra step and show you what a Real man looks like when aroused?" Jiao suggested, but this time it was too much for Yu Lijuan.
The almost naked man in her mind reappeared again. Her attention shifted to the remaining piece of clothing and the bulge that represented what was beneath it. Her eyes, hidden by the eyelids, began to roll back as if she was about to have a stroke or something similar from embarrassment.
In the last second, before it happened, Lijuan somehow found a sliver of herself and denied it from happening. Her mouth spread open, and out of it came utter denial.
Not bothering with any decorum towards her mother and grandmother, Lijuan pushed herself up. Her movements rattled the table before her, but she totally ignored it and the porcelain on it holding the tea and cookies, and faced the exit through pure memory and ran away.
" Nooooo. " Echoed in the room and the hallway outside it. Even in the whole residence as the scream echoed for all to hear.
A few times, she even bumped into servants. Her vision had narrowed down on the sides, almost like she was in a dark tunnel. Lijuan barely registered the direction of her escape. Only when she reached her private chamber, did she stop screaming, but that still did not make all her thoughts go away.
Not knowing what to do, she grabbed the square pillow and screamed her embarrassment into it.
As she screamed, two Divine Senses flew over her in curiosity. Both of them reached the same conclusion.
Whatever it was, it was bound to involve Jiao and her musings, and they would have nothing to do with it. They still had shit to do, letters to write, plans to make.
Meanwhile, at the tea party, four women stayed behind. One of them was Tao Fang, but she had remained silent and just observed under normal circumstances.
This time, however, she too smirked slightly. After all, it was not every day that one saw someone run away in shame like that.
"It appears that your daughter requires more careful grooming if just the image of a naked man sent her into that. " Song Jinjing, the Matriarch, stated as she gazed at her daughter-in-law.
"Or could it be the way Jiao nudged her step by step that made her react like that?"
"Probably both, Grandma." Jiao replied.
"Maybe, but with this, I have found where my teachings have failed. "Lady and the Concubine of Yu Liweiy, Ye Ai commented on her own teachings.
"I will make amends and talk to her later after she has calmed down somewhat."
"You do what you do, but later I will show her some more memories regarding man's looks to make her more accustomed." Jiao added. "Unlike how it was for me in that life, I have yet to see even one image of a man or woman naked on any book or scroll. It's not hard to imagine why her reaction is like that if the culture that you live in hides such things behind etiquette and tradition."
"Are you implying that it was different in your previous life?" The old Matriarch inquired.
"Yes. " Jiao replied. "Every child was provided basic education on mating and basic physical body reactions, once they were old enough when the opposite gender was involved. Aside from that, there was enough educational material for self-study that one can spend a lifetime without seeing everything. Basically, I have seen thousands of naked women and men through those… lessons."
"Was that the reason you expressed that you will not have any trouble marrying a man? "Lady Ai asked as she looked Jiao directly in the eyes. Her attention, though, was on the life-sized image that Jiao had yet to take away.
"Partly, but it mostly stems from the fact that you deal with the tools that the Universe has given you." Jiao replied. "In my case, I was given the tool that receives and memories of the tool that gives. No matter how I look at it, I will have trouble engaging with a man in any kind of romantic relationship. Sooo… to bridge the gap of my past with the future me, I had to experience what it means to be a woman properly."
Hearing it said, a possibility crossed the old Matriarch's mind. Instantly her demeanor grew far more serious, and if not for her recollection supplying her with the fact that Stage Suppression did not work on her granddaughter, that too would have been deployed.
"Jiao, you better be honest with me on this. Did you find some random boy to do the deed?" She asked her granddaughter.
The very thought of it sickened her, and if it turned out to be true, Song Jinjing knew not what she would do.
She couldn't accept it as it went against everything that being a noble daughter was about. But she couldn't discipline the granddaughter either as she too had seen how Jiao had defended herself from the Tribulation.
"Random boy?"Jiao repeated as her head tilted sideways a bit, but a smirk on her face had reappeared.
"Ha, you don't have to worry about that, Grandma. It wasn't a random boy. I slept with Tao Fang."
"What?" Two voices repeated, dumbfounded at the way Jiao had indifferently replied to her truth.
"What?" Jiao repeated too. "Did you think I would lose my attraction to the female gender just because I am a female now? That is ridiculous to even think about, as if so many years of male lived perception would make me like men more than women with just a few lived years."
"That… is not as bad as I imagined." The matriarch declared in slight relief.
When there were more concubines in a household, it was not uncommon for the woman-on-woman action to happen at the husband's will. It usually depended on a few factors and the will and status of the Headwife of the household, but it happened before only nobody talked about it.
"I am sorry, Jiao. When I heard you say it, I imagined you… lost your purity." The old Matriarch said, but she was not the only one that interpreted Jiao's words as such.
" Umm, I did lose my purity, though. " Jiao's left hand stayed on her left cheek as she announced with a smirk the one thing that all young ladies of the upper society feared the most.
The Matriarch and her daughter-in-law failed to react to her bold statement at first.
" How? " Song Jinjing asked. Her voice demanded an answer, but her gaze sent daggers at the servant in question.
"With this." Jiao stated, and in her right hand, a male thing appeared.
With its appearance, three women blushed instantly. Only one, however, knew its true prowess.
"This is my multipurpose pleasure tool." Jiao explained without ever losing her smile. "It can basically shift to any size and shape, depending on my fancy." With that said, she began to exhibit its prowess from small to big.
The male organ changed from thin to thick to short or long, with curvy possibilities in all directions. But Jiao was not done with her demonstrations. Over the years of use, she found quite a few ways to make it more efficient, especially as it began to vibrate in their eyes.
With zeal in her eyes, she continued extrapolating her thoughts to the female part of the household.
"No man will ever surpass this divine tool of mine. With it under my belt, I have experienced what it means to be a woman in bed, so I am left with only emotional feelings concerning men. Therefore I will not bother with their status as long as their gen… I mean bloodline is strong enough for better offspring, and they will need to display enough emotional maturity while engaging in a romance with me. "
"At least that is the theory. Since my current identity stems from a rich background, my Power basically gives me the option to do as I please without too many repercussions blocking my way. So I am sorry to say this so directly, Grandma, but my love life will not be under anybody's jurisdiction. I will, however, take any advice given to me, as I am new to relationships with men."
Both Song Jinjing and Ye Ai felt their accumulated representation of Jiao shatter in their minds as a new version replaced her. This one was bold, far too bold in her mindset for a girl to have.
Yet, they had to admit that she had the qualifications to act as she did, even if it went against what they held dear.
The old Matriarch was speechless for a while before shaking her head and voicing her thoughts.
"You are definitely unique in everything you do. No wonder all the stories my sons told me turned out as they did. I… give up. You can do as you like. It's not like I can stop you anyway, not with what you displayed yesterday."
Hearing her Grandma say, Jiao lost her smile. She put away the pleasure tool and the two images of the almost naked man.
"You're right, Grandma. I can do almost all those things, but I am not stupid enough to not admit that this is new territory for me and just power through without a care." Jiao admitted.
" I could but, I don't want to as my memories of being a man and my perception of what it means to be female are clouded by the 'Mortal dust of the old World.' as the saying goes, I think. " Jiao stated. "The culture here and there is so different that I am bound to fail if I seek Love unprepared and use the wrong methods."
"With that said, Grandma, will you listen to your granddaughter's request?" Jiao asked humbly.
Song Jinjing knew where all this was going and nodded.
"Will you teach me everything you know about what it means to live as a female, here in this culture? I can't promise I will follow it since I can be as picky as I want in my current position. But I don't want to turn away from the accumulated fountain of knowledge that you have received from your female ancestry. In exchange, I will tell you how it was in that life, and with both of them, I hope to find the right middle ground that will be just perfect for me."
"Sigh, you girl, are one nasty trouble maker. I will do it. I want to see how much of that 'Attitude' of yours I can fix since that will be the first thing that will disqualify a lot of men."
"Awesome. Thank you, Grandma."