Deep in the Sanguine Saber Sect's Eastern Branch, Xiong Dahuo stood outside the entrance to a courtyard with his eyes closed and every ounce of willpower he could manifest attempting to slow his racing heart. Sweat had already soaked his back in the ten minutes it had taken him to convince the outer gate guard to allow him to deliver this cursed package and now that he stood before the door it took every ounce of courage he had to stop himself from turning around and coming back tomorrow to try again. Or the day after. Or never.
The only thing that had stopped him from throwing the cursed scroll into the river was the notion that the intended recipient might be even more furious with him for failing to bring it to her than she would be at receiving the delivery!
"It seems that cowards have become common in the Outer Sect these past three years," a smooth, rich feminine voice said from within the courtyard. "It's rare for a Brawler to be capable of offending me enough to wash my walls in their blood," she continued. "Let yourself in and speak your business."
Taking a deep breath, Xiong Dahuo tried one last time to quiet his thundering heart before reaching out to open the gate to the most rarely visited courtyard in the entire outer sect. Despite the fact that no servants were allowed to dwell in the courtyard with its two lonely occupants, the inner yard remained perfectly manicured and well-tended.
A fountain splashed playfully in one corner of the courtyard while bright red fish swam lazily just beneath the surface. Much of the garden space had been filled with Black Iron Bamboo which had been carefully tended to produce a few brilliant stalks of Red Steel Bamboo that stood out among their darker cousins like bright red flashes of blood. Elsewhere, well-tended Heart's Blood Roses bloomed atop wickedly thorny stems, many of them dropping petals in a spill of crimson that fluttered in the gentle morning breeze.
Most striking of all, however, was the crimson-haired woman dressed in a stark black robe who lounged on a couch beside the pond full of fish. Lush curves filled out the silk robes that provided only the slightest glimpse of her bone-white skin. A dark red sash hugged her trim waist, supporting a crimson leather-wrapped Oxtail Saber that radiated an aggressive bloody aura. Deep red eyes looked up from the scroll she'd been reading as Hong Xuefeng pinned Xiong Dahuo in place with a penetrating gaze.
"You came with a purpose," she said, her voice feeling like it came from a point right next to the young Brawler's ear despite her remaining in her seat next to the pond. "Is it the scroll you're carrying? Bring it here."
"There, there's a message with the scroll, Bl-blood Champion Hong," he managed to force himself to say, addressing her by the honorific appropriate for a fourth-stage cultivator of the Sanguine Saber Sect who hadn't been granted a position as an Elder. Such people were rare in the Outer Sect but in the Inner City, it would be considerably more common to find people like the terrifying woman before him. Or at least, it would be more common to find people bearing her title. He couldn't imagine anyone outside of the Hall Master or Grand Elders who could be as terrifying as Blood Champion Hong.
"Speak then," she said, sharpening the intensity of her gaze. It was bad enough that she'd been trapped within the sect for so many years. Seeing the terror on the face of a young man that she'd never met made the isolation even worse. Her father could unlock the doors to her courtyard today and allow her free reign of the Eastern branch of the Outer Sect and she'd be just as lonely as she was in her walled garden.
"Th-this is a gift from Wu Ningli's son, W-wu Ling," he managed to say, closing the distance to kneel at the intimidating woman's side and present the scroll. "He said that it's for you and your daughter," he managed to add without stammering.
"Say that again," Hong Xuefeng said, her right hand striking out like a claw to wrap around the young brawler's throat. Her thumb moved over his Adam's apple, the point of a sharp red nail resting against the hollow under his jawbone and drawing the slightest drop of blood as she pressed strong fingers into his comparatively weak flesh. "Who did you say sent this?"
"Wu, Wu Ling," Xiong Dahuo gasped around the claw constricting his windpipe. "He said he's Wu Ningli's son."
"Wu Ling? Not Yun Ling?" Hong Xuefeng asked sharply, narrowing her crimson eyes as she stared at the helpless disciple in her grasp. "Did he mention his father's name?"
"N-no," Xiong Dahuo answered, terrified that if he shook his head he would drive her thumbnail deeper into his flesh. "He only mentioned his mother."
"I see," she said, relaxing her grip and taking the scroll from Xiong Dahuo's trembling hands. "Stay exactly where you are. I will have questions, you will have answers," she instructed sternly, without waiting for his response before cracking the seal on the scroll and unrolling it.
The moment her eyes beheld Wu Ling's calligraphy, a storm of memories flooded her heart, bringing tears unbidden to her eyes and pulling a soft sob from her lips. From the word 'Family' she felt her lost Yun Kong's radiant light, her Big Sister Wu Ningli's fierce courage, and the unflinching dedication of the son she'd never met before everything had fallen apart.
When she'd heard that he hadn't mentioned his father and that he was using his mother's surname she'd feared that this scroll contained a demand to stay away from her big sister and the only family she had outside these cursed walls but it turned out to be something so much brighter than she'd feared.
"Jing'er," she called out softly, oblivious to the stunned expression on Xiong Dahuo's face when the fierce demon of the sect melted like ice before the summer sun. "Come here. Your brother sent a gift."