"Broth," Xiong Dahuo started in disbelief before clamping his mouth firmly shut. Wu Ling was the elder brother of the Hall Master's granddaughter? He was the man the Hall Master had marked for death? Doomed. Of all the things he could have done, delivering a letter from the son of Yun Kong to Hong Xuefeng had surely doomed him to an early grave.
Moments later, a young girl between ten and eleven summers old dashed out of one of the rooms in the courtyard, her pale green dress, bone-white hair, and pale blue eyes presenting a stark contrast to the sect's normally dark and bloody hues. Of course, once she awakened and began cultivating any of the sect's cultivation manuals, her hair and eyes were sure to change but at the moment, her appearance was a stark reminder that her father had been someone from outside the sect.
"Brother sent a gift?" Yun Xuejing asked eagerly as she rushed to her mother's side. "It's so pretty," she said, reaching out to the calligraphy that gave her several complex but warm feelings. "Did Brother make this?"
Seeing Hong Xuefeng raise a sharply pointed eyebrow at him, Xiong Dahuo put on his best smile for the young princess of the sect. "He did. He wrote it right in front of me and told me to bring it to you," he explained.
"Thank you Senior Brother, for bringing my brother's gift," Yun Xuejing said politely, her voice bright as the sun and pure as driven snow. "Mother, does this mean I might get to meet Big Brother Ling one day?"
"It might," the powerful Champion said hesitantly, pulling her daughter close into her embrace and staring at the calligraphy for several moments before returning her attention to Xiong Dahuo. "You've learned something that you shouldn't know," she said slowly, sharpness returning to her gaze as she blinked away tears.
In the three years since her big sister failed to rescue her, she'd never given up hope of reuniting with the other half of her family, but she'd never imagined she'd hear from them so soon and in such an unexpected fashion. It took several breaths of time before she could once again surround herself with the aura of a Blood Champion as she decided what to do about the disciple who had risked more than he knew to deliver this message. Only after contemplating for several breaths did she speak again.
"I'm going to give you a choice. Your first option is a clean death. Your second is to swear yourself to my service," she said, drawing a clear line for the terrified young Brawler. "I have questions about happenings outside the sect, especially about Wu Ling and his mother Wu Ningli. If you swear to serve me, I'll take you as a personal disciple," she promised.
"I'm sure Father will indulge me in having someone to train if I tell him I want to practice teaching someone before I need to train Jing'er," she mused. "Of course, if you're found helping me to conspire against my father, what awaits you is a death that will be anything but painless. Now choose," she said, her voice leaving no room to ask questions or plead for other options.
"Disciple Xiong Dahuo pays respects to Master Hong," Xiong Dahuo said, moving from kneeling on one knee to a formal kowtow towards the powerful Champion. Getting caught could end in torture but declining her offer would result in certain death. Was there really a choice to make?
"Good man," Hong Xuefeng said with a slight smile as she withdrew her murderous aura. "Now, tell me what you know about Wu Ling and his mother. How did you come to be trusted with his gift to us?"
"I was attending a banquet where a friend was meeting a woman who had an interest in marrying him," he began. "Wu Ling had painted the portrait of the young lady and attended as one of her guests. He was with a sworn sister who's a member of the Shining Blade Hall and from the same family as the young lady who was interested in my friend," he explained, trying to be brief without leaving anything out that might be important to his new master. "I don't know if Master is familiar with the Su family and their branch in the Shining Blade Hall?"
"I'm not," Hong Xuefeng answered simply. "We can discuss matters relating to my husband's sect later, for now, tell me more about your encounter with Wu Ling and what led to him entrusting you with this scroll."
"Yes Master," he said obediently before continuing his explanation. "I challenged the woman from the Shining Blade Hall to a duel but Wu Ling stepped in to take the challenge in her place. I never knew an Aesthete could fight so fiercely," he said, still shaken by the numerous methods at Wu Ling's disposal to subdue him.
"Everyone told me afterward that he went easy on me. He painted birds that flew off the canvas and struck me like daggers thrown by a middle-stage brawler and when he used calligraphy to make talismans he was able to rob my strength and empower his own strikes. I never stood a chance," he concluded, shaking his head in shame. When people had made that comment during the duel, he'd been furious. It was only afterward that he learned how correct they'd been.
"So he demanded that you deliver his gift after defeating you?"
"Yes, that's how it was," Xiong Dahuo answered. "He'd actually wagered that if I won he would introduce me to any woman in his sect I wanted to meet but I never learned what sect he's actually a member of," he admitted.
"He's likely followed his mother into the Bamboo Silk House," Hong Xuefeng said almost idly as her mind turned over the information she'd just gathered from the young Brawler. "You've done well to bring this gift to me."
"I need to think carefully on your instruction," Hong Xuefeng said after brief pause. "You have until the sun sets tonight to set your affairs in order and report back to me. When you do, I expect that you will bring everything with you that you will require for several days of fierce instruction," she explained.
"Jing'er," the Blood Champion said in a gentle voice that still felt deeply incongruous with her sharp demeanor. "Help me prepare a room for your Senior Brother Xiong, he's going to be staying with us for a short time while I retrain him. Your mother may be very fierce with him so you must remember that Mother is fierce to help your Senior Brother discover strength buried so deep in his bones he may not know he possesses it," she warned.
"Just because I'm fierce with your Senior Brother doesn't mean I won't care for him, and you must remember to be kind to him," Hong Xuefeng told her daughter. "One day, your Senior Brother Xiong may be the only person standing between you and enemies who would harm you, so treat him well."
"Yes mother," Yun Xuejing said sweetly. "Senior Brother Xiong, I'll go make your room ready," she said, offering a quick bow to both her mother and Xiong Dahuo before vanishing back indoors.
"Dahuo," Hong Xuefeng said more softly than she had any other time she'd addressed him. "I ask her to call you Senior Brother because one day, I may suffer the same fate as Wu Ling's mother. You are aware of the Phantom Blade Dancer?"
"Yes, Master," Xiong Dahuo said, clenching a fist in frustration. How could he not be aware of the terror who swept through the sect like a demon and slaughtered half the Deacons, Wardens, and Elders of the eastern branch of the sect, including his own teacher? It was only now, however, that he learned her proper name.
"My daughter will call you 'Senior Brother'," she continued. "But never forget that she is your Young Miss. If anything happens to me, you will protect her and serve her until the last of your days. To protect her, I will forge and reforge you into a saber that can cleave through anything that would harm her. You understand?"
"Yes Master," Xiong Dahuo said, bowing deeply to Blood Champion Hong Xuefeng before she gestured for him to leave the courtyard. The whole way back to his chambers in the sect, his mind raced as he processed everything that had just happened. He'd survived today but how much longer would that last? Just how much trouble had Wu Ling gotten him into?