At the Bamboo Silk House, it took almost as long as it would take a stick of incense to burn before Wu Ling could pick himself up off the small sofa Warden Mu had laid him on before he could begin to restore his appearance and in so doing, reassemble some of his confidence. Never before had he experienced the level of anguish that the Hall Master had inflicted on him. The tears that pain had wrenched from his body made a mess of his makeup while his crawling on the ground had left his dress both dirty and disarrayed.
"I must look a mess," Wu Ling said, pulling several cosmetics from his cosmos sack along with a fresh dress in pale, cream-colored silk. He'd prepared a few outfits for his cosmos sack in case he ever needed to change rapidly between his masculine self and his feminine guise and right now he was glad he'd done so.
While the cream-colored dress wasn't as impressive as the midnight blue and gold dress trimmed in Burning Yang Sun Bear fur, it was at least clean and fresh for his next meeting with the Hall Master. More importantly, the act of changing out of the dress he'd been so badly humiliated in helped him repair a layer of his mental and emotional armor.
"I'm still far too weak," he admitted. Hall Master Bian Xing had been right to chastise him for making moves too early. He'd made the wrong move from the moment he challenged Xiong Dahuo, he realized. Everything that followed after that had been built on the wrong premise and the wrong foundation. Su Xiang wasn't in any danger from the older Brawler, in fact, she'd likely have beaten him more easily than Wu Ling had. In terms of doing right by his sworn sister, he'd gained nothing for her.
Painting his lips and eyelids a gentle peach, Wu Ling contemplated where else he'd gone wrong lately. At the banquet, he'd exposed many of his skills in order to best the disciple from the Sanguine Saber Sect. That gave the assembled young lords from a number of sects a taste of his capabilities and marked him out as a unique sort of artist.
Fan Chaoyang in particular seemed to be the most capable among the young lords gathered around Fang Lin and he'd demonstrated a keen eye that seemed to file away each of Wu Ling's actions in exquisite detail. "Tipping off the rest was bad enough, but that man is dangerous," he acknowledged.
Of the men he'd met at the banquet, Zhang Buyan felt like the most straightforward. He might be aggressive but he had a pure, very genuine cast to his aura that spoke of tempering and loyalty to others. The color gold suited him quite well. Yu Jinqi was clearly intelligent, but timid and overshadowed easily by the powerful martial figures of the group. Liu Mingtao was the most distasteful, it seemed like whatever status he enjoyed had spoiled him rotten until there was nothing left but self-indulgence and entitled arrogance.
Fan Chaoyang, however, held himself apart from all of it. He watched everything with a calculating gaze that reminded Wu Ling of Warden Mu when she was planning dangerous missions. Revealing his skills to that man was sure to come back and haunt him if they ever crossed paths again.
Finally finished restoring his appearance, Wu Ling left the room he'd changed in and wove his way through familiar hallways until he reached a private garden at the back of the Twilight Pavilion. Warden Mu Shien flashed him a gentle smile as she deactivated the formations protecting the garden.
"When you're ready to meet with the Hall Master, I'll take you back. You still have enough time for two sticks of incense to burn so take your time thinking about things," she advised gently.
In the garden, Wu Ling sank down onto a comfortable bench beside a burbling fountain and ran back over the other consequences of his actions. Hall Master had mentioned flaunting his power over other disciples and in truth, perhaps he had. Did he really need to rope in Senior Sister Die and other members of the sect just to distract Xiong Dahuo and his friends? Hardly. Sure it had been easy, but what had that cost him?
"No one I was with knew that the Drifting Silk Pavilion was owned by the Bamboo Silk House," he realized. "Even if people don't immediately ascertain which sect owns the establishment, if word spreads, then guests of the Drifting Silk Pavilion may be less unguarded while there. Gathering information from guests will become harder. Even worse, some disciples may be harmed if anyone attempts to learn the secrets of who exactly is behind the business. I've really stepped in it for that one," he admitted to himself.
On the other hand, it hadn't all been for nothing. If life was a chess board then he'd gained new pieces by making his moves. Zhang Buyan wanted to take him on an expedition to fight Spirit Beasts in the foothills surrounding Silver Sword City. That alone would present growth opportunities he may have struggled to gain with just himself and Su Xiang working together.
More than that, his actions at the banquet had built the bridge with Su Yao that he needed to bring her into the Bamboo Silk House as a disciple. For a future fourth-stage cultivator, the sect would usually expend great effort. Exposing a side business that mostly functioned as a listening post in the Golden Mist Ward in return for a disciple like Su Yao was a fairly worthy trade. He could have accomplished the same things without getting into an explosive confrontation with Xiong Dahuo but demonstrating his skills made it much easier to build Su Yao's enthusiasm for cultivation and her confidence that her Calligraphy could be powerful.
The crux of it was in the Calligraphy he'd sent to his half-sister. If he thought about it, could Xiong Dahuo be relied on to be a discrete courier? Would others learn of what transpired at the banquet when he sent the young disciple of the Sanguine Saber Sect to carry a message to his imprisoned family members?
"After I humiliated him, not only does he have plenty of motive to throw my gift in the river and forget about it, but he can tell everything to the elders of the Sanguine Saber Sect and likely even earn some small reward for it. I won't be able to surprise anyone in the Sanguine Saber Sect with the abilities I demonstrated at the banquet. That makes rescuing my family harder."
At the moment, as far as Wu Ling was aware, the Sanguine Saber Sect intended to use him as a stepping stone for his half-sister Yun Xuejing. By forcing her to kill her own half-brother, they would cement her loyalty to the sect and temper her blade in cruelty. Now that Wu Ling had demonstrated such unusual skills, however, would they really let someone like him grow?
"If Xiong Dahuo betrays me," he realized. "The Sanguine Saber Sect will come for my head before I can defend myself. Worse, they might even come for Mother!"