Warden Mu Shien watched in shock as energy swirled around Wu Ling. She'd received Florist Dongtian's message that Wu Ling was close to breaking through and becoming a late-stage Aesthete but when she'd heard 'close' she hadn't thought that it meant this close! One lesson from the Hall Master was all it had taken to push the young disciple over the edge.
Mu Shien wasn't sure who in this interaction was more terrifying. Wu Ling for advancing her cultivation immediately on receiving the Hall Master's instruction, or Hall Master Bian Xing for having the perfect insight to deliver exactly the lesson Wu Ling needed. The answer was likely that both of them were monsters and it was good to be in a sect that had both of them!
"I take it that you learned something from the Hall Master's lesson," Mu Shien said when Wu Ling's long lashes fluttered and opened to reveal his striking silver eyes.
"I learned that I haven't come as far as I thought I had," Wu Ling agreed. "And that just because I've awakened doesn't mean I've stopped needing teachers. I've gone from being one of the best mortals in my tiny school to a very inexperienced cultivator and while I thought I had prepared myself to study hard, I needed Hall Master's lesson to remind me that there's more to learning than studying hard."
"Good that you know," Warden Mu said, placing a gentle hand on Wu Ling's shoulder. "I'll take you back to the Hall Master now, assuming you're ready?" Seeing Wu Ling nod, she once again guided the young disciple through the Twilight Pavilion until they reached the entrance of the small office where Wu Ling had received his lesson from the Hall Master.
"Just remember, you're still a sister here," Mu Shien said gently. "Hall Master won't do anything too drastic to you, no matter how much you've erred. Accept what's coming and you'll do fine," she advised.
"Thank you, Warden Mu," Wu Ling answered with a slight bow before stepping into the Hall Master's office and offering a much deeper bow. "Disciple Wu Ling thanks Hall Master for the many lessons," he said formally.
"I see that Florist Dongtian wasn't exaggerating when she said you were close to breaking through," Bian Xing said thoughtfully. "Come, sit, pour a better cup of tea than the last one, and make one for yourself as well," she said, gesturing at a more elegant tea set along with a much higher quality of tea leaves that she'd prepared for this conversation.
"Red Phoenix Leaf?" Wu Ling said as he took his place at the low table and began to prepare tea with his smooth practiced motions. "No wonder Mother Cang didn't have any."
"Your aunt isn't the only one with a preference for this tea," Bian Xing said with a smile as she took the cup Wu Ling presented. Unlike the last cup, this one was clean, and richly aromatic without the bitterness of steeping for too long.
"Let me have a look at you," she said, reaching out with one hand to run a finger along Wu Ling's jaw, turning his head from side to side as she inspected his appearance. "As I expected," she finally said after gazing deeply into his silver eyes. "Your Mercurial Mist Fox bloodline has done remarkable things for you. What I want to know is whether or not you did this to yourself deliberately."
"Did what to myself?" Wu Ling asked, genuinely confused by the question.
"So you don't know," the Hall Master said with a sigh. "I'll find you an appropriate manual later, once we see how quickly you can advance to Understudy," she said.
"I wonder if your mother has realized what you've been doing to yourself?" Bian Xing mused as she regarded the extraordinary young artist before her. "Little Ling, it takes a special sort of person to activate the powers of their bloodline before they awaken. Since your mother hasn't told you about it, I'll do so in her place," she said, her eyes focused on Wu Ling's reactions as she began her explanation.
"For the past several years, you seem to have been using the power of your Mercurial Mist Fox bloodline to shape your own physical development," she said. "Do you think that it's a coincidence that you made it through adolescence without developing a deep voice, thick beard, and powerful body like your father? I imagine that you started shaping yourself not long after you first arrived in the sect," she mused. "You must have been desperate to blend in, terrified of getting caught in your charade."
"Because of your bloodline," the Hall Master continued. "You've landed somewhere in between growing up to be a proper young lord or lady. You're taller than most women and that makes you striking, but shorter than most men in a way that attracts scorn. You're slender and delicate, even at your most masculine you would only ever be called 'pretty' and never 'handsome.' If you force yourself, you can manage to pass as a man, but while you're stuck in between, you haven't landed directly in the middle. If it weren't for a certain appendage and a chest that's flatter than simply being humble, no one would ever take you for a man, even if they saw you naked," she pronounced.
"I know that I resemble my mother much more than my father, but I'm hardly the only man who's slender and delicate. You're saying that this is a manifestation of my bloodline?" Wu Ling asked. "How is that even possible?" He'd always thought that he was just one of those men who wasn't destined to put on much muscle or develop much facial hair, but was there really something more to this?
"I thought that the power of the Mercurial Mist Fox was to become insubstantial as mist," Wu Ling said. "That's why Mother is so feared as the Phantom Blade Dancer. By using the power of her bloodline, she could drift over walls, through formations, and even become insubstantial enough to allow her enemies' blades to pass through her."
"That's only one aspect of the Mercurial Mist Fox," Bian Xing said, gesturing for Wu Ling to pour more tea as she continued to explain. "Mercurial Mist Foxes are also among the greatest shapeshifters in the world. I had my suspicions when you kept passing as a woman so convincingly no matter how many years passed, but it's even more clear now that I've received sketches of you when you're not presenting yourself to the world as a woman."
"Sketches?" Wu Ling asked before understanding dawned. "Was it Disciple Die who provided the sketches?"
"Not her, but one of the other junior sisters in her care," the Hall Master answered, not placing much importance on who had provided the sketches. "The important part is what I was able to learn from them. Your flesh is malleable," she said with a smile.
"You're actually changing the shape of your jaw, your cheekbones, brows," she explained. "I believe you're also trimming your waist and altering your hips as well. You're making dozens of adjustments to your body each time you 'dress up' and put on your makeup and you don't even realize it."
"Little Ling," Bian Xing said, leaning forward and setting down her cup of tea. "You're a natural-born shapeshifter."