"You picked this for me before you even knew which cultivation manual I'd choose. Are you sure this is the right one for me?" Yao Meifeng asked, avoiding looking into Wu Ling's sincere silvery eyes by focusing on the gleaming instrument on the table.
"I knew that Florist Dongtian was going to help you with an ice attributed manual," Wu Ling said. "I confirmed with Sister Fu Xi that this should work with most ice and water manuals in the sect. There's another reason for this choice though," he added, wrapping his arms around her from behind.
"I made my breakthrough to the middle stage during a Lunar eclipse. I will always have some connection to Lunar Yin and the Lunar Purpleheart carries that trace as well. I hope when I can't be around as much as I might want to, that this zither reminds you of me, at least a little bit," he said with a slight smile and a soft squeeze. "And if its power helps to keep you safe in my stead, then that's a good thing too."
"I'll treasure it," Yao Meifeng said, turning in Wu Ling's embrace to wrap her arms around his slender waist and bury her head on his chest. At the moment, he might not look like the man who had begun to appear in her dreams of a better future, but whether he was her best friend and junior sister from school or the handsome senior brother who'd brought her into the Bamboo Silk House, he had become the person she cared about the most.
After giving Yao Meifeng a parting hug that lasted several moments longer than was proper for close friends or sect sisters, Wu Ling led Su Yao through the twisting paths of the sect until they exited from the bustling entrance they'd passed through just several hours earlier.
"Now that you're outside," Wu Ling asked gently, "how do you feel?"
"Jumbled," Su Yao said honestly as the two began to thread their way through the crowd. "I thought we were just going to tour the sect when we came here but now I've already joined," she continued, biting her lip nervously as she considered her words. "I don't think I made the wrong choice. In fact, I'm sure I made the right one," she said with increasing conviction.
"I feel like I've climbed the stairs to stand on top of the city walls and looked out at the world outside for the first time. Now that I've seen it, I can go back down the stairs but I can never pretend that there isn't a bigger world out there waiting for me," she explained. "With what Florist Dongtian said about my potential, if I threw myself into an arranged marriage now, I'd only be throwing away my future. I'd never leave the city walls."
"I think that's a good way to think of it," Wu Ling said, pleased to hear that she was comfortable with her decision. "I'll support you when you tell your parents. If they're angry, I can at least take the blame for leading you astray. Also, I didn't want to bring them out earlier but I picked up a few things for your calligraphy as well, consider them a welcome to the sect gift from your Senior Sister," he said with a smile.
"Junior Sister Wu Ling? Junior Sister, it is you!" A squeaky, mouse-like voice called from across the street, pulling both Wu Ling and Su Yao's attention away from their conversation.
Across the street, Liang Xuanji bounced eagerly up and down, the twin buns of her hair bouncing almost as much as her petite chest did with the motion. Next to her, a tall and elegant young man stood shaking his head at his elder sister's lack of decorum.
Still, as a gentleman, there was no way he could refuse to help his sister when she encountered one of her friends, so as soon as the excited mouse-like Scholar made a move to step into the busy street, he stepped next to her and projected enough of his aura to encourage the crowd to move around them.
"Senior Sister Liang, it's good to see you again," Wu Ling greeted warmly. "I don't believe you've met our Junior Sister Su Yao, she's Su Xiang's younger cousin and she just graduated from the Pure Virtue Musician's Hall."
"Oh my goodness," Liang Xuanji said, taking in the younger woman's blossoming figure and crystal blue eyes. "You're very different from Brawler Su, but I can see the resemblance," she said somewhat tactlessly.
"I owe your cousin and Junior Sister Wu a debt for keeping all of us safe in the mountains during the Lunar Eclipse," she added earnestly. "Oh, where are my manners? Junior sisters, this is my younger brother, Soldier Liang Xiong," she said, instantly reducing the heroic figure who helped save the Soft Grass farming community to the stature of a little brother.
"Little Brother Xiong," she continued eagerly, unaware of the damage she was doing to her brother's image. "This is the Junior Sister I told you about who fought off a Burning Yang Sun Bear with just a paintbrush!"
Seeing the vision of a woman before him introduced as the very same woman his sister had been begging to introduce him to ever since she returned from her expedition, Liang Xiong's world shook. His heart trembled in his chest, blood rushed in his ears and the crowd around them seemed to fade away until he was left with nothing in his sight but the silver-eyed beauty in the cream-colored dress. It took a sharp pinch from his elder sister before he returned to his senses enough to say something to the most enchanting woman he'd ever laid eyes on.
"Beauty Wu," he managed to say without stumbling over his words, bowing elegantly. "When my sister described your beauty and your bravery, I struggled to believe such a perfect woman could exist in this world. Now I find that if anything, she underpraised your magnificence," he continued smoothly, recovering from the shock of meeting her. "We were just out to shop a bit but since fate has gifted us the opportunity to meet, perhaps you'd join us for tea?"
"Tea, yes, Little Brother Xiong always has the best ideas," Liang Xuanji gushed as soon as her brother made the suggestion. "Junior sisters, I haven't had the chance to properly treat my guardians since we returned from the mountains."
"Junior Sister Wu, I know that Brawler Su isn't with us but will you at least let me thank you by treating you to some tea and sweets? I promise, my brother is a perfect gentleman," she said with a smile, pushing her taller brother forward a few steps. "He won't be a bore either, he's both a Soldier and an Initiate Scholar," she beamed with pride.
"Senior Sister Liang, Soldier Liang," Wu Ling began, trying to find the most polite way to refuse. Between the Hall Master's painful lesson, the revelations about his bloodline, and everything else that had occurred at the sect today, his entire body ached with fatigue that flowed from the core of his bones until it prickled against his skin.
"Today has been very busy for Junior Sister Su and me. There is still much both of us need to do before the day is done," he said gently. "Perhaps another time?"
"Senior Sister, if it's just tea, I'm sure we could," Su Yao began, only to wilt under Wu Ling's stare.
"I promised to help you talk to your parents, didn't I?" Wu Ling prompted her gently. "Putting it off won't make the conversation any easier."
Looking at the uncomfortable expression on Su Yao's face and the way Wu Ling reached out to comfort her, the Liang siblings exchanged an awkward look before Liang Xiong took a step back.
"Fairies, I apologize for being so forward," he said smoothly. "Of course, you have your own business to attend to. Can I offer to escort you? I've heard that the Outer City has been restless lately after several of the third-ranked sects purged any of their junior disciples who had been accused of using their cultivation to bully women," he explained. "I wouldn't want to see you become the target of some displaced cultivator's misplaced resentment."
"Several?" Wu Ling said, mildly surprised. "I was only aware that the Red Tiger's Den had done so. Maybe someone is finally putting pressure on the smaller sects to keep their disciples in line. Still, we aren't going far, I just need to return home to settle a few matters before I hire a carriage to return Junior Sister Su home and speak with her parents about a few matters," Wu Ling said, firmly declining the offer of an escort.
"Senior Sister Liang, it was good to see you again," he said brightly. "When I next see Sister Su Xiang I'll talk to her about paying a visit to the Amber Lily Academy again so we can have proper tea," he offered.
"That would be lovely," Liang Xuanji said enthusiastically. "Just give me a day or two of notice when you're ready to visit and I'll make sure Little Xiong can join us too," she added with a smile that stretched from ear to ear. "Or, in a few days, the Amber Lily Academy will be holding an Alchemy Exchange and Conference about the Lunar Eclipse. Perhaps you could visit then?"