For the next several days, the group returned to cultivating with renewed purpose. Fang Lin seemed particularly driven, often asking Jin Wuya to help test his barrier formations against both her physical attacks and her flames.
Whether it was a result of finally being able to walk about the camp with only minimal support from his bamboo staff or because he was terrified of being caught undefended in Bufa City, it was hard to say, but the effort he put in was clear to everyone.
Wu Ling had prepared a second pendant, similar to the one he presented to Yu Jinqi, that he bestowed on Xiong Dahuo. Once the two were equipped with the talismans, they expanded their hunting range considerably.
If not for the fact that Yu Jinqi demanded time to practice and study using the things they harvested on their trip, Xiong Dahuo might have disappeared for days at a time as he immersed himself in the greater senses bestowed by the totem.
Wu Ling had settled in more comfortably while dressed as Hua Qianhu. He did so, in part, because it felt more difficult to restrain himself when he donned his feminine appearance. It felt almost like he'd gone back to his final months at the Pure Virtue Musician's Hall, when he knew everyone and could freely relax and gossip or attend parties without the fear of exposing himself.
More than that, the longer he spent as Qianhu, the less he felt 'stretched thin.' Thus far, on the trip, he'd been working very hard to fit in with Zhang Buyan and the other men on the trip, but in doing so, he'd felt an uncomfortable distance from Jin Wuya.
She held the same barriers and distance from him that she held from the other men, only relaxing and drawing close to Su Xiang. After so many years of being 'one of the girls,' it felt oddly isolating to have a young woman keeping her distance from him as though he could turn out to be a wolf at any moment.
Moreover, ever since his display when he first appeared as Hua Qianhu among his new friends, Jin Wuya maintained a different sort of distance from him. It was as though he threatened her on some deep level that she herself may not be aware of, but she'd kept away from him nonetheless.
Finally, Wu Ling broke down and asked Su Xiang to have the young woman visit him while he worked on a totem for her. While he disliked the roundabout approach, he'd spent more than enough time at the Pure Virtue Musician's Hall to know that this was how the game was played.
"You wanted to see me, Understudy Hua?" Jin Wuya asked, hesitantly approaching the space where Wu Ling sat among a pile of bones, overlooking the quiet surface of the lake.
Sitting there, in a crimson and black dress with bones littered about his feet, somehow only made the young woman feel that he was even more deadly than he'd been when he told them about his massacre of the men from the Mountain's Bones gang. His aura hadn't been intimidating then, but now that he outclassed her by an entire realm, she couldn't deny that his image in her mind had shifted radically.
"You used to call me 'Brother Wu,'" Wu Ling said softly, setting a file on his knees and waving for Jin Wuya to join him. "Just because I've broken through doesn't mean you need to become formal all of the sudden. Your turn will come soon, I'm sure of it."
"Perhaps, but it still feels like I have a long way to go to catch up," she said, struggling to meet Wu Ling's gaze and instead looking out over the lake. "Was there something you needed from me?"
"Two things," Wu Ling said, carefully watching the shifting colors dancing around the young woman and trying to tease out what might be causing them. "Would you like to start with the hard one, or the easy one?"
"Easy first, I suppose," Jin Wuya answered, still looking at the soothing waves as they lapped against the lakeshore. It wasn't the vast lake that Silver Sword City bordered but the gentle waves reminded her of calm days in her sect and helped to soothe her troubled heart. "I would hate to tire myself out from a difficult task and not be able to begin something easy."
"It's not that kind of difficult though," Wu Ling said softly. "Doesn't matter. Come sit next to me and take a look at what I'm working on," he said, clearing a space on the ground beside the stump he currently perched on.
"Is that the totem you have been making for me?" Jin Wuya asked hesitantly. She'd seen Xiong Dahuo and Yu Jinqi excitedly using theirs and she'd been looking forward to her own even as she felt awkward about the person making it.
"It is, it's the most challenging one I've made so far," Wu Ling admitted. "This one will be a hairpin, taken from the forelimb of one of the Blood Moon Mist Wolves."
"Blood Moon Mist Wolves? I thought that, that Sister Hua was only using the bones of the Red Mist Wolves to make totems," She said, stumbling slightly over the form of address but trying to do as Wu Ling had asked.
"I might get away with that for anyone else, but not for you," Wu Ling explained. "You're far too special, too unique, and too extraordinary for something like a totem carved from a Red Mist Wolf," he said sincerely.
"You don't have to waste pretty words on me," she said, giving him an odd look. "I know I don't measure up to Sister Su's beauty, much less your own," she added with a trace of bitterness. It truly wasn't fair.
Just as she'd begun to work up the courage to draw closer to Zhang Buyan, Wu Ling came out, instantly capturing the attention of every man in their camp with his dazzling looks and he wasn't even truly a woman!
She knew that women of her sect weren't often seen as attractive by others but she'd hoped that it wouldn't matter when courting someone like Senior Brother Zhang. Yet, when Wu Ling appeared with a willowy waist and perfect, delicate features….
Everyone had stopped to stare, including Senior Brother Zhang. She still didn't know how she felt about her senior brother, but how could anything blossom between them if his attention could be pulled away by the next beautiful woman he met?