Wu Ling had never intended to harm anyone with what he considered a bit of harmless flirting and teasing, but without knowing, he'd greatly stoked the fires of uncertainty and inferiority that Jin Wuya had long thought she'd tamped down within her heart.
"Oh, I see," Wu Ling said, seeing a surge in the dull brownish-yellow inferiority and brilliant green envy. "Sister Jin," he said, putting aside his carving and looking deeply into the young woman's golden eyes. "Until a few days ago, the words I'd have used to describe you would have been 'radiant', 'sculpted', and 'heavenly.'"
"Sister Xiang is a beauty to be sure," Wu Ling acknowledged because it was true and it would be foolish not to. "But she's very different from you. There isn't a centimeter of your body that doesn't speak to your dedication, your strength, your poise, and your grace."
"You possess these things, not because you were born as some kind of celestial maiden, but because you work hard every day to obtain them and the heavens themselves have blessed your efforts," he praised.
"And yet, one moment of your presence captures the eyes of everyone, as though the sun had truly risen and I was just a candle, quietly burning by the side," Jin Wuya said, staring at the soft ground as though her hopes had been cast beneath her feet.
"That's not fair," Wu Ling protested. "Not fair to yourself. What happened that night, that was an accident. It doesn't excuse anything, but maybe I should give you a better explanation about what the manual I cultivate for my soul is really for," Wu Ling said, reaching out to place a finger under Jin Wuya's chin and turning her gaze back toward him.
"I asked my master for help becoming a more deadly assassin," Wu Ling confessed directly. If a life with Su Xiang had taught him anything it was that sometimes, you needed the power of very direct, truthful words if you wanted to reach someone.
"I cultivate the word 'Attraction' so that I can come close to my targets," he explained. "Close enough to be 'Deadly,' hopefully without needing to kill others to reach my targets and escape. There are people in this world that need to die, but I don't want to become a monster drowning in slaughter to do it."
"I'm also something of a shapeshifter," he added. "This appearance of mine, it's cultivated along with my manual. I don't talk about this much, but I carry the bloodline of the Mercurial Mist Fox. That's what lets me shift my appearance like this. I'm not very good at controlling it, but I've been doing it to some extent or another for as long as I was hiding my identity."
"Sister Jin, for a few moments, I may have outshined you," Wu Ling said softly. "But what outshined you isn't my real appearance, it's only my sorcery. Take that away and I think you're far more stunning than I am."
"I, I think I understand," Jin Wuya said after several moments. "But, Sister Hua, the way everyone looked at you… No one has ever looked at me that way, not even Senior Brother Zhang."
"You know, the very first night I met Brother Zhang, he wanted to secure a portrait from me to help attract your eye," Wu Ling said. "When I came to the sect to ask him to join this trip, the first thing he asked for in return was my help in attracting your attention to him."
"To Brother Zhang," Wu Ling continued. "I think you are the sun in his sky that blots out the moon and the stars with her radiant beauty. Without a bit of sorcery, he'd never look at me the way he did that night."
"But," Wu Ling added. "If Sister Jin doesn't believe me, then maybe I can help convince her," Wu Ling said, standing up from the stump and offering his hands to Jin Wuya to help her up. "Come back to camp with me. Brother Zhang and Sister Xiang are practicing at the moment, it should be peaceful enough that I can work my magic on you. Then, you're going to do me a small favor and get something from Brother Zhang for me."
Once they returned to Wu Ling's hut, he brought out all of his makeup, brushes, and accessories before he set to work on the young Brawler. While he worked, for the next hour, he chatted with Jin Wuya about the parties he attended with other girls from the Pure Virtue Musician's Hall and how they differed from gatherings of girls at the Golden Tide Martial Sect.
Though Jin Wuya confessed to having a few friends with skill at cosmetics, for the most part, few women in the sect invested much attention in their outward appearance, leaving the sect with a reputation for helping women to cultivate a 'mannish' appearance.
Wu Ling, however, had never seen them as such. The school he attended was filled with young artists, many of whom were hoping to find a marriage partner in case they failed to awaken. Even those who did awaken frequently set their sights on attracting a worthy suitor.
With so many artists helping each other with their makeup, Wu Ling had long come to separate the notion of a 'beautiful face' from 'a face wearing skillful makeup.' He could admire the beauty of skillful makeup, but that was a different thing from the face underneath it. The fault he saw in Jin Wuya and many others was failing to recognize what they themselves would look like with a similar level of skillful application of paints and powders.
He also worked at her hair, brushing out any of the dust that had already accumulated after her early morning training and restoring it to a shimmering, lustrous golden hue. Then he expertly styled it with a few pins and an elegant flame-shaped hair pin he'd acquired recently because Hou liked it.
"There," Wu Ling said as he placed the last element. "You look as radiant as the sun itself. Now, I need you to get something from Brother Zhang for me," Wu Ling said. Reaching into his cosmos sack, he pulled out a small slate, a bit of chalk, and a measuring cord.
"For Brother Zhang's totem, I'm planning to carve a set of rings for the phases of the moon that will help him to gather the energy of the tides in his strikes," Wu Ling explained. "Take this cord and measure the size of his fingers between the first and second knuckle of each finger, then write down the measurements and bring them back to me.
"Um, okay," Jin Wuya said, taking the items from Wu Ling. "But, before I go, can I see how I look? You have a small mirror don't you?"
"I do have a mirror, but you don't get to see until you come back with the measurements," Wu Ling said with a mischievous grin. "Now go, I'm sure Brother Zhang won't mind the interruption," Wu Ling said, shooing her out of the hut and in the direction of the place Su Xiang and Zhang Buyan were currently practicing.