NOVEL NEXT Prologue: Want of a Nail
A man called Jin Rou stared out into the sky from a floating island. It was silent, save for the occasional gust of wind.
He sighed.
When Gramps had said he had to go, Rou hadn’t known what to expect. Gramps had said he was going to a sect, and Rou had been quite excited. He even said that he would be calling the person they were meeting ‘Grandmother’.
Rou went to sleep that night excited…. And woke up to the stern eyes of a woman on a floating island.
Most of her face was hidden behind a veil, but her icy blue eyes were so sharp he feared that he would be pierced by them.
This most certainly wasn’t a woman to call grandmother. Indeed, she had introduced herself to him as “Lady Falcon.”
She was a strange woman, Lady Falcon. She had the same air about her as well, she would probably kill him for thinking it, but she reminded him instantly of a brothel madam. The kind that brooked no foolishness or disrespect. He had had dealings with the Red ladies before, odd jobs like cleaning, or rat catching, or even taking out their trash. Most of them were, if not kind, fair to an orphan who didn’t steal and did his job without complaint. Once Madam Red Oak had even gotten her girls to heat him some water bought him a meal after he spent the day hip deep in sewage, clearing a backed up sewer drain.
Don’t let your eyes wander, bow appropriately, and answer all of her questions to the best of your ability. That was how one got along with such a woman, and didn’t get the bouncers called on his ass.
Lady Falcon seemed to approve of his demeanor, and would come by occasionally to check on him. He wasn’t allowed to ask her anything about cultivation… But she checked up on him and spoke to him about his progress.
It was weird.. But nice. She even took off her veil, once. She was stunningly beautiful, but Rou managed to tear his eyes away…and then she has started visiting even more often. She started staying for hours at a time, asking him about his life, and swapping embarrassing stories about Gramps. She had told him about the time when he fell off a building right into a pile of shit, and Rou had laughed for a good ten minutes.
Even now the thought brought a smile to his face.
Rou took a deep breath, and turned away from the edge of the floating island, and back towards his “home.”
The house was big. The finest thing Rou had ever set foot in. He had an entire floating island to himself, and he had cultivation manuals from Gramps he could use.
But it was kind of lonely. There was no sound, save the wind and the birds. Rou had grown up in the city, and to suddenly have the silence was… unnerving. He was looking forwards to the day when Lady Falcon visited him again.
His musing was interrupted by an explosion. He nearly jumped out of his skin, at the sound of the detonation, whirling around just in time to get hit by a backwash of air and Qi
The swirling tornado of two cultivators locked in combat slammed into his island.
Blood filed his mouth, and the world went dark.
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“Eh Seiyu, I think we hit something.” One of the women said, as she dragged herself out of the crater.
“What? These islands should be empty—oh heavens, did we hit a storage house?” The woman named Seiyu got up and looked around, her keen senses catching something in the rubble. “Bailu! We hit somebody!”
Bailu paled. “Ah, hells. I’ll get the medicine. We can kowtow to our sister later—thats a man.
”“What?! A man? In the Soaring Heavens Isle Sect? Who would dare—”
There was a sudden crack of displaced air, and an outpouring of intent so fierce it drove both of them to their knees.
Elder Minyan’s veil was stained red from where she had spat blood into it. Her eyes were wide and panicked, as they looked on to the near dead boy in Seiyu’s grip.
Then, her eyes narrowed with fury.
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Tianzhe Minyan was staring at little Rou’s face, as he slumbered. Her own emotions were at a boiling point.
He was grievously injured—but he would live.
Really, that bastard Shen Yu coming to her sect with a boy! And asking her to take care of him! The boy wasn’t even Yu’s blood!
But, damn her, she couldn’t refuse when the bastard came to her and asked politely. He bowed! He never did that!
“I considered the Cloudy Sword Sect. but.. I trust you the most to look after him, Min’er.”
Her face heated up at the memory, the tenderness with which he asked—how weak was she to blush like a fairy hundreds of years her junior!
She had said yes without thinking! And then, when she realised what she said she would do.
Look after a boy Shen Yu called his grandson!
One he had personally raised! The grandson of that infamous lecher so close to an all female sect?!
She had expected easy confidence bordering on arrogance; the epitome of a man forging ahead on his own ideals, just like Shen Yu.
“Thank you for having me… uh, Gramps said I should call you Grandmother, but…” The boy winced.
Grandmother?! The cheek of Shen Yu! But the boy was at least smart enough to actually ask her.
“You may refer to me as Lady Falcon.” She told the boy.
Instead, she got a boy who was nervous and unsure of himself. He wasn’t cocky, and instead he was a diligent, hard worker— though some of his questions were most amusing! He asked her if she needed the trash shoveled so he could earn his keep! How amusing! He had spoken of his life and his hardships without resentment. He was earnest, in a way that was rather refreshing, if she was honest.
Had Shen Yu actually raised this boy?! Minyan had her doubts. But he was amusing to talk to, and She now had several stories for her sisters. Shen Yu, getting his wine replaced by horse piss? She had managed to hold in her laughter until she got back to her pavilion, then was indisposed for the better part of half an hour. Oh, Minyan was going to bring that one up, when she saw him next.
But while his temperament was quite pleasing, his outlook was not. He thought he was weak and hopeless, because Shen Yu said he was. Really, the boy had only been cultivating for Six years, and he was already at the fifth stage of the Initiate’s realm? It wasn’t astounding, but it would have reached Minyan’s expectations for any of her own disciples, especially since the boy had not received any resources!
Shen Yu was absolutely useless at raising children. Not that Minyan really had experience either, but she could tell that much. Her loins had not produced any fruit—Shen Yu was too hung up on that fool woman and her demonic spawn to notice her desires. Minyan would have produced a much more suitable heir than that, but no, Shen Yu had sworn off a child of his blood.
The bastard.
But she supposed little Rou was fine enough. He was particularly good at growing herbs, she found. There had even been notes on his table that was some manner of combined technique—one that would be quite interesting.
He had grown on her, the child. Polite, hard working, and diligent. Something she would want in her own child.
And now…now he was laying in the medical wing, barely clinging to life. Minyan had spat blood and nearly had an internal deviation when the wards had broken, and she had rushed over to see what had happened.
Her own students! Her own damn students nearly killed him!
It… it had not been ideal. Shen Yu had trusted her with this, and the boy had nearly died through the actions of Soaring Heaven Isle’s disciples.
Minyan touched the boy’s neck, confirming the weak but steady pulse, and then turned to where two disciples still had their heads pressed against the floor, frozen and unmoving.
Literally. She made sure to avoid the nerves, so that they could experience their muscles freezing and defrosting, rupturing and liquefying then freezing again after their Qi-empowered constitutions healed the damage.
“You two are very, very lucky.” Minyan informed the women. She idly considered freezing them completely and then shattering them anyway. “He yet lives, and thus, you yet live.”
She unfroze their mouths so they could answer her magnanimous actions.
.”We thank you for your benevolence, Elder!” Both girls choked out. “We are ready to pay with our lives for harming your son!”
Son?! Well, she supposed it was a bit of an obvious choice, Tianzhe Minyan being so protective of somebody else? Unheard of. But it was still annoying.
“Is it true?!” a voice demanded, as Lili, the Crane of the South Wind, materialized out of thin air. Her eyes were wide. “I was wondering what all this commotion was about—Min’er, is it true?! You have a son?”
Tianzhe Minyan was screaming internally. Any other answer would have a lot of problems…
“...Yes, he is mine.”
“With who—wait, is he?! Shen Yu?!”
Minyan inclined her head.
Her Sister’s eyes widened. “Shen Yu finally—Minyan! Why did you not tell me!” She whined, as she hugged Minyan, her gesture full of warmth.
“... I did not want to test our Sister’s tolerance. The rules are absolute.”
Lili puffed out her cheeks. “Such a stickler! Who would dare deny Minyan’s child the protection of our sect?! I will fight tooth and nail for your rights—oh, we have to tell the rest of our Sisters!”
And just like that any chance of keeping things quiet went out the window.
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