NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42: Abusive
"Look at them, staring all doe-eyed at each other. Do you see that, interloper? You almost ruined that lovely couple."
Brother Dai's declaration interrupted said couple from their tender moment. His words were directed towards Sister Jin, but it was clear he purposefully said them loud enough for the two to hear.
"Good job seducing Jin, by the way," Brother Dai called out to Feng, giving him a thumbs-up. "I am happy to see that the Young Master is not unpopular with women."
Lianshi glared at the older disciple.
"I, on the other hand, could be said to be very unhappy." She redirected her displeasure at Sister Jin, who froze under her mistress's icy stare. "Especially since the young woman he was fooling around with was none other than one of my trusted bodyguards."
"I-it was a moment of weakness, Mistress Lianshi, I…" Sister Jin stammered in panic. Realising her current bearing was unacceptable for addressing the Young Miss, she squeezed her eyes shut. The disciple took a deep breath, composing herself to a presentable state, before bowing deeply.
"No words can excuse my actions. This worthless one submits herself to her Lady's punishment."
Lianshi, seeing the disciple's genuine guilt, lessened her teasing. "I'm not angry, Jin. Well, maybe a little, but not enough that I would want to hurt you."
She looked over at Feng. "Besides, my Fiancé will get upset if he sees you getting into trouble."
"It was partially my fault as well for not stopping her," he said. "There's no reason for her to take all the blame for it."
"I..." Sister Jin looked unsure.
"You could have afforded to be less selfish, Senior Sister. There's barely any qi left in him for me to plunder later tonight," the Young Miss chided in jest. "Besides, ingesting too much Yang qi in such a short time could destabilise your energies too. Come, let me take a look at you. And take off his robes already. Here, I brought you a spare bodysuit. Lingyu's waiting for you below, and she's worried sick..."
Feng stepped away as Lianshi took the female disciple into her care. The Young Master flexed his weakened qi, assessing his condition.
The events of the day had taken their toll. His Spiritual System was already taxed from the battle with Brother Dai earlier. With the use of the Headless Impure Resurrection Art on top of that, plus the liver he donated from Sister Jin's consumption, Feng's qi reserves were utterly spent.
He was starving. It had been a while since he last felt his hunger so acutely.
"Um, Young Master..."
Feng was pulled from his thoughts as Sister Jin appeared before him. She shyly passed him his robes. "T-thank you for loaning this to me earlier. And… also for everything else we shared. I hope I did not offend."
"There was no offence given. Please do not be worried. Neither I nor Lianshi would see you punished over this." The Young Master reassured her as he dressed himself.
The attire smelled faintly of the disciple, her sweet-scented sweat lingering on the silk-like fabric. It reminded him of her tender ministrations earlier, and how he had not the chance to extract a morsel of flesh from her during the exchange.
What would she taste like, he wondered? Especially in his famished state…
The female cultivator blushed at his look, bowing low before returning to her mistress's side to get dressed.
"And here I brought another set of robes for nothing." Brother Dai leapt off his perch and landed deftly beside the Young Master. "You work quickly, by the way. The charm of a Young Master is strong indeed."
Feng snorted. "Or perhaps the outcome was Sister Jin's intent from the start, once she tasted my flesh."
Dai laughed. "I see you aren't that gullible, at least. It gladdens me to know your years of inexperience have not completely dulled your wits against the wiles of women."
"You cannot call me inexperienced. I've been engaged to Lianshi for years!"
"That doesn't count." Dai waved it off. "Lady Lianshi's love for you is obvious to any with eyes. She would oblige your every demand. I mean no offence, Young Master, but you do not know the trials and tribulations that come with pursuing courtship, especially when it pertains to cultivators."
Feng grew hesitant. After a moment, he quietly protested: "Not entirely. There was Yunjin…"
Brother Dai flinched, his eyes growing nervous. He glanced at Lianshi — who was still deep in a lecture upon Sister Jin and remained unknowing of Feng's words — before breathing a sigh of relief.
"Please do not so casually mention the name of the Decaying Greyroots's Young Miss," the senior grumbled in a low voice. "The affairs of the Ru Clan's Heiress are no longer yours to meddle with. That goes doubly so when the Chen Clan's Heirness, your Fiancée, is near."
Feng grimaced but conceded to his senior's wisdom.
Ru Yunjin… It had been years since he last saw her, and he still thought of her often. But Brother Dai was correct that her affairs were no longer his to concern himself with.
Patriarch Ru of the Decaying Greyroots had made it so.
The older disciple sighed. His qi reached out to Feng's, sensing the Young Master's hunger. "You look absolutely famished, Young Master. Did Jin not even spare you a bite of flesh?"
Feng thought back to the inebriated and lust-filled state the Sister was in earlier. "It might have slipped her mind. She was... otherwise preoccupied."
"Odd. That is unusually selfish of her," Dai commented. "She is known to be a rather gracious lover around our Sect. By the standards of the Split-headed Carnivores, anyway."
Feng glanced at the Senior Brother. "You seem to know her well. Were you two...?"
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Brother Dai coughed.
"Ah. Um, no. That would... complicate certain matters."
He was referring to Sister Shao, then. Feng chuckled. "You have it tough too, huh?"
"I have no idea what you mean," Brother Dai denied with a huff.
"And here I was worried about your future. I have not heard you taking a partner since…" Feng trailed off, unsure if he should mention the name.
"Since your elder sister went missing, you mean," Brother Dai finished without a hint of hesitation. "No need to tiptoe around the topic, Young Master. I am not that fragile."
Hei Xingyu. Hei Feng's elder sister, the First Child and daughter of Patriarch Hei Shang, and the woman who was once hailed as a prodigy and the chosen Heiress of the Hei Clan.
An Heiress who was once engaged to Brother Dai, the most promising male disciple in the Sect at the time.
An Heiress who went missing without a trace eight years ago, during her first external trip to the North Border Gate. Feng's elder sister, along with her entire entourage of twenty disciples and dozens more servants, all seemingly vanished overnight.
It was an unprecedented loss for the Sect. That tragedy was how Feng became Clan Heir, despite being the younger sibling of the family. Even after eight years, the Hei Clan did not manage to find a single clue to their whereabouts, or even if they were still alive.
In another life, his sister would have married Dai, and the man would have become a true brother through familial relations. Feng's marriage to Lianshi might not have held such political weight then, with his position as the second child and the future of the Hei Clan secured in Xingyu.
"I miss her, of course," Brother Dai said wistfully. "Even now, I still cannot really believe she is dead. Her talent outstrips even mine or the Elders of our Sect. For her to simply disappear is..."
The disciple grimaced, before shaking his head. "Well, in any case, I am not going to break down at the mere mention of her. There's no need to act so cautious with her name around me."
"You have moved on, then?" Feng's tone was not accusatory, merely curious.
"It has been almost eight years, Young Master. During that time, I was involved with every search party the Sect sent for her. I threw myself at the vaguest rumour or clues, and neither I nor the Sect ever found anything. I would be a fool — and a poor cultivator besides — if I kept grieving for her even now. As for me moving on with Shao..."
The disciple's expression turned conflicted. "I had the misfortune of meeting that gluttonous witch many years ago, years before I became engaged to your sister. The two of us had indeed shared a sort of... courtship, in the past. It was not a thing of romance or tender companionship. An excess of violence, bloodletting, and unhealthy indulgence would be better phrases to describe that mess of a relationship. But it was... To me, she was..."
Feng watched in surprise as the normally straightforward disciple struggled to find the right word.
"Genuine," Dai finally said. "We met at a difficult point in our lives. Back then, our relative positions within our respective Sects were fragile. I was a poor villager who lucked his way into becoming a disciple, and she was a lowly outcast and favourite victim for her Senior Sisters to torment. Neither of us gave each other the best first impression in our first encounter, either."
There was a forlorn look on Dai's face, as if he were reminiscing about a particularly harsh memory.
"But we both had something the other needed. With no other options, and our fates seemingly bleak without hope, a tentative partnership was made. One born more out of practicality than any real affection or want. Our interactions were fraught with hateful barbs, veiled insults, and brutal abuse. We even nearly killed each other on multiple occasions."
He sighed. "But we never lied about what we expected of each other, no matter how hurtful it was. And somehow, that was enough to make it more sincere than any other relationship either of us had at the time. I suppose we grew to trust each other, for a certain definition of the word."
Feng stared at the disciple, processing this side of the Senior that he had never seen before.
"If I knew you were cheating on my sister with such a passionate tryst on the side, I would have hit you even harder in our duel earlier," the Young Master stated.
"Passionate— did you not hear a word I just said? I was in an abusive relationship!" Dai exclaimed, exasperated.
"From what I understand, it was a mutually abusive relationship. I doubt either you or Senior Sister Shao are the type to simply accept a one-sided trade in your affair."
Dai could complain about his partnership with Shao all he wanted, but there was no denying the fond smile Feng saw on his face when he spoke of her.
"That hardly makes it better, Young Master." The disciple shook his head. "Good grief, I feel bad for Lianshi now. She has her work cut out for her."
"What has my work cut out for me?" The Young Miss interjected as she stepped over to them with a single leap. Evidently, she had finished her affairs with Jin.
"This idiot here. And I mean that with the utmost respect, Young Master," Dai said brazenly. He looked around. "Where's Jin?"
"Off to fetch my little sister. We are due for a pretty important meeting." Lianshi looked over to the Young Master. "You need to come along as well, Feng. It's part of the reason why I came here looking for you earlier."
Feng grimaced. "I still need to seek Elder Jun. He—"
"Is long gone from here by now," Dai interrupted. "I won't be surprised if he's already back in his estate after making a thorough complaint about me to the Sect of Internal Affairs." He shook his head. "You would think an Elder would have enough backbone to challenge a disciple head-on himself, but it appears that even the lofty title could not cure Jun of his cowardice."
"He did challenge you before. You defeated him in front of the entire Sparring Hall and left his position humiliated for weeks," Feng recalled.
Brother Dai coughed. "In any case, the bastard can wait until tomorrow. Better yet, I'll find him myself and tell him that you summoned him for a meeting in the morning. That way, you won't have to go out of your way to look for the slug."
"It befits your position as Young Master as well," Lianshi agreed. "You would do well to exercise your authority every now and again, especially to those whose advancements are greater than yours. Otherwise, you would never command their respect."
Seeing as both of them were in agreement, Feng could only yield.
"Very well," he relented, before addressing Lianshi. "Since I am now freed of my burdens, dare I ask what event necessitates both the Chen Sisters as well as myself?"
Lianshi grinned widely, her excitement barely restrained. "The esteemed Patriarch of your Sect has invited us to a private dinner, with just the four of us. Come on, we are already late. I can practically smell the food already, and it would be rude of me not to greet my Father-in-Law."
Sect Attire, Part 2
The materials chosen for Disciple garbs are left up to the means of the Sect. Fire-focused Sects may utilise fire-resistant hide and threads for the making of their robes, while Yin-heavy monasteries may weave moonstones or use flame-blackened raiments to better allow their disciples to absorb ambient Yang qi in moments of scant daylight.
Other forms of accessories are usually up to the means and preference of the cultivator. Jewellery, talismans, or expensive silk are all ways by which one may distinguish themselves from their peers and rivals, signifying their superior status or wealth.
Disciples may also modify their Sect robes should they wish to add a personal touch to their attire. Those who are prudent may increase the protection around vital areas like the neck or groin with hardened Spirit Beast leather, provided that they have the funds and connections to accomplish this. Those who are wealthier still may even eschew wearing their standardised Sect attire entirely, choosing to don personalised garbs or Clan attire instead if the apparel proves superior.
Standardised Sect armour is a rare sight in the Outer Province — given the scarcity of worthy Spirit metal to be found in those lands — but less so within the Inner and Core Provinces. The most famous examples would be the cultivator armies of the Border Gate Provinces, as well as the legendary warrior legions of the Imperial Army, who would don war plates and chain mail whose individual value dwarfs that of entire lesser Clans or mortal villages.
It is a common saying that if one in the Outer Province were to face a cultivator decked in full armour, it is far wiser to flee instead of fight.
– Excerpt from A Citizen's Guide to the Flesh-Grafted Empire