Jin Shu smoothly changed the subject before the discussion circled back to his marriage.
“How did she end up reverting to an egg in the first place?”
Hu Ling’s laughter faded, her expression turning thoughtful.
“I suppose I can tell you,” she said. “You’re not exactly an outsider, considering you’re Long Ling’s ancestor’s reincarnation. And Big Sister i’er, well… I suppose I can't beat her so she might as well listen too.”
She shrugged and the pavilion quieted.
A story about a supre being like the White Tiger was rare—especially one so otherworldly.
“A few hundred years ago, the four Divine Beasts descended. For the Azure Dragon, Black Tortoise, and Vermilion Bird, it was only a wisp of immortal consciousness. But our ancestor descended in her true body.”
She paused.
“Only… she was gravely injured. On the verge of death.”
Everyone inhaled sharply.
An immortal being, injured to that extent?
“Our ancestor used an immortal technique to reverse her own ti,” Hu Ling continued. “It unraveled her cultivation and returned her to the state of an unhatched egg.”
“Hold on,” Jin Shu interrupted. “Don’t tigers give birth to live young?”
Hu Ling nodded. “We do. Which is precisely why we were baffled by her condition—and had no idea what to do with her.”
“The elders proposed many solutions,” she went on calmly. “Infusing her with qi. Warming her with body heat. Placing her in an avian spirit beast’s nest.”
“...You put her in a bird’s nest?” Jin Shu asked.
“Briefly.”
“None of it worked,” she finished.
Jin Shu opened his mouth to comnt on their… creative thods.
Then paused.
In a cultivation world, sotis the strangest solution was the orthodox one.
Which sohow made it more confusing.
“She was eventually placed in our clan’s secret grounds,” Hu Ling said. “But not long ago, she mysteriously disappeared. We never expected to find her here—hatched, no less.”
Jin Shu frowned.
How had Yin’er appeared in a random cave near his ho?
Surely that wasn’t the White Tiger clan’s secret grounds…
Sensing the lull in conversation, Long Ling clapped her hands lightly.
“I never properly introduced everyone,” she said.
Jin Shu blinked. He had indeed jumped straight into questioning Hu Ling without offering even a greeting.
“Right. My apologies.”
Long Ling smiled and began.
“You already know . I’m Long Ling—the Azure Dragon of the Ling Sisters. Among us, I’m the most proficient in business and water-based techniques.”
“Her inn hasn't earned a single spirit stone though,” the fiery-haired Vermilion Bird sister muttered under her breath.
Long Ling ignored her and demonstrated her proficiency over water.
With a flick of her fingers, the lake water surged upward in a controlled stream and blasted toward the fiery-haired woman.
Splash!
A fish launched with the water and smacked her squarely in the face before plopping back into the lake and darting away.
“She’s Que Ling,” Long Ling said flatly, as though she hadn’t just weaponized aquatic wildlife against her sister. “The Vermilion Bird of the Ling Sisters. She specializes in dance and fire techniques.”
Que Ling, impressively unfazed, simply evaporated the water with a burst of fla.
Which—purely accidentally, of course—also ignited Long Ling’s pink robes.
They blackened instantly, charred darker than the Black Tortoise sister’s attire.
Fortunately, they did not burn through. A testant to high-quality craftsmanship.
Long Ling calmly doused herself with another splash of water, washing away the soot as though nothing had happened.
She continued without missing a beat.
“This is Wu Ling—the Black Tortoise of the Ling Sisters.”
She gestured toward the snake resting on the black-robed woman’s shoulder.
Jin Shu blinked.
“She’s a master of deception and earth-based techniques.”
The black-robed woman smiled faintly. “Actually, I’m Wu Ling.”
“N-no, I am,” the snake replied timidly.
Long Ling nodded sagely. “You see? Her deception is so profound that even she doesn’t know which one is the real one.”
“...Aren’t they just conjoined twins who share the sa na?” Jin Shu asked.
Black Tortoises were born as conjoined twins. It was customary to give them a single na to cultivate unity of mind.
It often had the opposite effect.
Long Ling smoothly moved on—pointedly ignoring his question.
“And as you already know, this is Hu Ling—the White Tiger of our four sisters. She specializes in hand-to-hand combat and tal-based body refinent techniques.”
To demonstrate, Long Ling casually punched Hu Ling’s exposed abdon.
Clang!
The sound rang out like tal striking steel.
It looked that way too.
Long Ling’s hand swelled to twice its normal size.
Hu Ling didn’t even flinch.
Long Ling clutched her swollen hand, tears pooling in her eyes.
“W-we’re the daughters of the current clan leaders of the Divine Beast clans,” she said, her voice cracking in pain with each word. “Even though we were born in the sa hour of the sa day, all of us being nad Ling was entirely coincidental.”
“It’s a pleasure to et you all,” Jin Shu said with a polite smile. “As you’ve heard, I’m Jin Shu—though in another lifeti I was called Long Jinshu. My specialties include runesmithing, inventing, and wielding all six major elents.”
“You know,” Sun i’er chid in from the side, “it’s customary for a senior to present gifts when eting their junior—and her close sisters.”
Jin Shu narrowed his eyes at her.
Unfortunately… she wasn’t wrong.
He was technically Long Ling’s senior.
The problem was that he didn’t have many appropriate gifts on hand. Most of what he carried around were weapons.
Deadly ones.
Not exactly ideal for a friendly first eting.
He swept his consciousness through his storage earring, taking inventory.
…He did, in fact, have sothing suitable.
He just didn’t particularly want to part with them due to the implicit aning behind them.
Under his mother’s expectant gaze, he reluctantly withdrew four pristine diamond rings.
One was crafted from sea coral set with an aquamarine diamond.
Another was forged from fla-infused diamond and vermilion jade.
The third combined xuan (black) gold with a deep midnight-purple diamond.
The last was cast from all-tal—a special composite forged from dozens of rare materials—set with a flawless white diamond.
From the more than one thousand rings he possessed, these four happened to suit the sisters perfectly.
“These aren’t anything extraordinary,” he said modestly. “But please accept them as eting gifts.”
As he handed each ring over, he discreetly infused a wisp of his corresponding elental affinity into them, tailoring each to its recipient.
The sisters accepted the rings carefully, examining them with open curiosity.
The embedded elental traces were ant to enhance comprehension of their respective techniques while worn.
At least… that was the theory.
It was his first ti attempting such a refinent in practice.
Whether it actually worked—
He had no idea.
“Wow! So pretty!” Que Ling exclaid, holding her ring up to the light. It cast a crimson, fla-like glow across her face as she admired it.
“T-thank you,” the snake Wu Ling said softly.
“Shouldn’t we get two?” the human-form Wu Ling asked.
“Only one of us can assu human form at a ti,” the snake replied. “Two would be useless.”
“…True. I suppose one is enough.”
Due to their racial constraints, if they both tried to take human form simultaneously, they would end up joined together.
Very awkwardly.
Long Ling wanted to put hers on imdiately—but her swollen hand made that impossible.
She couldn’t slide the ring over her puffed fingers, nor could she grip it properly.
After a brief struggle, she threaded a string through it and tied it around her neck, using her uninjured hand and her teeth to secure the knot.
Hu Ling, anwhile, casually used her tal affinity to reshape the ring slightly. Then—without hesitation—she pierced her own belly button and slid the ring into place.
Jin Shu blinked.
He was montarily stunned… but ultimately conceded that it suited her perfectly.
Wild. Unrestrained.
“I want one too!” Yin’er demanded in an adorably indignant tone.
“Of course,” Jin Shu said imdiately.
He withdrew a pure gold ring. Even the diamond setting was encased in gold. Whether there was actually a diamond beneath the casing—or what kind it might be—was anyone’s guess.
It was far too large for Yin’er’s finger, so Jin Shu enlarged it further, using his tal affinity and a few spare gold coins to reshape it into a bracelet.
Technically, altering imperial gold coins was illegal.
He didn’t particularly care.
It wasn’t as if anyone would dare arrest the emperor’s nephew.
Assuming they even found out—which was highly unlikely.
Yin’er bead as she admired her new bracelet, a brilliant smile stretching across her tiny face.
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