Yang Xiu’s eyes were wide when she walked into the amphitheater. Hundreds of orbs, each a different color, floated above the open-air stadium. She’d never seen anything like it. She’d never even dread of anything like it.
Reaching out with her spiritual sense, she determined the orbs to be made of glass, but the light was produced by qi. Even more astounding was that additional qi was holding up each of the glass balls.
She’d only just stepped into the party and already felt like it would be a truly magical evening. From the reactions of her brother and the three Poison Claw Sect mbers behind her, they felt the sa.
“It’s so pretty,” she said.
“It’s amazing,” Kang Lin said. “The qi powering the light and levitation of each of those ornants feels natural, not like a formation. I’m positive that Master is controlling each of the hundreds of those decorations individually.”
Yang Xiu boggled at the thought. With a lot of practice, she’d managed to control the flights of five arrows at once. Six caused her to get a headache and lose her influence before they reached their respective targets. She couldn’t imagine the strength, concentration, and sheer quantity of qi it would take to manipulate hundreds at once, even if the purpose was only to keep them stationary.
The feat didn’t particularly surprise her, though. Master was, after all, unfathomable.
“Master Kang is a wise man,” Pan Jiang said. “He quickly recognized the power of Sect Leader Chao Su and made him a friend of the sect. His star will rise due to that decision.”
“It was the right thing to do.” Though Kang Lin’s words sowhat refuted her sect brother’s sentint, her smile said that she appreciated the complint given to her grandfather.
The next group to arrive was Zou Tian, practically dragging Wan Ai behind him, along with Bai Xinyi and a few others from the Alchemy Pavilion.
Yang Xiu snickered. The introverted alchemist’s worst nightmare had to be attending a party. Good for Zou Tian for making her co.
“Greetings, junior brothers and sisters,” Yang Xiu said. “Welco to my birthday party.”
Yang Ru grunted loudly.
Ugh. Really?
“Welco to the birthday party hosted in my honor … oh, and for my big lug of a brother, too.”
Zou Tian grinned, as did her hopefully soon-to-be sister. Her brother really needed to make a move soon. Otherwise, Yang Xiu feared that Kang Lin would return to Sixth Flawless Flowing City.
The shadow aspect user did raise his eyebrows, though.
“Birthday party?” Zou Tian said.
“You didn’t know the purpose?” Yang Xiu said.
He shook his head. “We were just told there was a celebration and that everyone should attend. What’s a birthday? I an, I can posit the aning from the na, but what’s the relevance?”
Yang Xiu explained about Master appearing in their sparring room, what he said about it being the twins’ birthday, and how disappointed he seed when he realized it wasn’t sothing that anyone celebrated.
“He sure seed excited when he left, though,” she said.
Zou Tian got a really puzzled expression on his face. “How did he know?”
“How did he know what?” she said.
“That you’d had a birthday.”
That question was a very good one. None of them could figure it out. None of them even had any theories.
Finally, Yang Xiu said what all of them were thinking. “Master truly is unfathomable.”
Yang Ru swallowed hard.
A group of musicians, so still just mortal villagers and so already sect mbers, were playing together. Zou Tian had dragged Wan Ai onto the amphitheater stage, and they were dancing slowly, really just holding each other while swaying. A few other couples had joined them.
And Kang Lin was looking at Yang Ru expectantly.
His eyes darted around. Master looked like he was in no hurry at all to serve that humongous whatever it was that he created so no help there. Neither was his traitorous sister any assistance. She just smirked at him. None of his juniors stepped in to save him, either.
There was no help for it.
“Kang Lin,” he said, “will you dance with ?”
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She hesitated, and for an instant, he thought she would refuse him. Most of the ti, she was a normal, diligent, responsible, serious young lady, but he’d found that she had the oddest sense of humor that occasionally just popped up out of nowhere. He could see how she would have found it hilarious to practically demand with her eyes that he ask her and then say no.
Instead, her face reddened, and she coyly nodded her head. Could it be that she was feeling as shy as he was?
Though the two of them were growing closer in terms of talking to one another and spending ti together, they hadn’t had much—really any—physical contact. Outside of sparring, anyway.
To be honest, he’d more or less been relying on her to take the lead on the relationship stuff as she seed much more capable in that area than he was. The fact that she was faltering actually gave him a jolt of confidence. She needed him to be strong.
He could do that. It was his whole reason for being.
Feeling much better about the situation, he took her hand in his and led her to the stage that was being used as a dancefloor. Once there, he took his cue from Zou Tian, placing one hand at her waist and another behind her back.
Like Yang Ru, she was not a stranger to working out, pushing herself to the limits to improve her strength. He felt her toned muscles and the warmth of her body under his hands.
It was … awkward. His heart was pounding. But at the sa ti, the feel of her was nice.
They didn’t really do much of anything that could be considered dancing, instead simply shifting their weight from foot to foot. Eventually though, the song ended, and they, sohow both quickly and reluctantly, separated.
“That was … interesting,” he said.
She nodded. “Yes, interesting.”
He had no idea what to do next. Dance with her again? Flee the dance floor? Kiss her?
He didn’t know where that last thought had co from.
A voice suddenly sounded from all around them. Master’s voice. It was at once a whisper but also loud enough for literally everyone in the stadium to hear.
“You know,” it said, “in so places, it’s traditional for the one having a birthday to receive a kiss.”
Kang Lin’s face reddened, and Yang Ru felt his own heat.
“Lean down,” she said.
He was, after all, a good three quarters of a foot taller than her. With his heart pounding even harder, he did as she asked.
Her lips, softly and quickly, t his, withdrawing almost as soon as she made contact. But that still counted. His first kiss.
It felt like the entire assemblage had been watching them, and everyone clapped. He’d never felt so embarrassed in his life.
Yang Ru glanced over at his sister, sure that he was never going to hear the end of it from her about what just happened, but she had her own problems. Several of the juniors had taken Master’s words to heart and were trying to approach her. She was too busy glaring them away to pay any attention to him.
Thank the heavens for small rcies!
Benton thought the innocent kiss that Kang Lin gave to Yang Ru was about the cutest thing he’d ever seen in his life. There was definitely sothing to be said for teenagers who didn’t grow up influenced by finding out more than they needed to know sooner than they needed to know it from social dia and the internet.
And hey, the musicians and the dancing were a fantastic way to kill ti until it was ti to check in with Xun Wu, which was rapidly approaching. Best of all, Benton didn’t even have to plan it. The group had heard there was a party and brought their instrunts.
Perfect.
Hmm. Speaking of which, Su’s mories contained snippets about cultivators using music to obtain certain effects. Benton would have to keep an eye out for the mbers of the musical group when they reached Foundation Establishnt. It would probably be worth a few custom techniques to explore what music could add to his sect’s combat prowess.
He was always on the lookout for new pavilions. His sect’s strength, after all, lay in the high-quality cultivation thods and techniques he could provide. That advantage wasn’t just that his sect mbers could learn skills quicker and that those skills were more powerful than similar ones used by other sects. Another big benefit was that, with qi being almost infinitely malleable, he could produce a technique for just about any skill he could imagine. With all the points he was amassing, he could have sect mbers deploying attacks and skills no one had ever contemplated, much less heard of or seen.
As he was plotting his sect’s rise to power, Jin LiJuan approached him, holding the wolf pup in her arms. In fact, she held it close to her body. From what he had observed, she normally held it as far from her body as possible whenever she was forced to carry it.
Once she got within several feet of him, she stopped, put the wolf pup down, and kowtowed. “Master.” Her tone and expression were very serious.
“Disciple.” He tried his best to match the gravity her face and voice conveyed, though he feared he failed miserably as he found her countenance to be simply too funny.
“This one has made so progress with what you directed of , Master. My feelings for the beast are better. So. I don’t hate it anymore.”
“That’s good, Li’er. The better you get with that, the happier you’ll be.”
“I have already fed the beast six rank one spirit beast cores, Master. May I have permission to draw a rank two from the shop in order for us to advance?”
Hmm. After asking permission, he examined first her cultivation and then the pup’s. Hers wasn’t substantially different than the last ti he’d checked, and he was pretty sure that the only way for it to improve at all was through advancing the beast. As for the creature, it was definitely on the verge of leveling up. A rank two core should easily push it to rank three.
From a cultivation standpoint, there was no reason not to grant her request, and she was showing so improvent with her attitude toward the pup. He did, however, think there was one simple thing he could request of her that would help her in the long run.
“Perform one task for , and I will authorize the rank two core,” he said.
“Na it, Master.” Her eyes practically sparkled with desire. She was nothing if not ambitious.
“No. I want you to na it.” He barely kept a smile off his face. That setup had been just too good, and it was totally unintentional on her part.
“I don’t understand, Master.”
“Your wolf pup, Li’er. I want you to give it a na.”
“Oh. Oh!” She looked almost panicked at the thought. “I suppose that makes sense, Master. Give a mont.”
Her little eyes and forehead scrunched up as she was obviously deep in thought.
So cute!
“Ganzou, Master,” she said finally.
Interesting. In English, the na would have been the equivalent of Chase, as it ant “to chase away.”
“May I ask why you chose that na?” Benton said.
Her little lips quivered. “Maybe if I can learn to like it, Ganzou will chase away the beasts that kill my parents every night in my dreams.”
Benton’s heart leapt into his throat. Before that child went to bed that night, she would have an array by her bed to quiet her mind as she slept, and he’d be giving her a Tranquil Mind technique to learn as well.
The poor thing!
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