The journey back to the Mourning Peak was hardly eventful, much to An Fei’s surprise. After they confirmed that her lack of resistance, the members of the Morning Star Temple merely retreated to their former positions without a further word, going as far to the extent of allowing the young girl to retain her qama. With an exasperated celestial maiden grumbling about her ruined clothes and sighing every few minutes, An Fei returned to the quiet and secluded peak. There, He Xin squatted besides the boiling cauldron, shoveling vegetables and chunks of dried meat with earnest.
“Little Sister, you’ve caused so much trouble for us all. Ruining my last set of clothes and rubbing mud into the fabric, how cruel…”
Xu Lingxin curled her lips into a fierce pout and shoved herself onto the prepared wooden chair besides the cooking fire. The celestial maiden restrained the urge to scowl as He Xin dutifully handed a whetting stone, and the former gradually resigned herself to the grueling task of maintaining her blade. At the edge of the peak, An Fei’s expression had settled into a mixture of incomprehension and bemusement, distorting her eyebrows and cheeks to form a gruesome appearance.
The situation… truly didn’t make any sense. For someone who was supposed to be a captive, their awareness was too lax and upright…
“If you’re going to run away, at least make that attempt after the envoy arrives.”
The young girl turned her head towards the celestial maiden, her eyes narrowed in inquiry. Xu Lingxin flashed a gentle smile as she received a wooden bowl laden with rich, creamy soup from He Xin, and sighed as she reached for her spoon.
“Just as you may have your own thoughts, our sect has our own troubles. Though we may now reside within Bei Tang, our sect still retains its roots from Great Yan’s cultures and heritage – we are rather mild-tempered than those barbarians,” the celestial maiden drank her soup with a cheery smile and reclined in her chair.
“Fifty years after Bei Tang annexes new territories from its neighboring countries, the Violet Jade Pavilion dispatches an envoy – one of their precious Heaven’s Childes – to the presiding sect. The Morning Star Temple shall exchange for the methods and arrays of protecting our sect’s grounds and the mortals who depend on our protection with an offering of equal value.”
“So, you will offer a stranger to be the concubine of such envoy?”
An Fei’s lips calmed to form a thin line, and she slowly strode over towards cooking fire. The young girl crouched to warm her hands in midst of the setting sun’s absence of radiance, and received a smaller and thinner wooden bowl from the scowling He Xin. As she fought to resist cursing from the excruciatingly hot temperature of the soup, Xu Lingxin huffed and frowned from her seat.
“Your current situation is hardly anything special – I would even state that the Morning Star Temple is offering too small of a penance compared to our neighbors to the extent that we should fear for the Violet Jade Pavilion’s wrath,” she crossed her legs and rapped on the flexible sword’s hilt.
“The city which we first met – yes, Changyin, if it were its former name – had been annexed by Bei Tang eighty years prior, and to beg for peace from Bei Tang and to save their people, they offered a hundred and twenty virgin male and female cultivators of the Body Tempering and Foundation Establishment Realms as permanent slaves to the Violet Jade Pavilion – the entire aristocratic establishment of that city. In the end, all they received were a half-hearted array that could protect the mortal young, and the most powerful of cultivators.”
“A hundred and twenty… virgin male and female?”
…what?
The young girl blinked in surprise, then hissed in pain as the soup dribbled from her spoon and onto the flesh exposed behind her tattered clothes. Whilst Xu Lingxin chuckled in amusement, the now seated He Xin revealed a disdainful snort as she fiddled with her clothes.
“How ignorant, even after remaining within one of the sect’s holy grounds for several months. Regardless of whatever their future may become, every living being possesses a strand of either Primordial Yin or Yang within their body,” the maiden shrugged and stirred the cauldron whilst adding spices.
“The thread of Primordial Yin or Yang within a person’s body grants them a single blessing from the heavens to withstand the effects of a single calamity each. Mortals may only possess one thread in their life, and choose to pass their blessings to their young, whilst for those who cultivate, they shall receive a thread from the heavens for each Realm they ascend.”
“Whoever stands within the vicinity of those blessed with a thread of Primordial Yin or Yang shall receive its protection, and is a great boon for cultivators attempting to ascend into the Core Formation Realm and beyond. Alas, the Violet Jade Pavilion may not be satisfied with our offering, but our people truly are exhausted and sickly, and the accursed rain can strip away Primordial threads from any mortals unfortunate to be held in its grasp…”
The celestial maiden finished polishing her sword and returned it to its sheath with a lazy flick of her wrist. After she returned the emptied wooden bowl to He Xin, she stood to brush the dust off her clothes for a final time, then faced An Fei with a solemn expression.
“The heavens, while they respect the strong, are fair to all. Whilst it may seem unfair and unfortunate for the sect to bind your will through the means of a Soul-Binding Contract, because you are a weak mortal – the Soul-Binding Contract forces greater sincerity from our behalf,” Xu Lingxin crossed her hands behind her back and narrowed her eyes.
“I nor the Morning Star Temple, by extension, can bring harm to you no longer. The only condition of the Soul-Binding Contract is to bind your identity – if you choose to run after the exchange is completed, the sect will not interfere. But just to make sure, Little Sister… you are a virgin, correct?”
The Mourning Peak fell into a suspended silence for several breaths, He Xin and Xu Lingxin waiting with bated breath as An Fei’s mind struggled to catch up. The young girl slowly blinked, and her scarlet irises focused after a further period of several delayed breaths.
“…are you serious?”
“By that delay, Little Sister indeed is a virgin. That’s one less worry we must concern ourselves with for the future –“
“– do you want me to plant your face into the dirt again?”
The three maidens erupted into a fierce argument atop the Mourning Peak until He Xin finally extinguished the fire amidst the sobering darkness and cold astral light. When the sun alit for its usual routine of exploring the listless skies, An Fei sighed and resolved herself to action.
The Morning Star Temple was hard at work concealing the graveness of the damage sustained by their disciples and the mortals residing under their protection, as a means of further negotiation with the envoy from the Violet Jade Pavilion. Since she had returned to the Mourning Peak, An Fei had nary seen either He Xin or Xu Lingxin the entire day aside from their usual gathering at the cooking fire for lunch or dinner. The celestial maiden had occupied herself with preparing a temporary lounge for the envoy to reside in, and the young girl was busy preparing a means of escape in the cottage.
“The accursed Immortal Being has taken over the forest, so all I could take with me was Father’s grey satchel that Xu Lingxin stored in her room, huh? So – the medicines and salves have to be prepared again – what a pain.”
Within the small room granted for her use, An Fei braced her back against the wall and continued grinding at the pile of herbs she had collected from the outskirts surrounding the entrance to the Mourning Forest, directing periodic glances towards the darkened skies beyond the window. From the wall towards her left to just before her feet were several pouches and jade containers filled to the brim with ground and dried herbs – the most she could have achieved with limited resources and tools. The young girl finished reducing the pile to her right with the pestle and allowed her lips to curve into a wan smile of satisfaction.
“Immediate first-aid, painkillers and mild nerve agents, as well as stimulants and coagulants sourced from the far corners of the Mourning Peak – while Xu Lingxin probably didn’t require them since she could use miracle pills anytime she wished, it truly is a relief that she allowed them to grow,” An Fei stretched to relieve her sore muscles, and stepped out of the cabin to enjoy a midnight stroll.
“The envoy from the Violet Jade Pavilion should have arrived tonight, hence why I had to make dinner by my lonesome. A pity – I will have to be ready any moment, is that right?”
Ten kilometers was all that was necessary to free herself from this accursed country. Ten kilometers – barely a day’s rush.
The young girl sighed as she strode towards the still pond nested besides the wooden cabin to wash her exhausted face. As she dipped her fingers into the cold water, her ears gently trembled and An Fei rose to her feet in surprise.
“Someone’s here? From the right… two voices?”
This pitch and frequency… a man and a woman? For such a pair to wander around at night, there could only be one answer… is it He Xin or Xu Lingxin?
The young girl suppressed a rare snicker and adjusted her clothing to avoid brushing against the long grass, and lightly strode towards the eastern fringe of the Mourning Forest. An Fei considered returning to the cabin to bring her qama, but vetoed such thought as she made effort to reduce her presence as much as possible. Gradually, as she neared the outskirts leading into the forest mausoleum, the voices that drifted into her ear increased in clarity and presence.
“Y…Young Master! You… you’re being too rough – I can’t take that much, it’s too much!!”
“Enjoying ourselves in the moonlight was your idea, how can I let you rest now?”
The gentle midnight symphony carried by the gentle breeze, drifted into her ears and brought a brilliant smile to the young girl’s countenance. She raised her hands towards her chest to avoid brushing the long sleeves of her clothes, and breached into the forest with a malevolent chuckle when the pair of silhouettes entered her vision –
“ – mm!? Y-y-youn… Young Mast – mm, mmh, nngh!? Too deep, too deep!”
“Wait, He Xin’s voice didn’t sound like this… oh.”
As though the heavens had held great hatred towards her ancestors, a graceful ray of moonlight pierced through the nearly impervious barrier of branches and leaves to luminate the two figures dancing and writhing with one another in the darkness. When the illusion shrouding the young girl’s figure dissipated under the moonlight’s persistence to reveal the delicate self within, the smirk on An Fei’s lips immediately fled from her countenance.
“Young… Young Master! Please, slow, slow down… Fei, Fei can’t catch a breath –“
“Ah, but don’t you like it more when I go a bit faster… like this!?”
The delicate features and doll-like presence was one An Fei could hardly be unfamiliar with. The countenance, the milky-white, smooth skin with hardly a wrinkle or dark blemish, and those scarlet irises – were those burned into her memory. Although her own skin had been yellowed due to the applied ointment and roughened to resemble the texture of a normal village girl, and could never be compared with the spectacular beauty and elegance of the figure before her – not to mention that heavenly, soft and meek voice that could wring out affection from the most inconsiderate of others…
“What… what the f*ck is going on… why… why?”
As An Fei stumbled back and tripped on her trembling legs, the young girl released an exuberant scream of delight and convulsed under the banquet of astral light. The expression of utter ecstasy and ravished contentment on the latter’s countenance stabbed a cruel thorn into An Fei’s heart, and she scrambled to her feet to bolt from the forest. And yet, the exquisite feast of pleasure continued slamming into her ears from behind, ferried by the chuckling wind.
“I, I… wha – I’m going to f*cking leave this place once I get the chance!”
Once she was out of earshot from the Mourning Forest, An Fei pounded her fist onto the ground and screamed with a mixture of anger, disgust, and dread coursing through her body. Trying her absolute best to purge from her memory the extent as to which her voice and countenance could possibly warp under pleasure, the young girl dove into the cabin, only to be greeted by a miserable surprise the next morning.
On the day the Morning Star Temple cheered, a certain young girl was plunged into the depths of hell…
