Chapter 96: Even Regrets Are Sweet [Interlude]

The medical disciples checked on Jun and Shao with professional ease. Neither of their injuries was serious enough to warrant immediate surgery. Additionally, both had their spiritual shortages refilled by their recent meal of the Inner Province Young Master. Their conditions were thus stable.

A miracle, considering the battle they just went through. Moreover, the reward of their tribulation was clear to see.

Elder Jun had risen to the second Step of the Nascent Realm, while Shao was now within the penultimate Ninth Step of the Tempering Realm.

“Caught up to you now,” Shao taunted as she wiggled her eyebrows at Dai. “Next time we fight, you might not be able to escape my loving clutches any more.”

“Only you would call those nightmare scythes of yours ‘loving’, you crazy woman,” Dai murmured. He did not look particularly worried at Shao’s ‘threats’.

“Just you wait. I’ll have you screaming my name in bed by the end of the month. Maybe even tonight, once I get my qi topped up.”

“In your dreams, maybe,” Dai scowled. “And no talk about fighting anytime soon. You heard what the medical acolyte said. Your spiritual systems are still adjusting to your recent strain and ascension. If you push yourself, you will regret it.”

“Is that concern from you? Aw, I knew you cared for me.”

“That’s not… Forget it.”

Dai looked away. Shao preened happily.

“I will leave you two to your flirting,” Jun grumbled as he stood. “It’s about time I go check in on my student anyway. The last thing I need is for her to accidentally kill another arrogant Core Disciple again.”

Shao perked up. “Ah yeah, her. I forgot you took her in. How’s that little tike, by the way? She still only has one arm?”

“She’s in the Foundation Realm, Shao. She also doesn’t have access to the Sect’s resurrection Art. That arm is not growing back anytime soon.”

“Wait,” Dai interrupted. “What’s this about a student?”

Jun and Shao shared a glance. Shao shrugged, letting Jun do the explaining. The man sighed.

“A few months ago, we had an incident where a trio of our Core Disciples were discovered assaulting a fellow Outer Disciple junior,” Jun began. “Shao saw the distasteful violence. Given that it was a foreign dignitary who witnessed the affair, the subsequent consequences were more extreme. The trio served a term in the Butchery. Last I heard, their meat was used to feed the Young Master and the Chen Young Misses a while back.”

Dai frowned. “I’m guessing Shao intervened and saved him, then? Though I fail to see why a trio of Core Disciples would bully a junior brother in the first place.”

Elder Jun shuffled. Shao chuckled darkly.

“You have a shit attention span, Dai,” the female disciple said. “Elder Jun said ‘her’ earlier. Those three were trying to rape a Junior Sister of your Sect.”

Dai flinched. His eyes turned away. “I see. That is… Well, horrible as that is, I suppose I am glad you were there to put a stop to it. Knowing you, you would have delivered appropriate punishment, Shao.”

Female disciples within the Beheaded Phoenix Sect were not entirely unheard of, but they were rare. Most of those females were Clan daughters who ended up serving as medical acolytes within the Sect’s Medical Pavilion. The Yang techniques for Yin females were better suited for healing rather than combat.

Only in extremely niche cases have the Sect ever inducted a new female disciple from outside the Clans, and even then, they rarely stayed for long.

Dai had immediately assumed that any new Outer Disciple was male. For such a crime to occur to an innocent Junior Sister, it was little wonder that Shao would step in.

That Nights of Famine still plagued the Carnivore’s nightmares, last when they shared a bed years ago. Dai doubted they had completely faded yet.

Her next words, however, took him by complete surprise.

“Nope. I didn’t have to do shit to them,” Shao shrugged. “That female Junior of yours had thoroughly kicked their ass bloody. She was on the verge of killing all three, actually.”

“What?!” Dai exclaimed. He whirled towards Jun. “You said the three assailants were Core Disciples, and the victim’s only in the Foundation Realm!”

“Both facts are correct,” Jun stated, his eyes serious. “The girl still fought and won, anyway. Had Shao not shown up, it’s quite possible those three would be dead and devoured whole by her.”

“That’s not possible,” Dai hissed. “Is this a joke? No Foundation Realm cultivator can defeat three Tempering Realm cultivators on their own! Even one alone is practically impossible!”

“I assure you this is no joke,” Jun grunted. “When she first joined last year, she was hopelessly timid and cowardly. She even lost her left arm in her first sparring session; a record dismemberment for new Outer Disciples. I had thought her doomed; I even tried to have her quit the Sect with my words and insults. But, well… Then that incident happened. And now the Sect can’t afford to let such talent leave any more.”

“You should have seen the little tyke,” Shao snickered. “Leaping around those three like a damn monkey, slicing their throats and limbs off with a dagger. Those worthless men were screaming the entire time.”

“They were two Realmshigher than her in standing! How?!” Dai asked, almost shouting at the end with disbelief.

“That is what the Patriarch would like to know. And it is why I am tasked with looking after her,” Jun rolled his shoulders. “Speaking of which, do you know where our honoured Sect Leader is?”

“I— Well, no,” Dai stuttered, caught off guard by the sudden change in topic. “I have not heard from him all day.”

“Pity. Guess I will have to search, then. Someone needs to inform him of what occurred here,” Jun sighed. He flexed his qi, then frowned. “Does this place have any wine? Or blood. I’m not feeling too picky at the moment.”

~~~

Jun left shortly after to report to Patriarch Shang. The leader’s absence was worrying. Someone as important as he should have already heard of the incident at the arena — by way of mouth, if not by the enormous qi released — yet he had not come to check on his son.

Dai and Shao remained by Feng’s side. The other medical acolytes had all left, leaving them alone.

The female disciple leaned against him, stretched like a cat across his lap. Her heat mingled with his.

Dai did not move away or push her off.

“Now this is rare,” she mumbled, eyes drooping. “The great senior Dai, no longer running from the touch of a woman.”

“Is that what you are?” he grunted. “I thought you were some fanged beast out for flesh, rather than a person who could be rationalised with.”

“I can be either. Both, even, should the opportunity arise,” she teased lightly, brushing herself bodily against him. She sat up, eyes inches from his. Her look was pensive. “You are unusually accommodating today.”

“... Feng would have died if not for you,” he sighed. “I can tolerate this much. Besides… I grow tired of our back and forth.”

“Should I take this as an acceptance of courtship?” Shao murmured.

Dai did not speak. Instead, his hands brushed against the glaive at his side, fingers touching the cold metal.

The Spirit metal resounded lightly against his qi, as if it were alive.

“You never did tell me where you got that weapon from.” The female disciple’s eyes traced his fingers. “That blade… It sliced deep into the Nascent cultivator’s flesh when everything else failed. Whatever Art he used to defend himself, your glaive cut right through it. Where did you find spirit metal of such quality?”

Dai looked upon his reflection in the blade. His face should not have changed much. His cultivation had not risen a single step, and his ageing had already slowed considerably on account of his advanced standing.

Nonetheless, Dai thought his eyes looked more tired than ever before.

For a moment, he kept his silence. Shao returned to his lap, eyeing him carefully.

Eventually, he chose to tell her.

“I received it from Hei Xingyu years ago,” Dai finally said. “It was a gift… For her marriage proposal to me.”

Shao stiffened. It took several heartbeats before she found her voice again.

“You never told me she was the one who asked,” she whispered. “I thought it was you who sought her out for the engagement. Did she force you?”

“A little. At first, I suppose,” Dai admitted. “I wasn’t exactly in a position to refuse, though the reasons are not what you think. She was… persuasive.”

He still remembered her words, the day before she left for the Inner Province.

“I didn’t choose you on a whim, Dai. When next we meet, no matter how far away that day may be, I expect you to be ready to return my affections in full.”

Had she known what fate would have befallen her? Had she expected something to happen to her convoy when she left on that trip? And if she did…

Why didn’t she tell anyone? Where was she now?

“Even now, your mind obsesses over a dead woman.” Shao’s fingers reached up to his chin, pulling his face away from the mirrored blade and down to face her. “I am here, willing and ready. And yet, you could still only think of her. It is… quite hilarious.”

She meant it differently, Dai could tell. He was not so unfamiliar with her that he could miss it.

The minute shifts in her expression. The way her body slightly curled in on itself when she experienced doubt or self-loathing.

He knew her well. Better than he knew Xingyu or any other woman. Her body, her emotions…

Dai was familiar with all of her, as she was with him.

But that did not make them a good pair together. Their intimacy had always been one born out of desperation and necessity.

But it need not continue to be that way.

“Your qi is in flux,” Dai stated. “I would recommend expelling some of it to retain balance. Your Dantian struggles to assimilate the fruits of your gluttonous feast.”

“I might have eaten too much of that Nascent foreigner, yes,” Shao snorted. Her eyes met his, flashing with the briefest uncertainty. “I suppose I should find a poor male roaming around to play with. Unless… You are volunteering?”

Her words started off teasing but ended with an unintentional slip of hopefulness. She winced, no doubt finding herself pathetic. Shao rose to move away, but Dai gently grabbed her hand.

“This will probably not end well,” he admitted, staring at Shao’s wide eyes. “All the same… Even regrets can be sweet, I think. When I think of our time together, I cannot recall a single moment where you willingly abandoned me when I needed you.”

I grow tired of waiting, Xingyu, Dai thought, his eyes briefly glancing at the blade he was gifted. When next we meet again… You may not find my affections and loyalty so cheaply bought.

“I still think it’s better if you find someone else. You have no lack of suitors, despite your… appetites,” he huffed. Shao chuckled. Her eyes wavered. “But if you would still have me… I do not mind walking by your side, Shao.”

I refuse to be used as a tool for higher power. Not again. Never again.

“You have a lot of nerve saying such sweet things after years of silence,” Shao lightly said, voice bearing a tense sharpness. Deadly, but vulnerable. “Be glad I am a generous partner. But… If you dare stray from me again… You will not find me so forgiving a second time.”

“I will endeavour to live up to your expectations, then.”

Their lips met, and for a while, Dai thought he could be allowed to be happy again.

~~~

“So… You want to do it here, with your unconscious Young Master in the same room right beside us? I am an accommodating woman when it comes to kinks, but this really takes the cake, Dai.”

“Haa… Shut up, woman. Come on. Let’s go to my estate.”