Chapter 95: Price of Affections [Interlude]

Patriarch Shang was going to kill him.

Honestly, Dai would have let the man do it, for the senior disciple had failed at his job of protecting the Young Master utterly.

When he first heard that his lord was facing down another Young Masterfrom the Inner Province Sects, Dai had prepared himself for his death, even as he rushed to the arena stadium as fast as he could.

He expected to find Young Master Feng’s corpse when he arrived. Instead, he found Shao happily waving at him, one hand holding his glaive and with an unconscious Feng slumped over her shoulders.

“You missed all the fun, Dai,” Shao chuckled as she set the body down. “Should have seen the mess your lord made. That arena is probably ruined for the rest of the year now.”

Jun was there too. The Elder grunted as he sat down tiredly, inspecting Feng’s meridians as Dai scanned the Young Master for external injuries. “That arena was the product of years of engineering by the best architects of the Sect. The materials that went into its construction made sure it wouldn’t collapse easily. Repairs will be finished in a few weeks. It’s the giant mountain of Spirit ore left behind by that summon that would take more time to get rid of.”

“You say that as if it’s a bad thing,” Shao snorted as she idly tapped the glaive. “If the metal is anywhere near as good as this one’s, your Sect’s fortunes are as good as secured for the next decade.”

“The material won’t be anywhere near that pure,” Jun snorted. “The spiritual nature of it just makes it harder to mine down. It would fetch a nice price, but the effort it would take to remove and refine it would cost us almost as much as we can sell it for. The Beheaded Phoenix smiths have nowhere near the necessary equipment to smelt—”

“Forget about the metal!” Dai yelled. “What the hell happened?! I let him be for two hours, and he nearly died?! Where’s the foreign cultivator?”

“Depends. Which part of him do you refer to?” Shao grinned widely. She pointed at her stomach. “I think I got the most of him in me right now.”

“Voracious woman,” Jun grumbled. “You could have left a little more meat for the rest of us.”

“You…” Dai was taken aback. “You defeated them? You atethem?”

Dai’s interrogation of them lasted as they carried the Young Master to the Medical Pavilion. Physically, the Young Master’s wounds have already healed, but spiritually, he has taxed himself far beyond safe limits and would require extensive rest and treatment.

However, he would live. The relief Dai felt was indescribable.

“I can’t believe the three of you are alive,” the senior disciple admitted. The trio were sitting around the bed of the unconscious Young Master while acolytes tended to him. “That man… An Inner Province Young Master would hold enough power to wipe out just about everyone within this Sect with ease, save for the Patriarch. And even then, it’s no sure thing.”

Advanced in standing as the Patriarch may be, the man still grew up in the Outer Provinces. The depth of his cultivation might not match that of those of the Inner Provinces, especially one of noble bloodline and upbringing. Though the odds still weighed in the Patriarch’s favour, it was no guarantee of victory.

“We would all be dead if not for the Young Master,” Jun freely admitted. “All this time, I had no idea that he held that much power… That summon, it was no normal creature.”

“That damn thing would likely even give my lady a fair time,” Shao shrugged. “You think that’s why Lady Lianshi is so insistent on marrying him?”

“Perhaps.” Jun did not sound certain. “In any case, tales of this would soon spread. The rumours will say Young Master Feng has proven himself superior to even the heirs of the Inner Province. That should shut the other suitors up for a while.”

“Or it might encourage more to come and face him,” Dai muttered darkly. “If the two of you had not been there, he would be dead. And if more heirs from the Inner Province arrive…”

They were lucky only one had shown up this time. If it were two, no amount of hidden talent would save the Young Master.

“This may just be an anomaly. Young Masters from the inner territories of the Empire have too much pride to come over to the Outer Provinces,” Jun stated. “I would not say it is impossible, especially with what just happened, but it feels unlikely.”

“Just what did your Lady do to anger a Scion from the Inner Provinces enough to come and take revenge like this?” Dai growled. “No subtlety, no efforts to hide his attempt… Such blatant assassination beyond the Border Gates would have drawn Duke Kang’s wrath, but the foreign Young Master had simply not cared.”

“My Lady did a lot of things,” Shao chuckled. “Though I would point out all of it was done for the sake of your Young Master.”

“And it nearly got him killed,” Jun stated mildly. Shao’s eyes flashed warningly, and the Elder sighed. “Peace. I was merely making an observation. You know your Lady and her actions against her spurned suitors better than we do. Should we take this as an atypical encounter, or prepare for more of such incidents?”

“The former,” Shao stated bluntly. “My Mistress is not one to be kind to those she perceives as a threat to her property, and doubly so against those who would not heed her kind warnings the first time.”

“Calling the Young Master her property is a bit much…” Jun grumbled.

“Do you disagree?” the female disciple laughed. “Face it, Jun. The entire 103rd Outer Province is hers, save perhaps for the Purple Mountains. Everyone within it is entirely auxiliary to her whims and desires. She’s already in the Spirit Realm. How much longer before she hits Jade?”

It was utterly absurd to consider. Two decades ago, not a single living soul would even think of a Jade Realm cultivator rising from within the Outer Province.

Patriarch Ru of the Decaying Greyroots broke that impossibility. And now with Lianshi suppressing ridiculous standards one after another, the thought of her reaching the Jade Realm as well could no longer be dismissed as nonsense.

Still, one problem at a time. Something Shao said was bothering Dai.

“Your Mistress. Where is she now?” the senior disciple asked.

“Somewhere on the valley outskirts of the Phoenix Mountain,” Shao answered, her tone turned a tinge bitter. “Your monastery hasn’t made itself too welcoming for her.”

The many ill rumours and gossip surrounding her marriage and the Young Master’s dismissal of her no doubt wounded her, but something still did not add up.

“Why would she not ascend to the peak instead? The prey there suits her palate and would give her worthier hunts besides,” Dai questioned. “The lower valleys ill-suit her.”

Shao tsked. “See, this is why we broke up. Too inquisitive for your own good. You never respect my boundaries.”

“I never respect— Woman, half the time you are here, you keep breaking into my estate! I had to take up guard duty over the Phoenix Corpse just so that I could get away from you!”

“Amusing as it is to watch you two idiots argue,” Jun interrupted. “The matter of Young Miss Lianshi takes precedence. My moronic junior has made a rather potent observation. What is Miss Chen doing in the lower valleys?”

The pair of male disciples looked at Shao intently. The female disciple hummed for a moment, cocking her head in a coyish manner.

“Alright… Promise you won’t get mad?”

“No.” Dai and Jun answered simultaneously. The pair looked at each other, annoyed, before turning back to Shao.

She chuckled. “The three of us should go on an adventure again someday. I miss the time when Dai and I tagged along with your exiled exploits, Jun.”

“I would much rather not revisit such traumatic memories,” Jun scowled. “And don’t try to change the subject.”

“Fine, fine,” Shao sighed. “She’s off swatting a few persistent pests. Pity she missed one, it seems.”

Dai’s thoughts whirled at her comment before he understood her implication. “Your Mistress is currently fighting off her other suitors from reaching the Beheaded Phoenix compound?!”

“And you imply they are not just regular suitors as well.” Jun’s tone was a mix of disbelief and grimness. “You are saying more from the Inner Province are arriving.”

“A lot of fragile pride was offended in the last months,” Shao admitted. “My Matriarch’s attempts at drawing more suitors towards my Mistress had gone even bolder as she grew increasingly desperate to break the current engagement. Perhaps she had even hoped one of them might be able to overpower the Young Miss and take her against her will.”

Dai spat to the side. Jun’s reaction was more restrained, but his eyes contained his fair share of disgust.

“I suppose it would solve the Matriarch’s disgruntlement were such a thing to occur,” Jun commented. “Lianshi’s new husband — be it her willing choice or not — would serve as a powerful connection into the Inner Provinces. Their ignoble actions, meanwhile, would help preserve the tenuous relations between the Beheaded Phoenix Sect and the Split-Headed Carnivores. Tales of young beauties or talents being forcefully taken by greater cultivators are as common as dirt, even for those already engaged.”

Orespeciallyfor those already engaged. Nothing stokes a cultivator’s lust and greed than being told they were not allowed to take something, be it a person’s flesh or their virtue.

“There are even rumours that the Matriarch had reached out even to the Core Provinces,” Shao shrugged. “But that’s highly unlikely. Even if she somehow managed to get word all the way to the inner shadows of Mount Tai, no one would take her words seriously.”

Shao was right. No Core Province cultivators would ever sully themselves with a woman from the Outer Provinces. The mere thought of such a thing would likely deviate their cultivation. That Matriarch Chen even attempted such folly spoke of utter desperation rather than cunning.

“Will Lady Lianshi be okay?” Dai asked. “I understand any aid we may offer her would be worse than pointless, given the calibre of her opponents. However, strong as she might be, she is still one woman alone against many.”

“The cultivation of Young Masters is not to be taken lightly, either,” Jun added. “Lady Lianshi is still from the Outer Province. Their spiritual depth might match or even exceed hers.”

“My Lady will face no issue,” Shao dismissed. “Even if two or three of such ‘Young Masters’ were to face her at once, she would still easily defeat them. You should know better than to take the standards of the Outer Province and place her in them, Jun. If her talents and cultivation depths were to meet an equal, doubtless such a foe must have crawled out of the womb of Mount Tai itself.”

Jun and Dai could not find an appropriate retort to that.