The intruders stand still in silence as I cow them with the pressure from the qi of a peak quasi-Foundation Establishment cultivator, their gazes going slack at the sight of a genius Heaven defying talent, whatever preconceived advantages that they thought their numbers will do them no good against me.
The roots of the Red Lotus that coils within my spirit roots fills my dantians with its intent and then projects it outward through my qi channels into the surroundings so that this simple display that would not be so simple for any other, makes it clear that unlike old hag Caixi I am no silk coddled trotter.
I have defied Heaven and Earth, I am a rogue that does not bow down to any sect and I have no qualms about spilling the blood of the weak, and despite my lowly origins I have climbed to where I am right now on the stacks of corpses of my foes.
Heh, what would my old clan and fiancée say by now, still back in my hometown content to rot in the boonies never to touch the border to immortality, they themselves who have been eternally stuck beneath the threshold of Qi Gathering, and they have the gall to call themselves cultivators, what a joke.
"Disregarding the rude reception⦠what we could glean from your greetings, other than proving your rather⦠roughshod nature, is that you are more than proud to boast about heaping mighty high praise upon your dear sister." - a sunken eyed paper pushing bastard speaks out as if pretending to still be handing out commandments from a desk in this very situation would stay a blade from his neck.
Blissfully unaware that a message from Senior Brother is the only thing that stops me from doing exactly that, let him prattle on and amuse us he says, before we finish this previously joyously peaceful night with bloodshed.
"Yet never mind the apparent lack of invitation for we, your honored guests have suffered much during our travel to give greetings to the host of this⦠estateâ¦" â how dare he, spitting out that the last word which such derision and acting as one of the finest manors in the city is but a common stable to his august self, how has it been squeezing in your brats, hanger-ons, and old farts in your household's one room apartment?
Has hearing your sisters, mothers and grandmothers being pleasured by your hired thugs rotted whatever senses you cling to? How fucking dare you.
"Nevertheless besides being owed common courtesy for our troubles your words have invested in us great interest, how we can simply turn back without seeing this sister you so highly regard?"
"Frogs lusting after swan meat." - I sneer as silent steps familiar to us crept up to stand by me.
Senior Brother sashays side to side in a carefree attitude as if to seem like he was just a common drunkard and not a master of the Wine Sea's Drunken Nymph's Palms, and in this manner slowly sauntering as to not raise alarm until the right moment, eventually he reaches his place by my side and he begins with the easy going slovenly spoken words-
"Well, well, well, what has Heaven decreed to end up at my â " â only to end with a swiftly declared â
"Good evening officers, how may these ones assist you this fine evening?"
â accompanied with the near instant motion of straightening himself up exiting his fighting stance and fixing ourselves up to be presentable as he forces me to join him in placing our heads in a low bow.
"Well⦠its not that we mean to be too much of a bother to you this fine evening, but hey Shin doesn't this gentlemen seem familiar to you?" â I hear from my bowed form's ears the bastard ask to his daddy funeral parlor attendant dao companion.
"Well, may I ask for your name sir?"
"This humble cultivator is named Wan and surnamed Ren."
"Not named Ren and surnamed Wan?"
"Aha-ha-ha, you jest surely, however the jest is upon me officers, for my mother and father dear surnamed Ren have seen fit to name me Wan, and those are both common names from the parts of our dear South where I hail from."
"If you say so⦠although it is quite uncanny seeing that someone of your descriptions was present at the auction that the Golden Fairy's Own Chartered hosted last year at the Ninth Crossroad Intersection where their Golden Rose Caravan had halted on the 1st day of the Western Tigers' Mansion, someone who according to several very reputable ironclad testimonies happens to also be among those who are to be held responsible for the incident that occurred after?
"Why, I and my band of fellows remember those miserable days well enough!"
â Senior Brother says in a strained despairing tone, in the meanwhile we remain with lowered heads no longer, he having made his remark slides closer from arm's length to face me as we raise our heads to look our intruders straight in the eyes.
He lands his hand to my shoulder he wraps me in a close embrace that through my months of joining with this fine company of rogues I have come to know well enough.
Tis the familiar type of embrace he uses to signal to us when the situation has escalated beyond humble placation or a close shave with defeat, it means we have no chance of seeing tomorrow unless we do exactly as he says.
"My dear brother Ci Yen, do you still remember the line proceeding to the grounds, even though the thrumming hum of the qi of thousands of cultivators had resounded for hundreds of li all about the vicinity of the auction deterring the mortals and weakest amongst our type, we stubborn lot stuck with the line for the whole week!"
â to which I follow with â
"And the whole auction fell through, all because the merchandise was pinched, oh woe for us who defy Heaven's Will, truly misfortunate are we rogue lot." â with my best attempt at backing him up, Senior Brother continues his act to end with lamentations of â
"Seven days we have been awaiting for the faintest hint of a chance for a most fortuitous encounter only to see it stolen away in an instant, and now my plain common face is mistaken once more for belonging to a ne'er-do-wellâ¦
Well in this instance I do not know whether to feel bad because this face and name my mother and father dear gave landed me once more into troubles or feel flattered, that rogue you speak of was said to have a dashing countenance that would make any icy beauty melt."
"You do realize that all of these⦠petty attempts at persuasion does not paint a good picture for the continuation of your good evening my friend?" â asks the man from the funeral parlor.
"On the contrary officer, you called me friend." â Senior Brother in a smug manner replies.
The funeral parlor attendant smirked.
Senior Brother smirked.
The sallow eyed paper pusher chuckled.
Senior Brother gives me the cue to start laughing.
The four of us begin to laugh away all the tension threatening to explode in our faces, a gentleman's unspoken agreement that all the words previously spoken are merely just words and there is no meaning behind any of them.
"Aha-ha-ha⦠so officers." â with a more relaxed face befitting the painstakingly manufactured calm, Senior Brother continues â
"I and little brother Ci welcome you all to the Ci manor, shameful it might be for his seniors to abuse his hospitality like so, however what are such things when put to measure against oaths swearing to feast or starve from the same bowl and to die on the same day and hour."
"From this day forward I swear, although we are not born on the same day and hour and although the surnames may differ this man is my brother.
From this day forward I swear, that we join strength to seek out one goal, defy Heaven.
From this forward I swear, that although we are not born on same the day and the same hour we can only hope to die the same.
May the Gods residing within Heaven and dwell within the World, in the East and in the West, Old and New, bear witness and attest to what is in our hearts.
If we should ever do anything to betray our friendship, let Heaven's Will, the strings of fate, the flow of karma, and all that live of the World both strike us dead."
â intone the couple, reminiscing.
"Well spoken, we crass lot aren't much for poetry, a cry of
â "Although not born on the same day of the same month in the same year, we hope to die so.' â
â and a cup of spirits seasoned with our blood has sustained us so far that we have become able to enter and plant our roots within this city."
"A sacrifice of a white snake and black crow while our bloody hands were clasped in each other was ours, and while that was quite the subject we have found ourselves at, it brings me sorrow to leave it behind as I must provide the explanation for the reason we are here."â so speaks the paper pusher who shamelessly slaughtered my loyal men.
"Well I am not sure about the validity of the offer but my dear sister Caixi spoke very highly for your little brother's sister's availability for matchmaking and prospects for marriage with my beloved sister Yue'er's boy Gen'er."
"Ah, little Xie'er has an admirer already?! Despite being sequestered within these walls?!
Whahahaha!!! It seems that Brother Yen cannot hope to chase off this suitor so easily this time!"
â Senior Brother cries out while ribbing his elbows on my chest, each strike so subtly painful than the usual, each strike a condemnation of my troublesome nature and a sign to just give them what they want, curse them.
"So it isâ¦"
Bitterness sours my tongue and I think hard about my chances at taking them on right here and now, despite knowing that Senior Brother has nothing been but benevolent to us and never blaming me for the situations I put this brotherhood through.
He even keeps seeing the opportunities in the mistakes and slip ups we all make, how could betray his trust right now and doom us all?
"I welcome our guests to my humble abode, please partake in our hospitality, and I would ask Senior Brother to keep them company, for this slight I hope that you may find it your heart to forgive me⦠leaving you lot in the care of Senior Brother that is, I must excuse myself for my precious sister needs help in being ready to receive you."
With no other choice except to once more bear the shame and humiliation of seeing my sister being peddled away like a prized cow, reluctantly following Senior Brother's instructions I storm off.
My brothers still gambling on the dinner table give notice to my stomping off upstairs, paying them no heed I am sure they will clean up their mess to prepare for another dinner, heh at least Fat Dong will be glad of it that's to be sure.
I make my way to her room.
I gently open the door.
She is still awake despite it being way past her bedtime, whispering under the covers of her bed playing pretend with her maidservant, the daughter of the last of my chosen man who willingly followed me into exile and with whom I charged with the duty of guarding the gates tonight.
Of those chosen men her brother was the one fortunately spared that left to warn us of the trespassers, the burden of telling her will fall not on him but unto me, the one who failed to protect her.
Just for this night before I make myself known and shatter their world, in this moment under the covers they were mighty cultivators defying Heaven, from their whispers I can make out the tales of Fairy Iron Fan and her trusty loyal attendant, the spirit physician Fairy Heart Whisperer, out on a quest to vanquish evil and heal the broken hearts of cultivators, spirits and earthly gods together.
I quietly close the door, and sink to my knees, a torrent of emotions wrecking my defiant form as a Heart Demon threatened to form.
Why has Heaven deigned to smile upon me, why did it lead us to find the exact whorehouse she was sold to and save her innocence from being spoiled, was it so that it would be my very own hands that will sever her spirit roots and make her into a broodmare myself?!
I won't permit it!!!
CURSE ALL THAT DARE TO CRUSH PURE DREAMS LIKE THIS ONE!!!
Huff⦠huff⦠Mother⦠this simple burden you have given me has this foolish son troubled far more than he bearâ¦
A little while longer, Xie'er and Wa'er can have a little while longer as Heaven's Will forces my hand, but do not mistake this for submission, on the bones of my men and my mother I and the brotherhood will defy Heaven and keep Xie'er happy!
==================================================================================================================
"Young Master, a small gift in recognition of your labors."
Damn right some compensation is due after the troubles I suffered on the way to this slum.
As the aggrieved parties of this gaffe, who have received the most offence and to whom face must be given, three of the gang's lackeys hand over jeweled hairpins as recompense, and the gifts show their complete lack of class, the hairpins being so lacking in any tasteful design that attunes to any season or careful thought to their personal wardrobe that it is guaranteed to be tossed over the wayside by my mother, grandmother, and aunt.
Well, mayhaps my aunt could try to part with it by scamming some painted dullard out of some favors by waxing poetic about its hidden powers, yet with her actions that lead up to the events occurring this fine evening I would without doubt say that she would be sequestered away to a room Feng Shui'ed to be beneficial to her upcoming birth.
On the meanwhile, uncle and martial uncle being manly men are owned nothing and are charged with enforcing the debt they have incurred on our behalf, and thus having accomplished their aims they pass away the time with the rest of the hoodlums in interrogation disguised as light conversation about polite inanities, and even ourselves without any techniques to read the mind can even tell that each of them are just chomping away the bits awaiting the chances to slip their blades from their sheaths to take back the treasure that is their meager trashy largesse.
Counting on that thousand copper pence defensive array to something against the hidden Core Formation elder? Tough luck buddy.
As for myself, accounted for in technicality as still a boy and thus being liable for face along with the rest of the designated protected of the group have been given a spirit beast egg as a part of their recompense.
Now were I planning to incorporate beast taming into my build or born in the East in general this would be a princely boon, drawing from my general know how and what little texts concerning spirit beasts I have read I can infer from its size, the colorations of its shell, and way its qi makes itself known to me that this will be quite the formidable one when it hatches.
Just as a mother cultivates with her child in the womb and when two cultivators swear an oath to become dao companions, so it is with forming bonds between spirit beasts and beast tamers, orthodox methods would see an equivalent exchange between the parties involved where eventual herds and packs of all types of differing beasts would boost their pedigree through inbreeding and spiritual lineage through hybridization.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Unorthodox means would see things like parasites and creepy furry shit that I will not even begin to donate portions of my mind pondering on, they brought out a reheated soup and some fried frittering's which is the norm here down South with its Chinese cuisine aesthetics, what a nice table setting that will be sure to distract me from the degeneracy they do predominately in the shadows of the East.
Look it is one thing to fuck a cute foxgirl/boy once you manage to awaken their human form, and it's another thing to stick your junk inside the leechussy or fill your uterus with tapeworms, fucking hell what the fuck is wrong with the authors of that work, giving out heart demons to unsuspecting cultivators!
Never to mind it was on the top of the bookshelf purposefully kept way out of touch, shit like that should stay sealed with the local law enforcement's archives never to see the light of day or better yet join in the annual demonic scripture burning, and I can sense the egg previously cold now feels warm to the touch, have I been unconsciously incubating it?
The dinner table we are seated on is currently missing its main centerpiece and even observing the quite so interrogative idle talk between my two gay uncles and the rest of the gang has bored the whole family, they are good, damned good and dare I say it, on the level of the legend himself, Jeff the heroin addict who understood his right to remain silent and kept his silence.
In the deadly politeness of this somewhat Chinese society where you are expected to reply to any questions a peer might ask of you and speaking good answers is necessary to continued existence when a more powerful person asks questions from you, silence is treated as an invitation to further violence, and yet despite this all of the questions my hardboiled police equivalent gay uncles ask are all deflected and sidestepped by tightly knit stories and testimonies, all of plausible and reasonable sounding, and to think that without any prior intel on these career criminals one could confer that these are just regular cultivators, and it is just the discrimination against wandering sects and rogue cultivators swaying our biases here.
Meanwhile the egg which I have been treating as a fidget toy has kept incubating which I think it is a good thing, putting in the work to hatch one could raise or dump its market price, depends on the customer of course, one being the blokes who need a cultivation aid as soon as possible and aura-farmers who want to show off how good they are at hatching powerful beasts, but by the way its acting now â
A crack silences the table, making it heard that steps are descending down the stairs.
'I want to eat.' â A sentiment pierces through my mind not unlike a message sent in qi, wait is this really happening, oh Heavens are you really giving me this!
Crack. Step. Crack. Step.
'Marrow.'
Marrow is soft, it melts at the tongue, mine are pitch black as the ink that I bleed, and they are the core of my bones riddled with scripts.
Crack. Step. Crack. Step.
'Bone.'
Bone is hard and brittle, it is the root of all strength that protects the marrow and supports the muscles, and mine are riddled with qi given form through characters set in scripts.
Crack. Step. Crack. Step.
'What do you want to eat?'
Anything that we damn well please, yet not only do we live to eat, we eat to live, we eat to get stronger and knowledge is not unlike food itself, devouring it can only make us stronger.
Crack. Step. Crack. Step.
'How will we get anything to eat?'
By ripping it from the dead.
Crack! Step.
I open eyes I never realized were shut.
"Well what did I tell you gentlemen, be honest were any of you serious about that bet earlierâ¦"
"Uwaa! Gen'er had his first fated encounter!"
"A Ghoul Vulture, can reach up to Rank 5 and is equal to thirty extra spirit roots, although they may be scavengers by nature they are fearsome enough that one can easily kill a squad of Qi Gathering disciples on its own and able to fend off a Foundation Establishment adept in a flock, quite the catch martial nephew Gen."
"He was born under the mansion of the Vermillion Bird, in the configuration of the Heavenly Eagle, and in the Year of the Rooster, so these signs indicate his rather high affinity for birds, but to be paired like this could only be fateâ¦"
"Ahem!"
Before I could fully take in the sight of my other self my attention is drawn to the disruption presenting herself.
Of the same age as mine, her not so fiery toned down red hair is done up in a common Southern display of being concentrated on the top of the head, divided into several strands, and then coiled into a triplet circle, each towering over the top where several pins hold it up in place.
Dressed in the selfsame finery to impress country bumpkins as her brother she cuts an indignant glare directed at myself with a diamond shaped face adorned with soft eyebrows and pursed lips, all in all taking into account her non-existent cultivation I would rate her a four-out-of-ten lower ranked beauty, double digit points away from being considered jade and triple digits away from being a fairy, but hey with age and cultivation who knows if she can make something of herself.
Uncaring for the latecomer, I take a look at the missing puzzle piece that filled up the parts of myself I did not know I was missing.
Fluffy down feathers that would fill up the cushions and pillows of a rich babe's crib, the beginnings of a wicked looking beak, pale skin lining a rather long neck void of any feathers, and dark eyes that host concentric irises widening at the very sight of me, and with his neck nestled into the rest of his bodies feathers with his sluggish pale tongue hanging out of his beak he cuts the most adorable sight I have ever seen in this life.
"His name is Kamina, and although our surnames may differ, and although we are not born in the same hour, day, month or year we can only hope to die so, let us reach Heaven through violence my dear other."
"You dare wake a girl up in her own home and then dare to ignore her?! What kind of man are you?!"
"And what sort of lady welcomes guests in her home like this? Did your mother even teach you how?"
And now my beloved grandmother, previously bereft of any amusement, has found herself an amusing person to toy with, this could only go swimmingly.
"I can act anyway I damn well please under my own roof! Begone my sight old hag!"
Oof, any retort would have amused her save for that one.
With her being as she is, that is a lady who very conscious about her age and appearance that still holds herself to the standards of her fellow generation, a comment like that from some mortal is sure to rankle her bones.
So as a consequence of her bad decisions at being a poor host she blasts the vicinity of this poor excuse of a manor with flare of qi, shaking the whole shacks structural integrity to reveal her previously hidden cultivation.
Core Foundation Elder.
"Do you feel that you may act whatever and whenever you please little mare?" â my grandmother, with a sliver of killing intent, calmly replies to the seven year old.
The trickling coming from the sound of fluid hitting the floor around the traunt's general direction that echoes throughout the tense silence is the only answer needed, even Kamina pulled his tongue in and locked in as we hit the leaned in from our previously reclined poses as all gamers would.
This my dear other half is what we will eventually become as we defy Heaven, isn't that cool?
"Oh dear oh dear, what is wrong little mare, did I scare you?
Ufufufu, there is a reason why guest rights are upheld by virtues and told to children as stories, did you not think that one day when stepping into a city like this with a hundred hidden monsters your character would not be tested?
Did such stories about the fates of naughty mortals meddling with matters not of their lot in life not continue to caution girls such as yourself?"
No words save grandmother's own dare to make itself known, from the looks of everyone in the room they were all told stories about disrespecting wandering immortals but I suppose one clearly didn't get the memo about their verified nature.
With a slow rasping creaking motion that accompanies one of the Tufu helping grandma out of her chair, she steps over to the foot of the staircase where the now christened piss girl stands, and despite all his rage misfortunately her brother cannot help her here.
"Now, lets have a good look at your dearie." â says as she touches her index finger to the girl's forehead.
"Hmm⦠HMM! Wah, hahahaha! I see! I SEE!
A Saintly Physique! It seems one of your ancestors was graced with the honor of servicing a heavenly scion one fateful night, then tossed away considered unfit for the peerage for the blood to be diluted like this.
Sold immediately when you found out at the local diviner, but I suppose your brother got you back.
Ah! so that is why you weren't taught proper manners, your mother sent away be trained at a whorehouse but your brother interrupted it, and you have languished away any of the skills a proper lady must develop with the company of strange and boorish men...
Poor little mare I never knew because instead of speaking properly about your situation you instead acted like one of them! Could you find it in your heart to forgive me?"
Despite all the words piss girl remains motionless until, â "I said, could you find it in your heart to forgive me my dear girl?" â grandmother repeats her question, this time with a twisting of her wrist to find any sort of reaction.
A yelp of pain is heard with a response of â "Yes!".
"Yes, Honored Hierarch, that is how will respond to me my dear, are we clear on that?"
"Ye-s Honored Hierarchâ¦" â properly replies piss girl through tears.
"Good, good, good, Yue'er, Gen'er would you two kindly please move over, she will sit by my side tonight."
"As you will Honored Hierarch." â we intone.
A Tufu helps me out of my seat as I void my place at my grandmother's right hand to make room for piss girl, and another Tufu nudges the fat guy who rudely kept eating before the dinner could formally begin so that mother can take her place besides me.
"Now." â grandmother speaks addressing the room â "Since we have been waiting for you all this time at this feast that is held not only in your honor but also my grandson's, it is proper that we start by both you greeting the table."
"Ah⦠bu-but,"
"Ah it is not a problem now I have learned of your plight, Gen'er, would you kindly please demonstrate how to properly greet the table?"
"Of course grandmother." â I say as I set Kamina on the table to take up my drinking cup in hand as one of the Tufu moves once more to assist me with my chair to begin my demonstration â
"Rise from seat with cup and cover in hand, with the cover underneath the cup and starting from the honored seat to directly in front and to side, three times you toast."
First toast to the honored seat with respectful tone and slow solemn cadence ending in a bow.
Next to the front with a declarative tone and formal announcing cadence ending with the other guests rising from their seats to return another toast.
Last to the side with a festive tone and casual cadence, to which all gathered guests may begin greeting each other with a toast and taking their drinks."
Etiquette and manners, they could save your life, literally.
Boy am I glad I am autistic enough for these things, with that done I re-take my seat and make ready for the signal to begin, by the way good luck to piss girl since that's all the demo I am giving you.
A pulse resounds, the Tufu helps with my seat, and piss girl yelps at being dragged along in her's, I stand ready with cup and cover in hand and I wait for a heartbeat while she grabs her implements, I turn to my right facing my grandmother to give her a toast and formally begin.
"I toast the honored one." â I greet and toast my grandmother.
"I-i toast the honored one." â she hastily follows my cue.
"May she prosper and be generous with her blessings so that Heaven blesses her." â I perform a bow.
"M-may she prosper a-and be generous with her blessings so that H-heaven blesses her." â she follows with her own bow.
"I toast the fellows." â I greet and toast the room.
"We toast the Young Master of Wu-Tang." â mother and the rest of my family not missing a beat, rise from their seats to greet and toast their cups to me.
"I toast the fellows!" â she being a little slower interrupts her own folk to give her greetings.
"We toast the Lady Ci!" â whether it was planned or no, they took to her greetings the opportunity to snub me, defiant they still are in the face of a Core Formation elder, let's see where this leads them.
"I toast the City, and in particular my dear other Kamina, let us defy Heaven together!"
"I toast my brother and the brotherhood, let us defy Heaven together!"
I raise my cup to the left facing my mother, and drink down the water completing the formal greeting toast, and so the feast begins in earnest.
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saw Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc Movie this month, so I am using it as a cope for not updating as fast as I would have liked
image [https://i.postimg.cc/X7NQWjgv/IMG-20251004-120342.jpg]
ah but y33t, you did watch it once its an two hour expie-wrong
image [https://i.postimg.cc/TY2CxdcG/IMG-20250925-123845.jpg]
image [https://i.postimg.cc/Yq2b7rx0/IMG-20251004-120803.jpg]
it was three times
image [https://i.postimg.cc/L43NGYLc/IMG-20250925-130259.jpg]
best damned dead wife flashback I have ever seen, especially when the pool scene hits, many would have joked about gooning here but there was nothing to goon about artistic nudity done correctly, an expression of childlike purity innocence and freedom, a first summer love and the aura of youth that reminds me so much about Moonrise Kingdom.
Its enough to make a grown man cry.
anyways go leave some comments to help during these trying times and thats about it see yah.