6 Chapter 6

"Hello mother," a middle-aged woman turned around and smiled, her smile dazzling.

"Feng Hui, you are back so late," the woman quickly hugged him, placing a kiss on the top of his head.

"Mom, I'm not a child anymore, stop," Brother Feng complained, rubbing his head and messing up his hair.

"No matter how old you become, you are still my child," the woman chided.

"Concubine Cai, your husband wishes to see you," a servant said, walking into her room. The woman nodded before disappearing, reappearing in front of the servant with her hand squeezing his neck.

"How dare you call me by that cursed name," she snarled, her eyes piercing and frigid. The servant gasped for breath, clawing at the hand that squeezed his neck. Tears sprung at the corners of his eyes, his lungs burning.

"My name is Xinya. Feng Xinya. Repeat it," the servant nodded frantically, desperately trying to choke out her name.

"F-Feng. X-Xin-Xinya," Xinya released the servant, the servant collapsing to the ground, coughing and massaging his throat, eyes bloodshot.

"Get out now," Xinya ordered. The servant stumbled out, closing the door behind him. Xinya clicked her tongue and walked over to the washbasin, cleaning her hands.

"How disgusting, my hands are all dirty," Xinya uttered, scrubbing at her skin until it turned red. Brother Feng walked over and took her hands out of the washbasin, gently drying them and putting cream on them.

"Mother, your hands are delicate, don't use them on useless people," Feng scolded. Xinya smiled and examined her hands. She turned and grabbed a lotus hairpin, pinning it in her hair.

"You are right. Let's go see your father," Xinya said. She walked out of the room, leaving Feng behind. Feng looked at himself in the mirror, a bitter taste in his mouth.

"'Your father.' As if he ever thought of me as his son," Feng grumbled, walking out of the room. He caught up with his mother, walking into his father's office. Inside was his father sitting at his desk, looking through some documents. To the side was his wife reading a book.

"Honey, Sister Feng Rong," Xinya bowed to them. Sister Rong smiled warmly at her and Brother Feng.

"Hello, my dear. Feng Hui, how are your studies going?" his father asked, not even looking up from his work.

"Huan, please. At least look up when you greet your concubine and son," Sister Rong softly reprimanded. Feng Huan looked up and smiled at his wife.

"Of course dear, I'm sorry," Feng Huan stood up and walked over to Xinya and Feng Hui, giving both of them a hug.

"I do hope that you will join us for dinner today Feng Hui. Your siblings and aunts will be joining us today as well," Feng Huan said. Feng Hui smiled bitterly, his fingers twitching at the thought of cowering under the judgemental stares of his father's other wives and children.

"Of course my Feng Hui will join us, my dear," Xinya said adorably, clinging onto her husband's arm. Feng Huan looked at his wife adoringly.

"Rong, I will be accompanying Xinya until dinner," Feng Huan said before walking out of his office. Sister Rong placed the book on the table and got up, walking over to Feng Hui. She rubbed his head affectionately, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Little Feng Hui, I would love for you to attend dinner with us," she said sweetly, walking towards the door. She paused, her hand above the door handle.

"Oh, and please don't feel like you are inferior to your siblings. No matter what you think or feel, Feng Huan loves all of his children and wives," Sister Rong parted with those final words. Feng Hui scoffed and sat down on the couch, picking up the book that Sister Rong was reading.

"The Chronicles of Liang Shui; The Greatest Emperor of the Mortal Realm. Aunt Rong is really reading about the emperor of the Zira Empire," Feng Hui said out loud. He opened the book to a random page, reading a random sentence.

'Liang Shui bravely led the remaining mortals to defeat the spiritless who had destroyed the mortal realm. He selflessly fought as the youngest emperor of the last kingdom standing after his father died protecting a rural village,' Feng Hui closed the book, his eyes crossing at how boring the book was.

~~

Brother Gong was in his room, looking over the treasures that he had stolen from the treasury room.

"I just realized that I have nowhere to hide these weapons," Brother Gong deadpanned, groaning.

"Well, guess I'll just burn that bridge when I get to it," he decided, picking up the staff. He weighed it in his hand and twirled it around, being careful to avoid hitting anything in the room.

"Not a bad weapon," he mused, jabbing at the air.

"Although, a staff is a projectile weapon, not to hit people," Brother Gong looked mischievously at the staff, laughing at the thought of hitting people with a staff.

"Anything is a melee weapon if you try hard enough," Brother Gong hid the sword underneath the mattress and hid the box in the back of a drawer. He kept the staff in his robes, concealing it with his own spirit.

"Yeah, that'll work for now," Brother Gong said, walking out of his room. He walked over to the infirmary, entering Zhou's room.

"Hey, Brother Gong!" Zhou greeted, waving. Brother Gong nodded his head.

"You can just call me Gong," Brother Gong replied. He was already calling Zhou without the honorific, and it was weird for Zhou to call him with the honorific.

"Oh, so Gong is your first name, I was right," Zhou said happily, bouncing on the bed. Brother Gong looked at him with narrowed eyes, his mouth shaped into unspoken words.

"Did... Did you think my name was Gong Gong?" Brother Gong asked, sputtering in disbelief. Zhou nodded his head innocently.

"Gods, no. If my name was Gong Gong, I'd instantly disown my parents," Brother Gong said, leaning against the wall.

"I don't think that's how disowning works," Zhou pointed out, laughing. Brother Gong smiled, jumping slightly as the door next to him opened. Ye walked in with a pair of robes, eyes widening slightly at seeing Brother Gong there.

"Hello, Brother Gong" Ye greeted, placing the robes on the bed.

"You can just call me Gong, don't bother with the honorific," Gong said.

"Your name is Gong Gong?" Ye asked, tilting his head in confusion. Brother Gong felt like throwing up blood.

"Are you sure you're really a genius?" Brother Gong asked. Zhou and Ye looked at each other and looked back at Brother Gong. Brother Gong sighed.

"My family name is Gong. My given name is An. My name is Gong An," Brother Gong explained.

"Oh, that makes more sense,"

"Hurry up, we have a history class today. I heard that we get to learn about a bit of history that was previously hidden," Brother Gong said. He turned around as Zhou changed from his nightgown into his sect robes.

"Did you hear anything else?" Ye asked.

"I heard it has something to do with the Zira Empire and something called "spiritless," Brother Gong said, his voice bouncing off the wall. Zhou and Ye paused, staring holes into the Brother Gong's back.

"Spiritless?" Zhou asked, trying to conceal the shake in his voice. Ye squeezed his hand, helping him finish putting on his robes.

"I don't know. It might be interesting if it involves the Zira Empire," Brother Gong said. Zhou tied up his hair and strode past Brother Gong, chewing the inside of his cheek.

"Let's go," Zhou said in a stiff tone. Brother Gong walked out and Ye followed, shutting the door. Zhou mindlessly walked towards the school building, stopping when Brother Gong pulled on his arm.

"It's a special, one-time class. It's being held in the open classroom," Brother Gong said. He found the blank and misty look in Zhou's eyes rather amusing.

"Liuxian," Ye called out. Zhou snapped back to reality and shook his head, putting on a smile.

"You okay?" Brother Gong asked. Zhou nodded his head, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"I'm okay, just a little tired I guess," Zhou said.

"Make sure to rest after the lesson. You may have escaped basically uninjured, but you still need to be careful. You've always been pretty sickly," Brother Gong said. Zhou was nearly half-jogging to keep up with the taller boys.

"How did you know I was sickly?" Zhou asked.

"I've been in the same classes as you for two years," Brother Gong explained. Zhou tried hard to remember the two years that he had spent drifting off into his own world instead of listening to the classes that bored him.

"I can't remember," Zhou said apologetically.

"It's fine, we're here anyway," Brother Gong said. They walked down into the huge crater-like field, taking a seat on the cool stone steps.

"There are so many people," Zhou said in awe, seeing that the steps across from them were slowly filling up with people.

"You think this is impressive? There are only about 300 sect members here. In the middle realm, there are easily more than 5000 sect members," Brother Gong said, his eyes shining. Zhou looked at Brother Gong in amazement.

"You've been to the middle realm before?" Zhou breathed out excitedly. Brother Gong chuckled and nodded.

"I've only gone once, but it was amazing. The middle realm is nothing like the lower realm. They're so much stronger than us. I heard that they only need 5 years to break through into Ghost rank when we need nearly a decade to reach that rank," Brother Gong said excitedly, gripping his robes.

'And they have better laws and are less conservative,'

"Can you tell me about the sects there?" Zhou asked. Zhou had never heard of the middle realm and was excited to learn more. Brother Gong brought a finger over his lips, his eyes trained on the sect elder walking to the middle of the crater.

"I'll tell you later, the class is about to start," Brother Gong whispered. Zhou immediately quieted as he scratched the cool stone under him, his fingernails filing down. Ye gripped his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Zhou bit his lip and relaxed his hand, trying to train his attention to the front.

"Hello, sect members. As you know, the Zira Empire has recently allowed the dark past of the war to be brought back to light as an anonymous noble couple accused Emperor Liang Shui of hiding the truth of the war. In response, the emperor has told his council to release the official records of the war. He has also ordered for it to be taught to all students in their respective sects and schools," his voice bounced against the walls of the crater, enveloping the sect members.

"As you all know, the one-year war is known to be us, mortals, fighting against bloodthirsty, merciless, beasts. However, these beasts were also mortals just like us. But unlike us, they had no benefactor, so the world blessed them with a knack for mass destruction," the sect members whispered among themselves, having never heard of these mortals who didn't have benefactors.

"They were dubbed as 'spiritless' before the 700,000 years of peace we've had. These spiritless were treated very well, and they were given the duty of protecting the empires, kingdoms, and cities of the mortal realm,"

"So why are they known as beasts if they used to protect us?" a random individual shouted. The sect elder frowned, raking his eyes across the crowd.

"Listen, you young ones. These spiritless took advantage of the trust they had, and one of them, their so-called "leader," made a deal with a being from the Demon Realm. He incited rage in the spiritless and lead them to destroy everything. They killed children, women, the elderly, everything," the sect elder said firmly. Zhou subconsciously gripped his chest, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"These spiritless had a natural thirst for blood and destruction. They all did,"

'No, no, no. No, I don't,'

"They are not meant to be trusted,"

'No, I can be trusted. I would never hurt a soul,'

"Spiritless are monsters,"