Unparalleled Artist: Unlikely Hero
Following his father's murder, Wu Ling's mother returned to the life of a courtesan, disguising her young son as a girl to take refuge in the Bamboo Silk House, a women's only sect dedicated to the arts. Now, as his powers awaken, he'll find himself torn between protecting his family and the goals of powerful cultivators who see him as a means to an end. "Wu Ling, I've accepted a marriage proposal on your behalf," the bewitching Hall Master of the Bamboo Silk House declared. "When you enter the Inner Sect, you'll enter under the name 'Hua Qianhu', fiancee of a young lord of the Liang family." "Hall Master, that's impossible!" Wu Ling protested. "Even if you ignore my relationship with Meifeng, I might have dressed well enough to hide as a mortal woman but I could never..." "So you truly didn't realize what you were doing," the Hall Master said, a dark smile on her lips. "Little Ling, you're a natural-born Shapeshifter. I'll teach you what you need to know," she said, her features shifting until she looked like a mirror image of the stunned Wu Ling. "As long as you follow my arrangements and learn my techniques, it isn't impossible for you to reunite with Meifeng..." "But you should consider Young Lord Liang carefully," the Hall Master added. "His affection for you is genuine. Perhaps, one day, you'll even feel the same for him..."
A Question Of Leadership
"We can't just all forget about this," Fang Lin said, glaring at Wu Ling from the boulder he'd perched on. "Were you seen? Was anyone left alive last night? Will they be able to track you and bring trouble to us? Maybe… Maybe we should stop now and return home before we get so far away we can't summon help."
"There's a wide difference between choosing not to attack the enemy where they are fortified and being so terrified of them that we abandon everything at the slightest hint we'd be pursued," Su Xaing said, frowning at the young lord. "If we attack their fortress, undoubtedly we could run into multiple second-stage cultivators, formations and all manner of other dangers. If they send someone to hunt us, however, our odds are significantly better."
"I refuse to run away," Xiong Dahuo said, scowling at Fang Lin. "Maybe you're the one who shouldn't have come along. We're only a few hours away from Blade's Edge. You have plenty of daylight if you want to walk back."