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 Dangerous Game
Once they moved through the heavy door Wu Ling quickly counted nearly a dozen men who had gathered around one of three tables. At the first table, several men shouted excitedly as one rattled dice in a cup, slamming the cup down and calling out - "BIG!" - before lifting the cup to reveal the dice. Whatever the results, clearly they'd fallen short as the men crowded around the table groaned while another man swept several spirit crystals off the table.
The second table held a more subdued group of men clustered around a pile of tiles, each staring at the row of tiles before them and scowling deeply as they looked from the pile to their opponents around the table.
The final table was host to a single man and a large amount of food. The smell of freshly roasted meat mixed with pipe smoke and potent alcohol could be smelled from all the way across the room as Brother Tong guided Wu Ling to the final table at the far side of the room.