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..."
"For now, the most important thing is to help our most injured companions heal," Wu Ling said as he looked over the group. "To do that, Brother Yu needs a place to tend to them and plenty of clean water. We're not far from the shore of the lake where Sister Xiang and I observed the eclipse. I remember several stands of bamboo near the lake the last time we were here so I'm going to go look for one with Sister Xiang and Hou," he explained.
"Once we find a good place to establish a temporary camp, I'll start clearing a site while Sister Xiang comes back to fetch everyone else. We can build a quick litter to transport Brother Fang while we're at it. Once everyone gets there, Brother Zhang, I'll be looking to you and Brother Xiong for help building a hut where Brother Yu can tend to the injured."
"Of course," Zhang Buyan said, thumping his chest lightly with a fist. "I'll help however I can."