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 Chapterhouse
The Bamboo Needles Embroidery Shop served as the only official or unofficial presence of the Bamboo Silk House in Bufa City. The shop itself was small, occupying just one corner of a large building with shops on the ground floor and two floors of residences above.
When Wu Ling entered the shop, he found a matronly woman with graying hair sitting behind the shop's small counter and working on a delicate bit of embroidery. Several samples of the shop's work lined the walls and a young girl who couldn't be more than fourteen or fifteen summers old paused in setting out neatly folded handkerchiefs to greet Wu Ling.
"Welcome to our humble shop, kind miss," the young woman greeted, offering an abbreviated bow without putting down her stack of handkerchiefs. "Are you looking for something ready made or would you like to have a piece embroidered just for you? Madame Cixiu does all of our custom work and her skills are second to none in Bufa City."