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..."
The Bamboo Silk House (Part Two)
"They aren't afraid of me," Wu Ling said, nodding slightly to other sect disciples they passed on their way to the back of the sect. "They're afraid of my mother," he explained. "The token marks me as her direct disciple so they're afraid of offending her by offending me."
"Is a sect elder so scary here?" Yao Meifeng asked. "I've heard that some elders in sects reign like tyrants but I always thought your mother was a kind and gentle woman. That was her outside your home wasn't it?" Yao Meifeng said, thinking of the apparition that had appeared to deal with the men who were hunting her.
"She, she dealt harshly with those men," Yao Meifeng added. "But she was protecting all of us. That's not a reason to be afraid of someone."
"It was a little frightening," Su Yao admitted, recalling the scene outside Wu Ling's home. "But also reassuring to know that she could watch over us. I think that's how an Elder should be."