Grand Plans

Wu Ling let a teasing smile spread across his lush, painted lips as he fluttered his eyelashes at Su Xiang. "Do you like me like this? Would you come out to tea with your Sister Ling if I said that I intended to stay like this? Maybe we could go shopping for new dresses together, or would you rather go for a stroll together in the public gardens? You know," he added, reaching out to gently touch her hand. "Not many flowers can match up to your own radiance."

"Gah! You're doing it again!" Su Xiang said, instantly frustrated and wishing that she could hurl her teacup at him. "Why do you do that?"

"What, the flirting?" Wu Ling said with a soft laugh. "Why not flirt when my childhood friend has turned into a beauty worthy of my best zither playing? Shouldn't a man flirt when a beauty moves his heart?"

"Maybe a MAN should, but right now, you don't exactly look all that manly," she replied, distinctly uncomfortable at the way he'd complimented her. In the sect, she had her own share of admirers but none of them did things like play beautiful music made just for her in front of an entire crowd. Wu Ling was just too, too much! "It makes me uncomfortable when you say those things while you look like that," she finally managed to explain.

"Okay, I'll stop," Wu Ling said gently, withdrawing his hand from hers. "Mostly, when I flirt with girls while I'm dressed up like this, it's with girls who like to flirt back. It's all harmless and we laugh at how silly it can all get. It's different with you though because there's something real there," he said, giving her a glimpse at the feelings under the practiced actions. "That makes it all different and I'm sorry for not stopping sooner. You just look cute when you're blushing and flustered," he teased trying to keep the mood from becoming heavy.

"So will you answer my question or not?" Su Xiang asked, folding her well-toned arms across her chest and glaring at Wu Ling. "Because if you don't," she started, trailing off in an unspoken threat.

"Okay, okay, you win," Wu Ling said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I don't plan to no. I have enough saved up now to make an attempt at Awakening. If I succeed, I'll have to leave school anyway since it's a preparatory school for mortals hoping to awaken as Artists. I might still have occasions where I need to dress up a bit, but it isn't exactly how I plan to live the rest of my life," he confided.

"Does that mean you'll come back to the sect when you awaken then?" Su Xiang asked hopefully. Would they finally be able to become sword-sworn companions as they'd promised all those years ago? She'd long given up on the idea, but seeing her childhood friend return to her all sorts of fantasies she'd given up on had bubbled back up in her mind. "Will you go back to being Yun Ling?"

"No to both," Wu Ling said, instantly shattering her fantasies with a shake of his head. "If I go back to being Yun Ling then I become fair game for my father's enemies," he added, hoping she wouldn't misunderstand. "I love my father and I'm grateful for what he did for me, but the people who killed him won't let a male heir to his bloodline come back for revenge sometime in the future. They'll hunt me down to prevent the trouble they think I'll bring them in some distant future like pulling up weeds by the roots. I owe my father respect but when my mother and I were cast out of the sect after his death, and everything we had to do to take care of ourselves afterward because he was gone? I don't owe him enough to carry his surname and avenge his death."

"Is that also why you won't come back to the sect?" she asked, realizing things weren't as simple as she hoped they'd be.

"No," Wu Ling said with a smile. "I won't come back to the sect for the same reason that my mother was never accepted there. I intend to awaken as an Artist not as a Martial cultivator."

"You're joking aren't you?" Su Xiang said in disbelief. "Tell me that you're joking. Do you have any idea how helpless you'll be if you dedicate your primary path to being an Artist? It could be years before you have the chance to go through a reawakening to add a second path to your cultivation and that's only if you manage to break out of the first stage! Most Artists die as Aesthetes for a reason. You won't even be able to join the best sects for artists. The Myriad Arts Pavilion is a sect exclusively for women and whatever you did to pass in a mortal school will never get you into a genuine women-only sect."

"I know, I know all that," Wu Ling said, brushing off her concerns and pouring both of them a fresh cup of tea. "But it won't be as dire as you think it will. You saw my zither today right?"

"I did," she said, not understanding the sudden change in topic. "It's beautiful and it looks like it's been well-maintained for a very long time."

"The zither is part of an inheritance I found a few years ago," he explained, sharing a secret with his childhood friend that he hadn't even shared with his own mother. "I don't think the zither itself is all that valuable but the cultivation manual that went with it is meant to guide artists in exploring ALL ART. It isn't a zither manual or a painter's manual or anything like that. It's a manual for… everything."

"That sounds like finding a manual for cultivating all weapons," she said, not finding this manual to be very credible. "People make those manuals all the time but they're never very good."

"This one is different," he said without explaining further. After all, if the manual was to be believed, it had been penned by the Illusory Butterfly Immortal Empress Hua Jue. In the years since he'd found the manual he'd never found any mention of this fabled Immortal Empress in any history book but he still believed that she was real and that she was out there somewhere, waiting for someone to inherit her art and seek her out to become a proper disciple. Maybe he was dreaming, but everything he'd practiced so far in the section of the manual intended to prepare for awakening had helped him to learn more and faster than any of his classmates. If that wasn't proof enough that it was genuine, what more did he need?

"Even if the manual is trash," he said, hoping to deflect further questions about something he probably shouldn't have brought up in the first place. "It doesn't matter. I'm not meant for the sword," he said, reaching out to touch the zither that lay on the floor beside him. "I'm meant for the arts. Maybe one day I'll try to reawaken as a Mystic or a Scholar to supplement my art, but I'll always be an Artist before anything else."

"Fine," she said, hearing the conviction in his voice. A cultivator's will to forge their own destiny was one of the most important foundations of their cultivation journey. If he'd been weak or wavered, if he'd said this was all he knew how to do, she might have pushed back on him. Hearing way he spoke of being an Artist before anything else, she knew he'd found his path and only needed to cross the small gap between mortal and cultivator to begin a journey that would last his whole life. "You know who you are and who you're going to become. I just have two conditions."

"Conditions," Wu Ling said, blinking in genuine confusion and losing the initiative in the conversation for the first time since he'd poured tea. "Where are your conditions coming from? Conditions for what?"

"First," Su Xiang said, holding up a single finger. "You have to keep your promise to me. Even if we're not sword-sworn we can still be sworn siblings and I expect you to treat me like your elder sister since I awakened first."

"You still remember that?" he said, smiling in genuine surprise. "I mean, sure, if you'll still have me even though I'm an Artist then I'll happily be your sworn brother. I'll even call you 'Elder Sister Xiang' if you want. What's the other condition?"

"You keep the other part of your promise," Su Xiang said with a smile. "When you go out to adventure in the big world, you take me with you. It's not safe to be out there as an Artist alone, but if we're together, you'll have a sword cultivator at your back and I can help keep you safe."

"My hero," Wu Ling said, faking a dramatic swoon. "This damsel will be forever in your care brave champion. Be gentle with your prize," he added as he struck a seductive but distinctly feminine pose on the cushions in their private room.

"Gah! That's three! My third condition is that you stop.. Stop that!"