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..."
An Older Woman’s Affection (Part One)
"Your cousin's banquet?" Wu Ling asked, furrowing his brow in thought. "I'm thinking of the correct cousin, Su Yao, right? She's meeting some young lord… Fung? Fong? She said he was very handsome and that his family had connections to a number of sects," Wu Ling said, trying to remember the details of his younger classmate's romantic interest.
"I see how it is," Su Xiang said with a laugh. "You remember every woman you've ever met, even if it was only long enough to paint something for them once, but if it's the man of my cousin's dreams that you helped her to meet, you can't be bothered to remember his name," she mocked in a voice thick with sarcasm. "It's Fang by the way," she added. "Fang Lin. He's a Formation Initiate from the Fang Banking Family."