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..."
Applying Pressure
"It's good that you understand Little Ling," Hall Master Bian Xing said, leaning back comfortably on a pile of cushions. "I had been concerned that you'd lash out in some misplaced display of masculine pride. Tell me, are you really a man? You hardly look it after so many years of shaping yourself this way," she said. "Perhaps you've been trying to transform yourself completely all this time."
"I am a man," Wu Ling said instantly. While he acknowledged that there were two sides to himself, he was very clear on what his true face was and which 'self' was a guise that he donned when circumstances required it. "If Hall Master wishes, I can change and return in more gentlemanly attire."
"No, that won't be necessary," the Hall Master said firmly. "I prefer you this way. I permit you to present yourself to the world as a gentleman when outside the sect, but within the sect, as far as I'm concerned, this is your true face."