Chapter 5: Blood and Fire
The mist had not yet lifted from the forest when Rui Wei returned to the Pavilion.
There was dew clinging to the grass and the faint scent of pine and smoke in the air. A large, wooden tub dominated the center of the clearing, carved from a single ancient root with thin lines of light etched into its sides that pulsed like veins.
Long Shen sat beside it, his sleeves rolled up, and calmly fed the crushed herbs into the water. The surface shimmered faintly red.
Rui Wei stopped a few steps away. "You said training," she muttered, her eyes on the tub. "That looks more like something used to dissolve corpses."
Without looking up, he said, "Both require patience and heat."
Steam rose as the mixture thickened. She frowned when she caught a whiff of iron. "What are you putting in there?"
"My blood and a few herbs," he said simply.
Her eyes widened. "What? Why—"
He turned his wrist slightly, and a line of crimson fell into the water, spreading through it like ink through paper. "It will temper your body. The herbs build it and the blood binds your body with the surrounding spiritual energy."
She stared at him. "That's disgusting!"
"That's cultivation," he said, voice light as the steam curling around them. "If you can't endure a little disgust, you'll never endure pain.
He gestured toward the tub. "Get in."
Her jaw dropped. "Now?"
"Do you see another tub?
She looked around-empty forest, still morning, not even a bird daring to sing. "At least… at least turn around!"
He looked at her for the first time, his face unreadable. "Why?"
She clenched her fists. "Because I'm not… I mean, I can't just—" She gestured helplessly toward the steaming bath.
A faint smile touched his mouth. "In my prime," he said lazily, "there were entire sects of women with better figures than yours who tried to throw themselves at me unclothed. I survived."
Rui Wei's face turned red. "You—! That's not the point!"
"Then what is?
"That I'm not one of them," she snapped, her hands tugging her inner robe tighter.
His gaze softened a fraction. "You're right. You're my student. Modesty is allowed just don't call for me when you get in the bath."
He turned his back on her and sat down cross-legged, as if the matter did not exist.
Muttering under her breath, she stepped behind the screen of hanging vines and slipped off her outer robe, leaving only the thin inner layer. The morning chill bit her skin as she approached the tub; the heat that rolled off felt alive, pulsing with a strange energy.
As soon as one foot was set inside, warmth turned to fire. She gasped, her lip caught between her teeth as pain raked up her legs.
"Breathe," Long Shen said without looking around. "If you fight it, it will eat you faster."
"It is already eating me!" she hissed, sinking in up to her shoulders. The water licked at her skin like molten glass. Every nerve screamed.
Long Shen's voice was calm, distant. "Good. That means it's working."
The glow deepened to red, and the runes around the tub flared brighter. Rui Wei shook, her fingers closing on the rim until her knuckles turned white. Her vision blurred, flashes of memory-her mother's smile, the pity in her cousin's eyes, the words useless third miss, all swirled together with the burning.
She wanted to cry out, but a part of her refused to give him the satisfaction. She said through clenched teeth, "I thought… you said this would strengthen me."
"It will," he murmured. "After it breaks you."
The thudding of her heart was loud in her ears. Then, all at once, the heat pierced deeper, something inside her chest convulsed and for one moment she felt as though a second heart had begun to pump.
Her breath caught. "What—what was that?"
"The body remembering what it was meant to be, a source of immerse power" he said quietly.
The pain culminated, and she hardly heard him anymore. Her limbs went numb, her vision dimmed, until the world folded into darkness. Long Shen rose, steady but pale, lifting her from the water with a wave of his arm and wrapping her in his robe. The crimson liquid was still shimmering, runes pulsing before dimming back to ordinary wood. He looked at his palm, where he had drawn blood earlier now had gold-tinged cracks showing. From the corner of his mouth, a thin line of red trailed. He wiped it away, whispering almost to himself, "One bath down. Three more to rebuild her body." He looked at the unconscious girl in his arms and, for the first time that morning, allowed a flicker of fatigue to cross his eyes.
The world was quiet when Rui Wei woke.
The roof above her was the same Pavilion roof, but her limbs felt as if they had been torn apart and stitched back together by lightning. Every breath burned from the inside out.
A thin blanket had been laid over her; her wet hair was clinging to her cheeks. There was a smoky, herbal scent in the air.
"Awake already?" Long Shen's voice came from the corner. He sat near the open window, the sunlight slicing across his face, a cup of tea in one hand, a half-open scroll in the other.
"Barely," she croaked, wincing as she tried to sit up. "It feels like I swallowed a volcano."
"That means you're alive," he said, not looking up. "Most people pass out for three days after that bath. You lasted a few hours. Pathetic, but promising."
"Consoling words," she grumbled.
"Don't thank me yet. You have three more sessions."
Rui Wei groaned and fell back onto the pillow. "I'll be dead before then."
"If you die, I'll bury you beside the tub," he said smoothly. "It saves me the effort of carrying you anywhere else."
She threw him a weak glare. "You're a terrible master."
"And yet," he said, at last turning a page, "you're still here also don't call me master yet. We haven't performed the official master and disciple ceremony"
He rose and crossed the room with that unhurried, predatory grace that always made her uneasy. Setting down the scroll, he reached for her wrist, his fingers cool against her skin. For a brief moment his eyes flickered gold as he pressed his thumb lightly over her pulse.
Her body shook, warmth stirring faintly where before there had been only silence.
"The process started," he said with a pause. "Your body is taking in outside qi. That means that your foundation is forming-even without meridians."
Rui Wei blinked. "So… it's working?"
"For now," he said. "But your body will resist the change. It will ache and burn. If you give up, all the effort will collapse and you'll wish you had chosen death instead."
She swallowed, then nodded. "Then I won't give up."
He studied her a long moment, something unreadable flickering behind his calm gaze. Then he stepped back. "Rest. Tomorrow we begin again. Your endurance is pitiful, I'll need to fix that before the next bath."
"How?"
"Running," he said simply. "You'll run around this mountain till your legs beg for mercy."
Rui Wei groaned again. "You really enjoy watching people suffer, don't you?"
"Correction," he said dryly, "I like to watch them improve."
"Same thing," she muttered feeling drowsy.
Long Shen almost smiled. Almost. "Sleep first disciple. You'll need it."
She drifted into uneasy rest, the soft hum of his qi in the air leading her into strange dreams-dreams of fire and blooming lotus flowers made of light.
Clouds soon gathered, by midday, once again over the forest.
Emerging from the mist down the mountain path came a group of riders in robes with the insignia of the Rui family on them.
At their head, Rui Mian slowed her horse, eyes narrowing as the Pavilion came into view between the trees. Her fan tapped idly against her palm.
"So this is where she's been hiding."
The five Foundation cultivators standing behind her said nothing. Their faces were expressionless.
"You feel it too?" Rui Mian asked without turning.
"Yes, Young Miss. It's strange, it feels ke a storm is waiting to break."
Rui Mian smiled thinly. "Then we came to the right place."
Fei'er rode closer, her brow furrowed. "Young Miss, perhaps we should wait until the rain passes. The ground—"
"Enough." Rui Mian's voice cut through the air, cold and certain. "We're not turning back because of mud."
She swung off, her boots sinking into the damp earth. Her gaze lifted to the Pavilion centered in the clearing. For a moment she simply watched the faint trails of steam that rose behind it.
Fei'er hesitated. "Should we confront them now?" Rui Mian tipped her head, and her fan sprang open. Painted cranes danced across its surface. "Why not. I want to see what kind of man this beggar really is." And when the thunder growled softly behind the treetops, her smile became as keen as an unsheathed blade.
It was raining softly at first, no more than a whisper against the leaves. By the time the sun had dipped below the treeline, the forest had turned dim and cold, every droplet catching faint traces of crimson light from the glowing runes of the Pavilion.
Inside, Rui Wei slept fitfully. Her breathing was shallow, her brow damp with sweat. Even in unconsciousness, her body shook. Threads of qi, faint and chaotic yet doggedly stubborn, coursed beneath her skin like restless sparks that sought some route.
Long Shen sat beside the low table, eyes closed, his hand laid on the teacup that had long gone cold. The faint golden cracks on his palm were deeper than at dawn, spreading towards the wrist like a spiderweb of light. As he exhaled, the room dimmed slightly, as if the air itself moved to his rhythm.
He opened his eyes. Below the ground, a hum pulsed, weak, far away. A humourless smile arced his lips.
"Visitors," he muttered.
Outside, the storm was gathering force. Mist rolled low, thickening into veils that obscured movement. Then, the sound of horses. Hooves striking the wet earth, steady and precise, and the faint metallic clink of weapons sheathed but ready.
He rose and moved toward the doorway, sliding it open just as a flash of lightning revealed the approaching riders through the rain. Their banners bore the crest of the Rui family, the ink-black plum blossoms stark against the gray. At their front, a young woman dismounted with calculated grace, her hair bound with gold pins, her expression as polished as it was cold.
Rui Mian.
Long Shen leaned casually against the wooden frame, eyes half-lidded, rain hissing against the edge of the Pavilion roof. "The Rui family sends quite the escort for a evening visit."
Rui Mian met his gaze, fan poised between her fingers. "So you're the one who's been hiding my cousin. I was expecting someone older."
"Disappointed?" His tone was mild, almost bored.
"Only curious," she said with a thin smile. "You look too calm for a man who's stolen a member of my household."
"'Stolen'?" He tilted his head. "She came willingly. Unless you've started calling your servants' free will theft."
Rui Mian's eyes sharpened. "Rui Wei is not a servant."
"No," Long Shen said softly. "She's isn't now whenever she's here with me"
The cultivators behind Rui Mian shifted in a restless stir, tension coiling in the air. She raised her fan, silencing them with one flick. "You talk like a man with no fear and with no idea how powerful we are."
"I don't have time for fear," Long Shen said. "And you don't have the right to test it."
A streak of lightning cut through the mist, lighting their faces his was unreadable,and hers was filled with restrained anger.
"Where is she?" Rui Mian demanded.
"Resting."
"You mean broken."
He smiled faintly. "Breaking is the first step to being remade."
The words made her jaw tighten. "You think yourself her teacher or family? Do you even know what she carries , what blood runs through her veins? She's a member of the Rui family"
"I know enough," he said. "More than you ever cared to."
That struck deeper than she let show. For one heartbeat, her fan stopped moving. The rain fell harder, washing the faint glow from her golden pins. "You speak as though you know us, as though you know what the Rui name means."
Long Shen's eyes flicked briefly past her to the five cultivators behind. "Names," he said, "meaningless than what a person becomes when the name is stripped away."
Rui Mian snapped her fan shut. The sound cracked like thunder. "Then perhaps I should strip yours away, and see what remains."
Long Shen straightened slightly, the air around him shifting. His qi, subtle until now, bled into the clearing like a slow, spreading tide. Even the rain hesitated, droplets trembling midair.
"You can try," he said quietly.
For a moment, neither moved. The forest seemed to hold its breath, rain, mist and thunder caught in suspension.
Then, a voice, soft but clear, came from inside the Pavilion.
"Long… Shen?"
He turned, his composure unwavering. Rui Wei was awake, barely. Her face was pale, her robe loose at the collar, the faint red lines of the bath appeared like ghostly veins beneath her skin.
Rui Mian's expression flickered, triumph, concern, something else buried too deep to name. "Cousin," she called, stepping forward, and her tone was deceptively gentle. "Come here. It's time to go home."
Rui Wei's lips parted as puzzlement filled her eyes. "Home…?"
Long Shen didn't turn fully, only said softly, "Decide carefully, Rui Wei. The moment you step toward her, all that you had to endure today will become meaningless. The silence that followed was thick as the storm itself. Rui Wei's gaze darted between them , her cousin's poised command, her master's quiet certainty. Somewhere, deep inside her still-burning chest, the second heartbeat in her dantian stirred again and the glow spreaded along the red lines on her skin making her kneel from the pain.