Chương 93: Chapters 92: TO REGROW

" Meiyao asked, bright green eyes fixed on him attentively.

"It… It feels…" Jieyuan cut himself off, taking a moment to consider the question. A fire burned inside him, roaring and surging, and it took considerable effort to remain seated on the bed. He was always filled with energy after a breakthrough, but never to this extent. His doubts over whether he'd be able to advance to Orangerealm magnified the sheer joy—the utter relief—of it severalfold.

Only, Meiyao had asked what it felt like to be an Orangesoul, and all of his excitement was mostly due to the fact he'd managed to break through, rather than his new status as an Orangesoul. He turned his attention inward, tapping into his mantle first, feeling out for its power. His mantle was now orange, and the pressure he felt from it, the potential for augmentation, was marginally increased. The same went for his soulsenses. Their range had increased by a little, from fifty-four feet to sixty.

But those were the same parameters as those of a tenth-step Redsoul. The only reason why Jieyuan had noticed an increase was because he'd been a ninth-step Redsoul previously, having skipped tenth-step. As far as he knew, higher realms had no equivalent to the Redtalents, no additional ability granted each breakthrough beyond the strengthening of the mantle, the soulsenses, and the increase in chromal capacity.

Rather, the only two real advantages a first-step Orangesoul had over a tenth-step Redsoul were something else. One was their ability to hold another bondskill, something that Jieyuan would be holding off on for now, until he had more options. The other was the strengthening of their Law. Jieyuan reached for his Law. Previously, he only had a faint awareness of it.

He couldn't really sense it—at least not nearly to the same extent as the few times he'd been able to tap into his Lawsenses—but through this vague awareness he could change its expression between offensive and defensive. Now… Jieyuan felt his Law. He closed his eyes as it washed over him. His Law was a presence, an essence, suffusing his body and soul, his very being. His Law had most definitely changed. The difference was qualitative. He felt heavier, in a way. More important.

Important to the world, to the universe. Like he'd ascended into a higher tier of existence. Jieyuan opened his eyes, finding Meiyao still staring at him patiently, attentively.

"I feel different," he finally said." Greater." Meiyao smiled softly. She reached forward with her hand, caressing his face with her fingers.

"You definitely seem lighter. It really was weighing on you, wasn't it? Whether you'd be able to break through." Jieyuan tried to ignore the knot in his throat.

"Yes." Meiyao nodded.

"You know that even if you hadn't… Even if…" She frowned, pursing her lips, and softly shook her head.

"Never mind. Well, I can't wait for my own breakthrough." Jieyuan was fairly sure of what she'd been about to say. It gave him some conflicted feelings. But Meiyao had decided to avoid the issue, and he was only too glad to do the same. Instead, he focused on the subject she'd turned to.

"I don't think you'll have to wait long," Jieyuan said.

"Feihuan said the Ardent Light Sect had Wood-aligned hymns you will be able to use. Depending on how long it takes to induct us into the sect, you might be able to advance tomorrow still." Meiyao nodded, smiling.

"We'll see." She cocked her head, eyes drifting down his bare torso. Her eyes flicked back up to him as she leaned forward. Something changed in her gaze. Deepened. Suggestive didn't even begin to describe her expression.

"So… Should we celebrate?" Xiaohu twitched on Jieyuan's shoulders, uncurling from his neck. Jieyuan swallowed thickly. His eyes trailed down Meiyao's bare upper body before he caught himself and dragged his gaze back up to her face. Heavens, he was tempted. So terribly tempted. Refusing Meiyao felt almost like a sin. But now that he was an Orangesoul, there were a few things he needed to do.

And he wouldn't be able to properly focus on Meiyao, give her the attention she very much deserved, until he got those things over with.

"I… need to do a couple of things first," he forced himself to say, his throat awfully dry.

"Try some things out." Meiyao raised an eyebrow, but pulled back. She chuckled.

"Heavens, you're adorable. All right. Just don't make me wait too long, Jieyuan." She lay back down on the bed, reclined on the side. Jieyuan couldn't help but notice how her eyes didn't leave him. She still wore that sly, amused smile. With a soft, happy yip, Xiaohu settled back down on his shoulders, curling her body back around his neck. Feeling awfully self-conscious, Jieyuan did his best to ignore Meiyao's burning gaze. All right. Let's see. First… First…

Heavens, but it was hard to think with Meiyao eyeing him like that. Focus. So. First, space-hasting. He sat up straighter, his mind latching onto it. Right, space-hasting. This was a big one. Up to this point, Jieyuan had been relying on his haster ring to space-haste. Hastespace Manifestation was the tenth-step Redtalent, and he'd skipped that step. Now that he was Orangesoul, he should be able to do it on his own. But his breakthrough had been so irregular that he had to make sure of it. He sent his focus inward.

With the other Redtalents, he'd just known how to use them. He just had to think of it, and… There. He could sense it, within him. A new power. Halfway between presence and pressure. Like a possibility. He focused on it. Flexed it. Chroma started vanishing from his soulprism. Vanishing fast. About half as fast as it normally did when he used his haster ring. Jieyuan cast a look around the room. Nothing in it was moving, so it was hard to tell. But there was a subtle staticness to it all, an impression of stillness.

He could've easily confirmed it by focusing on Meiyao, but he already had a hard enough time avoiding the temptation even without looking at her. He grabbed a handful of the sheets, raised it into the air, and then let it drop. And he watched as the swath of cloth slowly, very slowly, fell. There we go. Smiling in satisfaction, Jieyuan cut off the Redtalent. The drain on his soulprism stopped, and the clump of sheets finished falling back onto the mattress. That was space-hasting done. Next…

He briefly focused on the presences of each of his Lawgifts, but they all felt exactly the same. He'd still test them all later anyway, but it didn't look like they'd been impacted by his breakthrough. Jieyuan then shifted his attention to the Fatebloom Heart. He'd already confirmed its realm had increased to match his, but had there been any other changes? This entire time he'd been feeling a steady thrum of excitement through their connection, feeding onto his, but now he focused fully on their connection.

Huaxin, buddy? How's it? GROWTH, Huaxin sent back, and Jieyuan was struck by a flurry of sensations and impressions: advancement-regeneration-capacity. Underlining it all was joy and power. Jieyuan blinked, a little taken aback. Huaxin's transmissions were rarely so packed; Huaxin was clearly excited. One thing was clear, too: advancing to Orangesoul didn't seem to have improved Huaxin's abilities at communication.

He'd wondered if it might grow more intelligent now with the increase in its realm, but that didn't seem to be the case. He turned his attention to the message itself. Regeneration… Capacity… Jieyuan felt he had an idea of what that was about. You can produce Heartblood faster now? Jieyuan asked Huaxin. And also store more of it? AFFIRMATION, Huaxin responded. TWICE. Twice? This time it was easy to parse Huaxin's meaning. You can produce it twice as fast, and store twice as much? AFFIRMATION. That's good.

Very good. Fatebloom Renewal and Fatebloom Incarnation both expended Heartblood. Now he'd be able to use Renewal every five days, and Incarnation every two weeks or so. What about the spiritskills themselves? Any changes there? NEGATION, Huaxin sent him, and this time it sounded slightly disappointed. That's fine, buddy, Jieyuan quickly responded. More Heartblood is already plenty. Sensing Huaxin settling, Jieyuan reached over to the side of the bed where he'd hung the sheaths of the Shifting Sisters.

He'd checked on one of his ego artifacts; now it was time to check on his other ones. He grasped Ruby's handle first and gave it a squeeze. Through his bond with the splitfang, a wave of affection washed over him. He held onto it for a few moments longer, sending back as much affection as he received, before letting go of it and moving his hand to Sapphire. A rush of affection struck him again, softer than what he'd gotten from Ruby but no less strong, and he drew it out of her sheath.

Immediately he felt a surge of JEALOUSY coming from his bond with Ruby. Sure enough, he thought ruefully. He'd known this would happen, so he'd made sure to hold Ruby before, but she still took offense to not being drawn. Heavens, I wish I could have both my arms back, if nothing else, then to hold the Sisters at the same time. Sorry, girl. I'll make it up to you later, he told Ruby through their bond, sending her as much affection as he could.

Only once he felt it was sufficiently mollified did he focus back on Sapphire, who'd been radiating contentment the entire time he held her. Both Ruby and Sapphire were still at second-step Orangerealm; his breakthrough hadn't affected them like with Huaxin. But there was still something he wanted to test.

Ever since the Shifting Sisters had advanced to Orangerealm, he'd lost the ability to directly use their spiritskills; instead, he'd had to direct his intention to their egos, who'd use their spiritskills for him. He hadn't been sure whether his inability to use the Shifting Sisters' spiritskills was because of the difference in their realms or because they were ego artifacts. Now he was about to find out which it was.

He felt for the presence of Sapphire's core spiritskill, Ephemeral Weight Shift, and activated it. The last time he'd tried to do so, nothing had happened. But this time a fraction of chroma vanished from his soul, and suddenly Sapphire was ten times lighter. How was that, girl? he asked Sapphire. It didn't feel uncomfortable or anything? Now that the Shifting Sisters were sentient, he wasn't entirely certain how it'd feel for them when he used their spiritskills directly, so he wanted to confirm.

If they didn't like it, he'd go back to his original plan of training them to readily read his intentions and use their spiritskills. NEGATION, Sapphire sent him, an undercurrent of confusion to it. Jieyuan blinked. It seemed like he'd been worrying for nothing. He used Ephemeral Weight Shift a few more times, just to be sure, but all he got from Sapphire was a steady, heady happiness at being wielded. Not a hint of discomfort. Sapphire clearly didn't mind him using her spiritskill.

Satisfied, Jieyuan returned Sapphire to her sheath and did his best to ignore her soft whine as he let go of her. Sorry, girl, he told her. I'll make sure to get you some nice blood later. He quickly gave Ruby a squeeze next and focused on their bond, adding: That also goes for you, Ruby, of course. That did the trick; affection flowed at him through the bond of both the Shifting Sisters. Crisis averted. Jieyuan sighed, sitting back up straight. There were only two things left to do before…

He glanced sideways at Meiyao. His eyes met her emerald ones. She was still looking at him. Her lips quirked up, and she winked at him. Jieyuan looked away and took a deep, steadying breath. Almost done. J ust two more things. He focused on one of his many holder pouches, strewn about the room, and floated it over to his hands with his soulforce. Reaching inside, he removed three rings from it. Orangerealm rings. Glyph-sealer rings.

The same three he'd sold at the auction to Heiyingmi Jiahao, only for Meiyao to later retrieve them from the man's corpse and hand them back to him.

"Oh?" Hearing the rustle of sheets, Jieyuan glanced back just as he felt a warm and soft but firm weight press against his back. Meiyao had sat up and shuffled over, leaning over his shoulder. He did his best to ignore the feel of her body against his. Soon.

"Right," she said, her green gaze on the three rings he was holding.

"The rings from the Dome."

"Yeah." Jieyuan focused on one of the rings, connected a line of chroma to it, and whispered the Orangerealm Fire attuning hymn Feihuan had given him: " The flame within, begins to burn." A presence sparked inside his mind. The ring's. He focused on it, and it split into ten smaller presences. Imprints. It took Jieyuan a moment to realize what they were. What they represented. Each was an internal, isolated storage space. Pocket dimensions.

He got a sense for them; they were all roughly the same size, just big enough to hold a person. He could also tell which of them were occupied, and what they contained. Only three of the pocket dimensions were occupied. One held hundreds of orange prisms. Another, a handful of jadebooks. The last one had a few artifact swords. Jieyuan focused his soulsenses on the swords first, but quickly determined they were all blank artifacts. Probably just spares.

He turned his attention to the jadebooks and, not really sure what he was supposed to do, tried to will them to manifest outside. A tiny quantity of chroma vanished from his soulprism, and the air around his hand warped. The five jadebooks popped up mid-air and fell on top of the sheets. Jieyuan set the rings down for a moment and grabbed one of the jadebooks. Meiyao reached around him and took one for herself. She nodded to him before leaning away, eyes closing.

With his soulsenses, he saw it as a line of chroma appeared from inside her soul, connecting to the ring. Jieyuan couldn't help but smile. Meiyao was all business now. You could always trust anything related to the Dome to get her attention. Jieyuan started on his jadebook. Connecting his chroma to it, line after line of text appeared in his mind's eye. He skimmed it. He set the jadebook down quickly afterward, shaking his head. As expected, it was just an account of its owner's experiences in the Dome.

He quickly went through the other jadebooks, but there was nothing of interest in them, either.

"Any luck?" he asked Meiyao. They weren't really looking for anything specific, just worthwhile information of any kind. The owner of the rings had been Orangesouls, after all.

"Nothing," Meiyao said, frowning as she handed him back the jadebook.

"Try the others?" Jieyuan nodded. He put the jadebooks back in the ring before bonding the other two rings. Like the first ring, there was nothing in them besides prisms, jadebooks, and blank artifacts. He took out all the jadebooks and quickly went through them with Meiyao. But no luck there, either. They turned out just as useless as the first ring's.

"Well," Meiyao said, sighing, as he returned the jadebooks to the rings, "that was disappointing."

"It was worth a shot," Jieyuan said.

"At least we won't be pressed for prisms for a good time." He glanced at the three rings; he'd put on all three of them, each on a finger, having already put away his haster ring. The contents of the sealer rings hadn't been anything much, but the rings themselves were certainly a prize. He'd already thought of a few nonstandard applications—combat applications—for them, but he'd be properly experimenting with them later. Meiyao scoffed.

"Like Feihuan won't give you all the prisms you could possibly want."

"You can never have enough prisms."

"Sure, I guess," Meiyao said, waving her hand dismissively before fixing him with an expectant look.

"Anyway, are you done? Can we finally get started with the celebration?"

"Actually," Jieyuan said, cringing a little, "there's one last thing I still want to do." Meiyao gave him an unimpressed look. His refusal earlier had amused her, but Jieyuan could find no traces of that amusement now.

"Surely— surely —it can wait."

"I'll be quick, I promise," he said.

"It's Absolute—""Don't care," Meiyao said, a growl to her voice that sent a shiver up Jieyuan's spine. The good kind of shiver.

"You've made me wait long enough." Xiaohu jumped off his shoulders at the same time as Meiyao lunged at him, her body melding against his, pushing him down onto the mattress. And as Meiyao started pressing kisses to his neck, Jieyuan decided that, yes, it could wait. —∞— Jieyuan heaved a sigh of deep satisfaction as he sat back up against the headboard. The next moment, Xiaohu jumped back onto his shoulders, wrapping her body around his neck.

Meiyao lay curled beside him, a pleased smile on her face as she nudged her face into his side. Jieyuan ran his hands through her flowing brown locks, gently massaging her scalp. She gave a soft sound that was almost a purr as she pressed further into his body. Jieyuan turned his mind to his last order of business after his breakthrough. The most important one; he'd saved the best for last. Absolute Will Command's second form.

When he'd soulburned, he'd gotten a glimpse of it, but he hadn't had the presence of mind to really focus on it, what with how he'd been under indescribable pain and too busy dealing with Zixuan. It was only now that he'd properly unlocked it that he was about to really delve into it. He reached for the presence of the bondskill in his mind; its presence split into two, similar to how the sealer ring had split into a dozen. With bated breath, Jieyuan focused on the second presence.

A name rose to the forefront of his mind, like a whisper from the Heavens. Absolute Spirit Command. Along with it, he got a general idea of what this new form could do. Where the bondskill's first form, Absolute Mind Command, let him issue a command to a target's mind, Absolute Spirit Command targeted the spirit. Already, possibility after possibility crossed Jieyuan's mind. But there was one thing he wanted to test before anything else. Could he use two commands simultaneously now?

"See Maeva," he whispered, and his sister appeared standing beside the bed in her yellow sundress, her hands stuffed in the side pockets of her white lab coat. The hallucination of his sister glanced at him, and then at Meiyao lying beside him. Her eyebrows quirked upward, mischief dancing in her eyes. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Don't start, he shot at her, before he tried to call on Absolute Will Command again.

He thought of another command, but just as he did so, he also got the sense that the moment he gave that command, the current one would snap. It didn't matter whether he used Absolute Mind Command again or Absolute Spirit Command for this second command, either. Jieyuan dismissed Maeva, frowning. So he couldn't use two first-form commands at the same time, nor different forms of Absolute Will Command simultaneously. It also meant he wouldn't be able to experiment together with Maeva.

But that was fine; he could experiment on his own for now and call on her later to discuss his findings. Also, there was still one other possibility for simultaneous commands, even if Jieyuan didn't hold much hope for it. He'd gotten a sense for the most common applications of Absolute Spirit Command when he focused on it earlier, and he already had in mind a quick command he could try. It'd also serve as a good first test for the new form of his bondskill.

Focusing on one of his sealer rings, he commanded, "Disable." A command bond manifested between himself and the artifact. Jieyuan felt surprised when resistance met the command. The resistance wasn't very strong, though; roughly comparable to the conscious resistance the average same-step cultivator could put up. Jieyuan's will overcame it in a second. This was something he'd have to keep in mind. It looked like Absolute Spirit Command was still, fundamentally, Absolute Will Command.

He just wasn't sure what exactly was generating the will when he targeted the spirit. Did all forms of spirit have a will of their own? Or was it just a quirk of how Absolute Will Command worked? Jieyuan turned his attention to the actual effects of the command. The presence of the sealer ring's spiritskill disappeared from his mind. He couldn't access the sealer ring. It was like he'd never bonded it. Jieyuan grinned. Now we're talking.

Being able to disable another cultivator's artifacts with a command could be very useful. The drain on his chroma was small, too, but he'd have to ascertain how that scaled from artifact to artifact. And now for what he actually wanted to test. Keeping that earlier command up, he concentrated on another sealer ring. But again, he got a flash of intuition that the moment he gave the new command, the current one would stop. So that's that for simultaneous commands. Jieyuan sighed and dropped the command.

That was disappointing. But he recovered the next moment. Rather than focus on what the new form couldn't do, he was better off finding out the things that it could. And his first test just now had already been very promising. Jieyuan quickly settled on his next test. One of the first limitations he'd come across when experimenting with Absolute Will Command, about a year ago now, was that it could neither suppress nor simulate any of the Pains.

At the time, Maeva had conjectured that it was because the Pains were spiritual in nature. He envisioned the command first. Imagined himself commanding himself not to feel the First Pain while imbuing chroma. And immediately, he got a flash of understanding, revealing not only that it was possible, but also giving him a rough idea of how much it would cost. Jieyuan frowned. It wasn't cheap. It was, in fact, worse than using a haster ring. Considerably so. Jieyuan decided not to try the command.

Just knowing it could be done was enough, and that was way too much chroma to waste on an experiment. He then concentrated on the opposite command, making someone feel the Pains. Again, a sense of the command flashed past his mind. And this time Jieyuan couldn't help but wince as he got the estimate of its cost.

He'd hoped he might be able to use Absolute Spirit Command's ability to manipulate the Pains together with the Lawgift he'd gotten from Pain, Hollow Pain Resonance, but the chroma expenditure made it decidedly not worth it. And that was for the First Pain. More out of curiosity than anything else, he concentrated on commands that would invoke the other Pains. Causing someone to feel the Second Pain would wipe out his chroma reserves in seconds.

The Third Pain, he wouldn't be able to sustain for even a second as a first-step Orangesoul. And now, for the Fourth Pain, Ji eyuan thought, conjuring a command where he'd cause someone else to feel it. Nothing happened. He got no intuitive sense of its cost. Got no sense of anything, really. Jieyuan frowned, taken aback. This only happened when a command wasn't possible. That meant he couldn't make someone feel the Fourth Pain, unlike the other Pains.

He'd known the Fourth Pain, the soulburner's Pain, was special, but he hadn't thought it was to this extent. Was it simply beyond the capabilities of Absolute Spirit Command to replicate it? Or maybe it didn't just work at a spiritual level at all, unlike the first three Pains? Something to look into later, Jieyuan decided. He spent the next couple of minutes using this same approach, envisioning commands, to feel out the limits of Absolute Spirit Command.

The estimates he got weren't perfect, and he'd definitely have to try out all these commands later to get a clear sense of how exactly they worked in practice and the actual costs involved, but it was enough for an initial idea. And as he felt out command after command, one thing quickly became clear to Jieyuan. Replicating the Pains was the least of what Absolute Will Command was now capable of. Absolute Mind Command wasn't a particularly powerful bondskill; it was immensely useful, but it wasn't a heavy-hitter.

Absolute Spirit Command, on the other hand? It might not have as much room for creativity—or at least not as far as Jieyuan could tell so far—but its applications were most definitely major ones. —∞— As they made their ways down the halls of the Xiyunfeng Palace, Jieyuan's eyes met those of his master-to-be's as she glanced at him for the fourth time in as many minutes.

The shimmer in her eyes was stronger than it'd ever been; it wasn't even contained to her eyes anymore, extending to the rest of her face, reaching outwards at her brow and cheekbones. It was also clearer, stronger; there was no mistaking it for a trick of the light. It was like a physical thing, like some semi-translucent visor. Feihuan held his gaze; her brow furrowed slightly, but she ultimately looked away. Jieyuan gave a quiet sigh. There was a tension in the air.

He doubted anything would come out of it, but it still left him unsettled. No matter how nice Feihuan acted, that didn't change the fact she was a Yellowsoul; she could kill him faster than he could blink, and there was nothing he could do about it. It was the morning after his breakthrough to Orangerealm; just minutes ago, Feihuan had been knocking at the door to his and Meiyao's room, Daojue already by her side. She'd only had three words for them: Time to leave.

He wasn't sure how much of the previous night's events Feihuan had caught, but he doubted she hadn't heard him laughing like a maniac. And there was no way she hadn't noticed his soul's now distinctively orange color. A week ago, he'd been an eighth-step Redsoul. Now he was a first-step Orangesoul. With seventh-order affinity, it'd have been impossible to cross one step in a week, let alone two. Even with tenth-order heavenly affinity, one step in a week had been his limit.

His breakthrough to Orangesoul should've been impossible, and one thing Jieyuan had already ascertained about his prospective master was that she was curious; curious for curiosity's sake, curious about the smallest of things. An impossibility like his breakthrough? She'd absolutely want to know more. But she was keeping herself in check, refraining from asking even though she very clearly wanted to. Meiyao held his hand as they walked; she was keeping a wary eye on Feihuan.

A week ago, she'd tentatively agreed to take their chances with Feihuan and ask her not to look into their heavenly affinities; Meiyao hadn't fully warmed up to the Yellowsoul, though, and Feihuan's current show of curiosity was clearly putting her on edge. Xiaohu lay across Meiyao's shoulders, curled around her neck like a scarf. Jieyuan squeezed Meiyao's hand reassuringly. They'd already thrown their lot in with the Yellowsoul in front of them.

Their agreement was a simple one; protection and aid until they reached Yellowrealm in exchange for his future favor once he became a Violetsoul. So far Feihuan had given them no reason to suspect she wouldn't hold up her part of their deal. Feihuan led the way out of the residential wing of the palace and then into the first courtyard they came across. Stepping out into the grass after the Yellowsoul, Jieyuan saw the rosy fingers of dawn grasping at the horizon. It was even earlier than he'd assumed.

Feihuan came to a stop in the center of the courtyard. The next moment, something large and golden and metallic appeared right in front of them, dropped to the ground with a dull thud. It was like it had winked into existence, manifesting out of thin air. Jieyuan stared at the metallic structure, eyes slightly wide. The thing —Jieyuan had no good word for it—was over twenty feet long and about six and a half feet high. Its body was sleek, with a rounded point at both ends, and clearly made of gold.

It wasn't quite cylindrical, but oblong. Shaped almost like a pill. Not the round ones of this world, but the elongated ones Amyas had known back on Earth.

"This," Feihuan said, turning toward them, "is how we're getting to the Ardent Light Sect." Jieyuan took a step closer, studying the unfamiliar, golden structure Feihuan must've just taken out of her sealer ring.

"Is it some kind of… vehicle? Like a cloudcraft?" It was eye-catching, that was for sure; if it was all gold, then even if it were mostly hollow inside, it'd still weigh well over a dozen tons. That was a lot of gold. And if it was an inscribed artifact, it'd be real gold, not like the fake gold the Radiant Gold Sect could create. Feihuan nodded.

"It's called a skyshuttle. Come on." She knocked her knuckle on the metallic hull, and a rectangular-shaped section of it shimmered before vanishing, leaving a perfectly cut gap on its hull more than big enough for someone to enter the shuttle. Feihuan went in without a word. Jieyuan followed, bending his knees a little to get his head under the threshold. Inside the shuttle, there were white couch-like seats on both ends, facing each other. Between them was a low table.

Feihuan was already sitting on one of the ends; Jieyuan took the opposite end. Meiyao, still holding onto his hand, sat on his right. Xiaohu uncurled herself from around Meiyao's neck, her little head moving about, beady green eyes curiously taking in the interior of the shuttle. Daojue, who entered next, sat on his other side. The couch was just big enough to fit all three of them, and Jieyuan did his best to ignore the discomfort he felt as he felt Daojue's body press against his left side.

Against the stump of his left arm, reminding him of the existence of said stump. He felt Meiyao squeeze his hand; glancing at her, he found her giving him a searching look. She must've noticed the way his mood had taken a turn for the worse. He nodded back at her to let her know everything was all right, and she relaxed. Jieyuan eyed his lover. His arm bothered him, but if everything went right he should be regaining it shortly. It was Meiyao he was really worried about.

She'd been perfectly fine earlier this morning, when they were in bed, but now she was disturbingly quiet. This wasn't the first time this had happened. Whenever they were out of the room, it never took long before Meiyao would sink into this cold, somber mood. Jieyuan knew the cause for it: With nothing to distract herself with, she was thinking of the Liangshibai. Of her father, her stepmother, her brother. Of her aunt and cousins, even. And of how she'd lost them all.

That wasn't the kind of loss you got over quickly. Rot, it was the kind of thing you might never fully recover from. But every time Meiyao got like this, the more concerned he grew. Her being so withdrawn felt wrong; he'd only seen her like this once before: their first few days in the Dome, in the aftermath of the Gleaming Nobles Revolution. This time was different, though. Worse. It was lasting longer, and Jieyuan knew why.

The last time, Meiyao had at least held onto hope that some of her family might have survived. She'd also had a target for her revenge. Neither applied here; she'd seen everyone save for Wanxin and Yunzhu die, and the one to blame for the deaths of her family, Taishou, was already dead, so revenge wasn't an option. Probably the only reason she hadn't sunk even further into melancholy was the possibility of reuniting with her mother in the Immaculate Blood Sect.

He'd already come to learn that Meiyao was the kind of person who needed a goal, a purpose to work toward. Jieyuan turned his gaze away from Meiyao, only to lock eyes for the second time that day with Feihuan. The Yellowsoul froze, then shot him a rather awkward smile, having been caught staring. Jieyuan realized that this was his prospective master's curiosity at work again. She must've been wondering what was up with him and Meiyao. Feihuan sat up straighter and cleared her throat.

"Well, then. We'll be back in the sect in a few hours." She closed her eyes. The gap in the wall disappeared, a smooth, golden surface replacing it. And that was that. Jieyuan waited a few moments, but nothing else seemed to happen. They were just sitting there. Jieyuan glanced at Meiyao and saw his confusion reflected on her face. Daojue, on the other hand, had his eyes closed much like Feihuan.

"Are we… Are we flying?" Jieyuan asked.

"Hmm?" Feihuan opened her eyes, glancing at him.

"We are currently a few miles up in the air. Why? Oh. This is your first time. Right. Skyshuttles have internal stabilization inscripts. No matter what it does, we who are inside won't feel any of it."

"Oh. What other inscripts does it have?"

"More than I can name, really," Feihuan said.

"There's that one that lets me temporarily vanish any part of it. Another one that lets me control. Another that lets me see the area outside. Another that turns it invisible. The list goes on."

"That's…" Jieyuan had suspected the means of a Yellowrealm sect would be far above those of a Redrealm one, but that felt like too much. Cloudcrafts didn't come even remotely close.

"How fast does it go?"

"Enough to reach Ardent Light Island in under an hour," Feihuan said.

"Which is about… several hundred thousand miles? Something like that. I don't know the exact number. Our islands are rather close by." Several hundred thousand miles. That gave Jieyuan a pause. He'd known that the Chromajie he was in was vastly bigger than Earth; Incandescent Serenity Island alone, by his estimation, was easily the size of the continents from Earth, and as far as he knew it was just one among the hundreds of thousands of islands that dotted the Chromajie.

But several hundred thousand miles was an absurd distance, and Feihuan considered it close by. Clearly he'd grossly underestimated the size of the Chromajie.

"How much does a skyshuttle cost, in prisms?" Jieyuan asked.

"I wouldn't know," Feihuan said, shrugging.

"The clan gave me mine as a gift. But mine is supposedly as good as it gets; I don't think there are more than a dozen comparable to it in the Ardent Light Sect. Simpler shuttles, without as many spiritskills, they're more common; I think at least half the Yellowsouls in the sect have one? Anyway, don't worry about it; I'll have one just like mine made for you once you reach Yellowsoul." Feihuan closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat, looking perfectly at ease. Jieyuan stared at the Yellowsoul.

He wondered, not for the first time, just what kind of status she enjoyed in the Ardent Light Sect. When he'd asked Feihuan, she'd claimed that besides being a royal she was a just a protector, a core elder. But he doubted a simple protector would have the best skyshuttle in the sect and have one just like it made at her say-so. Jieyuan had initially wondered if she might be banking on having retrieved and bonded Searing Anthem, the sect's lost heirloom artifact, and having recruited a soulburner.

But she also spoke of handling matters back in the sect with such a casual confidence, that left him with the impression she was used to throwing her weight around. Well, I should be finding that out soon enough, Jieyuan decided. He closed his eyes, turning his attention inward. Feihuan had said it'd take an hour to arrive at the sect, and Jieyuan knew just how he'd be spending that time.

"See Maeva," Jieyuan commanded, whispering the words as quietly as he could. The next thing he knew, he was in a small, tidy room of pastel white walls and simple furniture, sitting on a chair, facing his bed. Maeva looked up from where she'd been reading a book on his bed. Blue eyes bright, her smile even brighter.

"Finally." Jieyuan grinned back at her. He had all sorts of things weighing on him, but faced with the illusion of his sister and the promise of power, he couldn't help but smile.

"Let's get to work," he said. He'd spent that morning feeling out the limits of Absolute Spirit Command; now it was time to go through his findings with Maeva and see what his unconscious made of his bondskill's new form. —∞— Jieyuan cut off the command just before an hour had passed. Opening his eyes, he found himself back inside the golden interior of Feihuan's skyshuttle. Just moments later, Feihuan also opened her eyes across from him and smiled.

"We've arrived," she said, standing up. The gap on the wall of the shuttle reappeared, and she walked outside without preamble. Jieyuan followed, Meiyao and Daojue right behind him. Stepping out of the skyshuttle, Jieyuan took quick stock of his surroundings. They were on a plaza, the floor beneath them marble. Farther ahead was a wide set of marble stairs. At the foot of the stairs was a small group of white-robed men and women. Five of them in total. There was nobody else around.

"Come on," Feihuan said to him as she walked over to the group. Jieyuan followed, Meiyao in hand, Daojue on his other side. The stairs in front of them led to a massive building of white stone: it was a sprawling, temple-like structure, framed by thick, imposing pillars covered in elaborate gold and crimson patterns. The top of the building brushed some of the low-hanging clouds. Clouds? Jieyuan frowned; the building, though massive, couldn't be more than a hundred feet tall. Something wasn't adding up here.

Casting his gaze around, he saw a stretch of grass expanding around them in all directions before dipping abruptly out of sight. They were on the peak of a mountain. Further beyond, all around them, were other mountain peaks. He took a deep breath and noted how sparse the air was. Ever since he'd advanced to fifth-step Redsoul and gained Chromal Sustenance, he'd stopped needing to breathe; he still did it, but mostly out of habit, so he hadn't noticed the difference. The air was cool, chilly.

The sun was still rising over the horizon. As a first-step Orangesoul, Jieyuan's soulsenses extended sixty feet around him in all directions. The moment the group beneath the stairs was within range, he focused his soulsenses on them. Of the five, four didn't register at all to his soulsenses; the only one that did was a young man who looked of age with himself; his soul was fifth-shade orange.

The fifth-step Orangesoul had been looking at Feihuan, but just as Jieyuan focused on him the man snapped his gaze over to him, flinty black eyes fixing onto him. The man's brow furrowed. Jieyuan tracked the man's gaze as it drifted to Meiyao and then to Daojue before returning to Jieyuan. The man's frown deepened, his eyes narrowing. Would you look at that? Not even a minute since his arrival in his new sect, and it looked like he'd already managed to make an enemy.

After Feihuan's warnings about sect politics, he'd known he wouldn't be having as easy a time as he'd have liked, but he hadn't imagined it'd be nearly this bad.

"Feihuan," a woman said as they drew near. The woman's face was clearly lined by age; she looked about middle-aged, at least fifty, her hair as gray as it was black. Since she didn't register to his soulsenses, given they were in the Yellowrealm sect, she had to be a Yellowsoul. Looking that old meant her age was counted in the hundreds; a Yellowsoul had a lifespan of twelve hundred years, and she'd be at least halfway through it.

"Ruoqing," Feihuan greeted her, smiling widely.

"How have you—" The older woman, Ruoqing, stepped closer and pulled Feihuan into a tight hug, one that Feihuan seemed to return just as strongly.

"Heavens, Ruoqing, it's only been a few months since we last saw each other," Feihuan said softly.

"You should've never left in the first place," Ruoqing said as they separated. Her voice was rich but mellow, her tone motherly, a touch chiding. Feihuan raised an eyebrow.

"Are you sure? If I hadn't, we'd have never found Se—""We'll discuss that later," Ruoqing said quickly, giving Feihuan a warning look. Jieyuan couldn't help but notice how the other four behind them were paying close attention. For her part, Feihuan merely shrugged.

"As you wish. Anyway, Ruoqing, this is Haoyujin Jieyuan," she said, gesturing toward him.

"Jieyuan, this is Yaojianhui Ruoqing, the sovereign protector of the Ardent Light Sect." Jieyuan momentarily froze. The sovereign of the sect? He recovered the next moment. Drawing on the etiquette lessons his father had forced on him, he gave a polite half-bow, half-nod.

"It's an honor, Sovereign." He wasn't sure what the customs of the Ardent Light Sect were like, but Feihuan seemed to be treating this matter casually enough, so he reckoned this much deference was appropriate. Sovereign Ruoqing gave him a wide smile and approached, extending her right hand toward him. Her eyes, he noticed, didn't shimmer as Feihuan's did.

"The apprentice. I've been looking forward to meeting you, Jieyuan." She glanced very briefly at his left side, no doubt noting the lack of an arm there. He removed his right hand from Meiyao's grasp and shook hands with the sovereign. Her grip was firm, strong. He briefly scanned the four cultivators behind the woman. The three other Yellowsouls were looking at him with clear interest; the Orangesoul young man, on the other hand, was glaring at him with barely suppressed hostility.

Rotting Heavens, just what's his deal? Sovereign Ruoqing stepped back; her gaze shifted to Daojue, who stared back at her evenly.

"That's Tianzijun Daojue and Linzushen Meiyao," Feihuan introduced from behind her.

"Our new inner disciples," Ruoqing said, nodding at Daojue and Meiyao. Her gaze lingered on Xiaohu but very briefly; Jieyuan suspected she'd been warned about the Orangerealm beast beforehand.

"Welcome to the sect." Daojue said nothing; Meiyao, thankfully, nodded back and said, "Thank you." Sovereign Ruoqing's gaze lingered on Daojue for a few moments longer before she took a step back. Jieyuan wasn't sure if it was because of his lack of response or some other reason. Feihuan had supposedly only shared the fact that Daojue had previously bonded Searing Anthem with the same people she'd told Jieyuan was a soulburner. Daojue bonding Searing Anthem wasn't as big of a matter, but it was still significant.

Searing Anthem was a Yellowrealm weapon and one that from what he understood usually could only be bonded by the Yaojianhui. It was the Gleaming End situation all over again, except worse, because this time Daojue didn't even get to keep the weapon. Sovereign Ruoqing went on to introduce the other three Yellowsouls behind them, who all turned out to be members of the Yaojianhui Clan and protectors of the sect, and finally the Orangesoul: "And this is my great-grandson and apprentice, Yaojianhui Tianxin."

Tianxin nodded at them.

"A pleasure," he said simply. Now that others were paying attention to him, he'd stopped glaring, but he still didn't look particularly pleased, more stone-faced than anything else. Jieyuan caught Feihuan rolling her eyes at Tianxin's cold greeting. Sovereign Ruoqing sent her great-grandson a glare but didn't take any other action.

"Tonight we'll have a welcoming feast to celebrate Feihuan's return, her new apprentice, and our new disciples," Sovereign Ruoqing said, her gaze mostly on Jieyuan.

"Before then, we'll have the three of you properly inducted into the sect and your apprenticeship formalized." She gestured at the temple at the top of the stairs.

"Now, if you'll follow—""Before that," Feihuan cut in.

"Did you bring the pill?"

"Yes," Sovereign Ruoqing said, turning to the younger woman.

"But I planned on waiting until—""Just give it to him already," Feihuan said.

"He's already guaranteed to join; no point in making him wait any longer." Jieyuan had a feeling he knew what this was about. His heart began to race as he looked between the two women. Sovereign Ruoqing seemed to give it some thought; then she nodded. Jieyuan caught a shimmer in the air around her hands before she tossed him a small, green pill. He grabbed it out of the air. He couldn't sense its spirit. Yellowrealm, then. He looked from the pill to Sovereign Ruoqing, then to Feihuan.

"This is…" No. That was a stupid question. He knew very well what it was.

"Do I just take it?"

"No," Feihuan said.

"You'll need to take about an inch off your stump first. So that your body knows to regenerate the arm." Sovereign Ruoqing's brow furrowed.

"If we head inside, we can do that in a proper—""I know my apprentice; he can barely wait." Feihuan nodded to Jieyuan.

"Those robes of yours, mind if I ruin them? You'll be getting new ones soon anyway."

"Not at all," Jieyuan said. They were just plain gray robes. Feihuan was right; he really didn't want to postpone this if he could help it.

"Do it." Sovereign Ruoqing sighed but stepped back. Feihuan smiled. The air over her hand shimmered, and then she was holding a plain, golden sword. She walked over, stopping in front of him. He couldn't sense the sword's spirit; Yellowrealm, then. Good. It'd cut through him cleanly.

"Lift it to the side," Feihuan said. Jieyuan did as he was told, raising sideways what remained of his left arm; the sleeves of his arm hung limply just midway past his biceps, clearly marking where the stump ended. He caught Meiyao tensing, but she knew what this was about and didn't try to stop it. Daojue also watched them attentively. Feihuan took a step forward and swung her sword in a blur of gold; pain shot up from his stump.

The left sleeves of his outer and inner robes, cut cleanly through, dropped to the floor, and with them a slice an inch thick or so of what remained of his left arm. Feihuan stepped back. Jieyuan glanced at his bleeding, slightly smaller stump. He still held it perfectly off to the side, ignoring the pain. Then popped the pill he'd been given, swallowing it down. He didn't take his eyes off his stump. He felt the end of it tingle.

Ever since Feihuan had told him of this pill that could regenerate his arm, he'd wondered how exactly it'd work. He'd discussed it with Maeva, and her theory was that he'd grow out of the stump a smaller version of his arm that would quickly grow into the proper size. Maeva had lost that particular bet. Out of the bloodied end of his shorn sleeves, a blur of white and red extended. Bone and flesh, wet and dripping. It surged outward, forming the rest of his biceps, then his elbow, and then his forearm.

He could tell his nerves were in the middle of it because he felt them; raw and burning, sending pulse after pulse of screaming agony that would've easily driven a mundane unconscious but that barely registered to him. By the time his wrist was forming, skin, smooth and pristine, appeared over his newly grown biceps. Within moments, his bone-and-flesh fingers were done, and just moments passed before his skin caught up. Jieyuan turned his newly grown hand over in wonder and watched as his nails rapidly grew.

And then it was over. Barely ten seconds altogether, and he had a left arm again. Just like that. Jieyuan moved the arm tentatively, bending it at the elbow, before testing each of his fingers. His world, at that moment, was his left arm and hand. Everything else was lost to him. All that mattered right now was regrown limb, the way it perfectly responded to every one of his commands, as if he'd never lost it. He looked up and saw Feihuan grinning at him, eyes shimmering, cast in the rosy hue of dawn.

"So? How's it?" Jieyuan grinned back, feeling better than he'd felt in weeks.

"Golden." He was finally complete again. Finally back in business. There and then, Jieyuan decided that no matter what, he would make sure Feihuan wouldn't regret helping him. Wouldn't regret this. He paid his debts, and he'd make sure to return what he owed Feihuan with interest.