Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

After the Ban twins had fully broken into the third realm they had changed and not just physically. At least Zheng Ying thought so. And Zheng Ying should know she was their closest friend and girlfriend! (Could she say that already? Would it cause problems if she did? Ugh, why did the nobility of other lands have to be so up-tight about everything?!)

The physical changes were easy to document. Ban Zhangzi's muscles seemed to have grown and become a bit more defined and he had actually gotten an inch or two of height. Ban Changnu on the other hand may have actually gained some fat. But not in a bad way per say! No, she had filled out, that's what she meant! She looked great!

Honestly the strangest change had probably been to their faces and hair. If one didn't know them well enough they probably wouldn't notice the changes to the faces but they looked completely identical now. Same nose, ears, mouth, eyes, cheeks, everything. They even had the same hair color now! Well, sometimes, it changed over time now. Over the course of a day it would go from a pure black to a pure white and vice-versa. Zheng Ying may have spent a few hours watching Ban Zhangzi at the forge to confirm that it slowly changed color (and to watch those muscles work).

The biggest changes seemed to be mental though. Zhangzi was more focused, less prone to his thoughts wandering, or if they did he was just listening better at the same time and could hide it more easily. Changnu became more self-assured, more confident, and hesitated less. The weirdest thing, Zheng Ying thought, was the conversation she had seen them have with only about a dozen words and a few gestures. Maybe they had been using Flushed Lover's Wind and she had just failed to notice?

Either way these were things Zheng Ying had noticed over the last couple of weeks leading up to the year end tests and tournament. Why was Zheng Ying thinking about these things? Well, what else were you supposed to think about watching your girlfriend (she was going to stick with girlfriend for now) cut through the soldiers of ink and paper you had created to impede her advance to the castle you had claimed in the semi-finals of the year end tournament. The field of battle they had gotten really wasn't doing Ban Changnu any favors. Ban Changnu was more of a one-on-one fighter with little to no real movement arts. So, when the two of them had been deposited onto the city streets and Zheng Ying had been able to flee to the castle in the center it had all but ensured Ban Changnu's defeat.

Zheng Ying almost felt bad for her currently raven haired girlfriend. She had done great to get this far in the tournament but Zheng Ying couldn't give her a fair fight as much as she wanted to. No, her elder bond-brother Zheng Quan was here and Zheng Ying knew what that meant. She had to show off and prove that the Sect had been the best choice for her, otherwise she would be dragged back home or truly disowned by the Zheng, neither of those good things.

Writing out the required formations and words on her flying Scroll of Endless Possibilities, Zheng Ying declared the next step in her defenses and the narrative she had constructed, "As the lone enemy made it to the castle gates she was met by the guardian of the gate and harassed by the archers. Could she make it past the beast's deadly claws and the black arrows?" As she finished, the scroll unrolled itself further before tearing apart into eight separate pieces, folding and growing until there were six soldiers of paper carrying bows with quivers of ink arrows and two nasty looking claws. The claws shot off to attach themselves to Taozi, the Crystal Springs Macaque she had recruited, who was guarding the gate Ban Changnu had reached, the soldiers following soon after.

Holding back a sigh, Zheng Ying left the balcony she had been watching from and entered the castle's top floor. She couldn't help the snort of laughter at seeing Rou sitting upon the magistrate's throne as regally as he could. With the paper hat and robes of the magistrate she had conjured for him he looked like a very hairy child trying to play pretend.

Hah, that got you to smile! Rou sent to her with a big grin now splitting his face.

Thanks Rou, Ban Changnu's gonna be here in a minute and it's got me kinda down that I'm gonna have ta… ya know.

Beat your lover in a fight so thoroughly it might humiliate her? The Flowing Mountain Monkey asked with a raised eyebrow.

Zheng Ying blushed and scuffed her foot on the ground. "Yeah…" Before she could continue though she felt Taozi return to her dantian, quickly falling unconscious. "Huh, that was faster than expected, nice goin' Changnu." Writing out on the flying scroll once again Zheng Ying finished with her last preparations. "With the gate breached the wise wizard-" Rou giggled and hopped up from his seat, "and the gorgeous general-" Rou blew a raspberry at her which got him the stink eye right back, "prepared the last of their immortal soldiers for the terrible but beautiful enemy storming the castle."

Rou just gave her a look as the last of her scroll tore and folded itself up into a dozen soldiers and Zheng Ying's armor, her calligraphy brush extending and a paper blade appearing in the center of the brush head. "What? It's my story, I'll complement who I want."

Finally Ban Changnu arrived, breaking through the door to the balcony Zheng Ying had used not more than a few minutes ago. She was breathing a bit quicker than normal and Zheng Ying saw the single bead of sweat running down the side of her face. With a quirk of her brow Zheng Ying asked, "Did Taozi and the gate guards really give ya that much trouble sweetie?"

"Really? Is now the time for terms of endearment?" The currently raven haired twin asked, trying to hide her blush by getting the white jade shield she had into a defensive position.

Zheng Ying grinned happily to see that cute blush. Seeing it on either of the twins always got her heart to do that little stutter beat she had grown to like so much. Zheng Ying couldn't understand why so many cultivators outside of the Zheng sought to cut such things out of themselves, seeing it as an imperfection. "Any time is a good time for terms of endearment sweetie. Plus, some banter before the big battle is always good for the story." The auburn haired girl did feel a twinge of guilt, she was being honest but it also played to her advantage, flustering the enemy with your words plus working the narrative a bit to help with some of her techniques.

Ban Changnu narrowed her eyes at Zheng Ying before flicking over to watch as Rou started to circle her. "You know I won't be holding back. I want to win." Zheng Ying's girlfriend said, hands tightening on the Boundless Ivory Shield and the Pervading Ebony Blade that had seen Ban Zhangzi place third in the crafter's contest. Zheng Ying had wished she could have been there to see him place.

"And ya know I'll still hold back and ya'll still lose." She replied with a sad smile. "Wizard Rou, take three quarters of the guard and put down this gorgeous usurper."

"Yes, general!" Was Rou's response as he leapt into the air and took a deep breath before releasing a massive fireball with the exhale, flipping in the air and bringing his foot covered in melting rock down in a kick. Ban Changnu already had her shield up and blocked the kick as the flames cleared. Rou's foot seemed to slow down as it got closer to the white shield before the foot and the beast attached to it was launched into the ceiling with a thud.

Before Ban Changnu could follow up with a counter, however, nine of the twelve paper soldiers Zheng Ying had summoned were already upon her with sword and spear. None of them would hit though, Ban Changnu became hard to pin down once she had a second to plant herself. But that was the drawback of her Billowing Willow Stance, you had to have a specific spot you didn't want to be moved from but if that ground was unsuitable however…

With a snort Rou spit out a large glob of magma from above, still clinging to the ceiling where he had hit. Ban Changnu barely had to dodge it because it wasn't aimed at her precisely, it was aimed at the ground beneath her. With the power up from Zheng Ying placing Rou as a wizard the glob became a boiling puddle of molten rock, denying Ban Changnu the spot and forcing her to jump back. The twin girl received a few minor cuts from the origami guards who also began to retreat but the big blow came from Rou launching himself from the ceiling and slamming her into the ground.

Ban Changnu was quick to react, scoring a deep cut on the spirit. Then she screamed in pain as the spray of boiling blood that ran through Rou hit her.

Zheng Ying winced and hissed in sympathy for the both of them. Rou might be able to fight for a bit longer but the wild girl decided to call him back, his paper clothes bursting into flames as he dematerialized into a stream of liquid fire and back into Zheng Ying.

Before the summoned soldiers could make it to Ban Changnu though she was already back on her feet. With a sweeping motion a bed of blue-white flowers that almost seemed to glow with a faint light sprung up around her. Vital energy seemed to flow from the flowers and into Ban Changnu, her breath steadying and her most recent burn marks smoothing over. Zheng Ying hadn't seen this one before but vaguely remembered her girlfriend saying it was something like Fluorescent Night Flowers, an art to help heal and revitalize yourself and possibly a small group.

With a 'tsk' Zheng Ying started forward, gesturing at two of the three soldiers still with her. "You two with me, we're ending this." The auburn haired girl was feeling both proud and a little annoyed with Ban Changnu. She really was going all out and doing her best, proving that she could go toe to toe with the best fighter in the tournament. But on the other hand she was a commoner, with great talent, yes, going toe to toe with Zheng Ying and if Zheng Ying wanted to stay and still get some support from home this couldn't last.

The eleven paper guards surrounded and struck at Ban Changnu, Zheng Ying darting in and striking with her spear whenever she saw an opening and then retreating. The black haired girl was hard to hit but they were hitting and the flower bed wilted a little more with each cut. Before the final flower could wilt Ban Changnu went on the offensive.

With a deafening CRACK and a sound of something massive moving through the air Ban Changnu spun around and slammed her attackers with what Zheng Ying knew to be the art Xiangmen's Might. One of the top most branches breaking and falling could spell disaster and disaster is what found her origami soldiers, now nothing more than crushed and sliced paper around Ban Changnu.

"I told you I wanted to win." Ban Changnu said, straightening back up into a guard.

Zheng Ying grinned, hesitated a moment and then frowned. "No hard feelings right?"

Ban Changnu lowered her guard just a bit to better look at Zheng Ying. "Of course not."

"Thanks sweetie." And with that Zheng Ying was in front of her, calligraphy spear knocking aside the white shield and then thrusting for a killing blow. Ban Changnu's eyes widened in surprise and horror at how fast Zheng Ying moved, the boost from giving herself the general role in the story and her superior physical cultivation catching the twin off guard.

Things seemed to slow down. As the spearhead inched closer and closer Zheng Ying spotted something from the corner of her eye. Held in the same hand as the shield was what looked like a card made from wood. A qi card? But where could- Ban Zhangzi duh. With a flash of light and the crackling of lighting Ban Changnu disappeared from in front of Zheng Ying. The auburn haired girl knew she wouldn't have enough time to defend or dodge so she was forced to use one of her trump cards.

"But the general she had been fighting was just a soldier in disguise!" Zheng Ying felt that feeling of twisting, pulling and then being shoved through a strainer in her spirit and body as she was suddenly in the position of her last paper soldier and her paper soldier was now where she was.

As the paper construct was being cut in half Zheng Ying was already moving. She crossed the distance to her girlfriend. Ban Changnu, still confused at this new turnaround, wasn't able to bring her shield to bear against the new angle of attack. As Zheng Ying's spear began to dig into Ban Changnu, the female twin simply disappeared.

With a sigh Zheng Ying found herself no longer in a castle in a city but on the arena grounds of the Blue Mountain Sect. She had won her semi-final tournament fight but having to use more effort than she, and probably her elder bond-brother Zheng Quan, had thought she would. It was going to be hard to spin this right to her family but she could. As long as the final bout went in her favor she was sure she could stay. Zheng Quan actually kinda liked her, probably why he had convinced their Master to let him come to this instead of the Master himself, which was good for Zheng Ying.

She'd have to start thinking about how to make this up to her girlfriend and boyfriend though. What with knocking Changnu out of the tournament and having to miss Zhangzi's crafting competition and with how little time they had actually gotten to spend together leading up to the end of the year she was starting to feel like a bad girlfriend. Sure, they hadn't been together very long but that just made these black marks look worse!

Zheng Ying would have to think about that later, right now she had to go speak with her brother and then later there was a 'party' she would have to attend. Honestly, the parties here could barely be called that, they were so stuck up and formal. The only saving grace was she could usually get a few good stories out of the people there.

A.N.
@yrsillar Omake for the Omake throne! Okay, really that's the last Taijitu story. It had been pointed out that Zheng Ying had just been kind of there in the story so decided to write a little something from her perspective. We also get to see (or I guess told) some of the changes that have happened with the twins. Hope you guys like it!