"Oh, the skeleton girl?" Hanyi asked, eyeing her suspiciously. As if she expected Ling Qi to grab her again.
As if being on guard would help if Ling Qi decided it was time for more sisterly punishment. She smiled sweetly at her Junior Sister and held out her hand.
"...I'll be good," Hanyi muttered.
Noogie is not escapable. Do not attempt.
"Yes, the 'skeleton girl' she said blithely. "Though she does plenty of other things."
"Spooky girl then," Hanyi said flippantly, swinging her hand back and forth. Her little punishment already seemingly dismissed.
Ling Qi looked down at Hanyi, the spirits flat white eyes, and chilling aura. Her complexion, which was that of a corpse dead from the cold, but not yet blackened by the bite of frost.
"I'm not being insulting!" Hanyi protested. "Though, she's just cute. I'm beautiful and elegant."
Ling Qi let out a quiet huff of laughter. "Fair. Li Suyin definitely has a unique aesthetic."
Suyin, even Hanyi thinks you're cute.
She wondered what the nervous stammering girl who had nearly panicked herself asking for Ling Qi's help in cultivation early on would think of the Li Suyin who existed now.
"Future me scares me"
Hanyi and Ling Qi wove through the thin crowds of inner sect disciples bustling about on their way to lessons or to use Sect facilities, and followed the winding path of paved silvery stone around the and up the slope of the mountain until at last they arrived at the medicine hall. A stately building with silver tiled roof and surrounded by bountiful gardens, the very air here took on a serene and calming feel, all the better to aid in recovery.
She followed the feel of her friends aura out to the back gardens, among the carefully cultivated flowerbeds full of blooms in soothing colors and trees arranged to take the blowing breeze just so, to produce the right volume of peaceful rustling. It was actually pretty impressive now that she paid attention to it. She had spent quite a bit of time here, but the architecture and arrangement of the building and its surrounding s had always been in the background. Something taken for granted.
Yeah, the Sect's entire grounds are mastercrafted.
Out there theres only what she makes.
Also she's sure spent a lot of time in the medical wing...
"Miss Ling, I hope you do not mind that I occupied your friend here. Disciple Li is an exemplary student," Elder Su said, rising herself. She was taller than Suyin by a fair margin, but somewhere along the way, Ling Qi had surpassed her in that area.
"Honored Elder, I can only be pleased that Li Suyin has your attention. She is deserving of your teachings," Ling Qi said.
"Please stop, Ling Qi," Li Suyin muttered, flushing red. The pupil of her artificial eye widened and shrank, a ring of glimmering light spinning around the black.
"Be pleased that you have such good friends, Disciple Li," Elder Su said, smiling.
Mmm, delicious praise-bullying.
Who will praise-bully her after?
She turned to face Ling Qi, and Ling Qi felt the faintest tingle on her skin at the Elder's examination. "Ah Disciple Ling… New and novel damage again I see."
Ling Qi grimaced, dipping her head. The Elder hadn't said it scoldingly, but all the same…
We continue to give a centuries old medical expert who's seen many disciples mess themselves up in new and exciting ways new kinds of exotic damage to look at.
Again.
There was the Cloud Shaman back in Yellow, aggravated damage from Liling, a case of Ith-ia poisoning mixed with being purified by fire and a throat wound, dissolving herself halfway into Dream, tanking a peak Green Ith-ia sacrificial blast...
Also the sword guy who we showed Ending and decided he didn't like being a sword as much as he thought, but thats more conventional.
Li Suyin looked at her with renewed concern, her eye flashed, and Ling Qi felt a much less subtle examination, more like being poked at all over her friends fingers. "Hm, Oh! My goodness, Ling Qi, what did you do to that meridian!"
...is that a Sharingan she built for her eye socket?
Not many artificial eyes do the spinning thing.
Even fewer singular eyes.
"I went under a needed tribulation, and… solved it in a novel way," Ling Qi said evasively. "I strained myself somewhat."
"Fused shut," Elder Su said thoughtfully. "It is not my right to pry into tribulation, but it seems you took quite a risk."
Li SUyin bustled past the Elder, looking at her more closely, seeming like she wanted to poke and prod in truth. "Mm, I don't think the damage is irreversible… well, that's wrong, the meridian may be usable still with work but it's permanently marked, somewhat like domain weapon implantation… Oh, you and Su Ling both, using such wild methods of cultivation!"
Her much shorter friend glared up at her, and Ling Qi smiled sheepishly.
Hmm, integreated Steal technique?
"They are effective, of course," Elder Su said, resting a hand on her cheek. "...It's good to see students grow. Neither of you are much like the girl's who first arrived at my primer course."
"Ling Qi shared a look with Suyin, who wore her high necked purple gown, and a clawed and jeweled gauntlet on her hand, an aura filled with veins full of coursing blood, and the clanking of hundreds of bony feet dancing on those crimson threads. She considered herself, the freezing mist so deep as to be lost forever in its grasp.
No, she supposed they were not.
Life is uh...change.
"Hm, I wonder at that. What might have changed, had I been able to provide a full year course," Elder Su said, surprising her. The Elder sounded both thoughtful and melancholy. "Such useless thoughts."
A frown crosses Li Suyin's face, and she reached up for a moment, as if to rub her eye, only to force her hand back down. "The Sect has many concerns. I understand."
Ling Qi considered her own liege and the Duchess, and the crucible that was the life that woman had arranged for Renxiang. It had never been said aloud, but she did understand that there were many irregular things about their year in the Outer Sect.
"I am thankful for your instruction," Ling Qi said quietly. "Lady Cai and I both hope that the Sect might be able to act with less disruption in the future."
"You have grown well," Elder Su said, looking them both over once more. "And you may convey that to your Lady too. I am hopeful in seeing where the children of that year go."
And we not-so-subtly suggests that Renxiang would absolutely not pull Shenhua Shenanigans on the Sect, in the future.
Truly, a full year course could have done wonders for progression, rather than the explosive chaos of teenagers left to fight each other for resources.
"So hey, I wanted to know, can you make me a cool skeleton handmaid? 'Cause I have, like, a bunch of money now," Hanyi said.
Ling Qi blinked. Li Suyin blinked.
"Hwah?" Her friend made a confused noise.
"You know like the ones you have, but like, with ice instead of icky spider stuff," Hanyi explained happily.
"My silk isn't icky," Li Suyin said. "Ling Qi, did you?-"
"First I've heard of this," Ling Qi said blankly. "Hanyi, what would you even do with something like that?"
"Well it'd carry all my stuff, and comb my hair when Sis isn't around, and look really cool," Hanyi began, counting off benefits on her fingers.
"Ah, I'm not taking commissions right now," Li Suyin said, still looking a bit befuddled. "...Maybe in a few months?"
She glanced at Ling Qi, who sighed. "We'll talk about that later."
"Hey, I'd just ask for one of Sis' maids, but they're fragile! I'm trying to be thoughtful," Hanyi huffed, crossing her arms. "You'd be mad if I broke one!"
Ling Qi stared at her. Hanyi looked back defiantly. "...Yes."
It...actually is a pretty good idea? If Hanyi can afford it, construct servants are very much in her idiom, since her father was basically one for all the time she knew him.
"How lively," Li Suyin said, smiling awkwardly. "Honestly I hadn't even considered selling my constructs. The aesthetic is a little too niche."
"I'm sure you could find buyers," Ling Qi said. Hanyi puffed out her cheeks. "More buyers."
The aesthetic is right up White Caste Bai tastes. They'd love it.
[X] She was going to sit in on final lesson with Elder Ying
She intervened on the Shaman Suicide Bomb, she gave us Thousand Ring Fortress, saving our lives many times over. She got us the redacted formations manual which then went to Suyin and started her path.
We do owe a fair deal of gratitude to Elder Ying.
