Be The Icy Beauty! A Xianxia/Cultivation Tale
- Thread starter ninjastar
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
Most of her old friends wouldn't be born for years, if they did get born, she would probably grab them.
Xi Yi lost some luck, she got a technique capable of stopping what killed her in the original timeline and spear dad in return, which is probably worth more than what she lost.
Bing didn't really steal a lot of luck yet.
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
She's definitely planning to:
It's kind of a mystery why the heavens hate her this time around, if not for upsetting the plans it had for it's chosen.
It's kind of a mystery why the heavens hate her this time around, if not for upsetting the plans it had for it's chosen.
Ruan is a friend of hers, but what she "took" from Ruan was a set of techniques (the originals of which are, probably, still where Ruan found them), and Bing Meilu would probably teach Ruan the techniques anyway if she can find her. (They met in the Moon Crying Swan Palace in the original timeline, which means she wouldn't be able to depend on that way to meet even if she wasn't shaking things up even more.)
Queen of the Abyss is a known rival, but I don't think she's been mentioned as a friend. A quick search of the thread for her name comes up empty.
While fucking with other Heaven's Chosen would probably be sufficient reason for Heaven to hate her, and Wang Bai is explicitly named as one of those Chosen, I think "made a deal with one of the great enemies of the Heavens and used that to break one of Heaven's most foundational taboos" kind of makes every other reason Heaven might have to hate her somewhat moot.
Last edited:
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
She didn't steal the lotus yet (and we don't have it implied that the queen was even a friendly acquaintance), the blood method is something Ruan wouldn't find for thousands upon thousands of years a few realm up, and it is still there, if she found Ruan, Ruan would likely benefit from becoming core member of her sect as a baby.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
One of the things I think we're going to be seeing a lot of is Bing Meilu stealing all of the various profound treasures that the other Chosen hoovered up, but then going back and helping out the ones she liked with dramatically improved foundations in various ways (like getting them started from the beginning on the good cultivation techniques). Realistically, the ones she helps will be a lot better off in the long term. The ones she doesn't want to help... well, at least some of them are going to wind up dead at her hand.
Chapter 76: Down in Dark Water
New
ninjastar
(Verified Taoist Immortal)
- Location
- Your mom's house
Transmigrated back into the body of her child self, can the mighty Celestial Bing Meilu survive in a Xianxia world all the while staving off the advances of arrogant young masters and wannabe protagonists alike?
Why is life so hard for the Icy Beauty?
Any corrections or criticisms are welcome, I hope you enjoy Chapter 75: Down in Dark Water
If you want to keep up with this story or hang around, come join my Discord
Please consider supporting me on Ko-fi: Ninjastar.
---
Bing Meilu watched in consternation as her disciple fell from the sky and plunged into the black water below. Above, the split curtain of black thunderclouds roared ominously. White explosions of thunder lit up the darkness with irregular flashes. Luckily for the girl, the pressure of the Tribulation had already driven away the local sea life, otherwise Xia Xuefeng would already have been consumed whole by now.
Bing Meilu had suspected there may be strange occurrences with the Blood Cultivator's Heavenly Tribulation. First of all, she was a bearer of a not insignificant amount of Karmic Merit - Courtesy of her time in the Shadow Pit and the numerous Demonic Cultivators she had killed. That should have resulted in a weak and relatively safe tribulation filled with purifying vital energy.
Second, she was also a subordinate of Bing Meilu, who had made herself an irredeemable enemy of the Dao of Heaven itself. That should have resulted in Xia Xuefeng being stripped of all her Karmic Merit, and subjected to terrifying Tribulations wrought with danger and lacking in any beneficial energies at all.
But Xia Xuefeng had not been stripped of her Karmic Merit. That in itself was quite a mysterious and interesting fact. Bing Meilu had not been entirely sure why until now. There were multiple potential answers, so the exact reason could not be deduced. At least not without directly investigating the workings of the Heavenly Mysteries, which only became possible in the Ancient Sage Realm.
Perhaps Xia Xuefeng's Karmic Merit was somehow related to her status as the holder of the Key of Grand Emperor Blacksky's tomb and thus was beyond recrimination from the Heavens of the Jade Sparrow Continent? Or maybe it was part of some Heavenly plot to subvert one of Bing Meilu's subordinates with the 'carrot' of Karmic Merit? Those had been some of her initial theories.
Well, now Bing Meilu had an answer.
'The Dao of Heaven is in full disarray,' Bing Meilu realized. 'It's far more damaged than I realized, even this early in the timeline!'
The coming God-Blood Crisis had thrown the entire World System of the Great Flock Realm in disarray. The Dao of Heaven had already begun to break down severely. The birth of Daoist Skyfall, the Demonic Cultivator Chosen of Heaven, had been the first sign of it. Like the first cracks in a dam about to collapse. However, even with that, Bing Meilu did not think this should have been possible so early on.
It should have been totally impossible for a single cultivator to experience two entirely separate Tribulations at the same time. In fact, even when multiple cultivators, such as the Elemental Five, underwent a breakthrough together, the Tribulations would merge and strengthen into one greater Tribulation. That had not happened either.
That is to say, the current Dao of Heaven had gone totally mad.
It could not tell that Xia Xuefeng, bearer of Karmic merit, and Xia Xuefeng, a disciple of Bing Meilu, were the same person. Thus two separate tribulations had been lined up. This led to the situation where the Heaven of the Bird Talon Continent had the totally contradictory instructions of 'reward Xia Xuefeng, a bearer of Karmic Merit' and 'Kill Xia Xuefeng, an enemy of the Heavens'. Whatever higher function was supposed to resolve this error had already broken down from the intrusion of the accursed blood that was corroding the external Barrier of the Great Flock Realm.
Unable to resolve this contradiction, the local Dao to Heaven had just decided to do both at the same time. Thus it had spawned two separate Core Formation Heavenly Tribulations for the same person.
It was possible that the presence of the Key to Grand Emperor Blacksky's Tomb was worsening the confusion. Alternatively, it was possible that Bing Meilu was simply incorrect about how severe the damage from the God-Blood Crisis should have been at this point in the timeline. The final, and worst, option was that the God-Blood Crisis was somehow stronger than in her first life.
It was difficult to put into words how much of a catastrophe this was. A fundamental law of the Dao of Heaven was that it had to be fair. Even when Tribulations merged, they could not excessively target a single individual, but fairly spread the danger between participants. Having two entirely separate tribulations attacking you at the same time, both tuned to be 'fair' to your power level, meant the difficulty would be immense. Even worse was the 'suppression' aura that came from the Yang Trigram energy of the Tribulation, which was now doubled, making it nearly impossible for Xia Xuefeng to control her own Qi or even move.
Someone with a powerful Dao-Heart could have resisted such suppression, but Xia Xuefeng was not at that level already.
'...She may very well die here,' Bing Meilu frowned.
That being said, in every dark cloud there was a silver lining. If Xia Xuefeng did not buckle under the pressure, this was a marvellous opportunity for her to become stronger and refine her own willpower. If her Core were to be baptized in two strikes of Five-Colored Lighting at the same time, it could well form into some sort of mutated, superior construct that was not normally possible to achieve.
That left only one question. Should Bing Meilu intervene?
---
Ji Hui sat in his quarters in the Captured Slave Galley, eyes deep in meditation. Boots had curled up against him, resting his head on his owner's knees. Beneath them, a large Qi-Gathering Formation glittered. Every room had one installed, powered by the massive Spirit Furnaces burning at all times in the boiler room. Fueled by the unending tides of Qi-rich Sea Beast flesh gathered by the Galley, they could easily be kept at max-efficiency all hours of the day.
The Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth swirled towards Ji Hui in a vortex as he pulled it into himself. The energy traced through his meridian system, from the seventh aperture to the nineteenth to the thirtieth. Slowly it was refined according to the Beast-Man Becoming Art that Bing Meilu had taught him.
From the raw power of the world it was filtered and distilled and coloured until a thick, ferocious Beast Qi remained. Ji Hui finally fed the newly refined Qi into his Dantian.
Within said space, was a large Taiji diagram that hurriedly rotated. In the field of white that represented Yang, a large, ferocious red wolf stood, running to keep up with the diagram's rotation. The dot of Lesser Yin within Greater Yang. It was the spiritual form of a Corpse-Refining Red Wolf that he had copied from Boots.
In the field of black that represented Yin, a vaguely dog-shaped mass of crackling white thunder ran. The dot of Lesser Yang within Greater Yin. It was the Heavenly Tribulation Thunder Spirit Dog he had absorbed into himself during his Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulation.
For there was a seed of Yin within Yang, and Yang within Yin. Together the Two Instruments played reality. They were the Supremacy of One - The Taiji.
Ji Hui's Beast Qi poured into the two spirits within his Dantian, nourishing them as they grew slightly in stature. The wolf and dog roared in unison, the howl echoing through his body as he finally broke through to the tenth and final stage of Foundation Establishment.
Not one to be left out, Ji Hui joined the howl, a wolf-life roar emitting from his mouth as he threw his head back. Boots rose its head up, shaggy red fur swaying as it craned its neck to the sky and howled.
"Awoooooooooo!"
Having expended much of his Qi reserve in the breakthrough, Ji Hui's body collapsed back down to his bed. He inhaled deeply, savouring the fresh air in his lungs. The scent of fresh air, with a subtle medical fragrance from some incense he had burned earlier.
For a while, Ji Hui sat there, allowing his Qi reserves to recover as he circulated his cultivation base.
'I think I can try for Core Formation tomorrow or the day after,' the Lieutenant of the Armada yawned.
He suddenly felt a mighty pulse of Qi coming from the west. Ji Hui turned to stare out of his room's viewing window, enhancing his eyes with Qi. His pupils. Was... was that Xia Xuefeng, falling?
---
Xia Xuefeng let loose a wordless scream as she was choked by the black waters. She could feel a crushing weight upon her chest, like a mountain had fallen upon her. She could recall the feeling of the suppressive Yang Aura of her Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulation. But this pressure was in another league entirely.
Pain flared through Xia Xuefeng's mind. The tentative Core that had begun to form in the center of her Dantianbegan to dissolve, as she lost control and pressure of her Qi.
'No! No!' her mind went blank with panic.
If that went-if she could not properly form her Core before the Tribulation truly set in, she would surely die.
'I'll die if I don't get out of this damned water!' she screamed internally.
Xia Xuefeng could feel her lungs start to burn from the lack of air. With all of her Qi expelled from the shattering of her Dao-Platform, she was just an ordinary mortal girl. She desperately forced her aching limbs to move against the water, but it was futile.
Above, the Tribulation clouds rumbled threateningly. She likely had around a minute before the bolts of Heavenly Tribulation Lightning began to descend and then it would really be all over...
'Why am I even here?'
The thought cut through the foggy haze of oxygen deprivation. Here she was, drowning in a black and merciless ocean, about to be skewered and fried and then obliterated into ash. Surrounded by a vortex of blood and screaming souls she herself had killed-what exactly was the point of all this?
Why wasn't she safe at home in her family's warm bakery, smelling freshly baked loaves?
She remembered her words to Bing Meilu,when the girl had asked her why she cultivated.
'I want to be the kind of person who does something notable, the kind of person people study about in history books.'
Xia Xuefeng wanted to make her mark on mankind, to be known worldwide. To be spoken of in hushed whispers around campfires, or played as in a game between laughing children. To be remembered as someone more than just a baker's daughter.
It felt like such an unbelievably naive answer now. Written in the history books? Make her mark on the world? She was just a stupid little girl who was lucky to have made it even this far.
Was such a thing even worth it? Worth the pain, the danger? Worth killing another man for? Was it worth all those screaming souls trapped in her Dantian, whispering the songs of the damned?
'I am about to die,' Xia Xuefeng realized.
And with it, there was a strange form of acceptance.
'I guess in my next life-I'll try and live a simpler life...'
She closed her eyes, and let the darkness take her.
—
Character Glossary
Bing Meilu - Our beloved protagonist
Xia Xuefeng - Bing Meilu's first recruit, a blood cultivator who is in the Foundation Establishment Realm
Ji Hui - A Beast-Cultivator who wishes to reach the peak of the Dao of Spirit Dogs. Has tamed a Corpse-Refining Red Wolf he named Boots, and absorbed a Heavenly Tribulation Lighting Spirit shaped like a dog. In Foundation Establishment.
Grand Emperor Blacksky - An ancient Devil-God. A fragment of him is sealed somewhere in the Jade Sparrow World. XIa Xuefeng found the key.
Why is life so hard for the Icy Beauty?
Any corrections or criticisms are welcome, I hope you enjoy Chapter 75: Down in Dark Water
If you want to keep up with this story or hang around, come join my Discord
Please consider supporting me on Ko-fi: Ninjastar.
---
Bing Meilu watched in consternation as her disciple fell from the sky and plunged into the black water below. Above, the split curtain of black thunderclouds roared ominously. White explosions of thunder lit up the darkness with irregular flashes. Luckily for the girl, the pressure of the Tribulation had already driven away the local sea life, otherwise Xia Xuefeng would already have been consumed whole by now.
Bing Meilu had suspected there may be strange occurrences with the Blood Cultivator's Heavenly Tribulation. First of all, she was a bearer of a not insignificant amount of Karmic Merit - Courtesy of her time in the Shadow Pit and the numerous Demonic Cultivators she had killed. That should have resulted in a weak and relatively safe tribulation filled with purifying vital energy.
Second, she was also a subordinate of Bing Meilu, who had made herself an irredeemable enemy of the Dao of Heaven itself. That should have resulted in Xia Xuefeng being stripped of all her Karmic Merit, and subjected to terrifying Tribulations wrought with danger and lacking in any beneficial energies at all.
But Xia Xuefeng had not been stripped of her Karmic Merit. That in itself was quite a mysterious and interesting fact. Bing Meilu had not been entirely sure why until now. There were multiple potential answers, so the exact reason could not be deduced. At least not without directly investigating the workings of the Heavenly Mysteries, which only became possible in the Ancient Sage Realm.
Perhaps Xia Xuefeng's Karmic Merit was somehow related to her status as the holder of the Key of Grand Emperor Blacksky's tomb and thus was beyond recrimination from the Heavens of the Jade Sparrow Continent? Or maybe it was part of some Heavenly plot to subvert one of Bing Meilu's subordinates with the 'carrot' of Karmic Merit? Those had been some of her initial theories.
Well, now Bing Meilu had an answer.
'The Dao of Heaven is in full disarray,' Bing Meilu realized. 'It's far more damaged than I realized, even this early in the timeline!'
The coming God-Blood Crisis had thrown the entire World System of the Great Flock Realm in disarray. The Dao of Heaven had already begun to break down severely. The birth of Daoist Skyfall, the Demonic Cultivator Chosen of Heaven, had been the first sign of it. Like the first cracks in a dam about to collapse. However, even with that, Bing Meilu did not think this should have been possible so early on.
It should have been totally impossible for a single cultivator to experience two entirely separate Tribulations at the same time. In fact, even when multiple cultivators, such as the Elemental Five, underwent a breakthrough together, the Tribulations would merge and strengthen into one greater Tribulation. That had not happened either.
That is to say, the current Dao of Heaven had gone totally mad.
It could not tell that Xia Xuefeng, bearer of Karmic merit, and Xia Xuefeng, a disciple of Bing Meilu, were the same person. Thus two separate tribulations had been lined up. This led to the situation where the Heaven of the Bird Talon Continent had the totally contradictory instructions of 'reward Xia Xuefeng, a bearer of Karmic Merit' and 'Kill Xia Xuefeng, an enemy of the Heavens'. Whatever higher function was supposed to resolve this error had already broken down from the intrusion of the accursed blood that was corroding the external Barrier of the Great Flock Realm.
Unable to resolve this contradiction, the local Dao to Heaven had just decided to do both at the same time. Thus it had spawned two separate Core Formation Heavenly Tribulations for the same person.
It was possible that the presence of the Key to Grand Emperor Blacksky's Tomb was worsening the confusion. Alternatively, it was possible that Bing Meilu was simply incorrect about how severe the damage from the God-Blood Crisis should have been at this point in the timeline. The final, and worst, option was that the God-Blood Crisis was somehow stronger than in her first life.
It was difficult to put into words how much of a catastrophe this was. A fundamental law of the Dao of Heaven was that it had to be fair. Even when Tribulations merged, they could not excessively target a single individual, but fairly spread the danger between participants. Having two entirely separate tribulations attacking you at the same time, both tuned to be 'fair' to your power level, meant the difficulty would be immense. Even worse was the 'suppression' aura that came from the Yang Trigram energy of the Tribulation, which was now doubled, making it nearly impossible for Xia Xuefeng to control her own Qi or even move.
Someone with a powerful Dao-Heart could have resisted such suppression, but Xia Xuefeng was not at that level already.
'...She may very well die here,' Bing Meilu frowned.
That being said, in every dark cloud there was a silver lining. If Xia Xuefeng did not buckle under the pressure, this was a marvellous opportunity for her to become stronger and refine her own willpower. If her Core were to be baptized in two strikes of Five-Colored Lighting at the same time, it could well form into some sort of mutated, superior construct that was not normally possible to achieve.
That left only one question. Should Bing Meilu intervene?
---
Ji Hui sat in his quarters in the Captured Slave Galley, eyes deep in meditation. Boots had curled up against him, resting his head on his owner's knees. Beneath them, a large Qi-Gathering Formation glittered. Every room had one installed, powered by the massive Spirit Furnaces burning at all times in the boiler room. Fueled by the unending tides of Qi-rich Sea Beast flesh gathered by the Galley, they could easily be kept at max-efficiency all hours of the day.
The Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth swirled towards Ji Hui in a vortex as he pulled it into himself. The energy traced through his meridian system, from the seventh aperture to the nineteenth to the thirtieth. Slowly it was refined according to the Beast-Man Becoming Art that Bing Meilu had taught him.
From the raw power of the world it was filtered and distilled and coloured until a thick, ferocious Beast Qi remained. Ji Hui finally fed the newly refined Qi into his Dantian.
Within said space, was a large Taiji diagram that hurriedly rotated. In the field of white that represented Yang, a large, ferocious red wolf stood, running to keep up with the diagram's rotation. The dot of Lesser Yin within Greater Yang. It was the spiritual form of a Corpse-Refining Red Wolf that he had copied from Boots.
In the field of black that represented Yin, a vaguely dog-shaped mass of crackling white thunder ran. The dot of Lesser Yang within Greater Yin. It was the Heavenly Tribulation Thunder Spirit Dog he had absorbed into himself during his Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulation.
For there was a seed of Yin within Yang, and Yang within Yin. Together the Two Instruments played reality. They were the Supremacy of One - The Taiji.
Ji Hui's Beast Qi poured into the two spirits within his Dantian, nourishing them as they grew slightly in stature. The wolf and dog roared in unison, the howl echoing through his body as he finally broke through to the tenth and final stage of Foundation Establishment.
Not one to be left out, Ji Hui joined the howl, a wolf-life roar emitting from his mouth as he threw his head back. Boots rose its head up, shaggy red fur swaying as it craned its neck to the sky and howled.
"Awoooooooooo!"
Having expended much of his Qi reserve in the breakthrough, Ji Hui's body collapsed back down to his bed. He inhaled deeply, savouring the fresh air in his lungs. The scent of fresh air, with a subtle medical fragrance from some incense he had burned earlier.
For a while, Ji Hui sat there, allowing his Qi reserves to recover as he circulated his cultivation base.
'I think I can try for Core Formation tomorrow or the day after,' the Lieutenant of the Armada yawned.
He suddenly felt a mighty pulse of Qi coming from the west. Ji Hui turned to stare out of his room's viewing window, enhancing his eyes with Qi. His pupils. Was... was that Xia Xuefeng, falling?
---
Xia Xuefeng let loose a wordless scream as she was choked by the black waters. She could feel a crushing weight upon her chest, like a mountain had fallen upon her. She could recall the feeling of the suppressive Yang Aura of her Foundation Establishment Heavenly Tribulation. But this pressure was in another league entirely.
Pain flared through Xia Xuefeng's mind. The tentative Core that had begun to form in the center of her Dantianbegan to dissolve, as she lost control and pressure of her Qi.
'No! No!' her mind went blank with panic.
If that went-if she could not properly form her Core before the Tribulation truly set in, she would surely die.
'I'll die if I don't get out of this damned water!' she screamed internally.
Xia Xuefeng could feel her lungs start to burn from the lack of air. With all of her Qi expelled from the shattering of her Dao-Platform, she was just an ordinary mortal girl. She desperately forced her aching limbs to move against the water, but it was futile.
Above, the Tribulation clouds rumbled threateningly. She likely had around a minute before the bolts of Heavenly Tribulation Lightning began to descend and then it would really be all over...
'Why am I even here?'
The thought cut through the foggy haze of oxygen deprivation. Here she was, drowning in a black and merciless ocean, about to be skewered and fried and then obliterated into ash. Surrounded by a vortex of blood and screaming souls she herself had killed-what exactly was the point of all this?
Why wasn't she safe at home in her family's warm bakery, smelling freshly baked loaves?
She remembered her words to Bing Meilu,when the girl had asked her why she cultivated.
'I want to be the kind of person who does something notable, the kind of person people study about in history books.'
Xia Xuefeng wanted to make her mark on mankind, to be known worldwide. To be spoken of in hushed whispers around campfires, or played as in a game between laughing children. To be remembered as someone more than just a baker's daughter.
It felt like such an unbelievably naive answer now. Written in the history books? Make her mark on the world? She was just a stupid little girl who was lucky to have made it even this far.
Was such a thing even worth it? Worth the pain, the danger? Worth killing another man for? Was it worth all those screaming souls trapped in her Dantian, whispering the songs of the damned?
'I am about to die,' Xia Xuefeng realized.
And with it, there was a strange form of acceptance.
'I guess in my next life-I'll try and live a simpler life...'
She closed her eyes, and let the darkness take her.
—
Character Glossary
Bing Meilu - Our beloved protagonist
Xia Xuefeng - Bing Meilu's first recruit, a blood cultivator who is in the Foundation Establishment Realm
Ji Hui - A Beast-Cultivator who wishes to reach the peak of the Dao of Spirit Dogs. Has tamed a Corpse-Refining Red Wolf he named Boots, and absorbed a Heavenly Tribulation Lighting Spirit shaped like a dog. In Foundation Establishment.
Grand Emperor Blacksky - An ancient Devil-God. A fragment of him is sealed somewhere in the Jade Sparrow World. XIa Xuefeng found the key.
samdamandias
Apprentice Plane Wizard
It is like how there's not going to be a Flame Princess Xiyi this time around… but there is going to be a Spear Princess Xiyi. The Chosen of Heaven are protagonists, they're going to find something. Maybe a different treasure. Maybe an Old Monster or Hidden Master instead of their old bolt-hole. Maybe a secure base instead of their old mentor.
Is Bing Meilu really so arrogant as to think she was the only one who came back?
That is some grade-A Chosen of Heaven bullshit right there.
Absolutely. If Bing Meilu declares herself the second most arrogant person above, on or beneath the earth, who would dare claim to be first?
- Location
- America
Given she was the one who decided to time travel, it's less arrogance and more, "who else has a time machine and how under heaven did we end up in the same timeline?"
Also, she does suspect that she forced into a situation where she would see time travel as the only option thus she does suspect that her going back was planned for and had hitchhikers, so she's not that arrogant
Yeah, about that...
At this point, it's too late for her to simply decide she wants to live a normal life, even for her next reincarnation. Like it or not, the only path forward is to cultivate and become stronger
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
Yes, because she is the one to use the technique, but she already knew the world was reacting to her breaking the laws, sometimes in ways beyond this heavens' ability.
MagicalAmbitions
the rose in your vase
- Pronouns
- She/Her
is my favorite character really going to die here? tell me it isn't so!!
- Location
- Lost amidst hungry sheep
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Nah, she's too protagonisted for that. This is when the third Heavenly Tribulation will come in with the steel chair and for some reason only give her positive lightning.
I'm pretty sure this is a setting with reincarnation. I could see her dying and then getting dragged back into the party later anyway.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
I'm not so sure Xia Xuefeng will survive this. Accepting death like that is kind of the most un-cultivatory thing there is, and for once that's in a bad way.
Xia Xuefeng Interlude 8: Lunatic Dreams
New
ninjastar
(Verified Taoist Immortal)
- Location
- Your mom's house
Transmigrated back into the body of her child self, can the mighty Celestial Bing Meilu survive in a Xianxia world all the while staving off the advances of arrogant young masters and wannabe protagonists alike?
Why is life so hard for the Icy Beauty?
Any corrections or criticisms are welcome, I hope you enjoy Xia Xuefeng Interlude 8: Lunatic Dreams
If you want to keep up with this story or hang around, come join my Discord
---
Drowning and Dreaming.
Sinking and Sleeping.
All of the leeches, get to feasting
A girl lay asleep atop a crimson pool. Her raven black hair splayed around her head, a halo of inky darkness. Her skin was that sallow ice-white of corpses, but the gentle lifting and falling of her chest belied the life still within her. With each breath, a ripple spread across the red.
As she came to, a foggy-red mist coiled around her. The hands of the crimson winds caressed her with gentle nibbles of frigid chill.
Screams of the crying
Hearts of the lying
All of the sinners, get to dying
She stared up at the sky, an empty black dome. In the dark void hung a blazing red moon that seemed to drip with blood, like a circular wound carved into flesh.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Thick coagulated blood droplets showered from above. And with them came the pitter-patter of constant rainfall. In each head-sized drop was a twisted face. In pain, agony, fear and shame. They cried and screamed and bemoaned their fate. And when they landed, their screams cut short with chilling suddenness.
They landed and died and their screams cut short suddenly.
-This world is but torment and every man is crucified-
Every voice of the rain became the choir of the sea below. The humdrum of waves and tides. The whispers danced at the corner of her eyes and brushed against her corpse-white skin. They sang songs of merry horror that filled her nostrils with the scentless smell of pneuma.
Blood is the essence of yang, and Specter is the essence of yin
From all the ancestors of man, came congenital sin
Singing, screaming, shouting, sighing
Dancing, dreaming, drowning, dying
She stood and blinked. Her eyes were covered in a foggy-red that clung to her like a mist. Her bare feet stepped across a field of red waters, and with each one, a ripple came.
'Where am I?' she thought.
Her mind was foggy-red with sweet blood, and she could not remember just what she had been doing before coming here. A red tendril, covered with grasping toothy suckers, rose from the water. The girl nimbly sidestepped it as she walked forward.
A red crown hangs in the sky
Four Truths Made One Lie
A single word so bittersweet
Seek the kings, to be complete
Where she was walking, she did not know, just that she must.
There was a tingling from the back of her neck, like something was behind her.
Soon, the red-pale ocean of blood and rain gaze way to a frigid ice of vermillion rouge. Trees grew from the ice, lotus petals swaying down from their towering tips to flutter and fly with the coming of the wind. In the center of each petal was a red fruit in the shape of a human fetus.
The girl took a fruit, helpfully offered to her by a branch from the kindly tree. With a delighted smile, she took a bite. She chewed through the arm first, her teeth crunching on through velvet flesh and white bony stem. Ripe red richness spurted from the fruit with each bite and dribbled wastefully down her white chin and neck.
Her grasping fingers peeled the face-off, which she slurped up and swallowed whole. She bit down on the bone and admired its chalky bitterness. Next was the soft and juicy brain, which she munched on idly as she sallied forth through the foggy-red.
The world is but a single dream
Doth this fact make you beam?
Is it sweet like purest cream?'
Or bring forth a horrific scream?
She passed from the lake of ruby ice to a fjord of fluffy garnet snow that piled down endlessly from the black dome above. She looked up and saw a cloud in the shape of a black raven with a sanguine eye. Snow poured from its empty eye with each blink like flakes of shed rust, they deposited down down down-through the foggy-red.
And as she walked, she left two pairs of footprints.
The bird reared its head back and cried.
Haaaw! Ha- haaaw!
And with each cry came a flash of crimson thunder that seemed to blanket everything. Purple spirits hazily frolicked in the shadow between flashes of rose lightning.
In the pit, where demons die
Came a king, who embraced the lie
All his words, could none deny
I am fake, that is I
Then, the girl came to find herself standing at the peak of a snowy mountain, looking down upon a valley. She saw a red opulent palace in the shape of a lotus flower, whose petals spread out in full bloom. It was made from icy-red crystal bricks that shimmered and sparkled alongside the snow. Within it were fairy maidens of ethereal beauty, clad in flowing red dresses they danced and sung and spun. Each held a tall crystal goblet filled with a rich red wine that smelled of blood and fruit. They wore red crowns, dancing atop red carpets in their red hall.
Clamouring outside the wall of their fortress manor was a mob-legion of ferocious horse-men, or were they man-horses? Their upper half was that of a headless black armour-clad knight wielding two-handed lances cast from red ice. Meanwhile, their lower body was that of a huge mahogany-furred stallion. The stallions roared and neighed, biting off chunks of red wall from the fort and slicing it into with their laces.
But as fast as they cut, the red grew, as maidens within poured out their wine upon the wall, which froze into red icy-brick. The knights screamed deathly howls of hatred and malice, while the maidens within yelped in fear, or tittered in amusement.
Only the mad have eyes clear enough to admire the moon
It is because their eyes are shrouded, they receive this boon
The blood-mad stark raving lord who swallowed whole
His kingdom, every queen and sword and soul
The walker took another step-off of the peak of the snow-capped mountain and then began to fall. Not downwards and soaring to the ground, but rather upwards instead.
She fell up through the foggy-red air and plunged skyward helplessly. She watched as the massive towering mountain, and the fortress of red ice brick, and the fields of frozen ice and mountainous trees, and the ocean of crimson red, all shrunk, until they appeared a dot. And then, her feet finally ended, upon the surface of a bright red moon.
He knew this truth, and he knew it well
Keep it close but never tell
From blood and bone,
To flesh and stone
The lunar surface was a hard crimson crystal, covered in knee-high red slime that wafted and steamed with foggy-red haze. It bubbled and churned, writhed and wriggled and danced. The girl stood each steeped slowly, as the sticky ooze clung to her legs like a babe begging its mother not to leave.
The Truth is done
The Lie has won
Whether the Holy of Holies Or the Foulest Pit
Everyone is a hypocrite
She waded and jumped over the bloody gel surface of the red moon, aimlessly travelling. Looking down, she saw purple ghosts, faces twisted in tortured agony. Bubbles lifted from their mouths which were twisted in expression of tortured agony. They screamed silent screams silenced by the sea, thick blood muffling any noise that might have come.
'Hello!' the girl thought, waving down at one of the ghosts, which seemed to be the size of a young child. Bubbles spewed from its mouth as it screamed back, perhaps in greeting.
She continued walking through the thick vermillion slime until she came to stand upon a rocky hill that rose some twenty feet into the air. At the flat surface of the hill, was a stone table, and around it, twenty stone men crackling with purple lightning.
"The king has gone mad! He aims to slaughter us all-" one announced.
"Watch your words, you treasonous viper!" another slammed its fist down on the table.
Specter is the shadow of yin, the haze imprint of the inner being
Specter is the core of the spirit, the soul stuff that animates life
Specter is the eternal ghost fire, the spark of samsara
Specter is the flame from an ancient candle passed forth through a million wicks
With a sudden rumble, the rock golem exploded. After a moment, they reformed again, in their original positions.
"The king has gone mad! He aims to slaughter us all-"
"Watch your words, you treasonous viper!"
"The king has gone mad! He aims to slaughter us all-"
"Watch your words, you treasonous viper!"
"The king has gone mad! He aims to slaughter us all-"
"Watch your words, you treasonous viper!"
Again. And again, and again. The girl sat and watched, as the play replayed. How many times had they done this? Fragments of ancient souls trapped in an endless haze-replaying the last moments of their lives.
'Is this what happens to the people I devoured?'
The thought ripped through the foggy-red haze of her mind. Wind cleared the skies, as Xia Xuefeng blinked. And then she looked around her.
"Just here the hell am I?" Bing Meilu's disciple gasped.
You already know
You already know
You already know
Twenty golems spoke in unison, freezing in place and turning to face her as one.
"Is this-the afterlife?" she asked. "Is this some strange hell where I must account for my sins?"
He is waiting for you
He is waiting for you
He is waiting for you
Xia Xuefeng narrowed her eyes.
"Take me to him then," she decided.
---
Characters
Xia Xuefeng - Our resident blood cultivator and Bing Meilu's first minion
Please consider supporting me on Ko-fi: Ninjastar.
Why is life so hard for the Icy Beauty?
Any corrections or criticisms are welcome, I hope you enjoy Xia Xuefeng Interlude 8: Lunatic Dreams
If you want to keep up with this story or hang around, come join my Discord
---
Drowning and Dreaming.
Sinking and Sleeping.
All of the leeches, get to feasting
A girl lay asleep atop a crimson pool. Her raven black hair splayed around her head, a halo of inky darkness. Her skin was that sallow ice-white of corpses, but the gentle lifting and falling of her chest belied the life still within her. With each breath, a ripple spread across the red.
As she came to, a foggy-red mist coiled around her. The hands of the crimson winds caressed her with gentle nibbles of frigid chill.
Screams of the crying
Hearts of the lying
All of the sinners, get to dying
She stared up at the sky, an empty black dome. In the dark void hung a blazing red moon that seemed to drip with blood, like a circular wound carved into flesh.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Thick coagulated blood droplets showered from above. And with them came the pitter-patter of constant rainfall. In each head-sized drop was a twisted face. In pain, agony, fear and shame. They cried and screamed and bemoaned their fate. And when they landed, their screams cut short with chilling suddenness.
They landed and died and their screams cut short suddenly.
-This world is but torment and every man is crucified-
Every voice of the rain became the choir of the sea below. The humdrum of waves and tides. The whispers danced at the corner of her eyes and brushed against her corpse-white skin. They sang songs of merry horror that filled her nostrils with the scentless smell of pneuma.
Blood is the essence of yang, and Specter is the essence of yin
From all the ancestors of man, came congenital sin
Singing, screaming, shouting, sighing
Dancing, dreaming, drowning, dying
She stood and blinked. Her eyes were covered in a foggy-red that clung to her like a mist. Her bare feet stepped across a field of red waters, and with each one, a ripple came.
'Where am I?' she thought.
Her mind was foggy-red with sweet blood, and she could not remember just what she had been doing before coming here. A red tendril, covered with grasping toothy suckers, rose from the water. The girl nimbly sidestepped it as she walked forward.
A red crown hangs in the sky
Four Truths Made One Lie
A single word so bittersweet
Seek the kings, to be complete
Where she was walking, she did not know, just that she must.
There was a tingling from the back of her neck, like something was behind her.
Soon, the red-pale ocean of blood and rain gaze way to a frigid ice of vermillion rouge. Trees grew from the ice, lotus petals swaying down from their towering tips to flutter and fly with the coming of the wind. In the center of each petal was a red fruit in the shape of a human fetus.
The girl took a fruit, helpfully offered to her by a branch from the kindly tree. With a delighted smile, she took a bite. She chewed through the arm first, her teeth crunching on through velvet flesh and white bony stem. Ripe red richness spurted from the fruit with each bite and dribbled wastefully down her white chin and neck.
Her grasping fingers peeled the face-off, which she slurped up and swallowed whole. She bit down on the bone and admired its chalky bitterness. Next was the soft and juicy brain, which she munched on idly as she sallied forth through the foggy-red.
The world is but a single dream
Doth this fact make you beam?
Is it sweet like purest cream?'
Or bring forth a horrific scream?
She passed from the lake of ruby ice to a fjord of fluffy garnet snow that piled down endlessly from the black dome above. She looked up and saw a cloud in the shape of a black raven with a sanguine eye. Snow poured from its empty eye with each blink like flakes of shed rust, they deposited down down down-through the foggy-red.
And as she walked, she left two pairs of footprints.
The bird reared its head back and cried.
Haaaw! Ha- haaaw!
And with each cry came a flash of crimson thunder that seemed to blanket everything. Purple spirits hazily frolicked in the shadow between flashes of rose lightning.
In the pit, where demons die
Came a king, who embraced the lie
All his words, could none deny
I am fake, that is I
Then, the girl came to find herself standing at the peak of a snowy mountain, looking down upon a valley. She saw a red opulent palace in the shape of a lotus flower, whose petals spread out in full bloom. It was made from icy-red crystal bricks that shimmered and sparkled alongside the snow. Within it were fairy maidens of ethereal beauty, clad in flowing red dresses they danced and sung and spun. Each held a tall crystal goblet filled with a rich red wine that smelled of blood and fruit. They wore red crowns, dancing atop red carpets in their red hall.
Clamouring outside the wall of their fortress manor was a mob-legion of ferocious horse-men, or were they man-horses? Their upper half was that of a headless black armour-clad knight wielding two-handed lances cast from red ice. Meanwhile, their lower body was that of a huge mahogany-furred stallion. The stallions roared and neighed, biting off chunks of red wall from the fort and slicing it into with their laces.
But as fast as they cut, the red grew, as maidens within poured out their wine upon the wall, which froze into red icy-brick. The knights screamed deathly howls of hatred and malice, while the maidens within yelped in fear, or tittered in amusement.
Only the mad have eyes clear enough to admire the moon
It is because their eyes are shrouded, they receive this boon
The blood-mad stark raving lord who swallowed whole
His kingdom, every queen and sword and soul
The walker took another step-off of the peak of the snow-capped mountain and then began to fall. Not downwards and soaring to the ground, but rather upwards instead.
She fell up through the foggy-red air and plunged skyward helplessly. She watched as the massive towering mountain, and the fortress of red ice brick, and the fields of frozen ice and mountainous trees, and the ocean of crimson red, all shrunk, until they appeared a dot. And then, her feet finally ended, upon the surface of a bright red moon.
He knew this truth, and he knew it well
Keep it close but never tell
From blood and bone,
To flesh and stone
The lunar surface was a hard crimson crystal, covered in knee-high red slime that wafted and steamed with foggy-red haze. It bubbled and churned, writhed and wriggled and danced. The girl stood each steeped slowly, as the sticky ooze clung to her legs like a babe begging its mother not to leave.
The Truth is done
The Lie has won
Whether the Holy of Holies Or the Foulest Pit
Everyone is a hypocrite
She waded and jumped over the bloody gel surface of the red moon, aimlessly travelling. Looking down, she saw purple ghosts, faces twisted in tortured agony. Bubbles lifted from their mouths which were twisted in expression of tortured agony. They screamed silent screams silenced by the sea, thick blood muffling any noise that might have come.
'Hello!' the girl thought, waving down at one of the ghosts, which seemed to be the size of a young child. Bubbles spewed from its mouth as it screamed back, perhaps in greeting.
She continued walking through the thick vermillion slime until she came to stand upon a rocky hill that rose some twenty feet into the air. At the flat surface of the hill, was a stone table, and around it, twenty stone men crackling with purple lightning.
"The king has gone mad! He aims to slaughter us all-" one announced.
"Watch your words, you treasonous viper!" another slammed its fist down on the table.
Specter is the shadow of yin, the haze imprint of the inner being
Specter is the core of the spirit, the soul stuff that animates life
Specter is the eternal ghost fire, the spark of samsara
Specter is the flame from an ancient candle passed forth through a million wicks
With a sudden rumble, the rock golem exploded. After a moment, they reformed again, in their original positions.
"The king has gone mad! He aims to slaughter us all-"
"Watch your words, you treasonous viper!"
"The king has gone mad! He aims to slaughter us all-"
"Watch your words, you treasonous viper!"
"The king has gone mad! He aims to slaughter us all-"
"Watch your words, you treasonous viper!"
Again. And again, and again. The girl sat and watched, as the play replayed. How many times had they done this? Fragments of ancient souls trapped in an endless haze-replaying the last moments of their lives.
'Is this what happens to the people I devoured?'
The thought ripped through the foggy-red haze of her mind. Wind cleared the skies, as Xia Xuefeng blinked. And then she looked around her.
"Just here the hell am I?" Bing Meilu's disciple gasped.
You already know
You already know
You already know
Twenty golems spoke in unison, freezing in place and turning to face her as one.
"Is this-the afterlife?" she asked. "Is this some strange hell where I must account for my sins?"
He is waiting for you
He is waiting for you
He is waiting for you
Xia Xuefeng narrowed her eyes.
"Take me to him then," she decided.
---
Characters
Xia Xuefeng - Our resident blood cultivator and Bing Meilu's first minion
Please consider supporting me on Ko-fi: Ninjastar.
- Location
- America
Heh.
Xia Xuefeng might not be willing to cultivate for her own sake, but I think she'll certainly do it out of spite.
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
The original is, technically, also accurate.
Aaah.......SPITE! The great motivator when all other reasons tell you to stop and lay down: Yes, laying down would stop the pain/troubles. BUT if you continue you make as much trouble for the a##hole responsible for your current plight! And thus you walk on.
"I may not win this, but YOU will not enjoy winning either!"