Early the next morning.
"Knock knock knock!"
Su Jiu'er rapped at his door. "Breakfast, little hubby!"
Luo Fanchen shuffled out yawning to find the table already set with steaming white rice porridge, a plate of fried eggs, and two small dishes of pickles.
A warm current of happiness flowed through his heart.
Luo Fanchen slurped a mouthful of hot porridge.
Ahh. Bliss.
An exalted Empress making him breakfast with her own hands — even the Emperor of the Azure Dragon Empire wouldn't dare dream of such a luxury.
"Pfft!" Su Jiu'er propped an elbow on the table, chin resting on a jade hand, and suddenly giggled. "Little man, what's with the panda eyes?"
"Whose fault do you think?" Luo Fanchen shot her a look of deep grievance. Last night he'd chased after her — straight into a door slammed in his face.
"If I'd opened that door, wouldn't you have pounced and gobbled your auntie up, bones and all?" Su Jiu'er's lips curled.
Luo Fanchen bit into a fried egg, fragrance flooding his mouth.
"Please. Am I that kind of man?"
Su Jiu'er extended a long jade leg from beneath the table, drawing her skirt hem aside.
"So white, so long, so slender. Want to touch it?"
Luo Fanchen nodded before his brain caught up.
"See! Don't even try to argue — you are exactly that kind of man!" Su Jiu'er whipped her leg back with a triumphant little hmph.
"That's entrapment!" Luo Fanchen protested.
"Entrap-what?"
Luo Fanchen went silent and buried his face in his food.
"Hey, little man, you're not actually angry, are you?" Su Jiu'er prodded his shoulder with a finger.
No response.
"Rustle—"
Su Jiu'er bit her lip, slipped a soft white foot out of her slipper, and with red-painted toes deftly pinched the leg of Luo Fanchen's trousers, rubbing along his calf.
No way you can hold out through this.
Su Jiu'er was still congratulating herself when she discovered the little man remained utterly unmoved.
"I'm done eating." Luo Fanchen rose — steady as an old dog on the surface, though a metal detector would have been beeping itself hoarse over him.
Su Jiu'er's expression flickered.
A fragrant breeze swept in.
A soft, supple body wrapped around Luo Fanchen's back. Lotus-root arms slid under his and a pair of jade hands clasped his chest, ten slender fingers seeming to breathe out a faint perfume — and against his back he learned the true meaning of "mountainous isles towering over the sea."
"Whooo—"
A whisper reached his ear, warm and humid.
"Dear husband, this humble girl was wrong, all right?"
"Last night I meant to put on the new flesh-toned stockings to reward you and cheer you on, but at the last moment I was simply too shy."
"Won't you forgive me? Please?"
The back of Luo Fanchen's ear itched — and, lethally, one jade finger had begun tracing slow circles on his chest.
Hisss—
How was his puny decade-and-change of scoundrel training supposed to out-duel a fox spirit with ten thousand years of practice?
"What made you suddenly buy silk stockings?" Luo Fanchen asked.
"I saw them while buying meat to nourish that body of yours, and thought the lecherous little man at home might like them. So I bought them." Su Jiu'er's voice turned silken. "And not just flesh-toned ones. Black... and even pink ones too."
Luo Fanchen's composure shattered.
He spun and wrapped an arm around that impossibly soft, slender waist, her exquisite features suddenly inches from his own.
"Auntie Su, it's been so long since I've seen your true face, fully unveiled."
"Then look."
Su Jiu'er smiled bewitchingly. White light flashed — and a face already devastating became a hundredfold more so.
Petite white beast ears. Blue eyes. A fox-fur mantle, golden bells at her ankles, nine snow-white fox tails swaying behind her, brushing feather-light along Luo Fanchen's arm.
"Husband... does this humble girl still please you?"
Holy fuck!
Luo Fanchen's Dao-heart crumbled on the spot. Unable to stop himself, he leaned in toward those flame-red lips.
"SWISH!"
His kiss landed on empty air.
"Hehehe."
Su Jiu'er had already reverted to her human beauty's form, every trace of that seductive charm gone, prim as a stately noblewoman as she intoned:
"It seems my husband is no longer angry."
"Tch. This again." Luo Fanchen's mouth twisted.
Su Jiu'er came over and hugged his arm, consoling him.
"Little man, sooner or later Jiu'er will be yours. Our fox clan's constitution carries too much yin energy — during certain kinds of contact it flows out on its own. For someone of great cultivation it harmonizes yin and yang, but for you, right now, it's no different from poison."
"I know, I know. Once my cultivation is up, I'll deal with you properly, you vixen." Luo Fanchen gritted his teeth.
"This humble girl can hardly wait. I'll be right here whenever you're ready to bully me." Su Jiu'er batted her eyes, all provocation.
Luo Fanchen's heart swayed again — then his hand darted out and pinched her, drawing a startled squeal.
"Consider that a down payment on the interest!!"
In truth, with Su Jiu'er's cultivation, she could have dodged with ease. She simply chose to indulge her little man.
"All right, it's getting late. Time to head to the village square for the martial soul awakening ceremony." Su Jiu'er's voice softened. "Do your best out there, husband. Tonight, as your reward, I'll wear the black stockings."
"Any chance of an advance?" Luo Fanchen grinned.
"I could wear them now — but you wouldn't want anyone else seeing your wife in black stockings, would you?" Su Jiu'er winked.
"Never mind then. Tonight it is."
***
"Disgraceful! What is wrong with this village? People showing up late to their own martial soul awakening?"
"Do you think my lordship's time is as worthless as you peasants'?!"
In the square at the village entrance, Temple Deacon Long Tao was berating Village Chief Lu Ren.
Hundreds of villagers ringed the square, not daring to make a sound. A dozen-odd young men and women, this year's awakening candidates, stood trembling at the front.
Old Chief Lu bowed his aged back, cold sweat streaming, not daring to argue.
In truth, there was still a good hour before the appointed time. But a personage from the Divine Temple was not someone he could contradict; all he could do was apologize again and again.
"Forgive us, Lord Long. The oversight is this old man's. But the boy who hasn't arrived is gifted beyond his peers — the martial soul he awakens will not disappoint you, I promise it."
Even while apologizing, Chief Lu Ren put in a good word for Luo Fanchen. The boy was genuinely beloved in the village. Every time he returned from hunting in the mountains he shared his kills with the poor households and the elderly, and now and then he even helped the widowed young women with their field work.
"Ha!" Deacon Long Tao sneered. "This 'gift' you speak of is nothing. What peasants call talent isn't merely worthless in the eyes of great men — it's laughable."
"A brat with no sense of punctuality can't have much of a martial soul anyway. Not worth the attention. This deacon has no interest in him — and the Divine Temple has even less."
"Begin the awakening."
The appointed time hadn't even arrived, yet Chief Lu Ren dared not argue the point. Those who were not soul masters were doomed to stand a rank below those who were.
"ROAR!"
Behind Long Tao rose the phantom of a one-horned lizard dragon. The instant the martial soul possessed his body, his frame swelled, azure scales sprouting across his skin.
Watching the fear and envy in the eyes of the villagers and the young candidates, Long Tao's lips curled upward.
His one-horned lizard dragon carried a wisp of true dragon bloodline, far surpassing common beast souls. Promotion was only a matter of time. As far as he was concerned, trudging from village to village running awakening ceremonies was an insult to his talents.
Besides, he had already covered four villages today and awakened over a hundred youths, and the best result had been a paltry Rank Two martial soul — a hammer. His patience had long since burned away.
Privately, he was contemptuous. What kind of promising seedling could sprout from these barren hills and foul waters? A complete waste of my lordship's time.
If not for Temple discipline, Long Tao couldn't have been bothered to test them at all.
In the center of the square he arranged obsidian stones into a six-pointed star formation, then produced a bronze pillar three meters tall and set it upright beside it.
The first girl stepped into the formation. Her eyes reddened with panic as it gave no response whatsoever, and the moment she stepped down, a family member's slap cracked across her face.
"Useless girl! All those years of rice and flour we poured into you, and you can't even awaken a trash martial soul?"
"Wasted! All of it!"
The shrew's cursing went on and on.
"Come on, Huzi!"
A dark-skinned youth stepped up for his awakening, heart pounding, his family cheering him on.
Within the six-pointed star formation, the obsidian stones gave off a faint golden glow.
A wisp of green shimmered into being above his head.
"A wheat stalk?" Long Tao ground his teeth. "Trash. Next."
Huzi hesitated, unwilling to give up, and ventured weakly, "My lord... aren't you going to test me on the bronze pillar?"
"Test my ass!" Long Tao jabbed a finger at the awakening formation. "The rule has never changed: the higher the quality of the martial soul, the brighter the golden light it ignites from the obsidian."
"One zhang of golden light marks the weakest martial soul, Rank One, Mortal Grade. Nine zhang marks the strongest in legend — Rank Nine, God-Grade."
"The bronze pillar shines with one color up to nine when it measures a martial soul's rank. Your awakening glow barely reached past your ankles, and you want your rank measured?"
The dark-skinned youth trudged off in dejection. Scorned before the whole village by the Deacon, dreading another round of scolding from his family, he was sinking into self-loathing when his stern father — of all people — clapped a rough, calloused hand on his shoulder.
"Huzi, it's no great matter. If you can't be a soul master, then come till the fields with your old man. There's no shame in feeding yourself with your own two hands."
"Dad, I'm sorry. I'm useless."
"None of that talk. You're my son, and my word is what counts."
A dozen-plus children awakened one after another, and Long Tao's face grew darker with each — a volcano on the verge of eruption.
Trash.
All of them, trash.
Whether he could recruit promising seedlings affected his own record for promotion, after all.
The best of the lot was a saber-toothed tiger martial soul — the awakening light climbed one zhang nine, lighting the bronze pillar with two colors of radiance. Barely Rank Two.
That family was still huddled together weeping for joy and cheering.
"Garbage village. I knew nothing good would awaken here." His mood at rock bottom, Long Tao spat one last curse at the chief and villagers and began packing up to leave.
"Wait!"
Luo Fanchen came running from the distance and leapt up onto the square, Su Jiu'er following behind.
"Starting the tests early, are we?"
"You're late, boy. It's over. Come back next year," Long Tao said.
Luo Fanchen's face went cold on the spot.
Commoners had no rights before soul masters — and feared them. He did not.
"I haven't been tested, and you're leaving. Surely the Divine Temple's people aren't all this careless with the rules?"
The words struck the entire crowd of villagers dumb with terror. The old chief's heart nearly gave out; he barely restrained himself from running over and clamping a hand over the boy's mouth.
Long Tao was stunned too. Aside from bowing and scraping to his superiors, he had bullied his way through every village and town unchallenged. When had anyone ever talked back?
"How dare you? Where does a peasant find that kind of nerve?"
Luo Fanchen's reply was iron. "I am not late. If you refuse to test me, the fault is yours — and I will file a complaint with the Temple's branch hall in the city."
Long Tao studied him — utterly unafraid, and with the bearing of an exiled immortal besides — and a thread of dread crept into his gut.
No matter how he looked, this boy didn't seem like some backwoods peasant. What if he's the scion of some reclusive master? Better see what martial soul he awakens before deciding whether to teach him a lesson.
"Fine."
"Begin the awakening. We've been waiting on you anyway."
The villagers exchanged bewildered looks. What was happening? Since when was the Lord Deacon this agreeable?
Su Jiu'er sent Luo Fanchen a look of encouragement, and under the gaze of the entire village, he stepped onto the six-pointed star formation.
And closed his eyes...
TL Notes:
TL Note: Zhang — A traditional Chinese unit of length, roughly 3.3 meters (about 11 feet); the awakening light's height in zhang directly measures a martial soul's grade.