Poison Qi flowed around in a mortar, mingling with the spirit herbs set inside. Liuxiang focused her senses, the pestle in her hand grinding down the spirit herbs. The action was calming, soothing, a reminder of the days she’d left behind her. She also enjoyed the far greater efficiency with which she could control her poison now, having broken through to the fourth realm.

The poison Qi slowly began to hiss, as the spirit herbs were ground down into a liquid slurry. Liuxiang knew the medicine was ready, and she put aside the pestle, removing the last few coarse bits of herbs set on it with her finger.

Carefully taking the mortar, she drained it into a small bowl, before covering it with a cloth and tying a string around it. Several such bowls of medicine and poisons lined the shelves of her room now.

“Liuxiang should probably send some to the apothecary. There won’t be much space left here soon,” Zhi Zhu said from within Liuxiang’s spirit.

“I will. But for now, I want to keep them here,” Liuxiang replied.

“Eldest won’t be very pleased.”

“We do enough to please her. She can deal with this much,” Liuxiang replied, walking back to her table. It had been nearly a month since she had been taken from the sect by her great-grandmother. During the time, Liuxiang had been made to quickly learn all sorts of etiquettes and had been put through intensive training to enhance her arts.

It had been brutal, with many sorts of poisons being put inside her body. But she had survived, and she’d grown stronger. Despite the pain, Liuxiang could not deny that she felt more in control of herself, and her spirit than she had felt in a really long time.

Her eyes glanced at the notes and scrolls on her table. Many had diagrams and figures drawn on them, explaining the effects of various poisons and dissecting the human body. Yet, one in particular stood out from the rest. A scroll bound tightly with a cat’s paw print at one corner of it.

Liuxiang smiled as she looked at the scroll from Lu Jie. Picking it up, she opened the letter, reading through it once more.

As was the norm for the boy, he started off with a long paragraph about the latest project that he felt excited about, before asking what she was up to. She’d asked him in her last letter why he wrote as if he was actually there talking to her, and he’d replied that he was used to things working that way. Something called messenger apps that could relay messages at an instant. Akin to sending, but with no limits on distance.

“A strange friendship, yours and his,” Zhi Zhu commented.

Liuxiang nodded, rolling up the scroll, before she put it back inside her drawer. “All the more precious because of it,” she replied to her spirit.

“So Liuxiang says. But can she keep the boy from the Eldest? One day or another, his anomalies will be in front of the world. And to the Eldest, he will be another tool to be made use of. Like us. Like Liuxiang.”

A sombre expression took over Liuxiang’s features. Not replying to Zhi Zhu, Liuxiang walked up to the mirror in her chamber. She looked at the girl staring back at him from within it, with lustrous white hair adorned with beautiful ornaments and the ornate green garments of the Shie clan.

“It is selfish of me, I will admit,” Liuxiang said, glancing down her chest. “But I do not wish to give up on the few friends I have made. And I trust Lu Jie, enough to contend with grandmother, and make use of her if she tries to do so with him.”

“A risky gamble. Divinities are beyond even us, they are immortals. Gods that roam the earth. What is to say that Eldest will not simply kill him because he represents a threat?”

“I won’t let her,” Liuxiang replied firmly. Zhi Zhu did not reply to that, and Liuxiang stood a moment longer, watching the person inside the mirror.

For a long moment, she felt as if she could barely recognise who she was anymore. The deep red eyes, the silvery-white hair. The person within the mirror wore ornate jewellery that had taken the work of five handmaidens to arrange. Her hair had been polished till it shone like glistening silk, and her clothes likely cost more than a disciple’s yearly income. She had escaped to be someone else. To be Yi Liuxiang. But this was who she had been from birth.

Yet… how come, whenever she looked inside the mirror, she saw a stranger look back?

Three sharp knocks rapped against the wooden door of her chamber. “Enter,” Liuxiang replied smoothly, turning her expression neutral and straightening her posture.

A chamber maid entered the room, bowing her head once. “The banquet awaits you, my lady.”

“Wait for me outside. I will be there in a minute,” Liuxiang said in a single breath, as the maid left.

She was a second realm cultivator. At the seventh peak, she would be treated like a respectable cultivator. But here, at the Shie manor, she was nothing more than a servant.

Despite the month-long training forcing her to remove her habit of speaking humble herself, Liuxaing still couldn’t help but feel odd at the way she was made to act, and order about the people who worked at the manor.

Putting the thoughts aside, Liuxiang took one last look at the mirror, to see if the hours of work by the handmaidens had been ruined by her own lack of care. Finding her appearance suitable, she walked outside her chamber, when the figure standing there made her stop in her tracks.

“You look quite fabulous Junior sister, that I must admit,” Shie Han said, smiling at her brilliantly. The boy was the definition of a well groomed child of the Shie clan, his smile was not too excited or uncouth, but a calm and careful expression of sincerity.

Something she knew the boy did not feel an inch about her. Not when she was about to replace him today.

“You jest, senior brother. I may very well look the part of a clown with all these ornaments,” Liuxiang replied. And she knew it to be true. The handmaidens had made sure to go overboard with her preparations, on whoever’s orders. She did not care to find it. She’d let them, before cleaning up herself of the most excessive ones. It’d solidify her image as an ignorant girl raised at the edge of the empire, making it easier for her to go behind their backs.

“No such thing, Junior sister. I do not lie or praise dishonestly,” the boy said.

“Well, then I must thank you for your words, senior brother,” Liuxaing replied with a bow. “But it would not do for me to tarry any longer. The elders are waiting.”

“Indeed. Let us proceed,” the boy said, walking ahead of her. She didn’t say anything, following behind him silently. She knew their little tricks. To walk in front of her, Shie Han would be establishing his superiority upon her. Referring to her as junior sister, among the many others things were all done for the same purpose. She was not as blind or ignorant as any of them thought her to be.

“Precisely the weapon we must use,” Zhi Zhu whispered in her mind.

Liuxiang did not nod, she did not need to. The intent was transmitted to her spirit. But the other truth of the matter was also that she could not care. These games they played here, so close to the heart of the empire, were all things done by the weak. She would not need to play any, so long as she could meet her grandmother’s expectations, they would respect her all the same.

The long halls snaked across the manor, stretching on endlessly. For a moment she wondered if Shie Han was taking advantage of her being unfamiliar with the place to make her be late for the banquet, but to her relief, they quickly arrived at the entrance to the hall.

Shie Han, as she’d expected, walked in first. Not paying it any attention, she followed behind the boy, entering the banquet. The wide hall stretched on endlessly, made wider than physically possible using great arts she could barely comprehend. Luxurious food dripping with essence lined the rows, so exquisite and rare Liuxiang felt herself absorbing wisps of essence just by being near them.

She noted the people within the banquet halls, sensing many elders, and even some experts among the people within. The entirety of the Shie clan had joined in today to celebrate the rise of their Matriarch to divinity, and the reclamation of their position within the jade court.

Making sure not to breach any of the etiquettes she’d been taught of, Liuxiang made her way through the banquet. She could feel the eyes and the Qi senses, prodding at her.

To those who had kept an ear out, they’d heard of the girl who’d returned with the Eldest. Liuxiang saw them watching her curiously from the corner of her eyes, likely waiting for her to be introduced by someone, which is how they would be able to tell her rank, and how to interact with her.

Liuxiang saw a couple of people glance at her, and give her a smile or a nod. She took note of those that did. They likely knew of who she was, if they did so, and they wanted her to know that. It’d do her well to keep in mind people perceptive and well informed enough of the happenings in their clan.

Walking through the blanket of Qi senses and auras, which thankfully most of the elders kept in check, Liuxiang retreated to a side corner. Not many would approach her, until her apparent position was made clear, though there were some children, who either did not care for such etiquettes or were low ranked enough that nearly everyone would be above them.

Liuxiang made small talk with these children, letting their blatant compliments and attempts to chalk favour with her pass her by. She knew that not all of it was a lie, yet the portions that were still ended up souring the experience.

After a while of talking, the children receded, realising that she was not very interested in talking, and neither were any of the other higher ranking clan members approaching her.

Liuxiang did not let out a sigh of relief, yet she dearly wanted to. She was grateful at the silence. The stares and glances were pointed enough to bear, not to mention the rude intrusion of Qi senses every so often.

“They will regret it once they know of your stature,” Zhi Zhu replied.

“Yet what better will I be from them, if I let my stature speak for me, instead of my actions,” Liuxiang replied, watching the people pass her by.

Zhi Zhu did not reply to her words, and the two of them returned to silence. One that was shared by the entire banquet hall all of a sudden.

It took her a moment to realise the reason for this, and she quickly felt the familiar presence of her grandmother. Having spent the past month nearly glued by her side, she’d stopped noticing just how jarring the sensation of someone else having absolute control over you was. She could see many people shifting uncomfortably under the feeling, some children even breaking down in tears.

It took a moment for Liuxiang to spot her grandmother at the further reach of the hall. Yet, despite the distance, her voice echoed clearly throughout the chamber as she spoke.

“My children, my kin. It has been nearly a century since I saw some of you. It has pained me to be away for so long, but I have returned now,” the woman announced, stepping further into the hall. “I have rejoiced to see how far some of you have come, and grieved to hear of the passing of others. Yet, today is a day of celebrations. For I have returned, reaching the heights of Divinity itself,” her grandmother spoke, as the pure white spirit rings of her soul reflected in her eyes.

As one, the entire clan bowed to the woman, rejoicing at the return of the divinity amidst their ranks. Liuxiang joined in the motion, bowing deeply.

“Raise your heads,” her great grandmother said. “We do not bow today. And we will not do so for centuries to come. The Shie have regained what had been taken from us, and we will not forget the slights we suffered when weak. But no more, we are weak no more. And the jade-court itself shall celebrate our rise.”

Excitement coursed through the hall at the words. A divinity amidst their ranks again would put Shie back in power, perhaps enough to regain their glory from their founding days.

“But that is not. I have also come to announce a kin I had sent far to study in secret. Now the time for her to return has come, as my great-granddaughter. And as my disciple,” the woman said, her eyes turning towards Liuxiang.

Within an instant, the entire hall was watching her. Hundreds of eyes rested upon Liuxiang as a myriad of expressions spread throughout the court. Keeping a tight grip on her expression, Liuxiang walked across the hall, to stand by her grandmother.

“I would like to introduce my newest disciple. Shie Liuxiang. If any object my choice then speak up now,” the eldest said, and Liuxiang looked back at the people watching her. They were eyeing her, trying to spot any sign of weakness. She would not give them any.

She did not bow, did not bend. She merely looked back, and then, with a quiet breath intake, let out a hiss.

A cold smile presented itself on her grandmother’s face.

“None have spoken, and so it is done. Now, let us celebrate,” she announced, letting go of the grip from her presence, as the banquet began in earnest.

Liuxiang stood where she had, as droves of people came by to introduce themselves, or their sons. Some, even their daughters. A fairly common sight within their clan, but one that surprised her nonetheless.

Yet, even as Liuxiang greeted and smiled and made merry with people of her own blood and kin, she couldn’t help but feel more lonely than she had felt in a long time.

She wondered what Lu Jie was up to right now.