Lianshi went on a hunt? That would explain her mollified mood. Now that the Young Miss mentioned it, Feng realised her eyes had turned a lighter shade since he saw her that morning, lessening from a dark cinder hue to rich smouldering ember — a sign of satiation.

  “Dare I ask how many of my young disciples you have left forlorn and heartbroken behind you?” Feng jested.

  Lianshi rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, my precious Fiancé. My hunts took place in the forests around the Sect, and not within the walls of your monastery. My appetite for lustful feasts is well reserved. Unlike you, I am not one to go around seducing strangers into acts of Dual Cultivation.”

  Well, not intentionally, anyway, Feng thought to himself. Lianshi’s appearance alone was enough cause for attraction. Add in her potent cultivation standing, and she became impossible to ignore.

  Should the Young Miss so desire, she could have called upon no end of male volunteers to sate her hunger within his Sect. That she chose not to do so and instead restrained her hunger to the roaming Spirit Beasts in the mountains around them…

  He supposed he should count himself fortunate. As a cultivator in the Fourth Realm — and a mere Step from her breakthrough into the Fifth, no less — Lianshi felt her hunger more acutely than that of her other Sisters, especially since the ambient qi could no longer sustain her qi reserves as efficiently as it did for lesser cultivators.

  The Clan allocated her proportionally larger meals of flesh and resources, of course. Such a thing was only proper if they wished to retain their best cultivators. Yet that too had limits, and if Lianshi was inclined to expend greater fits of qi use throughout her day — beyond that which was reasonable — there was an expectation for her to source out her meals rather than rely on hand-outs.

  Her sparring with Feng earlier in the day, combined with her… generous gift of tongue, likely taxed her stores of spiritual energy. Not enough to harm her, certainly, but enough so that her mood and inhibition would no doubt be affected.

  Did she hunt out of consideration for him? So that he would be more comfortable in her presence, seeing her hunger satiated rather than starved? The Young Master was moved by her concern.

  But a far greater part of him merely felt guilt and shame that she had to go to such lengths to accommodate his weakness and fear.

  What a worthless Fiancé he was. In almost every way, he was inadequate to stand beside her, much less so in marriage.

  How much wider would the gap be after their union? Her growth was hardly going to stop. At the rate of her advancement, she would soon surpass even her Matriarch. Lianshi would then have to venture into the Inner Province to continue her cultivation. Otherwise, the weak ambient qi in their region would not only stifle her growth, but actively harm it.

  When that day comes, would he still be stuck within the Third Realm? He would not be able to follow her with such meddling strength. The people of the Inner Province were already stigmatised against all those from the Outer Province. At least Lianshi had her prodigious strength to pave the way. He would have nothing.

  Feng’s connection and title as Young Master would mean almost nothing in a place where the average Sect cultivator flourishes within the Fourth Realm at his age, and where Immortals rule as Patriarchs and Clan Heads.

  What would happen to them, then?

  He would be left behind. And she would be alone, her marriage to him a stone around her neck, chaining her to inadequacy. He could not even love her as she hoped, to compensate for his deficiencies.

  The Young Master pushed such thoughts out of his mind. These concerns about the future already plagued him for enough sleepless nights. The problems of the present were more pressing and of a more malleable nature for him to tackle besides.

  So, Lianshi went on a hunt, which meant she had skipped out on the meeting between the Sect Elders. And by doing so, she abandoned her duties as Clan Heiress.

  Again.

  When the Young Miss saw Feng’s disapproving look, Lianshi sighed and lightly poked his bare chest. “Oh, don’t give me that look. I went to the meeting. But it ended early, and I was peckish. There’s nothing wrong with me going after a few Spirit Beasts after fulfilling my obligations, is there? The Yang flesh of the creatures around here fits my palate rather well. It would be a shame not to indulge when I am here.”

  Unlike the Spirit Beasts of the Phoenix Mountain, the creatures of the Fang Mountain — the place where the Split-Headed Carnivores called home — boast several unfortunate properties that heavily reflect their sparse glacial environment well: lean, vicious, and utterly saturated in rich Yin qi, rather than the vital Yang component that the female disciples desperately needed.

  Disciples of the Split-headed Carnivores must thus hunt wide and far for even the barest morsel of Spirit flesh, and even then, the Yin-steeped meat of the mountain’s denizens ill-suits their dietary needs. What they required most for their cultivation was Yang flesh, a resource that was woefully scarce within those frosty mountaintops.

  Such was not the case within the Phoenix Mountain, however. Here, Yang qi was in abundance, with a bounty of wild game and plenty of fiery Spirit Beasts to hunt. Ever since the alliance between the Beheaded Phoenix Sect and the Split-headed Carnivores Sect was announced, the female disciples of the Fang Mountain had been flocking to the Phoenix Mountain with each diplomatic trip.

  Most were Core Disciples, whose strength allowed them to forcefully claim a space within the delegation, and though their forays were only ever limited by the duration of their stay, these insatiable huntresses always left the mountain’s inhabitants terrorised for a time. Countless Spirit Beasts had their populations thinned, and many poor male cultivators ended up traumatised after foolishly choosing to spend a night with the exotic foreign disciples.

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  Lianshi herself contributed greatly to the issue, though her appetites were always directed more towards the hunting of monsters than men. The viciousness of her hunts stemmed in part from a concern for her starving Sect Juniors back home. Her kills contribute to the stockpiling of vital meat supplies to be ferried back to her Sect, and the prodigy always exclusively went after the largest and most dangerous of prey, reaping only the richest and most bountiful of Yang Spirit flesh.

  The Beheaded Phoenix Sect saw no need to temper the foreign disciples’ enthusiastic expeditions. The Split-headed Carnivores’ hunts were an overall positive influence on the residents of the Phoenix Mountain, trauma notwithstanding. Given the Core Disciple’s ludicrous strength and selective hunger, their culling of the more perilous beasts made the mountain significantly safer not just for mortal villagers, but for the Beheaded Phoenix Sect cultivators as well.

  On top of that, the disciples always made sure to bring back a fair amount of precious Spirit Beasts components for the Sect’s Apothecary, partially as ‘toll payments’ for using the Sect’s hunting ground, but also as a sly way to bolster their standing in the Sect. This great boon had endeared them to the local Pill Makers, especially the Apothecracy Elder, as their contribution always included some of the rarest and most sought-after monster ingredients.

  There was nothing unusual with Lianshi going on a hunt in her spare time. However…

  “The meeting ended early?” Feng asked sceptically. “The one where our Elders from differing Sects would gather and argue endlessly over which Clan gets certain resources or territorial rights over our union?”

  If there was one thing the Sect Elders could be relied on to do, it was to bicker endlessly over the slightest bit of personal gain and prestige. For an affair as big and unprecedented as the head Clans of two differing Sects joining, the lot of them would be particularly salivating to pick even the tiniest morsel from the agreements. An opportunity like this might not come again in decades.

  It was why the binding accords were endlessly argued over, despite the two’s engagement being arranged so many years ago. Lianshi's unprecedented and unexpected growth had a large part to play in it; the value of her hand hadn’t so much as grown as it had shattered the marriage bell curve entirely. The Beheaded Phoenix Sect was trying its hardest to hang on to the initial agreement, while the Split-headed Carnivores Sect was pushing to get more out of it.

  Neither of them was entirely in the wrong; the provisional accords signed by both parties years ago were legally binding, which meant the Beheaded Phoenix Sect had the right to refuse any last-minute changes. But since Lianshi’s worth had shot up so much, to keep to the original agreements would be massively short-changing the Split-headed Carnivores Sect, which could be argued to be seen in bad faith, especially since the Clans were trying to establish a lasting working relationship.

  “Alright, fine. So maybe I did sneak out halfway through,” she admitted, pouting. The familiar, childlike expression made Feng laugh. For all her advancement and intimidating beauty, it was strange to internalise that the prodigy before him was a blossoming youth merely half a year younger than him, and not a wise and accomplished cultivator decades older.

  “To think the Young Miss’s vaulted patience would be so easily defeated,” Feng chuckled. “I would have thought a huntress of your calibre built of sterner mental fortitude.”

  “It was just so boring!” Lianshi complained. “It’s always the same nonsense: trading agreements, hunting rights, territorial disputes, serfs allocation… It never ends! They would be arguing about this until our wedding day. From the way the Elders act, you would think it was their marriage they were fighting over, and not ours…”

  She was not wrong.

  And yet, for all her grumbling, Lianshi understood that, in a way, their union was an arrangement that belonged far more to their Sects, rather than just themselves. The occasion was simply that important, that unprecedented.

  As much as Lianshi might wish for the wedding to revolve simply around themselves alone, the scions’ positions and significance simply would not allow for such luxury.

  Unless it mattered the nature of cultivation, the duty to one’s Sect and Clan should always come first before personal pursuits. It applied to every disciple and Elder, and should apply doubly to those aspiring to be a proper Clan Heir.

  “Our duties may hold no end, but that doesn’t give us the right to abandon them,” Feng said.

  Lianshi scowled. “You are hardly in a position to lecture me about derelictions in duty after I caught you canoodling with one of my handmaidens, dear Fiancé. I bet you haven’t even met up properly with Elder Jun yet.”

  Feng flinched. She was entirely right, and by her triumphant smile, she knew it. Feng dipped his head in acknowledgement.

  “This lowly one takes back his thoughtless words and sincerely apologises to the Young Miss.”

  “Hmph. Be thankful that I am a magnanimous woman. You will still have to earn your forgiveness, but I will keep your punishment light.”

  The two of them shared a smile before laughing. Despite everything, it gladdens him to know they could still banter like they used to. Marriage or not, Lianshi was someone he wanted in his life. They had grown too close for him not to want that.

  This marriage will work. He already cared so much for her; surely Lianshi was someone he could grow to fall for, in time. Even if…

  Fourth Realm, Ninth Step. If she chose to devour him, would he even be able to put up an ounce of resistance?

  He did not want to think of what would happen if he could not love her.

  The Eternal Banquet, Part 2

  The Eternal Banquet is the ultimate representation of power and His Majesty's dominance over all other lifeforms, for no other Immortal had ever come close to manifesting a Domain as potent or widespread as his. The only possible entity of comparison would be the Divine Ruler of the Celestial Gods — the ancient Jade King themselves. With their tyrannical Domain of the Jade Clouds still present even centuries after their death, the Celestial Tyrant continues to oppress the people of Qiangyu today. Such strength cannot be denied, and the Clouds serve as a bleak reminder of the heavenly might that once held back Mankind’s advancement.

  However, with the King’s demise at our Emperor’s hand, His Majesty has proven himself the superior ruler. Now, no God or mortal may claim primacy over his title as Strongest. And with the Eternal Banquet, none can deny the breadth of his love and generosity.

  His gift of Hunger is His greatest legacy; a boon more valuable than gold or freedom. For the fate of our soul now lies in our hands, and Humanity might yet reach true ascendancy should we devour enough flesh.

  Though the quest for an Ascendant Humanity may well take an eternity, with His Majesty’s Domain alive and our Hungers given purpose, it will one day come. He is the Avatar of Progress and Liberty, and with his loving care, all shall know spiritual salvation.

  Humanity must strive ever forward for the day when all are Immortal.

  And for those who cannot do so despite the Emperor’s generosity… They would be better served as sustenance for those who prove themselves worthy.

  — Excerpt from To Those Worthy of the Eternal Banquet