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  “Do not let the comely appearance of those foreign disciples fool you, Juniors! Beneath the alluring veneer of their jade-white skin and midnight hair, lies a monster far beyond your worst nightmares!”

  — The well-meaning, but ultimately ignored advice of a disciple who knows better

  Lingyu charged forth, her legs kicking off with enough force that the ground erupted from beneath her feet. A flurry of slashes and jabs was sent his way as her fingers hardened into blackened tips. Feng weaved in and away from her blows, his swiftness matching hers even as Lingyu’s movement sped up.

  An amalgamated fusion of chitinous armour and reptilian scales formed across her body, replacing the smooth paleness of her flesh with a horrific growth of keratinised black plates and bony spines. The combination of dermal scutes and the overlapping layers of exoskeletal shells was the hallmark of the Split-headed Carnivores' reputed transformation technique.

  Lightness, protection, and ferocity — all rolled into a singular, predatory frame.

  Lingyu’s qi flared. Her speed and dexterity increased to nearly twice her original capabilities. The amber pools of her serpent eyes darkened as her assault ramped up in ferocity. The cuts and lunges were now accompanied by trailing streams of vacuum, extending the reach of each strike and making their range deceptively longer to the untrained eye. Claw marks and pocket holes soon littered the ground where Feng stood as he continued dodging her attacks.

  An onlooker to their match might think Lingyu to be horribly outmatched, and that Feng was simply entertaining her with barely an ounce of effort. Disregarding the absurd difference in cultivation status, Feng held a clear physical advantage in height, size, and reach — the natural consequence of his more mature age and build. Add in the consideration of how he was able to deftly avoid every single one of Lingyu’s attacks thus far with apparent ease, his superiority in the duel should be obvious to see.

  Yet that could not be further from the truth. The Young Master had suffered enough blows from his Fiancée to know not to underestimate the disciples of the Split-headed Carnivores.

  Just as he appeared to be comfortable with the patterns of Lingyu’s attack, the Young Miss executed her trap. She suddenly shifted to a low stance and swept for his ankles, forcing him to jump to avoid the blow. In the mid-second his feet left the earth, Lingyu twisted and fired off a brutal left kick his way, followed by her third surprise follow-up as an enormous tail burst from the ground on his right and swung at him.

  [Arts of the Split-headed Carnivores — Severed Form Predation]

  Caught off-guard in the air, Feng had few ways of defending himself. Even if he somehow manoeuvred his body to block one of the attacks, the two-prong assault ensured at least one of the blows would land. It was a rather devious move.

  It was also an exceedingly familiar one. Feng couldn’t help but smile a little at the display. Just like her sister.

  [Fiery Comet Step]

  Using his Sect’s signature movement technique while suspended was a difficult feat that even Core Disciples struggled to pull off, but Feng had enough practice. His form blazed between Lingyu’s two attacks, appearing right beside her.

  The girl barely had time to react before his flaming fists hammered down upon her outstretched left leg, shattering bone and dislocating the lower limb from its kneecaps in a spray of blood.

  To the Young Miss’s credit, she barely even grimaced before spinning away on her remaining leg, even unleashing a torrent of swipes as she did so to prevent Feng from following up on his attack. Having created some distance, she glanced at her mangled limb, detachedly noting the exposed bone and the flickers of embers that ate away at her torn muscles. She scoffed.

  “You held back,” she accused. Feng shrugged.

  “Not as much as you think, and not because I thought you were weak, Lingyu.”

  If he had placed more force in the blow, his fist would have cleaved straight through her leg. Although that would have left her at a disadvantage, his own arm would have been overextended, giving her a chance to strike decisively at his flank during that brief moment of vulnerability. Given their close proximity, Feng had opted for a strategy of caution and settled for merely incapacitating her.

  For a few minutes, at least. Her shattered bone and torn flesh were already trying to mend themselves back together. A series of black spikes and plates moulded a cast around her wounded leg, giving Lingyu some immediate semblance of her previous mobility.

  The Young Miss shook her head. “Lianshi was right. You are rather timid in a fight, aren’t you?”

  “If we are to taunt each other, you must try better than that, younger Young Miss.”

  “Tch.” Lingyu's form erratically twitched for a moment, before the same massive tail that attacked him earlier erupted violently from her body. The reformed limb burst forth from her lower back, her flesh splitting open to birth the wiggling appendage.

  The tail was composed of thick knots of sickly-green muscles, wrapped in a black skeletal frame with the entire two-metre length of it covered in a viscous layer of serous fluids. Attached to Lingyu’s dorsal spine, the tip of the tail swayed above the girl’s head menacingly, dwarfing the Young Miss's diminutive size as it was poised to strike.

  Feng evaluated the new threat. The tail's sheer weight and formidable heft made it function like an oversized cudgel. A single, well-placed strike would be more than enough to injure him, even though he stood an entire Realm higher in cultivation than Lingyu.

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  Additionally, despite their cumbersome appearance, Feng knew from experience that the mutant limbs of the Split-headed Carnivores were surprisingly fast and agile. The frequent competitive duels between disciples of the Split-headed Carnivores and the Beheaded Phoenix Sects, combined with his regular spars with Lianshi, gave him considerable insight into the workings of their transformation techniques. More than once, he had witnessed his Sect Disciples caught off guard by an unexpected bludgeoning strike when the mutant appendages whipped at them from unseen angles.

  The Split-headed Carnivores' preference for deceptive strikes and decisive ambushes was well-known.

  As if to illustrate his thought, Lingyu took the initiative once more, weaving misdirection in her attacks as if it were second nature. Rather than charging forth on a broken limb, she used her remaining good leg to spear itself into the reinforced ground before kicking violently upwards, sending a chunk of debris flying directly at his face. Feng dodged the improvised projectile, only to be forced to block a blow from the enormous tail that had swung in from his blind side.

  The attack pushed him back a fair distance, his feet digging trenches into the ground as he struggled to halt his momentum. There was barely a moment to reorient himself before Lingyu had already closed the distance between them, resuming her furious assault.

  The Split-headed Carnivore Sect’s fighting style was a transient powerhouse. Whether it be from their martial arts training or their usage of the alien appendages that result from their Sect technique, the foreign Disciples tend to favour the vigorous use of multiple-prong assaults and hidden angles of attacks, burning qi rapidly to overwhelm and destroy their opponents.

  The reason for this lay within their Sect technique. While the other Sects usually boast a variety of different combat approaches — utilising a wide array of movement or offensive skills — the Split-headed Carnivore technically only had one: transformations upon transformations. A crippling weakness in its lack of diversity, no doubt.

  Or so it would seem. To those who prove themselves adaptable, transformation alone would be enough to see them triumph against versatility.

  [Severed Form Predation; Reversion]

  Lingyu’s tail self-destructed in a gore of flesh and blood right as Feng moved to block a perceived swing from the appendage, showering his vision in a viscous spray of thick fluids. The move caught him off guard, and he barely noticed in time as Lingyu came in from a blind lower angle. The Young Master tilted his head back, narrowly dodging a piercing needle that would have seen his lower jaw impaled. The black stringer that protruded from Lingyu’s wrist reeked of venom and was positively drenched in the poisonous bile.

  Feng’s hand lashed out, grabbing her outstretched arm and trapping her in place before she could retreat from her failed ambush. He crushed the stinger in his grip with contemptuous ease, snapping her wrist back until a bloody broken bone tore free from her flesh.

  From the books and scrolls Feng had studied during his lessons, transformation techniques were a rather rare breed of Sect Arts. Even in the Inner or Core Provinces, they were an uncommon sight. There was a slight stigma against them, as cultivators often ended up with grotesque and horrific appearances once the transformation was complete.

  But it was only a slight stigma, and one that mostly affected mortals and lesser cultivators. Any Disciple of worth would understand that cultivation is not always an elegant and beautiful thing. And that, sometimes, there was a great strength to be found in embracing hideousness and monstrous appearances.

  But that did not mean there were no weaknesses and vulnerabilities to exploit in adopting such techniques.

  Lingyu’s breath was heavy as she swung an armoured elbow at Feng’s ribs, her movements slower than before while her qi pulsed erratically. The Young Master easily shifted back to avoid the blow before driving his knee right into the Young Miss’s unguarded stomach. Though the chitinous armour held firm, the strike still severely disrupted her breathing.

  The Young Miss doubled over as her qi became even more unbalanced. Before she had a chance to recover, Feng drew his arm back and unleashed a devastating backfist strike against the side of her head. The flame-wreathed hand exploded against her face. This time, there was no holding back the screams of pain as her skin ignited and her hair was set alight.

  The weight of guilt reared back its ugly head in the Young Master’s Heart, but he forced it back down. There was no need for it, not here. Lingyu was not so weak to require pity from him, and to do so was an insult to everything she stood for. The girl defiantly raised her head, serpent-like eyes flashing with anger even as the flames licked at her porcelain features.

  She opened her mouth. A prehensile tongue shot out from her open jaw, showing a secondary, grotesque mouth coiled at its tip. Lined with rows of serrated teeth, the slithering appendage flew for his eyes, shrieking in fury. Smiling proudly, Feng tilted his face so that the tongue missed and landed on his cheeks instead. Its tiny teeth bit down ineffectively against his hardened skin.

  “Good! A true cultivator does not give up, even in impossible odds!”

  The side of his searing hand sliced away the offending organ, before chopping down against her shoulder blade. The blazing knife-hand buried itself all the way past her collarbone before he halted it. Blood hissed and poured from her wound, and Lingyu had to bite her lips to hold back her screams.

  “But a better cultivator knows when to surrender, especially when the only price for doing so is pride.” Feng looked meaningfully into Lingyu’s eyes, the golden pools still raging in impotent fury. “Do you yield?”

  The Young Miss held his stare for a few seconds. Her face was pale, slicked with sweat and blood, but her gaze remained defiant. For a moment, Feng was reminded of Lianshi, and he feared the girl’s stubbornness would see her further wounded as the duel dragged on in the name of perceived slights.

  To his great relief, however, she finally broke off her glare and sighed, the black plates around her body withering away into dust as her qi rescinded. “I yield.”

  Qi Balance

  Within a cultivator’s body lies a Spiritual System, composed of refined qi, meridians, and the three Dantian. This delicate framework thrives on balance, ensuring a smooth flow of qi and a harmonious composition of Spiritual Energy throughout the body.

  However, when techniques are executed, qi is drawn from the reserves within the Dantian, causing it to overflow into the meridians. This excessive energy is then expelled as fuel for the cultivator's techniques, creating an inherent but temporary imbalance within the body. While this deviation can be quickly corrected through the natural cycling and breathing of qi, a rapid succession of techniques can outpace the body’s ability to harmonise itself.

  As instability builds, the cultivator risks a temporary collapse of their Spiritual System. In this vulnerable state, the natural qi barrier surrounding their body and Dantian is weakened. Their defences become shattered, but more importantly, they are unable to execute any techniques until they regain their spiritual balance (or at least, not without grievously injuring themselves).

  Thus, in battle, a cultivator must carefully monitor not only their available qi reserves, but also their current level of qi instability. A rapid barrage of qi-intensive techniques might swiftly incapacitate an opponent, but if gravely miscalculated, it would cause the disciple to become critically exposed at the worst possible moment.

  – Excerpt from To Those Worthy of the Eternal Banquet