~~~

  Lingyu watched Hei Feng’s back as he left, cheeks flushing as she secretly hoped he would give her one last glance before leaving the alcove.

  He didn’t, of course; the Young Master remained as oblivious as ever.

  The Young Miss sighed, taking another sip of her elixir to comfort herself. She was not so naive as to believe that he understood the true meaning of her words in their exchange. Even now, after spending so many years meeting with his Fiancée, Feng still could not see the depths of her sister’s affection for him. The fool was so thoroughly convinced of his lack of worth that he had already decided that the only reason Lianshi still kept to their upcoming arranged nuptial was merely because of Sect politics.

  It was stupid. As if someone like Lianshi would ever submit to something as banal as Sect politics if the arrangement ill-suited her liking. That woman held a cultivator’s deranged selfishness far closer to her heart than her carefree persona would lead a person to believe.

  But Lingyu knew that she was hardly any better either. The things she made him speak aloud earlier… Though he said the right words, he clearly meant them in a different light than what she wanted to hear. Even so…

  It was not wrong for a cultivator to be greedy, was it?

  “Ho, how forlornly and fondly you stare after him, Young Miss.” A familiar voice called out. “What would your disciples think, that you would gaze upon a promised man with such lovesickness and longing?”

  Against her will, Lingyu's cheeks flushed even deeper. Dammit, this was the exact opposite of how she wanted to behave! The calm, stoic persona she had painstakingly crafted to distinguish herself from her older sister began to crumble as she protested.

  “That—! That wasn’t what it looked like, Senior Sister Shao!”

  The female Core Disciple grinned widely at Lingyu’s flustered state. Shao snaked over to the Young Miss’s side, her movements filled with slender grace and predatory intent as she leaned down to Lingyu’s eye level.

  “I had not expected such boldness from you… Trying to make the Young Master vow to take you as his bride when your sister has already laid the first claim to him? It is positively… salacious…”

  “I, I…” Lingyu could only stutter. The older cultivator's gaze was entrancing — their irises shimmering like polished violet stones — but the excited, reptilian slant of the Senior’s eyes revealed only the promise of relentless mischief.

  “Though your hunger is commendable, I do question your palate, my little Mistress.” Shao’s chuckles were a deep, seductive purr. “That Young Master you chose seems a little too thick-headed to be good for your first tasting. But who am I to judge? I yearn to savour Phoenix flesh as well, although I dare say my sights are aimed at loftier heights than yours…”

  Lingyu’s face felt like it was on fire. No, scratch that. It had been on fire moments ago, and now that sensation felt inadequate to convey the depth of her mortification.

  “I would also advise the Young Miss not to start dabbling in the Dual Cultivation arts as I have until she grows older,” Shao continued, evidently enjoying her teasing as her finger tapped lightly upon Lingyu’s nose. “Such things are best not to be attempted early, lest your lack of years mires the first experience. The exchange of one’s flesh is a sacred practice not to be lightly taken, and yours has yet to ripen.”

  “D-d-dual Cultivation?!” Lingyu squeaked, ready to protest with all her indignation — until she realised what Shao was implying. “Wait, ‘as you have’? Does that mean… Earlier, when you were missing… and then you showed up with that Core Disciple, Brother Dai! The two of you were—!”

  Another voice interjected before she could finish.

  “Do not mind her lies, My Lady. Sister Shao’s venomous words are just the petty talk of a spurned woman. For all her posturing, the blade wounds she is hiding beneath her robes tell a far different story.”

  Senior Sister Jin stepped in, her hands full of medical supplies that she had pouched from the nearby Apothecary station. The stormy frown on her beautiful face spoke volumes of her disapproval.

  Sister Shao, however, was unfazed.

  “Ho, your tongue is certainly bold, Junior Jin. Perhaps I should teach a lesson and take it from you? I dare say you might even enjoy it.” Shao lazily yawned, pink lips parting sensuously before she lolled out her tongue. The soft, serpentine length of it wiggled at Sister Jin in a provocatively obscene manner.

  A passing young acolyte dropped his supplies — struck utterly spellbound by the licentious display — until a nearby older disciple approached and slapped the back of the youth's head with an exasperated sigh, shepherding the boy away.

  Shao grinned, satisfied at the mess she had caused. “So what say you, Jin? Be a good Junior and part your lips for me. I do need a snack after my vigorous session with Dai.”

  “You mean when he smacked you around like the wild bitch in heat that you are?” Jin’s voice was similarly unintimidated by Shao’s threats. “I can sense your unstable qi, ‘Senior’ Sister. Given how Brother Dai is still fighting the other disciples above with nary a wound in sight, I would say you came out far worse for wear in that ‘dalliance’ you forced upon him, probably after he rejected your advances. Again.”

  Rather than appear insulted, Shao instead laughed. Her sinuous body pressed against Lingyu as she hugged her arms around the Young Miss. Jin’s eyes flashed warningly at the older disciple’s actions, who simply grinned in return as she playfully cuddled against the girl.

  “Is that what you think, Junior? I see your experience with men is lacking. Allow your betters to educate you,” Shao taunted. “That virtuous idiot up there is just releasing some pent-up stress, courtesy of our little dance. I had him all riled and ready — I even allowed the stubborn man to land a few hits on me to ease him into the mood — yet after all that, he still refused to lead us into the climax…”

  With Sister Shao so close, even Lingyu’s burgeoning qi senses could sense the injuries harboured by the disciple’s soul.

  “Senior Sister Shao, these wounds are not light!” The Young Miss exclaimed. “What did Brother Dai do to you?!”

  Shao waved her hands nonchalantly, before patting the top of Lingyu’s head affectionately. “Young Miss, you need not worry about me. Such injuries are nothing but the tender bruises that emerge naturally between passionate lovers. You will understand when you grow older, and after you bring your first playmate to bed.” The disciple pressed her cheek against the Young Miss’s, like an adoring cat, as she whispered in her ear. “Us Split-headed Carnivores have a tendency to let our appetites take us over in the heat of passion.”

  “Do not poison the Young Miss’s head with such talk, Sister Shao. Not all of us are as rabid or perverse as you.” The Junior Sister kicked against Sister Shao’s back, sending her flying off Lingyu. The older disciple hissed out curses as Jin knelt upon the now-empty spot next to the Young Miss, before meticulously laying out her medical supplies: Cooling Body Gel, qi pills, and the other basic medicine of the Beheaded Phoenix Sect. “You would do well to focus more on your duties than sating that deviant lust of yours.”

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  Shao snorted, not even bothering to get off the ground where Sister Jin kicked her to as she spread her limbs and stared upwards. The high ceiling of the sparring halls was doused in a sea of flames, though that was of little worry as they were contained by the building’s talismans. “As if you have not indulged in a bit of ‘perversity’ yourself, Jin. Don’t think for a moment I have somehow missed your ‘nightly excursions’, Junior Sister. Or how so many of the Core Disciples in this Sect seemed to have more energy to spare lately.”

  To Sister Jin’s credit, she did not immediately protest, but the slight reddening of her cheek revealed enough. “I have needs, the same as all our sisters. There is nothing wrong with satiating them a little when the rare opportunity arises. Or am I to cloister myself, then?”

  “You went far further than just a ‘little’, Junior. I’m pretty sure you have taken a bite out of nearly every single Core Disciple in the Sect by now — an impressive feat, considering we have been here for all of one night. Barring mine, of course.” Sister Shao’s eyes narrowed dangerously, their shades of violet darkening into black pits. “Or at least, for your sake, you better not have.”

  “Both of you, please!” Lingyu hurriedly moved between them, immediately drawing the attention of the pair. “I understand the two of you do not like each other, but there’s no reason to behave like this! We are all part of the same Sect, are we not?”

  The female Core Disciples looked at her for a moment. Several heartbeats passed, before Jin turned to Shao. “I forgot how young she is, sometimes.”

  “True,” Shao nodded. “It does feel rather strange to have someone stop us rather than edge us on.”

  “I… What?” Lingyu was completely lost.

  “Young Miss, such posturing is common amongst the elder sisters of the Split-headed Carnivores Sect,” Shao explained as she sat up. The twinkle in her eyes was gone. “Bragging about our conquests helps alleviate the tension between Core Disciples, especially since there is barely enough man-flesh at the Sect’s meat farms to sate all our appetites.”

  “Insults and provocations are not unexpected. In tiring times, they are even welcomed,” Jin told the bewildered Lingyu. “The habit keeps us from devolving into fist-bearing barbarians like these Beheaded Phoenix’s Disciples, who require the flow and spillage of blood to keep their hunger in check.”

  “Not that we are much better when our hunger takes hold, of course,” Shao grimly laughed. “You are too young to remember the Nights of Famine, Young Miss. In the days before our alliance with the Beheaded Phoenix Sect, the ravenous hunger of the Yin-seeped Carnivores during the long winters ran deep indeed…”

  Lingyu shivered. She had heard the stories, of course. In the days of winter — when the nights were long and cold; when sunlight and pilgrim flesh grew scarce — the Sect would seal its doors to trap its disciples in for the safety of the mortals on the mountain.

  Deprived of Yang qi, the maddened Senior Sisters of the Sect took to hunting their Juniors in a vain attempt to sate their excruciating Hunger. Giant abominations stalked the monastery grounds under pale moonlight, gouging themselves fruitlessly upon the Yin flesh of maidens, uncaring of their tear-stained pleas or screams. Their home was turned into a prison, where the weak were hunted and devoured, as the Sect awaited the next batch of male pilgrims from the meat farms to tide them over to Spring.

  “It makes these delegation journeys all the more important to our Sect, Young Miss,” Sister Jin explained hurriedly, likely as an attempt to rid their Young Miss of such morbid thoughts. “The men of the Beheaded Phoenix Sect have much to offer us. The potency of their Yang flesh quells our Hunger exceedingly well. It also serves as a wondrous cultivation aid.”

  “The offer of sex also makes the process marginally less horrific for them,” Sister Shao helpfully added. “There’s a reason why our Divine Corpse Patron uses Yin qi to make all its followers so attractive, Young Miss. Few things could drive a man foolish enough to part with their flesh, but it appears a jade-white complexion and a beckoning proposal to bed would suffice. Even cultivation could not quell a man’s lust, it seems.”

  Lingyu wanted to argue against that point, but she had been part of the delegation enough times to know that there would always be men willing to throw their lives away for a chance to bed a female disciple of the Split-headed Carnivores.

  Admittedly, those of the Beheaded Phoenix Sect stood a better chance of surviving the experience than any other men in the Province — given their most famed Divine Art — but the… intercourse's detrimental after-effects on their mental state meant that there were fewer and fewer enthusiastic volunteers as the years passed.

  Case in point…

  “You speak of offering as if you did such a thing, Shao,” Jin criticised. “Much as you chastise me, at least I made sure my willing partners came away from the experience satisfied in both body and cultivation. The ones you took not only turned out worse for wear, but most of them could barely look at one of us now without going catatonic.”

  Sister Shao simply shrugged. “I gave them the choice. It's hardly my fault they were still dumb enough to follow me into bed. Would you rather I waste their consent, or make full use of it?”

  “You still went too far!”

  “Perhaps I simply seek to emulate the voraciousness of our other Young Miss, then.” Lingyu’s breath hitched, but the disciple simply carried on. “With the way our Young Heiress looks at the Young Master of the Beheaded Phoenix Sect, I will be surprised if there’s anything left of the boy for our little Lingyu here to sample in a few years' time…”

  “Shao!” Sister Jin rebuked. “Do not speak of such things! You insult our Lady and our host with your careless words!”

  “Ha! As if half the cultivators on this mountain aren’t already mentally preparing themselves for the Young Lord’s funeral. Lady Lianshi is going to devour him alive on their wedding night. Honestly, what is it about the boy that makes our Mistress look at him like that? Her Hunger is simply vulgar at this point. With her cultivation, it’s not as if she’s hurting for better options. Even Patriarch Shang might not be beyond her reach…”

  The two bickered on and on. Lingyu kept her silence. Of course, none of them would understand. They had never partaken of Feng’s flesh before, after all.

  Not like Lingyu and her sister had, years ago.

  The Young Miss looked down at her hands, which still clutched the severed prehensile tongue she used to attack the Young Master in their duel earlier. She pried open its mouth.

  Stuck within its grasping serrated teeth, Lingyu saw the smallest, most insignificant drop of crimson blood. His blood.

  Carefully, reverently, she brought the sanguine dew to her shaking lips, savouring the divine flavour that had long been seared into her soul ever since she took that first bite of him in their childhood years.

  The moment the blood touched her tongue, her mind went blank. The mere taste of it…

  Like twilight on her lips. Like lightning in a storm. It was ecstasy and tears and infernal heat engulfing her whole. Stretched amidst that one, singular moment…

  And all too soon, it was gone. The Young Miss was left haunted by the memory…

  Yearning for more.

  It mattered not that the Young Master already belonged to her sister. Had Lingyu the chance, she would not hesitate to devour Feng’s heart and bind his flesh with hers forever.

  Yin Hunger

  Yin Hunger is an affliction suffered by cultivators who steeped themselves too deeply into Yin-focused cultivation without a suitable Yang counterpart to balance themselves. This often occurs to female cultivators who practice Yin martial arts or study within a Yin-based Sect. Their natural Yin-affinity feminine bodies, combined with their practice of Yin-aligned Divine Arts, make them doubly dependent on an external Yang source to stabilise them.

  The Sun usually serves as an adequate source of Yang energy, but in times of winter — when sunlight wanes and flesh grows scarce — it is not uncommon for such disciples to experience the phenomena known as Yin Hunger. A deep-seated yearning takes root within the cultivator, one that no amount of Spirit meat or wine may sate. Their qi reserves and balance remain perfectly fine; rather, the Hunger originates as an issue of the mind.

  The effects seem to grow worse the stronger a cultivator is. Past a certain level of advancement, no amount of self-control or meditative practices could prevent the cultivator from descending into a famished-fuelled rampage, perpetually in search of Yang flesh to satiate their ceaseless voracity.

  – Excerpt from To Those Worthy of the Eternal Banquet