I am a Furnace

Chapter 9: A yin-channeling furnace

By the time shixiong came up the mountain, I'd already worked myself up into a frenzy.

"You're finally here!" I leapt to my feet the moment his head peaked over the horizon. He didn't take more than a few steps before I came hurtling toward him, my eyes roving over his storage spaces. "Where is it? Did you bring the bronze mirror?"

"Hello, shidi. It's good to see you, shidi." Despite the early hour, shixiong looked well-put together. You wouldn't be able to tell that I'd buzzed his communication talisman over ten times to wake him up. Grumbling, he reached into his bag. The glint that finally appeared before my eyes invited me to snatch the mirror away, but I restrained my itching fingers.

I repeated obediently, "Hello, shixiong. It's good to see you, shixiong," and held out my hands.

With a harrumph, shixiong threw the metal mirror atop my palms. I gripped the edges tight, then ran back to the house. "Thank you!"

"Hey!" he called out. I was already at the door. "What's the rush? The way you called me, I thought you were in trouble!"

"I am in trouble!" I wailed. "Shizun said we're going to see the Sect Leader today!"

Oh, what a mess! Why didn't shizun tell me earlier?

By the time we had to go, I'd arranged my hair and clothes to a barely presentable state. Despite shizun's reassurances, I felt terribly under-dressed. This was my first time meeting the Sect Leader, after all. If I didn't present well, what would it say about my shizun?

I was right to feel nervous—as long as his books were there, shizun wouldn't notice if you changed out his house for a hut of reeds. Whenever I asked him which clothes looked better on me, he always looked blank as if he couldn't tell the difference.

But once we flew over to the Sect Leader's mountain, I saw the grandest architecture I'd seen in the sect yet rising above the clouds. While it wasn't as opulent as the demon sect, the tall buildings looked as gorgeous as palaces I saw in paintings. This was a true home for a mystical and powerful cultivator who lived among the clouds, and one that certainly had a sense of aesthetic taste.

We landed outside. I retouched my hair and outfit and made sure I looked prim and proper before following shizun into the Sect Leader's residence.

Quite a few people walked the halls of the Sect Leader's abode. Several dressed in robes much simpler than the ones worn by shixiong, and even myself. They walked hurriedly to and fro, some of them carrying objects like books, papers, and even a potted plant. These, I figured, must be the outer disciples that did all the work around the sect.

One of the people we passed was an elegant young girl whose robe style looked similar to shixiong's. Her facial features looked beautiful but a bit mean, like she could lance you with her words. She gave a bow to shizun, and when she looked up, our eyes crossed paths; she gave me an assessing look, but didn't display a particular attitude to me one way or the other.

I figured she must be one of the Sect Leader's disciples, alongside shixiong; therefore, she was my shijie. But we weren't formally introduced, so I deigned to give her a nod as I followed my shizun's footsteps.

We arrived before the Sect Leader quickly. I didn't notice the leader, at first; when we walked into the room, the raised platform that glowed from the seven swords plunged into the stone caught my eye. Fine threads of light connected together, becoming a formation, though I had no idea what purpose it might have.

While I stared at the swords, a hand touched my head. I looked up to see shizun gazing at me expectantly, and then heard someone conspicuously clearing their throat in an obvious 'look over here'.