Chapter Three: The Master

In the fourteenth year of the Qingying era of the Great Yu, a desolate autumn wind swept through the gates of the Yintai Temple. That was the year the Princess of Xiang gave birth to Yin Tingxue. Nearly seventeen years later, Chen Yi stood facing that very same gust of autumn wind.

Flickering embers drifted through the temple entrance like fleeting flowers from a sutra, blurring the serene face of the Bodhisattva. Yin Tingxue panted heavily. Chen Yi watched her, his heart filled with a complex mixture of hatred and pity.

A flash of disgust crossed the young girl’s eyes. This was the man who had appeared in her dreams; this time, however, he had not shattered her Bridge of Longevity, but instead forced her to become his concubine. At the thought of this, Yin Tingxue gritted her teeth. *If there is a tomorrow... I will pay you back in full!*

After a long moment, she spoke first, her voice strained:
"You... you wanted a wedding night, didn't you? Then come."
Her expression was one of desperate resolve.

Chen Yi snapped back to reality and gave a cold laugh, clearly unimpressed by her defiance. If anything, her defiance only made it more exciting.
"Little Saintess, why would you think I am so desperate for a wedding night?" Chen Yi countered. "As a centurion of the Western Depot, would I ever be short of women?"

Yin Tingxue felt a chill crawl up her spine at these words. Chen Yi reached out, winding a stray lock of hair that had fallen against her cheek around his finger.
"Why should I be in such a rush to enjoy you? You are already my concubine, after all."

Hearing this, Yin Tingxue shivered. She finally understood that what this man sought was not merely physical beauty, but humiliation.
"No, you cannot do this! I am the daughter of the Prince of Xiang, of the lineage of Emperor Xiaozong, the Sacred, Divine, Civil, Martial, Respectful, Brilliant, Heaven-Sent, Virtuous, and Filial Emperor..." She clutched at the name of the late emperor like a drowning soul grasping at a straw.

A smile spread across Chen Yi’s face. Yin Tingxue felt a surge of unease.
"Then go ahead, beat the drum of appeal. Let’s see whether my head rolls or if the entire Prince of Xiang’s estate is wiped out." Chen Yi grabbed her hand, goading her. "Go on, go on, pure Saintess. You know the way, don't you? Or do you need me to show you?"

Yin Tingxue’s pupils contracted in terror. Chen Yi had once again laid bare the cruel reality: she had no choice. No matter how much he provoked her, she dared not move or leave, her neck slick with cold sweat.

[Negative Emotion: 70]

Looking at Chen Yi, she was filled with such profound fear that she could not utter a word. Chen Yi patted his enemy’s cheek with a playful smile. Yin Tingxue felt the sting of the humiliation, yet she could only stand frozen.

Chen Yi pulled something from his robe—an inkpad and a maid’s contract for an eight-year term. He observed the girl’s terrified, despairing expression.
"You know what to do."

She was a stubborn woman. When he told her she had no choice, she had retaliated by burning three thousand taels of silver notes without hesitation. Yet, beneath that stubborn exterior lay a profound fragility. Trembling, Yin Tingxue raised her hand, pressed it into the ink, and stamped the yellowed contract.
"I... am yours."

Compared to her earlier defiance, her voice sounded hollow with despair.

"And?" Chen Yi’s lips curled as he looked at her. "That is not enough. Are you still going to call me by my name?"

[Negative Emotion: 75]

"And then..." Yin Tingxue’s eyes turned bloodshot, her ears burning hot, but she could only lower her head. She struggled, forcing herself to spit out two words:
"Master..."

[Negative Emotion: 80]

[Conditions met. The Grudge Yin-Yang Art triggered.]
[You have confronted your enemy. In the process, your heart has rippled with both hatred and pity; combined with her negative emotions toward you, your cultivation has increased.]
[First activation of the technique: +7 years of True Qi. Yin Tingxue's negative emotion bonus: +3 years of True Qi.]
[Yang Lifespan: 3 years. Afflicted with exotic poison.]
[Remaining True Qi: 20 years.]
[Excess True Qi can be condensed into True Essence.]

Feeling a comfortable warmth in his dantian, Chen Yi sensed a flow of energy moving through his meridians. His limbs felt more agile and powerful than ever before. He looked at the trembling Yin Tingxue and laughed. Then, he reached out and jabbed her hard in the waist.

*That’s for severing my meridians.*

Yin Tingxue shuddered, her legs giving way, and she collapsed into Chen Yi’s arms. Feeling her tremble, Chen Yi turned his attention back to his panel.

[Slaying the Flood Dragon Blade Technique (Not yet learned).]

This was a vital combat technique for the early stages, but with his True Qi limited, Chen Yi hesitated. Should he pour it all in? Was there any other technique to increase his True Qi besides the Yin-Yang Art? His gaze drifted down. Looking at this Cult Saintess, he recalled a specific technique belonging to the Ming-An Divine Cult.

Sensing his gaze, Yin Tingxue trembled, biting her lip. Pale-faced, she asked, "What do you want?"

"The Star-Absorbing Art." Seeing her negative emotion index hitting seventy or eighty, Chen Yi kissed her forehead. "Hand it over."

Yin Tingxue wiped her forehead, clearly repulsed. She said, her heart still racing, "I have memorized it in my mind, word for word."

"Good." Chen Yi looked at her in pleasant surprise. He had not expected her memory to be so extraordinary. In *Heaven Beyond Heaven*, she had burst onto the scene at the righteous sects' sword conference, defeating over a dozen masters. She had seemed to know the internal arts of every sect, breaking them one by one to win despite being at a disadvantage. She was essentially the Wang Yuyan of the Demonic Cult!

To achieve this, besides the support of the cult, her primary asset was her photographic memory.

"The Star-Shifting, The Void of Heaven and Earth, The Two Realms of Light and Dark, The Two Sects and Three Intervals..."

After Yin Tingxue finished reciting, a new entry appeared on Chen Yi’s panel:
[Star-Absorbing Art Fragment (Not yet learned)]

Yin Tingxue muttered, "This internal art was a gift from the Ming-An Divine Cult for me to cultivate later."

Chen Yi nodded slightly and channeled ten years of True Qi into the Star-Absorbing Art.

[Year 1: You begin reading the Star-Absorbing Art, learning that it requires a tranquil mind without distraction. You struggle to restrain your thoughts, but fail to find the knack.]
[Year 3: After three years of meditation, you have learned to master your mind. You catch a faint glimpse of the art’s true essence, but because it is only a fragment, the flow of True Qi breaks halfway through. You make no progress. Left with no choice, you begin to deduce the missing parts of the fragment.]
[Year 5: By cross-referencing classics and constant deduction, you manage to patch together one-tenth of the fragment. After years of study, you finally get on the right track and can now absorb the True Qi of others.]

*Progress is slow.* Chen Yi frowned at the text but didn't stop, continuing to pour in energy, hoping for a change.

[Year 8: You gradually comprehend the essence of shifting stars and the intersection of light and dark. The Star-Absorbing Art makes progress.]
[Year 10: After years of cultivation, you have gained a basic grasp of the Star-Absorbing Art. It is a pity the fragment remains incomplete. Perhaps with more years of cultivation, you can take another step forward and complete the manual yourself.]
[Star-Absorbing Art Fragment (Beginner)]

With ten years of True Qi fully poured in, Chen Yi felt a warm, burning sensation in his hands. He looked at the Star-Absorbing Art and then at the Grudge Yin-Yang Art, his eyes lighting up.

The Star-Absorbing Art was an incredibly powerful early-game internal art based on draining others' True Qi and refining it over time. Simply put, if a player killed an enemy who had spent ten years cultivating, that enemy's True Qi would flow into the player's meridians. The downside, however, was that if one absorbed too much foreign Qi without converting it, one would explode. Furthermore, masters who discovered the art would plant traps within their own Qi, causing the absorber's internal energies to clash and shatter their meridians.

But as it happened, Chen Yi had chosen the Grudge Yin-Yang Art as his starting technique. It could convert foreign True Qi into his own. The only catch was that since the art was only at the beginner level, the conversion rate was low—perhaps only two or three parts out of ten. Even so, the harvest was staggering!

As for the remaining ten years of True Qi, Chen Yi decided to hold onto them for now.

Shortly after, Chen Yi led Yin Tingxue, her face veiled, through the side hall. The atmosphere was filled with weeping; the women of the household, once like phoenixes on high branches, had seen their world collapse in a single day. A few of them recognized Yin Tingxue’s figure and, seeing her being taken away by an official, looked on with envy, then burst into even harder sobs when they thought of their own fates. In this era, the four social classes were strictly defined; being relegated to the Music Bureau meant being stripped of their status and doomed to a lowly life for generations.

Yin Tingxue walked through the hall, head bowed. She had already cried her fill. To her, even being reduced to a base rank and never being able to redeem herself would have been better than serving her enemy as a concubine. But she had no choice. The only thing she had been able to choose was burning those three thousand taels of silver to ash.

"I am taking this maid to the Depot for interrogation," Chen Yi said, cupping his hands in salute at the gate of the Prince of Xiang’s mansion.

As a centurion of the Western Depot, none of the Imperial Guards dared to stop him, immediately clearing a path. The only one qualified to block him was the higher-ranking Thousand-Man Commander, Min Ning, but the handsome man merely furrowed his brows and said nothing, clearly wanting no part in the affair.

Among the crowd, a few Imperial Guards on the fringes seemed to guess Yin Tingxue’s identity. Their eyes burned with fanaticism as they exchanged glances. Most of them were new recruits, save for one named Song Shengbao. Chen Yi scanned them, narrowed his eyes, and rested his hand lightly on the hilt of his Xiuchun saber.