Chapter Two: The Girl and The Awakened Immortal
"A mortal girl… with no cultivation. How interesting."
His voice didn't echo. It didn't need to. Each syllable settled into the stone chamber like an ancient truth returning home.
Rui Wei's mind raced with a thousand things she could say apologies, explanations, maybe a polite scream but only one word made it out.
"…Hi."
Long Shen studied her in silence. His eyes were dark and still. They held depth, like gazing into a lake so ancient it had forgotten its own surface.
"You are not afraid."
"I'm considering it," she answered honestly, gazing at the shattered lines over the jade coffin. "But it's impolite to run away from someone you just woke up."
He tilted his head. Such a slight movement, yet the air seemed to shift with him. "You touched and broke my seal."
"I didn't mean to." She rubbed her cheek. "It just… called to me?"
" What called to you?"
"I just felt it," Rui Wei admitted. "Like something sad. Or quiet. Like a song I'd forgotten how to hum."
Long Shen's brows furrowed slightly. "You are an odd ball mortal."
"You just woke up after who knows how long, and I'm the odd one?"
The corner of his mouth twitched.
Not quite a smile.
But something close.
As Rui Wei led him from the room, the broken stones opened for him unscathed.
"How long was I asleep?" he asked.
"I don't know," she said, treading carefully over a broken root. "The stone plaque said a thousand years, but it was very old. Could be more."
He did not respond immediately. Only the brush of his footsteps behind her and the occasional rustle of leaves that would not fall could be heard.
"Who governs this land?" he asked.
"Jin Empire," Rui Wei answered, pausing to catch her breath. "They've been in power for… I don't know, a few centuries? I don't really pay attention to politics. Not much use when you're the useless daughter of a middling noble house."
"Royalties are still in charge?"
"Yes. Talented and high level cultivators only get involved in politics and coutry rules when there's something to steal from the royal house."
There was a low rumble in Long Shen's throat.
"They feared me once," he said bragging.
She faced him again. "And now?"
"I don't know if they even remember me." He said
"You could have just said you are a nobody, why must you be so narcissistic while pretending to be mysterious" Rui Wei said as she shook her head at Long Shen
"You little brat," Long Shen said as he raised his hand to hit her when she suddenly shook her head "Whatever, let's just get out of here"
By the time they reached the forest edge, the stars were out. Clearwind City glowed below, nestled in hills and mist like a sleeping dragon.
Rui Wei stopped before the old stream.
"This is the best I can manage for you to stay," she said, motioning to a forgotten pavilion, covered in ivy and cracked stone. "We constructed it when I was young. I used to sneak out to play here. No one visits here ever."
Long Shen stepped inside without waiting. "It will do."
Rui Wei blinked. "Just like that?"
"I have slept on clouds, in star-cradles, beneath mountains without sky. Shelter is shelter."
She smiled, then faltered.
"Will you… stay here?"
"For the time being," he said.
Then he sat beneath the pavilion, closed his eyes, and said no more.
The next morning, Rui Wei returned with food wrapped in cloth and worry wrapped around her breast. The Rui manor buzzed with its usual morning chaos guards training, servants sweeping, her sisters preparing their cultivation routines.
No one noticed that she had gone out.
She picked wild berries on the road, although she wasn't sure a person who been in a coffin for thousands of years ate fruit. Or anything.
When she reached the pavilion, Long Shen was still seated, motionless as stone. Mist curled around his feet, drawn to him like silk to a magnet.
"I've brought food," Rui Wei said. "Don't ask me how I did it without spilling any porridge."
He opened his eyes. "Thank you."
"You don't have to eat if it's beneath you."
He reached for the rice bun, examining it as if it were a holy artifact. And then, unhurriedly, he bit into it.
Rui Wei blinked. "You… eat."
"I remember how, even though we immortals don't need food, it's not bad to consume something to pass time after all cultivation is boring" he replied between leisurely chews. "The act matters."
"To who?"
"To you, I can't just dump the food since you spent a lot of energy bringing it to me."
She had no idea how to respond to that.
They talked more that afternoon. Rui Wei told him about the city, her sisters, her father who never glanced her way, and the cousin who spilled tea on her books when no one was watching.
Long Shen listened.
He didn't interrupt. Didn't judge. Just sat there, as if he'd waited forever to hear someone speak again.
You know," Rui Wei said at one point, staring into the stream, "they say I was supposed to be born lucky."
" Were you?"
"Second wife's daughter. Pretty face. Aristocratic blood. Everyone thought I'd awaken some rare physique or at least develop basic meridian flow. But I didn't. So now I'm not lucky. Now I'm just a mistake."
Long Shen was silent for a moment.
Then he said, "Why do you keep smiling?
A promise I made to someone."
"You got an odd view of the world" Long Chen said as he shook his head "You can go back now, it's late" he said
That evening, Rui Wei returned to the family home and was immediately scolded for bringing dirt into the courtyard. She bowed and cleaned the steps.
Later, as she was carrying laundry past the fish pond, Rui Mian moved into her path.
"Where do you keep going, sister?" she said, her voice smooth as oil.
"Do you care?" Rui Wei said, shifting the basket.
"Not really. But Father will.
Rui Wei smiled sweetly. "Then you can ask him while you're licking his boots."
Rui Mian's eyes narrowed.
But Rui Wei departed without looking back.
That evening, the stars formed an arc above the broken pavilion like pearls strewn across the sky. Rui Wei reclined beside the stream, covered by her tattered travel cloak.
"Why were you sealed?" she asked.
Long Shen opened his eyes. Moonlight was caught in his pupils.
"They were afraid"
"Afraid of what?
"Me."
"You don't look scary at all so what are they afraid of?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he said: "You don't need to look scary for people to be afraid of you. You were the one who woke me."
Rui Wei looked up at the sky. "Was I supposed to?"
"No."
"Then why am I not dead?"
There was another silence.
Then he spoke, softly, "Perhaps fate was tired of waiting for someone worthy and I also didn't see it necessary to kill you."
Elsewhere,
Rui Mian crouched beneath the trees, her Qi suppressed so well that not even insects sensed her presence.
She watched Rui Wei lie down beside the stream.
And the man beside her dressed in silver, surrounded by mist that made the plants lean away.
The man suddenly looked at her, and she was immediately sent flying out of the mountains as she bled from her seven orifices before losing consciousness.
The following day, Rui Wei returned to the pavilion with a basket hidden under a cloth, not food again, but something she thought he would be interested in: old history books, a damaged brush, and a mirror from her mother's trunk she had not looked at in years.
Long Shen was where she'd left him, eyes closed, breathing so quietly that he was almost part of the mountain. She almost didn't want to wake him.
"You know," she said, putting down the basket, "I'm not sure you even sleep. Or meditate. Or power-down between like a puppet."
He opened his eyes. "I observe things."
"Observe what?"
"Everything."
"Well that sounds exhausting, you should go out and have some fun."
He blinked. "It is peace."
Rui Wei settled beside the basket, tucking her legs beneath her tunic. "I wouldn't mind some of that. I'm so used to trying not to be noticed, I forget how to just… exist."
"You are not unnoticed."
She gave a dry laugh. "Please. My family only remembers I'm alive when they need an excuse to feel better than someone."
Long Shen dug into the basket and pulled out the mirror. He held it up to the stream and captured the reflection of the moon in it. "There is surely someone who remembers you, but there is strength in being forgotten."
"You would say that," she muttered. "You were a legend in a box for a thousand years."
"No. I was forgotten because I wished to be."
"You are bad at consoling people you know" Rui Wei said as she shook her head
"Yes."
"…Then why awaken now?"
Long Shen said nothing. His gaze lingered on her face a split second longer than she expected. Then he faced the sky again.
Morning came too quickly. Far too quickly.
During breakfast, Rui Wei remained quiet while her siblings discussed the palace's newest decree. The emperor's youngest son would be touring the outer provinces soon including Clearwind.
Rui Lanyue was already plotting.
"If we prepare ahead of time, I can perhaps play a Qi Melody for the prince's procession," she said, stirring her tea. "The Rui name has to be honored."
Rui Mian snorted. "Or paraded."
Their father nodded. "This is our chance at a marriage alliance. Don't waste it."
No one was paying Rui Wei any attention.
She made an excuse after a few bites and slipped out the back.
When she reached the pavilion that evening, she found Long Shen by the water, barefoot, robes faintly stirring in a breeze that didn't reach her.
His eyes were closed. The brook below had grown quiet artificially quiet like the surface of polished obsidian.
"You're doing that again," she said.
He opened his eyes. "The mortal world seems to be different now."
She stepped closer, peering down at the frozen water. "I do not understand whatever you just said, but I think it's about time you left this place"
She hesitated, then reached into her satchel and pulled out one of the books she'd borrowed from the estate library. "I brought something. I thought… perhaps you'd find fun to read after all history books are boring"
Long Shen accepted the book and opened to the first page with care. His face was unreadable.
Then he frowned.
"This is fiction."
"Yes?"
He blinked. "It's a love story
"Yes, it's a love story. A tragic one."
He flipped a few more pages. Then, to her surprise, he passed the book to her then sat. "Read it to me."
She blinked. "You want me to read you a story?"
"You woke me. You might as well entertain me."
So she did.
Her voice stumbled at first awkward, self-conscious, but soon it filled the night air, weaving words between leaves and shadow. Long Shen didn't interrupt. He only listened.
Until halfway through the story, he whispered: "She lied to protect him."
"What?"
"The girl. In the story. She told him she hated him so he would live."
"…Yes."
"She was smart," he muttered.
"No," Rui Wei whispered, her voice fading. "She was scared."
While Rui Wei was preparing to take her leave, Long Shen suddenly spoke again.
"I can teach you."
She froze. "What?"
"You want to cultivate. I can teach you."
Her laughter was reflexive,cutting, defensive. "I don't have meridians. No root. I'm not being modest. I'm literally unable."
"Your body has no known pathway," Long Shen allowed. "But cultivation is not just Qi. It's will, Soul, Form and Dao. There are… other ways."
She stared at him. "You're serious?"
He nodded. "You were drawn to my seal. That in itself is proof you have resonance. Untrained. Dormant. Souls as pure as yours are rare. Your soul energy is already has high as that of a nasant soul cultivator too bad your meridian levels wouldn't allow you to use them"
She opened her lips. Closed them.
"Why would you instruct me?"
"Because I'm bored."
She was silent for a long time.
Then: "If you turn me into a frog or explode my lungs, I'm haunting you."
He smiled, a real one this time.
Elsewhere,
In the Rui estate's shadows, Rui Mian knelt before her father in the meditation chamber.
"I saw her with a man" she said. "He's surely not human. His level of cultivation was impossible for me to gauge."
The Patriarch's eyes narrowed as he asked. "Where did you see them?"
"In the eastern woods. At the old pavilion ."
"Describe him."
She did.
"He sounds human from your description, but any high level cultivator can through you off a mountain with your seven ofricies bleeding. Go get some sleep and stop looking for ways to cause trouble for your sister" her father said as he left her behind.
Later that night,
Rui Wei sat on the steps of the pavilion, watching fireflies dance around the water. Her knees were drawn up to her chest. The air was cool, but not unfriendly.
"You should sleep," Long Shen said beside her.
"I do not like dreams."
He did not inquire as to why.
They were silent for a while longer.
Then she said: "If I try hard… if I practice as one of your apprentices… will I be like you?"
"No," he said simply.
She winced. "That was quick."
"You can try, but in the three realms, there is no one like me and there never will"
"So narcissistic"
She then turned her head as her eyelids got heavy.