DDD Chapter 44: To Become A Star (Patreon)

I studied Second Master. To my surprise, he meant every word. It seemed that not only had he noticed my hostile feelings towards him, but those same feelings bothered him. That made sense. If someone hated me for no discernible reason upon first meeting, that would bother me as well.

Guilt filled me. Second Master had treated me well, all things considered, yet I still hated and resented him just because he reminded me of my kin back on Mt. Wind Dance. He didn’t deserve it, and it was unfair of me to feel this way towards him. Yet, knowing that didn’t make my feelings go away.

“I apologize, Second Master.” I said. “That fault lies with me, not you. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

Second Master’s brows furrowed.

“You don’t have to lie.” He said. “If you’re worried about angering or offending me, don’t be. You can tell me the truth.”

I stared down at my teacup, trying to find the best way to articulate my feelings.

“I’m not lying.” I said. “You haven’t done anything wrong. However, your appearance…”

I trailed off, unwilling to finish my sentence.

“What about my appearance?” Second Master asked.

“You look like a member of Clan Wind Dance.” I said. “My kin.”

A beat of silence passed.

“I take it that this is a bad thing?” Second Master asked in a quiet voice.

I nodded, and debated with myself on whether or not to tell Second Master about my past. It wasn’t a secret or something I wanted to keep hidden, yet I didn’t know if I wanted to reveal something so personal to him. He was my Second Master, yes, but this was our second time meeting. We were still strangers to one another.

In the end, I decided to tell him. It wasn’t fair to hold a grudge against him just because of his appearance. Telling him the reason why I felt this way was the least I could do. Besides, if I pretended that he was like my cousin Lucius, it was more bearable.

“My kin mistreated me when I lived on Mt. Wind Dance.” I said. “I looked nothing like them, which was bad enough. However, I am also demonkin. In their eyes, I was an embarrassment to the clan.”

I told him about my past; about the neglect and abuse I endured, about the humiliation my uncle put me through, all of it. I finished my story with Astra rescuing me and taking me under her wing.

“After that, I cultivated and trained until I was ready to take the entrance exam.” I said.

As I told my story, I looked down at the tea cup in front of me, afraid to see the expression on Second Master’s face.

“I see.” He said. “Given your history, I can understand why you reacted the way you did. I am not a member of Clan Wind Dance, but my family does come from the northern end of the continent. It isn’t surprising that I look similar to your kin.”

I nodded.

“I’m sorry, Second Master.” I said.

“You have nothing to apologize for.” He said. “It is what it is.” He paused. “Would you like to have a different master?”

Startled, I looked up. Second Master wore a complicated expression on his face.

“Given what happened to you, it might be better to have a master who doesn’t remind you of such horrid people.”

I stared at him for several seconds, before I shook my head.

“No.” I said. “You’ve treated me well, and I’ve learned a lot from you already, despite the short amount of time we’ve known each other. You’re a good master. I’d be a fool to pick someone else to teach me just because of your appearance.”

Second Master turned away from me, the corners of his lips lifting up in a smile.

“I see.” He said, sounding nonchalant. “Thank you for your kind words, Darian.”

It occurred to me then that Second Master had wanted a disciple more than I realized. Otherwise, why would he have been so bothered by my hostile feelings? And why else would he be so happy that I still wanted him as my Second Master?

“So, what do you wish to do regarding your kin in Clan Wind Dance?” Second Master asked. “Do you plan on getting revenge on them?”

I shook my head.

“No.” I said. “I despise Clan Wind Dance, but I don’t plan on getting revenge on them. What’s the point? It won’t change what happened. I would rather focus on my cultivation and spend time with those worth my time.”

“Getting revenge won’t change what happened, but it might make you feel better.” Second Master pointed out. “There is a certain satisfaction in bringing down those who wronged you in the past. I speak from experience.”

I snorted.

“I doubt that.” I said. “Do you know why I hate Clan Wind Dance?”

Second Master didn’t say anything and just gestured for me to continue.

“They are my kin, my family.” I said. “They were supposed to love and cherish me. That is what families do, that is what families are. At least, that is what I believe. Yet, they hate and despise me, just because of who my mother is. I wanted…I want them to love me and I want to love them in return, as pathetic as that sounds. However, I know that will never happen, and so I must hate them instead.” Tears pricked my eyes. I wiped them away before continuing. “Getting revenge won’t change any of that, so I would be better off focusing on those who do love me, such as my sisters.”

Second Master stared at me.

“Your feelings towards Clan Wind Dance are more complicated than I realized,” he said.

I nodded.

“That is one way to put it, yes,” I said.

I took a deep breath to regain my composure.

“It wasn’t all bad.” I said. “My cousin, Lucius, looked after me as best he could. Without him, things would have been much worse. There is also my Junior Sister Clarissa, who participated in the entrance exam with me. While the rest of my kin hate me, I know those two care for me. That is enough.”

Second Master stared down at his tea cup, his brow furrowed.

“You don’t want to get revenge by harming or destroying Clan Wind Dance, correct?” He asked.

“Yes.” I asked, curious about where this was going.

“What if there was another way you could get revenge?”

“What do you mean?”

Second Master lifted his hand and a mote of golden fire emerged from his palm. The mote rose until it reached the ceiling, shining like a star.

“Become a star.” Second Master said. “Rise so high and shine so brilliantly, that your kin have no choice but to acknowledge your worth. Become someone they can’t just ignore or mistreat. Make them realize the folly of their actions and regret the way they treated you. That is how you can get revenge.”

I stared up at the mote of golden flames, my eyes wide with wonder. Become a star. When I first became a cultivator, I did so for many reasons. Chief among them was that it felt right to cultivate, as if I were meant to tread the path towards immortality. However, I never gave the end goal much thought.

For me, immortality was a nebulous concept that I only vaguely understood. I walked the path, but the destination remained covered in shadows. Second Master’s words and golden flames burned away the shadows, revealing the light at the end of the road for me. Become an immortal. A star. A celestial being, or maybe celestial demon would be more accurate.

I felt a fire ignite in my heart.

“Yes,” I said, looking back at Second Master, “I will become a star.”

“Good,” Second Master said, his eyes burning with a fire of their own, “And I shall help you, my disciple.”

***

After that day, I devoted myself to cultivation with a renewed fervor. It wasn’t as if I had neglected my training before, but I threw myself into it with more vigor than ever. However, the snake twins ensured that I didn’t neglect my own wellbeing.

In the days right after Second Master’s visit, I cultivated and trained to the point where I ignored my body’s needs. I skipped meals and missed out on sleep. The snake twins put a stop to this before it grew out of hand. I tried to tell them that I was fine, and even ordered them to stop getting in my way, but they ignored me. They had me eat on a regular basis and go to sleep on time. At first I resented their interference, but after a few days, I realized the foolishness of my actions and apologized to them.

As I focused on my cultivation and training, the weeks and months passed by in the blink of any eye. The air grew colder and the leaves on the trees changed color as autumn arrived. As he promised, Second Master visited once a month for our lessons. With his help, my knowledge and understanding of the Soul of Divine Fire technique grew. He also helped me train in my various mystic arts.

My sisters also visited from time to time, though Astra was the one who visited me the most. Since her fiancé was a part of Celestial Warrior Hall, she had more opportunities to visit me than the others. Sidra visited me the least, since her duties as the vice hall master of Flame Fiend Hall kept her busy. Estelle was somewhere in between the two.

They didn’t visit just for the fun of it either. As Sidra said, with our mother still in seclusion, it fell on them to teach me in her place. While Second Master trained me in the mystic arts, my sisters taught me martial arts. Estelle, in particular, was quite enthusiastic, as befitting her boisterous nature.

I also made sure to keep my promise to Zenia and let my second eldest sister know about Zenia’s interest in joining the Guardians of Dawn and Dusk. Estelle said she would look into it, but made no promises. That was good enough for me.

I wasn’t the only one who received visitors either. It turned out that Cultivator Euphemia, or Senior Sister Euphemia I should say, was the Senior Inner Disciple of Celestial Warrior Hall. That was why she had been one of the people who oversaw the entrance exam. It also meant that she was responsible for the inner disciples of Celestial Warrior Hall, which included Minions One and Two. While they had been demoted(?) to honorary disciples, it seemed as if Senior Sister Euphemia still looked out for them.

When she first dropped by to check in on Minions One and Two, she was surprised to see me but soon accepted my presence. She praised my dedication to my training and even traded pointers with me.

Cultivator Aneira, who remained secluded inside her living space, also received a visitor: a woman in the Nascent Soul realm. The woman had long black hair, which she wore loose, and eyes the color of the ocean. Her pale skin glowed with a silver undertone. She was breathtakingly beautiful and I found myself entranced the first time I saw her. However, she always wore a cold and indifferent expression whenever I saw her, which wasn’t often.

She visited Cultivator Aneira about once a month and headed straight for the latter’s living space, ignoring the rest of us. Several hours later, she would leave and fly off into the distance. After her first visit, I learned from Minions One and Two that this woman was Elder Celine. She had been the one to first notice Cultivator Aneira and the minions theorized that she intended to take Cultivator Aneira as her personal disciple.

As interesting as I found this, it had nothing to do with me so I focused on my training. Mastering the Wind Dash technique continued to prove difficult for me. However, after weeks of effort and some guidance from Second Master, I crashed into things and tripped over my own feet less often. For me, that counted as significant progress.

It was during one of these training sessions that I ended up meeting Cultivator Aneira.

***

It was late autumn. The leaves had turned various shades of red and gold. Many of them had started to fall, leaving the tree branches bare. With the onset of winter, the temperature had dropped to the point where I could see my breath every time I exhaled. However, as a cultivator, one with affinity for Fire at that, the cold didn’t bother me. I found it a little annoying, but that was it.

To improve my self control, I decided to practice the Wind Dash technique inside the courtyard. If I wanted to avoid hitting the walls, I needed to improve my proficiency in the technique. At least, that was the idea. Unfortunately, I still lacked control when using the Wind Dash technique, so I kept crashing. The sound of me slamming into walls rang out. In less than an hour, my body felt battered and bruised.

Ellen watched me with worry in her eyes. I knew she wanted to tell me to stop, but refrained from doing so. As for Elliot, I sent him off last month to deliver a message to Lucius. After debating with myself for a while, I decided to stop delaying the inevitable and go through with it. It would take Elliot a while to come back, a year at least. If I had the spirit stones to spare, I could have had him use the teleportation array network. Unfortunately, I was too poor.

“Young Master,” Ellen called out after I crashed into another wall, “Why don’t you take a break? Or at least practice outside the courtyard? I understand why you’re doing it this way, but perhaps you should wait until you’ve gained more proficiency in the Wind Dash technique.”

I shook my head.

“Big Sis Estelle says that pain and experience are the best teachers.” I said.

“Young Mistress Estelle is a Golden Core cultivator and a full-blooded demon.” Ellen pointed out. “You’re a demonkin. She is much more durable than you are.”

I paused at that.

“Big Sis Estelle is a full demon?” I asked.

Ellen nodded.

“Her father was a demon from the Underworld.”

I mulled that over. How did that work out? Our mother was a heart demon who I assumed possessed and consumed the cultivator she came from. Wouldn’t that make her, and all of her children, at least somewhat human? I shook my head. It didn’t matter. Estelle was my sister and that was all I cared about.

“I’ll try it one more time before I take a break.” I said.

Despite my determination, I was only willing to crash into the walls so many times in a row. After a certain point, it became tiresome.

I closed my eyes and focused. Drawing upon the wind to increase my speed, I rushed forward. As always, it felt like the wind carried me as I ran. The problem was, the wind went where it wanted and I was a mere passenger. To master the Wind Dash technique, I needed to become like the wind and only go where I wanted. I knew this in theory. Putting it into practice was another matter.

At first, things seemed to go well. Despite my speed, I kept control of my movements. Rather than be carried by the wind, for a moment I became the wind. A feeling of freedom washed over me. I felt like I could break free of all earthly attachments and fly into the sky.

In fact, this feeling grew so strong that I jumped on impulse. For a single moment, it seemed as if I broke free from gravity’s pull. In that moment, I took my first step towards reaching the heavens. In that moment, I flew.

When that moment ended, I lost control of the Wind Dash technique and became a mere passenger once again. I let out a yelp as the wind carried me forward at full speed and I crashed face first into the door of Cultivator Aneira’s living space, before falling to the ground. The world around me spun as I stared up at the sky.

As I laid there, reeling from the impact, the door to Cultivator Aneira’s living space opened for the first time since I arrived. One of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life stepped out. Like Elder Celine, her pale skin glowed with a silvery undertone, though this woman’s glow was weaker. She had long silver hair, which she wore in a simple bun. This did nothing to detract from her beauty. She stared down at me with silver eyes, her expression cold. White and gold robes adorned the woman’s slender body.

The woman looked like a moon goddess that had descended from the heavens. In fact, for a moment I thought that I had died and that this woman had come to guide me to the afterlife. However, I noticed the anger in her eyes and realized that if she had come for me, it wasn’t with good intentions.

“Are you the one causing that infernal racket?” She asked in an icy, but beautiful, voice.

Her words cut through my daze and brought me back to reality.

“Well?”

Realizing that I hadn’t answered her question, I nodded.

“I was practicing the Wind Dash technique.” I said.

“Then I would ask you to stop,” the woman said, “Or at least practice somewhere else. Some of us are trying to cultivate but can’t focus because you’re stumbling around like a drunken baboon and causing a commotion.”

Oh. It never occurred to me that my training might be bothering others. In that case, there was only one thing to do. I pushed myself to my feet and gave the woman a slight bow.

“I apologize, fellow cultivator.” I said. “I’ll be more mindful of others in the future.”

The woman gave me a wary look, but her anger abated somewhat.

“Good.” She said, before slamming the door in my face.

I stared at the door for a few seconds, before I turned around. Ellen stood a few feet away, her eyes twinkling with amusement.

“I think she likes you.” She said.

I just rolled my eyes. And that was how I met Cultivator Aneira.