The Princess Sisters

Lu Yuan came downstairs to find Si Tingyu and Si Tingfeng already seated in the common room.

Si Tingfeng's expression shifted from barely-concealed discomfort to visible relief the moment he saw Lu Yuan appear. He waved. "Junior Lu Yuan, over here."

Yang Ping and Maige were nearby, wearing the expressions of people who had been hovering too close to something remarkable and didn't know quite what to do with it.

Lu Yuan took his first proper look at Si Tingyu.

She sat with her spine perfectly upright, posture exact, expression composed and unhurried. Her golden hair fell long and straight. Her skin was flawlessly pale. Her features were refined beyond the usual scale of beautiful — there was a precision to them that seemed almost crafted. But what drew the eye most immediately were her pupils: golden-red, vertical-slit, like a dragon's gaze pressed into human form, radiating quiet, total authority.

*She and Si Tingfeng share clear resemblance,* Lu Yuan thought. *Which means the princess talk wasn't exaggerated.*

He approached and inclined his head.

Si Tingyu didn't wait for pleasantries. "Lu Yuan. Qinghe tells me your talent is worth cultivating and has recommended I take you as my student. You may address me as mentor."

He hadn't quite expected her to be that direct. He recovered within a moment. "...Yes, mentor."

"I agreed to Qinghe's request," she continued, her tone measured but carrying real weight, "but I'm only offering you a chance. My requirements are high, and I will hold you to them. If you can't meet the standard, I'll have no choice but to disappoint Qinghe. Is that understood?"

"Understood."

"This place isn't appropriate. Follow me — I want to assess your actual level first."

She rose. Lu Yuan noticed she was remarkably tall for a woman — nearly one-eighty centimeters, only marginally shorter than him.

Si Tingfeng seized the opening. "Big sis —" He caught himself. "Teacher Si," he amended, visibly pained. "What made you decide to take junior Lu Yuan on? Did you know him beforehand?"

"If you want to know, ask him yourself."

"This is school," Si Tingyu added, flatly. "Use the proper address here."

Si Tingfeng's mouth twitched. "...Yes, Teacher Si."

"Qinghe asked her," Lu Yuan offered.

A pause. Si Tingfeng's eyes widened fractionally.

"...Li family's eldest miss?!"

Maige's head snapped around immediately. "You have *that* kind of connection?!"

"She's my sister's friend," Lu Yuan said, with the tired patience of someone who has accepted they will not win this conversation. "That is the entire story. Stop imagining things." He glanced toward Si Tingyu. "Shall we?"

"Mm."

Yang Ping and Maige stood at the staircase watching them leave, faces united in disappointment.

Lu Yuan, thoroughly exasperated by nothing he could specifically complain about, followed his new mentor out of the building.

The faculty residences were a marked improvement over the student dormitories — each instructor received their own standalone small building, a single occupant per structure, considerably more comfortable than the shared arrangements the students got.

Si Tingyu led him inside. The living room reflected her personality exactly: furniture placed with geometric precision, nothing ornamental, nothing out of place. Sofa, tea table, both immaculate. No clutter.

She didn't stop to offer a seat. "Basement training room."

Lu Yuan followed her downstairs.

*My mentor is some kind of cultivation fanatic. I'm noting this for the record.*

The underground space was large and open. They stood facing each other across the empty floor.

Si Tingyu crossed her arms and fixed him with those golden-red eyes.

*That posture,* Lu Yuan thought, somewhat involuntarily. *She's considerably more... impressive than Sister Qinghe in certain respects. That has to be at least a 36D.*

He filed the observation away in the most secure compartment available and did not revisit it.

"I heard your entrance assessment was notable," Si Tingyu said. "You fought a Second-rank Stone Armor Wild Bull as a First-rank warrior."

Lu Yuan refocused.

"Have you trained in Body Techniques?"

"Yes, mentor. I have."

A flicker of interest in those vertical pupils. "Your strength output doesn't match a standard First-rank level. Considerably more than I expected."

She uncrossed her arms and simply beckoned with one finger. "You practice Guardian Type Combat Techniques. Let me see your defensive capability. Don't hold back — full power, come at me."

She didn't materialize her Gene Armament. She didn't even adopt a stance.

Lu Yuan's expression turned serious. He called his Gene Armament forward — the Dark Red Blade materialized in his grip. Black Steel Force surged through him like iron flooding every crevice.

*She's Battle King rank at minimum, possibly higher. I won't be able to injure her.*

*But I'll give everything I have regardless.*

He launched.

**CLANG!!**

His heavy sword met a single raised finger.

The impact rang out like steel striking an alloy plate. The vibration traveled up through the blade into his palms and rattled his arms to the shoulder joint. His grip went briefly numb.

In Si Tingyu's golden-red eyes, a spark of genuine surprise appeared and vanished in the same breath.

Then she moved.

A jade finger extended toward him — a casual motion, so unhurried it seemed almost idle, carrying no visible fluctuation of power whatsoever. But every instinct Lu Yuan had was screaming.

He swung his sword up into a guard.

**BOOM!!**

He hit the wall.

His back connected with the reinforced training room surface hard enough to drive the air from his lungs and rattle his teeth — the wall itself, built for exactly this, showed not a single mark.

His whole body hurt considerably more than it had before the block.

Si Tingyu studied him from across the room.

"Force deflection, force control, blocking," she said. "Your technique in all three areas is crude."

Lu Yuan steadied himself, blinking the spots from his vision. "...Crude?"

"Your physical constitution is not weak for your rank. It's actually strong for your level. But crude technique means raw constitution fails to convert into actual defensive performance — you're squandering it." A measured pause. "You've trained Body Techniques, but not defensive-type Body Techniques. With your constitution and the right techniques, your defensive ceiling could rise several tiers."

It took half a second for that to land.

"Mentor — are you going to teach me?"

The edge of something that might have been approval shifted in her expression. "I'm your mentor. Of course I'll teach you — provided you can endure what that requires."

"I can endure it."

"Good. Body Techniques that actively reinforce your physical defenses can come later. First you need the fundamentals: how to properly deflect incoming force, how to block with maximum efficiency. Those are the foundation. Think of it as redirecting a river rather than damming it — yield at the moment of impact, guide the force elsewhere, use the attacker's momentum rather than fighting it. Four ounces moving a thousand pounds."

Lu Yuan straightened. "Understood."

Si Tingyu's expression gained one degree of warmth. "Then we begin."

What followed was not a lesson. It was a systematic dissection of everything Lu Yuan did wrong, performed over six unbroken hours.

Si Tingyu attacked. She identified the flaw. He corrected. She attacked again. He improved by some increment. She applied more force.

No breaks.

His Spirit Power ran dry inside the first hour and didn't come back. His body ached from every direction simultaneously. Sweat soaked through his clothes and dripped from his trembling hands.

The first time she jabbed a finger at him — he raised his sword —

**BOOM!!**

He flew straight into the wall and slid down.

By afternoon, the same sequence looked fractionally different. Her finger drove at his sword; he grunted through the impact, found something in his knees and his stance, let Black Steel Force root him downward and redirect what he could through his bones toward the floor. He staggered back eleven steps and finally stopped, three paces from the wall.

Si Tingyu's eyes noted the difference. The faintest trace of a smile.

He activated Crimson Copper Light at full intensity, bent his knees, pushed hard off the floor — trying to channel the terrible incoming force through his skeleton and into the earth beneath him. Not enough. But measurably better than before.

Eventually he reached the end of "measurably better" and simply reached his limit.

He sat down on the training room floor.

"Mentor," he said, through labored breathing. "Can we rest. Six hours. Straight."

Si Tingyu frowned faintly, a trace of displeasure crossing her face. "Come. Continue."

*This woman considers exhaustion a moral failing.*

He pushed himself back up and did.

Eventually, she raised a hand.

"Compared to this morning," she said, watching him where he'd collapsed back onto the floor, "you can now deflect approximately one-tenth of the incoming force. That's genuine progress." Her tone was clinical, matter-of-fact. "You've grasped the technique in principle. What remains is drilling it into reflex through repetition. The force I've been applying throughout is equivalent to a Second-rank low-level Boss Grade Feral Beast. With your physical constitution, your theoretical maximum is six-tenths deflected. Your passing threshold is three-tenths. Achieve that and you've met the standard. Rest."

Lu Yuan sat on the floor. His body ached. His hands shook.

*Three-tenths. One month.*

*Fine.*

Then Si Tingyu's composure broke open — just slightly, just for a moment. A genuine smile spread across her face, the kind that had been nowhere in evidence all day. It transformed her completely. Something warm and unguarded replaced that constant serious precision, and Lu Yuan found himself staring for a beat before he caught himself.

*Not because she's especially beautiful,* he told himself immediately. *It's purely practical. We'll be spending a great deal of time together from this point forward. Maintaining a good working relationship is simply sensible.*

*That said.*

*She's genuinely stunning. On par with Sister Qinghe, if he was being honest about it.*

He kept that observation firmly behind his teeth.

"Thank you for your guidance, mentor. I'll work hard."

Si Tingyu nodded. "See that you don't relax in the interim."

"I won't."

Footsteps on the stairs.

Si Tingyu didn't look up. "My sister is here."

A girl descended.

Long blue hair. Eyes the same shade of blue. Her face shared roughly eighty percent of Si Tingyu's structure — the same precise bone work, the same quality of features — but she was noticeably shorter, and where Si Tingyu's expression was composed-serious, this girl's was simply cold. Porcelain skin. Features as exquisite as her sister's. And those eyes: golden-red vertical pupils, identical to Si Tingyu's in shape, but somehow sharper-edged in that cooler face, like a dragon observing something from a great distance and deciding whether it warranted attention.

She spotted Lu Yuan and paused briefly. She turned to Si Tingyu.

"Who is he?"

"My new student," Si Tingyu said. "Lu Yuan."

The name snagged something in Lu Yuan's memory.

*Si Tingxue. I've heard that name before. Where—*

The Battle Net. Two months ago. First time he'd ever logged on, right after his Awakening. There had been a news bulletin.

He looked at this blue-haired girl with new attention.

*Ice-Snow Princess Si Tingxue?*

She looked about his age. And two months ago she'd already broken through to Battle Master Rank—

*Which would put her current level at...*

*This girl is terrifyingly strong.*

"Xue'er is also enrolled in the Talent Camp," Si Tingyu continued. "She joined a few months ago — technically the same cohort as you. You should get to know each other."

Si Tingxue looked at him. A minimal, cool nod. "Hmm."

Lu Yuan smiled. "Nice to meet you, Si Tingxue. I look forward to getting to know you."

Si Tingxue said nothing further.

The three of them went upstairs. Si Tingyu's household automation unit had already laid out dinner.

Lu Yuan quickly established that Si Tingxue's visit was exclusively meal-motivated. Where Yeye had been reserved, Si Tingxue seemed to generate cold as a passive property of her existence, as though the ambient temperature dipped slightly whenever she sat still. Throughout the entire meal she produced perhaps five words in total. Si Tingyu contributed a sentence here and there at intervals. Otherwise, silence.

After dinner, Lu Yuan thanked them and headed out.

At the student dormitory staircase, Yang Ping and Maige had apparently established a waiting post.

The moment they spotted Lu Yuan, both launched themselves at him simultaneously.

"*Si Tingyu teacher brought you to her personal dormitory?!*" Maige's voice was restrained only in the technical sense. "*And you stayed inside for a whole entire day?!* Do you have any concept of how many people in this Talent Camp would trade their lives for what just happened to you?!"

Lu Yuan regarded him with the patience of a man who is very tired. "Instructor Si is my mentor, arranged through my sister. That is the entire story. There is nothing else. Stop."

He glanced around. "Is mentor still downstairs?"

"Yes. Senior Si Tingfeng's been keeping her company."

Si Tingfeng had been sitting in the student dorm's common room for the better part of the day, and the experience had clearly left marks. When he saw Lu Yuan walk in, the change in his posture was immediate.

"Junior Lu Yuan." He waved urgently. "Come sit with me. Please."

Lu Yuan walked over. Si Tingfeng leaned in with the air of someone who had been holding a question back for hours.

"Teacher Si — what made her decide to take you on? Did she know you somehow beforehand?"

"If you want to know, go ask her yourself."

Si Tingfeng's smile went slightly stiff. "Ha — right. Just curious."

"Qinghe asked her."

That landed. Si Tingfeng went still for a moment.

"...Li family's eldest miss?!"

"LI FAMILY'S ELDEST MISS?!"

Maige had been listening closely enough to catch every word. He rounded on Lu Yuan with the energy of a man who has just discovered gold.

"You have *that* kind of background?! What exactly is your relationship with the Li family's eldest miss?!"

Lu Yuan: "..."

"Forget the relationship for a moment —" Maige was already accelerating. "*Do you understand who Si Tingyu teacher is?* She is the Talent Camp's goddess. She is the Red Maple Empire's crown princess. The single most accomplished unmarried woman in the entire empire. If she personally chose to take *you* as her student, you are basically ascending to heaven! And you're standing there like it's *normal?!* You don't understand why everyone's green with envy?!"

He paused, pressed a hand over his heart, and adopted a look of profound sincerity.

"Honestly — if I could manage to get close to Si Tingyu teacher, I'd give up a hundred years of my life. Two hundred. Without any hesitation whatsoever."

Lu Yuan gave Maige a long, measured look.

"Senior Maige," he said, with careful sincerity, "I would strongly recommend dedicating yourself to your own cultivation. The probability of success is meaningfully higher."

"What's wrong with wanting to eat soft rice?!" Maige crossed his arms with the dignity of a man defending a principled position. "If I could actually pull it off, I'd consider two hundred years a bargain."

Yang Ping nodded thoughtfully from beside him. "Honestly, your looks are pretty average. Not as good as mine."

Maige froze.

Then:

"WHAT — Yang Ping, if you don't need those eyes you can donate them to charity! Come here, *right here*, stand next to me — let's look in a mirror together and settle once and for all who is *actually* more handsome!"

"I'm just being objective," Yang Ping said, with great seriousness.

Lu Yuan watched the two idiots spiral into direct visual competition for exactly as long as it took him to decide he had no role here, then quietly headed upstairs to his room.

Time moved.

More than half a month passed since enrollment.

A pattern settled in. During the day, Lu Yuan trained on his own, sought Si Tingyu's guidance when a specific question demanded it. Every evening, without fail, Si Tingxue would turn up at Si Tingyu's dormitory for dinner. Lu Yuan had eaten across a table from her some twenty-odd times by now, and their relationship remained exactly what it had been since the first evening: nodding acquaintances.

She was simply too cold to breach. Compared to her, Yeye at her quietest had been warm.

Si Tingyu spoke occasionally. Si Tingxue did not.

One misstep — a lapse in form, a lazy afternoon, a careless answer — and Si Tingyu would deliver a lecture, patient and thorough and impossible to argue with.

He attended other instructors' classes when their topics were relevant. Everything else belonged to the Land of Origin.

*Land of Origin — Training Hall, Gravity Room*

Lu Yuan ground through push-ups under twelve times standard gravity, muscles burning with the deep structural ache of actual adaptation.

He had been hunting Feral Beasts steadily, channeling every Spirit Crystal earned directly into tempering the Seed of Nature gene. He also used each hunt as a practice ground for Si Tingyu's force-deflection technique — letting beasts strike, absorbing and redirecting, building the reflex through sheer repetition.

The math, however, was becoming a source of quiet grief.

Tempering the Rejuvenation Combat Technique had consumed approximately 300,000 First-rank Spirit Crystals. Extrapolating from that: completing the Seed of Nature gene would require somewhere between one and two million — possibly more. Chief Grade gene tempering consumed Spirit Crystals at several times the rate of Boss Grade. It wasn't even that he didn't know about defensive Body Techniques or speed-type Body Techniques — they were both available in the camp's store, priced close to Transcendent Genes in scarcity and cost. He wanted both. He had no credits to buy either.

He had already poured more than 300,000 First-rank Spirit Crystals into Seed of Nature. Current tempering progress: thirty percent.

He reached into his pocket and counted what remained — a few thousand Spirit Crystals.

*It seems that genuine wealth may be structurally beyond my reach.*

*At least if Si Tingyu teaches me Body Techniques directly, I'll save the credits.*

He went back to hunting.

Elsewhere, a voice rang out with considerable energy:

"Lei Feng! *Lei Feng!* I have amazing news to tell you!"

"What news?"

He was mid-hunt when his Communication Crystal pulsed with a soft white glow.

He stopped. Took it out. Answered.

Amy's face filled the crystal — bright violet eyes, that characteristic eager smile already fully deployed.

"The Aier Mechanical Ruins are going to open in about half a year of Land of Origin time!" She was barely sitting still. "Should we go together when they do?"

She looked at him through the crystal, expression bright with anticipation.