Yandere Disciple X Master
In a flash, 5 years have already passed. It was an engaging time, slowly teaching Changshu. You’d help her adjust the positioning of her sword, her posture when meditating and even sometimes cover her with a blanket when she fell asleep in the outside courtyard from tireless reading of cultivation books Master Moyun had left you before going off secluded cultivation. It was a wild experience, and over time she seemed to become more matured and relaxed in herself. In the beginning, she was quite the tense little disciple, always scared to displease you; to have said the wrong thing, to hurt you when you spar or even to embarrass you in front of your senior disciples. You still remembered the time she accidentally spilled tea all over you in a rush to get tea for you and your senior sister, who came to visit you on a random Tuesday. She had a look of sheer horror over the felony she thought she had committed. Like a deer caught in headlights. Other times, she would ask you deep questions, ones that kids would normally ask their parents.
Nowadays, you honestly aren’t so sure anymore. She’s become so much calmer and put together. It’s like she internally broke through a restraining cocoon and freed her true self like a confident butterfly. The feeling slowly turned off. Everything felt wrong, you didn’t want to admit it obviously, but you found this new version of her extremely attractive. It was wrong and you knew it, the dubious context of the master-disciple relationship made you feel disgusted with yourself. You’ve never felt this way before and you could feel from time to time, just how intentional, she was acting. You knew she heard your footsteps as you came in her room, and yet she’d pretend she didn’t hear a thing. She’d pick just that moment to undress. It was almost clear as day that the feelings were shared, or at least that she knew how you felt towards her and chose to tease you. There was a difference though, for a disciple to have a crush on her master, that’s just some immature feelings mixed up with admiration. For a master to reciprocate, it would be wrong. An unclean relationship between a master and disciple was seen very unfavourably in the cultivation world. This probably had to do with just how big the age gap could get. You were basically the same age, but that didn’t make it better for you on an ethical point of view. You’d normally ask and confide in your own master, Elder Moyun, but she had gone into secluded cultivation long before you took in Changshu. So, you chose to do what felt right, you chose to repress the feelings. As long as neither of you spoke it out loud, you’d indulge in the feeling of care, warmth and happiness of your time together. In a way, it was a cowardly act, because you knew better, you knew that the purest form of love doesn’t necessarily need to be said out loud to be felt. You were too scared to face against the world’s judgements, but too selfish to clear the ambiguity of your relationship. You’d never officially cross the line, yet you’d dance around it feverishly.
But that wasn’t the least of your problems when it came to Changshu. She had become timid, when it came to everyone else but you. You couldn’t really blame her for this, after all, she was subject to much mocking and judgment for being older than most of the newer disciples. They would leave her out and make fun of her for trying, it’s no wonder she never really made friends among the sect. The worst offenders were these two disciple of your senior disciple brother, Ningli : Linzhi and Linfeng. These twins were revered by the elders for their outstanding ability and great cultivation potential. Linzhi was also very famous for being the best disciple every year in the disciple tournaments, these friendly brawls younger disciples would have between each other. Her ability and skills were recognized and her twin brother Linfeng wasn’t very far behind, always hogging up second place. The bullying got worse when the second year, Changshu managed to take third place. It was a remarkable achievement and she had worked hard for it, but it seemed to only make Linzhi and Linfeng wary of her potential. Just the dumb childish worry of being outshined and losing the elders favour.
What was really unforgivable was just how the elders in the sect handled this blatant mistreatment of your disciple. Without your Master, Elder Moyun, to back you up, the other elders showed clear favouritism towards the twins. They would purposely turn a blind eye to the suffering of Changshu, for what they considered the greater good and future of the Kunlun sect. It really made you question the fairness of it all, whether what your master taught you about the morality of the righteous cultivators was truly respected. After months of this, with the inaction from the elders, you had to step into this childish mess and tell them to back off, you couldn’t do much more, after all they weren’t under you, they were your senior brother’s disciples, you were their senior aunt, you could guide them, but even then they weren’t your business and you knew Ningli wouldn’t like it if you got involved in his business. After all he also turned a blind eye to the bullying. So, disciplining them was out of the question. The reprimand didn’t go over so well and you were sure they now hated your guts too, but they couldn’t be asses to you, because in the seniority system they couldn’t treat their senior aunt badly. But you knew that from this moment onwards, they had mentally drawn targets on your backs. You were the thorns in their asses.
It was a normal day, except today was the birthday of your senior brother, Ningli, so multiple other disciples came to celebrate. Since Ningli’s courtyard was in proximity to yours, it was only expected you would go pay him a visit with Changshu. Obviously, his ill-mannered disciples would also be present during the grand occasion. You weren’t sure if it was a good idea to bring Changshu to her bullies, so you decided to ask her:
“Are you okay with going to your senior uncle Ningli’s birthday banquet? It’s alright if you’d rather stay here, I’d call in sick for you.”
She genuinely seemed to consider it, she almost lost her composure for a second. Her eyes lost the warmth they always held when she was with you, and for a split second, you saw a glint of anger, maybe even hatred, on her usually composed face.
“No, it’s okay, I don’t want to make things awkward or hard for you, Master.”
She recomposed herself fast, like nothing ever happened. With her approval, you set off to your senior brother’s banquet. The way to the banquet was silent, not awkward, just a shared silence. You both enjoyed the silence on days like this, as the flower petals slowly rained down on the path, it was almost romantic. Halfway through, like she does every once in a blue moon, Changshu reignites her childish spark, lets go of her tense composure, grabs a handful of petals from the path, and throws them all at you. She smiled a toothy grin, filled with the simple joy of messing with her master. It was almost cute, almost, you’d never admit it was, you couldn’t admit it was. It’d be wrong, wrong to admit that in moments like these, your heartbeat would spiral out of control.
Finally you arrived at the banquet, it was decorated in a grand manner and you went to greet your senior brother first thing, as is custom for these banquets: always greet the host first. It was lively, livelier than you had envisioned. Your 6 other senior brothers and sisters had all showed up, your master was obviously still in seclusion, so she wasn’t present. There were also 3 elders present. And of course your senior brothers and sisters all brought there, on average, 3 disciples each. It was almost too crowded in the courtyard. Obviously Linzhi and Linfeng were there too, by they were mainly hanging out with the other disciples, while the elders and all your senior brothers and sisters sat around a humongous banquet table, sharing a mature conversation. You slowly guided Changshu to sit down next to you, between the elders and the senior disciples. It went well for about an hour or so, you just listened to the the conversation and shared glances towards each other from time to time. Then, out of nowhere, with ill intent plastered on his face, Linfeng came :
“Changshu, why don’t you come with us junior disciples? We’re going to take a trip to the Huanyang Cliff. It’s only open today for the sealing ritual, don’t you wanna go visit it with us?”
The Huanyang Cliff wasn’t a place to party, it was there, below the cliff that the demonic spirits and hateful souls were sealed for the safety of humanity. Every once a year, the elders would open access to the cliff to reinforce the seal placed upon it. It coincidentally landed on Ningli’s birthday this year. You were going to refuse for Changshu, after all what a bad idea it was, to go with your bullies to one of the most dangerous areas of the Kunlun Sect. But before you had a chance to speak, she answered herself:
“I’m not very interested in the Huanyang Cliff-“
“What? So you’re just gonna stay here with your master? Are you sure? Won’t it be awkward for your master to be the only one taking care of her disciple while everyone else is chatting and mingling?”
She seemed to be moved by the desire to not make things harder for you, and so :
“Fine.”
She accepted.
You wanted to hold her back, but you couldn’t make her lose face in public by rebuking her decisions, especially not when she was already the target of mistreatment from her peers. You told yourself maybe, just maybe she’d finally get her chance to fit in and make friends.
The evening slowly faded into nightfall, and after having multiple shots of plum blossom wine one of the elders brewed, you were wasted. Well everyone at the table was wasted. You didn’t remember too much, just that you stumbled and struggled to get back to your courtyard, and flopped immediately on your bed into deep sleep. When you woke up the next morning, the hangover and nausea overwhelmed you and you had to drink some infused herbal tea to really wake up from the drowsiness. Once you did, you went to visit Changshu’s room. Only to discover in confusion, that she wasn’t there. And as you asked around, you realized it wasn’t that she wasn’t in your courtyard, no one had seen her come back from the Huanyang Cliff. You feared the worst and flew to your senior brother’s courtyard.
…
“Senior aunt, you have to understand, we lost track of her soon after we arrived at the cliff! We even set up and separated into little search groups to find her, but to no avail! If I’d have known she’d vanish like that, I wouldn’t have invited to come with us!”
Linfeng was making quite a scene, kneeling on the floor, painting himself as a pitiful little disciple and you as a difficult senior aunt. You could smell the bullshit emanating from his words, but Ningli didn’t seem to care, whether he knew or not that his disciple was exaggerating. No one was actually dumb enough to believe that they lost track of a whole living human being in broad daylight on a one way path to the cliff, but they just didn’t care enough about the living person in question to throw around accusations of sabotage. You were biting the inside of your mouth to stop yourself from saying anything you’d regret later. You saw Linzhi staying by, clearly holding back a satisfied smile. You couldn’t take it much more. You got out of there, and for the first time ever since you took Changshu as your disciple, you sat silently in your courtyard and let tears fall silently. You felt horrible, you felt guilty of not stopping her even when you knew the twins had it out for her. The guilt was tugging at your insides and you felt the need to unleash a guttural screech of despair.
“What’s wrong, my little disciple?”
It was your master, Elder Moyun, she had finally come out of seclusion. And for what seemed like the 1000th time, you cried in her embrace as your tears fell on her wrinkles and as she held you like her little daughter.
…
“What am I gonna do, Master?”
After you recounted everything that happened to her, Elder Moyun, was perplexed. Her wrinkles seem to wrinkle themselves even further. For once in your life, it seemed even your master didn’t know what to do. After all, Changshu was probably stuck under the seal, beneath the cliff being torn apart by the demonic spirits, otherwise, by now at least, she would’ve made her way back from the cliff. After a long silence, she finally spoke :
“I think, it’s best to forget. I know you want justice, but the sect leader favours those vicious twins, and even I as the master of their master, have my hands tied. I know you don’t want to let it slide, but sometimes life isn’t fair. There’s nothing more we can do, we can’t fight against fate.”
You weren’t surprised that your master took this approach, but still the hope in your chest deflated and you couldn’t help the wave of disappointment that washed over you. You didn’t really feel like answering her, at least, not now.
“I know you need time, I’ll you space.”
She placed a book on your lap : “The Heartless Arts”, a cultivation method that focuses on cutting off worldly emotions and feelings, to maintain and cultivate faster and more efficiently. It was notorious for its effective cultivation and its almost perverted need to cut off the humanity in the cultivator. Once you went down the path of the Heartless Act, any fluctuations of feelings will cause immense pain and internal damages. It was a cultivation method not many dared to dabble in. You understood your master’s message, if you can’t forget, force yourself to forget, to move on, because you can’t fight fate, fate will always win over the human conscience.
…
You went into seclusion, you decided after all to practice the Heartless Arts. It was too much to bear: they guilt, the feelings, the vengefulness and the anger. Being the coward you have always been, you bowed down to fate, yet again. You locked yourself from the world for a year, slowly repressing and massacring all your emotions and feelings. You were going to keep going, until one day, you heard disturbances outside. You were in the seclusion zones of the Kunlun Sect, these areas are never bothered. So you knew immediately that something had gone wrong. And you were right. As soon as you stepped out of the cavern, you saw dead bodies littered all across the scenic view. Blood splattered everywhere, trying to drown Mother Nature. You had to gag to hold back vomit, the scene was brutal, so brutal you couldn’t even believe your eyes. You immediately made your way to the Grand Hall, where if emergencies were to arise, the sect was supposed to reunite. On the way, you bumped into multiple demonic cultivators, these humans that had corrupted themselves and gained demonic aspects. You had to fight them off until you made it to the Grand Hall, where you saw a scene you couldn’t believe.
In the seat of the sect leader, sat leisurely none other than Changshu, demonic energy flowing through her, her eyes shining a predatory red. She had changed, a lot, the gentle, put together disciple was gone and all there was left, was a cruel, hateful villainess. And on the floor below, demonic cultivators held the sect leader, elder Moyun, Ningli, Linfeng, Linzhi and the rare few other disciples that weren’t cold bodies decorating the background yet. They were held, swords flirting with their fragile necks, kneeling in front of Changshu. Your presence was finally acknowledged when one of the demonic cultivators that was chasing you the whole way shouted : “Demon Lord, we found another Kunlun cultivator! What are you idiots waiting for? Get her!”
As the whole crew of demonic cultivators you’d fought off until the Grand Hall charged at you, you struggled, and just as you thought you’d be struck heavily by their blows, you felt a hand grip your waist, and in a flash, you were sat on a warm lap. She softly turned your chin to face towards her.
“Long time no see, Master. Did you miss me?”
You could almost feel your blood run cold, because now you were sure, this wasn’t just someone who looked like Changshu, no this was Changshu. Living, breathing and casually murdering the disciples of your sect, all with an ominous smile.
“You…”
You were at a loss for words. Truly there was nothing you could say.
“You’re just in time, Master.”
gummygunk
stormborns
izzy806
romaincrisis
origamiaround
