NOVPUBAfter the event, Jade went through the motions of celebration. Her expression remained calm, almost detached, as sect members gathered around her, their faces alight with admiration and awe.
She stood at the center of the grand ceremonial hall, draped in a robe of silver and midnight blue, the emblem of the Stone Mountain Sect embroidered in gold across her shoulder.
Candles flickered, casting long shadows across the marble floor, while the scent of incense lingered in the air.
"We welcome the newest addition to our council," the sect master declared, his voice echoing across the hall, "perhaps the youngest elder in the history of the Stone Mountain Sect!"
The hall erupted with cheers and murmurs.
"I still can't believe it," someone whispered from the crowd. "Elder Jade… they say she's already at the peak of the Golden Core Realm. And she's only twenty!"
"A 20-year-old at the tenth stage?" another disciple gasped. "That's unprecedented! Not even the prodigies from the Heaven's Edge Pavilion advanced that fast!"
All around, disciples and elders alike were abuzz with speculation and disbelief.
For days, whispers had floated through the sect like wind in the pines, but now the rumors stood confirmed. Jade's meteoric rise was not just real—it had shattered every expectation.
And when the Stone Mountain Sect grew curious, secrets never lasted long.
Though no official word had been given, many began to piece the story together.
It was no coincidence, they thought, that Elder Riley—reclusive, powerful, and notoriously selective—had paid Jade a private visit just one day before her breakthrough.
He had arrived without fanfare and left without a word, yet the results of that visit could no longer be ignored.
"All it took was one day," murmured an older inner disciple.
"She was still at the seventh stage that morning. By nightfall, she was a peak-stage Golden Core cultivator and wielding techniques no one had ever seen before."
"It's Elder Riley again," someone muttered, half in awe, half in suspicion.
Their gazes burned with speculation, and one by one, everyone in the hall began to draw the same conclusion. Elder Riley had chosen Jade. Whether as a disciple, a partner, or something else entirely, no one knew—but the implications were staggering.
Riley and Jade became the talk of the sect, not just for the power they now represented, but for the mystery surrounding them. What did Riley see in her? How much had he taught her in a single day? And most importantly, what would Jade do next?
From that moment on, the name "Elder Jade" was spoken with both reverence and curiosity. She was no longer just a talented disciple—she was a force to be reckoned with, a symbol of potential fulfilled.
And as her silver eyes scanned the sea of faces before her, calm and unreadable, the sect couldn't help but wonder:
What kind of monster had Elder Riley just awakened?
***
One week had passed since the celebration, and Jade was still basking in the glow of admiration and reverence.
Everywhere she went within the Stone Mountain Sect, heads turned. Disciples bowed deeply. Elders treated her with a courtesy normally reserved for those far older and more established.
Her name—Elder Jade—was spoken with awe, even envy.
From the moment she stepped into a courtyard to train, a quiet would fall over the area.
Young cultivators watched her from afar, hoping to glean some insight from her movements, some whisper of divine brilliance.
Invitations came in waves—sect banquets, joint cultivation sessions, even marriage proposals from noble clans who had never once looked her way before.
And yet, beneath the silk robes and the jade hairpins, behind the cool, composed expression she wore in public, a quiet storm churned within her.
Late that night, Jade sat alone in her moonlit chamber, surrounded by gifts from admirers she had never met. Jade carvings, spirit crystals, fragrant herbs—all offerings to win her favor.
But none of them could fill the strange hollowness in her chest.
She let her hand fall onto the polished wood of her bedframe, her gaze drifting toward the sky visible through the open window. The moon hung high above, pure and distant, like a watchful eye over the world below. Her lips parted in a sigh.
It wasn't truly her accomplishment.
Her power—the cultivation realm that had stunned the sect—was not the result of long years of meditation, of bleeding hands and bitter pills swallowed through tears.
It had been granted, awakened in her by Elder Riley's mysterious blessing.
A single day, and she had soared from the early stages of the Golden Core realm to its peak, with a refined spiritual foundation far beyond what others could hope to achieve at her level.
And he had done it all so… gently.
Her hand slowly rose and rested over her bosom. Her fingers curled slightly as she remembered the warmth of his qi seeping into her, reshaping her from the inside out.
His palm had rested over her heart as he guided the chaotic energy through her meridians, soothing every ache, healing every wound—not just of the body, but the soul.
It hadn't been lewd. Not exactly. But it had been intimate. Too intimate to forget.
Jade's breath caught for a moment. Her face flushed as her thoughts spiraled deeper into memory. He had looked at her like she was something precious, even if only for a fleeting moment.
His touch hadn't lingered, but her heart had.
"I wish he would have visited me again already," she whispered to the empty room. "Even just once more..."
But Riley never returned. No visits, no messages. It was as though, after lifting her to greatness, he had simply vanished.
Left her to shine in the aftermath of his power like a candle burning from borrowed flame.
She clenched her jaw.
She knew of his other women. Disciples and followers scattered across the cultivation world. Beautiful. Powerful. Some even infamous. Spirit Severing realm experts—monsters cloaked in grace.
If they so much as glanced at her the wrong way, her cultivation would wither.
If one of them attacked her in earnest, she would become nothing but blood fog on the wind, her name erased from history without a single soul to mourn her.
The world was cruel like that.
"This isn't enough," she said softly, but there was a sharpness in her tone now. A spark of something deeper.
She stood, stepping out into the balcony, letting the cool night air kiss her skin. Her eyes locked onto the moon again, but this time, she did not feel small beneath it.
"I must get more. I will get more."
No one would remember a pretty face who died too soon. She would not be some side note in Riley's long, illustrious journey. She wouldn't settle for being a footnote in someone else's legend.
Since Riley had been the first man to touch her—body, mind, and spirit—she found herself unable to think of anyone else in the same way. His presence had eclipsed all others.
His power, his eyes, his voice—they haunted her like a lingering dream she didn't want to wake from.
Riley was the best. And she wanted the best. Not just for admiration, but because deep down, she believed she could stand beside him. Not as a subordinate or a tool. As an equal.
"Okay," she murmured, and for the first time in days, she smiled.
She began to plan. Carefully. Methodically. She had beauty. She had talent. Her body alone was enough to drive men mad. She just hoped that Riley would fall for her easily.
***
Three days later, Riley stood at the edge of his domain beneath the dusky glow of twilight, an elegant invitation letter resting in his hand.
The seal had already been broken, the delicate paper unfolded and reread more times than he would ever admit.
The handwriting was unmistakably Jade's—graceful, composed, yet tinged with something almost uncertain. A small note of gratitude, couched in formal phrasing but softened by personal touches: "I would be honored to host you. A simple evening of thanks, for what you have given me."
He'd seen countless such invitations in his life. But this one… lingered.
He had no particular reason to refuse. No obligations pressing on him that evening, no enemies at his gates—at least not today.
And so, with his usual quiet grace, he made his way to her residence, curiosity walking beside him like an old friend.
The moment he arrived, he understood.
Jade waited for him in the heart of her courtyard, where plum blossoms had just begun to bloom. The air was laced with their faint, bittersweet fragrance.
Lanterns floated in the trees, casting soft golden halos that danced in the breeze. Everything had been arranged with care—far too much care for a simple thank-you.
And then there was Jade herself.
She stood beneath a blossom-laden tree, dressed in a pale silver robe that clung lightly to her figure, embroidered with cloud patterns in gold thread.
Her long hair had been carefully done up, pinned with jade and moonstones, with a few strands left loose to frame her delicate features.
She was a vision—one cultivated not only with beauty, but with intent.
