Chapter 8: Seducing the Arrogant Senior Sister
The Everdawn Sect bustled with routine splendor as the sun painted the skies in crimson and gold. Disciples trained in formation on the jade platforms, while elders drifted across the skies like drifting clouds. On the surface, it was a realm of peace and enlightenment.
But Raiyen walked paths no one else saw.
He moved through shadows behind the pillared walkways, unseen among the servants. His robes were threadbare. His hands rough with calluses. Yet his eyes burned with purpose.
A plan had begun to form.
He needed status. Protection. Influence.
And that meant power—not brute strength, but leverage. And there was no greater leverage in a place like Everdawn than through someone with rank… and a weakness.
He found her by the lotus pavilion.
Senior Sister Lin Xue.
Radiant. Arrogant. Feared and adored in equal measure. She wore her pride like a crown, her violet inner disciple robes embroidered with white phoenixes, her every gesture elegant, calculated.
She was the type who walked above others.
And precisely the kind Raiyen needed.
He watched her from a distance that first day, noting her patterns. She trained at dawn with her frost blade, meditated beneath the soul trees in the mid-afternoon, and took tea alone at twilight.
Always alone.
That loneliness was the crack.
On the second day, he approached as a servant.
She stood in the courtyard, blade dancing through the air like wind over ice. Each swing left streaks of frost along the flagstones.
Raiyen waited until she finished, then stepped forward, bowed low. "Senior Sister Lin, I've been sent to serve tea."
She glanced at him—sharp, disinterested. "You? I don't recognize your face."
"I'm new," he said simply.
She turned away. "Then leave the tea. And go."
He obeyed. For now.
But not before slipping a single drop of spirit-numbing powder into the second cup—the one she always took for herself.
It wasn't poison. It would cause no harm. Just a gentle numbness to the mind, a soft haze. Enough to dull her usual sharp defenses.
On the third day, he returned again. This time, she didn't question his presence. She merely nodded when he bowed and poured the tea. Her expression was distant, unreadable. Her lips parted slightly after the first sip.
"You have a quiet presence," she murmured.
Raiyen bowed deeper. "I am not worthy of being noticed."
Her eyes flicked toward him. "Hmm. That kind of humility is rare these days."
Raiyen let silence stretch. He watched the wind play with her loose strands of hair, the way her shoulders dipped ever so slightly—as if tired.
"You are admired by many," he said softly. "But admired from a distance."
She blinked. "What do you mean?"
"You are cold, like your sword," Raiyen said. "Beautiful, untouchable. They watch you, but none approach. I imagine that gets... lonely."
A dangerous statement. But the haze was working.
She didn't frown. Didn't retort.
Instead, she stared at the pond.
"No one in this sect sees me," she said at last. "Not truly. They see my status. My bloodline. My strength. But they do not see me."
He remained still, letting her words hang.
Then, with the barest edge of vulnerability, he said, "I see you."
Silence.
Her breath caught.
She turned her head slowly, gaze searching his face. "What is your name?"
"I am called Yao," Raiyen lied smoothly. "Just a servant."
Her lips curled, amused. "A servant who speaks like a poet."
"I am only speaking truth."
She didn't smile, but something in her expression softened. For the first time, he saw the wall crack—just a little.
That evening, the Sinbound System stirred within him.
> [Sin Aura Detected: Lust, Pride, Envy]
[Sin Points Gained: +14]
[First Harem Target: Lin Xue – Captivation Level: 12%]
[New Trait Available: Sinbound Threads – Enables subtle emotional binding through repeated interaction.]
He smiled to himself as he walked away from her courtyard.
It had begun.
Over the next week, he continued his game.
He brought her tea every evening. Listened more than he spoke. Occasionally offered a thoughtful observation, a quiet compliment, never too bold. And always, always, he looked at her—not as a disciple, not as a goddess—but as a woman.
By the seventh evening, she had come to expect him.
By the tenth, she waited.
And on the twelfth, she spoke first.
"They say the Frost Sword Arts require solitude," she murmured as he poured her tea. "But I wonder… if that solitude isn't the blade's curse, rather than its requirement."
Raiyen set the teacup down with careful hands. "A blade is forged by fire. But even fire craves something to warm."
Their eyes met. A moment of silence passed between them.
And this time, she did smile.
That night, the Sinbound System pulsed inside his chest like a second heartbeat.
> [Captivation Level: 41%]
[New Affection Path Unlocked: Lin Xue – Sinbound Companion Potential: High]
[Lust Sin Harvested: +65 Points]
[Status Effect: Mind-Web – She now dreams of you. Influence deepens passively.]
Raiyen leaned back in the servant's quarters, hands behind his head, eyes closed.
He wasn't just surviving now.
He was weaving his web.
One thread at a time.