Jade Throne Realm – Central Mainland – Flying Sword Sect Territory
Year of the Jade Rooster – Shining Phase (Because Apparently, Roosters Need Stage Time)
1st Sunday, 7th Feather (Month), 100th Day Celebration
Three feathers had passed since the Sun and Moon cried upon the world. And in that time, the Central Mainland had not so much recovered as collectively agreed to never raise their voices in the presence of infants again.
The Hundred Days Celebration had arrived. An ancient custom marking not only survival through the fragile months of infancy but the first step into spiritual presence. Normally, such ceremonies were modest affairs, held in lotus pavilions or family halls with a few polite gifts, some tearful elders, and a token firework.
This?
This was not that.
This was a full sect lockdown formation arrays glimmering overhead, flags flying from every courtyard, the koi synchronously spelling "Blessings to the Twins" in their pond.
And at the center of it all:
The Divine Miniatures.
Baby One: Xu Meilin.
Clad in sky-blue silks delicately embroidered with ice lotus petals, her white hair coiled into an artfully prim baby bun, a soft blue lotus-shaped birthmark gleaming with spiritual light on her brow.
She was serene. Seraphic. And looked at the offerings like a celestial auditor performing a quarterly review of mortal inadequacy.
Someone presented a Grade B treasure with trembling hands. Meilin blinked slowly, lowered her eyes, and gently, with all the dignity of a three-month-old Bodhisattva turned her head away.
Not a tantrum. Not a shriek.
Just: No.
In silence.
In judgment.
In style.
Baby Two: Xu Lihua.
Draped in fiery amber robes, woven with flame-willow thread, her light brown-gold hair glowed like a sunset filtered through molten rubies. Her lotus mark burned gently crimson on her forehead.
She did not gurgle.
She scoffed.
In baby.
At everyone.
Someone had the audacity the absolute spiritual gall to offer 200,000 cultivation notes and a tamed spirit rat. Lihua did not blink. She closed her eyes, then slowly turned her entire body away, tiny hands folded, expression pure: Why are you poor and proud about it?
The crowd was shifting between awe and emotional crisis.
"These are babies," whispered one disciple.
"They're standards now," whispered another. "My cousin's child's first cry was 'wah.' What even is that?"
"She probably doesn't even have a domain yet."
"Disgusting."
And yet, in a twist that shocked all gathered...
When a low-rank healer from a lesser sect offered a humble blessed charm of longevity—crafted with love, not wealth and a mere fifty notes scraped from her savings...
The twins accepted it.
Meilin gave a soft coo of approval.
Lihua touched it with a fingertip and did not scoff.
Gasps echoed through the chamber like divine slaps to the ego.
Even Xu Minzhi regal, recovered, and spectacular in crimson phoenix robes smiled in pride. Her daughters were not materialistic. No, no. They were accountable.
"You give what you can," she mused aloud to an overwhelmed Elder Bai Hua. "But if you can give more, and don't, well..." She gestured at her daughters. "That's what happens."
Auntie Chen wept silently into her spirit-silk hankie. "Such virtuous little judges... like pocket-sized ancestors."
But the true moment of the day came with the arrival of the Heaven and Hell Sect diplomatic envoys.
The sects should not have known.
No outsider did.
Not even the allies of the Flying Sword Sect knew the gender. Only that twins had been born.
And yet with synchronized smugness the representatives arrived.
Their baskets were more shrine than gift.
Grade S Elixirs still steaming from their forges.
Baby weapons forged in the essence of Dao threads.
Bolts of celestial fabric, rumored to be stitched by crane spirits.
And—most critically—pendants.
One shaped like a Heavenly Snow Phoenix, elegant and ice-bound.
The other, a Hellfire Kirin, roaring with molten pride.
The implication was immediate.
The message, divine.
The twins were the future Matriarchs of Heaven and Hell.
Xu Zhongshan, once again blocked from holding his own daughters, was now blocking other people from trying.
"Who do you think you are?" he hissed to one overeager guest from Mystic Cloud. "They don't even let me."
A sudden wail from inside the ceremonial nursery confirmed it.
The moment someone not from Flying Sword Sect attempted to touch one of the twins...
The baby began to tantrum.
Not cry. Not fuss. Tantrum.
The type that caused the ceiling beams to bend and the spiritual array to emit warning pings.
Zhongshan crossed his arms. "Told you."
Xu Anyue, meanwhile, was watching with a bowl of grapes and entirely too much satisfaction.
"They're adorable."
"They're monsters," Liang sighed happily.
"They judged me this morning," Zhenyan said blandly. "Lihua didn't like my aura. Too sharp. I was sent out."
"You came back?"
"I bribed Meilin with a lotus blossom and got 15 minutes of visitation."
Ancestor Feiyu had tears in his eyes. "It's everything I ever wanted."
"Twin sect matriarchs. Divine babies. Exploding devils. A star eclipse. And they haven't even reached solid foods yet."
Yuling toasted with her tea. "Blessed be the chaos. May they only get worse."
---
Atop the pavilion, two small forms sat in blessed stillness, watching the ceremony with inscrutable gazes.
One baby yawned with the calm of a winter mountain.
The other smirked with the glee of a volcano saving its eruption for next time.
Frost and Fire,
Judgment and Joy,
Daughters of Flying Sword Sect.