Deep in the Moonlight Training Pavilion, where sword qi lingers like mist and time slows under the ancient formations, stood a young woman—blade in hand, trembling.
She was dressed in light blue robes, her black hair tied back, and her eyes filled with uncertainty.
This was Arya, the daughter of a forgotten elder, once dismissed as too gentle for cultivation. But Priyanshu saw something else.
He saw potential.
More precisely—he saw a blank canvas.
"Hold your stance," Priyanshu instructed, stepping behind her.
His voice was calm, authoritative. It made her flinch—then steel herself.
"I—I'm trying," Arya replied, biting her lip. "I just... I don't want to kill."
Priyanshu smiled faintly. "You don't need to want it. You need to understand it."
He stepped closer, guiding her arms gently. "Killing isn't about hatred. It's about resolve. The will to protect. Or the will to dominate. Both come from the same seed—desire."
Arya's blade shimmered as his energy flowed into her.
[System Notification: You are guiding a potential companion with unstable Dao. Do you wish to mold her path?][Options: Righteous Blade | Shadow Flower | Blood Empress]
"System, choose... Shadow Flower."
[Confirmed. Shadow Flower Path Initiated. Companion Arya will awaken the duality Dao: mercy and murder.]
Arya gasped as energy surged through her meridians. The sword in her hand sang. Her gentle spiritual aura twisted—tempered.
"I... I feel it," she whispered, her eyes glowing faint violet. "Like a wind inside me. Calm and violent at the same time."
"Good," Priyanshu said, retreating a step, eyes cold. "Now, slash the puppet."
He gestured toward a training dummy.
Arya hesitated—but then, like a breeze slicing through silence, her sword moved.
The dummy exploded into pieces.
[Shadow Flower Passive Acquired: When calm, her aura heals allies. When provoked, it poisons enemies.]
[Companion Arya's loyalty increased. Hidden admiration detected.]
Priyanshu turned away, hiding a sly smirk.
"You're not weak, Arya. Just unsharpened."
Arya blushed faintly. "Thank you, Priyanshu... Master."
He raised a brow at the word. "I'm just a guide."
"But a dangerous one," she replied with a shy smile.
Elsewhere, a council of elders reviewed Arya's progress.
"How did she leap an entire cultivation stage in one session?!"
"This must be interference—an artifact perhaps?"
"Or... someone with a hidden method."
They started investigating.
But Priyanshu had already erased all traces—he always did.
One more piece on the board. One more thread in the web.
And Arya?
She was no longer just a gentle blade.
She was becoming a flower with thorns.