The Azure Cloud Sect was a monolith of jade and ambition floating amidst the clouds. To the
mortals living in the valleys below, it was heaven. To Li Wei, who stood at the base of the
Thousand-Step Staircase for the second time in his life, it was a graveyard of dreams.
Ten years ago, he had knelt here, his knees bleeding on the stone, begging for a chance to
wash floors just to learn a single breathing technique. He had been kicked down the stairs by a
laughing outer disciple, told that trash should rot in the mud.
Today, he returned. But he did not kneel. He stood beside a goddess.
Su Mei hovered slightly above the ground, her feet not touching the dust. The Sutra of the
Frozen Heavens had altered her physiology to the point where the earth itself seemed to repel
her, or perhaps she was simply too pure to touch it. She wore a veil of white silk, but her
eyes—cold, blue, and piercing—were visible, scanning the massive gate with an air of appraisal
rather than awe.
"Is this the place that rejected you?" Su Mei asked. Her voice was low, carrying a resonance
that vibrated in Li Wei's chest.
"Yes," Li Wei replied, adjusting the heavy pack on his shoulders. He was dressed in fine
merchant robes, but next to her ethereal presence, he looked like a peddler standing beside an
empress. "This is the Azure Cloud Sect. The strongest power in the region."
"It looks... small," Su Mei commented, tilting her head.
Li Wei smiled bitterly. "To a Foundation Establishment cultivator, perhaps. To the rest of us, it is
a mountain."
"Let us go," she commanded.
She didn't walk up the stairs. She surged forward, her spiritual pressure unfurling like a banner
of war. She didn't hide her cultivation base. Foundation Establishment. In a world where most
disciples struggled for twenty years to reach Qi Condensation Level 8, a nineteen-year-old
Foundation Establishment cultivator was a monster. A unicorn.
As they ascended, the pressure of her aura alerted the gatekeepers. Two disciples in blue robes
flew down on swords, their faces stern.
"Halt! Who dares intrude on the Azure Cloud—"
Su Mei merely glanced at them. The temperature on the staircase plummeted forty degrees.
The disciples' swords frosted over, becoming heavy and sluggish. They stumbled in the air,
barely maintaining their flight.
"I am Su Mei," she announced, her voice amplified by Qi so that it echoed up to the main peaks.
"I am here to join the sect."
The commotion was instantaneous.
Within minutes, rainbows of light streaked across the sky. Elders. Five of them. They landed on
the plaza at the top of the stairs, their robes billowing. They were old monsters, their eyes
shining with greed as they sensed Su Mei's bone age and cultivation level.
"Nineteen years old..." an Elder with a red beard gasped. "Perfect Foundation Establishment. A
Natural Ice Spirit Body!"
"A genius! A peerless genius has come to our gate!" another Elder, a woman with a hawk-like
nose, shouted, ignoring dignity. "Child, come to my Waterfall Peak! I will make you a Core
Disciple immediately!"
"Nonsense! She belongs to the Sword Peak!"
They bickered over her like merchants over a prize heifer. They didn't even look at Li Wei. To them, he was part of the background scenery, invisible and irrelevant.
Su Mei stood silent, letting them fight. She enjoyed the reverence. Li Wei watched her profile.
He saw a tiny smirk playing on her lips—the same smirk she used to have when she outsmarted
a supplier in the mall, but colder. Sharper.
Finally, the Sect Master descended. A middle-aged man with an aura like the deep ocean. The
bickering stopped.
"You wish to join?" the Sect Master asked, his eyes locked on Su Mei.
"I do," Su Mei said, bowing slightly—a peer greeting a senior, not a junior greeting a master.
"But I have a condition."
"Name it," the Sect Master said instantly. For a talent like this, he would give her a city.
Su Mei pointed a pale, slender finger at Li Wei.
"This is Li Wei. He comes with me."
The Sect Master frowned. He finally looked at Li Wei. His spirit sense swept over Li Wei's body,
stripping away his secrets.
"A mortal," the Sect Master scoffed. "Five-element mixed root. Broken potential. Bone age
twenty-eight. He is waste wood."
Li Wei flinched. The words still stung, even after ten years.
"He is my husband," Su Mei stated. The temperature dropped again. "Where I go, he goes. If he
cannot enter, I will go to the Blood Fire Sect. I heard they are looking for talents."
The threat hung in the air. The Elders gasped. The Blood Fire Sect was their rival.
The Sect Master narrowed his eyes. "Child, the path of cultivation is solitary. A mortal husband
is a tether. He will age. He will distract you. He will be a weakness."
"That is my concern," Su Mei said. "Do you accept or not?"
The Sect Master weighed the options. A peerless genius versus the inconvenience of feeding a
mortal mouth. The choice was obvious.
"He may enter," the Sect Master conceded. "But the Azure Cloud Sect does not house idlers.
He cannot be a disciple. He has no talent."
He looked at Li Wei with profound disdain. "He can enter as your personal servant. He will be
registered in the Servant Hall. He will wear gray, he will perform labor, and he will have no status
within the sect. That is the only way a mortal can live on the Spirit Peaks."
Li Wei felt his stomach drop. Servant.
He looked at Su Mei. He waited for her to argue. He waited for her to say, 'No, he is my
husband, treat him with respect.'
Su Mei turned to him. Her eyes were pragmatic.
"Husband," she said softly. "It is just a title. It doesn't change who we are. We need the
resources here. The Spirit Veins on the main peaks are ten times denser than the outside."
She was asking him to kneel. She was asking him to swallow the very pride he had preserved
for ten years.
Li Wei looked at the desperate hope in the Elders' eyes. He looked at the ambition burning in his
wife's eyes. If he said no, she would leave with him. She would honor her word. But she would
resent him. Every day, she would wonder 'what if'.
"I accept," Li Wei said. His voice was hoarse.
He stepped forward and bowed to the Sect Master, bending his spine until it cracked. "This lowly
one... accepts the position of servant."
The Sect Master sneered. "Good. At least he knows his place."
[System Notification: Host Humiliation Detected.] [Analysis: Host has sacrificed dignity
for Beneficiary's advancement.] [Reward: 500 Support Points.] [Title Unlocked: The
Shadow Behind the Light.] Su Mei was swept away by the Elders instantly, taken to the main hall to receive her tokens and
rewards. Li Wei was left standing on the plaza with a junior deacon.
"Follow me, trash," the deacon spit, tossing a coarse gray robe at Li Wei's feet. "You need to
change. You're smelling up the plaza."
Li Wei picked up the robe. The fabric was rough, woven from hemp. It scratched his fingers.
As he walked toward the servant quarters, located at the damp, dark base of the mountain, he
looked up. He could see Su Mei flying toward the highest peak, surrounded by golden light,
laughing as the Sect Master explained the secrets of the sect.
She didn't look back.
He realized then that the distance between them wasn't just vertical. It was dimensional. She
was ascending to the heavens, and he was voluntarily chaining himself to the mud so she
wouldn't have to worry about gravity.
He put on the gray robe. It fit perfectly. It felt like a shroud.