One fire and one ice, they were always at odds with each other. What was more interesting was that it was Bingqing who was there to complain about Yujie and not the other way around. Bingqing was usually the icy one, her calmness and icy features always seem to upset Yujie by not responding as she wanted to. So it was quite interesting to see Bingqing to be the one complaining about Yujie this time.

“Father, she’s been going around telling people that I have a crush on some old musclehead from the Kang Clan. Whenever I try to deny this ridiculous claim she just comes back afterwards and tells them I’m being shy. It’s utterly infuriating. Yating is ignoring all my complaints and even when I try to take matters into my own hands the others just stop me.”

Sage found the whole thing funny at first, but then he realized the seriousness of it all. These two sisters had been antagonistic since they were children and their siblings had just gotten used to it. Even now that they were many hundreds of years old, they still didn’t take this rivalry of theirs seriously. As Cultivators they weren’t new to using force to display their dominance or get their way, but the problem here was that neither of them could ever get the upper hand. They were always so evenly matched in battle that they resorted back to verbal battles. Yet, in the past, Bingqing was always so cool and collected, no matter what Yujie said Bingqing would just treat her like an annoying fly to be swatted away.

This was the origin of their rivalry after all, Yujie was extremely animated and enthusiastic about everything. Whenever she tried to share something with her older sister, Bingqing’s icy personality gave her no response whatsoever. Yujie took this as a challenge, doing wilder and more extraordinary things to try and get a response out of her sister. Bingqing on the other hand would only grow more cold as she was constantly being annoyed by this younger sister of hers.

They’d all assumed this sibling rivalry would fade with time like most of them do, but sadly it only seemed to get worse.

Is it worse, or is there something else going on here?

Usually this rivalry of theirs was quite one-sided with Yujie constantly annoying her sister. Bingqing had always ignored her without any problems whatsoever. Why would she suddenly reach a tipping point after all these years? What happened that could finally puncture Bingqing’s icy facade?

“Tell me more about this old musclehead. Isn’t Yujie worried about slandering him? Won’t this start some sort of incident?”

“Yujie has never made any claims about Kang Chin, only about me. She is hellbent on embarrassing me!”

Bingqing getting worked up about something was so utterly against her usual character that he knew he was on the right track. Something was definitely going on with her. He waited a moment while she continued to fume about this little outburst. Then she realized she was silent and that he was just calmly watching her and waiting for her to continue. Only then did she realize what his original question was about, “Kang Chin is a Hall Master of the Kang Clan. I’ve only spoken with him a few times, but Yujie was spying on me and now she’s using it to ruin me.”

“Ruin you? Since when does my little Ice Princess Bingqing care about what Yujie says?”

“I don’t want her slanderous words to ruin our relationship with the Kang Clan!”

“Really? So, if they were to think that you fancied one of them it would ruin the relationship between our Clans? Have you forgotten about alliance through marriage? Oh, you probably hate that because of your Mother. Oops, forgive me for bringing it up.”

When Sage spoke, Bingqing suddenly lost her aggrieved attitude and instantly returned to the demeanor he was used to seeing on her. She sat up straight and all the emotion left her face, giving her that signature Ice Princess look she usually had. Sage held back his smile as she knew that this was a sort of armor for this daughter of his. She was far from being emotionless and uncaring, but this was just how she put on a strong front and hid all weakness.

“I will always put the interests of the Clan before my own desires.”

“Is that so? Well, then I will talk to Yating about Kang Chin’s qualifications. Only the best are worthy of a marriage alliance with my children.”

Bingqing didn’t say anything else, just nodding and then rising up from her chair. She gave him a little bow, “It was wonderful speaking with you again, Father.”

Just like that she turned and walked out of his home. Sage smiled and didn’t say anything after her. Given that she didn’t object at all he was pretty sure that she actually had a bit of a crush on that fellow. Yujie was just embarrassing her by shouting the truth for everyone to hear. All it took was for him to claim a relationship between the two was a ‘duty’ she should do for the Clan and he could see a smile hiding behind those cold eyes of hers. She was just too attached to this facade of hers and Sage didn’t have a problem playing along.

Before he notified an attendant to send for his next child he used a set of Messaging Jades to contact Ling and Jiao. He could go years without talking to them over his own matters, but when it came to their children he knew they wouldn’t want to be left out. Jiao specifically, as Bingqing came from her belly. After a few moments the two ‘calls’ connected and he felt two sets of eyes boring into him. This was especially terrifying because the Messaging Jade was only a sort of mental telephone that transmitted words as thoughts. For him to feel their glares through the silence was quite impressive.

“To what do we owe the honor of being graced by our illustrious husband’s presence? Do you need someone to bargain down the price of something?”

“You’re being too kind. He’s probably just a horny old dog that is tired of that world full of floozies. Go on then, start trying to use those honeyed words on us. Let’s see how much effort you’ve put into them this time.”

“Ahh, my two precious flowers. The Sun and the Moon of my life. I have returned to the Clan and found it cold without your presence. I was hoping this long winter would finally be over, but sadly I am still left without your warmth. I can only soothe my pained heart with the thought that I am the luckiest man in all the worlds as I not only have one perfect companion, but two. The heavens truly shone down on me when I was blessed to meet you both,” in the middle of his long speech he was suddenly interrupted by both of them speaking in unison, “Enough!”

Since they cut him off he didn’t speak anymore of that topic and immediately changed the subject, “Have you two heard about Bingqing? Our little Ice Princess seems to be in love.”