Chapter Text
Xiao Xingchen yelps in unexpected pain and grabs at his left hand.
“Xiao Xingchen?” Baoshan Sanren asks him softly.
“S-sorry...my hand really hurts all of a su-“ he’s cut off when a pained scream forces itself out of his throat as his whole being is filled with pain.
Next thing he knows, he’s laying down with a couple of Baoshan Sanren’s other pupils hovering over him worryingly.
“He’s awake!” sounds like it’s emanating from everywhere, and he thinks sees a blurry person run off before he grabs his head in pain from how loud everything is, before being struck by how...off his left hand feels.
Baoshan Sanren storms into the room and kicks all the other disciples out, before sitting down beside him. “Are you alright?”
“I...think so? My left hand feels weird...like, I have more fingers than I’m supposed to? But I still only have five, right?”
Baoshan Sanren’s face darkens a bit, before she forces a smile and embraces the traumatized nine-year-old.
“I...have some good news and bad news for you.”
Xiao Xingchen glances away from his...wrong hand to look at her.
“Good news, it seems you’re one of the lucky few cultivators who have a soulmate. I could feel the spiritual energy leading out of you right before you passed out. Unfortunately, it appears your soulmate has just gone through...something traumatic regarding their hand.”
Xiao Xingchen gapes at her.
He had, of course, heard of soulmates; pairs of cultivators whose souls and cores fit together perfectly, and if they become cultivation partners, both of their cultivation will be able to rapidly improve. Some especially close soulmates can faintly even sense the others emotions no matter how far apart they are.
Of course, this comes with a downside. They are more susceptible to qi deviation if the two halves don’t get along, and if one half of a pair gets severely injured, the other half will experience phantom pains in the same locations. Worst of all, if one half of a pair dies, the other half will reportedly experience an unbearable, indescribable pain, and most surviving halves succumb to qi deviation soon enough.
Xiao Xingchen wants to fly out of the mountain, believing he can feel the faint pull in a certain direction now that he’s truly paying attention to it, but he’s bound by Baoshan Sanren‘s arms encapsulating him, and all he can do is cry.
Cry for his soulmate, cry for their shared pain, cry for whatever circumstances led to...this.
Eventually he calms down, and while the wrongness he feels from his left hand hasn’t gone away, he tries to ignore it and pay attention during his next class.
Even if he couldn’t protect them this time, hopefully he can become a great cultivator and protect them in the future.
He tries to ignore the looks with an odd mix of pity and jealousy his fellow disciples sneak in his direction.
Xue Yang isn’t sure why, but despite the horrible pain he’s in, and how alone he is, something deep inside of him feels oddly comforted by...something?
It’s not enough to overcome the unbearable pain of having his whole hand crushed, but it’s enough to confuse him once he notices it.
It’s not fair!
He did the job he was asked to, why would that warrant running over his hand in such a way!?
The toddler pathetically grasping at his bloody hand at least manages to garner enough pity to get some free bandages from a passerby, and he struggles to wrap the hand. Once it’s all wrapped up though, he can better pay attention to the odd feeling in his stomach.
He takes a couple days to give himself some time to recuperate from the worst of the injury, and happily takes advantage of other adults’ piteous looks for free food in the meanwhile, though none of it is quite as good as he’s sure that plate of sweets he missed out on is.
Eventually he builds up the courage to unwrap the bandages and see the extent of the damage, and starts crying once he sees how far gone his pinky is.
His cries gather the notice of some adults, and before he knows it he’s been swooped up and brought to a healer, and apparently he’d looked so pathetic that the complete strangers were willing to pay for all his medical assistance, as he ends up staying with the healer for quite a while until the burgeoning infection in his hand goes away.
While the healer was able to save most of his fingers, his pinky finger is too far gone, and he sobs at the sight of his hideous hand after it’s amputated, weakly punching the healer with his normal hand after being offered a comforting hug.
He runs away that night, not caring about the risk of infection in the site of amputation.
Something in him is filled with an intense wanderlust, and he tries to follow the direction of the odd pull in him.