Chen Wentian and Long Yifei didn’t have much time to explore the breakthrough in their relationship. He had to continue to search for gifts while she had to continue her studies. But both of them tackled their duties with newfound energy and passion.
A few days after that morning, the scheduled classes of the morning were canceled. Instead, there was an assembly in the grand banquet hall of the main campus building. All new students were gathered as well as the members of the Order. Immortal Dawn Euphony Li Shishi stood in the center of the stage, exuding a holy aura that befitted her status as the head abbotess of the school.
As Long Yifei found her usual spot, her classmate Ye Landou turned and whispered, “Sister Long, where have you been the past few days? I haven’t been able to find you during meals, what happened?”
“Ah, my apologies, Sister Ye. I have been really busy studying the classic of song and dance lately. As you know, I have no background in the classic so it has been a struggle trying to catch up.” Long Yifei replied.
“I see, hehe. Sister Wei said that was probably the reason, I should have trusted her wisdom.” Ye Landou said. “I thought for a moment that you didn’t like us anymore.”
Long Yifei inwardly frowned. There was no need to ask why Ye Landou was so close to Wei Shuangshuang now. Ye Landou and her acolyte Immortal Drifting Axe Han Baohu had accepted a deal from the Seven Potentates. With the Wei Clan being a member of the Seven Potentates, Ye Landou and Wei Shuangshuang were naturally able to get along.
On the other hand, Long Yifei faced mounting pressure from this group that she had befriended in the beginning. Since she had rejected a member of the Seven Potentates at the Gift Exhibit, their outward friendliness was also infused with an abundance of veiled insults and back-handed criticisms. She didn’t want to deal with such nonsense day after day so she had quickly distanced herself from them.
“There is no reason for me to dislike anyone. We’re all good sisters. I am simply too focused on my studies at the moment so I hope you can forward my regret to Sister Wei.” Long Yifei said.
Ye Landou assented but before she could chatter on about other useless things, a wave of spiritual energy swept over the gathered students. Everyone quieted down and faced the stage.
A few breaths later, Li Shishi’s voice drifted towards them all like a song, “Today is the day for a special lecture. It is an important one that we hold each year for all new students. Some that have already joined the Order know of this but the things I will discuss must be emphasized for it deals directly with the survival of our Order, our values, everything we stand for.”She paused to let the severity of her words sink in, “Today, we are going over the five prohibitions of the Order, the four great eccentricities and the one absolute sin. That’s right, they are five prohibitions that our enemy, the Sororal Order of Endless Love, uphold as their virtues. Their minds are twisted. Their spirits are unclean. There is no possibility of harmony between the two Orders, not when they take part in such revolting acts that destroy a woman’s virtue… Now, listen closely!”
The Virtuous Order of Chunzhen valued womanly virtue; purity of body, mind, and spirit. The four classics were considered the epitome of femininity, the right way for women to cultivate so that they could properly serve their acolytes, their men. Standing at the polar opposite was the Sororal Order of Endless Love. They also had four famous paths of cultivation which were referred to as the four great eccentricities.
The first was the eccentricity of shameless clothing. For the Virtuous Order, their clothes were simple and pure white, a symbol of the purity of one’s inner self. The design was highly conservative. There were many layers. Hardly any skin was shown.
The Sororal Order, on the other hand, celebrated shameless clothing, clothes that showed excessive skin, clothes that accentuated one’s sensuality. They loved to wear red but they weren’t limited to a single color. Immortal Fluttering Gown Liang Chuxian, the same Abbotess Liang that tried to kidnap Long Yifei, was a practitioner of this Dao of shameless clothing.
This was improper for Virtuous Order. It was using external materials to shore up the qualities that the women lacked. If a woman lacked womanly qualities, they had to improve themselves from within, not put on a set of slutty clothes.
Along this line of reasoning, the second eccentricity was the Dao of acting and seduction. Acting was the art of hiding one’s true self and presenting themselves as someone they weren’t. It was a lie, a performance, a ruse. For a woman to put on an act to entice her man, it was an admission of their own weakness and a great disrespect to their man.
Seduction was even worse. It represented a vile intent to deceive, to seize a man through mere trickery. There was nothing honorable, nothing womanly about a seductress. They were the worst kind of women, cheap and lacking in morality.
The third great eccentricity was the art of body modification. The Virtuous Order believed that a woman’s body was a pure vessel gifted by the heavens. These included such things as tattoos and body piercings. Apart from ear piercings for earrings, no other body piercings were allowed. The Sororal Order, on the other hand, celebrated all kinds of body modifications. There were all kinds of extra piercings; from tongue piercings, nose piercings, belly button piercings, to even piercings in intimate areas such as the nipples and on their pussy lips.
But that wasn’t all. Body modifications also included unnatural additions or removals of physical characteristics through surgical procedures. The most popular was facial modifications to improve one’s beauty. The second most popular was increasing their breast size and making their buttocks round and plump.
All of these were forbidden by the Virtuous Order because in their eye, no matter how much a person modified their physical body, they could hope to cultivate their inner self. Even if they became the most beautiful woman on the outside, they would still be an ugly toad inside.
The fourth eccentric Dao was not as well defined but it dealt with all kinds of bizarre interests that were intended to fool the opposite sex. They included makeup, perfume, aphrodisiacs, and even hypnotism. Each of these could be used to fool a man, to make them fall for a woman, but they were unnatural and did not rely on a woman’s innate virtue but on external tricks. Thus, they were all taboo.
These four great eccentricities made up the primary ways members of the Sororal Order cultivated. Although the Virtuous Order chose the four classics of song and dance, music, literature, and art, these four great eccentricities were also valid cultivation paths. No matter what the Virtuous Order wanted to say, over the years, their opponent had produced just as many talented and powerful cultivators.
The Virtuous Order could have still gotten along with the Sororal Order if it had just been the four great eccentricities. But it wasn’t the eccentricities. Of the five prohibitions, there was still the absolute sin, the thing that the Virtuous Order absolutely could not accept.
The absolute sin was that the Sororal Order had no regard whatsoever for a woman’s virginity. They did not value it at all and even saw it as a detriment. The natural result of such belief was that the Sororal Order had a completely opposite view of the relationship between a man and a woman.
For women of the Virtuous Order, they protected their virginity above all else. The man to who they lost their virginity, would be their husband for life. This was what it meant to be virtuous, to be pure of body, mind, and spirit.
The Sororal Order had no such rules. Their women could sleep with whoever they wanted and as many as they wanted. There were no restrictions. It all depended on who could provide them the most benefits for the services they could provide.
These women played with men’s hearts. They were disloyal. They were selfish. They cast men aside when they became useless. These women were obscene and despicable. They were sluts, prostitutes, common whores. They were the worst kinds of women in existence!
As far as the Virtuous Order was concerned, the Sororal Order was an existential threat. There could be no future for the Virtuous Order while the Sororal Order thrived.
“Hear me! Sisters of the Virtuous Order!” Li Shishi’s voice thundered across the grand hall, “Remember everything I have said today. The Sororal Order, they are your enemy. They are evil incarnate. If you get into a fight them, kill without mercy, take no prisoners. Understand?”
“Yes, Abbotess Li!”
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