The Cursed Pale Orchid Cultivation Method!

Granny Some pulls Fook Yu into a dusty shed, packed full of farming tools and big bales of straw, where she shows him to a spot where there's an old, cracked and stained mirror propped up against the wall.

"Han Some...used to shave here." She says, with a quiet sort of reverence.

"My...baby...I wish I had been kinder."

Meanwhile, for Fook Yu to percieve this soft, sentimental side of the Granny all of a sudden...

Made him absolutely furious!

Granny Some looked unto him with horror as he stood up, angrily pointing at her.

"Argh! I can't stand for such hypocrisy!"

"Now, you're acting so sorry about Han Some's death; when just before, you were yammering on about useless he is!"

"That's..." She trails, finding herself caught.

The thoughtless ogre didn't care to hear her explanation, though! As he plopped down on top of one of the stacked hay bales in front of the mirror, to admire his newly acquired beauty.

'Han Some really IS handsome--no kidding!'

His face is long with sharp black eyes prone to coldly staring, and a perfectly angular jaw structure, which when paired with his many other fine features create an image of a man that any woman would want for a husband.

'Hah! His eyebrows are even trimmed!'

'I look like a showy prince with a rotten attitude!'

He turned to Granny Some, laughing.

"Your son really made himself up nice, for just a farmhand."

"Huh!" She scoffs, turning away bitterly. "All that boy cared about was his looks--and could hardly be called a farmhand, because I would always have to drag him into doing any work!"

"It's all because of that...CURSED cultivation method, he inherited from his father."

He had been barely following her words--more focused on admiring his own gorgeous reflection--but immediately sat upright at the last part of what she said.

"What's that you're saying? About a cursed cultivation method?"

She looks at me with sadness.

"I shall not speak of it!"

"It is a stain upon his bloodline that doomed him in life--just as it would you!"

She makes a move to leave, but he grabs her.

"I was warned, by a wise old sage on a cloud, that I would be reincarnated into a body with the most cursed cultivation method that exists."

There is desperation in his voice:

"With my newfound life, I must become as admirably strong as possible."

"Unlike my previous life--as a filthy ogre!"

Granny Some silently locks stares with him a while: as if plumbing the depths of his soul to determine his worthiness of recieving her secret knowledge, before turning away with a weary sigh.

"It will bring you...great misery, to know."

Fook Yu quickly nods. "That's fine. I have known misery all my life, sleeping alone in the cold wilderness. Having to steal, and sometimes kill to survive!"

"Yes, but this is an all-different kind of misery..."

She drifts away from Fook Yu, in a daze.

"Han Some...went through 15 different girls, and each one left taking a piece of his heart with him." She crosses her hands over her heart, closing her eyes like she is about to say a prayer. "By the end, he had become the type of man I despise: selfish, lazy, vain and constantly angry..."

"What makes you say that, huh?"

She turned to him with a pained, blank stare.

"It's because...there was simply nothing left, but for his pride."

Her words are like a hail of sharp knives.

Fook Yu leaned back against the hay bale, feeling the individual straws scratch against his skin, through the fabric of his--or what was once Han Some's--beautiful robe.

"What is it then, old lady? Tell me already."

"I don't want your damn sobstory!"

He watched her swallow nervously, before her watery gaze met his again.

"You must...break the hearts of maidens."

"It is the Pale Orchid school of Dual Cultivation: drawing solely from the Yang component, instead of both essences at once simultaneously."

"It feeds on discord, as opposed to harmony."

"Seperation, rather than union."

Fook You narrows his eyes, in deep consideration of her words.

"So, instead of attaining love, I must..."

"Deny her affections." She says, as she makes a gesture with her hands, tears pouring down from her eyes. "Break apart. Divorce. Devastate and destroy her heart, rendering her bitter for the rest of her days."

"Ah." Fook Yu breathes deeply. "I...see."

Indeed, even the bloodstained former ogre is brought to disquiet--by such severe cruelty, as is described of such a vile cultivation method.

It echoed moments of his own past...

It mirroring times when he'd had his own brushes with women...

Curious, heated young things that would sometimes come prowling through his jungles, sometimes pretending to be unwary travellers, all secretly lustful of the legendary bandit. He would pleasure himself with these girls, for a night, and be gone by morning--before they awoke. Until next time.

However, the ogre--like a father tiger, in his savagery--would immediately cease all contact with any of these repeat concubines, should he observe any of their bellies starting to grow...

No matter how the girl begged, and cried, and screamed his name.

And the ogre, besieged by remorse, would lie awake some nights by a crackling fire, listening to the ceaseless chirps of the crickets beneath the endless blanket of stars above...and he would think.

He would think of all those ruined young girls, now burdened with fatherless children...

Those he'd stolen from, and those he gutted...

Fook Yu is a man who can toss his morality aside whenever his life depends on it, but not during such times when he is alone...left to just his brooding thoughts.

He broods over these remembrances as he walks with Granny Some, to tend the pigs.

Through his meditations, he forms a decision:

"Regardless...I shall go through with my cultivation. Even if it costs me what remains of my soul!"

Granny Some looks to him with pleading eyes.

"Fook Yu, please! Reconsider--"

"No!" He roars, swinging his sword in a fit of rage, then facing her with his teeth clenched like a snarling wolf--from remembering the smug contempt, upon that little girl's face, as the life slowly bled out of him...

"No...I must...have my revenge..."

"I cannot fully appreciate this new life I've been given--so long as she lives!"

Subsequent to this tirade, Granny Some-- having witnessed the full extent of Fook Yu's fury--gives only a feeble nod, accepting that it would be futile to try to stop him now.

"Mei Rei Mei...she is a virtuous hero."

She stares out across the paddy fields, with hesitation.

"I shouldn't help you. It will bring bad karma..."

"Hiwever, if I can trust that you'll stay true to your former word--"

"Yes, Granny." Fook Yu interrupts. "Just as I said, I will provide for you when I can. It would go against my dignity, otherwise: to leave you stranded here, uncared for."

She gives a weak laugh, as it is clear she is being overcome with weariness.

"My, my...I suppose I am left with no choice..."

"I must place my wellbeing...in the hands of a bandit's socalled "dignity.""

Thus, an agreement is formed.

Fook Yu is provided a map, along with directions to the imperial capital, where she tells him Meirei Mei is most likely to be found, as it is where most high spirit rank cultivators base themselves, hidden away from the rest of the world except for when they embark on pilgrimages.

"It is an ancient, floating city, found in the foothills of the dormant Odun volcano-- shielded from outsiders by a barrier of impenetrable spiritual Ying mist."

"How would I pass the barrier?" Fook Yu asks.

"I cannot say," Granny replies, with a grin. "I myself have never tried."

"Hmm. I shall ask around in that case."

Before he is to set out, Granny prepares him a basketful of food to carry, as well as folded changes of clothes and sleeping blankets, along with--

"What is this?" Fook Yu asks, whens hands him a sparkling ruby necklace.

"It...belonged to Han Some."

"When he first bought it, he vowed he would break hearts no longer--that he would give it as a gift to the next girl he became close with, and propose to marry her."

She frowns, her eyes drooping with sorrow.

"I couldn't bear to sell it..and there's no use keeping it here, so..."

Fook Yu nods. "Alright. I'll take it."

Then, she surprises him with an embrace, bawling loudly, as no further words need be exchanged--

This was a mother'a final farewell to her son.

As Fook Yu embarks, after recieving these parting gifts and well wishes for the road ahead, and does so feeling overwhelmed by a strange sort of melancholy in his chest--a unique kind of unease that matches what he felt the first experience he had taking something without being noticed...

A feeling like he'd just gotten away with murder.