Zhu Fen was stunned by pure disbelief. She had done as her senior sister had recomnded. She waited by the gates for a wandering cultivator of an appropriate cultivation level and, after weeks of wasted ti, finally found one. Only to have the man sohow elude her spiritual sense and disappear into the city. It had only been pure luck that she was close enough to sense him again when he finally unveiled himself. When she found him standing on the beach wearing a serene expression that rivaled so monks she’d seen, Zhu Fen had issued a perfectly appropriate challenge to him. Then, he had, she still couldn’t believe it, said no. He hadn’t just said no but leveled that denial at her with absolute conviction. Her. Zhu Fen. Of the mighty and respected Stormy Ocean sect. Who did that wandering cultivator think he was to turn down her honorable challenge? He should be honored that soone of her sect would even deign to look at him. He should, in a panic, Zhu Fen realized that the man was walking away while she was busy thinking.
“Stop!” she commanded, only to watch him continue to retreat toward the city.
What should she do? No one ever turned down a challenge. It was unheard of, unthinkable, and it was happening to her right now. She couldn’t go back to the sect like that. She’d never live down the sha of it. The only mber of the Stormy Ocean sect ever to be denied a duel by a wandering cultivator. Oh no, she decided, he will fight. She would make him fight. Clenching her fists, she called out again.
“Stop, or I’ll-,” she never got another word out.
The wandering cultivator whirled on her. “You’ll what? Tell lies about ? Leverage the power of your sect to make my life hard? Send others from your sect to hound until I agree?”
The words themselves ant little to her. Of course, that was what she had ant to do. Except, she knew the appropriate words for it. They weren’t lies, just inducents for wandering cultivators to accept their places as useful, but disposable tools for more honorable sect mbers. It wasn’t leverage, just the fine art of persuasion. Her sect brothers and sisters wouldn’t hound, simply encourage. Yet, it wasn’t the words he said that pinned her in place. It was the look on his face. She had never, in her entire life, had anyone look at her with such contempt. That contempt for her, her sect, for everything she held dear, burned in him with such purity that it was a wonder to her that his glare didn’t reduce her to cinders where she stood. Before she could muster her defense, he carried on, the contempt for her growing even more vivid.
“And then there’s the matter of your friend who thinks I didn’t notice her. I expect she’s here to make sure that I die of my wounds in the event that your challenge fails. Right? After all, you must ensure that the pretend honor of the Rippling Mud Puddle sect cannot be sullied by a re wandering cultivator.”
The wandering cultivator pointed to the exact spot where Sun Xue was hiding. Fen watched as her very sheepish-looking friend stepped out from behind a small sand dune. Although, Fen thought, she should be sheepish getting caught out by a re wandering cultivator like that. When they’d discussed this plan, it was perfectly reasonable. They had to protect the reputation of the sect. It was their duty. It was the honorable thing to do. Of course, she couldn’t expect this farr or rchant and whatever he really was to understand anything about real honor.
“All of this,” he continued, “despite the fact that I went out of my way to avoid you. Traveled across an entire city and ca to a place where I clearly ant to be alone. All so you could have a challenge that didn’t an anything.”
“How dare you-,” she began, only to be cut off again.
“Because, after all, the only thing that really matters is what you want. What you need. Right? Well, just so we’re clear, let tell you what you just cost .”
“Cost?” Zhu Fen repeated.
Where all of the man’s other words failed to make so much as a mark on her cold, precise reasoning, that lone word sank ho. Cost. A horrible, sick feeling blood in Zhu Fen’s stomach. She thought back to the way that he had been standing there, his face so calm, so at peace, and she knew. It had been obvious if she’d been paying attention. She’d seen it often enough in the sect and even experienced it herself on two morable occasions. In hindsight, she recognized that sense of calm in monts before…
“I was seconds away from a mont of enlightennt,” he said in a voice devoid of any emotion.
Sun Xue had the good grace to gasp. In the sect, to interrupt such a mont was a taboo of the highest order. One could be banished from the sect for it. One could be executed for it. While Fen didn’t think they would actually execute her for interrupting the enlightennt of a wandering cultivator, there would be punishnts if they learned the truth. Dire punishnts. Zhu Fen tried to rally. Tried to defend herself.
“I didn’t know,” she said.
Then it was back, that contempt for her, even more potent than before. Except, this ti, the wandering cultivator had honed its edge razor fine.
“No. You simply didn’t care.”
Zhu Fen searched for the words, but none ca. She looked at Sun Xue, but the other girl was staring resolutely at the ground, her cheeks bright red with sha. When Zhu Fen looked back at the wandering cultivator, she couldn’t et his gaze for more than a mont. He was right. She hadn’t cared what business he’d been about. She hadn’t cared that he took a great deal of trouble to avoid her. She had only cared about herself. The man only spoke one more ti.
“So, understand when I say this. If either of you draws a weapon, I will end you both.”
Zhu Fen had been on the receiving end of killing intent before. At least, she thought she had. The sect had all their disciples train against it with those of a higher cultivation stage, just to prepare them for the possibility. The sheer weight of the killing intent that landed on her in that mont wasn’t simply vast, it was beyond overwhelming. By itself, that would have been enough. Of course, that wasn’t how it worked. The dread was already coursing through her when the sense of his killing intent blazed through her mind. And it was terrifying. It was a world of shadow, fla, towering edifices of stone, and blades so sharp that they could cleave mind from body or soul from fate.
Zhu Fen wasn’t sure how long that sense of destruction cascaded through her mind before she finally found her sense of self again. When she did, the wandering cultivator was gone. Zhu Fen thought that she had never been so relieved to see soone leave. It was only then that she realized that she was crouched on the ground and her blood had darkened a patch of sand beneath her. She reached up to wipe the blood away from her nose. Looking around, she saw Sun Xue sprawled on the ground. Zhu Fen scrambled over to the other girl. Even as she did, a part of her mind told her that she should be very grateful that the wandering cultivator had chosen not to take her up on her offer to duel. By refusing her challenge, he had spared her from his wrath. She did not think she would have, even could have, done the sa in his position. When she got to Sun Xue, the other girl was barely coherent. She looked up at Zhu Fen, confusion on her face, and asked a question that seed all too obvious in retrospect.
“Was that a hidden master?”
“I don’t know, Xue,” Zhu Fen admitted. “I honestly don’t know what he was.”
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