Despite her heart full of dark, oppressive thoughts, the manner in which Lan Xiaohui draws me from my sheath is so incredibly gentle that it perfectly describes her Dao Heart; the mind, heart, and sword are united as one, but also separate.

In Lan Xiaohui’s hands, it is not the sword that is the outsider here, but the mounting anger and fury in her heart.

It was only a year ago that Lan Xiaohui truly started to pursue the Dao of the Sword, and she has already come this far — though this is not so surprising to me because of the circumstances of her daily life back then. She had to understand the sword; she had to wield her sword while disregarding the untruths in her false heart.

I am proud of my master and the emerging, iron-clad righteousness that springs forth in her Dao Heart to cut through the darkness. Not a moral righteousness, but a sword’s righteousness — itself far more terrifying and brutal than any mortal fire.

My vessel impacts Wei Sheng’s sword with enough force to cause the other cultivator to stumble back several steps, overwhelmed momentarily both by Lan Xiaohui’s daring and sudden offensive, but also her speed and power.

“While I am grateful to Wu Yulan for helping me enter the sect without having to compete, it seems that I was mistaken in thinking that this was an acceptable method,” Lan Xiaohui says as she walks toward Wei Sheng. “You only understand power, so I should have done as advised and been shameless.”

Wei Sheng’s expression is complicated, but he immediately understands the situation. Lan Xiaohui is not to be underestimated.

A brilliant, light blue light begins to envelop Wei Sheng’s sword as the halo of his Core Formation shimmers into existence behind him, almost a fully complete circle.

“You… Shameless...?” Wei Sheng growls. “You are just a fraud, and you still dare act so arrogantly in front of me? You are tired of life! I am Wei Sheng of the Nine Clouds sect! After this, your life will be over!”

Unlike Lan Xiaohui, Wei Sheng is completely consumed by anger caused by Lan Xiaohui’s affront of daring to challenge him, and he dashes forward and swings his now-glowing sword at my owner.

Lan Xiaohui interposes my vessel into the path of Wei Sheng’s sword and we collide with such force that a deep sound resounds through the street, almost like a bell being struck with a mallet.

Lan Xiaohui recovers faster than Wei Sheng and reaches out with her free hand to grab Wei Sheng’s sword hand and immobilize it over his head. It is clear that Lan Xiaohui’s attainment of the sword is so far superior to Wei Sheng’s, that even his much deeper cultivation cannot match Lan Xiaohui’s preternatural swordsmanship.

“A fraud? You can still speak such nonsense?” Lan Xiaohui calmly asks, eyes narrowing as she casually tries to maneuver my vessel against Wei Sheng’s neck, but the other cultivator resists the maneuver by also grabbing her wrist with his free hand. Slowly, Wei Sheng begins losing the grapple. “I walk my path straight and tall, and my heart bears no shameful secrets; unlike you. I risked everything back then to remain true to my heart. Even if I had to die ten times over, this would never change. So why would I let some scum, from a sect I have never even heard of, trample over me, insult me, scheme against me, bully me into exile, or threaten my life?”

“You… you…” Wei Sheng’s anger and hatred toward Lan Xiaohui are so great at this point that he cannot even put them into words. “You will pay for this humiliation… Zhu Xuelian…! You will pay!”

Becoming increasingly more aware of Lan Xiaohui’s relative strength to his own, Wei Sheng’s expression darkens. When he manages to free his own hand from Lan Xiaohui’s grip, instead of attacking, he makes some distance between himself and my owner.

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Then, the pulse of stillness from Lan Xiaohui’s Sword Law washes over the area, concealed well enough to not be visible, but powerful enough to momentarily slow and suppress Wei Sheng.

My owner knows that at a distance, she is at a disadvantage. Her attainment may be deeper, but if Wei Sheng is allowed to perform a technique, with his deeper cultivation he would certainly crush her on the spot.

“You still don't understand?” she asks with that same cold, calm tone. “It seems my qualifications are still unclear, and causing a great deal of confusion.”

Lan Xiaohui leans forward and without hesitation uses Liminality Steps to dash ahead, almost like a leaping fairy that never touches the ground with her feet.

Seeing the rapidly approaching Lan Xiaohui, Wei Sheng jumps into the air and raises his sword above his head. Cerulean light begins to gather at the tip of his sword, yet when he tries to scan the ground to find Lan Xiaohui, he instead finds her right in front of him.

Lan Xiaohui’s words become almost prophetic, as Wei Sheng truly seems confused about the fact that Lan Xiaohui could suddenly appear before him like this.

“Let me clear that confusion up now,” Lan Xiaohui says with a colder tone and my vessel suddenly crashes down, burying my edge into Wei Sheng’s neck, stopped in its advance toward decapitating him by the last-moment adjustment from the other cultivator when he abandons his technique to instead try to stop the sword with his own.

The force of my impact against Wei Sheng’s neck and the sword now trapped between my edge and his flesh is enough to send them both plummeting to the ground, where Wei Sheng is forced to his knees with Lan Xiaohui standing above him, trying to force my blade the remainder of the way through his neck.

Blood begins to stain Wei Sheng's robes, and drip onto the paved street.

“Perhaps now the illustrious older generation will have something to think about if they decide to cross paths with me again and think it permissible to be rude toward me or my friend,” Lan Xiaohui says, leaning more and more into my vessel, transferring her force through. “You are not a carp about to swim through Dragon Gate. I don't care who you are or what hole you crawled out of. It is not for you to decide my place in this world or judge my qualifications. Go tell your ancestors in hell how I assaulted you and humiliated you for no reason!”

A bright, silver line appears on the opposite side of Lan Xiaohui’s sword, and when Wei Sheng’s eyes roll back to look toward Wu Yulan and find her in a sword-drawing stance, he immediately understands that even if he could free himself from Lan Xiaohui, he would die at Wu Yulan’s hands.

“I yield…! I yield!” Wei Sheng finally cries out, his blood now coating the left side of his coat and his strength waning.

“This is not a competition,” Lan Xiaohui coldly says. “We are sword cultivators. Live by your choices; die for your mistakes.”

Wei Sheng’s eyes go wide at these words and I can feel the total defeat hollow out his heart as his life, figuratively, leaves his body before his meat actually expires.

“That is enough!” Suddenly another voice comes from above and the authority within it is so undeniable that even Lan Xiaohui has to hesitate.

After a moment, Lan Xiaohui looks up and recognizes the owner of the voice. “Elder Qin,” she says, and in a perfect display of respectfulness, abandons her murder attempt in order to properly greet the Elder by pressing her fist into her open palm and bowing.

Elder Qin lands next to Lan Xiaohui and looks at Wei Sheng. Then she looks at the crowd, and finally to my owner.

“I have witnessed everything that has happened here,” she says. “Consider this matter now settled.”

There is a sliver of defiance in Lan Xiaohui but it lasts for only the briefest moments before it disappears. “As you wish, Elder Qin,” she says and quickly returns me to my sheath.

Once more, Elder Qin looks toward the crowd. “Zhu Xuelian’s qualifications are not to be called into question! She is my direct disciple — and for a good reason!” Elder Qin’s voice easily carries through the crowd and after witnessing what just happened, there aren’t that many surprised expressions.

Wei Sheng looks like he is on the verge of tears as he presses his hand into the wound on his neck and looks up at Elder Qin. “This… this… Zhu Xuelian attacked me—“

Elder Qin glares at Wei Sheng. “Take that garbage brother of yours back to your Nine Clouds sect! Never come here again. You are no longer a member of this sect,” she says. “Get lost!”

With those words, Elder Qin jumps into the air, toward the Sect Hall.

Lan Xiaohui and Wu Yulan don’t even look back at Wei Sheng and head in the opposite direction of the Elder.