We walked up the stairs and through the Gate of Glory, before finally arriving at the inner sect grounds. I cast my gaze around. It was not the first time I had come here, but it sure felt like it. In fact, the first time I had come to the sect, I had come to the inner sect grounds to meet with the elders before they took me in. Yet that was a long time ago, so long ago that I could hardly tell if the look of things had changed since then. Well, one thing was the same. It was mostly devoid of human presence, save for servants scuttling around. After all, inner sect cultivators were generally too busy meditating to play house.

"Come, the place is this way," Bailian said, and I followed her down a path to the left.

But before we could leave the plaza, a figure swept in before us on a flying sword, then jumped off and faced us.

"Bai Chunxue? What are you doing here?"

I knew that voice. That voice, it was familiar. And that frowning face too, it was familiar. But it was impossible. It couldn't be her.

"Oh, and Long Bailian. Nice to meet you. I am— Gu Lianying, an inner sect cultivator here."

Gu Lianying?

What was Gu Lianying doing here?

"Nice to meet you as well, Gu Lianying."

My vision swam. No, it couldn't be Gu Lianying. She couldn't be here. That was impossible. After all, she had—

"Have you finally decided to join our sect, Long Bailian? I heard you turned the offer down several years ago."

I staggered back, my head burning. Why was Gu Lianying still here? Hadn't Natsuki killed her? Hadn't Natsuki killed her, right before she herself had—

"Not at all. I'm only here to spend the evening with a friend."

And what had happened to Natsuki that day? Before or after she had killed Gu Lianying? Before or after her infinitely doubling crows had blotted out the sky like a plague of locusts? Hadn't she, just like Gu Lianying—

"Bai Chunxue, I heard you beat Long Guoqiang in the duel. What's the deal with that? Did Long Bailian feed him poison beforehand or something? I mean, they say even hares can pull dead lions by the mane."

With one hand I squeezed the sides of my forehead, trying in vain to suppress the blood shooting through my veins with such force that I was convinced they would either burst or catch flame! My blood, my mind could not understand! What had happened that day?! Who had died?! WHO—

—"Chunxue, calm yourself."

I heard Natsuki's silent voice echo in my head; I could see her invisible hands grasping my shoulders.

"Natsuki... what happened that day? What actually happened to Gu Lianying?"

"Nothing. She attacked you, and then Wang Wujiu interrupted. I was not involved. I could not have been involved. The World-Law would not have permitted it."

By her calm and assuring words, I managed to regain my posture. I stood straight and pointed a burning gaze at Lianying. She had humiliated me in front of all Kangtian. How could I let such an offense pass? How could I, someone blessed by Natsuki's power, let that power be humiliated so?

I unsheathed my sword-hilt.

Bailian raised a hand to her mouth, covering a smile.

Gu Lianying only tilted her head in confusion.

She had not attended the duel, and in this dream, she had not met Natsuki on that fateful day. In that case, I would show her what Natsuki might have shown her.

Dashing forward, I only lit a blade upon the hilt for the most fleeting of moments, a moment only long enough to cut through her right arm the same way Natsuki had never done.

But this time, I did not leave her arm intact. With one hand I cut through it, with the other I grasped what I had amputated and injected a burning black flame into it. For a few moments it burned like petroleum, and then it exploded like a firework, black plumes of smoke bursting forth from where there was once skin and bone, before it finally disappeared. She was not in Core Formation. It would not grow back.

I turned back to Lianying. She did not scream. Gritting her teeth together and tightening her facial muscles with such force that I thought they would snap, she did not let a cry leak from her throat. There was something she needed to say.

"That black flame, that's... the Law of Seven Elements! It's a lost art! Even Chen Mantian couldn't..."

She collapsed to her knees, and only hisses and groans escaped her throat.

I sighed.

"I have collected on a debt, and that is all. I have nothing more to say to you."

I returned to the path that we were originally going down, and Bailian came following after me, though she seemed to have no questions about what I had just done.

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"What's this Law of Seven Elements?" I asked her.

"It's an advanced branch of the Law of Eight Trigrams, though it was lost many ages ago. The only thing we know of it today is that its practitioners wielded a black flame that would annihilate everything in its path, and supposedly this black flame is linked to the Kun trigram. How do you not know this when you yourself use it?"

A pang of anxiety shot through my spine.

"Does... everyone know I can use it now?"

"Well, it is not easy to differentiate from other black flames, but at least everyone in Core Formation and some of those in Foundation Establishment who were watching that duel probably figured it out. Ah, Senior, what would happen to you if I were not looking out for you?" She dramatically laid the back of her hand upon her forehead, and I chuckled.

We proceeded down the path, away from the plaza, and at some point the path curved into some deep forests, though the path itself remained perfectly paved. I turned my ears in all directions, but I could not hear anything but the cries of the songbirds. It was the kind of forest that I have heard cultivators tend to prefer.

Eventually we arrived at a manor so deeply hidden within the trees that it was difficult to determine its scale. The jade slip flew out of my hand and attached itself to the door, which swung open silently.

"We have had this place periodically cleaned," Bailian noted as she entered the mansion. "It should be ready to live in. I assume you can deal with the rest."

"Yeah, I can deal with it."

I looked around the interior of the mansion. It was a simple and austere but undeniably well-constructed building. It would be far better a place to live than my shack made of straw by the outer perimeter of the outer sect grounds.

"Thanks," I whispered.

"Senior," she broke out laughing, "we are friends, so you are not permitted to thank me. If you really must do so, then you must show it in action. Offer to buy me lunch some day. That is how you thank a friend."

I nodded. "I see. In that case, how about I buy you lunch someday?"

"Of course," she said as she calmed her laughter. "However, as you might imagine, I will not have much spare time in the coming weeks. Shall we tentatively go for... Thursday, three weeks from now?"

"Yeah. Actually, I think I'm free... every day."

"Good, then Thursday it is. Where should we have lunch?"

I paused. If you were going to eat lunch with someone, you would naturally do it in the city, but I did not know the names of any of the restaurants in the city. I had been to a few with Professor Jibeidi, I guess, but I could not recall their names.

"—In that case, Senior, I shall make some reservations at a nice place, and I will send you a message when they are complete. Is that satisfactory?"

"Oh, okay, that works. Thanks."

She had to suppress a chuckle— a chuckle at what, I could not tell— before she finally managed to straighten out her expression.

"So, shall we go take a walk back down to the entrance gate?"

I nodded.

Just as we were about to leave the mansion, a voice boomed out from the sky, carrying from all directions with such force that I thought I would lose my hearing.

"BAI CHUNXUE!" the voice bellowed. "COME TO THE CENTRAL THEATRE IMMEDIATELY, OR I WILL FLATTEN THIS MOUNTAIN ENTIRE AND DRAG YOUR CORPSE HERE!"

"Aiii..." Bailian sighed. She jumped up, and under her feet a green mist collected, which she mounted like a flying sword. "It seems you are being called. Let us go quickly."

I stared at the mist under her feet.

"How do you do the, uh, flying sword thing?"

She tilted her head. "If you just think about it hard enough, it should work out."

So I pulled out my sword-hilt, and I focused on passing my qi not into the form of a flame, but into the form of a solid foothold, resulting in something between a sword and a snowboard emerging from the hilt. I laid the materialized qi swordboard on the ground and then stepped upon it. Since my feet were still in contact with it, the materialized qi did not dissipate. Then I focused, and the swordboard began levitating, and though my balance was a bit awkward, I was off the ground!

"Just like that, yes. Now, let's head back to the Central Theatre."

Bailian sped forward on her guandao, and I followed, keeping my body low so I did not fall off my swordboard.

When we neared the Gate of Glory, Bailian leaped off her guandao. The weapon disappeared in its own mist, and she landed on one foot, wobbling slightly, yet not placing her other foot down until she had come to a stop. I jumped off, following her example, but did not realize how much forward momentum I had, and ended up falling forward and landing on my face.

Laughing, Bailian helped me up. "Senior, is this your first time? Don't worry, everyone goes through this with flying swords. You must slow down before you dismount, you see."

A bit embarrassed, I brushed off my robes and nodded. "Yeah. I guess I should have seen that coming..."

We walked the last stretch of the way, finally passing under the Gate of Glory and entering the Central Theatre. There on the outside sat scores of sect cultivators, eagerly anticipating a show, and there in the center stood Elder Jiang Sheng, an aura of anger and resentment burning like kindling off his back.