"You have a question?" Bailian smiled crookedly. "Then, Bai Chunxue, pray tell, what is your question?"

"You have said that weapons are not permitted," I replied, making sure to let my voice carry throughout the arena. I unsheathed my sword-hilt, the one that Natsuki had given me, and raised it above my head. "I would like to use this. Does this count as a weapon?"

"A sword hilt?" Guoqiang, who was in the middle of removing his sword from his hip, paused to sneer at me. "Are you fucking insane?"

"Well, if you're going to die, might as well do it in a weird way," someone in the crowd laughed.

"There's probably a hidden blade, right?"

"I mean, you'd have to be stupid to think that the Long family would just let you take a hidden blade into a fistfight."

"Wait, is Bai Chunxue going to use a materialized qi sword?"

"Bullshit. Even most Core Formation cultivators can't use materialized qi swords."

"Maybe he's gone insane."

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised."

"Bai Chunxue, just give up and run away! We'll help you hide."

"Yeah, just give up. Stop with the antics."

—"Toss it here, so that we may examine it," ordered Bailian, and I did as she said.

She turned it over in her hands, then handed it off to some of the older cultivators in the Long family, who examined it but found nothing objectionable. They tossed it to the Bai family, who also took turns examining it, before tossing it to Elder Ouyang, who made a confused face and tossed it back to the Long family, who finally tossed it back to me.

"It is only a hilt," declared Bailian. "There are no tricks or traps or hidden blades, and all three parties consent to its use. To be clear, materialized qi does not count as a weapon. My dearest brother Guoqiang, if you wish to remove the blade from your sword and fight with its hilt, you may do so as well."

Guoqiang snorted and took an aggressive stance. "Fuck that. Let's get started al—"

"I have a question," I shouted again.

"Okay, this is just stalling for time..."

"Bai Chunxue, the more time you waste, the more painful this is going to be for you."

"Just give up and beg Long Guoqiang for mercy, at the least he'll give you a clean death to save his own face."

"Bastard!" Canyue's voice echoed like poison through the arena as she stepped over the railing. "You dare dishonor this duel with such foolish actions?! If you're going to act like this, then I'll fucking kill you myself before you spread any more mud over the face of the Bai family!"

I shook my head.

"Please wait before throwing around such accusations, First Sister. You must at least hear my question first. And furthermore, if you were to kill me now, that would really be spitting in the face of the Long family, wouldn't it?"

Canyue winced and stopped.

Bailian cackled. "Good, good. Tell me, Bai Chunxue, what is your question?"

I put a finger to my chin and made an expression of deep thought. "You have said that this is a duel to the death. What precisely does that mean? If one of us is incapacitated and no longer able to fight, does the duel end, or is it required that one of us die?"

Bailian shrugged. "As is commonly done, we shall leave that up to the discretion of the one who is left standing. Does that sound fair, Elder Ouyang, Lady Bai?"

They nodded, and Bailian waved me on.

"I see," noted someone in the crowd. "So Bai Chunxue was planning to knock himself out and avoid getting killed."

"But that's not going to happen. Long Guoqiang will definitely kill him, if it's up to his discretion."

"Nice try, Bai Chunxue!"

"Then," Guoqiang growled, "let's—"

"I have a question," I shouted.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"I didn't sign up to watch this..."

"This isn't any better than filling out paperwork."

"Goddamn it, Bai Chunxue, can you just go and die already?"

Even Bailian seemed to be tiring of this. "Bai Chunxue," she sighed, "I am quite fond of your antics, but in the interest of the audience, I will only allow this third question, and no more."

"That's fine," I said with a nod, as I began pacing around my end of the arena. "Here is my question. This is supposedly a duel to the death. However, given the circumstances and the attitude of the crowd, I can't help but feel like this is supposed to be a public execution. In the case where this execution does not go as planned... in the case where Long Guoqiang dies... is there any assurance from the Long family that they would not pursue vengeance?"

The crowd broke out into raucous laughter.

"Bai Chunxue?! Killing Long Guoqiang?! Hah! What a joke!"

"Bai Chunxue, now you're just making fun of us!"

"Yeah, no shit it's an execution! So hurry up and die!"

Long Bailian raised her hand, and everyone quieted. Without consulting with the furious Long family cultivators behind her, she crowed with an ear-splitting smirk, "We make no promises." Then she raised her hand, and dropped it. "No more questions. I announce that this duel has officially begun."

Long Guoqiang laughed as he circulated qi furiously around his body. "So, Bai Chunxue? Do you have any last words before I kill you?"

"Yes." I bowed deeply. "Please permit me to deliver them."

Guoqiang recoiled, somewhat confused. "You—"

Grumbles and sighs rose from the crowd.

"Honestly, I don't want to hear it at this point."

"I mean... I think we ought to."

"Yeah, I mean, Bai Chunxue is still a member of the Bai family, so..."

"Yeah, at the end of the day, you have to give face to the Bai family..."

Guoqiang relented, and dropped his fists. "Fine. Speak. But make it quick."

I nodded, then brought qi into my voice to amplify it, even louder this time, so that all of Kangtian could hear my voice!

"I am not sure how many of you have heard this yet, but last week, in the back mountains of the Phantom Orchid Sect, where only the most dangerous of monsters roam, there was a Heaven—"

"Don't you dare speak of that!" Elder Ouyang Di cried out, and I looked over at her, her face pale, her palms gripping the railing so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. "That is strictly confidential informa—"

"SILENCE!"

Long Bailian's voice rumbled through the arena like a thunderclap, and Elder Ouyang quieted.

"Sect Elder Ouyang, do not forget that you are a guest here. You are not permitted to interrupt this duel. The decision of whether or not to allow Bai Chunxue to speak belongs to Long Guoqiang alone. Of course, it would make the Long family lose a terrible amount of face if First Brother were to interrupt Bai Chunxue here, so I don't think he will." Bailian cackled three times, then waved me on. "Please continue, Bai Chunxue."

I cleared my throat and continued.

"Last week, in the back mountains of the sect, there was a Heavenly Tribulation."

The crowd began to murmur. Even Guoqiang raised his eyebrows. They might have otherwise dismissed my words, but precisely because Elder Ouyang had objected, they knew I was speaking the truth. A particularly odd and out-of-place truth— or so they might think.

"Normally, this is a matter to celebrate, as it means that the sect has gained a new Core Formation cultivator. However, oddly enough, the sect could not figure out just who had ascended. And when they arrived at the scene where the tribulation had taken place, there was nothing there, save for the corpses of three hundred monsters piled up higher than the treetops."

I glanced at Elder Ouyang. She seemed as though she was about to faint. It is, after all, profoundly embarrassing if someone undergoes a Heavenly Tribulation on your own land— and then disappears from under your nose! It is like if someone were to break into your house, sleep on your bed, and leave without stealing anything— that is how humiliating my Tribulation must have been for the sect elders! And for me to publicize it in front of the entire sect as well as the Bai and Long families was no less than ten times as humiliating!

That said, I was not doing this in order to humiliate the sect elders. I was doing it for my own sake, and— as Natsuki said— for her sake as well.

"With my last words, allow me to resolve that mystery. The one who ascended to Core Formation that day..."

I held the sword-hilt above my head, so everyone in the arena could see it clearly, and—

"...was me."

and lit it ablaze, with a impenetrably black flame, a flaming blade darker than the night sky!