I walked out into the courtyard.

There, standing by the fountain in its center, was Elder Ouyang Di, holding what I assumed was Jing Ke's identification token in her hand.

I sighed. Of all things to possibly face, this was what I wanted to deal with least.

"Why are you here, Elder Ouyang?"

"I am here to demand an explanation," she responded slowly, calmly.

"What is there to explain?" I asked, clicking my tongue as I did. "There has been some turmoil within the Bai family, and as a result, Jing Ke was killed. It has nothing to do with you. Now at the will of the Bai family I am leaving the sect, the same way I entered it."

Ouyang Di took a few steps along the edge of the fountain, then recited as if from a scroll,

"Three of our inner sect cultivators, including two promising Core Formation talents, and furthermore one of our elders have died at your hands. In recognition of the present extraordinary circumstances, we shall not ask too much of you. However, you should at least give us some face and offer some compensation."

"Compensation?" I could not wrap my head around this word. "What could I possibly have to compensate you for?"

"In name, the fact that you are leaving the sect requires some compensation. In reality, you should be compensating us for the harm you have caused the sect through your actions, even if you have not committed any wrongs, strictly speaking. If you do not offer us a proof of goodwill after what you have done, we will lose face with the other sects."

"You're saying... I should compensate you for the fact that I won my duels with Long Guoqiang and Wang Wujiu, since you had expected me to die?"

Ouyang Di narrowed her eyes, then shrugged. "I suppose, yes, if you wish to put it uncharitably, that would be about accurate."

I scoffed. "What bullshit. I thought you had come here with actual business. If that's all you have to say, then you can leave. I have nothing to offer you."

She shook her head. "Bai Chunxue, I do not think you understand. The world revolves around relations. Even if you resent us, you must preserve your relations with us. That is what this compensation is for. If you burn your bridges at the slightest offense, you will find yourself alone before long, more alone than you even are currently. After all, the only reason that the Long and Bai families did not immediately go to war upon the incident with the first eight deaths was because of the relations between their elders. A chance friendship between Long Guan and Bai Qiao. That was all that it was. So what will happen to the relations between our sect and the Bai family now that Jing Ke, the one linking the two, is dead?"

I could feel my blood boiling. I had been imprisoned in the sect for more than ten years under the watch of Ouyang Di and Jiang Sheng and the other elders. How could she call that a slight offense?! If anything, it was a mortal offense! The only reason I had not pursued the sect itself as a target of revenge was because I had not had it in me to hate the enablers of my torture as much as I hated my torturers! But they, too, had wronged me, and I could not find it in me to seek reconciliation with such blackhearted rogues. I had not forgiven them, no. I just wished more than anything else to forget them.

"Get out," I growled, barely able to contain my rage. "I don't want to hear any more of this bullshit. Get out and don't come back here ever again."

With a sigh, Ouyang Di put a hand to her forehead. "Bai Chunxue, why are you so arrogant? You really think it is impressive that your backer could deal with Jing Ke, a mere single-severing cultivator? He had a high position because of his seniority, not because of his strength. The other elders of our sect are much more powerful than him. If you refuse this toast, you will be forced to drink a forfeit."

"Not just Jing Ke!" I shouted. "She dealt with everyone else in the Bai family too! And if you keep insisting on stirring trouble, then— then..."

Ouyang Di frowned, and only then did she seem to notice the silence smothering the courtyard. There was nobody else here. How could that be? Even if the Bai family was headquartered close to the Imperial Capital, they always kept at least a few people here in Kangtian, and if nothing else, there would be servants maintaining the manor. But here, there was nobody but herself and me.

"I don't believe it," she finally announced. "To the sect's knowledge, Bai Fei is currently visiting this city. Whatever one has to say about the rest of the family, there is no way your nameless backer could fight someone like Bai Fei. Let us leave the bullshit aside and get to the real issue here. Bai Chunxue, we have held a meeting of elders and recognized you leaving the sect. At the same time, here is the ultimatum we are delivering you. You must compensate us for the harm you have caused our sect. Something with the value of one hundred thousand spirit stones or so should suffice. Provide it yourself, or have the Bai family provide it on your behalf."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I had to bite down on my lips to prevent myself from shouting. If she had demanded ten spirit stones, I would have given her it just to shut her up. But one hundred thousand?! Even the Imperial Palace itself was not worth one hundred thousand spirit stones! I could only imagine that they wanted to use this to try to kill me once again— if not at their hands, then at the hands of the Bai family itself!

If only they knew that the Bai family had already tried to kill me, and that they had all died for it.

I clenched my teeth so hard that their roots triggered a searing pain as they pushed back up into my gums. Just when I thought I had left it all behind, this kind of bullshit crawled back out of my past, like weevils from discarded food. I did not want to deal with it. I did not want to deal with it, but it wished to afflict me. And what could I do about it?! What could I do about these ghosts of my past but regret them?!

—"It seems that... my warning has gone unheeded."

From behind Ouyang Di came a voice. Natsuki's voice.

Ouyang Di's expression contorted with confusion. She probably could not understand how Natsuki had appeared there, behind her, without her noticing. I knew how. Natsuki was here because she could solve this problem! She could solve my dilemma! I did not know what she would do, but I knew that she would clear the way for me to walk forward!

Ouyang Di turned to face her. At that very moment, Natsuki thrust her hand forward, reaching for Ouyang Di's throat. Her hand flew forth with the speed of lightning, but just as quickly stopped in midair, spread some two inches away from Ouyang Di's neck. The qi barrier had stopped her from crushing Ouyang Di's throat.

"What a joke," Ouyang Di snorted, not even deigning to swat Natsuki's arm away. "You think you can break my qi barrier with your bare hands? Your power may be strong, but your mind is lacking. I have long completed my third severing. With this sort of approach, you could not kill me even if I was sleeping."

A sound like glass fracturing lightly blew across the courtyard. Ouyang Di narrowed her eyes, and then, suddenly, her face went white with fear. She made to step back, but before she could, Natsuki's hand clamped around her throat, and at that very moment a nightmarish screech, like the sound of a vase smashing into the ground, flooded my ears. Ouyang Di's qi barrier had shattered.

"Were my instructions not clear?" Natsuki growled, raising her arm so Ouyang Di's feet lifted several inches off the ground. "I told you all to never again interfere in matters of the Bai family. You are courting death with your presence here, Ouyang Di."

Ouyang Di did not cry out in anger. She was too wise to do that in this situation. Rather, she cast one arm out to the side, and with what breath she could muster, she grunted,

"I gained enlightenment at the foot of Caojin-Baigen, and I performed each of my severings in its crater, once when it was silent, once when it was angered, and once when it was erupting. My Dao is the Dao of the Solitary Mountain. Let the world collapse around me, and even then, I shall stand tall."

The image of a inverted snowcapped mountain began to descend from the clouds above. It exuded an unimaginable pressure upon the courtyard, the pressure of a hundred million years of piled rock and ice. Every inch it descended seemed to push another hundred pounds of weight down upon my shoulders. Even the pavement of the courtyard that had been blessed by generations upon generations of Bai family cultivators began to shatter and sink into the earth under the pressure. The divine cypress trees lining the sides of the courtyard, their wood harder than obsidian, could not help but let their branches crack and fall to the ground.

I have heard that this is precisely how true Spirit Severing cultivators fight. They materialize their very Dao into the world and crush their opposition with pure, unadulterated force. It was force enough that I could not possibly survive it, not for any more than a few seconds! Who, after all, could suffer the weight of a mountain but the unliving, but those like Jing Ke, who had severed the life and death alike of his body, or Sun Wukong, the one who had struck his own name from the Register of Life and Death?

—"Who gave you permission to use your mana here?"

Natsuki thrust her free hand into Ouyang Di's chest, and from it drew out her soul, throbbing like a heart, linked back to her body via innumerable bulging tubes. With the edge of her finger, Natsuki cut a gash in one of the tubes, and a copper-blue liquid, somewhat more viscous than blood, began oozing out. At that very moment, the mountain overhead, as well as Ouyang Di's entire aura, vanished.

"What?!" Ouyang Di cried out in surprise, but not in pain. "What did you— what did you do?!"

"I have sealed your ᡧቶᐠᕶɳѥݲ⩮ṩ⥮╬. Do not worry. I will repair it once we are done, if your life-thread has not snapped by then."

Holding Ouyang Di by the throat, Natsuki took one step to the side, then slammed Ouyang Di into the ground. Ouyang Di's skull smashed into the pavement, which cracked, then sunk a full foot into the earth underneath. She bit down on her lip to prevent a cry from escaping her throat, but seeing Natsuki's grip on her neck tighten, I am not sure she could have screamed even if she wished to.

"Ouyang Di, it is you who owes compensation to Chunxue for all the wrongs you have committed against him. Do you not remember your sins? If not, permit me to recount them to you."