The next day, Jian paid a visit to the Heavenly Sword Sect disciples' courtyard. Once again, Jinghua was the only one there. Once again, she greeted him with a polite smile and escorted him inside where a servant was waiting with tea.

"How effective is your art?" Jian asked. "When you use it on another person, particularly."

Jinghua frowned in thought for a moment, taking a sip of her tea. She stared down at the cup as she swirled the tea around, organizing her response.

Before she could answer, the maid set down her serving tray with a clatter. "There's no need to worry about that. I'll be escorting you in perfect safety."

Jian looked up, shocked by the interruption. His shock turned to horror as he realized that the maidservant was Meirong, now visible in the robes of a disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect. It had been disquieting to learn that Jinghua had mastered such an art. To see Meirong using it so easily was horrifying.

"Don't look so shocked," she said. "I took a look at disguise techniques after my junior sister managed to sneak up on me."

Jian slowly recovered his bearings. "You wish to escort me into the jungle."

"Well, I'm certainly not letting you run around with another woman," she said. "I am your fiancée, you know."

Jian pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to ward off the headache that he could feel taking shape. Meirong was a talented cultivator. In theory she should be perfectly capable of keeping him safe in the jungle. With her cavalier attitude, though, it was a little difficult for him to put his life in her hands.

"Have you mastered those techniques, or merely dabbled?" he asked.

"I've mastered them well enough," she said. "As long as you stay within a few feet of me, none of the beasts in the jungle will ever suspect we're there."

Jian studied her face, looking past her beauty to try to read her mood. She looked confident. Of course, she always looked confident.

He hesitated before he responded. He needed to press her on this. He needed to be sure. After all, he couldn't even run away from the beasts in the jungle, not for any length of time. If Meirong was thinking of keeping a normal Body Refining cultivator safe, she wouldn't be taking into account his actual limitations.

He hated to admit to his weakness. As a matter of principle it wasn't good to spread that sort of thing around. It was especially unwise to share such a secret with somebody who he was slated to face in a high-stakes duel in little more than a year's time.

On the other hand, it wasn't like Meirong needed to know about his weakness to mop the floor with him. He was working together with her so that they could call off the duel peacefully and save face all around. Their interests were aligned.

He sighed, finally giving up on maintaining a strong front. "Your technique will have to be perfect. If I'm required to exert myself for any length of time, I will almost certainly fall unconscious."

"What?" Meirong asked, shocked. She leaned forward, studying him as though she could spot the problem through close examination. "Why didn't you ask me for medicine in exchange for your help? I could have had some shipped here from the sect. I still can, but it will take some time."

Jian chuckled, shaking his head. "It's not something medicine can solve."

He'd already extorted the living jade out of her that he would ultimately use to resolve the issue. It was just that working with it wasn't as easy as he'd hoped.

She frowned. "What is it?"

"My victory over your sect brother was not quite as smooth as I would have liked," Jian admitted.

Now that he'd started telling her about his weakness, it was surprisingly easy to tell the whole story. Maybe a part of him had been eager for the chance to tell it to somebody besides Shan, who had been right beside him through the key events. He told the two Heavenly Sword Sect disciples of Tingfeng's successful attempt to poison him and how he had turned to Doctor Heng for an emergency implantation of his artificial heart. How through a meeting of good fortune and careful preparation, it had resulted in his breakthrough to the Body Refining stage. He elided the details of how he had turned the tables on Tingfeng, in the end. He wasn't quite ready to share all of his secrets just yet.

What he'd shared was more than enough to enrage Meirong. She slapped the table in anger, just missing her teacup as Jinghua snatched it out from under her hand at the last second.

"How dare he?" she asked. "How dare he try to harm my fiancé?"

Jian was a little touched by her concern for his well-being, although he knew better than to read too much into her reaction. This kind of extreme response wasn't prompted by her concern for his well-being. Rather, Tingfeng's actions had aroused the territorial instinct that lurked in the hearts of all cultivators. Damaging something of hers, even if it was trash that she was eager to throw away, was an insult she could hardly bear.

"He reaped the consequences for his foolishness," Jian said.

His understanding was that the Heavenly Sword Sect had locked Tingfeng up for at least a few years to spend time contemplating what he had done. He didn't hold out great hope that Tingfeng would come out the other side of the punishment a changed man, but his incarceration would at least give Jian time to handle his business and return to the safety of Bianjing Town.

He considered the punishment of Tingfeng to be, on balance, more than he had expected, even if it was less than he might have hoped for. After all, matters rarely worked out exactly according to his wishes.

"When I get back to the sect, I'll- I'll-" Meriong said, waving her hands in the air in a fashion that promised great violence. "I don't know what I'll do, but he'll regret it!"

"I'm sure he will," Jian said, nodding. He had no interest in standing up for a man who had tried to kill him, but he did want to steer Meirong towards more practical concerns. "However, the simple fact is that until I am able to fashion a replacement heart out of the living jade, I will only be able to traverse the jungle at a brisk walk, at best."

"That won't be a problem," Meirong said, visibly exerting herself to draw her attention from visualizing her bloody revenge on Tingfeng and focus on more practical matters. "What I can't hide us from will be easy enough to kill."

Jian nodded. It was true enough that the Grave of Dreams, while inconveniently located, was far from the core of the jungle. There would be plenty of demonic beasts lurking about, but none that would pose a serious threat to Meirong. He didn't have a firm grasp of her skills, but if she said she could kill anything they encountered easily, it was probably true.

If he had any interest in actually carrying out the duel they had scheduled, this would be an excellent opportunity to gather information about her capabilities. However, Jian didn't see a need to know in great detail precisely how she would defeat him if they were to fight. Rather, the important thing was to work together so that she would work with him so that there would be no need for a fight.

"I'll be troubling you, then," he said.

Jian took a sip of his tea and watched as Meirong responded to his agreement by shooting a triumphant look at her friend. Jinghua, for her part, only replied with a gentle smile. Looking closely, there was perhaps a bit of an edge to it. Jian thought about the possibilities of her infiltration technique and barely suppressed a shudder. How many people had seen that gentle smile as their final sight before departing this world?

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"Hey, what's that look for?" Meirong protested. Jian turned his attention back to her with some alarm, but relaxed when it seemed she was mostly teasing. "I'm your fiancée, and I'm the one that will be keeping you safe. You should be paying attention to me."

"Of course," Jian said. He considered himself to be as brave as the next person, but he didn't have the guts to contradict a statement like that. "Speaking of eyes on you, will you really be able to get away from your duties for long enough for us to investigate the Graveyard of Dreams?"

"I set my own schedule," Meirong said, waving her hand dismissively. "If I decide I want to conduct a solo reconnaissance mission into the Verdant Doom, nobody is going to say that I can't."

Jian nodded. It seemed Meirong's usual capricious attitude would be coming in handy in this instance. Others might find it unusual that she'd go haring off alone into the jungle, but she was already known as the sort of person who took off on unusual notions when the mood struck her.

"I suppose Master Zhou will be struck by inspiration and seclude himself in his studio," he said. "Shan should be able to maintain the ruse well enough."

"At least he's good for something besides drinking," Meirong replied.

Jian looked at her, surprised, and saw no evidence in her expression that she felt she'd said anything unusual. He hadn't realized that she had been keeping close tabs on their behavior. Or that she considered it normal to do so.

"Well, he's been trying to befriend a useless silkpants," Jian said. "Drinking is part of the job."

"If you say so," she said. "Has anything come of it?"

Jian nodded. "An invitation to visit the family project in the Graveyard of Dreams next month. He may be able to follow up on what we discover."

It was possible that Shan might even be able to see more than they would be able to find. After all, an invited guest would have much easier access to the work the family was doing than two people sneaking around the edges of the project. Of course, that depended on Shan's ability to recognize what he saw. Jian was glad to have the backup, but he didn't intend to rely on it.

After that, all that was left was to discuss a few practical details before Jian returned to his workshop. In half a week, he would be venturing into the Verdant Doom.

"Hmm, it depends," she said.

Jian bit back the frustrated curse that was his instinctive response and instead waited for her to elaborate.

"In the face of a vast gulf of cultivation," she said, "it's basically useless."

Jian nodded. That much he'd expected. In the face of absolute strength, little tricks were useless.

"But the gulf does have to be truly vast for that to happen," she said. "Just because a cultivator is able to defeat me in a fight, even defeat me easily, doesn't necessarily mean they can see through my art."

That was more promising. The Graveyard of Dreams was in an awkward location, but it wasn't in the heart of the jungle. The level of beasts they could expect to see would of course be more than capable of killing Jian, but the real old monsters were far off in the jungle's core.

"Also, the effects vary with the strength of mind of the target," she said. "A strong willed cultivator is more difficult to mislead than a dumb beast."

Jian raised an eyebrow. "You don't have to worry about animal instinct?"

He'd researched the path of deception as part of his efforts to overcome his own limited cultivation base, back when he was stuck in the Essence Condensation stage. It was a path that offered many powerful techniques, but those techniques often came paired with devastating drawbacks.

In particular, many techniques that might easily fool a human cultivator would completely fail to distract a foe such as a hunting hound, who relied on its nose rather than its eyes and reason to keep track of its enemies. Matters only became more complicated when considering cultivators who had enhanced their own senses through one means or another.

Preparing the proper technique to fool any possible opponent was a daunting challenge. Even cursory study had left Jian with a solid understanding of why most cultivators instead pursued the path of martial might.

It might take different techniques to fool each different cultivator or beast, but the strength to crush all before you would always be universally applicable.

"Naturally, it's a worry," Jinghua replied, "but I am quite capable of fooling any merely physical senses."

Well, of course a disciple from the Heavenly Sword Sect would be excellent. Jian's limited effort of self study no doubt paled in comparison with the resources that she would have been showered with as soon as she displayed an aptitude for deceit.

Really, it was silly of him to have thought to question her qualifications, and tolerant of her to humor his objections. If she thought she could pull this off, he didn't have the standing to disagree. Only the fact that his life was on the line prompted Jian to thicken his skin and continue probing.

"You understand I can't move at faster than a walk for any length of time," he said. "That's why I'm concerned that your technique not merely be good, but perfect."

She looked at him with concern. "If you have a latent defect with your cultivation then you should have asked Meirong for medicine. She wouldn't begrudge anything that would help you to carry out her task."

Jian stared at Jinghua, mixed feelings in his heart as he found himself unable to formulate a reply.

"I can order in such medicines myself," Jinghua continued, "though they may take longer to arrive."

Jian held up his hand. He had intended to keep the details of his condition to himself, but it would be foolish to hide any vulnerabilities at this point. Jinghua needed to know his limits in order to plan their trip into the jungle. Also, by now his own well-being and Meirong's were almost intertwined. They both wanted to complete this mission so that she could receive the rewards from her sect and then both of them could disentangle themselves from the engagement.

Since the duel wouldn't be happening, there was no reason to keep his weaknesses to himself. Even if the duel were to go forward, it wasn't like Meirong would need to target any special vulnerabilities in order to defeat him.

"It's not a question of medication," Jian said. "The method I used to overcome my cultivation block was... untested. I won't be able to return to peak physical performance until I refine my methods."

She looked at him with concern. "We could delay our trip until you have fixed the issue."

"That wouldn't be practical," Jian said. "I'm trying to solve it as soon as I can, but learning to work with living jade is proving a difficult challenge."

Jinghua pursed her lips, staring at him as though he were being a willful child. Jian just scratched the back of his head, not quite sure what to say.

"How confident are you in your art?" he asked.

"Completely," she replied, almost without thinking. "But, for us to go through the jungle at only a walking pace is a bit much."

Jian shrugged. "It's the only way. If it won't work, then it won't work. We can try to get the information some other way. Perhaps you can duplicate the formations after studying them."

She shook her head, obvious reluctance on her face. "I couldn't get close enough to see them in great detail. That's why I need somebody with me who can evaluate them from a distance."

Jian took a sip of his own tea. He felt strangely relieved to have shifted the onus of the decision onto somebody else's shoulders. Jinghua at least wasn't taking his safety lightly. He was happy to let her weigh the benefits against the risks in making their joint expedition.

This wasn't necessarily the only way to find out more about those formations, after all. Jinghua might not be able to sneak close enough to be able to duplicate them later, but Shan would be an invited guest. It would be perfectly reasonable for him to take an interest in the formations that were keeping their camp safe.

Jian's confidence in Shan's ability to reproduce hwhat he had seen in great detail was another thing, unfortunately. It would have made his life so much easier if there were some way to record such things without having to rely on human memory. Unfortunately, crystal slips that could record mental impressions were not the province of mortal cultivators, especially cultivators who had not yet formed their cores.

"It... should be safe," Jinghua said, finally.

Jian nodded, willing to take her word for it. "I'll be troubling you, then."

She nodded, still chewing on her lip. Jian wasn't sure whether to be reassured by her conscientious nature or nervous about her obvious doubts.

"There is one other thing," he said. "My friend has been attempting to befriend Huiling, the Huang family silkpants, with some success."

He gave a brief summary of Shan's efforts to worm his way into Huiling's circle, culminating in the invitation to join them in the Verdant Doom. It wouldn't help Jian and Jinghua directly. Asking Shan to somehow weaken the camp's defenses would be a step too far. However, it wouldn't hurt to coordinate their trip to take place at around the same time. It was impossible to predict the future, after all, so it was possible that they would find a way to aid each other.

With that, they had a schedule, and a plan. Jian bid her farewell before returning to his workshop. This wasn't the first time that he'd put his life in somebody else's hands. Objectively speaking, Jinghua was more than capable of defeating their entire expeditionary squad from the Devil's Teeth in open battle. It still felt more perilous, somehow, to be relying so much on a single person.

Jian had half a week left. He hoped he could come up with some way to help himself before that time.