The moment she was told the news, Gong Lau Yan rushed after Teem Djeung Baak.

“Will she find her?” Chan Bik asked, scratching anxiously at her arms. “Will she be safe?”

“She will be fine,” the Grandmaster assured her, but Chan Bik was looking at Gaam Yuk Ying with a strange expression on her face. “Little Chan, do you understand the relationship between the Five Elements?”

Chan Bik pulled her eyes back to Wong Tang. “Yes, Grandmaster. Each element generates another, and each element destroys another. Each element weakens another, and each element exploits another.”

“And so, which element is most destructive of Metal?”

“Fire.”

“Good. Now you can see here. Although Teem Djeung Baak is at the cusp of Third Daan-tin, and our Gaam Si-hing is a Third Daan-tin Adept, the elemental match up was bad.” She bent down to look Chan Bik in the eyes and spoke gently. “You understand, this means Gaam Si-hing is so strong that he could take on a Second Daan-tin Expert on the cusp of entering Third Daan-tin Novice, with an element that is destructive of his own, and win.”

“I wish I had the Water element,” Chan Bik said glumly. “I could deal with that... with her... if I did.”

“Earth weakens Fire too,” said Gou Dzing hoarsely. He hadn't spoken since Teem Djeung Baak had disappeared. His strong brows knitted fiercely.

“Little Gou.”

Gou Dzing did not answer his Master.

“Gou Dzing.”

“Yes, Master...”

“There is nothing you could have done. You were not there.”

“... Yes, Master.”

“Have your sword sent back to Mount Faa to be repaired. Hurry. We need to be in the Dzu capital, Ming Yuet, in two days.”

“Master, if I send Yuk Ying away, I won't have a weapon.”

Wong Tang took the blackened, damaged gim from where it lay beside Gou Dzing. Without flinching, she bent the blade slowly until it snapped in half. “Gou Dzing, have you forgotten everything?”

Her disciple stared at the broken pieces.

“Are you now useless because this piece of metal is gone?”

“... No, Master.”

“Good. Gou Dzing, you are not useless.”

“... Yes... Yes, Master.” Gou Dzing bowed, picked up the pieces, and hurried away.

“Do you think I was too harsh, Little Cheng?” the Grandmaster asked of Cheng Baak-hap, as she retrieved her pipe from her sleeve and began to carefully fill it.

“You know your disciple better than I, Grandmaster. And you have much experience than I in teaching.”

“Do I?”

“Although I suspect your method of teaching through striking your students with questions is probably very irritating to some.”

Wong Tang laughed. “No doubt. What should I have done instead?”

“It's my turn – Why are you asking me, Grandmaster?”

“Because, Little Cheng, you are the one who grew up with Gou Dzing. You studied with him, ate meals with him, sometimes got punished with him...”

“If it's someone who knows Gou Si-hing, shouldn't we be asking Gaam Si-ing?”

“He's too incisive. Little Gaam, do you think I said the right thing to Gou Dzing?”

“Yes.”

And that was that.

“You see?”

Cheng Baak-hap sighed. “I think what you said was correct, Grandmaster. Gou Si-hing gets caught up wondering whether his actions are righteous, which makes him question his worth. But I think harsh talking is only a temporary way to bring him out of his thoughts. Honestly, I believe...” She hesitated.

“Yes?”

Cheng Baak-hap lowered her eyes and voice. “... I don't believe Gou Si-hing is suited to a martial life.”

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Chan Bik looked scandalised, but the Grandmaster nodded in agreement. Gaam Yuk Ying's expression remained as impassive as ever.

“Please explain to Little Chan.”

“Gou Si-hing has a good mentality for a healer,” said Cheng Baak-hap. “He is conscientious, determined to do what is right and just, and I saw how much he enjoyed the work in the past. As a warrior, one must sometimes be ruthless, have an urge to survive, and make quick decisions. Otherwise, anxiety and guilt can eat one up. In truth, healers must also sometimes be ruthless and make quick decisions, but the aim is to preserve life, not to take it.”

“But what if killing someone is the way to save someone or something else?” Chan Bik demanded.

“I don't know that Gou Si-hing would see things so clearly as you, Bik Si-mui.”

“What if that person were Little Cheng?” The Grandmaster blew smoke and it coiled around her face. “Could you kill that someone then?”

“What? No! Never!”

“Even if it would save the world?”

“I would never hurt Cheng Si-dze!”

“And you, Little Gaam,” the Grandmaster continued, turning away from the two blushing girls. “If killing Little Gou was the only way, would you do it?”

“Yes.”

“Gaam Yuk Ying!” Chan Bik rounded furiously on him. “How could you say such a thing? Don't you care about Gou Si-hing?”

“Yes.”

“And yet you would still kill him?”

“If I had to.”

“Nothing should ever-”

“I would kill you,” Gaam Yuk Ying's voice continued relentlessly. “And Cheng si mui and Master and I would cut off my own limbs if I had to.”

“Well,” said Gou Dzing, reappearing, “I'll just make sure you never have to.” He bowed to Wong Tang. “The sword has been dealt with, Master. We can leave.”

----------------------------------------

If one were in the countries of Sek'seun or Dzu that day, and happened looked up to the skies, they might have seen streaks of flashing gold and silver in the sky. They would have had to have been a Second Daan-tin Expert to do so.

Gaam Yuk Ying and Gou Dzing stood on the narrow blunt edge of Lo Fu Ngaa. A dou was not the most suitable blade for flying with, give its asymmetrical shape, but both young men had the skill to balance on the blade's following edge whilst hurtling along at inhuman speeds. Gou Dzing had his arms happily wrapped around the eternally calm Gaam Yuk Ying.

Chan Bik and Cheng Baak-hap were riding the Grandmaster.

The Clear Sight disciple had some prior experience of riding a loong after her adventures with Gong Lau Yan, but the experience with Wong Tang was on another level.

Firstly, the Grandmaster's dragon form was enormous. As a loong, Gong Lau Yan's head was the same size as Chan Bik's entire body, but for the grandmother, this was equivalent to the size of a single toe. Her whole sinuous length shone like ancient gold, an understated lustre contrasting with the sparkling white clouds that she exhaled. A set of curving antlers crowned her head, and her two thick, fierce whiskers drifted about her face on some unseen breeze.

She stood like a mountain, and the disciples had all dropped reverently to the ground the moment she revealed her loong form.

She swam easily through the air with the two girls on her back, Chan Bik almost hopping about with excitement, Cheng Baak-hap seated in a meditative pose, eyes closed, but with a highly furrowed brow. It seemed she didn't like heights. Gaam Yuk Ying and Gou Dzing sailed in the Grandmaster's slipstream.

“... Do you want to join them?” Gaam Yuk Ying asked.

“I'm happy here.” Gou Dzing smiled. “I'm happy my boyfriend asked something of me.”

“Does it upset you?”

“Does what upset me?”

“That I don't ask... much.”

Gou Dzing rested his head against Gaam Yuk Ying's. “It's okay. I know you're not very good at showing affection, Yuk Ying. I can do it for both of us!”

“Do you not... worry?”

“About?”

“... that I don't care?”

“Do you care?”

“Yes.”

“Then that's good enough.”

“... Idiot.”

“I'll take that as a name of endearment.”

“... Dzing?”

The intimate use of his name made something shiver inside Gou Dzing. “Yes, Yuk Ying?”

“What... should I do? What would you like?”

Gou Dzing's brain stopped functioning for a moment.

“Dzing?”

“I... well... um...”

“What?”

“Maybe we should talk about that when we're alone and not racing through the air.”

“... I see.”

“Are you... Yuk Ying, are you blushing?”

“It's the wind rushing past.”

Gou Dzing pecked a tiny kiss on Gaam Yuk Ying's ear and the blade dipped dangerously.

“Stop that!”

“Let's go and join them down there. I know some of the places we're travelling over, I want to talk about them.”

So they joined the two girls on Wong Tang's back, and Gou Dzing pointed out the towns along the coastal road, the distant island kingdoms of Yamato and mysterious Chup-Tuk, a wrecked ship that had been caught in a storm on its way from the Dzu capital Ming Yuet to Yuk-hoi. Several times Cheng Baak-hap cracked open her eyes to look at the things Gou Dzing was mentioning, but hurriedly closed them again.

A dense band of green appeared on the land before them, creeping closer and closer to reveal itself as an old pine forest. Chan Bik grew even more excited.

“It's Tsaam Lam! I get to see Tsaam Lei again! I'll beat him this time!”

“Who?”

“The fox spirit of the pine forest. Lady Gong brought Bik Si-mui here to train,” Cheng Baak-hap murmured.

“There's the main trail... and there's the headwaters of the Ming Dzu River! We used to jump in after training... Wait... is that Lady Gong?”

It was. She lay in her loong form, coiled up with half of her body resting in the waters of the Ming Dzu, bronze scales shimmering in the dappled sun that fell between the pines. A small fox was curled up on her back, nine soft tails twitching. Both fox and loong looked up as the Grandmaster transformed out of her dragon form, too large to find a landing spot otherwise, and the group landed softly, Chan Bik carrying Cheng Baak-hap as the only one who had no body-lightening abilities.

“A-po,” Gong Lau Yan greeted her grandmother in a voice that made the trees shiver. Tsaam Lei leapt down from her back and dived into Chan Bik's arms, knocking her flat.

“Bik Bik! You've come back to play!”

“No playing, Siu Lei,” the Grandmaster admonished. “Lau Yan, why have you come here?”

“Where's Lady Maan?” Chan Bik interrupted thoughtlessly, then clapped her hands to her mouth.

“She went to Tin Yeung Wong's palace to attend to something. I'm here because Teem Djeung Baak came here.”

“Here?”

Gong Lau Yan turned to look behind her. They hadn't seen it before, as her body had been blocking it from view, but a strange vision seemed to float in the air. An oval space, shimmering with grey mist and a red glow, hung strangely in the green and lush forest. Like a fogged over mirror, it seemed as though one should see something more in it, but the view was obscured by the mist and the light.

“A portal to the demon realm,” Gong Lau Yan explained. “She went in there.”