Sweat poured off of He Yu despite the ever-present chill of the mountain. Chest heaving from the effort of his basic martial forms, he cast a glance over to the waterfall cave entrance where Chen Fei sat in meditation. She opened her eyes as the spirit stone she’d been cradling in her lap lost the last of its luster.

Tossing the now dull stone aside, she asked, “How are the lessons going?”

It had been several weeks since he’d learned the Five Crescent Winds, and he’d since had as many lessons from Fang Yingjie. “Good,” he answered, still trying to catch his breath. Li Heng had been correct in admonishing him about only cultivating using spirit stones and the qi he could absorb at the waterfall.

Between the exercises his tutor had shown him, and the increasing physical benefits from the sect’s basic cultivation technique, He Yu had become stronger than he’d ever imagined possible. Still, he tired far more quickly than many of the other disciples, and he wasn’t anywhere near as strong as Li Heng or Tan Xiaoling. That didn’t bother him as much as it once had though. He was stronger, and he was improving. Zhang Lifen had told him it wouldn’t be until the Second Realm that he’d finally be free of his weaker constitution, so the fact that he was already seeing results pleased him to no end.

“Care for some sparring?” he asked.

Chen Fei frowned but didn’t immediately disagree as he’d been afraid she might. The two of them had never sparred together before, not even in Ren Huang’s lessons. After his first match with Sha Xiang, He Yu usually only sparred with other disciples of the First Realm, who were becoming fewer by the week. It wasn’t so much that he was afraid of losing out on sparring partners, however. It was the way seeing Li Heng and Tan Xiaoling practice with each other made him think of Chen Fei. Watching the two also gave pangs of what he’d only worked out to be envy after several days’ worth of examination.

Over the weeks the two nobles’ sparring had taken on a slightly different character that He Yu hadn’t noticed at first. Holds lasted a bit longer than they needed to. When one—usually Tan Xiaoling—gained an advantage over the other, there was an almost tangible tension between the two that wasn’t strictly martial. For whatever reason though, this odd sort of closeness between the two nobles only bolstered Li Heng’s stiffness when they weren’t sparring, which in turn only heightened Tan Xiaoling’s annoyance at his formality towards her. Whatever was passing between them wasn’t any of He Yu’s concern, though.

“Are you sure?” Chen Fei asked when she finally decided upon her answer.

“Why not? Since practicing with the guandao, I’ve realized how much I’ve been neglecting the physical portion of my cultivation.”

“What about Li Heng? You spar with him in the evenings, right?”

“That’s not the same,” he said, blood creeping up his neck as his thoughts turned once again to the sorts of looks Li Heng and Tan Xiaoling had started giving each other during their exercises.

“He can’t use his full strength against me,” he quickly added.

She hummed wordlessly, then said, “I guess that makes sense. I’m still not sure though.”

“I wouldn’t use my guandao, of course. Unless you have a weapon, that is. It wouldn’t be fair.” He’d known going into this that she didn’t like confrontation. It wouldn’t do to scare her off with such a large weapon as a guandao at first.

“Why not? Don’t you need to learn it?” she asked. He’d expected her to be embarrassed at the implication. Instead, she looked more confused than anything else.

“I just thought it wouldn’t be fair, is all. Like I said, you can use a weapon too, I’ve just never seen you with one.”

“Oh. You’re right, though. I don’t use one, but Tan Xiaoling says I should practice against weapon users. So it’s up to you I guess.”

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“We can start with hand-to-hand,” he said, the flush creeping a bit further up his neck. It really wouldn’t be fair to use a guandao against her if she was limited to her fists.

“Are you sure?” she asked, almost incredulously.

“I am,” he said.

Instead, she just shrugged as she stood, and gave him a nod. “Okay.” She dropped into a well-practiced martial stance.

He Yu carefully leaned his guandao against a tree and adopted a stance of his own, his blood pounding in a way that wasn’t simply the anticipation of a fight. “Ready when you are,” he said.

Whatever he’d been expecting from this sparring session, the explosive attack Chen Fei launched at him wasn’t it. He saw it coming, of course. His senses and instincts had been considerably improved since his beating during the tournament at Shulin. He was just powerless to do anything about it. It was like his body hadn’t yet learned to keep up with his perception. Or maybe it was just that Chen Fei was somehow that fast. None of that mattered in the end.

When her punch connected, it knocked him off his feet and sent him flying away from her. He slammed into the ground, tumbled over once, and finally came to a stop with his face in the dirt. That single hit had been worse than the entire match against Sha Xiang and every subsequent beating he’d gotten in training combined. She hadn’t even cycled qi. At least not as far as he could tell.

She was at his side almost immediately, hands hovering over him like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to help or if even touching him would cause further injury. “I’m sorry, are you okay? Are you hurt? I have medicine.” She fumbled in a pouch at her waist for said medicine. In some still-functioning part of his mind, He Yu was glad that he wasn’t the only disciple on the mountain still without a storage treasure.

“What was that?” he groaned, pushing himself over onto his back.

“I’m sorry,” she said again, sounding even more distressed than she had a moment ago. She held out the medicinal pill for him, the rich woody scent filling the air.

As much as he wanted to take the pill she’d offered, he had his own. He waved her off and dug around in his own belongings for a moment before he found the pill he was looking for. It wasn’t as high quality as hers, but he was already recovering from the shock of her strike. “Where did that come from?” he asked after using his medicine and propping himself up on one elbow.

Chen Fei hung her head. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Tan Xiaoling hardly reacts when I hit her, even if she isn’t using her body enforcement.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I don’t see what the problem is though. I thought we both agreed to spar.”

“I know, I just…” she let her voice trail off and she looked away. She was quiet for a long time, before she finally answered, “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“Then why are you here?” He Yu knew it was a mistake before the words even left his mouth.

She whipped her head around to glare at him. “Why do you think? I can’t go my whole life being the only coward in my village. I can’t be the only one who can’t bring myself to harm someone who is literally trying to kill me.” Her eyes glistened with the beginnings of unshed tears despite the obvious anger and frustration in her words.

After another moment she turned away once more. “Sparring with Tan Xiaoling is different. I don’t think I could hurt her no matter how hard I tried. With Sect Brother Ren, things are slower and more controlled. And he always pairs me up with people who are stronger anyway.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” He Yu said. It sounded hollow to his ears, and he doubted Chen Fei believed him.

“It doesn’t matter.”

He Yu fell back onto the dirt next to the waterfall pond. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” That, at least, seemed like the safe and correct thing to say.

“I’m afraid of getting hurt. I’m afraid of hurting people. Why am I even here?”

“I don’t know,” He Yu said. “But I’m glad you are.”

The silence stretched on for much longer than He Yu felt comfortable with. When he looked to see what Chen Fei was doing, she was just sitting there with her shoulders slumped and looking at him with a conflicted expression. “Why?”

Giving her the best approximation of a shrug that he could manage, he said, “Because I like you?”

Her mood instantly shifted. She looked like a startled rabbit, with her eyes wide and a flush rapidly creeping into her cheeks. “You do?” Her voice had somehow managed to become even smaller.

“I mean you’re the first real friend I met here, and you helped me up the mountain that first day.”

Her face immediately fell. “Oh,” was all she said.

“Which is why I wanted to spar,” he added, hoping that his reasoning would in some way make sense to her.

It didn’t. “Well, you got what you wanted,” she said.

“I just thought if we sparred it would be a way to get to know each other better.”

“I don’t see how that would—” Chen Fei cut herself off before turning away. “I guess we could try again sometime. If you wanted.”

“You’re not worried you’d hurt me again?” he asked.

“I’ll try not to,” she said.

“I mean it’s probably fine. I need to get stronger anyway, and maybe it’ll help you get used to actual fighting.”

She turned back around to glare at him. “Sure,” she said. “Ready to go again?” Her words were clipped and she was obviously angry, but He Yu couldn’t figure out why.

He pushed himself to his feet and again fell into a ready stance. When she came at him this time, she didn’t hold back.