Can You Conquer The World With Martial Arts?

As the Golden Witch loomed over the sitting beggar, he nearly shuddered under the intensity of her gaze. He rued his bad luck, thinking, "Just what is it today? Must be true what they say. Blessings don't come in pairs, and misfortunes never come alone."

"Never before have I been so unsettled by a pretty girl's attention." The beggar said, grimacing.

The golden haired woman before him asked, "Your name does not happen to be Tao Geming, does it?"

"Believe it or not, I've just seen the man walk past here not so long ago." As he saw her smile grow just a little wider, he shook his head. "...But I get the feeling that you don't believe it."

"Well, you certainly don't make for a very convincing beggar." She scooped up the man's clay bowl with the golden tael in it, hardly needing to bend her waist to reach the ground.

"Don't you think that even a beggar can have bouts of good luck? And bad..." The man sighed.

"If Tao Geming is a filthy beggar," The Golden Witch said, "It would fit my disciple's clever theory about why it's so hard to get people to describe someone as unsightly as you."

As Bai Guo overheard her say that, his brows furrowed in skepticism. Evidently, he hadn't shared her view on the matter. But he also believed that his master wouldn't approach this beggar for no reason, so he quietly watched the scene unfold.

She sniffed the air before continuing. "You picked this gold piece off that bloody street, didn't you? I can still smell the blood on it. It's even the same kind."

"If Tao Geming is a filthy beggar," The beggar responded, "Then how could he also be a martial artist of such preposterous skill and cruel demeanor? Don't tell me that nose of yours can sniff out not only a man by his blood, but his martial arts too."

"It's not the nose."

"Well, it certainly can't be the nose, because then it would be mistaken." The beggar smiled a little.

"No, if it was the nose, it would be correct. You know, there's really no need to play the fool. Beggars can be martial artists. The tales about the Beggar's Sect are very well known." She stated the last part with less confidence than she intended to, led astray after her brief discussion with her compatriots.

The beggar laughed. "You seem to have taken quite well to those stories, miss. But I hate to break it to you, but they're all simply tall tales. Beggars all over the world tell them to chance upon a free meal, and I'm just another one of them. But even if you harangue every homeless man you see, you won't find a single martial artist among them. These days, men with skills seek fortune under the banners of sects."

The woman's smile disappeared. "That holds true for most of them, but I know you're not just any beggar." As she said that, the Golden Witch suddenly dropped the clay bowl. By some miracle, it remained whole as it impacted the ground, the heavy tael within loudly clattering about. "I've been polite with you so far. Senior." She added the last word after a momentary pause, having nearly forgotten to do so. "But you surely understand that what I'm asking of you here does not require this much courtesy. I'm very generously giving you a chance to get ready, take out the stick you use as a weapon, and trade a few stances with me while you're at your best."

They stared each other down for a time. Finally, the beggar sighed and covered his eyes with his hat. He grumbled, "Most times, people only talk to me on two occasions: they want me to go away, or they want me to tell them story. But no one's ever mixed those reasons together the way you just did, young lady, by threatening me with a beating because of the stories I've told. I'm telling you, you've got the wrong man, and if you bothered to ask anyone around, they'd be eager to vouch for my uselessness."

The foot of the Golden Witch darted forward. She struck the bowl with her toe, and sent it flying at the beggar's head with such great speed that the tael in it spun out into the dirt.

The projectile was caught into the beggar's palm. Unbeknownst to the two, a small crowd had gathered around to watch the tall blonde stranger harass the homeless, and some of them gasped in wonder at the beggar's feat. Even Cui Shen, who had been idly observing the scene without much interest up to that point, couldn't help but widen his eyes.

"Even if you're really not Tao Geming," The Golden Witch said, her smile slowly coming back. "That doesn't change anything. See? You do have some skill. And I want to see it."

The beggar hissed in frustration. "I should have just let it hit me."

The man leaned back to once again glimpse the woman past his hat. He scowled at her with reluctance, but, having been caught in his lie, had no room to talk back anymore.

But an idea had suddenly struck him. "Well, be that as it may, I don't think you'll get the fair match you're looking for. After all, months ago, I traded my Dog-Beating Stick for a few drinks and meals to a fool just like you, a fervent believer in the Beggar's Sect."

The Golden Witch's growing smirk had suddenly sunk like a rock. "Who did you sell it to?"

The beggar crossed his arms behind his head. "As if I'd tell you. And you can throw as many bowls at my head as you want, lady, or treat me even worse, or even beat on me til I'm dead. But there's no way I'm putting an innocent man into your sights."

A man in the crowd interrupted him, shouting, "I know who he gave it to! I know!"

Everybody turned to the stranger in surprise. "I'll tell you in exchange for that tael by your feet, miss!" He said.

The Golden Witch gladly tossed it over. The piece had somehow managed to land softly into the man's hands despite its great weight, to the continued wonder of the observers.

He spoke about a clerk who lived down the street.

"Bai Guo, Cui Shen," The Golden Witch called out. "Would you go get the man's stick?"

Bai Guo, after some hesitation, nodded. "Yes, master!"

"I'm not taking part in this..." Cui Shen staunchly refused.

"As you wish." The woman replied.

As Bai Guo ran off to carry out the task, he pondered whether or not he should actually strive to succeed at it. "Maybe if I fail to fetch this stick they talked about, master would let the beggar go. He does not appear to be like Deng Hong, who deserved to be on the receiving end of her skills. He was even willing to put his own well-being on the line to protect this clerk. But I would also hate to disappoint my master, especially since I haven't been particularly useful to her as a disciple of late. But what she's asking doesn't quite sit right with me... Ah, what should I do?"

The beggar watched the disciple run off to do the errand, a frown on his bearded face. His eyes then glimpsed further down the street, the same street that Tao Geming had unhurriedly walked through after their brief verbal spat. An idea came to his mind.

One moment, the beggar was lying down; the next, he had sprung into action. His hands and arms were like a second pair of feet and legs, so briskly he crawled along the ground, like a spider, that he may as well had been running upright. Without breaking pace, he had somehow managed to stand up, and broke out into a mad dash for the woman's disciple.

The Golden Witch almost immediately set upon the beggar, so close behind him that he was not even a full foot out of her reach. The beggar jabbed at Bai Guo's back with a finger; the unfortunate youngster had been only just beginning to grasp his peril, and, in the speeds those other two were dealing with, was still half an eternity away from turning around and adequately defending himself.

The beggar's sudden attack had forced a momentary flaw in his bizarre gait, permitting Bai Guo's golden haired master the opportunity to catch up. Her long arm pushed the young disciple out of the path of the man's attack, and her other hand flew out towards a vital pressure point. The beggar bent his body and spun out of reach, forced to abandon his strike to keep himself out of harm's way.

The chase continued. The beggar possessed the uncanny ability to slip through crowds as if they weren't even there, and knew how to shove every cart, crate, bag, and passerby into the woman's path to turn them into a dynamically shifting obstacle. The Golden Witch hadn't had any of his strange skills, or knowledge of how to deal with them, and as such, despite her edge in raw speed, was continuously forced to concede ample space to the man in order to maintain the pursuit. Like a pair of deft swallows drifting perilously close along the earth, they frantically maneuvered back and forth around the many hindrances of the city.

Cui Shen followed after them as well as he could. Bai Guo, after calling out to him and his master, joined the chase. Cui Shen was outmatched by both the beggar and the Witch, and soon had only brief glimpses of her golden shadow to guide his path. Bai Guo fared even worse, and instead of chasing his master, had to chase Cui Shen, who never seemed to remain in his sight for more than a fleeting moment.

Their race soon carried them beyond the city limits, and the beggar had taken to the outdoors as well as he took to the streets. He leaped and flipped across trees and branches like a monkey, carrying himself on hands and feet, but no matter how many tricks he performed, he couldn't shake the blonde stranger off his trail.

But suddenly, her eyes had darted to the side, and she made a sharp turn. As the beggar stopped himself atop a tree, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, would you look at that! It's like she really can smell the martial arts on someone." The beggar thought, observing as the mysterious woman got in the way of a short man's steady trek down the road. "Turned out to be a good thing, too, because I had no idea how I was going to convince her that that's the man she was looking for. So how about that, Tao Geming! You said karma isn't real, well, let's see how you fare now!"

He lingered on the tree for a moment longer to watch his handiwork. "Though I wish I could watch the entire thing unfold, there's more trouble waiting for me when they're done. We'd all be better off if they both killed each other, but I doubt I have that much luck banked up, so I'd better skedaddle while I still have the chance!" With that in mind, the beggar fled the scene.

The remaining two stared at each other for a while.

The Golden Witch opened her mouth, but hardly half a word had left her lips when Tao Geming interrupted her.

"Get out of my way, clown."

He then continued his stride as though he was intending to walk right through her.

The Golden Witch swallowed her words back down. She glanced around before picking up a rock.

"They call you Invincible," she said, "Let's see what that's about."

Her arm cracked through the air like a whip as she threw the boulder at Tao Geming's head. It hit him dead center in the middle of the forehead. He hadn't even flinched; it flopped meekly towards the ground, falling gently into the man's hand.

The woman's golden eyes glowed with a sudden realization. "So that's how you do it!"

Tao Geming paid no heed to her strange exclamation. "I hope it amused you. Enough for you to die without regrets."

The rock resounded like a thunderbolt as it was sent flying back at the Golden Witch. The curious look on her face gave way to intense focus.

She defended herself, if it could even be called as such, in identical fashion, by taking the projectile directly to the head. The rock bounced off and the golden haired woman yelped and recoiled, nearly falling to the ground.

"Ow! That really hurt..." She nursed her bruised forehead with her sleeves, tears welling up in her eyes.

Tao Geming was so flabbergasted by the sight that he couldn't prevent himself from mouthing an incoherent question. "...What?"

With the strength with which he had thrown that rock he was expecting to uproot a tree, or for the wood to part like water. The thought that it would leave just a tiny bruise on a girl's forehead could have never crossed his mind even in his wildest fantasies.

As she observed his reaction, the Golden Witch smiled mischievously. "I still can't do it quite as quickly as you, but now that I know how, I'll learn."

Tao Geming's perpetual scowl deepened. "Who are you?"

Her smirk only grew at the question, to which she offered no reply.

Tao Geming gnashed his teeth. "No, what I really want to know is, how could I have never heard of a martial artist who walks on stilts and colors their hair like a clown?"

Her amusement faded somewhat. "Stop calling me that."

"Forget it. It doesn't matter what hole you crawled out of or what you call yourself. Soon, nobody's going to refer to you as anything but a smear."

Tao Geming tensed his posture. The ground shook. A fierce gale broke out. The Golden Witch had experienced something similar once, when Deng Hong mustered up the entirety of his unwieldy internal energy at the climax of their fight. But she was able to experience it on more than just the physical level; the natural phenomena meant little to her compared to the hurricane she could feel raging out of Tao Geming's dantian.

And unlike how it turned out in the fight against Deng Hong, she saw no easy solution to this one, no fatal flaw in the foundation to take advantage of.

...

Bai Guo was the last to arrive at the scene, and as he shielded his eyes from sand flung about by unexpectedly strong winds, he took up position next to Cui Shen. As he took a guarded look at what had been unfolding further down the road, he couldn't help but ask, "What's going on?"

The Golden Witch and Tao Geming, their hands locked together, were vehemently pushing against each other in a test of strength.

"I think they are competing in internal energy." Cui Shen explained. "Though they definitely picked an unusual way to hold their contest..."

And so fierce was the clash of their inner powers that it could not contain itself to just their bodies, and manifested externally as a miniature whirlwind.

The possibility that the sudden windstorm could be the result of their clash had not even crossed Bai Guo's mind until that moment. "Wait, sir Shen... Are they the ones causing this? Is this even martial arts?!"

The dark Cui Shen held himself with the utmost composure, but even his mask was cracking at what he beheld. "Yes. I felt something similar once before. When I fought Deng Hong."

Bai Guo swallowed heavily. "That man is as powerful as Deng Hong? Could that be Tao Geming?"

The wind picked up in that moment and he never got to hear Cui Shen's reply. But he knew.

As they struggled fiercely against each other, their faces were contorted into masks of fury. The difference between the heights of the two combatants was great, but in this battle, her size advantage brought no relief to the Golden Witch.

No, even more than that, it was the shorter Tao Geming who seemed to have had the better control of the situation, for it was his persistent pressing that made the heels of the Golden Witch draw the longer lines in the dirt.

The Golden Witch cried out and lowered her head, redoubling her efforts. It turned out to be a mistake. Tao Geming took advantage of her awkward posture and thrust his foot into the air. His kick struck the woman hard in the chin, instantly straightening out her back. Their hands separated, and the Golden Witch retaliated with a punch, which Tao Geming took on the cheek in his usual unyielding fashion, and yet failed to receive it with the same grace as every other strike he had taken that day.

He was forced to step back, dazed by the blow. He regained his wits momentarily and fought back, and the two traded a flurry of blows, parrying them all in an uncharacteristically conventional manner before finally retreating to catch their breaths.

Something fell out of Tao Geming's pocket as he had taken his final step, a document that had partially unrolled itself on the way down. The Golden Witch quickly scanned its contents, and even from afar her sharp eyes managed to read that it was a traveling permit to a city called Yiqin, though they were not signed in Tao Geming's name. He threw the piece of paper up with his foot, and it rolled back into a neat cylinder that he grabbed into his hand.

As he put it back into his tunic, he spoke. "Your energy feels unusual. Just what method have you used to cultivate it?"

The Witch's eyes lit up in wonder. "You can feel qi too?"

"What a stupid question. How could I not have felt it during all that?"

"Ah, that's what you meant..." Her interest instantly evaporated.

"What else could I have been talking about?" Tao Geming, on the other hand, grew suspicious.

"It doesn't really matter..." The Golden Witch answered his question with an innocent smile as her yellow eyes evasively wandered all around, towards the forest, the grass, the skies...

Suddenly, her eyes glimpsed at the ring finger of the man's left hand.

"What are you looking at?" Tao Geming asked with a grin of his own. The Golden Witch immediately looked away, clicking her tongue in frustration. He had concentrated his qi there just to draw her attention. "You can tell what I'm doing with my internal energy without even having to come in contact with it- no, without even having to look at me! I've never seen that before. Now the strange way you've been talking makes sense. It must be how you learned the trick to what the plebeians call invincibility just by seeing it once. Hell, with that kind of extrasensory perception, you might be able to learn any of the world's techniques just by seeing them once or twice simply by feeling the flow of qi in someone's body."

The woman rolled her eyes. "Well, even if you figured it out, so what?"

Tao Geming's smile had faded. "True, it is inconsequential. What matters to me more is just how young your internal energy feels."

The Golden Witch met his intense gaze with a sideways glance.

Tao Geming continued. "Your qi feels like it belongs to someone not even half your age. You're cultivating a method that not only slows your aging, but reverses it!" His fist clenched, he stepped forward. "Teach it to me!" He commanded.

Bai Guo instantly turned to Cui Shen. "Could that be true, sir Shen? Does there really exist such a thing?"

"I do not know. I've never heard of it." Cui Shen couldn't answer any of his questions; even a seasoned martial artist such as himself felt no less out of his depth than the young man by his side. He hadn't even dared to make a guess.

The woman quirked a brow. "Am I to take those words to mean that you desire to become my disciple?"

Tao Geming scoffed. "Foolish woman. The only thing that stands above me are the heavens themselves. I'm simply offering you a deal - impart the secrets of your method to reverse aging to me, and this King of Jianghu will spare your life."

"I don't feel like my life is in danger, though." She said, brushing a hand through her long blonde hair. But she began to regard him with far more gravity than before. Something vicious began to set in those golden eyes.

"But you have felt it, haven't you? No, you still feel it even now. The fact is, my internal energy is superior to yours." Tao Geming asserted.

"I must disagree with your assessment. Even with the most generous estimation in regards to yourself, we'd still be far too close for the outcome of a battle to be certain, wouldn't you agree?" She questioned.

But Tao Geming seemed adamant. "Don't make me laugh. Gaps in internal energy are insurmountable."

"What if I have a technique to bridge the gap? You really haven't considered that? You yourself have said that it's a trivial matter for me to learn such things, so shouldn't you be worried?"

Tao Geming guffawed. "No matter how many of those you've picked up, it makes no difference. Techniques are meaningless in the face of real power. They're nothing but a clown's tricks!"

"...But isn't it the case that you make use of them? Your title is even based on them."

"That, too, is nothing but chicanery. I amuse myself with it. It terrifies the plebs so much they even titled me after it. Those "techniques" work only on the lowliest of the low, who don't know a single thing about their own meridians and let me do with them as I please. A true expert could never be killed by the little trick I use to turn my foes into pink mist."

Tao Geming's continued gloating had caused the two observers, Bai Guo and Cui Shen, to grow irritated; they could hardly help but take his words as a personal affront to their life-long training. To them, what he was saying seemed simply absurd.

The Golden Witch, on the other hand, seemed to regard his words in earnest.

"There might be some truth to what you say." Her sudden concession had come as a shock to both of her companions. With two experts so far above them arguing against what was essentially their way of life, they had nothing with which to fend themselves against the shame of such brazen ridicule.

Tao Geming, too, seemed almost surprised to hear her say that. "In that case, do you accept my terms?"

The Golden Witch closed her eyes. The road had grown completely silent. Not even the birds dared to make themselves heard before these monsters.

"Let me ask you... Why do you think I've come all this way to face you in this manner?"

Tao Geming readily admitted, "I haven't the faintest idea."

When she once again opened her golden eyes, indescribable cockiness glowed within them.

"Test of skill."

Tao Geming had nearly popped a vein in rage. Just from her attitude alone, he could tell whose skill it was that was being tested.

The air grew heavy as once again they brought the full extent of their powers to the fore. This time, the phenomena seemed even more intense, and Bai Guo could have sworn that he felt the ground quivering beneath his feet. To his surprise, Cui Shen fell to the earth entirely, pressing his ear against it.

He rose back up just a moment later, calling out to the Golden Witch, "Riders are on their way here. Dozens of them."

The woman's eyes shifted towards Cui Shen, the utmost disdain flashing in them. It was as though she had taken grave offense at the idea that such a trivial matter had been brought to her attention. But when she caught glimpse of the young man beside him, her glare had suddenly softened. Frustration began to beset her features.

Tao Geming impatiently asked, "What is it? Don't tell me you're scared of a few pissants in yellow."

The Golden Witch stared at her opponent, irritated, though it seemed as if her grievance was not directed at him. It took some time for her to tame her emotions, and she looked away while repressing a resigned sigh.

"...Cui Shen, get us out of here." She suddenly ordered.

In that instance, a round, fist-sized projectile flew at Tao Geming's feet. He made no efforts to avoid it, and when it hit the ground, it erupted into a massive cloud of gray smoke. The Golden Witch darted out of it, tossed her disciple over her shoulder, and departed at blinding speed together with Cui Shen.

Tao Geming stepped out on the opposite end of the cloud, heading to wherever it was he intended to go before he had been interrupted. Despite all his fury earlier, he had made up his mind to let them go.

"If she can sense me from afar, then trying to chase her around would be useless. However, she knows where to find me. Though it loathes me to go about it this way, I'm going to have to wait for her to come to me. And not that I believe that it might, but if cowardice does overtake her, I can still find her myself. After all, not only does she practically glow like a lamp post, but that's Deng Hong's killer she's travelling with. There could hardly exist a party that could be easier to find."

His thoughts were soon interrupted as the riders began to draw near. Predictably, they were dressed in the yellow and red uniforms of the Qin Royal Dynasty Sword School, and every last one of them wielded a long spear.

They promptly surrounded him, the stampeding horses kicking up another smokescreen of dust. One of the group, a man with the number four emblazoned on his shoulder, stepped down from his mount and pointed the tip of his spear at Tao Geming.

"Tao Geming! You have been accused of misappropriating the royal title. Come with us posthaste. Unless, of course, you wish to surrender your life without trial, you vagabond!"

"What an interesting manner you've chosen to fetch me a horse." Tao Geming walked right into the pointed spear.

The Royal School member thrust it into his side, but it failed to cut through more than the man's gray tunic. Tao Geming grabbed it and brushed it aside with the same ease that one might use to shift a low-hanging tree branch out of their face, then his body blurred as he crossed the entire length of the weapon in the blink of an eye to punch the spearman squarely in the stomach. The blow was so fierce that the man was lifted off the ground by Tao Geming's fist, and the Invincible Blood Sea readjusted his grip to keep him suspended in the air. Blood flowed freely out of his mouth; the single blow had dealt immense damage to his internal organs.

Though the man weakly struggled in his grasp, he seemed no longer capable of putting up a meaningful resistance.

"Listen well," Tao Geming said, his booming voice overtaking the cacophony of beating hooves. "Next time, if the one to come after me isn't Qin Yan himself, that snot-nosed brat you fools call your king, then I won't be so generous as to leave even one of you with anything left to bury!"

Upon his exclamation, Tao Geming twisted his grip and the spearman's head burst into mist, showering his fellows in gore. The horses were no less terrified than their riders, and they all scattered in every direction, the gruesome scene forever imprinted into their minds.

Tao Geming held back the lone riderless mount, and, after pilfering the headless man's valuables, began to ride the blood-splattered steed to his destination.

...

Meanwhile, the three returned to the city. On their way back to the Clear Essence Pavilion, they saw Kang Shi still pretending to lounge in the dirt, his two disciples having brought him an umbrella to shield him from the sun. The Golden Witch stared at them like she just ate something sour, and seemed glad to hide away from them in the inn.

They convened in one of their rented rooms to discuss the day's events.

"Master, should we really remain in this town? Aren't you worried that Tao Geming might come after us?" Bai Guo asked.

"I'll know if he's coming. He'll never catch us unless I want him to." The Golden Witch said, completely unconcerned. "But in any case, it's not as if I wish to avoid him. I want to finish our match."

"Well, master, in that case, why exactly did we retreat...?" Bai Guo meekly asked, though he had already suspected what the answer was.

His master gave him a long look, and then said, "I want to fight him without any distractions. Those Royal School swordsmen would have gotten in our way and made a mess of things. It wasn't worth dealing with."

Bai Guo thought she was only being half-truthful; it wasn't the Royal School she was worried about. He apologetically lowered his head.

If the Golden Witch noticed his gesture, she hadn't let it show. She brought up another matter. "Do any of you know where Yiqin is? He had traveling papers to that place."

Cui Shen spoke up. "I know where it is. I traveled these parts twice over, and this is one of the few regions that haven't changed significantly during both of my trips. Though I must warn you, that city happens to be the capital, where the primary branch of the Royal School makes its base."

"Then we shall be making our way there tomorrow to settle this matter." She decided, getting up to her feet. "Bai Guo, let's go play around in the city some more."

The young man's mind was in turmoil. He reacted with delay. "Ah, yes, ma'am."

As he ventured out of the room, his thoughts continued to dwell. "I keep putting my master into these awkward positions... Even just today, she had to save me on three separate occasions. I take but do not give, and even worse, I almost stooped to deceiving her for the sake of some beggar. After everything we went through in Wuyi, how could I doubt her morality and convictions? I need to reevaluate my mindset, and I need to figure out a way to contribute. But... how? Even sir Cui Shen struggles to keep pace with her, let alone me, someone who's not even half the man he is. And at the pace I'm going, maybe I never will be..."

After Bai Guo set off with a heavy heart, the Golden Witch lingered in the doorway, her head half-turned back to Cui Shen.

Cui Shen voiced his intentions to stay behind. "I'll join you later."

But she remained for a time longer, and as the seconds dragged, Cui Shen's eyes filled with torment. When the woman finally took her leave without a word, she shut the door behind her, a gesture that filled the pale man with gratitude.

Cui Shen erupted into a violent cough, staining the carpets black with ill blood that seeped past his fingers.

As master and disciple wandered the city streets, their minds seemed elsewhere. But when a golden eye caught glimpse of a particular item through the window of a store, she found herself suddenly reenergized.

"Bai Guo." She urged the young man to follow her inside. She pointed at what she desired. "Buy me that."

Bai Guo couldn't stifle his smile at the childish manner in which she had made her request, or rather, issued her demand.

"Another mask, master? I remember that other mask you... picked up," he stumbled over his words, narrowly avoiding accusing her of theft, "back in that village, back when we first met. Not that I've ever seen you wear it, though..."

The Golden Witch gawked at herself in the mirror from several different angles as she pressed the white fox mask against her face, like she was trying on any regular item of clothing. She soon stowed it into her robe without ever having properly put it on.

She seemed quite pleased.

"Is it like a hobby, collecting those?" Bai Guo asked.

"Hmmm." Her satisfied smile turned a little embarrassed. "No, it's not just about collecting. I do like to wear them, but only in private."

Though Bai Guo remained oblivious to the meaning behind her words, he, too, felt pleased, having learned something new about his enigmatic master.

...

A week later, they had all arrived at Yiqin.

Late in evening, when the summer sun had nearly set, as Cui Shen was quietly suffering through another bout of his disease, a voice emerged from the door.

"May I come in?"

It was the Golden Witch. She had the fortunate timing to arrive when the fit was at its weakest, so he had permitted her to enter and rose to greet her.

Only a single candle lit the room.

They both kneeled on the floor. Cui Shen waited for her to speak, his eyes only half open, absent-mindedly staring off at nothing in particular. He was relishing his few moments free of pain.

"I would like to apologize." She suddenly said.

Cui Shen sluggishly raised his eyes to meet hers. In the candlelight, her unforgettable features seemed ethereal.

She explained. "I dragged you around on unnecessary diversions for far longer than necessary. I failed to take your well-being into consideration."

Cui Shen closed his eyes and, for a time, pondered her words before replying. "When we set out on this journey, we both agreed that you'll dedicate some time to training Bai Guo. The boy is already almost too old to build a proper foundation, and the fact of the matter is, his aptitude for martial arts is unremarkable. But that's what makes it all the more important to remedy his issues as soon as possible. The boy's time is simply far more valuable than mine. I've committed enough mistakes in my life. I won't jeopardize Bai Guo's future as well."

"The impression I have of Bai Guo could, perhaps, be wrong, but he seems to me like the sort who would resent you if he knew about our agreement. And resent me, as well." She said.

A rare chuckle escaped his lips. "I see you're finally catching on to the kind of person your disciple is."

"Still, I should not have let it get to this point..."

Cui Shen shook his head. "You have nothing to worry about. I'll survive long enough to deliver you to your destination. I am not even yet so far gone that I'm unable to fight."

"You say that... but I can tell just how bad it has gotten. I may not know much about medicine or poison, but I can feel what it's doing to your meridians. If you fought in that state..."

Cui Shen closed his eyes again. "I see nothing eludes your divine senses."

The Golden Witch continued. "...And besides, this is not about your task. I get that it's, perhaps, inevitable... but there are better ways for you to be dealing with this than the rigors of the road."

"I understand the sentiment. But there is nothing for you to apologize for. I was always prepared for the consequences."

The room descended into an uneasy silence for a long time.

"...How am I going to train him without you?" She suddenly asked.

"You've always known everything you need." He stared idly at the flickering candle, on the verge of burning out.

"That's not true. Half of what I put him through were your ideas." She rested her chin on her sleeved hand.

"My input was never necessary. You simply lacked confidence. You're ready to take on the world at the drop of a hat, yet a boy intimidates you so."

"Why is it so, I wonder...?" She cocked her head.

"Martial arts teach us how to take lives, but not how to nurture them."

"What will Bai Guo do without you around? He seems to rely on you even more than he does on me."

"I began to excuse myself from your training sessions so he could get used to it." Cui Shen either coughed or chuckled again. "And haven't you realized? He relies on me solely to lessen the burden on you."

His words set her heart aflutter. She found herself glad that Cui Shen wasn't looking her way.

The Golden Witch suddenly stood up. "Even so..." She began, unsteadily. "Even so, I stand by what I said."

Cui Shen looked up. High above, he found those golden eyes staring down at him with pity and determination in equal measure.

"There will be no more delays. I'm ending this tonight."

She left just as the candle had gone out.

Inside her room, she sat by the open window, her blonde locks lightly brushed by the gentle night breeze. Under the light of the moon, she ran her long finger along the edges of the fox mask. She stared at it as though mesmerized, anticipating the night that lied ahead.

Finally, she put it on.

...