The invitation to Jade Temple turned out to be the hottest topic at Mount Hua at present. When I visited Xie Lun's hall the next day, everyone was talking about it.
"Yun Qing-er!" Qi Lian was the first to greet me as always. His enthusiastic greeting felt almost foreign to me now after the quiet break in the woods. "Guess what, I made it onto the invitation list!" he exclaimed.
Xie Lun laughed before I could say my congratulations. "She's coming with us too, Qi Lian. You might want to start working on your politeness before we leave—it'd be rude to keep calling her by her name once we are outside this hall."
Qi Lian grimaced. "Y-Yes. Senior Yun." He gave me a slightly embarrassed smile..
I chuckled at Xie Lun's pedantry. Having spent all my time at Mount Hua with a master that cared nothing about formalities, I much preferred my name over "Senior Yun", which sounded cold and affectionless. But I knew Xie Lun was right in that others might take it the wrong way. "Congratulations," I said to Qi Lian, silently accepting the new title. "You've only been at Mount Hua for a few months, haven't you? This is no small feat."
A big smile appeared on Qi Lian's face. "Master said I'm a genius. He usually isn't that generous with his praises, so I suppose I must be doing well."
"You do well at boasting and spreading the word to the whole world," Xie Lun commented, though I saw the pride in his feigned sneer. "Anyway, Yun Qing-er, we haven't seen you since the tournament ended. I hope the incident with your swords didn't make things … too difficult for you."
I winced inwardly—well, it sort of did. It took me days to fix things up with Bai Ye, and I had yet to learn what other surprises the demonic sword had in store for me. But Xie Lun didn't need to know any of this. "All is fine except the strange glares I've been getting since then," I smiled. "And I hope Senior Wen isn't too disappointed that our challenge ended up that way … I could tell she had been looking forward to it."
"She was looking forward to it because you tied with Senior Xie," Qi Lian said. "She had always wanted to win against him. Since the two of you tied, winning against you is as close as she could get to winning against Senior Xie."
The logic baffled me. "Why doesn't she challenge Senior Xie directly then?" I asked without thinking, and when I remembered the rumor of their relationship in the past, I slapped a hand to my mouth. "I'm … sorry. Didn't mean to probe …"
Xie Lun laughed. "It's alright, Yun Qing-er. Most disciples at your level know about this already, but since you don't spend too much time on the main peak, you missed out on most of the gossips. The story was pretty simple: she asked if I wanted to become daoist companions with her. I declined. So she thinks I dislike her and has been distancing herself from me ever since."
There was so much shocking information in those few sentences that it took me a while to process. Wen Shiyin had asked Xie Lun to be her daoist companion? That was essentially equivalent to proposing to him if we were in the commoner's world, a bold move that would no doubt take a lot of courage and faith, especially for a woman. And Xie Lun had … rejected her?
I had thought that she was only another shallow admirer of Xie Lun like all those other girls, but this sounded different. Curiosity got the best of me, and since Xie Lun didn't seem to mind sharing the story, I decided to probe a little. "You don't dislike her?" I ventured.
He gave me an amused look. "Why should I? She's quite an admirable rival when it comes to swords, and a trustworthy friend as well. I simply have no interest in daoist companions, as I want to dedicate myself to the art of swords. I explained it to her, though I don't think she believed me."
So Wen Shiyin was rejected because … Xie Lun wanted to lead a stoic life? I felt a little sorry for her. It was only natural that she didn't believe him—I probably would've thought it was just a convenient excuse as well, since Xie Lun didn't give off the impression of an ascetic person. Certainly not nearly as much as Bai Ye.
My heart skipped a beat at the thought. Who knew Bai Ye would turn out to be such a different person from what he appeared to be? I was fortunate that the art of swords was not the only thing that held a special place in his heart.
"We might witness some interesting events unfold on this trip, Yun— Senior Yun." Qi Lian's comment pulled my thoughts back to the conversation. "Senior Wen is coming as well. All of us will be spending a lot of time together." He winked at Xie Lun.
Xie Lun chuckled, unfazed. "There will be more than that to witness." He darted a sly glance my way. "Wen Shiyin's master is coming with her, and we might get to see a new side of Master Bai Ye that we didn't know of, Yun Qing-er."
The mention of Bai Ye's name startled me. "Senior Wen's master?" I didn't know anything about her. Was this another one of those masters that Bai Ye didn't get along with? What kind of scene was Xie Lun expecting to see them make?
The sly smile broadened on Xie Lun's face. "You don't know?" He cocked his head. "Wen Shiyin's master has been Master Bai Ye's most fervent admirer for over two hundred years. They don't usually see each other because their halls are on different peaks, but when everyone gets to stay close together on this trip … who knows what might happen then?"
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