Such silence had descended upon the room that one could hear the flap of a butterfly's wings. Even the flickering flame within the oil lamp seemed to have frozen solid.

Two cultivators stared at each other from across the room, one with fear, and one with furious hatred. A blade pressed up against a delicate throat, ready to take a life. Yet neither dared to make the first move. The moment stretched, fighting to stay still - to stick in place like a long string of tar, catching upon every little crack in the inevitable road towards the future -

- and then it snapped, as Qian Shanyi had broken the silence.

"What is the meaning of this?" she said, her clean voice booming across the room. "Have you completely taken leave of all your senses?"

"Quiet!" Tang Jisheng snapped back. He had backed himself fully into a corner now, pulling Linghui Mei along. "Who sent you after me?"

"What right does a demonic cultivator have to question me?"

"I am not a demonic cultivator!" Tang Jisheng roared. For a moment, his own fury seemed to have overwhelmed his terror - but only for a moment. "Nobody has to get hurt here. Just answer my questions, keep your spiritual energy down - "

"Spiritual energy? Spiritual energy?!" Qian Shanyi cut him off, her voice rising so much the window panes had started to rattle. "You pathetic worm, do you even comprehend who I am? I am the young masteress of the Sky Void Island Temple sect! I could tear the soul out of your body with but a single snap of my delicate fingers, and you dare further insult me?! As if I would need to waste my precious spiritual energy to deal with trash like you!"

She snapped her fingers for emphasis, meeting Linghui Mei's terrified eyes as she did it. She couldn't tell if her message had gotten across. Linghui Mei was grasping blindly at her side in terror, where she used to wear her dagger in their world fragment - only it was nowhere to be found.

They left it behind when they split off from Wang Yonghao. Qian Shanyi had been against it, but allowed herself to be convinced by Linghui Mei - she said it would attract less attention.

If they got out of this mess, she'd stitch the damnable dagger directly to her disciple's thigh, objections or not.

"Silence!" Tang Jisheng said. The mention of a sect had only rattled him more - sweat had started to drip down his forehead, coming out on the palms of his hands. "You will do what I say or I will cut your servant's throat!"

"Then do it."

"What?"

Qian Shanyi felt something crunch in her hand and looked down to find that she had clenched her wine glass so tightly that the stem had cracked in half. Thankfully the bowl was still whole, or she'd have spilled wine all over herself. She tossed the useless bit of glass against the wall, and enjoyed seeing Tang Jisheng flinch as it shattered into dust.

"Are you deaf as well as imbecilic?" she said, turning her fury into an entire ocean of annoyance, and channeling it directly through her voice. "I said do it!"

Linghui Mei let out a little terrified whimper, but Qian Shanyi ignored it. Into one ear and out the other. There was a right way to handle this, and showing any hint of worry for her disciple was not it.

Sure enough, Tang Jisheng's hand had not moved even a millimeter. He clenched his teeth, breathing rapidly, his lips trembling in indecision - yet his hand didn't move. An empty threat, at least as long as he still felt reasonably safe. But if Qian Shanyi were to attack him… She was no longer sure. Perhaps he really would do it. There was a reason why she hadn't even made a move to stand up nor risked using her spiritual energy.

If she was golden core, the man would have suffocated already. Now that was a pleasant image.

Qian Shanyi gave Tang Jisheng a moment to stew in it, before continuing. "Oh? How is it that all your bluster vanishes like a puff of smoke? You were so full of it before."

Tang Jisheng flinched again. "You are bluffing," he said. His hand pressed up a fraction closer to Linghui Mei's neck, a second drop of blood welling up on the blade.

Qian Shanyi sneered at Tang Jisheng. He could at least have had the decency to form a proper argument. "Pathetic. Who are you trying to convince, me or yourself?"

She was bluffing, but she could also tell that Tang Jisheng had simply thrown the guess out without any real thinking behind it, just acting on instinct, based on the inconsistencies he felt only vaguely. Usually, this sort of thoughtless approach would have been a horrendous decision - but it just so happened to be a good counter to Qian Shanyi's lies.

She didn't want him to know that she valued Linghui Mei. If he thought she was worthless to her, then he'd have no reason to hold her hostage - and that should keep her safe. It might even give her disciple an opening to kill him, if he simply pushed Linghui Mei away thoughtlessly.

But the damn moron could somehow feel the falseness in that. What kind of master didn't value their disciple? She needed to plant an alternative theory in his mind.

"Did you imagine this to be some kind of bargaining chip? If this servant girl dies, I'll simply find another," Qian Shanyi said with the same casualness as if they were discussing the weather, gesturing towards Linghui Mei with her broken glass of wine. "Do you have any idea how many hundreds of them would gladly serve as my pets for a mere chance to become an outer sect disciple? All I have to do is walk into a village and allow them to prostrate themselves before me. And this is what you chose to waste my time with?"

Tang Jisheng grit his teeth, but didn't back down. "Tell me why you are here!"

"I came here to find out if you are the kind of bottom-feeding trash that would wilfully send an ordinary person to his death," Qian Shanyi said honestly, "or merely one so incompetent it is frankly a wonder that you can still tell which orifice on your body is meant for speaking and which one for defecation. So this?" she gestured to Linghui Mei again. "Please, do go ahead. Violate the fourth imperial edict outright. It will make my job so much easier!"

"No, that's not -" Tang Jisheng shook his head, as if that would get rid of his shame. At least he had the decency to blush. "Who are you working for?!"

"Who do you think? The thirty six netherworld kings."

"You think I am joking?" Tang Jisheng said, his voice cracking from the stress. "I'll really do it -"

"Then shut up and do it already!" Qian Shanyi cut him off again, before sneering. "Only you won't, will you? Pathetic coward. You dare threaten me when your belief is built on sand and your conviction melts like butter?"

"No!" Tang Jisheng said, shaking his head furiously. He let go of Linghui Mei's hair, and pointed at Qian Shanyi's face with a scowl. "You are just bluffing. If you really didn't care for her life, you would have pulled out your sword already. Now tell me who you are working for!"

Qian Shanyi couldn't help but laugh. Well, there was some logic to what he said, she supposed - at least on the surface. Now to tear it down. "You have eyes yet you still cannot see Mount Tai?" she said, spreading her arms wide. "Very well, junior, this here jade beauty will graciously offer you some pointers. The only reason I haven't struck you down already is that it doesn't benefit me to do so."

She leaned backwards on her couch, casually putting the hand holding her glass behind her head. Out of sight, out of mind. The more relaxed she looked, the more she could control this conversation.

"If I were to send my flying sword towards you right now, it would reach you in zero point twenty three seconds," she said, pulling the numbers out of her ass without any hesitation, "and there is an eighty-two percent chance that it will strike you dead. But you are a cultivator. I doubt that your reaction time is any worse than zero point zero eight seconds. There is that crucial eighteen percent chance that you could act just in time, push my servant right in front of my own flying sword - and not only put me in a very delicate position of accidentally killing an ordinary person, but also, far more crucially, tangle my blade up in her bones and intestines, giving you an opportunity to escape. This is unacceptable to me, so of course I have not acted."

The numbers were completely made up, merely there to make her sound more confident and impressive. She had never bothered measuring the acceleration of her flying sword, and of course it was utterly impossible to estimate the probability of hitting the man - she had absolutely no way to predict exactly what he would do in a fight. But she could already see it working on Tang Jisheng.

"Of course, you can simply try to leave," Qian Shanyi continued, and raised three fingers. "Three possibilities. One: you try to leave through the staircase behind me. If you do so, you will have to walk past me, and then my sword will not have to fly at all. This way lies your certain death. Two: you leap out the window, abandoning my servant. We are on the second story; it will take you at least a second to reach the ground, but my flying sword will only need half a second to slay you. Death. Three: you bring my servant with you, shielding yourself like a coward - but there are only two ways away from this building. It's either down the road into the town, or off the cliff and into the river. If you are seen dragging a kidnapped woman through town, the empire will hunt you down as a demonic cultivator until the day you die. Death. But if you leap off the cliff - you won't be able to keep a hold of my servant once you hit the water. Even if you somehow manage it, you cannot possibly hope to swim while keeping a hold on a struggling human. Easy prey for my flying sword. Death, again."

With every word she said, her smirk grew a little wider, and another crack spread through Tang Jisheng's already weakened confidence. Physically, he was already in a corner - but now, she had put his spirit in one as well.

"Death. Death. Death. Death." Qian Shanyi repeated, relishing every word. The fingers on her hand closed, one by one, until she showed Tang Jisheng her clenched fist - and then opened it, palm upwards, as if she was inviting him for a dance. "No matter what, everything leads to the same outcome! You are already dancing in the palm of my hand - so why should I hurry to dispatch you? This little impasse is of no concern to me. I have plenty of time."

The fear, the growing desperation, the exhaustion of being hunted by the ghost - she could see it all in Tang Jisheng's eyes. When she first pushed him, he tried to find a way out - and in his addled state, decided to take a hostage. To at least get to control the nature of their conversation, if he couldn't control his life.

Perhaps she pushed him a bit too carelessly. It was time to give him another way out - one of her own creation. A drowning man would grasp onto every rope, no matter how implausible.

Qian Shanyi shrugged casually, before putting one finger to her lips, as if in deep thought. "But, I suppose your wine was excellent… So I should give you some face as a fellow cultivator." She nodded, and gestured to Tang Jisheng. "Convince me you are innocent, and I will answer any questions you may have - and then we could leave this little misunderstanding behind us."

"You threatened to kill me just now, and you expect me to believe that?" Tang Jisheng asked, his eyebrows swiftly rising upwards.

Even Linghui Mei had given Qian Shanyi a baffled, betrayed look. She had stayed silent, not even risking moving a little - but now, her lips had started to tremble.

Qian Shanyi laughed lightly, downing the rest of her wine in one gulp. "Fellow cultivator Tang, you must understand that you have startled me!" she said apologetically. "These words of death - I merely spoke in hypotheticals. If we were to come to blows, then of course I would have no choice but to - what is it you said? Ah yes, 'cut you open like a pig'. But you are quite right, there is no need for things to go that far. Why don't you release my servant and we can discuss things peacefully?"

Some tension had faded from Tang Jisheng's shoulders, and yet, he hadn't lowered his sword even a millimeter. "No," he said, "if I let go of her, what is to stop you from slaughtering me where I stand?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Tsk. So much for an easy way out.

"Oh very well, if it makes you more comfortable, then remain standing," Qian Shanyi said, waving him off as if that wasn't exactly what she was planning to do.

She reached over to the table, to pour herself more wine - only the bottle was already empty. She looked sadly at the puddle of wine spread out on the floor, where Linghui Mei had dropped the other bottle. It really was some excellent wine. "You can keep my servant as well. Just don't crumple her up too much, will you?"

"Master, please -" Linghui Mei begged.

"Quiet," Qian Shanyi cut her off, glaring at her disciple, and gesturing with her bottle towards Linghui Mei's face. "You serve at my will, so if I order you to keep company to the good cultivator Tang, who are you to question me? Even if I tell you to do it all night long, so what? Follow your orders, petulant girl."

Linghui Mei was shorter than Tang Jisheng. In the shadow of the bottle held in Qian Shanyi's right hand, where it obscured Tang Jisheng's sight, Qian Shanyi quickly grasped her empty glass with her knees and signed to Linghui Mei with her left, before picking her glass back up, as if nothing had happened.

She only had the time for a couple signs. She'd just have to trust that her disciple had gotten the message this time.

"Now, where were we?" Qian Shanyi said, turning her attention to Tang Jisheng. She leaned back on her couch, and hid her empty wine glass behind her head once more. "Ah yes. You were going to explain how you are entirely innocent."

"Innocent? Innocent of what?"

"Of the murder of Zhang Zhuangtian."

Tang Jisheng blinked, and then started to laugh. He even closed his eyes for a brief moment. Far, far too careless. "That - that peasant? Is this what this is all about?"

Qian Shanyi shrugged. "His ghost follows you. How do you explain this?"

"How should I know why it follows me?!" Tang Jisheng snarled. "I never killed him, I never even touched him! The first time I found out he was dead was when he tried to eat my soul!"

"But you knew him," Qian Shanyi said neutrally. "Tell me how you've met."

"I didn't know him. We weren't friends."

"I never said you were. I merely asked how you've met."

Tang Jisheng grimaced, his breathing slowing down a fraction. Finally calming down now. "I only met him twice, okay?" he said. "First time he came with the Song girl. Second time, alone."

Qian Shanyi nodded. It was about as she expected. "Let's start with that then. What did you talk about?"

"Their damnable child, of course. What else?"

"And what did you tell him?"

For a moment, Tang Jisheng's eyes flickered to the staircase behind Qian Shanyi. "The same thing I told them both the first time," he said a little too quickly. "That I didn't have the pills for it, and I'd get them when I next went to the city."

That was a lie, Qian Shanyi could tell that much - he was concealing something else about the visit. But there was little she could pull on to make him unravel, and if she pushed directly, he would simply say nothing. For now, she decided to simply let it rest.

"Pills?" she asked instead. "Why didn't you simply use the Life Severing Blade?"

This was frankly one of the most baffling aspects of the entire situation to her. If Tang Jisheng wanted to help Song Hexiang, the entire problem could have been solved in five minutes. But if he didn't, then why pretend as if he would for many weeks?

Yet the look Tang Jisheng gave her suggested he knew even less than she did. "What is that?" he said suspiciously. "Some sect technique of yours?'

Qian Shanyi blinked twice, the strange comment having thrown her off her game for a brief moment. "No, it's… a very minor technique?" she spoke hesitantly. "Practically any healer who studied the basics should be familiar with it...?"

She trailed off, catching the look Tang Jisheng was giving her. Well, she supposed that explained it as well as any words ever could.

"You are lying," Tang Jisheng accused her. His upper lip had curled up so much his teeth were showing. "I've never even heard of such a technique!"

"That's quite alright, fellow cultivator Tang, it really wasn't my point," Qian Shanyi said, speaking quietly, as if to a wounded animal. "I merely wished to know the specifics of the treatment you've prescribed for Miss Song."

Tang Jisheng stared at her for a moment longer, before snorting dismissively. "Treatment? She refused my treatment."

"So she wished to keep the child?"

"Pretty much."

"That's quite curious," Qian Shanyi said, angling her head to the side. "You see, it's just that when I asked her earlier, she claimed the exact opposite." Her lips pursed as she gave Tang Jisheng a severe look. "Honorable cultivator Tang, if you wish to convince me of your innocence, then perhaps it would be best to refrain from outright lying?"

"Fine!" Tang Jisheng said, slamming the fist of his free hand into one of the walls. "So I told her to go to a midwife! That was the treatment. She refused. What else do you want from me?"

"A midwife? You are her doctor."

"That's right, and a child is a problem for a midwife, not for me! It's not my job!"

"Serving your patients is your responsibility," Qian Shanyi hissed through her teeth, her temper beginning to rise again. "You are a Heaven-forsaken healer! How can you say it's not your job?!"

"Should I build her a house as well if she asks for one?" Tang Jisheng said, his tone quickly rising to match hers. "Is that also my responsibility? But fine - I told them that I will get the damn pills, they will just have to wait until the next time I go to the city! He couldn't have even done that!"

"Next time? Why didn't you go right away?"

"You think I can just abandon all my other clients?" Tang Jisheng snapped back at her. For a brief moment, it seemed as if he would gesture to her with his sword - but he thought better of it at the last moment. "Leave them for who knows how long - a week, maybe more - until I can find whatever pill can cure this?"

"A week?" Qian Shanyi said incredulously. "Even if you didn't know the Life Severing Blade, this is a standard pill! Any competent midwife in the city could sell you some! How could you not know this?"

Before responding, he gave a sneer. "You sect bastards think you know everything, huh?" Tang Jisheng said with such venom in his voice she would have believed he studied curse techniques. "You get pills and techniques delivered to you on a silver platter. I built this practice with my own two hands! Me! I learned everything myself, begging other healers to teach me mere scraps of their knowledge! My practice, my skills, my heavens-damned town! Why should I have to suffer because some whore couldn't keep her legs closed?! You have no idea -"

In that entire rant, one word had caught Qian Shanyi's ears. "Suffer?" she said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "What do you mean by 'suffer'?"

Tang Jisheng had caught himself just before he could continue, swallowing whatever words were about to spill out of his mouth. His teeth clenched tightly, all his hatred focusing in his eyes.

"What did you mean by suffer, cultivator Tang?" Qian Shanyi continued, raising her voice again.

"I meant the ghost," Tang Jisheng cut back. "Why is it even after me, huh? I told him everything I knew!"

Qian Shanyi's lips split in a scowl. "You are lying to me. Again. What are you hiding?"

Once again, Tang Jisheng had slammed his mouth shut. He openly looked at the window - reconsidering his decision? Willing to bet his life yet?

Qian Shanyi's mind raced ahead. She didn't have much time left before he did something stupid. She just needed a couple more hints to figure this out… "What part of you would suffer, cultivator Tang?" Qian Shanyi said, sitting up a little straighter. "Is it your life? Your skills? Your reputation?" A little flinch. "Reputation then."

Tang Jisheng flinched again, far more obviously this time. "Stop this!" he shouted. "Stop asking questions!"

"Reputation with whom?" Qian Shanyi pressed, pieces finally clicking together in her mind. "With your clients? Because if they knew that you couldn't even diagnose a pregnancy in four months, and then could do nothing about it, they would start to ask how good you really are?"

Her mind flashed back to what Linghui Mei had told her about his house. He paid for it with a loan from one of his clients as well. No wonder he would be worried.

"As if it should even matter to any of those fools!" Tang Jisheng said, all but confirming her thoughts. "Half of them are over fifty! As if any of them would ever have more children - "

"You incompetent trash," Qian Shanyi said, disgusted to the very depths of her soul. "Is this why you tried to hide the ghost? To cover up your pathetic inadequacy?"

"My mistakes?!" Tang Jisheng screamed back. A bit of spit flew out of his mouth. "I didn't make any mistakes! I did everything right, and now you dare question my actions?! Who are you to tell me how to live, huh? You -"

Qian Shanyi threw her empty wine glass directly in Tang Jisheng's face. She didn't bother bringing out any of her spiritual energy - her muscles were quite enough.

She doubted Tang Jisheng even realised what she did. All he saw was something heading for his face. Once again, he acted on instinct, just as she knew he would. He raised his sword to block - and for that brief moment, brought it away from Linghui Mei's throat.

The snap of Qian Shanyi's fingers was just as deafening as the sound of glass shattering on steel.

Linghui Mei's entire body dissolved into ink and smoke, and before Tang Jisheng could react, two spiritual tails had rammed their way through his soul and tore it out of his body. His corpse had hit the ground a mere moment later, sword clattering away uselessly across the wooden floor.

His face was still frozen in a mask of confusion, blood leaking out of small cuts left behind by the glass.

Linghui Mei had transformed fully into her vulpine form and scrambled away from the corpse, into another corner of the room. She howled quietly, her ears pressed up against her head, paws covering her eyes. She looked a little comical, an enormous fox still dressed in human clothes, long limbs coming out of her sleeves.

If Qian Shanyi didn't just see her kill a cultivator with less effort than it took to slap one across the face, she might have even considered laughing.

Qian Shanyi approached Linghui Mei with some caution. She could still sense Tang Jisheng's soul, held securely in Linghui Mei's twin spiritual tails. Linghui Mei had been taking bites out of it, little pieces vanishing entirely, absorbed with no trace left. At the rate she was going, within another ten minutes, the last trace of Tang Jisheng would be gone entirely.

Qian Shanyi sat down next to the giant fox, and carefully pulled her giant head into her lap. Linghui Mei didn't resist, briefly lifting one paw from her eyes. They were glistening wet now.

"There there," Qian Shanyi said, using both hands to give Linghui Mei a scratch behind the ears. "You know I didn't mean what I said? I just didn't want him to suspect you were dangerous in any way."

"I know," Linghui Mei said, her voice coming strangely out of an animal throat - half a howl, half human language. "I… tried to play along."

"I could tell," Qian Shanyi said. She moved one hand to Linghui Mei's neck, and the fox let out a little whine. "You did a good job. It must have been quite scary for you."

"It was terrifying."

Qian Shanyi kept scratching until Linghui Mei's form blurred again, transforming her back into her human form. Strangely, she still kept her head on Qian Shanyi's lap. At least her clothes did not seem to suffer the transformation much, and she could keep her modesty.

"I suppose you were right, back then," Qian Shanyi said. Linghui Mei's ears were a little pink - perhaps from the scratching in her vulpine form - and she switched to massaging them with the tips of her fingers. "I should have just let you drain the bastard. Would have saved us all this trouble."

Linghui Mei sniffled slightly. "I thought you might have let him go even now."

Qian Shanyi scowled at Linghui Mei and stopped her massage, to her disciple's whine of protest. "Don't be ridiculous," she chastised her. "I decided to slay him the moment he put a sword to your neck."

"You… did?" Linghui Mei said, blushing slightly as she looked up at Qian Shanyi.

"Of course. He put an ordinary person at swordpoint. That sort of trash does not deserve my kindness."

"But I am not ordinary…" Linghui Mei muttered, looking away.

Qian Shanyi snorted dismissively. "So what? He had no way of knowing that. He made the decision - and that decision was to threaten you to keep his reputation safe. The cultivation world is better off without him."

Turning her eyes back to the corpse, Qian Shanyi eyed it with quite a bit of disappointment. She hoped to get something more out of the man, but once he freaked out, there was no real way to do that. What she had learned mostly fit into the same picture as what she already expected. And that also meant they'd learned little new about the influence of Wang Yonghao's luck.

Then again… Perhaps there was still a way.

She patted Linghui Mei on the head one last time and moved to stand up. "How about you go downstairs and make us some tea, and something to eat?" Qian Shanyi said, easily lifting the corpse by the collar with a single hand. "I will take care of the body."

Linghui Mei nodded, fixed her clothes, then headed downstairs. Qian Shanyi, on the other hand, had another destination in mind. Tang Jisheng's tower had three levels to it, and the bedrooms were on the third. She found them easily, and tossed the corpse on the bed, before moving the arms and feet into place, and untying the sword sheath from his belt.

She stopped at the doors, giving Tang Jisheng one last glance. With his head turned away, he could pass for someone sleeping. "Even the trash has some uses," she muttered, and shut the door behind her.

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