"The master is dead! Run, everyone, run!" The kappa was the first to take to its heels, and at the sight the remaining patrol bees were seized with panic as well; after a single glance at one another they turned and fled without a moment's hesitation, caring for nothing else.

Their hatred for their master, the Guardian of the Sleeping Lotus, might not equal the kappa's grudge over the slaughter of its clan, but it came close enough. For a single careless word from the Guardian of the Sleeping Lotus, they had been set to slaughter one another; of such a master they knew only fear, never the least shred of loyalty. At the slightest provocation, disaster naturally sent them scattering, each to save its own skin.

With the kappa and the patrol bees to set the example, the other spirit beasts, great and small, that were kept in thrall now fled in a thunderous rout, and in the blink of an eye they were gone, clean away, leaving only Wei Zhao and Duanmu Yu to stare at each other in silence.

Still, this was just as well—it saved no small amount of trouble. For all that Wei Zhao's strength meant he would never take such rabble of spirit beasts to heart, they were, great or small, a nuisance in the end, and now a single sentence from the kappa had settled them. The creature deserved a word of praise.

After a moment of silence, Duanmu Yu suddenly asked, "What was that just now?"

"You mean that kappa? It was talking nonsense. Kill it with a look—as if I were some kind of immortal!" Wei Zhao laughed.

"I don't mean that. I mean that strange space just now—what was it? How did my primordial spirit get drawn inside, and how was even that thing suppressed so completely?" Duanmu Yu asked. The question had been pent up in her heart all this while, only she could not press it with the Guardian of the Sleeping Lotus standing there; now that no one was about, she could hold it in no longer.

"That, well..." Wei Zhao could not help hesitating. A moment ago he had feared leaving Duanmu Yu outside alone would invite trouble, and so in urgency had taken her primordial spirit into the jade pendant's space along with his own. But this was among his most closely guarded secrets, and absolutely must not be divulged to outsiders. After today's events Duanmu Yu might well count as a friend in life and death, yet she had not reached the point of being one of his own, trusted without reservation, and he dared not rashly reveal such a thing to her.

Seeing him hesitate, Duanmu Yu knew at once that this was something he could not lightly confide in her—but she had always been one to get to the bottom of things, and she had never been one to let sand in her eye. If she failed to get to the bottom of this matter, she feared she would brood on it her whole life; it might even harden into a knot in her heart and work ill upon her cultivation in days to come.

"Did you not say I was your woman? Can a thing like this not even be told to your woman?" Duanmu Yu said suddenly, her face reddening.

"Uh..." Wei Zhao was stopped short, and could not help eyeing her up and down with a curious look; her cheeks were faintly flushed, but her expression was quite composed, as though she had already made her peace with it.

Studied so fixedly by Wei Zhao at such close range, Duanmu Yu, for all her mettlesome, heroic nature, could not keep her heart from pounding. A strange thought flashed through her mind—could this be what they called a heart beating like a deer's?

"Wh-what? Did I say something wrong?" Duanmu Yu shot back, refusing to be cowed, and fixed her eyes on Wei Zhao in turn.

"This is a little awkward... I only said it to needle that creature. Don't take it to heart," Wei Zhao said, scratching his head in embarrassment. He had not thought it through when he said it; the words had come out in the heat of the exchange, and now they seemed far too abrupt. It was only because Duanmu Yu was so broad-minded; on any other woman it would surely have bred no end of awkwardness.

"So I misunderstood, then?" Duanmu Yu looked at him deeply, her expression rather complicated. "Very well. Since that is so, shall we strike a bargain?"

"A bargain? What bargain?" Wei Zhao was taken aback.

"Earlier you wanted to ask about Withering Leaf Brings Spring. I can expound the essence and cardinal meaning of that move to you. In return, you tell me what that space just now really was. How about it?" Duanmu Yu proposed.

"Isn't Withering Leaf Brings Spring your Leaf Spirit Sect's secret, not to be passed on?" Wei Zhao asked in surprise.

"By our ancestral precepts, Withering Leaf Brings Spring indeed may not be taught to outsiders. But our Leaf Spirit Sect has always repaid kindness and grudges alike in full. Since you saved me, I may make an exception this once," Duanmu Yu said.

If one looked closely, her words did not quite hold up. Even if she wished to repay Wei Zhao's life-saving grace, she need not necessarily reveal the essence and cardinal meaning of Withering Leaf Brings Spring; there were any number of other ways. But she was the senior disciple of the Leaf Spirit Sect, and by its rules, whoever advanced another tier in strength would become the next sect master; even if she did this, the sect's elders would not make an issue of it.

"And what if I have a loose tongue and spread the essence of Withering Leaf Brings Spring far and wide?" Wei Zhao asked. Withering Leaf Brings Spring was the Leaf Spirit Sect's bottom-drawer trump card; presumably only the most core disciples within the sect ever had the chance to study it. Once it spread and others studied it and devised counters, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Duanmu Yu looked at him deeply and said with certainty, "You won't."

"Very well. Since you trust me so, I had best do as you ask." Wei Zhao smiled freely.

"Then are you not afraid I will spread your secret far and wide?" Duanmu Yu asked in return.

"You won't," Wei Zhao said, returning her own words to her. Though they were not yet well acquainted, a person's true nature showed clearest between life and death. Just as Duanmu Yu trusted him, so he trusted that Duanmu Yu was not the sort to stoop to baseness—otherwise he would not have drawn her primordial spirit in without a second thought. In truth, from that moment on, his secret had already been laid bare before her without reserve.

At these words Duanmu Yu's face flushed faintly again. As the undisputed senior disciple of the Leaf Spirit Sect, she had blushed more times today than in the past ten years combined, and even she found it strange—to be flushing for no reason at the slightest thing, was she running a fever?

"But let me say this plainly first: I can tell you only the essence and cardinal meaning of Withering Leaf Brings Spring, not the method of cultivating it. Is that acceptable?" Duanmu Yu set aside her tangled thoughts and returned to the point. Leaking the essence was troublesome enough, but without the method of cultivation, she could at least ensure that others could not master Withering Leaf Brings Spring in a short time, so that this bottom-drawer sect move would not be turned back against her own people.

"No problem." Wei Zhao nodded. He had never truly intended to cultivate Withering Leaf Brings Spring; after all, his jade pendant's space replenished his spiritual energy in an endless stream, so there was no need for it. He merely wished to study and examine it, to see whether he might glean something of value from it. (To be continued.)