Be Gentle, Immortal Master

A mix of emotions washed over me. Bai Ye's presence was a relief, but the secret of Twin Stars troubled me, and I was a little afraid to hear what he might say. I stopped myself from turning around to look at him.

The Gatekeeper knitted his brow. "You should be at the north field, Bai Ye. Your duty today is to oversee the tournament, not to shield your disciple no matter what trouble or disaster she might cause."

Bai Ye gave the Gatekeeper a sarcastic smile. "The matches have ended, as have the ones at your field too, if you haven't noticed."

His words seemed to have surprised everyone, and we all turned to look around us. The crowd had indeed dispersed, with few disciples left except Wen Shiyin and the judges. "Sunset is the last match," Bai Ye added, "and I see that you've decided to make this one a bit longer than usual."

"Because of your disciple's unexpected show of power," the Gatekeeper snarled. "You kept the secret well, Bai Ye. After all this time, I thought you would've given up already, but looks like you have finally found the way."

"You jump to conclusions too fast," Bai Ye said and gestured at me to hand Twin Stars to him. I obeyed, though not knowing what he was planning to do. "Was this what she did?" He raised the swords, and a bright flash of his spiritual power flowed forward onto the blades. The crimson light appeared, glowing and pulsing even stronger than when I tried to do the same.

I bit back a gasp. So Bai Ye had indeed bound with Twin Stars. But if that was the case …

"I-Impossible!" The Gatekeeper's expression changed, obviously realizing the same. "Demonic swords can only bind to one person in its lifetime. This is not possible!"

Bai Ye gave the Gatekeeper a dismissive look. "Because this is nothing like the sword's true power, and one does not need to be bound to the sword to summon it forward." Without warning, he suddenly slashed one of the blades over the fence at the edge of the field. A few gasps rose from the small crowd as a clean cut sliced through the stump. I jolted, staring at the scene in confusion.

"No black smoke," Teng Yuan observed. "No acrid stench. This is … unlike a demonic sword's typical strike."

Bai Ye sheathed the swords and handed them back to me. "As I said, this is not the sword's true power, only a different form of its materialization. Twin Stars has no more demonic strength left, and will cause no one harm."

The Gatekeeper squinted at Bai Ye. "Even if what you said is true, it is still a risk. Twin Stars should've been destroyed long ago. If it ever reawakens fully—"

"It will not." Bai Ye's look darkened. "Both of you should know very well that after what was done, there is no way for Twin Stars to return to what it once was." His tone turned deadly. "Do I need to remind you of everything I did, and how I brought myself to do it?"

There was suddenly a strange silence, and for a moment, I thought I saw guilt flashing across the Gatekeeper's face. He looked at Bai Ye long and hard. Then he heaved out a heavy sigh. "I hope you know what you are doing this time, Bai Ye. I only fear for the future of Mount Hua … and everyone's safety."

"I don't need to be told what to do," Bai Ye gritted out every word. "I will say this one last time, Chu Yang: Twin Stars is gone, and it will never be back the same way it was before, so stop trying to find more excuses to give my disciple trouble."

With those words, he summoned his flying sword, and I followed him out of the field.

~ ~

I didn't know what would happen to the result of my challenge against Wen Shiyin, but that was the last thing I cared about. The mystery of Twin Stars opened up too many questions in my head that I was afraid to know the answers to, and as if to make things worse, I sensed a rare fluctuation of Bai Ye's spiritual power as I followed him back to our hall. It was fluttering, pulsing unsteadily the entire way.

Whatever the Gatekeeper said and whatever that had happened in the past … was not only bothering me. It troubled Bai Ye as well.

We stopped at the corridors just past the entrance. This was usually where we parted to return to our separate rooms, but neither of us moved today. We stood in silence for a little while, and when I realized Bai Ye might be waiting for me to ask him questions, I said in almost a whisper, "Am I … really not bound to Twin Stars?"

I wasn't sure why that was the first question coming to my mind, but somehow, I felt that he wasn't telling the Gatekeeper the truth, and that all of this was related to the past of Twin Stars that he didn't want me to know about.

He hesitated, though only for a moment. "You are," he said. "I was only able to demonstrate the opposite to the Gatekeeper because your spiritual power flows in me."

A slight embarrassment hit me when I realized what he meant, but it was soon replaced by more questions. Did that mean he had never bound to Twin Stars before? But how …

"Qing-er," he said softly. "Will you forgive me for hiding everything about Twin Stars from you for so long?"

I was taken aback by his words and the melancholy in his tone. His gaze was unfathomable, and I realized maybe this was the real reason why his spiritual power was so unsteady—because he was struggling to bring himself to mention what he couldn't before.

"I … There's nothing to forgive," I said. "I know you have your reasons, and I don't want to push if you aren't ready."

That mysterious look of sorrow crossed his eyes once more. "I was … afraid," he said. "Still am. I am afraid that if you find out all the truth …" 

His voice was light, drifting on the evening air like a wisp of fog, dispersing into the darkness and leaving no trace behind.