Chương 17: Chapter 16: TO SET FORTH

Jieyuan was sitting across from her, the small table that had come with the house between them. He had all the windows closed, and the oil lamps on the walls lit, their yellow-red glow washing over the room. The Justice Hall elder had brought them straight to the outer court's residential district, landing near Jieyuan's residence. Daojue had stalked off immediately, but Jieyuan had asked Meiyao to stay behind so they could talk.

She'd hesitated but agreed. And now here they were. Meiyao was drumming her fingers on the table. She hadn't spoken a word since he'd invited her inside. She seemed distracted, lost in her thoughts.

"So," Jieyuan said, gathering his thoughts.

"What do you make of what just happened? Elder Taishou letting Daojue keep Gleaming End. Helping him keep it, covering for him."

"Uncle Taishou…" Meiyao didn't look at him, still with a faraway look. She turned to him properly. She had her lower lip slightly sucked in, biting it.

"I don't know. I'm not sure."

"The way I see it, that was awfully generous of him," Jieyuan said.

"Too generous. Do you know him well? Enough to say whether that's something he'd do?"

"He's… like an uncle, I guess. I've always called him Uncle, anyway," Meiyao was still speaking slowly, like she was working through her thoughts with great care before she voiced them.

"I wouldn't say I know him well, but he was often around when I was growing up. He always tagged along when Yunzhu and Wanxin came to visit, and would always be there when we'd visit them. He's very close to his wife and daughter." Meiyao frowned.

"He's… relaxed, for the most part. Laid-back, easygoing. My stepmother, Yuyan, holds him in high regard, but… well, it doesn't take much to make her like you. Aunt Wanxin, his wife, adores him, but that's the way the Liangshibai tend to be with their partners. He's just as close with Yunzhu, if not more. In fact, Aunt Wanxin has complained more than once about how much time they spend together, excluding her." Meiyao drummed her fingers on the table.

"Grandfather also likes him. In fact, he offered the position of chief elder to Uncle Taishou first. It was only when he refused that it went"—she scowled—"to my father. His reputation is also spotless. From what I was told, he indicated an interest in being the head of the Justice Hall after refusing the chief elder position, and Grandfather arranged for him to get it shortly afterward." Grandfather?

Jieyuan was confused for a moment, before realizing she was referring to her surrogate grandfather, her stepmother Yuyan's father. Liangshibai Zhaoyong, the sect's sovereign protector.

"Grandfather also says he's one of the best hall heads the sect has ever had," Meiyao continued.

"Pretty much every issue the sect has ever had since, Uncle Taishou has handled. There's only really one matter he never managed to get to the bottom of, the disappearances." So far, nothing Meiyao had said had really stood out to Jieyuan—except her last sentence.

"The disappearances? What's that?" Confusion flickered across Meiyao's face.

"What? Oh. Right, I guess you wouldn't know. The Liangshibai have been keeping it under wraps. All right, I'll explain. For a couple of decades now, Liangshibai have been disappearing, averaging about one a year."" Decades?"

"That's right. The clan only realized it after Liangshibai who weren't cultivators started disappearing too, about twenty years ago, and it was Taishou who went through the records and found out that it's been happening for almost fifty years now, except before it used to be Liangshibai cultivators on missions outside the sect. It's not uncommon for cultivators to go missing, but Taishou realized it'd been happening too consistently to the Liangshibai for it to be a coincidence." Jieyuan frowned.

When he'd asked Meiyao the question, he'd simply wanted to know what she thought of the man. He hadn't expected she'd pull out on him a decades-long string of mysterious disappearances. It could be that it didn't concern them, that it was a completely unrelated matter. But he still asked, "How old is Taishou? How long has he been in the sect?"

"He… I believe he'll be turning sixty-eight next week. His birthday's the fourth of Yellowlack. He'd have entered the sect at the same age as us, at eighteen, so… fifty years ago." She raised an eyebrow.

"You don't think he has anything to do with the disappearances, do you? I'm not sure about his decision to let Daojue keep Gleaming End, but the disappearances are something else altogether. What reason would he even have to kidnap Liangshibai?"

"Well, someone must have some reason to be doing it," Jieyuan argued.

"But… never mind that. You're saying he's almost seventy? I'd have thought he was closer to forty. He looks practically our age."

"Oh," Meiyao said, smiling a little.

"That's something that drives Wanxin up the wall. Uncle Taishou has barely aged since he entered the sect. Aunt Wanxin complains it makes her feel old, even more since she's younger than him by about twenty years. He always laughs when she brings it up. According to him, youthful looks run in his family."

"I see…" Jieyuan fell silent. One thing could easily explain Elder Taishou's unusually youthful looks—if he was actually at a higher realm, only pretending to be a Redsoul. But if that were the case, then what would he be doing in a Redrealm sect? And how would he have advanced past Redrealm, anyway? He'd have needed an Orangerealm coalescence hymn to break through, and sects guarded their hymns jealously.

Coming up with one yourself was also something that required absurdly high heavenly affinity and luck, from what Jieyuan had read. Someone capable of creating one wouldn't be sticking around in a Redrealm sect, either. It just didn't add up. And Meiyao—she clearly didn't seem to think much of it. She was the chromal-born here, the one who'd been born among cultivators. If she and her family didn't think much of Elder Taishou's apparent youth, Jieyuan reckoned it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

"Jieyuan?" Meiyao gave him an inquiring look, leaning over the table.

"What's on your mind?"

"Just… thinking," Jieyuan said, realizing he'd been silent for too long.

"Anyway, what reason do you think Elder Taishou might have had to let Daojue keep Gleaming End? Do you think we need to be concerned about that?"

"I don't know," Meiyao said.

"I mean, it could be that he was telling the truth. He is very fond of Daojue. I'm sure you already know about it. Uncle Taishou offered to apprentice Daojue just after the entrance trials, and has repeated the offer several times since. It's not that much of a stretch to assume he'd have wanted to give Daojue another layer of protection."

Meiyao was trying to make a case for Elder Taishou having been telling the truth, but Jieyuan found that the more she spoke, the more he found Elder Taishou more suspicious, rather. He'd already heard the rumors, but when Meiyao put it that way, he realized the elder really was abnormally interested in Daojue. But why? It was obvious to anyone Daojue didn't intend to stay in the Gleaming Stone Sect long.

"And, I mean—even if Uncle Taishou's up to something, why should we care?" Meiyao suddenly said, bringing Jieyuan out of his thoughts.

"This is between him and Daojue, and there are no more missions ahead of us. We're not a team anymore. What happens to Daojue is none of our business, is it?" Her frown deepened.

"And if we all enter the Howling Lightning Sect together and have the misfortune of getting teamed up again with him there…" She waved her hand dismissively.

"Well, then we'd be way out of Taishou's reach, anyway." That'd have been true enough, Jieyuan reckoned, if it weren't for his belief that he and Daojue were involved in something greater, some unseen conspiracy that concerned powers far beyond them. He only needed to look at the events of the last couple of weeks that he'd been right to stick around Daojue.

He'd gotten involved with Daojue's matter with Rongkai, and gotten a violet skillseed out of it and a lead on what he believed to be a Violetsoul's inheritance. Then he was Daojue's teammate during the Gleamstone Hunt, and he'd ended up getting several tenth-step Redrealm artifacts, found out about the mysteries of the Gleamstone Depth, and now he seemed to be getting embroiled in a yet another matter. Risks and opportunities. That was what it came down to.

"I guess," Jieyuan said, slowly, diplomatically. He couldn't afford to alienate Meiyao, either—and not just because of his personal unwillingness to do so. Although not to the same extent as Daojue, Meiyao also appeared to be part of this mystery that surrounded them. Being around her might lead to its own opportunities. And he didn't want to let go of that. He wanted Daojue and Meiyao. He was a merchant's son, once heir to the greatest mundane business empire in Radiant Gold City.

All the good merchants were greedy jackals, and his father had raised him to be the best of them. Opportunities were something that'd have to be pried off his stiff, dead hands. And speaking of opportunities…

"Would you happen to know a way to secretly leave the sect?"

"A what?"

"Some way I could leave the sect without drawing attention," Jieyuan elaborated.

"For only a brief while." Meiyao frowned.

"What for?"

"There's something I need to go outside for. It's not too far away. It should only take a couple of hours."

"That's a bad idea," Meiyao said.

"No, that's a terrible idea. We shouldn't have to worry about the noble clans once we're in Radiant Gold City, but it's a different story if you go gallivanting outside the sect… they want you dead. You and Daojue."

"Well, yes, which is exactly why I'm looking for a secret way to leave," Jieyuan insisted.

"What is it—" Meiyao cut herself off. She gave him a hard stare that he held. Then she sighed.

"All right. All right. Well, it depends. What direction do you want to go? Where do you want to leave the sect from?"

"West of the mountain range."

"West…" Meiyao repeated.

"All right. I'll see what I can do. I'll mind-link you later tonight if I find out anything."

"Thank you," Jieyuan said.

"We're done here, then?" Meiyao asked. Jieyuan considered it. One possibility he'd been toying with was having Meiyao use her old mind-linker to get in touch with one of the Liangshibai and tell them about Gleaming End. That'd mean Daojue would have to hand the weapon back, but it'd also ruin whatever it was Elder Taishou was planning. But Elder Taishou had been right about one thing. Gleaming End would serve them well if they were attacked again.

In fact, it might be coming in handy very soon, depending on the outcome of a conversation he'd be having shortly.

"I think so," Jieyuan said.

"Unless there's something else you'd like to discuss?"

"No." Meiyao stood up. Jieyuan walked her to the entrance. Opening the door, Meiyao turned to him.

"Jieyuan?"

"Don't get yourself killed." She had a teasing smile on her face, but her eyes—there was concern in them. Jieyuan smiled softly.

"I'll do my best." Meiyao left, and he watched her go for a few seconds, before softly closing the door. Don't get yourself killed. He held the doorknob for a moment, his heart hammering in his chest, the soft smile on his face giving way to a giddy grin. No. Focus. He took a deep breath, schooled his expression, and pushed all thoughts of Meiyao out of his head. He stayed in the living room, sitting back down at the table under the warm glow of the oil lamps, facing the door. He drummed his fingers on the desk.

He forced himself to think of his plans for the near future—and as he did, it was a different type of giddiness that came over him. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. The Fatebloom Woods. The inheritance of the founder of the Yikongwei Clan. As a third-step Redrealm, he could make his way to the Fatebloom Woods and return all in one morning if he ran at his fastest.

It'd be tight, with the Radiant Gold Summit just around the tournament, but he'd have to make it work. Jieyuan's heart began to race. There were all sorts of reasons why going wasn't a good idea. He was only at third-step Redsoul, and he was being targeted by the Gleaming Stone Sect's two noble clans. It was also still unclear how Weiming and then Qingshi tracked them down in the Gleamstone Valley and whether they could do that again elsewhere. He was well aware of all of that.

But after Radiant Gold City, if everything went right he should be leaving straight for the Howling Lighting Sect, and he didn't know when he'd be back. He couldn't wait; Rongkai's notes had made it clear that the secrets of the Fatebloom Woods would be revealed very soon. If he didn't go for it now, that'd mean giving up on the opportunity at the Yikongwei Ancestor's inheritance forever. The inheritance of what could very well be a Violetsoul. He wasn't passing up on that, even though it meant risking it all.

If he was planning on sticking around Daojue and Meiyao going forward, he'd need all the advantages he could get to keep up with them. It'd be dangerous. His biggest gamble yet, even. No doubt Maeva would disagree. But no matter what, tomorrow he'd be making a quick trip to the Fatebloom Woods. Jieyuan grinned, anticipation thrumming inside him. —∞— Jieyuan was standing in his doorway, clad in his new set of topaz robes.

Just in front of his residence, rising into the air on a cloudcraft, was the Management Hall elder who'd just now processed his induction to the inner court. It'd been a short, straightforward visit. The man had congratulated him on his advancement, handed him his new robes, and told him that should he choose to remain in the Gleaming Stone Sect after the Radiant Gold Summit, he'd be given a new residence in the inner court.

The man had also collected his gleam stones from the Hunt, and informed him that his team's rewards would be distributed in the morning of the thirty-first. Jieyuan waited until the elder was high up in the air before he turned around, closed the door, and set down the path to Daojue's place. The sun was already far along on its way down and out of sight, darkness creeping around the edges of the bleeding skyline as day turned to dusk. Meiyao hadn't gotten back to him yet, but he'd already had his talk with Maeva.

She'd been not as against his little expedition as he'd expected. She hadn't approved of it, but she hadn't accused him of being out of his mind, either. Instead, she'd sighed, listed the pros and cons of going and not going, and told him it was his choice. His choice hadn't ever been in question, though, so while he waited for Meiyao to come through, he decided to tackle the last item on his list. Arriving at Daojue's place, he didn't bother knocking.

He just stood by the door, knowing that Daojue would be alerted to his arrival by the inscribed field around the residence. Sure enough, just a couple of seconds later, Daojue opened the door. He was still wearing ruby robes, but Jieyuan suspected that Daojue had already received his inner-disciple robes and just hadn't bothered changing yet. Unsurprisingly, Daojue made no move to step aside or invite him inside, just stared down at him from the doorway as he held the door open.

In Daojue's other hand was Gleaming End, held out angled up and outwards, still wrapped in a spirit-shroud.

"I've got a favor to ask," Jieyuan said, cutting straight to the chase. He knew well enough that Daojue couldn't care less for pleasantries.

"Can I come inside for a moment?' Daojue stepped back after a brief stretch of silence, and Jieyuan stepped inside. Now in Daojue's living room, Jieyuan didn't make for the table, but instead stood by the doorway, watching as Daojue closed the door. This probably wouldn't take long, and all he wanted was a little bit of privacy.

"I want to borrow Gleaming End," Jieyuan said. The ever-so-slightly wide-eyed look he got in response was probably the closest Daojue would— could, even—ever get to dumbfounded disbelief.

"I'll only need it for half a day or so," Jieyuan said.

"There's something I want to do outside the sect, and I think an Orangerealm weapon will go a long way in keeping me alive." Daojue remained silent, his eyes narrowing just enough for him to reestablish his usual mask of indifference.

"Look, I won't beg. You know I won't run off with your weapon—even if an Orangerealm spear is a big deal right now, it's only a matter of time before the two of us reach Orangerealm ourselves, and then Yellowrealm. Something like this is not worth making an enemy out of you for. I'll be leaving tomorrow morning, and returning in the afternoon. I'll just need it for that long. Will you lend it to me?" As Jieyuan spoke, Daojue listened silently with an expression that betrayed none of what he thought or felt.

After Jieyuan was done, Daojue surprised him by shifting his gaze to Gleaming End. For over a minute, Daojue stared silently at the spear. Jieyuan waited. Was Daojue actually considering it? It looked like he was, at least. Jieyuan wouldn't have been surprised if he'd gotten an immediate refusal. Finally, Daojue looked up from the spear.

"It refuses."

"It?" Jieyuan took a moment to understand. He glanced from Daojue to the shrouded spear.

"You mean Gleaming End? It refused?"

"Yes," Daojue said. It refuses.

"So… What? Are you saying Gleaming End is alive?"

"Yes." Daojue didn't elaborate, but Jieyuan was already surprised that Daojue had bothered answering to begin with. Jieyuan looked between man and spear again. This… wasn't what he'd been expecting when he'd come here.

"All right. So you can't lend it to me, then?" Daojue said nothing, but Jieyuan reckoned that served as well as another yes.

"All right." If it were some other person in front of him, he'd have thought that this was some flimsy, weird excuse. Oh, I'd love to, but I'm afraid to say my weapon isn't quite feeling up to it. You know how it is, don't you? But this was Daojue.

"I guess that's it, then. Thank you, anyway." Jieyuan didn't linger. He gave Daojue a nod, then opened the door and stepped outside. Back under the dying light of the sun, he made his way back to the main pathway in silence. He hadn't managed to borrow Gleaming End, but he'd known his chances were slim from the get-go, and he had managed to get something out of it. Finding out that Gleaming End was alive and that Daojue could communicate with it was… curious, to be sure, but not particularly important.

There wasn't really much he could do with that information, besides being aware of the existence of sentient artifacts, as Jieyuan doubted that Gleaming End was the sole of its kind in the entirety of the Chromajie. Without stopping his steps, Jieyuan glanced back at Daojue's house. No, the important takeaway here was that Daojue had at least given the matter consideration—and might have even been willing to lend Gleaming End, if the weapon itself hadn't been against the idea.

That meant that Daojue wasn't some immovable, entirely self-interested, consummate Metalsoul. Daojue could be reasoned with, and Jieyuan must've grown on him, at least a little, because Jieyuan doubted that Daojue would've spared the matter even a single thought if a stranger had been the one to ask. Considering Jieyuan's intentions for the future, that boded well for him. He couldn't imagine Daojue ever being cooperative, but at least he knew that Daojue wasn't entirely inflexible.

He didn't return straight back home. Gleaming End might have been a no-go— literally, since he'd been apparently refused by the weapon itself, which was rather insulting—but he hadn't exhausted all of his options yet. From where he stood, he could even see Meiyao's place, a couple of houses down and to the right, and—and wasn't that Meiyao? He stopped, watching as Meiyao strode down the path that led from her house to the main pathway. She was wearing an inner disciple's topaz robes, like him.

Just as she was reaching the main path, though, her eyes fell on him, and she came to a sudden stop. Then she beckoned him over. He quickened his steps to join her.

"I was heading over to visit you just now," Meiyao said, turning around as he got near enough.

"Come on." Just like that, she set off toward her house. Unsure what Meiyao wanted him for, Jieyuan followed her inside. The windows were closed, the oil lamps on the wall lit. Meiyao closed the door behind him, then, still standing by the doorway, she reached into her robes and produced a white strip of paper. On it was a sprawl of symbols.

"Take this." Jieyuan made no move to reach for it. Meiyao was right in front of him, and the paper was well within the range of his soulsenses. And so he could tell that it was not just a piece of paper, but a tenth-step Redrealm talisman. And although he'd never gotten a proper look at it before…

"Is that the Radiant Light Haven talisman?"

"It is," Meiyao said. She was holding the talisman out toward him, and when he didn't move to take it, she gave it a little shake. He reached for it, and she pressed it into his hand.

"Aunt Yuyan just stopped by." Turning her back on him, she walked over to her living room table, but instead of sitting down, she leaned against it. Jieyuan, for his part, walked a little further inside, then adopted a similar posture, leaning back against a wall.

"She collected my gleam cores, and inducted me to the inner court. She also gave me this." Meiyao reached into her robe and pulled out a stack of papers. He was still close enough to tell that they were all tenth-step Redrealm talismans. He counted ten of them.

A quick inspection with his soulsenses told him that half of them had an almost identical spiritual song to the one he was currently holding, whereas the other five had very different ones, but he couldn't really pin down any properties without concentrating on them for some time.

"Radiant Light Haven and Radiant Light Blast talismans," Meiyao said, and he looked back up to her.

"Five of each. Uncle Taishou filled her in on what happened, though with the adjustments we discussed. When I refused to move back in with her until the Summit, she gave me these instead." Now, Jieyuan wasn't really sure what the market rate for tenth-step Redrealm talismans was, but he knew all the same that they couldn't be cheap.

Talismans could only be used once, unlike artifacts, but they tended to cost as much as a blank artifact at the same step, if not more —because while talismans were single-use, they came with a spiritskill, a unique ability comparable to a cultivator's bondskills. Talismans were things that cultivators kept as a last resort, as a life-saving treasure that they could use if things got particularly bleak.

A single one of the talismans in Meiyao's hand might very well be worth more than everything he had on him, including Weiming's tenth-step greaves and gauntlets.

"Actually…" Meiyao plucked a talisman from the stack and thrust it toward him.

"Take a Radiant Light Blast talisman too. Heavens know I've got more of them than I know what to do with."

"Er… Thanks," Jieyuan said, reaching forward to take it, before pocketing it together with the first talisman. He felt a little overwhelmed—and he wasn't sure if it was because of Meiyao's generosity, or Yuyan's. Both, probably. He focused on the latter.

"Elder Yuyan… Your stepmother must really care for you."

"Yes. She does." Though Meiyao spoke softly, she wore a strange look that was almost, but not quite, a frown. She said nothing for a while, looking like she had her mind on something else, before she shook it off.

"Anyway, that should help you out with whatever it is you're planning on doing tomorrow."

"Oh, it really should." Jieyuan chuckled dryly. But then something occurred to him, and he frowned. Although definitely handy, the talismans weren't what he'd come here for. He needed a weapon, and while the Radiant Light Blast talisman should do much more damage than he could ever hope to (he wasn't quite sure what it did, but it should be able to kill a tenth-step Redrealm, based on the cover story Taishou had come up for them) it'd only be able to do so once. He needed something more reliable than that.

"Actually… I wanted to know if I could also borrow your saber." He felt a tad awkward, what with Meiyao having already handed him the two talismans. It didn't help that the worth of Meiyao's tenth-step saber was probably not even half that of the talismans, making him feel like he was begging for scraps. Meiyao blinked at him.

"Oh. Well. Hmmm." She shrugged, then made to unhook the sheath holding her saber from her belt. Midway, though, she looked back at him.

"This thing you're doing tomorrow. You want to keep it a secret, right?"

"I…" There was something odd about her stare.

"I do."

"If I were to ask you about it, would you tell me what it was?" The Yikongwei inheritance was something he hadn't meant to share with anyone. Something he hadn't even imagined sharing with anyone, especially Meiyao and Daojue. They clearly had secrets of their own, and although Absolute Will Command had helped bridge the gap a bit, it wasn't enough. He still needed more advantages of his own if he wanted to catch up to them, let alone surpass them.

If Meiyao had asked that question a month ago, Jieyuan reckoned he'd have lied and said yes, and then come up with another lie if she followed up with a proper question. If it'd been two weeks ago instead, after the start of the Hunt but before Weiming attacked them, then he'd have probably been honest and told her no. Now, though? After everything? Jieyuan could feel the talismans he'd tucked inside his robe, physically and with his soulsenses. If nothing else, then Jieyuan liked to think he wasn't ungrateful.

He wouldn't tell her everything—this was still a Violetsoul's inheritance—but he owed her at least some of the truth.

"Yes," he said.

"It's—""Don't," Meiyao said.

"Don't tell me." She gave him a long, measuring look.

"I believe you." She finished detaching the sheath from her belt, and without another word, tossed it over to him. Grabbing the saber out of the air, Jieyuan forced himself to ignore the jab of discomfort he felt just from holding the sword-adjacent weapon. He returned his attention to Meiyao.

"You don't want to know?"

"Oh, I do. But… Well, you haven't asked me about my secrets. I won't ask you about yours. It's only fair. Maybe I'd have asked to come along, even if only to make sure you didn't get into more trouble than you can handle, but Aunt Yuyan is probably having my place watched. On that note, I recommend keeping the saber in your holder pouch until you're back home." Jieyuan nodded slowly and stored the sheathed saber away. His next words were out of his mouth before he could think them through.

"If I asked you about your secrets, would you tell me?" Meiyao gave him another long, silent stare that lasted for over a minute, this one deeper than before. Her green eyes were enchanting, as always, and he'd have lost himself in them if not for the tension of the moment and the weight of her consideration.

"I don't know," Meiyao said, at last.

"Maybe. Will you ask?" For just a moment Jieyuan, considered it. Unsure whether this was a test, or whether Meiyao really didn't know. He usually found Meiyao fairly easy to read (she was rather open with her emotions), but right now he was struggling to glean the truth from the set of her face, and he suspected the problem lay with him. He hadn't been ready for a conversation like this, one with so many things hinging on it.

"I won't," he finally said. He measured his next words carefully.

"I'll wait. Wait for you to tell me yourself. For you to want to tell me." He fought back a cringe. That had sounded better in his head. He wasn't sure how much of it he actually meant. How much of it was cheek, to deescalate the situation. And how much of it was guile, to kick the ball into her court, make it her choice. Meiyao's eyes seemed to brighten, and she let slip a small, soft smile.

"I'll say the same for you and yours, then." She said nothing else for a moment, and neither did he. A strange air hung between them. Meiyao was the one to scatter it.

"You asked about ways out of the sect, right? I asked Yuyan if she knew of any ways out of the sect I could use in case of an emergency, and she listed a couple. There's a little-known path just behind the outer court's residential district, cutting straight to the mountain range. She'll be getting back to me later with more details on each and their exact locations still today, and I'll pass them on to you."

"All right," Jieyuan said.

"Thanks for… Well, everything, really." Meiyao raised an eyebrow, and her smile sharpened into a smirk.

"Oh, this isn't free. You owe me one. And I'll be collecting on that in the future."

"Of course." Jieyuan matched her tone.

"It's only fair. I'm a merchant's son. Trust me, I know all about debts." He looked around the living room, but it was bare, just like his. Nothing to comment on. Nothing to say. He pushed off the wall.

"Well, I'll be going, then." Meiyao nodded and also straightened herself.

"Good luck tomorrow. And like I told you earlier, try not to die." Jieyuan sent her a smirk of his own.

"Can't collect on your favor if I'm dead, is it?"

"Exactly."