When Qin Yan's concerned subordinates, led by the two elders, flooded the grove, he had finally descended. They all regarded his wounded, miserable state with utter shock. They found it difficult to even begin to assess the situation. A man stepped out of the crowd, his yellow-and-red robe adorned with dragons.
"Father! You're injured!" The prince exclaimed. "Was it that Tao Geming? Where is he now? I knew I should have joined this operation, but...!"
The prince's questions emboldened the rest of the crowd into echoing his concerns. The king shushed them all with a wave of his sleeve.
He then suddenly barked out an order. "The enemy escaped! Fan out and secure the palace!"
With an affirmative bellow, they scattered. As the grove grew silent, he picked up his spear and the broken fox mask. For a time, he simply stared at it, his hands shaking.
Later that day, after receiving treatment for his injury, Qin Yan still kept the mask close. When Xiaoli entered the room, he hid it into his robe. She knelt down beside him. He received her gentle touch in taciturn silence, his lone unbandaged eye staring off into space.
It was a long time before Qin Yan spoke. "The doctor said I'll never see from that eye again."
Xiaoli said nothing, only hugged him close.
"In the twenty years since I claimed the crown, my martial arts have stagnated. I hit a barrier that I could not overcome no matter hard I trained. But even so, I thought the world was still within my reach. Now I realize just how much of a fool I was." With a sigh, Qin Yan turned towards the ceiling. "I don't want to live in a world where monsters like that exist."
"Don't say that..." Xiaoli pleaded. "You're being too hard on yourself, your highness. Don't become like the man from the proverb: once bitten by a snake, one is scared even at the sight of a rope. It was the enemy that had to run away from you, after all..."
"Right..." He mumbled. Qin Yan hadn't had the heart to admit what really happened. And he dreaded the day the golden eyed woman promised would come.
He brushed Xiaoli aside as he stood up. "I need to get ready for court."
In the evening, the most influential masters of the Qin Royal Dynasty Sword School had gathered in a regal, opulent hall. While the king was still missing, hushed gossip reverberated across the room.
"So even Zhou Zhu had fallen victim to that Tao Geming..."
"I heard it wasn't Tao Geming that killed him. Some disciples are claiming it was the Yellow Fox."
The comment spurred another man to scoff. "Those same disciples have said that the Yellow Fox used the techniques of our school to slay him. I find that hard to believe. And if you'd only heard how the disciples describe this "Yellow Fox," you'd find it hard to believe in this magic animal, too."
"Someone could have leaked our techniques to an outsider. It has happened before."
"Moreover, Zhou Zhu wasn't turned into a smear on the walls like so many of his victims."
"Most accounts can't even settle on whether the Yellow Fox a man or a woman." A fourth rank elder shook his head. "And some even claim that this creature was as tall as two people. Surely we'd notice someone like that wandering our city."
"Some citizens do claim to have seen such a woman earlier that day, though..." The skeptic creased a brow when he heard that.
"It's true." Another pitched in. "Regardless of any exaggerations, it is confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Yellow Fox exists."
"I've also heard..." A third rank elder whispered. "That it was not Tao Geming at all that his majesty fought in that battle..."
The room grew abnormally silent. The rumormonger paled as he felt the presence of dozens of eyes. "Are you trying to lose your head?" Someone warned. "Keep that to yourself."
It was then that the one eyed king had arrived, cleanly shaved, wearing his majestic crown and dragon robes. He walked briskly towards his throne and assumed his seat, his lone eye sternly looking over those present. The court session commenced, and the elders had set about the lengthy task of reporting the damages of last night's operation.
Qin Yan's mind seemed elsewhere as he listened to the reports. Ultimately, it had been decided that the crown would pay limited compensation to some of the citizens.
And at the end, the king had issued a decree.
"Employ the Jianghu Investigative Bureau at once! Find out what happened to Wuyi Sect's headmaster Deng Hong! Pay them any sum they ask!"
...
As Bai Guo sat together with Cui Shen in his master's room, the young man was restless. Every now and then, he would stand up to briefly look out the window before quickly growing impatient and sitting back down. They caught on to her absence early in the night, having been woken up by the ruckus of the Royal School's raids, but on Cui Shen's suggestion, had done nothing but wait.
When the golden haired woman entered the room, Bai Guo sprung to his feet. Her white robe was mucked by dirt and blood.
A question flew off the young man's lips. "Master! What happened?"
"Tao Geming got away..." She hissed. "Those Royal School idiots let him escape. We never even got to fight."
Though he made a sympathetic face that seemed to indicate some semblance of regret, Bai Guo was secretly relieved.
She spoke again. "Bai Guo, would you fetch me my spare set of clothing? There's no time to wash this now. We need to head out immediately."
"Ah, of course." Bai Guo nodded. "But may I ask what the rush is? Not that I wish to stay in this place after what happened last night..."
"As I was searching for Tao Geming, I ran into the king..."
"You killed him?" Bai Guo asked in a quivering voice.
"No... But we didn't part amiably either. We should leave as soon as possible."
"Right away." He ran into his room; all their spare supplies were in his backpack.
As the young man left, Cui Shen asked, "How many sect masters have you fought for so far?"
"Just the two."
"Well? How do they compare to each other?"
"Qin Yan was a little weaker than Deng Hong, but his foundation was stable, so overall he was the harder fight." She summarized.
"And compared to Tao Geming?"
The Golden Witch silently frowned for a time before suddenly digressing. "You know... I hadn't noticed at the time, but now that I think about it, I may have fallen prey to the same scheme twice. I ran into Tao Geming while chasing that beggar... and I ran into Qin Yan while chasing Tao Geming."
Cui Shen closed his eyes. "You may want to trust your intuition on this one. One of the stories I've heard about the Invincible Blood Sea is that he killed even his own master in cold blood. That he would simply leave without taking vengeance seems unlikely."
The Golden Witch gasped. "If that Tao Geming swooped in like a vulture upon the Qin Yan that I had weakened...!" She sighed at the thought. "I'd be so disappointed..."
Her frustrations mounted. But when Bai Guo returned, her grief seemed instantly dispelled.
"If that happened," Cui Shen said, "We will certainly hear of it before we even leave Qin territory."
After the Golden Witch had gotten changed, she addressed her disciple again. "Bai Guo," She spoke hesitantly, "I would like to pause your training until we reach the Five Venoms Devil."
Bai Guo bowed. "I understand."
His words came as a surprise to the Witch. "You do?"
Her words, too, came as a surprise to Bai Guo. "Yes, I do."
"Well, good..." She seemed greatly relieved.
The conversation ended there. Although he hadn't had his master's unique senses, Bai Guo was not oblivious to Cui Shen's precarious state.
They were both glad to have come to a mutual understanding so easily for once.
But it wouldn't last, as Bai Guo soon brought up another matter.
"Master, I would like to spend your last golden tael to purchase supplies for the road."
"Sure." She nonchalantly replied.
"It's your last tael." He emphasized.
"So you've said." She became somewhat confused.
"We can't rest at inns anymore. Especially not the expensive ones you always choose."
She turned to him, wide eyed. "Why not? I like the inns."
"We won't have any money to pay for our stay."
"So can't we just get some more money?"
"And just how would we go about doing that, master?" Bai Guo asked her sternly.
For a time, they both glared at each other. Bai Guo knew what his master was about to say; the Golden Witch knew how her disciple would react to her words.
Even so, she boldly pressed on. "We can just take what we-"
"We can't just go around robbing people like common criminals!" Bai Guo exploded. "It's out of the question, master!"
The Witch rolled her eyes and turned away from him.
As master and disciple continued to quibble, Cui Shen looked back at the devastated city. His dark eyes were riddled with doubt over the days to come.
A little while later, as Bai Guo finalized his purchases, the shop clerk stared at his last golden tael in wonder.
"Young master, where did you get this?" The rail-thin man asked.
Bai Guo had been caught off-guard by the question. "Why do you ask, sir?"
"It's quite the old piece you have here is all. I believe this one must have been minted back when the empire was still a single whole! Unbelievable." He shook his head. "My brother back in the old capital is an academic. He studies the histories of the dynasties of old. He would love to see this."
The man then respectfully bowed to Bai Guo.
Though the young man had noticed long ago that the gold in his master's possession came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and bore all kinds of mintings, he deemed it to have been the spoils of her previous adventures, wherever those may have taken place. In this age, gold was gold, and people accepted it in whichever form it took. But this revelation reignited the flames of curiosity over his master's past, flames which he had only recently managed to quench over the course of their travels.
"Which place did you mean by the old capital?" Bai Guo asked.
"Ah, I'm afraid I misspoke. I meant the current capital of the Tang."
Bai Guo knew just enough history to recognize that the city the old man spoke of was the seat of the old empire that had splintered in the wake of a grand rebellion long ago, and now was part of what little territory remained under the control of the imperial family. Unfortunately, it was also quite far out of their way, so an educational excursion was out of the question. He exchanged bows with the man, and left with his purchased supplies.
While Bai Guo was once again forced to wrestle against the urges to ask his golden haired master about her past, the three set off to meet Cui Shen's master.
...