Master and disciple exchanged courtesies with the monks for a time, and then Qing Duyi allowed them to retire for the night for their well-earned rest. The abbot remained to converse with the guests in private.
But it had quickly become apparent that Chun De was not intending to leave with the rest of the monks. They caught her hiding at the entrance into the room.
"You unruly child." Qing Duyi called out, shaking his head. "Just come on over."
She sat beside the abbot with a mischievous grin.
"It's hard to emphasize," The old abbot said, "Just how fortunate we are that the Kunlun Sect did not contest our intervention as fiercely as they could. All of our brothers have managed to make it out of this affair completely unscathed."
Bai Guo tried to guess at the reason for that. "I believe it has to do with internal strife within their sect. The sect master acted without approval from the rest of the sect, so in all likelihood, when trouble came knocking, the elders simply withheld their support."
Chun De snorted. "You were already out by the time we got there. How did you even manage that?"
"It was all thanks to my master's friend..." Bai Guo glanced at the woman in question. She seemed thoroughly uninterested in the conversation, her eyes idly inspecting statues and furniture. "But I doubt we would have made it far on our own, so your help was still vital."
The woman's bored expression reminded Bai Guo of something. "Come to think of it, in the chaos, I've heard mention of a certain esteemed individual, but I don't believe he was present in the hall when I paid my respects to the other reverends."
Chun De's grin grew wider and she turned to the abbot, excited. The old man, on the other hand, pursed his lips, his unwillingness to breach the subject very apparent. The Golden Witch seemed to notice the strange shift in the mood as she finally directed her attention to the discussion.
Bai Guo pressed on. "This brother's name alone had the enemy quaking in their boots. It doesn't seem right that I go without thanking him in person."
Qing Duyi smiled politely and finally responded. "If it's Ji Yan you speak of, then I assure you, he had nothing to do with this affair. Some of the brothers, it seems, were up to some mischief, and spread rumors of his presence to rile up the disciples so that they wouldn't contest us so fiercely. So you do not owe him any gratitude."
As Bai Guo wondered how to keep pressing, Chun De interjected. "I told him the story. Master would love to meet them! Abbot, please!"
But Qing Duyi shook his head. A hint of sternness besmirched his polite airs. "Brother Yan prefers to go about his monastic duties undisturbed. Chun De, as his disciple, you should understand this better than anyone."
Chun De turned away from the old man with a bitter frown.
The abbot concluded the conversation. "Young man, I will pass on your sentiments to brother Yan."
Bai Guo bowed. "Thank you, abbot."
Chun De's frown deepened even more when Bai Guo acquiesced to the old monk.
"Young man, you've been through a lot over these past few days." The old abbot spoke. "I'm sure you must be exhausted. You and your master should rest for now. We can speak more tomorrow."
Bai Guo took the hint, and after he bowed again, the two of them left.
Chun De continued to grumble after they were gone. "Why won't you let them meet with master? I don't understand."
"Your master's heart remains in a precarious state. You know this. Any external influence he is exposed to must first be carefully measured."
"I do know that. I just don't see how Bai Guo could be a bad influence on master. He's just so... He's a..." Chun De stumbled on her words. Her cheeks flushed with color. "You yourself showered him with praise, calling him righteous and nice and sweet, and other things."
Qing Duyi ran a hand through his long gray beard. "Those were not quite the words I used, but I stand by what I did say. However, I get the impression that the young man is not without demons of his own."
"Demons!" Chun De scoffed. "That Bai Guo? He's a wimp! And besides, I'm way worse, and you had him take me for a disciple. It just makes no sense!"
"It's not that simple." Qing Duyi shook his head. "You should go sleep too."
Seeing that the abbot was adamant on this, Chun De stood up. She sprayed her arms in helpless frustration and walked away.
...
Meanwhile, the golden haired master and disciple were far too anxious to slumber. The Golden Witch barged into her disciple's quarters and the two chatted about the events surrounding the tournament.
"Are you alright?" Was the first question from her lips. "I can feel that your internal injury is gone, but how? Did you figure it out on your own?"
Her tone was surprisingly hopeful, just brimming with anticipation.
"No... What?" Bai Guo stared at her dimly. "On my own? Could I have done that?"
"Well, over three days, sure, I think so... Well, I suppose not-..." Another word lingered on her tongue for a moment, but she stifled it.
"...Not the likes of me, huh?" Bai Guo sighed with a defeated smile. His master looked guilty, but was in no rush to deny it. "Master, may I ask, what exactly was it that you taught me? What was that sect master trying to get from you?"
Her golden eyes looked away. As the silence lingered, Bai Guo figured that he wouldn't be getting an answer at all, just like every other time he had tried to pry into her past.
And after the incident, she might be less inclined than ever to share anything about herself, he thought.
But she suddenly spoke. "It's a method to cultivate internal energy. The same one that I use."
Bai Guo was shocked. Not just by the contents of her response, but that she responded at all.
"No wonder I've undergone such a drastic change!" Bai Guo exclaimed. "But, master, you didn't teach me from a manual. Does it even exist?"
"No." Once again she began to hesitate. But after a delay, the words broke through. "After I mastered it, my father burned the only copy. If I still had it, I would have just let him take it. And just three days wasn't enough to write another one..."
"You shouldn't say that, master! That technique elevated even a good-for-nothing like me into someone that could win a tournament full of such talented people. If a villain like that got his hands on it, it would be a major disaster! One Bai Guo would not have been much of a loss if it kept the likes of He Yong from reaching your level!"
The Golden Witch seemed unmoved by his concerns. "I could have just killed him later. If he thought reading the manual would instantly grant him power, he'd be in for a surprise. Just think about how long it took you to get to where you are."
"But surely someone with enough aptitude to be a sect master would grasp the method much faster than me? What took me a month might have taken him only a couple of weeks or even less..."
The Golden Witch sighed. "You're really not understanding the scale here. What I taught you was just a tiny fraction of it all, the very beginning, the very first page. You spent a month on it and you're not even close to mastering just the tiny part that you've been taught. And there's no use pressing on with the rest until you've perfected at least this much. It's dangerous to do so. And at the pace you're going..."
She shook her head. "Well, even if you went at it twice as fast, or twice that again, it still wouldn't matter. It would take you a really, really long time to master it all. I don't even know how long. And it might still not bring you to my level."
Bai Guo was befuddled. She was right - the scale really was not something he was able to grasp.
"How long did it take you to master it to the same extent as me?" He asked, hoping to clear up his confusion at least a little bit.
"Me? I don't really remember..." She craned her neck, thinking. "Perhaps a couple of hours to get through that part?"
Bai Guo's hands shook. He asked with a dry throat, "The part that I'm not even done with?"
The Golden Witch contemplatively tapped her chin with one of her long fingers. Bai Guo became certain that even if the amount she had called out wasn't exactly correct, it was still a negligible enough amount to not even be remembered.
Dizziness beset him. He thought to himself, "Or is it even more terrifying that someone who can master techniques just by seeing them once struggled for so long with this one method? But in either case, what am I even doing here? Some silly little Bai Guo learning martial arts from a monster like this - what a joke...! I was hoping to learn how to stand up for myself, but if this is a world where people like this exist, aren't I just wasting my time?"
Shivers ran down Bai Guo's spine. He deeply regretted even asking the question. It might have been preferable to remain ignorant of the difference between us, he thought.
"Master, have I already reached my peak as a martial artist?" Bai Guo couldn't keep his panic to himself. "Though you've given me the best that a martial artist can hope for, with my talent being so limited, how much further can I really get?"
"What are you saying all of a sudden?" The Golden Witch smiled. "You're still young, and you've got nothing to do but keep practicing. Don't take my ramblings so seriously - my perspective on these matters is perhaps not the most accurate. Just stay with me and I'll show you that you've still got a ways to go."
Bai Guo was in agreement; the perspective of someone like her certainly couldn't be considered normal. But he couldn't tell whether that gave her thoughts on the matter more or less weight.
Though he let the matter drop, anxiety still lingered in his heart.
"Forget about it." She interrupted his rambunctious thoughts. "Tell me how you managed to heal."
Finally confronted by the question, Bai Guo faltered a great deal. But ultimately, he could neither stand to lie to his master nor spit in the face of a good deed, even if it came from someone so despicable and bearing such obviously nefarious intentions.
"Tao Geming visited the sect master." Bai Guo explained. "He tried to bring me back to you to place you in his debt, but when I refused, he healed me in secret. Though I'm loath to admit it, I don't know if I would have made it out of there without his help..."
Her eyes widened. "So that dog was still following us! Tell me more about what happened."
Bai Guo told her the entire story. Her features grew severe as she listened to the tale of his days in captivity, abused at the hands of He Yong and Tao Geming alike. When she heard of Liao Lan's involvement, her foul mood lifted ever so slightly.
"Master, just who was that woman, that Liao Lan?" Bai Guo asked at the end.
"Do you remember the benefactor I mentioned before, the one that sponsored our celebratory feast? It was her. Unrivaled Heroine Liao, they call her."
Bai Guo rubbed his chin, a hint of recognition in his eyes.
"Unrivaled Heroine? I think I've heard that title somewhere..." But he shrugged it off. "How did you end up on such friendly terms with her?"
"She tried to start trouble with me, so I beat her and took her money." She succinctly explained. "Then later, I convinced her to help."
Bai Guo's expression soured at her absurd nonchalance.
The Golden Witch shook her head. "Only at the time, it turned out I dragged her disciple into it too... I'm the reason you missed out on your first match. I just didn't realize she was the one. Sorry..."
"You mean Shao Luli? She's okay now at least, right?"
The Golden Witch meekly nodded.
The young man smiled at her apparent guilt. "You know I don't care much for fights, master. You're the one who was excited for that match the most."
His words seemed to bring her some relief.
"So," The Golden Witch began, "Why are we still in this place? From the way you spoke to the abbot, you wanted us to meet someone? Is that right?"
Bai Guo nodded. He told her Chun De's story about the Sleeping Asura, and how during their escape, just the hint of the man's presence scattered the Kunlun Sect's disciples out of their path.
Her golden eyes shone with excitement as she listened to him talk.
...