“Oh! That’s my cousin, Jihan,” exclaimed Meilin. “He’s here too?”

“It would appear so,” Tianlan confirmed.

“Wow. I can’t believe that Jihan came too.”

“Why is it surprising? It’s what any normal family member would do.”

“Well, his exams are coming up soon. He should be studying, not running around looking for me.”

“Oh? It seems you can think of other people after all.”

“...”

“Come now, Tianlan,” argued Hei. “There’s no need to be so cold. Everybody has their moments of selfishness. It’s whether or not you can learn from them that’s important.”

Tianlan shrugged his shoulders.

“By the way,” he said, “that Jihan guy is one of us.”

“Hm?”

“Yeah. He’s an aura holder.”

“And you’re only telling me this now?”

“I mean... if you had let me finish my sto-”

“You know what? It’s fine. Never mind.”

Meilin listened as Hei and Tianlan had this little exchange that she couldn’t quite understand.

“What’s this about Cousin Jihan? He holds an aura?”

“Ah. Don’t worry about it,” answered Hei. “Let’s just say that your cousin is a special person. His road is one of limitless possibilities.”

“Oh? Really?”

Her eyes lit up.

“I always knew Cousin was special. There’s just something different about him.”

“You always knew? Your cousin should have had a pretty hard time in his youth, right? He should have grown up being viewed as trash by his clan.”

Meilin smiled.

“That’s true —and it’s amazing that you know that, by the way— but Cousin never cared what others said about him. He never got angry or sad about it. And he always treated himself as someone on the same level as the others. Not above or below.”

“Then he should have suffered a good amount of bullying.”

Meilin chuckled.

“That’s true too. Were you there?”

“Yeah. I’ve been stalking you guys for twelve years now.”

“And you say I’m the creepy one,” added Tianlan.

“... It was a joke...”

“Was it?”

“I’m not even twelve years old yet!”

“Or so you say.”

“...”

“Anyway, that’s just how Cousin is. He’s the kind of person who will take the head seat at a banquet, then wonder why the clan leader is asking him to move, pointing to the plenty of other seats available.”

“Sounds like it would get him into a lot of trouble.”

“It sure did. His parents were constantly apologising on his behalf. It’s a good thing the clan leader happens to be his uncle, otherwise, he may have already been beaten to death.”

“You can say that again,” Tianlan commented. “Your cousin seems to ignore clan hierarchy. There’s no way that would fly in ordinary circumstances.”

“You’re right. But it’s precisely because he’s that way that we love him so much.”

“Oh?”

“Mm. For example, most people in the clan have two types of relationship with someone like me. They either lower themselves before me to ingratiate themselves with my father, or they look down on me for being weak.

“But Cousin is different.

“As someone who, by all accounts, should have lowered himself before me, he treated me just like how he would treat his sister if he had one.

“Even when faced with my father, he treated him as his uncle, not the venerable clan leader.

“He didn’t laugh at my sister’s goal of succeeding the leader position and even helped her train as best as he could.

“When I was mocked for being weak, he, someone even weaker than I was, stood up for me, saying that if it were up to him he would choose to be my friend over theirs any day of the week.”

She smiled.

“Back then, his words were nice to hear, but they lacked substance. No one other than my family would even want to be his friend.

“He was the clan’s trash, after all.

“But one day, he suddenly transformed. Whatever was blocking his talent disappeared and he quickly rose to prominence.

“Now, he’s the undisputed number-one junior of the entire clan, even able to contend against some of the top elders.”

Thinking of the last time she saw her cousin; her smile grew even brighter.

“He hasn’t changed one bit.”

***

“So, nothing’s changed?”

“I’m afraid not.”

She let out a sigh.

Just when she thought there might be some hope, it turned out to be another dead end.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “The whole sect just disappeared? Are you sure the coordinates were right? Who was that other person?”

“You should probably sit down,” said Jihan as he walked to the back of her desk and pulled her seat out for her.

“What is it now?”

She could feel a headache coming on.

“Nothing much,” said Jihan.

He scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile on his face.

“It just looks like that guy was from the Merchant Guild is all.”

“The Merchant Guild?!”

She shot up to her feet.

“We’ve offended the Merchant Guild now?!”

Jihan let out strained laughter.

“It appears so.”

She raised her hand to her forehead.

“Could this get any worse?”

“Well… Yeah…”

“Oh Heavens. What is it now?”

“He managed to send out a distress signal on the way to the interrogation room. They should be looking for us now.”

She fell back into her seat.

“Not only is Meilin still missing, but we’ve also got the Merchant Guild breathing down our necks…”

It really felt like the world was falling down on her.

She took a deep breath, trying to think of a bright side.

“At least they don’t know where we are. It’ll take them a while to find us. If you just lay low for a while, then-”

“Actually…”

Jihan held out his hand and opened his palm revealing a small character imprinted onto it.

She looked up to the ceiling and let out a sigh.

“They placed a tracker on you.”

“They did. But don’t worry about it. I’ll handle the Merchant Guild when they show up.”

“But-”

He pressed a finger against her lips.

“You just focus on finding Meilin. As for the rest, I’ll come up with something.”

“Jihan…”

“All isn’t lost, after all. What was that guy doing there at the supposed location of a demonic sect? Why was he moving around as if confused about its absence?”

“Do you think he knows something?”

“I’m sure of it. I just don’t know if we’ll be able to extract anything before they find him.”

“We don’t have much time at all. They could be here any minute now.”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Luckily, the guy acted in haste and placed the tracker on me before we reached the interrogation room. That allowed me to separate from the others and have them transport him to the interrogation room after we made the necessary preparations. Now, the Merchant Guild only has a solid way of finding me, but not their own guy.”

“So you want to lure the Merchant Guild over here? Why?”

“For what’s to come. I’ll need the Shimmering Sword Sect to bear witness.”

“Jihan! You can’t be thinking of-”

“Sorry to disturb you, Ma’am,” entered another voice. “I have an urgent report.”

“Is it the Merchant Guild?”

“No. It concerns the demonic cultivator sect known as the Crimson Moon.”

Her eyebrows rose.

“Speak.”

***

“Wait a minute… Is that…?”

“Hm?”

Meilin and Tianlan looked at Hei who had suddenly stopped and was squinting as he looked at the sect in front of them.

“Did you notice something?” asked Tianlan.

“A familiar face,” answered Hei as he broke into a jog.

When he got to the line of visitors waiting to enter the sect, he walked up to one of them and tapped her shoulder.

She turned around, confused.

“Hey, Feifei. Do you remember me?”

“If it isn’t our future sword child. How are you, Hei?”

“Me. I’m fine. Got to meet my brother in the end.”

“Yeah. I heard your shout. I’m surprised you didn’t get in trouble.”

She laughed, but stopped abruptly when she noticed something new.

She quickly moved Hei’s hair out of the way to reveal his eye patch.

Her face immediately paled.

“They took your eye?! How could they?!”

“Oh, this?” Hei chuckled. “Unrelated incident.”

“Are you sure? If they are trying to keep you silent, you can tell me. We can’t let these people be so tyrannical.”

“Oh? Let’s say they really did take my eye. What would you do about it?”

“Me? I… Humph! I would write them a very strongly worded letter! And I would keep writing them every day until they apologised! Their administrators would have a nightmare!”

Hei burst out in laughter.

“It’s not funny, Hei! We must seek justice for this!”

“Calm down, Feifei. I’m not sure this poor little sect would be able to handle your wrath.”

She puffed her cheeks out.

“Are you sure you’re alright, Hei?”

“Yeah. It’s nothing to worry about.”

“If you say so.”

At this point, Tianlan and Meilin had caught up.

“Let me introduce you to my brother,” said Hei. “He may not be the sword child, but perhaps you can exchange tips with him. Tianlan, Feifei. Feifei, Tian…lan…”

He sighed.

“Of course.”