Song San, or what was left of him, stood frozen within the array. The gleam that once lived in his eyes was now gone hollow. Just moments ago, he had been our greatest concern… and now we were negotiating over unrelated matters.

Song Song stood off to the side, casually inspecting her nails as soon as we started talking about deals. But she stayed close enough to intervene if necessary and, of course, close enough to hear every word.

“Well, our deal has a lot of wiggle room since I don’t want you thinking you’re my servant now or anything,” Cai Hu said, glancing at the immobilized Song San. “You’ve made it very clear what happens to people who try to control you. I don’t want to end up on that list.”

He said it jokingly, but there was a ring of truth to his words. Comparing Song San, a newly ascended Core Formation cultivator, to Cai Hu, a Level 7 Array Conjurer, was unfair. But both could cause massive damage in their own ways.

Song San’s element made him dangerous by nature. But Cai Hu, with the kind of arrays he wielded, wasn’t any less deadly just more refined about it.

I had access to Level 7 Arrays myself. I knew how devastating they could be. The fact that Cai Hu didn’t even think of them as particularly valuable showed how dangerous he was.

“As far as I’m concerned, nothing’s changed. You’re free to act however you want,” Cai Hu said. “Just promise to give your best during our lessons. Other than that, I won’t interfere in your life. It’ll be like I’m not even there.”

But you were there… I thought, smiling.

This might turn out to be the most lucrative deal I’d ever made.

Maybe I should let my emotions cloud my judgment more often if these were the kinds of benefits I got.

“Of course,” I said, pushing my scheming thoughts aside for now. “Though now that you’re my teacher, there are other duties you’ll have to fulfill. You’ll always need to take my side.”

“Yes, that’s expected of me,” Cai Hu said, narrowing his eyes as if already piecing together where I was headed.

“Then that means you’ll support Song Song as the next Sect Leader.”

Cai Hu grimaced. For someone his age to show that much emotion so quickly… either he couldn’t hide his disgust, or he wanted us to know how much he hated the idea.

Song Song, who’d been pretending not to listen, frowned when she caught his expression.

“What’s with that face?” Song Song asked. “You don’t want me as a leader or something?”

“Of course, I don’t,” Cai Hu answered without hesitation.

She dropped the act and stared him down. “Why?”

“Why?” the elder raised a brow like she’d just asked if water was wet. “You’re violent. You don’t care about the wellbeing of the Sect. You kill without reason, enjoy torture, take pleasure in murder, you’re reckless and manipulative… no one means anything to you. You’d run the Sect based on your whims alone.”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Song Song cut him off. “Do you want to die, old man?”

“Maybe no one’s told you this to your face before, but nobody likes you,” Cai Hu said. “Even ruthless Sect Leaders have some charisma. You inspire no loyalty. Also, despite us both being in Core Formation, you’re two stars below me and at this level, that’s a canyon-wide gap.”

Song Song’s frown relaxed into a shrug, and she turned to me as if I was supposed to fix this.

Cai Hu noticed and immediately latched onto it.

“Liu Feng would make a much better Sect Leader. He’s logical, intelligent, empathetic, and can even communicate with monsters like you,” he added in a particularly snobby tone.

“That’s where we disagree,” Song Song replied calmly. “Liu Feng is competent, no doubt. But becoming Sect Leader has nothing to do with kindness. The people need a powerful figure with absolute control.”

Cai Hu turned toward me as if expecting me to object.

But I just shrugged.

He stared at me for a few moments, analyzing the silence. I think he misunderstood my actions over the past few months, thinking I was angling for power while Song Song was gone.

Sadly, I wasn’t the idealistic poster boy he believed I was. Most of what I’d done lately was just scheming for maximum benefit.

“I see,” he said with a nod. “Well, this isn’t all bad. At least now you can focus on learning arrays instead of wasting time positioning yourself for leadership.”

While becoming Sect Leader had its perks, it was more convenient to have Song Song take the mantle. We were a team in this. I’d still get the benefits I wanted, just from the shadows.

“Oh well. It’s not my place to interfere in the personal lives of my disciples,” he added, then nodded toward the frozen Song San. “Also, I’ll be taking him with me. I’ll store him somewhere… discreet.”

“I don’t trust you,” Song Song said bluntly before he could finish.

“But you trust Liu Feng,” Cai Hu replied smoothly. “So I’ll tell him where I’m putting the troublemaker. Just in case something happens to me, we don’t want Song San slipping loose.”

He turned to me, eyes twinkling with amusement.

“Liu Feng, I’ll leave him beneath the place where we first met.”

Under the place where we first met? The first time Cai Hu and I saw eye-to-eye was...

Shit.

He was going to bury Song San, sealed and preserved, under the inner library. The very one I spent most of my time in.

So after all that nerve-wracking chaos, I ended up with another new responsibility.

But if my new teacher thought he could dump things on me without consequences, he had the wrong idea.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Then I’ll need to prepare some things,” I said. “So I probably won’t be able to attend the inner elder meeting… you know, the one where you have to explain why we sealed and probably crippled one of the Sect’s few Core Elders.”

“Yeah, that’ll be troublesome,” my new teacher muttered, rubbing his chin. “But I’m sure Zun Gon can handle it.”

So… he just dropped it on Zun Gon?

This new teacher of mine… I think we were a little too alike.

And while I liked to think I wasn’t a bad person, I definitely didn’t want to be friends with someone just like me. Because people like me? We dumped responsibility onto others just to buy ourselves more time to do what we liked.

No wonder this guy never showed up at weekend meetings with the inner elders. Sure, he was “busy”… but it was probably just an excuse to avoid something so dull.

Maybe I should take notes. The library did have a lot of books to catalog.

After the next meeting where Song Song’s candidacy would be discussed, I could start skipping every other one with a few weak excuses.

I no longer needed the authority to become the next Sect Leader. That was Song Song’s role now.

I’d just be the advisor. The man behind the curtain.

And honestly? That was exactly where I wanted to be.

With everything that needed to be said now spoken, Cai Hu levitated off the ground. Wind surged around his robes as he rose effortlessly into the air, one arm extended, gripping the translucent silver coffin like it weighed nothing. Song San’s broken form remained still, his eyes open and Qi sealed.

Then, with a ripple of silvery light and a thunderous whoosh, Cai Hu blasted away from the battlefield, leaving only a lingering distortion of Qi in his wake. The skies trembled faintly at his departure for a long moment afterward.

Now it was just Song Song and me again. Alone.

With the outsider gone, Song Song turned toward me and scratched her pale cheek with her index finger.

“I feel like I’m forgetting something,” she said.

“If you forgot about it, then it must not be important,” I replied. “Anyway, follow me. I’ll take you to my home. We’ve got plenty of room for you. When was the last time you've had a good meal?”

We started walking in that direction, and I couldn’t help but wonder what the other inner elders must be feeling right now. They had definitely sensed what had happened.

“Actually, it feels kind of important,” Song Song muttered.

Maybe she forgot a welcome gift or something? Then again, she wasn’t exactly the gift-giving or emotional reunion type.

“You might remember it after a good meal,” I said, eyeing the ruined landscape around us. After the recent battle, the Blazing Sun mountain had an even more miserable view than usual. “I know this amazing cook. Whatever she makes melts in your mouth.”

“Really?” Song Song asked.

“Well, it’s more of an expression. It doesn’t literally melt in your mouth.”

“No, I know that. But I’m wondering what kind of woman made you appreciate the culinary arts so much.” Song Song smiled.

“It’s Fu Yating. She’s my fiancée. Remember her?” I said.

We eventually stopped walking and began floating. Song Song moved as if she were stepping on air, effortlessly natural, while I used a skin-tight jade barrier to lift myself.

Song Song glanced at the jade barrier encasing my body and hummed thoughtfully.

“You had a fiancée?” she asked, though her interest seemed more focused on how I was flying so smoothly at this stage.

“Yes. Remember the girl from the Azure Frost Sect who followed me back to the mansion? Then you laughed and made that joke about how I was the one bringing problems home now.”

“Oh, I remember now.” Song Song’s deep blue eyes lit up as she looked at me, a mischievous smile dancing on her lips. “She’s still alive? I forgot about her. I thought you might’ve killed her or something to get rid of that pesky engagement.”

“Killing her over an engagement seems a bit extreme, doesn’t it?”

“Well, I used to have a fiancé. But I just killed him when we were young, and that problem went away,” she said nonchalantly, like she was discussing the weather. “Of course, his clan made a fuss about it. So the old hag who raised me had to go exterminate them discreetly.”

...Well, that was something.

Also, what did she mean by discreetly exterminating a whole clan? Even if they framed it on monstrous beasts or something, the truth had to leak eventually.

Then again, maybe people were just smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

“I almost killed mine too,” I said. “But then I remembered what you said, that I should keep someone close to keep me on my toes–”

“Since when did you start lying like that?” Song Song interrupted, still smiling. “The Liu Feng I know would’ve just admitted he saved someone because he wanted to. So come on, tell me the truth.”

“I…” I started, but no words came out at first. Recalling the scene just before I saved Fu Yating. “To be honest, I still haven’t gotten used to the whole killing and massacring thing. All the ugliness that comes with being a cultivator.”

The Fu Clan and Jie Clan were wiped out, every last member we could reach. My clan suffered too. Many of our people died. Even those who survived were left broken.

Liu Bo was crippled, his arm ruined.

Liu Qian was depressed and shunned. Her potential to reach Core Formation was shattered by external pressure as she rushed her cultivation to appear more talented than she was.

Liu Heng had become disillusioned, now chasing the position of clan head.

In short, the Liu Clan’s brightest generation was ruined. And who knew how many promising lives had been lost from the other clans?

People who might’ve changed, who could’ve challenged my view of the world… people who would now never live to reach their potential.

All because of some pointless rivalries festering for generations.

I wasn't going to weep for what had happened. But it was all so... pointless. The wars and unnecessary battles. It wasn’t like we even kept the damn territory, and just sold it cheap to get it off our hands.

“Well, with me around, you don’t have to worry about any of that,” Song Song said. “I’ll kill for you, and you’ll think for me.”

What?

But she was unobothered by my confused look, and continued, “And you don’t have to feel guilty about the lives I take because I’m clearly mentally crazy. You should be happy; without you around, I’d have killed way more. So, in a way, you have saved a lot of people.”

Was this… her attempt to cheer me up?

It wasn’t working; it was a disaster of a speech, and Song Song really didn’t have the charisma to be a leader.

“You can save who you want to save, help who you want to help. And I’ll kill anyone who gets in the way of that,” she added.

Okay, maybe that would’ve been a good pep talk if it didn’t end like that. But hey, she was trying, and that was enough to bring a smile to my face.

“I know the kind of guy you are,” she said. “You’re not the type to go insane trying to fix the world. You’re smart enough to know the world is what it is. You just need the power to stop the ugliness when it’s right in front of you.”

It was still a terrible speech. But for some reason, I felt calmer flying beside her.

“Either way, I’m glad I saved her,” I said.

If Fu Yating hadn’t asked that one simple question as to why Song Song’s father acted so strangely, I might not have pieced everything together.

“Oh, and back when I said you should keep someone around to keep you on your toes?” she added. “I was joking. But I guess you’ve done way dumber things for the sake of curiosity.”

I was about to respond when Song Song suddenly exclaimed:

“Oh! I remember now!”

She rubbed her finger across the storage ring on her hand, and a worn notebook appeared. Without warning, she tossed it at me.

I caught it instinctively and flipped it open, catching a glimpse of Song Song’s mischievous smile from the corner of my eye.