Chapter 3

Blaze's eyes flickered, and in that instant the flash of them pierced straight through my soul.

Where my true body sat in seclusion in the cave, my chest tore with pain, and I coughed up a mouthful of blood.

This technique was the one I had taught him to save his own life.

Now he was using it to kill me.

Watching my soul grow thinner and more unsteady, Blaze paused, and his voice softened.

“Let this settle the debt for all your years of teaching and for saving my life. The next time we meet, I'll take your head with my own hands, and your life with it.”

He drew back his hand, bowed again and again toward Serena, then turned and left without looking back.

Seeing him gone, Serena gave me a taunting smile.

“That day the foolish boy saw your true form and fainted from fright. I woke him, and he was still set on going to see you. So I told him you were a mangy fox from the Demon Realm, a monster that lures cultivators of the righteous path to their ruin. He believed it at once, and swore he'd kill you for the righteous path.”

“Such a fine disciple. Senior sister spent all those spirit-herbs building him that strong, sturdy body, and in the end it was all done for my benefit. And I'm afraid you never got to enjoy it. I've helped myself to him first.”

“I won't hide it from you, senior sister. I've enjoyed him very much.”

She burst out laughing and rode off on a cloud.

Before she left, she set loose a sheet of tri-realm true fire.

My home was destroyed, and the spiritual energy here was not enough to heal my wounds.

I could only return to my body and drag my injuries down into the mortal world in flight.

At least, after a few days of rest, I could hold a human form again. I only lacked the strength to split myself and use immortal arts to hide my face.

Still, this body's spiritual power looked so faint to outsiders that even a minor spirit outmatched it, so it drew no notice.

So I found the first sect with abundant spiritual energy and sought to become a disciple. After half a month of waiting, when I ran into Blaze, it finally struck me that enemies really do meet on a narrow road. The place I'd fled to was Serena's own sect.

Yet this sect was not as she had claimed, founded together by a few senior brothers who had also received immortal artifacts, joining to raise an order of their own.

I hadn't expected them to actually find such a blessed grotto-paradise for it.

Remembering that Blaze had never once seen my true face, most of my unease faded. I raised a hand with an easy manner, called out to him as senior brother, and meant to slip away.

I hadn't expected him to catch me by the arm.

Blaze's gaze burned, fixed hard on my face.

The heart I'd been so sure would go unrecognized rose back up into my throat.

I touched my face without thinking, afraid I'd let some flaw show.

“You're the new one?”

I nodded.

I tried to pull my sleeve back, but he wouldn't let go, his gaze thick on me, impossible to shake off.

“Has junior sister ever taken a master before?”

“Is there anyone in your family who also cultivates?”

Seeing that I said nothing and only stared at him, all wariness, Blaze seemed to realize how forward he'd been. His face went red, and he took back his hand.

“Don't misunderstand, junior sister. It's only that you look so much like the Peerless Immortal Sovereign.”

“And somewhat like Serena's master too.”

This was not the first time I'd heard that name from Blaze's mouth.

He'd brought it up long ago, back when he trailed after me begging to be my disciple. That day I had descended from the sky, plucked a willow branch on a whim to drive off a beast, and the drifting immortal air of it looked exactly like the Peerless Immortal Sovereign of legend.

That Sovereign moved through the world with ease, glad to help others.

Her cultivation ran deeper than anyone could see, and above all her beauty was matchless, first among the first.

Many sects had received her kindness, and enshrined her portrait in their grand halls, offering incense to it day and night.

Back then he had taken me for the Peerless Immortal Sovereign, and when he later learned I wasn't, he'd been a little disappointed.

But he'd comforted me gently: “Master may not be the one I imagined, but Blaze's heart was long ago filled with Master alone, and it has nothing to do with anyone else, only because Master saved me.”

Remembering the past, I felt again how life plays its tricks on people.

“I still haven't asked junior sister's name.”

Something turned sour in me, and I answered without thinking: “Faye.”

Blaze frowned. “Faye? A name as lovely as its owner, junior sister.”

“From now on, if there's anything junior sister doesn't understand, you can come to me.”

“Blaze, who are you talking to?”

“I finished bathing and waited for you in my room a long while, and you never came.”