In the guest lodge's main hall, the disorder only began to settle once Chu Qingxue had taken Lin Jin and gone.
What remained was a handful of outer sect menials standing where they were with their heads down, not daring to breathe too loudly.
Ling Ruowei held her temper down, stood in the middle of the hall, ran a cold eye over Zhou Cheng, Fatty Wang, Li Shou and the rest, and opened with a dressing-down.
"That token yesterday was an inner sect access token that Senior Sister Qingxue handed over with her own hand. The spiritual signature on it is one of a kind. Had any one of you come to me and checked so much as a single question, you would not have ended up tying a man into a storeroom for a whole night."
"What is Senior Sister Qingxue's standing? Saintess of the entire sect, a great power of the late Golden Core. She entrusted this man to us personally, and on the evidence of nothing but a set of mortal clothes you took it upon yourselves to detain him. Do the sect's rules mean anything to you at all?"
"Senior Sister came to this door in person to look for him, and crouched down on a storeroom floor thick with dust to put healing salve on that mortal's face. She regards him that highly, and you still dared speculate and gossip about him behind her back. If Senior Sister were not merciful enough to let it go today, then on the single charge of detaining a person belonging to the Saintess, every one of you would be marched to the Enforcement Hall for the whip."
Ling Ruowei had talked for a long while, and her mouth had gone dry.
She picked up the coarse tea from the edge of the table, cold through by now, and swallowed a large mouthful. The parched feeling in her throat eased a little, and when she set the bowl down her face was as hard as before.
"Today's business ends here. No one is to say half a word about it outside. If any of you dares take matters into your own hands again, or speculate wildly about anything touching the Saintess, I will not be as lenient as I have been today."
Zhou Cheng had been pardoned by Chu Qingxue and then taken a heavy blow of spiritual power from Ling Ruowei, and there was not a trace of swagger left in him.
He bent hurriedly and nodded, his back bowed very low.
"Noted, Senior Sister Ling. I will never make such a muddle-headed mistake again."
Ling Ruowei gave a light snort, turned aside and straightened the sword tassel at her waist, and inside she felt thoroughly blocked up.
She had ordered them all not to discuss it, and could not stop the awkwardness in her own chest.
That mortal, in his strange short shirt, with no cultivation whatsoever, unremarkable in every way — by what right did he receive that kind of treatment from Senior Sister Qingxue? She had been at Senior Sister's side for two years and had never seen her be that gentle with anyone, let alone crouch on the ground to apply salve herself.
Seeing her expression soften, Zhou Cheng rubbed his hands together, fished five low-grade spirit stones out of his storage pouch, and held them up in both hands toward Ling Ruowei with an ingratiating smile on his face.
"Thank you for going easy on me just now, Senior Sister Ling. I would have lost a layer of skin otherwise. Who could have guessed an ordinary mortal would turn out to be so closely tied to Senior Sister Qingxue."
Ling Ruowei glanced down at the stones in his palm and did not reach for them, speaking mildly.
"Put your spirit stones away. I do not need your gratuities. That man's origins are unclear and Senior Sister is tending to him herself — for all we know he is an acquaintance from the secular world, or a playmate she grew up with as a child. If you run into him from now on, be courteous to him without fail, and do not be discourteous again."
Zhou Cheng's head went hot and he failed to keep his mouth in check, blurting out the guess that had formed at the bottom of his mind.
"A childhood playmate? I think it goes further than that. That smile of Senior Sister Qingxue's in the storeroom just now — two years in this sect and I have never once heard of her showing that kind of softness to anyone. If you ask me, the two of them settled a betrothal long ago and have been keeping company in private for years."
The words had barely left his mouth—
A thunderous crash shook the whole lodge violently.
The thick solid-timber doors split apart down the middle inch by inch, and splinters and fragments of wood sprayed across the floor.
Ling Ruowei's chest tightened. Her right hand went to her sword hilt on the instant, half an inch of blade clearing the sheath, cold light flashing out.
She was in the act of turning to face an enemy when a tall figure in purple strode over the shattered doors and into the hall.
It was Lei Wujie of Thundercry Peak.
He had come following the trail of the outer sect disciple's message, and had concealed himself outside the door a moment ago; not one word of that conversation had escaped him.
Hearing earlier that this group had detained a man entrusted to them by the Saintess had already brought the veins up on his neck. At the word betrothal the jealousy in him could not be held down another instant, and his vast lightning-attribute spiritual power spilled out beyond his control and blew the doors apart.
Looking at the violent, churning lightning energy around him, Ling Ruowei felt a tremor go through her. Her fingertips tightened slightly and there was a note of timidity in her voice.
"Senior Brother Lei, what brings you to the outer sect lodge so suddenly?"
Lei Wujie did not spare her half a glance.
A pair of blood-red eyes had fixed on Zhou Cheng standing at the front of the group, and the pressure came down over him like a falling sky.
Zhou Cheng was nailed in place by that cold stare. His legs went soft, his knees buckled and he dropped hard to the floor, shaking from head to foot.
Lei Wujie walked slowly up to him and ground the words out between his teeth, every one of them carrying murder.
"A bottom-rung outer sect disciple, and you dare discuss the private affairs of Qingxue, Saintess of the Ethereal Sword Sect? You dare invent filthy rumors about a betrothal? Yesterday you disregarded the Saintess's own token, and in defiance of the sect's law you detained a person she had entrusted to you. Two great offenses on your head. Do you know what punishment they warrant?"
There was not a shred of leniency behind his eyes.
The way he looked at Zhou Cheng was the way one looks at a criminal waiting for the blade.
Without waiting for Zhou Cheng to beg, Lei Wujie gathered pale violet lightning into his right hand and drove his palm hard into the place of Zhou Cheng's dantian.
Thk—
Zhou Cheng's body arched violently and a great mouthful of scalding blood came out of him, staining the bluestone in front of him red.
The meridians of his dantian ruptured inch by inch, and the third level of Qi Refining he had won through bitter cultivation scattered in an instant.
Ling Ruowei's temper flared at the sight and she stepped half a pace forward, her voice sharp.
"Lei Wujie! How could you be so vicious as to destroy the man's meridians outright!"
Lei Wujie drew his palm back, and the lightning at his fingertips slowly faded.
His profile was hard and his tone was flat and unmoved, carrying the confidence of a man speaking from above.
"By virtue of my being the personally taught eldest disciple of the Master of Thundercry Peak, and holder of the Enforcement Hall's Third Squad. To discipline an outer sect disciple who disregards the rules and gossips about the Saintess — is that authority sufficient?"
That one sentence left Ling Ruowei with nothing to say.
Her fists closed until the nails bit into her palms, and all she could do was stand where she was and hold it in.
The remaining menials and outer sect disciples cowered against the wall, not daring to come forward.
They scrambled for healing pills in a panic and stumbled over to Zhou Cheng's side to wipe the blood away and put salve on him.
Lei Wujie frowned in distaste, produced a clean silk cloth, and unhurriedly wiped clean the palm that had struck Zhou Cheng's dantian.
His eyes went sideways over Ling Ruowei.
"The lodge was placed in your keeping, and under it a person connected to the Saintess has been detained and disciples have gossiped about her in private. That is a failure of your management. At dawn tomorrow, present yourself at the Enforcement Hall to receive twenty lashes."
Without waiting for a word of protest from Ling Ruowei, Lei Wujie turned and walked out through the ruined doors.
Lightning flashed around him and he stepped straight up into the air on his sword, racing off along the mountain road Chu Qingxue had taken.
His only thought was to catch up with Chu Qingxue and see just where this mortal had come from — the one who had made her gentle against all her habit.
Ling Ruowei stared after the direction he had flown, fury in her eyes.
After a long moment she let out a heavy sigh, with a chestful of powerlessness and nowhere to put it.
She bent and took out a small pouch of spirit stones, walked over to Zhou Cheng where he lay covered in blood, and pressed the pouch into his hands.
"Your meridians are broken. You will not be able to cultivate properly from now on, and can only stay in the sect as a menial. Take these stones and buy healing pills, and rest easy while you recover. The sect's pill hall has root-strengthening ingredients; with long enough treatment there is still a chance the meridians will mend."
Zhou Cheng held the warm spirit stones, his whole body twitching with pain.
Tears ran down mixed with blood, and he nodded over and over, choking.
"Thank you, Senior Sister Ling... it is all my own fault for talking too much, and Senior Brother Lei happened to hear it, and this is what I have come to. And I have dragged you down with me besides."
The other disciples stood around them, and not one of them dared say another word about Chu Qingxue or Lin Jin.
The shattered doors, the blood across the floor, and Zhou Cheng with his dantian destroyed—
They became a warning carved into the heart of every man there.