Insects chirped and birds called; the woods ran deep and dim.
"That tigress had something up her sleeve."
Dappled light and shadow fell across him, breaking apart and reforming. Liang Qu climbed the stone steps and suddenly spoke as he took half a stride forward.
"Something?" White Mist Hand tossed away his winterberry fruit. Little Mirage Dragon grabbed Ta Ta Kai, wagged her tail, and flew after him. "Boss, what's up her sleeve?"
Liang Qu continued up the steps. "With one sentence, she made me owe three debts of gratitude."
"Three?" Long E Ying turned her head.
"How many do you think?"
"Two."
"Which two?"
Long E Ying held up two fingers.
"First, White Tiger King pointed out the Maha Karma Sea Observation in the Scripture Repository Pavilion, so I owed her a favor in itself. Second, it concerned the master's reputation. She claimed she had suffered a grievance; if something mildly troublesome came up later, agreeing would be fine, but clarifying matters would seem like avoiding suspicion.
"If I refused, then in the eyes of those who already suspected this was a left-hand-to-right-hand scheme, I would become even more detestable. A matter worth one hundred taels would gain interest out of thin air, rising to one hundred and twenty, even one hundred and thirty."
Liang Qu caught E Ying's hand, bent out her third finger, the ring finger, and lightly squeezed it.
"Third, the tigress deliberately inflated the value of the cultivation art in the cave. Only the tiger clan can cultivate it. Golden Haired Tiger himself did not need to memorize it, yet it was still openly engraved in the cave. Those bats and hedgehogs all knew it and could come and go freely, proving it did not matter if the cultivation art was seen.
"She obstructed me