A-Zhen still looked like a young girl. Dressed in white and carrying a flower basket, she warily sized up Yi Jing and her nephews and asked what they had come here for.
Although Yi Jing was proud and disdained dealings with fiends and heretics, especially an enemy's disciple, she patiently offered a few words of explanation. For one thing, she had to give Yang Jin face—A-Zhen was, after all, his sixth elder sister in this lifetime. For another, A-Zhen was said to be destined to abandon evil and return to righteousness, joining the Emei Sect as her fellow disciple.
"Those demons deliberately lured us here, hoping to use your master to make trouble for us. Fortunately, your master still fears Heaven and understands her fate, and didn't come out to forcefully champion their cause..."
Yi Jing saw nothing wrong with what she had said. Those were simply the facts.
But A-Zhen found the words grating, as though her master were afraid of Yi Jing and her two nephews. She tried to recover some ground. "My master has been cultivating in seclusion for quite some time. She probably hasn't emerged yet, otherwise I would invite you inside, little sister, and let your elder sister offer a little hospitality as the host. I only fear you might not have the time."
Her words both excused Jiupan Po's failure to appear and slyly suggested that, if master and disciple really opened their gates and invited the visitors inside, they probably would not dare enter.
Yi Jing caught the implication and sneered. "Why wouldn't we have the time? I've long heard that Nine-Ring Mountain is beautiful, tranquil, and refined, and have always wanted to tour it and broaden my horizons. Unfortunately, your esteemed master has sealed the mountain for her seclusion. Even those who