"I once heard Wu Mei, Flying She-Bear Wu of Green Bamboo Nunnery, mention that a rogue person from the East skilled in Li Fire swordsmanship had recently come to Western Kham. So that was you?"
Cheng Xinzhan broke through the encirclement again to return to her aid, taking his place beside Zhou Qingyun.
This time, however, Zhou Qingyun said nothing more about helping Cheng Xinzhan break out and leave first. Instead, surrounded by watching demons, she moved her graceful feet and took another two steps toward him, striking up a conversation.
Cheng Xinzhan had not expected Wu Mei to have met Zhou Qingyun after his arrival in Western Kham, much less mentioned him. He drove his flying sword back against a Demon Path cultivator casting a sneak attack from underwater. Thinking of the crimson radiance in Wu Mei's hands and the azure radiance in Zhou Qingyun's, he replied,
"I also heard Fellow Daoist Shoumei say that someone in Shu surpassed her by a fair margin in the way of sword radiance. That must be the Azure Cord Sword?"
Zhou Qingyun smiled. The radiance in her hand shone a deep azure as she shattered another demonic treasure, and she said,
"Shoumei has exceptional gifts. She mastered sword radiance entirely on her own. I only achieved something because my teacher instructed me from childhood. I wouldn't dare claim to surpass her."
Cheng Xinzhan watched the Azure Cord Sword in Zhou Qingyun's hand. One moment it scattered into radiance like cloth covering the heavens; the next it condensed into a beam like a long rainbow piercing the sun. She released and recalled it freely, changing its size at will. Clearly, she now commanded the sword as naturally as her own arm. Compared with their last meeting at Fuxia Lake, when she had relied