"Then, would the hour of the Dog work?"
"Sure." The girl acted as though nothing were the matter. "Any time works for me."
"Hehehe." Pei Ye laughed for a while. The girl stood before him; after three days, they ought to have had plenty to say, yet now both seemed to have turned mute.
The atmosphere grew a little quiet. Pei Ye glanced at the sky. "Then I'll go take care of Yang Yan's sword practice first. Let's meet again tonight."
Li Piaoqing raised an eyebrow. "With Yang Yan, isn't it just practicing swordsmanship?"
"...Right."
Li Piaoqing lowered her head. "Then just bring the Sword Manual over."
"..."
The girl gave him a gentle push. "Go tell Senior Brother Chu Nian to fetch Yang Yan."
Pei Ye looked bewildered for a moment. "...I can't really order Senior Brother Chu around. Why don't you go instead?"
Li Piaoqing glared at him. "You go."
"...Oh."
In the courtyard shaded by wintry trees, the woman in white sat beneath a tree holding a book, while the girl brought over a little stool and leaned lightly beside her.
They read the same volume together.
"Bright Sword Master, what does this 'Five Sages of the Immortals' mean?"
"A discussion assessing aptitude for the Sword Dao. There's no need to pay it any mind." Ming Qitian skipped that passage and continued to the reasoning below.
"But... Bright Sword Master." The girl tilted her head up and said softly, "I'd like to pay it just a little mind."
Ming Qitian moved her gaze back. "The 'five' are Sword Heart, Sword Sensibility, Intellectual Discernment, Spiritual Enlightenment, and Destiny. These are the components of Sword Endowment proposed in the Treatise on Sword Demonstration, and most people now adopt this theory. Sword Heart is the heart that holds the sword,