A pot of tea, scant meaning

No one came to question Jing Jiu, nor did any powerful cultivator from Shangde Peak suddenly appear to take him to the cold, secluded Sword Prison.

Clearly, Liu S sui had told no one that he had not been in his cave abode that night.

He learned from Junior Sister Yushan that Liu S sui had recently been cultivating harder than ever, even harder than he had over the previous three years. The boy had also grown more taciturn. No one knew what occupied his thoughts each day; they only knew that his cultivation level was rising at an unimaginable speed.

Jing Jiu more or less understood where Liu S sui's hard training and silence came from. To this, he too could respond only with silence.

The other Sword Washing disciples were also training tirelessly. Every day, many figures could be seen on Sword Peak, and some could already reach the outskirts of the clouds.

Over the following days, disciples succeeded one after another in taking swords from Sword Peak. From time to time, delighted laughter, strange cries, and sobbing could be heard beside Sword-Washing Creek.

Naturally, the disciples treasured the Immortal Swords they had worked so hard to obtain. Even saying they could not bear to put them down fell short. Whether attending lessons or eating, they kept their swords with them, carefully copying their senior brothers and sisters by tying them securely with the softest ribbons and carrying them on their backs.

Which ribbons to use, and which knots looked best while putting the least pressure on the blades, naturally became the main topics of idle conversation in the Sword-Washing Pavilion.

Some disciples even held their swords in their arms while relieving themselves or sleeping.

Only after Martial Aunt Mei Li of Qingrong Peak lost her temper did this behavior subside a little.

Jing Jiu had not left his cave abode. Junior Sister Yushan and the youth surnamed Yuan from Lelang Commandery had told him all these things.

To him, these were minor interludes that required little attention.

Meeting Zhao Layue on the summit that night and killing that expert from Jade Lake Peak had also been no more than an interlude to him.

In his view, Zhao Layue was clever enough to understand that two people who both had secrets ought to keep their distance. That should have been the end of the matter.

He had not expected a slight deviation in his deductions.

And so he became famous once again, more famous than before.

A piece of news spread along both banks of Sword-Washing Creek.

Everyone who heard it was utterly astonished.

The Sword-Washing Pavilion was in an uproar, filled with discussion.

Xue Yongge let out a strange cry and shouted, "How is that possible!"

Then he felt something was odd, as though he had reacted in exactly the same way back at South Pine Pavilion.

The news even stirred Mei Li and the other immortal teachers at the Sword-Washing Pavilion.

Both this martial aunt from Qingrong Peak and Lin Wuzhi had high expectations for Jing Jiu, but neither had expected him to become famous so quickly.

By the rock wall at the end of the creek, the fat Ma Hua handed a cotton towel to the soaking-wet Liu S sui. Looking at him with the hint of a smile, he said, "Did you know? That young master of yours has become famous again."

Liu S sui's hand stiffened slightly as he wiped his face. After a moment's silence, he looked up and asked somewhat nervously, "What happened?"

"Zhao Layue has finished cultivating on Sword Peak and returned to Sword-Washing Creek."

"It seems she really did complete Sword Intent Tempering Body," Ma Hua said with feeling.

Liu S sui froze for a moment.

Zhao Layue was the idol of all the ordinary disciples, and his idol too. He had never met this legendary senior sister.

Her finishing her cultivation on Sword Peak was certainly a major event, but what did that have to do with... the young master?

"The point is, after Zhao Layue came down from the peak, she didn't go to the Sword-Washing Pavilion to pay her respects to the teachers, and she didn't return to her own cave abode. She went to Jing Jiu's."

Looking somewhere downstream, Ma Hua said with feeling, "Right now, she's with Jing Jiu... talking."

Liu S sui breathed a sigh of relief and thought silently, Of course the young master is extraordinary. Only with a genius like Senior Sister Layue would he be willing to say a few extra words.

Thinking of how little Jing Jiu usually spoke when they were together, he suddenly felt somewhat inferior.

Ma Hua withdrew his gaze, glanced at him, and said, "Don't you want to go take a look?"

Liu S sui shook his head, spread the cotton towel on a rock to dry in the sun, and walked back into the creek to resume his focused sword practice.

Watching that rather thin, small figure on the creek, Ma Hua narrowed his eyes slightly.

He did not know what exactly had happened to this little fellow.

Over the past few days, Liu S sui had grown quieter and more hardworking, as though he had finally found some goal, yet also as though he were bearing some pressure.

The Sword Dao of Twofold Forgetting Peak lay in persistence and endurance. Liu S sui's behavior ought to have been a very good thing, yet Ma Hua kept feeling that something was wrong.

Returning to the natural pavilion formed by several leafy trees, he looked at Gu Han and asked, "Do you still insist that Jing Jiu is useless?"

"Anyone who can't pick up a sword is useless, even if the world sees him as a genius," Gu Han said expressionlessly.

Ma Hua understood what he meant and said no more.

Lessons beside Sword-Washing Creek ended, and dozens of disciples poured out of the Sword-Washing Pavilion and came to the creek.

Some washed their swords in the water, some washed fruit to eat, and some gathered to chat with an air of casualness.

In truth, every one of them was watching the cliff on the opposite bank.

A stone terrace lay on the cliff, with a cave abode behind it, no different from the other cave abodes along the rock face.

At that moment, two figures could faintly be seen outside it.

"Is that really Senior Sister Zhao?"

"Could you have mistaken her?"

"Yu Kun entered the inner sect with her and spent dozens of days with her in the Sword-Washing Pavilion. How could he mistake her?"

"Senior Sister Zhao really came down the mountain? Then why is she there?"

"Look! She really is talking to Jing Jiu!"

The disciples by the creek discussed it in low voices, excited and nervous.

To them, Zhao Layue was the senior sister most deserving of respect, and also an unreachable immortal maiden.

Everyone knew that Senior Sister Zhao was aloof and sparing with words. She treated everyone alike, keeping them at a great distance. She was unwilling to grow close even to Twofold Forgetting Peak, which was intent on recruiting her. Why, then, had she come to see Jing Jiu as soon as she finished her arduous cultivation on Sword Peak?

Most importantly, she really was talking to Jing Jiu.

Could Jing Jiu truly have something remarkable about him?

His walking straight into the clouds on Sword Peak a few days earlier had shocked many people, but in the end, he had not managed to take a sword on that attempt, so it did not amount to much.

"In more than two years, we've never seen Senior Brother Jing do anything, but whenever a crucial moment comes, he always does something astonishing. He really hides his depths."

The youth surnamed Yuan from Lelang Commandery looked enviously at the scene across the creek as he spoke.

At that moment, who did not envy Jing Jiu?

"Could Eldest Senior Sister be a worldly person too?"

One disciple spoke with a face full of puzzlement.

The others asked what he meant.

The disciple raised a hand and gestured at his face.

The others understood and began laughing and cursing.

"I've got it!" Xue Yongge suddenly waved his arms beside them and said indignantly, "Jing Jiu must secretly cultivate every night, then come out to sleep during the day, deliberately acting as breezy as the wind and light as the clouds. Otherwise, how could he walk into the clouds on Sword Peak and even know Eldest Senior Sister? I saw plenty of people like that at the prefectural school! What a hypocrite!"

In the eyes of his fellow disciples across the creek, Jing Jiu was the most enviable person of all, but he remained his usual self, saying little.

He was even still reclining in that bamboo chair. Had the apes behind the cliff not brought over two large rocks, there really would have been nowhere for Zhao Layue to sit.

"Your wounds healed?"

"Yes."

"Finished Sword Intent Tempering Body?"

"Yes."

Jing Jiu spoke little, and Zhao Layue did not say much either.

He found this very good.

Liu S sui was very good too, except that he could be rather talkative sometimes.

With little experience of idle conversation, he assumed their exchange was over and looked back at the porcelain plate, holding a grain of sand between his fingers as he considered where to put it.

Zhao Layue said nothing. She closed her eyes and began meditating in the sunlight, absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy.

The injuries from that night had mostly healed; the pill Jing Jiu had given her had been very effective. But after more than a year on Sword Peak, and bringing Sword Intent Tempering Body to full completion, her body had suffered considerable damage along the way. There were many minute holes in her meridians, and her Sword Pellet's spiritual responsiveness had also been affected. All of this would take time to repair slowly.

After an unknown length of time, she opened her eyes and found the sun slanting westward.

Jing Jiu was still holding that grain of sand and looking at the porcelain plate, in exactly the same posture as at the beginning.

It was as though only an instant had passed.

Zhao Layue looked at him and felt that this youth was somewhat unfathomable.

That unfathomability referred not to his cultivation level or strength, but to something else.

Anyone capable of such terrifying patience was surely extraordinary.

Jing Jiu looked as though he were playing a board game, hesitating over a move.

Zhao Layue's gaze fell on the porcelain plate. She studied the fine sand piled on it for a long time, then said, "Rather interesting."

Jing Jiu raised his head, glanced at her, and said, "Interesting."

He had not expected this young girl to perceive anything of interest in it.

"Too difficult. I'm leaving," Zhao Layue said.

Clearly, although she found it interesting, she did not believe that time, the most precious thing of all, should be spent on something like this.

"All right," Jing Jiu said.

A few days later, Zhao Layue came again.

The disciples across the creek were still astonished to see that sword light land outside Jing Jiu's cave abode.

"You're here?"

Jing Jiu noticed that her hair was still so short and so untidy, veiled in dust like a clump of wild grass in the wilderness.

Perhaps because this image was too clear in his Sword Sense, he suddenly felt a little thirsty.

With Liu S sui no longer there to brew tea, his teapot now held mountain spring water fetched by the apes each day.

The teapot was on the stone table, and he was in the bamboo chair.

He was just about to reach out when he remembered there was someone beside him, so he quite naturally glanced at Zhao Layue.

"What do you mean?" Zhao Layue asked.

"Pour me a cup of water," Jing Jiu said.

"No," Zhao Layue said.

"Oh."

Only then did Jing Jiu understand that she was not Liu S sui.

The clear, cool mountain spring water tastes no worse than tea.

He thought this as he drank the water in his cup.

(It's Monday today. I hope everyone has... a happy day at work. What I mainly wanted to say was: don't forget to cast your recommendation votes!)