"Teacher."
Outside the crowd, Xun Fujun, dressed in moon-white robes, silently landed before Hui Yunzi. His expression was cold, but as he looked at the figure he revered most, a flicker of restrained joy, anticipation, and nervousness shone in his eyes.
Though their features were different, standing together now, their expressions and bearing seemed cast from the same mold.
The same attire, the same stern expressions.
Hui Yunzi looked Xun Fujun up and down, but a trace of severity and disappointment rose on his impassive face:
"I taught you many times: never strike rashly before you know your opponent's foundations. Once you strike, finish the job. Leave them not the slightest room to fight back!"
"You sent Han Yanzi to replenish heaven, but overlooked the incarnation he had hidden away... all you achieved was throwing your life away! And you left endless trouble behind!"
Xun Fujun froze, then instinctively lowered his head slightly, just as he had listened to his teacher's instruction many years ago. Only now, his eyes held the dejection of dashed hopes, and a little hurt he had never felt even when expelled from the sect and condemned by a thousand accusing fingers. He said quietly:
"Yes. I failed to investigate thoroughly..."
"Are you unhappy that I criticized you?"
Hui Yunzi's voice remained cold and harsh.
Xun Fujun did not raise his head. His expression wooden, he merely shook it slightly:
"The highest path forgets emotion. Disciples of Passion Refining Peak have always made refining the seven emotions and six desires their foremost cultivation task. I have felt no such emotion."
Yet an inexplicable tightness filled his heart. Ordinarily, he would already have refined this emotion away, but now, for some reason, he simply let it spread through his heart little by little.
Until he suddenly felt