Somewhat unsurprisingly, Li Xuan focused on Jiang first.

"So," he drawled, "this is where Elder Lu's charity case ended up. Tell me, Jiang Tian – did the venerable Elder send you out here on a task I don't know about, or did you just get lost on the way to enlightenment?"

Jiang opened his mouth, then decided there was no good answer to that. "Something like that," he muttered.

Li Xuan arched a brow. "Ah, vagueness. A sure sign of progress." He crossed the room and slipped into one of the chairs, ignoring Mistress Bai's tight expression. "I do hope your little trip has done something for your cultivation, at least. You wouldn't believe how rare it is to find someone who improves by running away."

Before Jiang could respond, he felt a faint brush of Qi.

Li Xuan's eyes narrowed. "...You did improve."

Mistress Bai, who had been watching the exchange without bothering to hide her irritation, raised an eyebrow. "What a shock, that the Azure Sky Sect's teachings are so lax that a disciple makes more progress after leaving."

Li Xuan ignored the attempt to shift his focus, narrowing his eyes as his Qi flared outward in a less subtle pulse. It brushed over Jiang like a cold wind, and then, just as quickly, vanished.

The change in his expression was immediate. The amused detachment vanished, replaced by something cold and focused. His hand fell to his sword, the soft ring of steel whispering through the air as he drew it slowly from the sheath.

Jiang swallowed. Well. This was going about as poorly as it possibly could.

Mistress Bai surged to her feet, her Qi rippling through the room. "Inner Disciple Li Xuan," she said, voice like a knife wrapped in silk, "what do you think you're doing?"

Li Xuan's gaze never left Jiang. "We are hunting a demonic practitioner of unknown ability. And I find a boy who has advanced at a frankly impossible rate. One should always check close to home, would you not agree?"

Zhang, to his credit, half-rose from his chair. "Senior Brother—"

"Quiet," Li Xuan snapped, his voice cutting through the air like a whip. "There is an easy way to put this matter to rest."

Mistress Bai's expression shifted, the anger giving way to a flicker of something else. "I had the same thought when I first met him," she said coolly. "I have already tested him myself. He is clean."

"Is he?" Li Xuan's sword slid from its scabbard with a soft, ringing hiss. He reached into his robes and produced a small, intricately carved jade token from nowhere, tossing it onto the table in front of Jiang. "Then you will not object to a more formal verification. Boy. Hold this to your forehead. Channel your Qi into it."

"Is my word not sufficient, Inner Disciple?" Mistress Bai's voice was dangerously quiet.

"Better to be sure," Li Xuan replied flatly.

The air in the room tightened. Zhang's shoulders ticked up before he forced them down again. Even Jiang could tell this had crossed a line. But right now, arguing seemed pointless. He could feel the weight of both their presences pressing against each other, and if holding a rock to his head would stop it from turning into a fight, he was more than willing.

He pressed the token to his forehead and let a trickle of Qi flow through it, just like he had with the token Mistress Bai had tested him with in this very room when they'd first met. Unlike her token, this one flared softly, glowing a clean, pale blue. Cool energy rippled over his skin, harmless.

Li Xuan's mouth eased a fraction. Jiang noticed, belatedly, that Zhang's hand had been clenched around his knee hard enough to whiten the knuckles.

"Are you satisfied?" Mistress Bai asked, her voice a low, chilling murmur. A sudden, suffocating pressure filled the room, a weight so immense that Jiang felt the air being crushed from his lungs. The flames in the hearth sputtered and shrank, and the shadows in the corners seemed to cringe away from her. Li Xuan stood his ground, his own Qi flaring in defiance, but his presence, which had filled the room moments before, receded like a wave returning to the ocean.

"You come into my house," Mistress Bai said, every word precise, "you ignore my hospitality, and you imply I lack either discernment or honesty. Which is it?"

"Neither," Li Xuan said, his voice strained but steady. "Your word is your own, Mistress Bai, and my duty is to my Sect."

The temperature dropped. There was no visible movement, no gesture – but the room shrank. Pressure rolled off Mistress Bai like the bow-wave of a ship, invisible and crushing. Jiang's breath hitched despite himself. His Qi, which he had been keeping tucked tight and quiet, folded in on itself like a startled animal. Shadows curled tight at his boots, then stilled.

Li Xuan didn't flinch. The flare of his own presence – sharp, clean, edged – surged up to meet hers, then stopped as if it had slammed into a stone wall and was shoved back to the outline of his skin. He stood inside himself like a blade in a sheath.

He didn't seem to care.

"Mistress Bai," Zhang said, very carefully, "we are grateful for your—"

"Silence," she said without looking at him. It wasn't loud, but then, it didn't need to be. "Have the Azure Sky Sect forgotten what it means to show face?"

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"Face is something people hide behind when they are afraid to be honest," Li Xuan responded. "The situation was too dangerous to be anything but direct."

Jiang had to admire how Li Xuan was still speaking his mind despite the danger. He would just prefer to be admiring it from a greater distance.

"Face," she corrected, "is why you were greeted at my door instead of thrown onto the street by your ear. It is why I listened to your Sect's junior when by all rights I could have sent him away to fetch someone ranked high enough to waste my time. It is the invisible set of rules we cultivators bind ourselves with to ensure that our interactions do not always end in destruction."

Nothing mystical rode the words – no surge of Qi, no visible technique. And yet the pressure in the room shifted with the cadence of her voice, pinning each sentence into the air like a nail. Li Xuan's stance, perfect and unyielding a moment before, wavered by a hair.

He grimaced, hand tightening on his sword hilt, though it remained by his side. "There is no reason to escalate this any further," he said through his teeth.

"You speak as if I am the one causing trouble," Mistress Bai scoffed. "You came into my house – uninvited, might I add – and questioned my integrity to my face. Tell me, Inner Disciple Li Xuan, would your Sect tolerate the same in their halls?"

Li Xuan's jaw tightened. "Not without cause," he admitted. "And not without response."

Her smile sharpened, the air vibrating faintly with restrained power. "Well then, it seems the response is mine," she said, voice soft but thrumming with something that set Jiang's teeth on edge, "You have drawn a blade in my presence, disciple – perhaps you mean to trade pointers with this old woman? And it would be such a waste for me to miss the chance to… instruct you."

For the first time, Li Xuan looked nervous.

"I… am grateful for the opportunity, Mistress Bai," he said, bowing deeply and sheathing his sword in the same motion. "But I fear that in my… passion, I may have already brought shame to my sect. I would not shame myself further by wasting your time."

Mistress Bai regarded him for a long moment, her expression unreadable. Then she laughed – a short, quiet sound entirely without warmth. "Wise. I would have hated to redecorate."

Mistress Bai turned away from him, smoothing the sleeve of her robe with deliberate precision. "You will leave my establishment," she said coolly. "My tolerance for guests with poor manners has been expended. I will decide later whether that extends to your Sect's presence in my city."

Zhang's eyes went wide at that, and Li Xuan's grip tightened subtly on his sword hilt. Jiang didn't really understand the reaction, but it undoubtedly had some kind of implications he was missing. He could almost feel the situation spiralling out of control, and with it the odds of him being able to slip away and save his family. If nothing else, he sort of needed Zhang and Li Xuan to be distracted long enough for him to leave – he somehow doubted they would be willing to let him galivante off to another province with nothing but a promise he would be back.

"With respect," he said, before his brain could stop him, "is this really helping with Gao Leng?"

Three pairs of eyes swung toward him. Mistress Bai's most of all.

The weight of her gaze hit him like a wall. For a heartbeat, it was all he could do not to choke on the air itself. The full force of her presence turned toward him, a tide of pressure so heavy his knees nearly buckled. "Are you attempting to be rude as well, Cultivator Jiang?" she asked softly.

Jiang tried to breathe and found it difficult. The pressure was crushing – not physically, exactly, but on something deeper, like his Qi itself was being pressed into the floor. The shadows at his feet thickened, coiling up around his boots like tendrils of smoke, but they quivered, suffocating under the weight bearing down on him.

No. Not quite suffocating. Fighting.

He clenched his jaw, forcing his Qi to move, even if it scraped raw against the weight around him. The Pact stirred, cool and distant, subtly adjusting the flow until his energy twisted back on itself, forming a small, flickering current through his meridians. The suffocating force pressing against him faltered – just a little.

It was then, for the briefest instant, that he thought he felt something else. Like the pressure was looking for something to grip, and, not finding it, simply… lost interest. The sensation vanished as quickly as it came, leaving him breathless and uncertain.

The reprieve was barely noticeable – but it was enough. He could breathe again. Barely.

He realised suddenly that what he'd been feeling was only the smallest trace of the real thing – the run-off from her focus on Li Xuan. And even that had nearly broken him. If she'd actually turned that power fully on him, he suspected his body would have just… stopped.

The realisation was not comforting.

"I'm not trying to be rude," he said, a little belatedly. "Just trying to make sure we're all hunting the right target."

Mistress Bai held his gaze a heartbeat longer, then inclined her head by the smallest fraction. "Very well," she said, voice still sharp at the edges. "We will table questions of conduct – for now."

The weight in the room eased. Not gone, not by any means, but it was leashed.

"In the meantime, let us speak more of how we will handle Gao Leng." Mistress Bai paused for a moment. "I would prefer to have this matter resolved as quickly as possible – ideally before other sects start poking around and causing further disruptions."

That was something Jiang could very much get behind, for multiple reasons.

"A sensible approach," Li Xuan agreed, to Jiang's surprise.

It only took him a moment to figure out, though – the Azure Sky Sect would probably look much better if they dealt with a problem like this all by themselves, as opposed to having to ask for help.

"Unfortunately," Li Xuan continued, "I somewhat doubt it will be so simple. Protocol demands that we notify the other sects in the province about a threat like this. After all, unorthodox cultivators are like weeds – if not rooted out quickly enough, they have a nasty habit of strangling the whole garden."

Mistress Bai looked like she really didn't want to agree with Li Xuan – about anything – but couldn't actually refute the statement. "Disciple Zhang," she said instead, turning to the man in question, "You were the one who first identified the connection between Gao Leng and the bandits. You will start from the beginning. I want every name, every route, every hideout you found."

Zhang nodded quickly, perhaps too quickly. "Of course, Mistress Bai." He glanced at Jiang, an unspoken question flickering in his eyes – whether Jiang planned to speak or not.

Mistress Bai's gaze followed his. "Cultivator Jiang," she said, her tone softer but no less commanding. "You were involved in that same encounter. You will corroborate his account."

Jiang bristled at the command for a moment, then inclined his head. "Understood."

As Zhang began recounting what they'd found – the bandit camp, the way they'd all acted crazy, the traces of Qi – Jiang let his mind drift a little. This was information Mistress Bai already half-knew, and Li Xuan probably didn't need him here to confirm it. He was starting to wonder if his presence was even necessary anymore.

If they could handle Gao Leng without him… maybe he could finally focus on finding his family.

The thought flickered, dangerous and tempting. He glanced toward the window.

Maybe, if he were careful, no one would notice him slipping away at some point in the near future.

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