Chapter 151 — What the Fairy Kept Private
CHAPTER 151
What the Fairy Kept Private
The Great Yue swordsman kept his blade low while Ling Qingzhu stepped onto the platform.
He was a late Foundation Establishment cultivator with a narrow scar across his chin. His first-round match had ended in a clean surrender after he'd cut through the opponent's weapon guard.
He studied her white veil without making a joke about it.
Shi Feng watched from the upper end of the candidates' awning. The broken stone on the central platform had been replaced overnight, and the officials had moved the afternoon matches to the two side platforms while the formation posts were checked.
Everything had continued.
Ling Qingzhu drew her sword.
The swordsman began with three probing cuts, each returning close enough to protect his chest. She met the first, allowed the second to pass, and stepped inside the third without changing her breathing.
Their blades touched for a heartbeat.
The man's wrist turned inward. He recovered before losing his grip and pushed harder, sending a thin sword light toward her shoulder.
Ling Qingzhu inclined her head. The light crossed the edge of her sleeve without cutting it.
Shi Feng's gaze sharpened.
That small movement left more room than it appeared to. She had chosen the exact amount of qi needed to disturb the sword light while keeping the rest beneath her own control.
A strong cultivator could do that.
A much stronger one could do it without concern.
He couldn't tell from one exchange exactly how deep her reserve went. He suspected that the answer lay beyond what the spectators had guessed, perhaps far beyond it. His own foundation gave him reasons to notice the distinction, not a magical measurement of hers.
He kept the thought to himself.
The swordsman changed methods. His blade rose vertically, drawing a bright arc over his head before descending toward her guard.
Ling Qingzhu moved one step sideways. Her sword struck the flat near his tip, guiding it past her, then returned toward his chest.
He caught the return and retreated.
She didn't chase with an overwhelming burst. She advanced at the same measured pace, letting him spend effort on the distance between them.
By the ninth exchange, his breathing had grown audible. By the twelfth, desperate to break her rhythm, the Great Yue swordsman poured his full late Foundation Establishment reserves into a heavy overhead cleave.
Ling Qingzhu didn't step aside. For the first time since entering the arena, she let her restrained aura unfurl for a single breath.
Cold, crystalline sword qi at peak Foundation Establishment flashed along her narrow blade and met the descending cleave mid-arc.
The Great Yue swordsman's sword light shattered like thin ice. His blade was knocked wide, his boots skidded three feet across the stone, and Ling Qingzhu's point stopped a hair's breadth from his throat before her aura vanished back beneath her veil.
The man stared at the steel tip and lowered his weapon.
Zhou Ke announced the victory, and the stands broke into an uproar.
“Peak Foundation Establishment! Great Liang's veiled woman is at peak Foundation Establishment!”
“Wait—if she's at peak Foundation Establishment, how was Sima Yu ranked first in Great Liang when he was only at late Foundation Establishment?”
“She never challenged him at home! She let the Crown Prince keep first place so she wouldn't have to bother with the palace!”
“Great Liang's first and second places were backwards the whole time!”
Above the arena, Mu Shuyun leaned forward in the Hundred Flower Valley seat, her brush pausing over Ling Qingzhu's sheet as genuine interest lit her eyes.
Shi Feng left the awning after the next bell. He had planned to visit Sky Pavilion before dinner and ask which rest-day examinations were available.
Ling Qingzhu caught up with him beside the western stair.
“May I speak with you?” Ling Qingzhu asked.
He stopped at the landing. People passed above and below them. It was a public place with enough room to avoid blocking anyone's path.
“You fought well,” Shi Feng said.
“Thank you,” Ling Qingzhu replied.
Her eyes moved briefly to his sleeve. The blood was gone, and he carried the sword as easily as before. She knew he hadn't been wounded in the prince's match. The knowledge didn't answer what she had seen in his face afterward.
“I hid peak Foundation Establishment during the capital qualification,” Ling Qingzhu said quietly. “I didn't want the court or my clan using first place to bind my sect choice before Qingyun City.”
Shi Feng looked at her without surprise.
“You don't owe me an explanation, Fairy Ling,” Shi Feng said evenly.
The formal title made her fingers tighten on the stone rail.
“I wanted you to hear my reasons from me rather than guess from the stands,” Ling Qingzhu said.
“I heard it on the platform,” Shi Feng replied. “It was a clean match. Excuse me—I have an appointment at Sky Pavilion before the desk closes.”
He gave her a brief, courteous nod and walked down the steps without pausing.
Ling Qingzhu stayed beside the rail until the next group of spectators passed. Then she returned to the candidates' court to collect the result stamp on her plate.
The official didn't ask why she had taken so long. He pressed the seal beside her name and pointed out the rest-day schedule.
Twenty-seven names would remain when the round ended.
She had earned one of those places. Her peak Foundation Establishment cultivation was public now. The depth beneath it remained her own, and Shi Feng hadn't asked her to measure it for him.
At the result desk, a younger candidate made room for Ling Qingzhu without being asked. He had heard the crowd's judgment and now watched her sword instead of her veil. She accepted her plate and walked away. The newly revealed realm had changed how strangers stood around her. It hadn't changed the formal title Shi Feng had used.
That should have been a relief.
Instead, she remembered how he used to stare when she tucked loose hair behind her ear at home. He had been terrible at pretending he wasn't looking. Calling him out had once been the easiest way to make a quiet evening warm.
Today he had watched her sword carefully and given her every courtesy.
She had no reason to tell him that was what hurt.