Chapter 938 — The Eighth Peak

CHAPTER 938

The Eighth Peak

The Lotus Terrace hung off the north side of the outer hall, a wide half-moon of white stone with nothing beyond its edge but cloud.

Snow was falling lightly. Shen Yaoqing walked to the rail at the very front and stopped there. Shi Feng stood beside her. Qin Wuyan stayed three steps back, as he always did.

From here the whole mountain stood open in front of them. Seven peaks rose out of the cloud in a long curve, each one white and steep, with roofs and towers clinging to their slopes and stairs cut into the rock between them.

“As your host, I’m required to show you the boundaries,” Shen Yaoqing said, lifting one white sleeve toward the nearest peak. “The First Peak holds the elders’ hall. The Second and Third are the inner disciples’. The Fourth has the scripture towers. The Fifth has the furnace halls, and the Sixth has the herb terraces and the valleys behind them.” Her sleeve moved to the last and tallest. “The Seventh is the Sect Master’s. It’s been closed for thirty-one years.”

“And all seven are inner peaks,” Shi Feng said.

“All seven,” Shen Yaoqing said. “None of them is yours. The outer hall, this terrace, Snowpine Court and the White Stair. That’s the guest’s map.”

She lowered her sleeve.

Shi Feng kept looking.

Behind the Seventh Peak, and lower than any of the others, there was one more. It was small and dark. No stair had been cut into it. No roof showed on its slopes, and no smoke went up from it. The snow was falling on all seven peaks, on the terrace, on the rail under his hand. It wasn’t falling on that one. Its rocks were dark and bare against the grey sky.

He kept his Spirit Sense inside his own skin, as the rule said. He didn’t reach toward the small peak at all. He felt nothing from it, and he didn’t try to.

“There are eight,” Shi Feng said.

“There are seven peaks,” Shen Yaoqing said, without turning her head. “The guest’s map ends at the Seventh. Nothing past it is on the map.”

“And the snow?” Shi Feng asked.

“The rules don’t cover the weather,” Shen Yaoqing said coldly.

Shi Feng stopped questioning her. The peak was clearly forbidden. He’d save his request for the hall instead of pressing his host on the terrace.

A sound came from the far end of the terrace.

It was a sword, cutting the air in short, clean strokes. A young woman in the pale blue-white of an inner disciple stood alone at the terrace’s western edge, drilling. She was tall and narrow, with her hair tied up hard and high, and her face was red with the cold and set hard.

Every stroke she made left a lotus of frost hanging in the air behind the blade. It held for a breath and then faded. While it held, the falling snow that drifted into it stopped dead and hung there, frozen in place inside the petals.

Shi Feng watched three strokes and understood what he was seeing.

The frost wasn’t only freezing the air. It was freezing the space the blade passed through. Frozen space couldn’t be folded. If he ever had to step through one of those petals, Void-Crossing Step would die in his legs.

A few outer disciples had stopped at the terrace steps to watch her. They kept their voices low.

“Senior Sister’s Frost Lotus Sword again. She’s been out here since the fourth watch.”

“Tenth on the Tianxing, and she still trains like she’s hundredth.”

“A sharp blade comes from the grindstone. That’s what she always says.”

“Bai Ruoshuang,” Shen Yaoqing said quietly, beside him. “Elder Jing’s inner disciple. Tenth on the Tianxing. Now the sect has spoken her name to you.”

“Then if I need to address her?” Shi Feng asked.

“Inside a hall,” Shen Yaoqing said.

At the far end, Bai Ruoshuang finished a stroke and stopped. The last frost lotus faded behind her. She turned her head and looked straight down the length of the terrace at him, then sheathed her sword and walked over.

She didn’t hurry. The outer disciples on the steps went quiet.

Bai Ruoshuang stopped two paces away. She bowed to Shen Yaoqing first, the bow of an inner disciple to the chief disciple, and to Qin Wuyan a little lower. Then she looked at Shi Feng.

“You’re the 6 Mark,” Bai Ruoshuang said.

“I am,” Shi Feng said.

“The Tianji issue says you beat Linghu Yan of the Lantern Guard,” Bai Ruoshuang said flatly. Her hand rested on her hilt. “At mid Shattering Void. Did you really?”

“Yes,” Shi Feng said.

Bai Ruoshuang studied his shoulders, hands and stance. She was interested in his fighting ability, and made no attempt to hide it. Then she nodded once, turned, and walked back to the western edge of the terrace.

The sword came out again. A frost lotus opened in the air.

The outer disciples on the steps stared after her.

“That’s all? She came all the way over for one word?”

“She asked him something. Senior Sister Bai doesn’t ask anybody anything.”

“Did you see her look at his hands? She was measuring him.”

“…”

Shi Feng turned back to the rail.

“She didn’t ask how,” Shi Feng said.

“She doesn’t care how,” Shen Yaoqing said. “If she ever wants to know, she won’t ask you. She’ll find out with that sword.” She turned away from the rail. “That’s the boundaries. You’ve seen everything on the map.”

They walked back through the outer hall in silence. At the gate of Snowpine Court, Shen Yaoqing stopped and faced him.

“Tomorrow morning, the Hearing Hall,” Shen Yaoqing said. “First bell. I’ll walk you there and wait outside with the guardian. Say what you came to say inside the hall, and nowhere else. Not on the path there. Not in this court tonight.”

“Not even to Senior Qin?” Shi Feng asked.

“Senior Qin already knows,” Shen Yaoqing said. “So does the hall. The only people on this mountain who haven’t heard it from you are the three elders who’ll sit tomorrow.”

She went back across the court. Her footprints went straight to the gate and through it.

That night Shi Feng sat on the step of the furnace room and looked north for a long time. Past the Seventh Peak the small dark peak stood dry under the falling snow, and nobody on the whole mountain was talking about it.