Wu Long came out of the Main Hall and was soon followed by Wen Mei, stopping at roughly the same spot he once did with Grand Elder Gan of the Brilliant Sun Temple.

“Daoist Wu… I wanted to apologize for the Palace Master’s arbitration…”

“There is nothing for Grand Elder Wen to apologize for, I don’t see any malice in the Palace Master Qiu’s actions either, now if you will excuse me, I have to go” 𝘪𝘳.𝘤𝑜

Wu Long relied with a light smile, and then pointing with his eyes to Hua Ziyan who came to pick him up, turned to continue walking as the Grand Elder looked at him with slight vexation appearing in her eyes.

—

In the Main Hall, as Qiu Yilao sent off most of the people, remaining alone with her disciple, she gave her a curious and attentive look.

“It is a little unexpected for you to become closer to someone, especially in such a short time Bing’er”

She commented with surprise in her voice.

“I cannot say we have become closer, but I do feel like he is an interesting man”

“Hoh? What makes you say that?”

“Well, at first I was intrigued by the fact his intentions and emotions were incredibly hard to read. It is something I noticed in our earlier meetings as well.

The very first emotion I finally managed to catch from him is the slight hostility during the incident I talked to you about”

“Hmm, when he arrived at the sect, yes it is quite interesting that despite the fact it was a vague emotion you still felt an incredible danger from just that”

“That too, but I was also surprised by the fact that a man with such a reputation of strength was willing to act for mere remarks toward his woman”

“You have never seen men in love then”

“Love… how is a man who can have any woman he likes by the virtue of his qualifications, interested in such a thing?”

“Hmm, if it is not love then it is pride? I cannot be certain as I have never been in love either. But it could truly be simple pride and possessiveness, and thus insulting or ogling his women is an insult to him?”

Qiu Yilao raised her eyebrow as she rarely thought about such things as love and affection, realizing her disciple’s words indeed held some weight. But then again she also felt some discrepancy as Wu Long did not seem that prideful to her.

“No, quite the opposite. My question was asked not in denial of Master’s assertion, but in wonder as I find myself agreeing with you despite how strange I find it”

Xue Bing shook her head causing her Master to look puzzled.

“You mean to say you believe his feelings are genuine? How do you recon that?”

“Hmm… it is hard to explain…”

Xue Bing slowly spoke, deep in thought as yesterday’s walk through the evening Sect flashed through her head.

“You surprise me more and more, my Disciple”

Qiu Yilao spoke with a hint of shock in her voice as it was usually quite hard for Xue Bing to empathize with any emotions due to almost not having her own.

Her hyper sensitivity to them ended only at being able to tell if people felt them, but she did not necessarily understand those emotions.

And yet at this moment she spoke as if it was the opposite.

Her demeanor revealed uncertainty as if she could empathize with the emotion of Wu Long toward Hua Ziyan, feeling it on an emotional level rather than detecting it.

Xue Bing’s eyes were as icy as always, but there was slight puzzlement on her face as she felt confused as well.

—

Wu Long walked with Hua Ziyan who playfully smiled, glancing at him from the side.

“Haha, what is it Ziyan?”

He finally chuckled, and her smile widened.

“Hehe, aren’t you playing hard to get? That Grand Elder beauty seems to be ready to do anything for you”

She snickered as Wu Long lightly snorted in response as a formless field of Spiritual Qi spread around them.

“Hah, the beauty of an actress can be deceiving”

As he said this Hua Ziyan slightly widened her eyes.

“Actress? You mean to say she fakes her goodwill?”

She asked freely as she knew he isolated sounds around them.

“Hahaha, if you said that previous line in the presence of Min’er you would have gotten an earful”

Hearing him laugh, Hua Ziyan had a shiver run through her as she imagined her friend’s long lecture on how they could trust nobody, unless it was Wu Long or members of the Dao Family.

“Y-you wouldn’t tell her… right?”

“Mmm, I’ll have to think about it…”

“Wu Long! Have mercy!”

“Let’s see…” 𝑖𝘳𝑎.𝒸ℴ𝘮

“I’m serious! She’s going to have a field day from chewing me out on this! Not mentioning the teasing I will get from Mingyu from now on!”

“Alright, alright. Let’s just say I will strongly consider it…”

“Haa~ you meanie…”

Hua Ziyan hugged his forearm tighter as she could already imagine Shen Min’s reaction in case he did tell her.

“But… didn’t she act in our favor?”

But then her curiosity took over as she turned her gaze to him.

“Hmm, think clearly, what have her actions been up to now? You must’ve heard the details of our previous visit from either Luxiao or Rui’er so you should have the whole picture”

Instead of answering outright he let her think it through as an exercise in perceiving evil intentions.

“Mm, I heard from Sister Luxiao and Sister Mengqi. Hmm, she welcomed her warmly despite the fact she was a disciple who left the Sect…”

Hua Ziyan put a finger on her lower lip in thought, and then widened her eyes in realization.

“… and this rubbed the Sect the wrong way!”

“Exactly, which is why they showed a reaction”

“…deliberately showing you the sight of them giving Sister Luxiao the cold shoulder…! Oh! I remember Sister Mengqi was interested you didn’t react at that time despite them being cold to Sister Luxiao”

“Hahaha, that was because they did not react in any strange way. Think about it, the whole reaction from their side would not have happened if it was not for that woman’s ‘kindness’ in trying to get Sui Luxiao to be greeted as a senior.

In fact their demeanor was completely within the norms even if it could seem cold. She truly was not a member of their Sect at that time already”

“Hmm, so then the goal was to create a rift or at least negative feelings between you and the Frozen Garden Palace… and when we arrived she was late to greet us…”

“Mhm, try to see the motivations”

“… maybe… resulting in the situation we could get into a confrontation with other sects? … since we were without a figure of authority from the hosting sect”

Wu Long nodded to Hua Ziyan, confirming to her that Wen Mei’s tardiness during their arrival was not coincidental.

“But then during the thing yesterday, she vouched for you to that Grand Elder Qu…”

“Which in turn antagonized her, since that woman seems to be very strict about Sect rules. By bringing up Luxiao she once again created negative feelings in her toward us.

But there was one more thing that you should have noticed in her overall behavior throughout all of this”

“Hmm, her behavior… was… friendly? …! And so the actually normal behavior of the other members of the Frozen Garden Palace seemed cold and hostile in comparison”

“Correct, very well spotted Ziyan. Our perception is an interesting thing as we view things in relative terms. By showing a contrast it is possible to distort our view of something and make it into something else”

“How devious…”

Hua Ziyan sighed with lament at how kind demeanor could be actually a disguise for malice while he smiled, freeing his arm from her embrace and instead wrapping it around her, bringing her closer to him.

“You just haven’t had much experience with hidden malice, so it is normal for you to not notice. But don’t be discouraged, as you have me and your Dao Family”

He chuckled as he spoke, holding her closer as they walked along, her head tilting to lean onto him and burrowing into his embrace.

Later that day, every Sect participating in the event sent their representatives to the Grand Hall of the Frozen Garden Palace for a general meeting before the Winter Forest Hunt.

Wu Long and Hua Ziyan were the only ones participating in the meeting as others also only sent up to five people.

The Grand Hall was where general meetings of the Frozen Garden Palace Elders were held, and thus its construction was of a massive open space with hundreds of small balconies on the sides, creating a place which facilitated open discussions and input from different members without having to constantly move in front of the audience and back to the seat for whoever was speaking.

As they sat on the chairs provided on their small balcony, Hua Ziyan’s thoughts gradually began to drift when the meeting began. The quite monotonous and frankly boring instructions on where the event was going to take place as well as various small details of it did not hold much meaning for both of them.

“Ziyan”

Suddenly she heard Wu Long’s voice in her ear, turning to see a playful smile on his face.

“You know, I was thinking that this meeting is not exactly that interesting…”

As she saw that gaze, something deep within her flared up, the look in her eyes changing as well.

“Do you think we can make it more… exciting?”

She smiled, and slowly placed her delicate hand on his thigh.

“Haha, I am glad we are on the same page. I was just thinking we could spice it up a little”

As he spoke, talismans were crawling onto the surfaces around them, soon activating a formation while she leaned and united their lips in a kiss.

𝑖𝘦𝑎.𝗇t