Chapter 83 – The Eternal Veil (V)

Chapter 83

The Eternal Veil (V)

Elder Qin’s gaze shifted as he moved from the young woman toward me. Gone was the chilliness and distance, replaced with… curiosity.

My words remained hanging for a long while as he seemed to deliberate on what to do, while Cao Qiu remained entirely unmoving, as though frozen in time. Others looked at me oddly, too, as though I’d come out and said something so otherworldly it left them befuddled. Well, if my interceding on her behalf left them befuddled, I wonder what my proposed ‘punishment’ would entail?

“… very well,” he said. “You can punish her.” Phew, glad he agreed. And from the sounds of it, there were no insane conditions like ‘but only if you make her your disciple!’. Hah, can you imagine? Okay, gotta move quickly before the old man actually considers it…

“Thank you, Elder Qin.” As my words faded, I saw Cao Qiu turn, still on her knee, and face me. Well, “face me” would be a metaphor of sorts–her head was glued downward, hair falling over and blocking her expression. “My punishment is simple: you will have to stand with me and watch as my disciples resolve what you deemed undoable. It will become your shame and dishonor, and something you will have to live with for the rest of your life.”

“…”

Yeah, it looks like my stern words didn’t really fool anyone, not even Light.

Everyone looked at me oddly yet again, as I was basically not even punishing her. It was like saying, ‘Hey, why don’t you take a seat, relax, and wait for it all to blow over?’.

Whatever.

Not like I was really going to punish her. She’s not a kid like the others, sure, but she was a kid to me. And, besides, I’m sure that near every Disciple in the sect said something just as bad, if not worse, about Lu Qi in private. While the rule is ‘don’t say it out loud, you nimrod’, it holds little weight to me.

I want to earn a new reputation–and killing a kid because she thought I was stupid? Yeah. That’s not the new reputation I want.

“Okay, you three. Long Tao, you’ll lead,” I said. “Go out and have fun. If anything happens, Elder Qin will save you.”

“…”

Wow. The silence really can be like a thousand arms tickling at the back of your throat.

“… yes, Master,” Long Tao shrugged. Dai Xiu’s eyes still burned with anger as she couldn’t peel them away from Cao Qiu, while Xi Zhao simply nodded, seeming hurried.

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The three left, heading for the main road, while Cao Qiu stood up and walked over toward me, stopping by my side. She still hung her head low, fingers digging into the palms of her hands, her body faintly shaking.

Perhaps it was humiliating in a way I couldn’t really compute–being punished by someone other than her own Master, especially someone like me. Maybe she would have preferred going in there and dying due to some sense of honor that I just didn’t understand. Regardless, she’ll have plenty of times for heroic suicides later. She can skip a night.