The girl in the red skirt stood on the stairs, gazing in silence at the old man in gray, a flicker of feeling passing through her lovely eyes.

Mei Xiyao had overseen the coming and going of the Eight-Direction Dining Hall's guests for several centuries; she could count herself well-traveled and widely read. With a moment's thought, she could make out this old man's identity. A Mixed Origin Grandmaster, and yet at Xuanguang Cave's beck and call.

Great Qian's War Temple had once been one of the three foremost human powers too, but now it was a tiger fallen to the flatlands, a touch of desolation about it. Precisely because its old renown had been so great, that renown had become a burden instead. It lived less freely these days than even a small power like the Eight-Direction Dining Hall.

"If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to give them your orders."

Mei Xiyao inclined her head courteously. The old man in gray glanced back and nodded, his expression untroubled. Only once the red-skirted girl had turned and gone back upstairs did he withdraw his gaze. Listening to the whispers below, as though long since used to them, he slowly closed his eyes.

Beside the square corner table, Qinghua stood impassively. Perhaps from mimicking Shen Yi too deliberately, her every movement now carried a heavy trace of his shadow.

"My lord, does Qinghua need to go and finish off that pack of Xuanguang Cave cultivators?"

"..."

Shen Yi picked up the tea an attendant had brought and took a small sip. He quietly shot her a look, and answered with his mind in kind: "Could you win?"

Lady Qinghua deliberated carefully for a moment, then said in earnest, "I couldn't. But Qinghua is willing to fight to the death for my lord."

"Settle down. My thanks."

Shen Yi set down the teacup and glanced idly at the old man. Truthfully, it did sit poorly with him. An Inspector was over there guarding a door, which meant he, a Deputy Inspector, lost no small measure of face by it as well.…